Get Started with Voice Surveys Using Ruby

To implement Voice Survey use-case in the traditional API/XML way, you can refer to the instructions in the below section to begin your implementation.

Outline

Implementation

In this section, we will guide you in setting up an app using Plivo’s API/XML to implement Voice Survey use-case. First, let’s make sure you meet these prerequisites before we dive into the code.

Prequisites

1. Create a Plivo Account(if you don’t have one already): You can sign up with your work email address and complete the phone verification step using your mobile number.
2. Set up your dev environment: To set up your dev environment in your preferred programming language, please refer to the instructions available in the Setting up the Dev Environment Guides.
3. Buy a Plivo number(optional): You must have a voice-enabled Plivo phone number if you are willing to receive incoming calls. You can purchase numbers from the Numbers section of your Plivo Console. It is also possible to purchase numbers using the Numbers API.

Prerequisites

This section will guide you through how to use Plivo APIs to make voice calls from your application. First, let’s make sure you meet these prerequisites before we dive into the code.

• Plivo Auth Id and Auth Token: You will find your Plivo Auth Id and Auth Token on the home screen of your Plivo Console. Click here to sign-up for a Plivo account if you haven’t already!

  

• Plivo Phone Number(Optional): You can purchase numbers from the Numbers section of your Plivo Console and use the same as the caller ID for the outbound call. This number will also help you receive incoming calls as you must have a voice-enabled Plivo phone number to do the same. Please note that you can also purchase numbers using the Numbers API.

  

• Answer Url: When a call is answered by the destination_number, you can control the call flow with the help of the answer_url set in the API request. Plivo will invoke the answer_url specified as soon as the call is answered and expect a valid XML response with instructions to handle the call. In addition to requests to the answer URL, Plivo initiates HTTP requests to your application server through the course of a call based on the specific XML elements in your answer XML. Such requests can be broadly classified into two categories:

  Action URL requests: XML instructions to carry forward the call are expected in response to these requests. These requests are typically invoked at the end of an XML element’s execution. For example: when an IVR input is received from the caller during a GetInput XML execution.

  Callback URL requests: No XML instructions are expected in response to these requests. Such requests serve as webhooks to notify your application server of important events through the course of an XML element’s execution. For example: when a conference participant is muted or unmuted.

Set up Your Ruby Dev Environment

You must set up and install Ruby and Plivo’s Ruby SDK implement Voice Survey use-case. Here’s how.

Install Ruby

Install Plivo Ruby Package

• Create a project directory, run the following command:

  $ mkdir myrubyapp
  

• Change the directory to our project directory in the command line:

  $ cd myrubyapp
  

• Add this line to your application’s Gemfile:

  gem 'plivo', '>= 4.3.0'
  

• And then execute:

  $ bundle
  

• Or install it yourself as:

  $ gem install plivo
  

Create the Outbound Call App

Once you have the above prerequisites set, You can follow the below instructions to create an app to make an outbound call and redirect the call to an Automated Voice Survey IVR using a GetInput XML once the call recipients answer the call.

Now, create a file called broadcast.rb and paste the below code.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
require 'rubygems'
require 'plivo'

include Plivo
include Plivo::Exceptions

api = RestClient.new("<auth_id>","<auth_token>")

begin
  response = api.calls.create(
    '+14151234567',
    ['+14157654321', '+14157654322'],
    'https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.plivo.com/broadcast.xml'
  )
  puts response
rescue PlivoRESTError => e
  puts 'Exception: ' + e.message
end

Create a Rails Controller to Implement Phone System IVR

Change the directory to our newly created project directory, i.e, plivotest directory and run the below command to create a rails controller for inbound call.

$ rails generate controller Plivo voice

This will generate a controller named plivo_controller in the app/controllers/ directory and a respective view will be generated in app/views/plivo directory. We can delete the View as we will not need it.

