Perl API | Simple Gateway API
Since all these functions are implemented as a HTTP client communicating directly with the Voicent Gateway, they can be run on any machine that has a connection to the gateway. The perl interface source code is included at the end of this section for your convenience.
Work with Interactive Applications
For many applications, it is desirable to get responses from callees in addition to delivering a message. The interaction can be implemented by using the low level gateway VoiceXML interface. However, using the low level API is time consuming and an error prone task. A better solution is to utilize Voicent IVR Studio to create an interactive application, and use the extended Simple Call Interface to trigger a phone call. You can find the tutorial below.
Call Text
Synopsis - call_text
call_text <phoneno> <textmesage> <selfdelete>
Description - call_text
Objective
Make a phone call and play the specified text message. The text message is converted to voice by Voicent's text-to-speech engine.
Parameters
| <phoneno> | The phone number to call. |
| <textmessage> | The message for the phone call. This message will be converted to audio using Voicent's text-to-speech software. |
| <selfdelete> | Ask the gateway to automatically delete the call request after the call is made if it is set to '1'. |
Returns
| <reqId> | The return value is the call request ID. |
Example - call_text
call_text('123-4567', 'Hello, how are you doing', 1);
Makes a call to the phone number '123-4567' and says 'Hello, how are you doing'. Since the selfdelete bit is set to 1, the call request record in the gateway will be removed automatically after the call.
$reqId = call_text('123-4567', 'Hello, how are you doing', 0);
Make a call to phone number '123-4567' and say 'Hello, how are you doing'. Since the selfdelete bit is set to 0, the call request record in the gateway will not be removed after the call. You can then use call_status to get the call status, or use call_remove to remove the call record.
Call Audio
Synopsis - call_audio
call_audio <phoneno> <audiofile> <selfdelete>
Description - call_audio
Objective
Make a phone call and play the specified audio message.
Parameters
| <phoneno> | The phone number to call. |
| <audiofile> | The audio message for the phone call. The format must be PCM 16bit, 8KHz, mono wave file. The audio file must be on the same host as the Voicent Gateway. |
| <selfdelete> | Ask the gateway to automatically delete the call request after the call is made if it is set to '1'. |
Returns
| <reqId> | The return value is the call request ID. |
Example - call_audio
call_audio('123-4567', 'C:\my_audios\hello.wav', 1);
Makes a call to the phone number '123-4567' and the audio file says, 'Hello, how are you doing'. Since the selfdelete bit is set to 1, the call request record in the gateway will be removed automatically after the call.
$reqId = call_audio('123-4567', 'C:\my_audios\hello.wav', 0);
Makes a call to phone number '123-4567' and the audio file says, 'Hello, how are you doing'. Since the selfdelete bit is set to 0, the call request record in the gateway will not be removed after the call. You can then use call_status to get the call status, or use call_remove to remove the call record.
Call Status
Synopsis - call_status
call_status <reqId>
Description - call_status
Objective
Check the status of a call.
Parameters
| <reqId> | The call request ID. |
Returns
| 'Call Made' | Returns the string 'Call Made' if the call was made. |
| 'Call Failed' | Returns the string 'Call Failed' if the call failed. |
| ' ' | Returns an empty string if the call is in progress or if the call was neither made or failed. |
Example - call_status
$status = call_status('11234035434');
Call Remove
Synopsis - call_remove
call_remove <reqId>
Description - call_remove
Objective
Remove the call record. If the call is not made yet, it will also be removed.
Parameters
| <reqId> | The call request ID. |
Example - call_remove
call_remove('11234035434');
Call Till Confirm
Synopsis - call_till_confirm
call_till_confirm <vcast prog> <vcastdoc> <confirmcode> <wavfile>
Description - call_till_confirm
Objective
Keep calling a list of people until anyone enters the confirmation code. The message is the specified audio file. This is ideal for using it in a phone notification escalation process.
