Patent ID: 7529358

Claim:
A communications control apparatus, having an object oriented architecture and software objects, for providing context sensitive functionality, comprising: a private branch exchange, said exchange having a plurality of communications channels and a software object processor; at least one communications device, said communications device being connected to said exchange by one of said communications channels, and said communications device including an audio input device; an audio output device; a programmable display; a software object processor; at least one function button; at least one connection software object, said connection object including a connection algorithm for supporting a connection of one of said communications devices to at least one other of said communications channels; and a signaling algorithm for indicating a status of said connection; and at least one telephone software object, said telephone object including an interpretation algorithm for interpreting said status; a display algorithm for indicating at least one telephone function on said display; a function button monitoring algorithm, and a telephone function algorithm for invoking said telephone function; wherein said telephone software object permits different functions to be available at different times for different users.