[Asterisk-Users] 3rd party call control / CSTA , JTAPI or TAPI interfaces

[Shahed]

(REPOST, sorry if you get this more than once.)

Hello all,

(Not sure if this is more appropriate for user or dev list)

Does asterisk have any sort of "standards based" api that can enable
an application to do call control on the switch ?

For example, if I am developing a call center application
using asterisk, I would like to be notified of inbound calls
and then be able to route them to extensions / agents based
on my application logic.

I know that I may be able to do this using Asterisk Manager API
(have not yet looked at it in any depth) or AGI, but was wondering if
there is or are there any plans to develop - a standard
interface like JTAPI, TAPI (there is an external link on wiki) ,
CSTA etc that an external application can interface with, as part of
the main Asterisk project ?

If the Manager API or AGI is the only way, can anyone comment on
how it compares with API's like JTAPI (on a good implementation like
perhaps Cisco ??)  or propiatary API's like ASAI for Avaya Definity 
switches, with regard to call contol and event notification ??

Thanks
Shahed