To use this feature, Voicent BroadcastByPhone Professional version has to be installed. This function is similar to the command line interface BroadcastByPhone has. But since the command cannot be invoked over a remote machine, this perl function uses the gateway to schedule an event, which in turn invokes the command on the gateway host.
Parameters
| <vcast prog> | The BroadcastByPhone program. It is usually C:\Program Files\Voicent\BroadcastByPhone\bin\vcast.exe on the gateway host. |
| <vcast doc> | The BroadcastByPhone call list to use. |
| <confirmcode> | The confirm code to use for the broadcast. |
| <wavfile> | The audio file to use for the broadcast. |
Example - call_till_confirm
call_till_confirm('C:\Program Files\Voicent\BroadcastByPhone\bin\vcast.exe', 'C:\My_calllist\escalation.voc', 911911, 'C:\My_calllist\escalation.wav');
Source Code
package Voicent;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use HTTP::Request::Common;
$voicent::host = "localhost";
$voicent::port = 8155;
sub _call_now {
my %params = %{$_[0]}
my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new(agent => 'Mozilla/4.0');
my $url = 'http://' . $host . ':' . $port;
$url = $url . '/ocall/callreqHandler.jsp';
my $resp = $ua->request(
POST $url,
Content_Type => 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
Content => [ %params ]);
unless ($resp->is_success) {
print "Error sending call request to Voicent Gateway";
return "";
}
$result = $resp->content();
$pos = index ($result, '[ReqId=');
unless ($pos >=0) {
print "Error getting call request id from Voicent Gateway";
return "";
}
$pos = $pos + 7;
$pos2 = index ($result, ']', $pos);
$reqId = substr($result, $pos, $pos2 - $pos);
return $reqId;
}
sub call_audio {
my ($phoneno, $audiofile, $selfdelete) = @_;
my %params = ();
$params{'info'} = 'call ' . $phoneno;
$params{'phoneno'} = $phoneno;
$params{'firstocc'} = '10';
$params{'audiofile'} = $audiofile;
$params{'selfdelete'} = $selfdelete;
return _call_now(\%params);
}
sub call_status {
my ($reqId) = @_;
my $url = 'http://' . $host . ':' . $port;
$url = $url . '/ocall/callstatusHandler.jsp';
$url = $url . '?reqid=' . $reqId;
my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new(agent => 'Mozilla/4.0');
my $resp = $ua->request(GET $url);
unless ($resp->is_success) {
print "Error sending call request to Voicent Gateway";
return "";
}
$result = $resp->content();
if ($result =~ m#\Q^made^\E#) { return "Call Made"; }
if ($result =~ m#\Q^failed^\E#) { return "Call Failed"; }
print "";
}
sub call_remove {
my ($reqId) = @_;
my $url = 'http://' . $host . ':' . $port;
$url = $url . '/ocall/callremoveHandler.jsp';
$url = $url . '?reqid=' . $reqId;
my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new(agent => 'Mozilla/4.0');
my $resp = $ua->request(GET $url);
unless ($resp->is_success) {
print "Error sending call request to Voicent Gateway";
return "";
}
}
# voc file must reside on the same machine as the gateway
# this function can be achieved using command line interface
# vcast.exe -startnow -confirmcode [code] -wavfile [wavfile]
sub call_till_confirm {
my ($vcast, $vocfile, $confirmCode, $wavfile) = @_;
my %params = ();
$params{'info'} = 'call till concel';
$params{'phoneno'} = '0000000';
$params{'firstocc'} = '10';
$params{'startexec'} = $vcast;
$params{'selfdelete'} = '1';
my $cmdline = '"' . $vocfile . '" -startnow';
$cmdline = $cmdline . ' -confirmcode ' . $confirmcode;
$cmdline = $cmdline . ' -wavfile "' . $wavfile . '"';
$params{'cmdline'} = $cmdline;
return _call_now(\%params);
}