$ rm app/views/plivo/voice.html.erb

Now, open the app/controllers/plivo_controller.rb file and add include the following code in the PlivoController class:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
include Plivo
include Plivo::XML
include Plivo::Exceptions

class PlivoController < ApplicationController
  # This is the message that Plivo reads when the call recipient answers the call.
  $question1 = "Hi, this is a call from Plivo, How would you rate your overall satisfaction with our services? Press 1 if you are satisfied or Press 2 if you would like to suggest any improvements."
  $question2 = "How would you rate your satisfaction with our customer service. Press 1 for English. Press 1 if you are satisfied or Press 2 if you would like to suggest any improvements. Thanks!"
  # This is the message that Plivo reads when the recipient provides negative feedback
  $negative_feedback = "We are sorry about your bad experience, One of our representatives will get in touch with you shortly."
  # This is the message that Plivo reads when the caller does nothing at all
  $noinput_message = "Sorry, I didn't catch that. Please hangup and try again \
                      later."
  # This is the message that Plivo reads when the caller inputs a wrong number.
  $wronginput_message = "Sorry, it's wrong input."
  def survey
    r = Response.new()

    getinput_action_url = "https://example.com/ivr/firstbranch/"
    params = {
        action: getinput_action_url, 
        method: 'POST', 
        digitEndTimeout: '5',
        inputType:'dtmf',
        redirect:'true'
    }
    getinput = r.addGetInput(params)
    getinput.addSpeak($question1)
    r.addSpeak($noinput_message)

    xml = PlivoXML.new(r)
    render xml: xml.to_xml
  end
  def firstbranch
    digit = params[:Digits]
    r = Response.new()
    
    if (digit == "1")
        getinput_action_url = "https://example.com/ivr/secondbranch/"
        params = {
            action: getinput_action_url, 
            method: 'POST', 
            digitEndTimeout: '5',
            inputType:'dtmf',
            redirect:'true'
        }
        getinput = r.addGetInput(params)
        getinput.addSpeak($question2)
        r.addSpeak($noinput_message)

    elsif (digit == "2")
        r.addSpeak($negative_feedback)
    else
        r.addSpeak($wronginput_message)
    end

    xml = PlivoXML.new(r)
    render xml: xml.to_xml
  end
  def secondbranch
    digit = params[:Digits]

    r = Response.new()

    if (digit == "1")
        body = "Thank you for participating in the survey!"
        params = {
            'language'=> "en-GB"
        }

        r.addSpeak(body,params)
    elsif (digit == "2")
        r.addSpeak($negative_feedback)
    else
        r.addSpeak($wronginput_message)
    end

    xml = PlivoXML.new(r)
    render xml: xml.to_xml
  end
end

Add a Route

Now, you need to add a route for the inbound function in PlivoController class, open the config/routes.rb file and add the below line after the inbound route:

get 'plivo/survey'
get 'plivo/firstbranch'
get 'plivo/secondbranch'

Now the plivo_controller is ready for your first inbound call, you can use the below command to handle your first inbound call using Rails and Plivo Ruby SDK.

$ rails server

Your local development server will be started and you can test the rails app for outbound calls via the URL http://127.0.0.1:3000/plivo/survey/.

Exposing your local server to the internet

To receive Incoming Calls and to handle callbacks, your local server should be able to connect with Plivo API service, Ngrok is a tunneling software used to expose a web server running on your local machine to the internet. Using Ngrok you can set webhooks which can talk to Plivo server.

You can download and install ngrok from here. Follow the detailed configuration instructions to get started.

# Whitelist Ngrok domain
config.hosts << /[a-z0-9]+\.ngrok\.io/

Run ngrok on the port which currently hosts your application. For example, if your port number is 3000, run the following command:

./ngrok http 3000

This will give you a UI with links that look like ngrok.io/* which you can use to access your local server using the public network.

You can check the app in action on https://6ea358b0f703.ngrok.io/plivo/survey/.

Test and Validate

Once you have created the Outbound Call App, you can save the file and use the below command to run your code.

$ ruby broadcast.rb