when you do bgapi you actually have to subscribe to the background job event to get the results.
Since it's an async operation, the command is executed in it's own thread and when the results are collected they are put in the event's body.

The bgapi returns a job-uuid that you need to save and use it to tie the background_job event to the original request.

The decision to use api vs bgapi is weather or not you want to get the results right away or not. So usually show channels etc is a case where you want to do it in the foreground.

Also to further complicate things, bgapi is an event socket command only so it cannot be used from cli xml-rpc etc.
BUT, there is actually a *bgapi* FSAPI command you can execute to run any FSAPI in the same fashion.

so raw event socket command
api bgapi show channels

is the same as raw event socket command

bgapi show channels

but, you can also say "bgapi show channels" from the cli/xml-rpc/dialplan etc as well.

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 1:08 AM, Michael Collins <mcollins@fcnetwork.com> wrote:

Followup question: I can use api to send "show channels" or "oz list" but when I use bgapi to send those commands I don't get anything back from the event socket. Any thoughts?

-MC

From: freeswitch-users-bounces@lists.freeswitch.org [mailto:freeswitch-users-bounces@lists.freeswitch.org] On Behalf Of Michael Collins
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 4:59 PM
To: freeswitch-users@lists.freeswitch.org
Subject: [Freeswitch-users] Event socket: api vs. bgapi

Question:

Are there compelling reasons *not* to use api for simple commands like "show channels" or "oz list"? Since api is blocking and bgapi is non-blocking I just wondered if there are recommendations for when to use each one. I can definitely see why you'd use bgapi for an "originate" command. I didn't see anything on the wiki that discussed when to use api vs. bgapi so I'll be happy to write up a blurb on the recommended use of each one.

Thanks,

MC

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