Telephony system command scheduler and precedent processor

Abstract

A command scheduling and precedent processing system especially suitable for use in a computer telephony system is provided. The system includes a command scheduler, which includes a graphical user interface that is configured to facilitate the input and scheduling of computer telephony system commands. A system supervisor selects commands from a list of available telephony system commands and assigns a command execution priority attribute to each selected command, both of which are provided by the graphical user interface. The system also includes a command server, including a command precedent processor, a command precedent database, an event database and at least one command table. Selected commands are forwarded by the command scheduler to the command precedent processor, which stores each received command in one of the provided command tables. The command precedent processor retrieves and executes a command if all the events that are precedent to the execution of a retrieved command have occurred. If all of the command precedent events have not occurred, then the command precedent processor either returns an unexecuted command to the appropriate command table for subsequent execution attempts or generates and forwards an alert message to an alert manager to notify the system supervisor that a command could not be executed due to the non-occurrence of at least one precedent event.