I have an app that dials a phone number, gives a set of instructions, and then forwards the call to a specified phone number. Currently when I press the digit to transfer the call it just pauses and hangs up. Not sure what im doing wrong.
This is the initial instructions. If the number 1 is pressed it is supposed to transfer to transfer.xml, which is under # 2.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Gather timeout="10" action="http://1.1.1.1/twimlet/transfer.xml" numDigits='1' finishOnKey='1'>
<Say>"Dummy Text Dummy Text"</Say>
<Say>"Please press 1 to transfer this call. Or nothing to hang up."</Say>
</Gather>
</Response>
If the caller presses #1 then it is supposed to send them to this xml file, and transfer the current call to the number under dial. But currently it just hangs for 2 seconds and drops the call.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Say>"Transferring you to a court clerk"</Say>
<Dial timeout="60" callerID='+14393523419'>
<Number>8125277222</Number>
</Dial>
</Response>
Am I doing something wrong with my xml? Not sure why it is dropping.
Twilio developer evangelist here.
Your action in your <Gather> is pointing towards the URL http://1.1.1.1/twimlet/transfer.xml. That looks like a local network address rather than a publicly available URL. If that IP address is not available to Twilio, then the call will not be able to continue.
Try using relative URLs instead of absolute ones. Twilio will happily follow the path /twimlet/transfer.xml.
Let me know if that helps!
Hm could it be because finishOnKey is set to 1 in your <Gather> verb? So, it's taking it as you end the call? Have you tried setting it to finishOnKey=""?
Related
I have the following code:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- page located at http://example.com/simple_gather.xml -->
<Response>
<Pause length="2"/> <Play>https://welcomehisheart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/congress-invitation.mp3</Play>
<Pause length="1"/>
<Say>If you would no longer like to receive information about the Sacred Heart, press 2</Say>
<Gather/>
<Pause length="1"/>
</Response>
The TwiML URL is:
https://handler.twilio.com/twiml/EHe23193a659bfcf74b1061864aea9b224
The code works as expected. You can enter a selection during the phone call.
How to access the information gathered?
Thanks
Twilio developer evangelist here.
It looks like you are working with a TwiML Bin there, which is great for a static piece of TwiML like this first message. However, there are a couple of issues.
Firstly, you are not giving the user the proper time to enter their input. The <Gather> element is best used with the message nested within it, so that a user can press at any time. You can also set a timeout to better control how long they have to respond once the nested <Say> is complete. The default value of timeout is 5 seconds.
Secondly, if you are just waiting for the user to press a single digit, you can add the numDigits="1" attribute to the <Gather>. This will complete the <Gather> once the user presses a single digit.
Finally, and the subject of your question, you need to give the <Gather> a URL as the action attribute. Then, when a user presses a key, Twilio will make an HTTP request to that URL with the results of their input. You need to build an application that will handle that request and do something with the result of the key press.
So, you should update your TwiML to:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- page located at http://example.com/simple_gather.xml -->
<Response>
<Pause length="2"/>
<Play>https://welcomehisheart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/congress-invitation.mp3</Play>
<Pause length="1"/>
<Gather numDigits="1" action="https://example.com/gather">
<Say>If you would no longer like to receive information about the Sacred Heart, press 2</Say>
</Gather>
</Response>
and you need to create an application that can receive an HTTP request, in this case at the URL example.com/gather, though you should provide your own URL here.
There are tutorials on how to gather user input in a phone call that will walk through this in more depth with code examples, that you should read next.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Say> Connecting call to Pinto </Say>
<Dial record ="record-from-answer" timeout="10" hangupOnStar ="true">
<Number>XXXXXXXX</Number>
</Dial>
<Say> Pinto is not picking up the call, now connecting call to Management </Say>
<Dial record ="record-from-answer" timeout="10" hangupOnStar ="true">
<Number>XXXXXXXX</Number>
</Dial>
<Say> No one is picking up right now. Please text us at +12022171828 </Say>
</Response>
Above is the call forwarding flow for one after another.
What I'm looking here is,
If 1st user attended the call, then it should not initiate the call to 2nd number and also it should not say text message which is at last line
If 1st user disconnected, then redirect call to 2nd number - if 2nd number not picking up the call then it should say text message which is at last line
if 1st user disconnected, then redirect call to 2nd number - if 2nd number picked up the call then it should not say text message which is at last line
Also I want to Implement Transcribe & Transcribe call back by using TwiML.
So, please help me like how we need to do with that?
