Setting up an automatic 24-hour information
hotline is easy if the information is relative stable, for such your
office hours. You can do that even with an answering machine. But if
the information you provide is constantly changing, such as daily
mortgage rates or latest NBA game scores, you need a flexible way to
do that. The sample here shows an IVR system for 24 hour hotline
where the information is fetched from a web page.
The call flow consists of one Choice
Element and one Call
Transfer Elements. The choice element (Information)
provides the information. The Call transfer element have the
call transferred. The transferred phone number can be any
phone number, such as a cell phone or office receptionist's
phone. It can be "transferred" using the same phone line with
an alert window pop up on a computer.
When a caller calls the 24-hour
information hotline, the system first fetches the information
from a web page, then it automatically converts the text to
voice using text-to-speech engine. The voice is played over
the phone to the caller. At the end of the message, the caller
can press 1 to have the call transferred.
You can open this design by selecting File > Samples >
24-hour-hotline from the program main menu.
You can extend Voicent IVR platform by
integrating it with web sites or any other software products.
There are two basic methods (actions): HTTP or Java. HTTP is
the protocol for the Internet. It is best used for web site
integration. Java is a general programming language. It can be
used to extend Voicent IVR platform with virtually no limit.
In this sample, we use the HTTP method.
To create an new action, open the property page (Right
mouse click on an element, then choose Properties...
from the popup menu.) for the Information element, select the
Action tab, then click the New button. (For existing action,
choose the Edit button).
Select "Submit HTTP Request", and click OK.
Fill in the following information:
The HTTP action is basically an HTTP POST
request sent to the specified URL. In this example, the URL is
localhost:8155/ivrstudio_test, and one parameter
action (with value equals to 'info24').
The return from the web page must be a list
of name value pairs using the following format. Name should not contain
space.
name1=value 1
name2=value 2
...
For example, one possible return for this
sample might be:
lastUpdated = Sept. 1, 2007 12:00 PM
content = today's mortgage rate is 2% for 30 year fixes
The returned value can be access in the IVR
Studio using the dot notation. For example, if the HTTP action
is named get_info_24, the the content can be accessed
as get_info_24.content. We can use the return value for
the prompt.
Select the Prompt tab from the element
property sheet, click the New button. The dialog window is
shown above. You can select action variable get_info_24,
and set the parameter as content, and choose Use
text-to-speech.
The Information Element in the call
flow has an HTTP action get_info_24 defined. Since all
actions are executed first for an element, the get_info_24
action is executed before any prompt is played to a caller.
For this action, an HTTP POST request is submitted to the URL
defined in the get_info_24 action. The web site then
returns two name value pairs, one named content, and
the other named lastUpdated. (Here the URL:
http://localhost:8155/ivrstudio_test is included in
Voicent Gateway)
The Information Element also defined a
prompt that uses the action variable. For example, the prompt
defined in the above figure uses get_info_24.content. This
makes the system to play the returned content over the phone
using text-to-speech engine.
You can use the sample application as a
starting point for your own auto-attendant. To deploy the
application, select Deploy > Submit to Gateway... from
the program main menu. If the menu item is grayed out, select
Validate... first.
If you have multiple IVR application deployed, please see
IVR select application for more information.
Once deployed, restart the gateway to have the
changes to take effect.
You can use the following URL to set the
content.
http://localhost:8155/ivrstudio_test?action=setinfo24
When an incoming call is answered by the
gateway, the application will execute the Information element,
which first fetches the content from the web page, and then plays the
returned content using text-to-speech engine.
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