Dynamically generate VXML files

Posted on March 26, 2010 | By Voicent

I have been working through your Tutorial. I understand that the Voicent Gateway embedded web server is TomCat; this means that I cannot use VB.NET or C# to dynamically create VXML scripts. The question is: is there any way I can create VXML scripts via VB.NET or C#?

Yes and no. It is true that you cannot deploy your VB.NET or C# code to Tomcat. But you can point Voicent Gateway to use other web servers. All you need to specify is the starturl for your application.

Thank you for the answer. That makes sense. The CallNow tutorial demonstrates calling one phone number at a time. In my application, there is a requirement to call several numbers simultaneously. So the application has to tell Voicent to initiate the phone calls. The question is: how do I go about doing this? Do I prepare x VML files for x number of phone calls to be made? Or is there a way to specify x number of phone numbers to call inside a single VXML file? And how would I initiate multiple simultaneous phone calls?

This is actually pretty easy with Voicent Gateway. All you need to do is submit all the calls to Voicent gateway and specify the call time (could be the same time). The gateway should take care of the rest. For example, if the gateway has 24 lines, and you submit 50 calls to be called at once. The gateway will utilize all 24 lines to make the first 24 calls, and the rest 26 calls will be queued. Whenever a call is finished, the next call from the queue is initiated. All these should be transparent to your application. The only thing you need to take care of is the “firstocc” parameter in your call request. It is used to set a limit for how late should a call still be rescheduled due to the lack of available phone lines.

Though you could specify multiple phone numbers for one call request, it is not recommended, especially when you need to get the call status for each calls.

Thank you. Does the Voicent Gateway Shareware version allow simultaneous calls to be made? I have tried noticed that it only makes phone calls consecutively. FYI, I am using Skype

Yes, it can make up to 10 simultaneous calls. For Skype, you need to start multiple Skype instances. Details please see Skype FAQ

Posted in IVR Developer |

Use Inbound and Outbound IVR Together

Posted on March 22, 2010 | By Voicent

I have a 4 line IVR and 4 line Broadcast dialer using Skype. I have a Skypein number also. Can I run both in bound and outbound at the same time if I only assign 3 lines of IVR to outbound and leave the 4th line for access by inbound? If so, what happens when two inbound calls attempt to access the system at the same time?

No, you cannot assign certain lines for inbound and others for outbound calls. It is strongly recommended to use inbound applications and outbound applications on separate computers.

For an inbound call, if the called skype line is busy (Voicent IVR application is answering the call), the call will be forwarded to skype voicemail or a different phone number, depending on your Skype settings.

Posted in VOIP |

Mix VOIP and Analog Lines

Posted on March 18, 2010 | By Voicent

We just installed SIP in our office and have converted all of our office phones to the new service. Next step is change our IVR to SIP.

We have a 4 Line License and want to know if we can mix and match SIP with our modems? Example, can we run the IVR with 1 line on SIP and the other 3 lines on modems at the same time? I couldn’t find any info on this in the help topics on your site, and it isn’t apparent in the setup screen whether or not this is supported. Please let me know if this can be done and any special setup info

Technically, there is nothing prevent you from mixing lines. There is also nothing special you need to do to set it up.

However, this is not common and not supported. For example, there are some features only available for VOIP lines but not for modem lines. So if your application uses these features, some lines will work and some will not.

Posted in VOIP |