IVR Studio and BroadcastByPhone Auto Dialer

We are in the process of evaluating the Voicent IVR & Brodcast by Phone products and have a couple questions.

1. Can the IVR product be used to start or stop a broadcast session? If so, how?

Yes.

IVR applications developed using IVR Studio can be extended using HTTP or Java interface. The extension is called “Action” in IVR Studio. Since BroadcastByPhone can be launched through command line, it can be start or stop from your IVR application. All you need to do is lauch the command line from a Java class, and use the Java class in your IVR application. You can take a look at the Voicemail to Email sample in IVR Studio.

To run Windows command from a Java class, use java.lang.Runtime

2. If we use the IVR for a person to call in to record a message (That will be utilized for a broadcast session), can we make it so the saved file is always the exact same name? I found the .vxml file that was created and modified the following line:

expr=”‘/MyVoicemail/../recordings/Leave Message_’ + __VG__CURTIME_MILLIS__ + ‘.wav’”/>

to:

expr=”‘/MyVoicemail/../recordings/Leave Message.wav’”/>

However, on subsequent messages, the system still appended a “_0″, “_1″, etc to the file name.

If the filename was “test.wav” we would want the new recording to overwrite the existing file. How can we accomplish this if we want. (This would be so that a prescheduled reocurring brocast would use the same file even though it gets updated between scheduled broadcasts without having to rename files).

You can use Java action to rename or remove the audio file. In Voicemail to Email sample, the saved audio file is sent as an email attachment.

We are considering using the IVR for recording the message as not all of our individuals will have access to a computer to record a message file for the broadcast system. This would give us similar functionality to our current in-place system.

This is a good idea. Also, you can set a password for your IVR application.

3. With the shareware version of BBP, is it possible to test the remote client software either via internet or via local area network vs just a loopback procedure on the same machine that the gateway is installed on? We would really like to be able to see/test this feature prior to purchasing (We are considering purchasing the enterprise edition)

Actually, BroadcastByPhone Auto dialer programs running on the gateway computer or on a remote computer are exactly the same program. They are both Voicent Gateway client program and they behave exactly the same way. Without an Enterprise license, the program running on a remote computer is disabled.