PBX data logger. Capture a serial data from PBX systems.

Problem scenario:

I can’t seem to be able to write the log of our local PBX system into my SQL 2000 database. I have installed the ODBC plug-in and have tested the ODBC connection through the ODBC administrator and everything seems to be working. Now, I wish to parse and write a log of the data to a file in my database.

Fig.1. PBX system captured data by the serial data logger software

Requirements:

• Advanced Serial Data Logger (ASDL) Professional or a trial version;
• ASCII data parser and query plug-in for Advanced Serial Data Logger;
• DDE server plug-in for the data logger(optional);
• ODBC database plug-in for the data logger.

It is assumed that:

You have configured all communication parameters (baud rate, number of data bits, flow control etc) in the data logger and you are able to receive all data without communication errors.

Solution:

The image (Fig.1) above shows a simple data flow. Each record has a fixed size and a fixed position for each item. As an example, for a single record, all non-printable characters with a code less than 20 Hex are selected for display. The indicated radio buttons are set as shown below.

Fig.2. PBX data logger. Serial data view setup

If your data flow is fast, then ASDL will not split your data into separate lines and you will get one long line on the screen. For this reason, it is necessary to tick the "Wrap words" tick box. This effectively adjusts the line length to the width of the window (Fig.3, pos #1).

Fig.3. PBX data logger. Serial data word wrap

Click the "OK" button and attempt to receive data from a serial port. You should get something like the image below.

Fig.4. PBX data logger. Data received.

This is the other view of the data received. Notice that all non-printable characters were replaced with their code i.e. #0D. It is clear from the data screen above, that the data block (within the green rectangle) ends with #0A#0D#0A (underlined by red). In this example, our data block contains two parts namely, 1 and 2. The part #2 was adjusted to the width of the window. Both of these parts should be interpreted as a single whole.

We are now ready for configuring of the modules. First, select the "ASCII data query and parser" plug-in (Fig.5, pos. #1) from a drop-down list. Then, enable a parsing option for data received (Fig.5, pos. #2) and select the necessary data export plug-ins. The DDE server (Fig.6, pos. #3) will help to check the accuracy of the parser's configuration. The "ODBC database" plug-in will write the data to the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (Fig.6, pos. #4).

Fig.5. PBX data logger. The data parser plug-in setup.

Fig.6. PBX data logger. Data export plug-ins setup.

Next, open the ASCII parser and query configuration window (click the "Setup" button near the drop-down box as indicated on pos.#1 on Fig.5). A dialog window will appear on the screen (Fig.7) about the data packet.

Fig.7. PBX data logger. Parser configuration window.

The configuration process should be very simple if you have examined your data flow in the data logger window (Fig.4). You should type in the same as in the data logger window in fields 1 and 2. Field #1 marks the beginning of the data block and the field #2 marks the end. In the example, our data block does not contain a start marker. Therefore, this field is left empty. The values to be typed in here are as underlined in red in Fig.4 above.

The next tab is a very important part of the parser configuration. The data parser uses this information for data extraction from the data block. In the example, the data block contains 4 data items (see Fig.1) namely: date and time, calling party number, called party number and call length in seconds, which should be separated out to different variables. Later, these variables will be used in the data export and will be placed in different columns of our SQL2000 database.

Fig.8. PBX data logger. Parser items.

Any new items may be added by clicking the "Add item" button (Fig.8, pos. 7). Before adding an item the program will ask you about an item description. You can type any characters here, which will help you to remember a variable's content. For this example all 4 variables with their corresponding descriptions have been added.

Each parser item has a number of properties:

1. Item name - this name will be bound to a column in the data export plug-in. It is a limited text description and cannot contain spaces and a few other characters;
2. Parser's type - is a method, which the program will use for data extraction. Our parser has a few methods from simple to most powerful. In this example, where data is being placed in fixed place, we can use the simple method - fixed position. This method allows the extraction of any number of characters from any fixed position of the data block;
3. Data type - is the data type of the characters extracted. For example, you can specify FLOAT or STRING data types. The data will be converted to the conversion type later, in the data export module. The data type here is being used for formatting of the value, which will be specified on the "Data formats" tab later. In the example, the "Call date and time" field has the DateTime data type, the "Call len" field has the Integer data type. All other fields have the String data type;
4. Default value - the value specified here is to be used when data cannot be extracted from a data block;
5. Fixed position - is the position of the first variable's character in our data block. The minimum value is 1;
6. Fixed length - is the number of characters, which will be transferred to a variable. The minimum value is 1.

All other items have the same parameters, a position, a length and a data type of other.

In the next tab, you can specify basic format options as per (Fig.9). If you had specified the data type "String" in the item's parameters, then the first two options allow you to remove blank spaces from a value. Our called and caller number contain blank spaces at the start of a value. The second option allows you to convert the date time string to a field with the date time data type. We specified MMDDYY HHNN here, according to the specification above. For a detailed description of formatting characters, please, see the help file.

Fig.9. PBX data logger. Format of items.

Other options are unnecessary in our case, because all our items do not have the date or time data type.

Click the "OK" button and close the parser configuration window. Then click the "OK" button in the options window.

Now that our parser is ready it is time for testing it. Connect your device and power it on if necessary. Check to see if you are able to receive a data block from the specified serial port. If the parser had been correctly set up, then you should see all parser items names and their values (Fig.10) in the DDE server window below.

Fig.10. PBX data logger. DDE server window.

All parser items are now ready for export to the SQL2000 database. You can read about it in the second part.

To export data to the necessary format, please, click on the corresponding link below:

• RS232 to Excel. Four methods to send data from RS232 to Excel;
• Writing data to a CSV text file with help of "Local database" plug-in;
• Writing data to an XLS file without Excel with help of "Local database" plug-in;
• Sending data to Excel through the DDE interface with help of "DDE Server";
• Exporting data and charting in Excel in real-time with help of "Direct Excel Connection" plug-in;
• Writing data to an XLS file without Excel with help of "Local database" plug-in (variant #2);
• Export data to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with help of "ODBC Database" plug-in;
• Export data to the MySQL database with help of "SQL Database Professional" plug-in;
• Write data to Microsoft Access with help of "ODBC Database" plug-in.

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