Is there a way to enter dollars/cents via DTMF? - twilio

Question

I'm currently working on a pay-by-phone system with this flow:
<Gather> customer's account number with us
<Gather> amount to pay
<Pay> - with the previous 2 <Gather>s passed as variables to Stripe
The issue I am having is collecting the amount. Is there a way to convert the amount from a single string to a decimal string?
eg. 12300 becomes 123.00
All suggestions welcome as the current working theory is to add a third <Gather> just for the cents but this feels cumbersome from a UX/UI perspective.

Answer 1

I edited this answer, since I was successful in accomplishing this.
I did it with STUDIO and FUNCTIONS.
Prompt the caller to enter the amount using star key () as a decimal. For example to enter $5.43 they should enter 543 and then press #.
then I took the gathered digits and sent them out as a parameter in the FUNCTION widget by inserting "amount" as the KEY and {{widgets.gather_1.digits}} as the VALUE of the parameter.
I wrote the following function:
exports.handler = function(context, event, callback) {
const rawamount = event.amount;
const decimalamount = rawamount.replace("*",".");
const response = decimalamount;
callback(null, response);
};
then in the <pay> widget I inserted {{widget.function_1.body}} in the AMOUNT field.
Your payment should process with dollars and cents.
Let me know if this worked. If you need screenshots of my studio flow let me know.
ADDED:
Here is a sample flow if someone wants to use as a template (someone requested it)
Open a blank Studio flow.
In the trigger widget under "config" tab click on "SHOW FLOW JSON" delete all previous code and paste code below inside and save.
Your flow should generate.
Then create function. Code and instructions below after JSON.
PLEASE NOTE: though a function may pop up in the flow, you won't be able to access it, and will have to create it under your account.
{
"description": "A New Flow",
"states": [
{
"name": "Trigger",
"type": "trigger",
"transitions": [
{
"event": "incomingMessage"
},
{
"next": "gather_1",
"event": "incomingCall"
},
{
"event": "incomingRequest"
}
],
"properties": {
"offset": {
"x": 0,
"y": 0
}
}
},
{
"name": "gather_1",
"type": "gather-input-on-call",
"transitions": [
{
"next": "function_1",
"event": "keypress"
},
{
"event": "speech"
},
{
"event": "timeout"
}
],
"properties": {
"voice": "man",
"speech_timeout": "auto",
"offset": {
"x": 30,
"y": 270
},
"loop": 1,
"finish_on_key": "#",
"say": "Please enter an amount, then press pound. To enter with cents use the star key. for example to enter $6.25 press six star two five.",
"language": "en-US",
"stop_gather": true,
"gather_language": "en",
"profanity_filter": "true",
"timeout": 5
}
},
{
"name": "function_1",
"type": "run-function",
"transitions": [
{
"next": "say_play_2",
"event": "success"
},
{
"event": "fail"
}
],
"properties": {
"offset": {
"x": -60,
"y": 530
},
"parameters": [
{
"value": "{{widgets.gather_1.Digits}}",
"key": "amount"
}
],
"url": "https://charcoal-sloth-2579.twil.io/insert-decimal"
}
},
{
"name": "say_play_2",
"type": "say-play",
"transitions": [
{
"next": "pay_1",
"event": "audioComplete"
}
],
"properties": {
"voice": "man",
"offset": {
"x": -59,
"y": 839
},
"loop": 1,
"say": "You entered ${{widgets.function_1.body}}",
"language": "en-US"
}
},
{
"name": "pay_1",
"type": "capture-payments",
"transitions": [
{
"next": "say_play_3",
"event": "success"
},
{
"next": "say_play_4",
"event": "maxFailedAttempts"
},
{
"next": "say_play_4",
"event": "providerError"
},
{
"next": "say_play_4",
"event": "payInterrupted"
},
{
"next": "say_play_4",
"event": "hangup"
},
{
"next": "say_play_4",
"event": "validationError"
}
],
"properties": {
"security_code": true,
"offset": {
"x": -70,
"y": 1140
},
"max_attempts": 2,
"payment_connector": "Stripe_Connector",
"payment_amount": "{{widgets.function_1.body}}",
"currency": "usd",
"language": "en-US",
"postal_code": "false",
"payment_token_type": "one-time",
"timeout": 5,
"valid_card_types": [
"visa",
"master-card",
"amex",
"discover"
]
}
},
{
"name": "say_play_3",
"type": "say-play",
"transitions": [
{
"event": "audioComplete"
}
],
"properties": {
"voice": "man",
"offset": {
"x": -185,
"y": 1433
},
"loop": 1,
"say": "Your payment ${{widgets.function_1.body}}was successful, Thank you.",
"language": "en-US"
}
},
{
"name": "say_play_4",
"type": "say-play",
"transitions": [
{
"event": "audioComplete"
}
],
"properties": {
"voice": "man",
"offset": {
"x": 190,
"y": 1456
},
"loop": 1,
"say": "There was an error with your payment. Goodbye!",
"language": "en-US"
}
}
],
"initial_state": "Trigger",
"flags": {
"allow_concurrent_calls": true
}
}
Create a function with this code:
exports.handler = function(context, event, callback) {
const amount = event.amount;
const convert = amount.replace('*', '.');
callback(null, convert);
};
Make sure in the flow you check that the function widget has the right function selected and that you insert the following parameter KEY:amount VALUE: {{widgets.YOUR_GATHER_WIDGET NAME.body}}