We have an application that sits on a Windows 2019 server. Each user access their version of the application via Windows RDP. However, instead of using the standard Windows Remote Desktop application, we have a very small, .Net application that we call the "Loader", installed on each PC. The Loader handles the RDP side of things and gives us additional functionality.
For example, on the RDP application there is a button to open a website (or dial a number). When the website/call button is pressed (on the RDP server), it sends a message via Ably to the Loader (running on the local PC), which then opens up the users browser and takes them to the web page (or dials the number).
Currently we have several users who have TAPI based phone systems, which works fine, but is no longer supported in Windows 11. We also have some clients that have the RingCentral softphone installed on their local machines (or are potential RingCentral clients).
So, after that long winded explanation - I'm trying to work out the easiest way possible that I can initiate a call on the users RingCentral softphone.
In theory there are several options available to me:
- Issue a command line prompt to open up Softphone.exe with an argument containing the phone number to be dialed (super easy for us - but don't know if this would work on the RingCentral end)
- Issue a Curl command from the server that initiates the call for both parties (some how)
- Create a c# console app, that can be called in a similar way the the first option.
- Also, the 'Loader' also has Chromium installed so that may give us another option.
Essentially, I'd like to be able to initiate the call on the softphone (nothing more), without touching the Loader (as this will add additional cost/complexity).
If you guys have any suggestions - it would be greatly appreciated.