Developers: IVR, SMS, CRM, Dialers

C# Interface

The Voicent C# module contains the following functions:

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.

Visit the C# IVR API: Call Ivr

Call Text

Synopsis - CallText

string CallText(string phoneno, string text, bool selfdelete)

Description - CallText

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.
<text> - The message for the phone call.
<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.


string reqId = 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 false, 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 (string phoneno, string audiofile, bool selfdelete)

Description - CallAudio

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 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)
Make a call to phone number '123-4567' and play the hello.wav file. Since the selfdelete bit is set to 1, the call request record in the gateway will be removed automatically after the call.


string reqId = CallAudio("123-4567", "C:\my audios\hello.wav", false)
Make a call to phone number '123-4567' and play hello.wav. 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

CallStatus(string reqId)

Description - CallStatus

Check the call status of the call with <reqId>. If the call is made, the return value is 'Call Made' or if the call is failed, the return value is 'Call Failed', and for any other status, the return value is ' ' (empty string).

Please note that an empty string is returned if the call is still in progress. You'll need to wait and then poll the status again.

Example - CallStatus

string status = CallStatus("11234035434")

Call Remove

Synopsis - CallRemove

void CallRemove(string reqId)

Description - CallRemove

Remove the call record of the call with <reqId>. If the call is not made yet, it will also be removed.

Example - CallRemove

CallRemove("11234035434")

Call Till Confirm

Synopsis - CallTillConfirm

void CallTillConfirm(string vastexe, string vocfile, string wavfile, string ccode)

Description - CallTillConfirm

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 invoke 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.
<vocfile> - The BroadcastByPhone call list to use.
<wavfile> - The audio file to use for the broadcast.
<ccode> - The confirmation code 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");
This will invoke BroadcastByPhone program on the gateway host and start calling everyone one the call list defined in 'C:\My calllist\escalation.voc'. The audio message played is 'C:\My calllist\escalation.wav'. And as soon as anyone on the list enters the confirmation code '911911', the call will stop automatically.

Source Code

----------------
File Voicent.cs:
----------------
using System;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;


namespace Voicent
{
  /// <summary>
  /// Interface class for making telephone calls using the simple
  /// API of Voicent Gateway.
  /// </summary>
  public class
Voicent
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// Default constructor use http://localhost:8155
    /// </summary>
    public
Voicent()
    {
      m_host = "localhost";
      m_port = 8155;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Constructor with host and port
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="host">Hostname of Voicent Gateway</param>
    /// <param name="port">port number of Voicent Gateway</param>
    public
Voicent(string host, int port)
    {
      m_host = host;
      m_port = port;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Call the specified phone number and play the text using
    /// text-to-speech engine
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="phoneno">telephone number to call</param>
    /// <param name="text">text message to play</param>
    /// <param name="selfdelete">if set to one, automatically remove call record on
    /// gateway after the call is made</param>
    /// <returns>Call Request ID on gateway</returns>
    public string
CallText(string phoneno, string text, bool selfdelete)
    {
      // call request url
      string urlstr = "/ocall/callreqHandler.jsp";

      // setting the http post string
      string poststr = "info=Simple Text Call " + phoneno;

      poststr += "&phoneno=" + phoneno;
      poststr += "&firstocc=10";
      poststr += "&selfdelete=";
      poststr += (selfdelete ? "1" : "0");

      poststr += "&txt=" + text;

      // Send Call Request
      String rcstr = PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr);
      return GetRequestID(rcstr);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Call the specified phone number and play the audio file
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="phoneno">telephone number to call</param>
    /// <param name="filename">audio file path name</param>
    /// <param name="selfdelete">if set to one, automatically remove call record on
    /// gateway after the call is made</param>
    /// <returns>Call Request ID on gateway</returns>
    public string
CallAudio(string phoneno, string filename, bool selfdelete)
    {
      // call request url
      string urlstr = "/ocall/callreqHandler.jsp";

      // setting the http post string
      string poststr = "info=Simple Audio Call " + phoneno;

      poststr += "&phoneno=" + phoneno;
      poststr += "&firstocc=10";
      poststr += "&selfdelete=";
      poststr += (selfdelete ? "1" : "0");

      poststr += "&audiofile=" + filename;