To carry out this flow, you cannot perform the entire thing in one TwiML response. Instead, you will need to provide the <Dial> element with URL in the action attribute so that once the first call completes, Twilio makes a webhook to find out what to do next.
So, your first TwiML response should look like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Say> Connecting call to Pinto </Say>
<Dial record="record-from-answer" timeout="10" hangupOnStar="true" action="/complete">
<Number>XXXXXXXX</Number>
</Dial>
</Response>
Above I've added action="/complete" to the <Dial> and this means we need an application to be able to respond to HTTP requests to /complete as well. We also need this to be an application and not a static response as we need to work out whether the call was answered or not and decide on what to do next and what TwiML to respond with.
We can do this because one of the parameters that Twilio sends to the action URL is DialCallStatus. This parameter can be "completed", "busy", "no-answer", "failed" or "canceled" and this tells you what happened in that first call.
So, in your case, you will want to check the DialCallStatus and if it is "completed" then you do not need to return the next <Say> and <Dial>. If, however, the DialCallStatus is one of the other statuses, you do want to return the next <Say> and <Dial>. That <Dial> should include another action URL that makes the same choice at the end of the second <Dial>.
I'm not sure what language you are building with, but a pseudo-code idea of this would look like this:
post '/complete' do
if params["DialCallStatus"] != "completed"
return "<Response><Hangup/></Response>"
else
return "<Response><Say>Pinto is not picking up the call, now connecting call to Management</Say><Dial ....></Response>"
end
end
I'm trying to automate call forwarding using Twilio. when the user calls the Twilio number it will play some welcome message then it should call an external API, The API will return a phone number the Twilio should call the number. I'm trying to do with this TwiML. here is my TwiML bin document
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Pause length="1"/>
<Say voice="Polly.Joanna"> Welcome
</Say>
<Dial> HERE THE NUMBER SHOULD COME THAT API WILL RETURN
</Dial>
</Response>
for example https://getmynumber/samplenumber is the URL that will return a number. How can I achieve this with TwiML?
and is it possible to define a variable inside TwiML? because if i can save the number to that variable using the <Redirect> tag I can achieve this easily.
is it possible?
That'll be difficult with only TwiML Bin but you could try something like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Pause length="1"/>
<Say voice="Polly.Joanna">Welcome</Say>
<Dial>{{Number}}</Dial>
</Response>
And then call it via: https://<your TwiML Bin URL>/...?Number=+123456789
This passes custom values into a TwiML Bin, here Number.
If you really need to call an API to get the number to dial you'll need some kind of endpoint to form the TwiML, e.g. a Twilio Function, or any other endpoint.
A version in Python could look like this:
from twilio.twiml.voice_response import VoiceResponse
response = VoiceResponse()
response.pause(length=1)
response.say('Welcome')
number = '+123456789' # Here you would do an API call
response.dial(number)
print(response)
The above basically creates the TwiML you have in your TwiML Bin but with Python. You would need to wrap this in an endpoint to be able to be called and returned. And of course you would need to add your logic to retrieve the number via the API.
I know that on making a call Twilio can detect an answering machine, and react differently.
However if I use the <dial> verb, there's no obvious place to add this feature, even though it's essentially the same thing.
My intended flow is:
Customer enters their phone number
Twilio calls Customer and plays a voice message
Twilio dials an agent number, likely a mobile
If the Agent picks up, connect the customer to the agent
If the Agent busies the call or does not answer, call will likely go to Agent's voicemail.
Terminate call to Agent
Record voicemail from Customer
Email voicemail to Agent
From the official docs on the <Dial> verb (emphasis mine):
This is the simplest case for Dial. Twilio will dial 415-123-4567. If someone answers, Twilio will connect the caller to the called party. If the caller hangs up, the Twilio session ends. If the line is busy, if there is no answer, or if the called party hangs up, <Dial> exits and the <Say> verb is executed for the caller before the call flow ends.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- page located at http://example.com/simple_dial.xml -->
<Response>
<Dial>415-123-4567</Dial>
<Say>Goodbye</Say>
</Response>
Placing a <Record> verb after the <Say> verb sounds like what you are looking for. You can change the timeout from the default value of 30s like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Dial timeout="9001">415-123-4567</Dial>
<Say>Please leave a message</Say>
<Record action="/process_new_voicemail" />
</Response>
I am sure this is late, but hopefully it helps some one out. It sounds like you may just need to screen the call.
Basically, you can ask the "agent" that you dialed to accept the call and hang up if you do not receive input.
