Windows TAPI Introduction
The Microsoft Windows Telephony API (TAPI) ships as part of Microsoft Windows 98 / ME / NT / 2000 / XP. TAPI is a middleware between any Windows-Application and a telephone device.
TAPI provides full client/server telephony, and is open, comprehensive, scalable, and integrated. It has a lower cost of deployment and ownership, and developers can create applications knowing that the large installed base of Windows 9x and Windows NT/2000 operating systems are already equipped to support their telephony applications. All of this makes Windows an excellent telephony and network communications platform for the future.
With TAPI, developers can create applications ranging from simple desktop telephony helpers to complex call-center packages that support thousands. In addition to supporting the widest array of call models, TAPI allows users to run several telephony applications simultaneously on a client or server PC. Of course, at the heart of TAPI is the abstraction of the hardware layer.
A key advantage of using TAPI is that telephony applications can work with any hardware for which a TSP is available (Telephony Service Provider=Device-Driver). The abstraction of hardware by TAPI reduces difficulty for developers, and provides flexibility to network administrators.