      // Send Call Request
      String rcstr = PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr);
      return GetRequestID(rcstr);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Get call request status
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="reqID">Call request ID</param>
    /// <returns>status code</returns>
    public string
CallStatus(string reqID)
    {
      // call status url
      string urlstr = "/ocall/callstatusHandler.jsp";
      string poststr = "reqid=" + reqID;

      // Send Call Request
      String rcstr = PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr);

      if (rcstr.IndexOf("^made^") != -1)
        return "Call Made";

      if (rcstr.IndexOf("^failed^") != -1)
        return "Call Failed";

      if (rcstr.IndexOf("^retry^") != -1)
        return "Call Will Retry";

      return "";
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Remove the call request on the gateway
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="reqID">Call Request ID</param>
    public void
CallRemove(string reqID)
    {
      // call status url
      string urlstr = "/ocall/callremoveHandler.jsp";
      string poststr = "reqid=" + reqID;

      // Send Call Request
      PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Invoke Voicent BroadcastByPhone and start the call-till-confirm escalation process
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="vcastexe">BroadcastByPhone executable file path</param>
    /// <param name="vocfile">BroadcastByPhone call list file path</param>
    /// <param name="wavfile">Audio file, must be PCM 8KHz, 16bit, mono wave file format</param>
    /// <param name="ccode">Confirmation code, numbers only</param>
    public void
CallTillConfirm(string vcastexe, string vocfile, string wavfile, string ccode)
    {
      // call request url
      string urlstr = "/ocall/callreqHandler.jsp";

      // setting the http post string
      string poststr = "info=Simple Call till Confirm";
      poststr += "&phoneno=1111111"; // any number
      poststr += "&firstocc=10";
      poststr += "&selfdelete=0";
      poststr += "&startexec=" + vcastexe;

      string cmdline = "\"" + vocfile + "\" -startnow";
      cmdline += " -confirmcode " + ccode;
      cmdline += " -wavfile " + "\"" + wavfile + "\"";

      // add -cleanstatus if necessary

      poststr += "&cmdline=" + cmdline;

      PostToGateway(urlstr, poststr);
    }


    protected string PostToGateway(string urlstr, string poststr)
    {
      Uri url = new Uri("http://" + m_host + ":" + m_port.ToString() + urlstr);
      HttpWebRequest HttpWRequest = (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(url);

      HttpWRequest.Headers.Set("Pragma", "no-cache");
      HttpWRequest.Timeout = 60000;
      HttpWRequest.Method = "POST";
      HttpWRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

      byte[] PostData = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(poststr);
      HttpWRequest.ContentLength = PostData.Length;
      Stream tempStream = HttpWRequest.GetRequestStream();
      tempStream.Write(PostData,0,PostData.Length);
      tempStream.Close();

      HttpWebResponse HttpWResponse = (HttpWebResponse) HttpWRequest.GetResponse();
      Stream receiveStream = HttpWResponse.GetResponseStream();
      StreamReader readStream = new StreamReader(receiveStream);

      string rcstr = "";
      Char[] read = new Char[256];
      int count = 0;
      while ((count = readStream.Read(read, 0, 256)) > 0) {
        rcstr += new String(read, 0, count);
      }
      HttpWResponse.Close();
      readStream.Close();

      return rcstr;
    }

    protected string GetRequestID(string rcstr)
    {
      int index1 = rcstr.IndexOf("[ReqId=");
      if (index1 == -1)
        return "";
      index1 += 7;

      int index2 = rcstr.IndexOf("]", index1);
      if (index2 == -1)
        return "";

      return rcstr.Substring(index1, index2 - index1);
    }


    private string m_host;
    private int m_port;
  }
}
 
--------------------
File TextVoicent.cs:
--------------------
using System;
using System.Threading;
using Voicent;

namespace csapi
{
  /// <summary>
  /// Simple class to test Voicent C# Simple Interface
  /// </summary>
  class TestVoicent
  {
    /// <summary>
    /// The main entry point for the application.
    /// </summary>
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      string phoneno = "8147838"; // Replace it with your number

      Voicent.Voicent voicent = new Voicent.Voicent();

      // Test CallText
      string reqId = 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
      while (true) {
        Thread.Sleep(20000); // wair for 20 seconds
        string status = voicent.CallStatus(reqId);
        Console.WriteLine("Call Status: " + status);
        if (status.Length != 0)
          break;
      }

      // 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");
    }
  }
}