I am not sure what language you are using, but here is a great php/Laravel tutorial to explain:
https://www.twilio.com/docs/tutorials/walkthrough/ivr-screening/php/laravel
The key part is here:
$dialCommand = $response->dial(
['action' => route('agent-voicemail', ['agent' => $agent->id], false),
'method' => 'POST']
);
$dialCommand->number(
$numberToDial,
['url' => route('screen-call', [], false)]
);
Notice that the dial command uses the 'action' to specify a location that is sent a POST request should the call end i.e POST to /agent-voicemail.
Then, the number is dialed along with a 'url' parameter this is the location that will be requested after the agent has picked up but before connecting the two parties.
The /screen-call route then asks the agent to accept the call, if no input is received it hangs up and will make a POST request to the initial setup /agent-voicemail route.
This method will handle your scenario because if it goes to voicemail no input will be received and the call will end.
I'm setting up a pretty simple conference call system, where the user enters a PIN and is connected to a conference associated with that. I'm also setting it up so they record their name before entering the room.
My plan is to take the recording URL, then get the list of participants and make the REST API call to each caller modifying their call to to the Say "Now entering", then Play the recording url. I think I'm going to have to send them back into the room after that as well, I'm not sure.
I think that modifying each call will take them out of the Conference room, which is not ideal. Is there an easier way to use Say/Play to all members of a conference built into the REST API?
As of July 13th 2018, Twilio now allows you to send a POST request to the Conference (to announce something to the whole conference) or Conference Participant (to announce something to a single caller) resources with an AnnounceUrl property that links to either:
a WAV or MP3 audio file, or
a TwiML document that uses the <Say /> and/or <Play /> verbs.
Along with that property, you can also specify an AnnounceMethod property that lets you specify whether to GET or POST (the default) that URL.
A good place to send the aforementioned POST to play back your recorded name might be in a status callback that's set when you use the <Conference /> verb to put each user into the conference, like so:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Dial>
<Conference statusCallback="/conference/join-callback"
statusCallbackEvent="join">
{conference ID}
</Conference>
</Dial>
</Response>
The old workaround remains below for posterity.
Someone on the Twilio forums was interested in the very same question, and the answer is currently that there isn't a direct REST API call for that.
What you'll need to do is, when a participant joins the conference, you'll use the REST API to make Twilio dial back in to your application. You can choose how to detect that you're calling into your own conference however you like (for example, comparing the outbound and inbound phone numbers for equality); once you've detected that, you can join that call directly to the conference and use the TwiML <Say /> and <Play /> verbs to play back the introduction for everybody.
It's a little bit convoluted, but this way you won't be removing each participant from the conference (preventing them from hearing each other for a moment) and then rejoining them.
Here's something that should resemble a good end-to-end solution.
First, the user dials in and you go through the standard prompts to get the PIN for the conference room and their name.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Gather action="/conference/pin" finishOnKey="#">
<Say>Please the conference pin number followed by the pound key.</Say>
</Gather>
</Response>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Say>Say your name and then press the pound key.</Say>
<Record action="/conference/name" finishOnKey="#" />
</Response>
Now, once you have the user's pin and recording, two things will happen; the response from the post to /conference/name will contain the <Conference> verb, placing the user in the room:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Dial>
<Conference>{conference ID}</Conference>
</Dial>
</Response>
...and, asynchronous to that, it will use the REST API to initiate a new call back into the conference room.
POST /2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Calls
From = {your conference phone number}
To = {your conference phone number}
SendDigits = wwww{conference PIN}#
Url = /conference/announce?name={name ID}
Now, the next bit gets confusing. Twilio will now be talking to your callback URL for the incoming end of the call, and the URL you specified above for the outgoing end of the call. Your incoming call handler will need to detect that the conference line is calling back into itself and behave differently; it will first need to respond with simple TwiML that allows the outgoing end of the call to enter the pin for the conference room.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Gather action="/conference/announce-pin" finishOnKey="#" />
</Response>
The SendDigits parameter of the POST will provide the digits that bit of TwiML is expecting. That action should then respond by conferencing in the new call.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Dial>
<Conference>{conference ID}</Conference>
</Dial>
</Response>
The last piece of the puzzle is the TwiML emitted by the URL you specified in the POST. That's the markup that will run once the loopback call is added to the conference.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Play>/conference/name-recordings/{name ID}</Play>
<Say>has joined the call.</Say>
<Hangup />
</Response>
That markup runs, plays the caller's name and a message into the conference room, and then hangs up.