Office Communications Server Application Programming Interface (API)

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will reach end of support on January 9, 2018. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 application programming interface (API) is built on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy platform and implemented using the following:

• Server API module (Apiem.dll). An extension that provides the basic scripting capability for creating custom message filters and routing applications. The scripts can either run in process with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 (Rtcsrv.exe) or can be incorporated in a managed server application that is running in a separate process.

• Managed server API platform (ServerAgent.dll). A platform that you use to implement both Microsoft and non-Microsoft managed server applications. Managed server applications that are written by using the managed server API run as separate processes.

• Local shared-memory IPC (Queue.dll). The interface between the server API module and managed applications.

• Internal COM API. An API used to communicate with the SIP proxy platform.

The following figure shows how the API architecture is implemented for Front End Servers.

Figure 1. API architecture for Front End Servers

SIP-aware managed server applications that are developed by using the managed server API platform extend the core services available in Office Communications Server2007 R2. Managed server applications include both of the following:

• Office Communications Server 2007 R2 applications implemented by using RTCHost.exe. This includes the following filtering applications: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications, conferencing server Factory, Real-time Communications (RTC) Aggregate application, and other applications (that is, non-Microsoft applications). For details about the managed server applications implemented with RTCHost.exe, see RTCHost.

• Non-Microsoft applications developed in-house, by vendors, or by using other resources.

The managed server API for implementing these applications functions as follows:

• Exposed through the Microsoft.Rtc.Sip namespace.

• Uses the server API to perform specific SIP message processing tasks.

• Implemented by using the managed server application platform (that is, ServerAgent.dll assembly). Each managed application loads the ServerAgent.dll and executes in its own process space. Managed applications are isolated from each other in a way that prevents a faulty application from affecting other applications.

Following are the two major components of the server API module (Apiem.dll) that support implementation of managed server applications:

• Application manifest. A script that is written by using Microsoft SIP Processing Language (MSPL) and describes an application to the server. When a managed server application registers with the server using the ServerAgent class, it provides this script to the server. The application manifest serves the following purposes:

  • Provides details about the application type and the state that the server needs to maintain for the application to run, so the server can optimize processing for the application.

  • Contains a message filter script to communicate detailed information about which messages (that is, requests and responses) the application needs to see. To filter messages, the application manifest has a set of built-in actions that it can invoke. For any other actions required by a specific message (that is, those actions that cannot be handled by the built-in actions), the application manifest can invoke managed code in a separate application process by passing all or parts of the message to the code in the application process. Using the built-in actions helps you avoid cross-process calls for simple processing (for example, basic if, then, and else functions).

  • Enables the application developer to specify moderate amount of logic to be executed by an interpreter inside the server API module. If the functionality of the interpreter is not sufficient, a cross-process call is made as a single call containing only the portions of the message that are appropriate to the message filtering used.

  • Uses an application Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to uniquely identify the application to the server. The application URI is expected to be an HTTP URL, but no validation is performed.

• Microsoft.Rtc.Sip class library. Contains the following classes:

  • SIP message and transaction processing classes.

  • ServerAgent class. This class implements most of the logic needed to manage sessions with the server. It is the entry point for the managed server API. Each application initiates an instance of ServerAgent.dll and supplies an application manifest instance to it. The ServerAgent.dll assembly manages the session with the server, including compiling the application manifest and registering with the server. If the registration succeeds, the ServerAgent class sets up the environment necessary to receive and process SIP messages from the server. The ServerAgent.dll assembly invokes application-specific event handlers for specific events (for example, message events and transaction events). For each instance of the application, a single ServerAgent.dll object manages the applications session with the server. To exit, the application releases the ServerAgent.dll object, which causes the session with the server to end.

    You can use the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Software Development Kit (SDK) to develop applications by using the Microsoft.Rtc.Sip class library. You can download the SDK at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144480. For details about using the SDK, see “Communications Server 2007 R2 Server SDK Documentation” at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144482.