Visual Basic API | Simple Gateway API
Since all these functions are implemented as a HTTP client communicating directly with Voicent Gateway, they can be run on any machine that has a connection to the host running the gateway.
Work with Interactive Applications
For many applications, it is desirable to get responses from callees in addition to deliver a message. The interaction can be implemented by using the low level gateway VoiceXML interface. However, using the low level API is a time consuming and 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.
Call Text
Synopsis - CallText
String CallText(ByVal phoneno As String, ByVal text as String, ByVal selfdelete As Boolean)
Description - CallText
Objective
Make a phone call and play the specified text message. The text message is convert to voice by Voicent Gateway'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 - CallText
CallText("123-4567", "Hello, how are you doing", True)
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.
Dim reqId As string = CallText('123-4567', 'Hello, how are you doing', False)
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 CallStatus to get the call status, or use CallRemove to remove the call record.
Call Audio
Synopsis - CallAudio
string CallAudio(ByVal phoneno As String, ByVal audiofile As String, ByVal selfdelete As Boolean)
Description - CallAudio
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 - CallAudio
CallAudio("123-4567", "C:\my audios\hello.wav", True)
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 = CallAudio("123-4567", "C:\my audios\hello.wav", False)
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 CallStatus to get the call status, or use CallRemove to remove the call record.
Call Status
Synopsis - CallStatus
String CallStatus(ByVal reqId As String)
Description - CallStatus
Objective
Check the call status given the reqId.
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 - CallStatus
Dim status As String = CallStatus("11234035434")
Call Remove
Synopsis - CallRemove
CallRemove(ByVal reqId As String)
Description - CallRemove
Objective
Remove the call record given the <reqId>. If the call is not made yet, it will also be removed.
Parameters
<reqId> | The call request ID. |
Example - CallRemove
CallRemove("11234035434")
Call Till Confirm
Synopsis - CallTillConfirm
CallTillConfirm(ByVal vcastexe As String, ByVal vocfile As String, ByVal wavfile As String, ByVal ccode As String))
Description - CallTillConfirm
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
vcastexe | The BroadcastByPhone program. It is usually C:\Program Files\Voicent\BroadcastByPhone\bin\vcast.exe on the gateway host. |
vcastdoc | The BroadcastByPhone call list to use. |
wavfile | The audio file to use for the broadcast. |
ccode | The confirm code to use for the broadcast. |
Example - CallTillConfirm
CallTillConfirm("C:\Program Files\Voicent\BroadcastByPhone\bin\vcast.exe", "C:\My calllist\escalation.voc", "C:\My calllist\escalation.wav", "911911");
Source Code
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File Voicent.vb:
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Imports System
Imports System.Net
Imports System.IO
Public Class Voicent
Public Sub New()
MyBase.New()
m_host = "localhost"
m_port = 8155
End Sub
Public Sub New(ByVal host As String, ByVal port As Integer)
MyBase.New()
m_host = host
m_port = port
End Sub
Public Function CallText(ByVal phoneno As String, ByVal text As String, ByVal selfdelete As Boolean)
Dim urlstr As String = "/ocall/callreqHandler.jsp"
' setting the http post string
Dim poststr As String = "info=Simple Text Call " + phoneno
poststr += "&phoneno=" + phoneno
poststr += "&firstocc=10"
poststr += "&selfdelete="
If (selfdelete) Then
poststr += "1"
Else
poststr += "0"
End If
poststr += "&txt=" + text
' Send Call Request
Dim rcstr As String = PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr)
Return GetRequestID(rcstr)
End Function
Public Function CallAudio(ByVal phoneno As String, ByVal wavefile As String, ByVal selfdelete As Boolean)
Dim urlstr As String = "/ocall/callreqHandler.jsp"
' setting the http post string
Dim poststr As String = "info=Simple Audio Call " + phoneno
poststr += "&phoneno=" + phoneno
poststr += "&firstocc=10"
poststr += "&selfdelete="
If (selfdelete) Then
poststr += "1"
Else
poststr += "0"
End If
