Auto dialer call transfer question

Posted on September 3, 2009 | By Voicent News

when using skype and the dialler is dialling out and a call is picked up, does it come through skype or does the phone ring on the number that we have transferred (ie if we wanted to trasnfer it to a fixed landline?

If you are using BroadcastByPhone (autodialer), then the phone will ring on the transferred number.

If you are using AgentDialer (predictive dialing), then it is not recommended to transfer the call to a fixed landline. Since in predictive mode, there is no pre-recorded message to play when a call is answered, and during the few seconds for the call to be transferred, most people will hangup the phone.

Also, using broadcast by phone, if someone presses the button to talk to someone, does that call get automatically get transferred to our landline (if put in transfer call list)?

Yes, if you set up that way. (Gateway main menu > Setup > Options > Call Transfer, select Transfer to the following phone number

also i am correct in this, does the broadcast to phone dailler (1 line) start phoning again with one line, or does it wait until that call is finished

It will wait till the call is finished. This is because you are using Skype, and skype does not have native call transfer for outbound calls. So the call transfer is implemented as a conference.

Posted in Auto Dialer, Skype |

Comcast Digital Voice analog phone line issues

Posted on September 2, 2009 | By Voicent

I can’t get your auto dialer to work with my Comcast Digital Voice. I am using a voice modem to connect. It works sometimes and many times it does not.

The modem is made for traditional analog phone lines. With Comcast Digital Voice, it supports analog and digital.

It is actually pretty easy to fix the problem:

You will need to either get an analog to digital converter or simply plug in an old 2 pin phone cord to get this to work with your Comcast Digital Voice. You can likely find these items at your local electronics store or you may have an old cable already. The digital cables (if you look at the end) have 4 pins, the old analog cables only use the middle 2 pins or wires. An alternate fix, if you have the tools and/or skill would be to simply cut the outside wire on either side of the cable on both ends just before the plug. However, I would do this at your own risk. You may go through a couple cables before you get it right and might ultimately be cheaper if you simply purchase an old analog cable. Once you have done this, plug the cable into the voice modem on your system and into the wall jack to essentially make the Comcast Digital Voice signal analog to the system.

Or you can switch to VOIP, which requires no modem and phone line.

Posted in General |

Setup survey app

Posted on August 31, 2009 | By Voicent News

I’m trying to set up a simple survey app using the shareware version of your gateway; basically I just want to be able to schedule a call, have it ask the recipient a series of questions, and then save the responses to a file or db or the like. My problem is, I can not locate a single example in the developer section of your site that deals with anything more complex than a single question or message. Every example seems to do only one thing, and then hang up.

Can you please direct me to an example that can collect two or more responses from the recipient? I’m just trying for a proof of concept at the moment; once we prove to ourselves that Voicent will support this type of multi-question/multi-response call we’ll likely be purchasing a developer’s subscription as we develop the full product. However, if we can’t confirm this capability we’ll need to look for an alternate solution.

Also, some questions: are the “Voicent Gateway Interface API library” and “Voicent Gateway Client API” available from your site anywhere, or do you only provide them to your subscribers? On your site you refer to the “Voicent Gateway Simple Interface”, in several flavors (C++, C#, Python, etc). Do you have more complex APIs available for your subscribers? I’m having a hard time figuring exactly what Voicent’s capabilities are from your website; sometimes you talk about an API, sometimes the SDK, sometimes the client library…are these all different things? Or are you just talking about the same thing in different contexts?

Any assistance or information appreciated!

It is a little confusing for the developer sections since we have many products and each has its owninterface.

1. For multiple language sample, you can take a look at BroadcastByPhone multiple survey sample from Help > Product Walkthrough… from the program main menu. The sample uses IVR Studio for designing the message and does not require programming at all. IVR Studio is the graphical user interface (GUI) tool for Voicent Gateway.

2. For Voicent Gateway, we have a full tutorial for creating a multiple question survey. For details, please see Outbound call tutorial

3. Voicent Gateway and other Voicent products have web (HTTP) interface, which makes the choice of your programming language irrelevant. Most programming language today has web client library, which can be used to interface with Voicent Gateway. To drive Voicent Gateway for making phone calls and fetching call status, you basically post a HTTP form from your application, the same way you post web forms to a web site. The simple call interface, as the name indicates, is a simple form of the gateway interface. It also shows how to use the HTTP client library for the interface.

4. The developer subscription contains the following:

a) Professional edition of Voicent Gateway (both inbound and outbound)

b) Gateway application simulation tool

Only available to developer members. It makes debugging your application easier. You do not need to call in to test your application.

c) Developer technical support

General Voicent tech support only cover none-developer usage support

d) Gateway client library

Only available to developer members. It makes easier to develop Window based tools like BroadcastByPhone.

e). Gateway library and API

This is the gateway web (HTTP) interface that covers in the tutorial.

I’m sorry, but I’ve studied the “Outbound call tutorial” you reference in your response, and again – this example only asks a single question (“Please rate our service by number 1 to 5″) Do you have anything that demonstrates how to ask MORE than a single question? Also, I see that I can fetch a call status very simply; however, the important data I need to fetch for this application is the call recipient’s DTMF responses, NOT status of the actual phone call.

To ask another question, all you need to do is create another VXML file. Once the first question is answered, forward the call to the next VXML file using the <submit> tag.

To know which key has been pressed, please see the section Know which key has been pressed of the tutorial.

If you tried the BroadcastByPhone Multiple question example, you should be albe to test the multiple question and multiple response application.

Posted in Developer |