Format

A template file is a set of instructions telling the system how to extract the necessary information from the data sent from your telephone system. A sample template is shown here to demonstrate its use.

The file consists of a [Type] and [Options] section required to pre-process the data before it is usable, and a [CallTypes] section which holds the information necessary to extract the call record components from the raw data.

A template file is a set of instructions telling the system how to extract the necessary information from the data that is sent from your PABX (or PABXs).

A sample template is shown here to demonstrate its use. This example is not a complete template and should not be used:

The file consists of a Type, any Options required to pre-process the data before it is useable, and a CallTypes section which holds the information necessary to extract the various call record components from the raw data.

[Type] Section

This describes how the information is presented to the software. This can be one of the following:

Type	Description
TEXT	Denotes that the data consists of plain text subscribing to the ASCII standard.
BCD2.4	Binary-coded Decimal values, such as the proprietary format used in the Siemens Realitis PBX.
EXTERNAL	Informs the system that the data needs to be passed to another separate application before processing is possible. This setting also requires the path to the external application to be supplied in the [Options] section under the key name ExtPPFilename.

[Options] Section

This section contains the various settings to determine what (if any) pre-processing of the raw data is necessary before the individual call record elements can be extracted. Possible options are as follows:

Option	Description	Default value
EndTime	Informs the call processor that the call time specified is actually the time that the call ended. This ensures that the duration of the call is subtracted from the given call time to achieve the effect of start time. All call data stored in the call database assumes that the call time is the time that the call started, not ended.	true or false
SubtractAnswerTime	Tells the call processor to subtract the answer time from the call's duration. Use this if the duration of a call includes the answer (or response) time, and you don't want it to.	true or false
AddAnswerTime	Similar to above, but tells the call processor to add the answer (or response) time to the call duration, if the PBX doesn't include it already.	true or false
StartEndDuration	This is used when a PBX outputs the call start time and the call end time separately, but issues no duration time. Because the system requires a call duration, you quote the end time as though it were the duration. This option then instructs the system to subtract the value specified for call time (elements d, e and f) from the value specified for duration (elements g, h and i) to achieve the correct duration.	true or false
Lines	Informs the system how many lines make up a call record. Requires the Line1 option in order to know how to recognise the first line of a call record. The pre-processor will then amalgamate all lines of a call record into a single line.
Line1	Shows the system how to identify the first line of a call record. The system then knows how many further lines are necessary before the amalgamation occurs (see Lines option, above).

[CallTypes] Section

This section contains descriptions for each type of call - eg. outgoing, incoming answered, incoming abandoned, etc. - including what that type of call 'looks' like (how the system identifies a line of PBX data as such), how to extract the call record elements from the line, and finally a code that pertains to the particular type of call.

Each type of call consists of three lines (excluding comments), for example:

The first line (##-???-## ##:##:##) is the match line, which tells the system how to match this particular call type. The # symbol indicates any digit between 0 and 9, and a ? symbol indicates any character including letters and numbers. The * symbol at the end of the line is important if there may be other data attached to the line that you're not interested in. The * indicates that anything else on the line does not matter.

The second line (aa bbb cc dd ee ff) tells the system how to extract each call record element from the line of data. In this example, the aa spans the first two characters of the data line meaning that the call date's day should be taken from here; bbb spans three characters starting at column 4 showing where the month is taken from, and so on.

The third line represents the number associated with the type of call. These call type numbers are internally used to identify types of calls and are summarised as follows:

Call Type #	Type of Call
1	Outgoing direct dialled
2	Outgoing transferred (or operator-assisted)
100	Incoming, Answered, Direct dialled (DDI)
101	Incoming, Answered, Transferred, or as a result of a Transfer
150	Incoming, Abandoned, Direct dialled (DDI)
151	Incoming, Abandoned, Transferred on, or by Transfer from another extn
200	Internal call (extension to extension)
300	PBX Feature (dialled number should contain the feature number)