poststr += "&audiofile=" + wavefile
' Send Call Request
Dim rcstr As String = PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr)
Return GetRequestID(rcstr)
End Function
Public Function CallStatus(ByVal reqID)
' call status url
Dim urlstr As String = "/ocall/callstatusHandler.jsp"
Dim poststr As String
poststr = "reqid=" + reqID
' Send Call Request
Dim rcstr As String = PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr)
If (rcstr.IndexOf("^made^") > -1) Then
Return "Call Made"
End If
If (rcstr.IndexOf("^failed^") > -1) Then
Return "Call Failed"
End If
If (rcstr.IndexOf("^retry^") > -1) Then
Return "Call Will Retry"
End If
Return ""
End Function
Public Function CallRemove(ByVal reqID As String)
' call status url
Dim urlstr As String = "/ocall/callremoveHandler.jsp"
Dim poststr As String
poststr = "reqid=" + reqID
' Send Call Request
PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr)
End Function
Public Function CallTillConfirm(ByVal vcastexe As String, ByVal vocfile As String, ByVal wavfile As String, ByVal ccode As String)
' call request url
Dim urlstr As String = "/ocall/callreqHandler.jsp"
' setting the http post string
Dim poststr As String = "info=Simple Call till Confirm"
poststr += "&phoneno=1111111"
poststr += "&firstocc=10"
poststr += "&selfdelete=0"
poststr += "&startexec=" + vcastexe
Dim cmdline As String = """" + vocfile + """ -startnow"
cmdline += " -confirmcode " + ccode
cmdline += " -wavfile " + """" + wavfile + """"
' add -cleanstatus if necessary
poststr += "&cmdline=" + cmdline
PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr)
End Function
Private Function PostToGateway(ByVal urlstr As String, ByVal poststr As String)
Dim url As Uri = New Uri("http://" + m_host + ":" + m_port.ToString() + urlstr)
Dim HttpWRequest As HttpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create(url), HttpWebRequest)
HttpWRequest.Headers.Set("Pragma", "no-cache")
HttpWRequest.Timeout = 60000
HttpWRequest.Method = "POST"
HttpWRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
Dim PostData As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(poststr)
HttpWRequest.ContentLength = PostData.Length
Dim tempStream As Stream = HttpWRequest.GetRequestStream()
tempStream.Write(PostData, 0, PostData.Length)
tempStream.Close()
Dim HttpWResponse As HttpWebResponse = CType(HttpWRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
Dim receiveStream As Stream = HttpWResponse.GetResponseStream()
'Dim encode As Encoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8")
Dim readStream As StreamReader = New StreamReader(receiveStream)
Dim rcstr As String = ""
Dim read(256) As [Char]
Dim count As Integer = readStream.Read(read, 0, 256)
While (count > 0)
rcstr += New String(read, 0, count)
count = readStream.Read(read, 0, 256)
End While
HttpWResponse.Close()
readStream.Close()
Return rcstr
End Function
Private Function GetRequestID(ByVal rcstr As String)
Dim index1 As Integer = rcstr.IndexOf("[ReqId=")
If (index1 = -1) Then
Return ""
End If
index1 += 7
Dim index2 As Integer = rcstr.IndexOf("]", index1)
If (index2 = -1) Then
Return ""
End If
Return rcstr.Substring(index1, index2 - index1)
End Function
Private m_host As String
Private m_port As Integer
End Class
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File TextVoicent.cs:
--------------------
Imports System
Imports System.Threading
Imports Voicent
Public Class TestVoicent
Public Shared Sub Main()
' Replace it with your number
Dim phoneno As String = "111-2222"
Dim voicent As Voicent.Voicent = New Voicent.Voicent
' Test CallText
Dim reqId As String = voicent.CallText(phoneno, "Hello, how are you", True)
Console.WriteLine("Call request ID = " + reqId)
' Test CallAudio
reqId = voicent.CallAudio(phoneno, "C:/Program Files/Voicent/MyRecordings/sample_message.wav", False)
Console.WriteLine("Call request ID = " + reqId)
' try to get status
Dim status As String = ""
While (status.Length = 0)
' wair for 20 seconds
Thread.Sleep(20000)
status = voicent.CallStatus(reqId)
Console.WriteLine("Call Status: " + status)
End While
' remove the call request on the gateway
voicent.CallRemove(reqId)
' Test call-till-confirm
voicent.CallTillConfirm("C:/Program Files/Voicent/BroadcastByPhone/bin/vcast.exe", "C:/temp/testctf.voc", "C:/Program Files/Voicent/MyRecordings/sample_message.wav", "12345")
End Sub
End Class