Sending a recorded voice message in an outbound call
Wow you/ve done a good job with your code so far, nice to see you getting stuck into the PHP API.
The first thing to be aware of is that the createCall() method does not block. In other words, it's really a request to create a call, and you get back a call id, and your php code doesn't hang waiting.
In order to play media to a call there must be at least one answered leg. There are two ways to determine whether a call has been answered.
1. Poll the call using getCall(callId). You need to keep your PHP code running for this, so may be tricky in a web application.
2. Register your application to receive http notifications, and wait for a CallLegAnsweredNotification for that call, and tie the notification POSTed by Ribbit to your session - this does require some marshalling of state, and the PHP session is possibly not the best way to handle this.
So far we haven't really provided any samples of how to set up your application for http notifications, but the code on a "listener.php" script, called by Ribbit, might look a bit like this:
<?php
require_once ("ribbit/Ribbit.php");
$ribbit = Ribbit::getInstance();
$callback = $ribbit->getCallbackNotification();
if ($callback instanceof RibbitCallLegAnsweredNotification){
//do something
}
elseif ($callback instanceof RibbitPlayAnnouncementCompleteNotification){
//media has finished playing
}
//etc
?>
Please let us know if this helps, and watch this site for more examples of how to handle this type of scenario.
Cheers
Tim
I sent you example code, not a finished app!
Have you uploaded the file? You can either record a file over the phone, using the recordCall method, or There is an upload method, and when you have uploaded the path to your file will be https://rest.ribbit.com/rest/1.0/media/comercial@ionatec.com.br/folder/filename.wav
You won't get callback notifications to the same script - REST will make a brand new HTTP request each time there is a change of state of the call, and you must also register your application for notifications (which you can do using the updateApplication method.
$_SESSION is not a safe place to store call_ids when you use callback notifications
Simple rule of thumb. Don't play media to calls in the same script as the one in which you start the call. unless you are prepared to do something like the below and let your script "hang" until the first leg on the call is answered. The createCall method doesn't wait for legs to be answered
while ($ribbit->Calls()->getCall(callId).legs[0].status !="ANSWERED){
sleep(1000);
}
$ribbit->Calls()->playMediaToCall( etc... )
Cheers
Tim
When you set up your callback url, using the updateApplication method, did you make this absolute? eg "http://www.yourdomain.com/yourdirectory/VoiceMessageEH.php"
If you specifiy this as relative then REST has no idea where it is.
As far as REST is concerned, when it's sending notifications, localhost is REST itself.
You can only send notifications to a URL that is addressable on the internet. Not to 127.0.0.1, not to a private network.
Tim
As I can test the application only using the localhost, I decided to use some "sleep(sec)" to play the file.
I believe the file is uploaded, because when I instantiate a RibbitCallPlayMedia object and read its content, the path where I put the file is retrieved. I just do not really know what is there. If is an "empty" file or if the file is actually there. How can I be sure the file is there?
$media = new RibbitCallPlayMedia (RibbitCall::MEDIA_TYPE_FILE, $filePath,0,-1);
When I instantiate a RibbitCallPlayRequest object and use the playMediaToCall method to play it, nothing happens.
$play = new RibbitCallPlayRequest(array($media) ,null, "1", true);
$ribbit->Calls()->playMediaToCall($call_id, RibbitCall::ANNOUNCE_EN_US_CLASSIC,$play);
However, if instead of playing a file I play a text, like
$media = new RibbitCallPlayMedia(RibbitCall:: MEDIA_TYPE_SPELL,"Hello world",0,-1);
the text is said correctly in the call.
Thank you again.
Best regards,
Guillermo
Using sleep is ok for testing.
To improve this, instead of just doing sleep you could do:
while ($ribbit->Calls().getCall($call_id).legs[0].status !="ANSWERED"){
sleep(1000);
}
This will then wait until the call is answered before attempting to play. Just a bit safer.
Try downloading the file again, and playing back what you get. I only ask as there are issues with uploading mp3s on our platform which we are hoping to resolve soon. You get best results with audio that you have recorded through $ribbit->Calls()->recordCall() or by uploading a suitable 8bit CCIT ulaw wav file - the format that the telephone network likes. Hopefully our transcribing problem will get fixed soon, it's a bit of a pain.
Finally I managed to play an audio in an outbound call. Thank you!
Unfortunately the
while ($ribbit->Calls()->getCall($call_id)->legs[0].status !="ANSWERED"){
sleep(1000);
}
does not work. If I try to read the value of the status "variable", it is never "ANSWERED". Actually, I got "status"
.The audio I could play was one I recorded in ribbits databse through a call. With files uploaded to ribbit server it was not possible. Even if I convert them to 8 Bit and 8KHz.
I think the problem is with the file upload. I do not know what to put in the base_65 parameter of the uploadFile method:
$rmf = $ribbit->Media(); $filePath = $rmf->uploadFile($base64_data,"files",$file,$domain);
What can be an acceptable value for the base64_data parameter?
Thanks again
Guillermo
base64 data is a string that is a base64 encoded file - ie base64_encode(file_get_contents($filename));
The next version of the PHP SDK makes this easier by allowing you to just specify a filename instead. Of course that must be readable by your web app.
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