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Voicent Gateway C# Simple Interface

The Voicent Java Simple Interface class 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. The C# interface source code is included at the end of this section.

This C# Simple Interface is developed based on Voicent Gateway Simple Outbound Call Interface.

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.

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

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.
 
The options are:
 
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'

The return value is the call request id <reqId>.

EXAMPLE

CallText("123-4567", "Hello, how are you doing", true);

Make a call to phone number '123-4567' and say 'Hello, how are you doing'. Since the selfdelete bit is set, the call request record in the gateway will be removed automatically after the call.
 
string reqId = CallText("123-4567", "Hello, how are you", 0);
 
Make a call to phone number '123-4567' and say 'Hello, how are you'. Since the selfdelete bit is not set, 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.
 

SYNOPSIS

string CallAudio(string phoneno, string audiofile, bool selfdelete)

DESCRIPTION

Make a phone call and play the specified audio message.
 
The options are:
 
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'

The return value is the call request id <reqId>.

EXAMPLE

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, the call request record in the gateway will be removed automatically after the call.
 
string reqId = CallAudio("123-4567", "C:\my audios\hello.wav", 0);
 
Make a call to phone number '123-4567' and play the hello.wav file. Since the selfdelete bit is not set, 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.
 
 

SYNOPSIS

string CallStatus(string reqId)

DESCRIPTION

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', or if the call will retry, the return value is "Call Will Retry", and for any other status, the return value is "".

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

string status = CallStatus("11234035434");
 

SYNOPSIS

void CallRemove(string reqId)

DESCRIPTION

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

EXAMPLE

CallRemove("11234035434");
 

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

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.

The options are:

 
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.
ccode The confirmation code use for the broadcast
wavfile The audio file to use for the broadcast

 

EXAMPLE

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");
    }
  }
}
 
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