I'm looking for a way to generate a Conference resource within the Twilio system before adding anyone to that conference.
The official recommended way to start a Conference is by returning TwilXML in response to a Twilio callback. This can either be done in response to someone calling a Twilio number or, in a somewhat indirect way, by making a call and returning TwilXML which will connect the person to a conference once they pick up. All of the APIs to modify conferences use the ConferenceSID as the handle to decide what conference to change. The problem with both of these methods is that they do not give you the ConferenceSID until you receive a callback.
Unfortunately callbacks do not contain any identifying information about who generated them. They do have a ConferenceSID (identifying the conference), and a CallSID (uniquely identifying the call connecting the caller to the conference). When you get your first callback, there appears to be no way to be able to match either of those identifiers. If you start multiple conferences and get two callbacks with different ConferenceSIDs and different CallSIDs, it is inconvenient to tell which conference is generating which callback.
That's why it would be easiest to create a conference resource and then use the versatile add participant call. This would simplify the entire backend flow for using conferences by starting with the ConferenceSID and going from there.
P.s. To head off other suggestions - there are ways around this. You can specify different callback URLs for different conferences. You can specify different friendlyNames for different participants which you can match in your backend. It's totally possible to work with, but I would like something cleaner, which would require making conferences before anyone is called.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
There is no way to create a conference resource from the API. You can only do so by directing a caller there with the <Dial><Conference> TwiML.
Further, I don't quite understand when you say "When you get your first callback, there appears to be no way to be able to match either of those identifiers." What are you trying to match? You could use the CallSid to look up the From number of the caller joining the conference. You also receive the FriendlyName in the callback, which is the name you set in the TwiML <Conference>Friendly Name</Conference> which you could choose to help determine which conference is which.
Does that help at all?
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I'm building a Conference Call moderation console (in Salesforce). There will be many attendees joining a conference, either by dialing in or by our outbound autocalling. There will also be up to 3 moderators joining.
The client does NOT want the conference to start automatically when the moderators enter. Rather, they want it on a button to "Start Conference". From the docs, I see how to start the conference when a moderator joins (startConferenceOnEnter), but can't find any instructions where I can just HTTP POST or use a Twilio runtime function to start the conference. Am I missing it?
There isn't, however you could use handle this in different ways. Maybe one way is to enqueue people up and once the button is pressed, drain the queue into a conference.
Maybe another way is to have then all dial into the conference with startConferenceOnEnter set to false. Then create an automated leg that dials in the conference with startConferenceOnEnter set to true using the REST API /Calls resource. Then you can remove that participant once the conference is started.
Probably some other ways to accomplish the same goal, but those are the first two that came to mind.
I can see that for all the voice interactions, behind the scenes flex is using its voice API to create a conference between caller and worker. How do I obtain the created ConferenceSid after the task has been selected and reserved?
What I would like to do is simply Get the value upon connecting.
I can see a very long and not so pretty way of getting it, which is by running a twilio function that iterates over every conference, making additional requests to see the participants. But that seems way to complex to me.
I can see in the logs that the conference friendly is being printed
ConferencesState handleConferenceUpdate WT5d0800a3ce8724fd55cf89841c48XXX
Is there anyone who can help here?
UPDATE:
#philnash below answered the question exactly.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
There seems like a couple of ways to get hold of the Conference SID in a Flex interaction.
First, the task that your worker accepts has a number of attributes that are set by Flex and relevant for the type of task it is. For a voice call, you will find a conference key, which has an object including the sid as well as entries for the participants.
Secondly, I found that the <TaskCanvas> component in the UI is passed a context that includes a conference object. That object then has a source property which expands to an object with a conferenceSid property, as well as other properties, including a participants list.
Does that point you in the right direction?
I did when Make a call between two numbers not registered in Twilio using following link "Make a call between two numbers not registered in twilio" in C#. But I need to record while pressing 1 during the call at any time.Thanks in advance.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
You cannot nest a <Gather> within a <Dial>, so you can't interrupt a call between two people by pressing 1.
You could place your callers in a <Conference> (in fact, according to that SO question you linked to, it looks like you might have already). Then you can use <Dial>'s hangupOnStar attribute to end the conference for the moderator and allow them to record the call.
You'd then need to direct the moderator into a new <Conference> with the record attribute set to record-from-start. And then you'd need to redirect the original caller from their original conference to the conference that is being recorded.
Let me know if that helps at all.
Our usecase in simplified manner:
1) Custom come to our website
2) he see a list of phone numbers
3) he click on a phone number to call.
For above i am reading
https://www.twilio.com/docs/quickstart/java/client/outgoing-calls
Our plan is to give this call functionality as a added feature where we will charge end customer what twilio charges us.
Now i need to keep trace of number of call/min each of our customer used. so that i can charge him for the same.
What are the way i can keep track of min/call by each of our customer?
Edit:
Is there any api/webhock that can be used to keep track of when a particular call started and ended so that we can save the duration of call and charge for the same.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
Good news! There are a couple of ways for you to find out this information.
Firstly, you can set a StatusCallback URL that receives webhook information about calls. You can either set this on the level of the number, using the phone numbers section of the Twilio portal. Or you can set a StatusCallback parameter when you create calls using the REST API. Or you can set a StatusCallback attribute when creating calls using the <Number> noun in TwiML.
Either way you set the callback, you will get a webhook back to the URL you set when the call is over. That webhook will include a CallDuration parameter with the duration of the call in seconds.
For more accurate price reporting, you can actually query the REST API. Call instance resources have a Price property. The only drawback here is that the Price property may not immediately be available. So you may need to schedule jobs to check for the price after a call is complete.
Let me know if this helps at all.
I'm using Twilio to build a service right now. Here's my use case:
In a web page, I input a phone number and call it using Twilio JS (already done). During the call, I want to input another number and call another person. The call with the first person will be forwarded to the conference. When the second person answer the call, he will join the conference too.
Is it possible to use Twilio to implement this case?
This is definitely possible with twilio. i have worked on that scenario directly and twilio api works excellently well.
When u initiate a call from the twilio number to the first number, use the call back url to connect the person to the another person you want.
This can be done using twiML, which has <Dial> which will be of great help to you.
This is the easiest way of implementation.
The other way, is pretty clean but takes time to implement.
The twilio api provides conference capability themselves.
So you can create a request of conference with all the numbers that need to be connected.
The down side of this is that, all number will be called and connected, if your requirement is to call the first number and then only connect him to another person, then i wouldnt recommend this solution.
I hope this helped you.