CDYNE Phone Notify! API is an automated API phone notification system that allows IT departments to build voice applications to deliver relevant communications to customers and clients.  It has the ability to send or receive up to 5,000 tier-1 quality phone calls per minute using text to speech (TTS) in multiple languages, recorded files, or both. With over 50 programming methods, you can build powerful applications that will handle complex phone scripts, send immediate or scheduled phone calls, respond to call actions in real time, and manage call lists. Phone Notify! allows programmers to send automated phone alerts, conduct phone surveys, perform conference calls, and integrate custom business applications into their existing system.

AN OVERVIEW

There are over 50 Phone Notify! programming operations available to build and integrate voice applications into your system. They can be categorized into the list shown below. Additionally, a detailed operation list by category may be found here.

• Send and Receive Phone Calls
• Status Report Management
• Script Management
• Sound File Management
• List Management

 

TUTORIALS & SCRIPTING SAMPLES

Tutorials 1 and 2 use C# in Visual Studio 2010. You may find additional source code examples and download code examples from the Phone Notify! developer’s wiki. The script samples show advance scripting features that are available with Phone Notify! API.

• Tutorial 1: Appointment Reminder

Build an appointment reminder using NotifyPhoneBasic and RecordSoundViaPhoneCall methods

• Tutorial 2: Conference Call

Integrate conference calls using NotifyPhoneAdvanced, SetIncomingCallScript, and CancelConference methods

• Script Sample: Advanced Scripting for Appointment Reminder

An advanced scripting example for automated phone reminders

Additional scripting examples for a political poll, school announcement, registration confirmation, survey, and recording sound files may be found on the CDYNE developer’s wiki.

For more information about CDYNE Phone Notify! API, please contact an account representative at 1-800-984-3710, inquire by email, or initiate a chat for more details.

Or sign up for a free trial license key to test CDYNE Phone Notify! API.

Developers find CDYNE Phone Notify! API integration details on the CDYNE developer’s wiki.

With over 50 programming methods, you can build powerful applications with Phone Notify! that will handle complex phone scripts, send immediate or scheduled phone calls, respond to call actions in real time, and manage call lists. One of the features included in Phone Notify! is the ability to create a conference, add a call to a conference, and cancel the conference. This tutorial will show the programming methods used along with sample call scripts.

This tutorial uses C# in Visual Studio 2010. You can find additional source code examples and download code examples from the Phone Notify! developer’s wiki.

Phone Notify! Operations Used

• NotifyPhoneAdvanced
• SetIncomingCallScript
• CancelConference

Step 1: Consuming Phone Notify! Web Service

• Open a new or existing project in Visual Studio 2010
• From the top tool bar, go to Project>Add Service Reference, which will open up the following screen:

• Click on the Advanced button in the lower left-hand corner, which will open up another screen:

• Click on the Add Web Reference button, which will open up a third screen:

• Add the Phone Notify WSDL URL: http://ws.cdyne.com/NotifyWS/PhoneNotify.asmx?wsdl to the URL box, and click on the green arrow. This will pull up the Phone Notify! Web Service Description as shown in the next screen:
• Name the web reference. In this case, we named it WSDL. Then click the Add Reference button.

Step 2: Start Conference

The following example uses the NotifyPhoneAdvanced method to receive an incoming phone call, and the SetIncomingCallScript method to set the call script which will initiate a conference call. A dedicated phone number assigned to your account license key is required to receive phone calls.

The script in the code above uses advanced Notify commands that are available with Phone Notify! API. The following list includes notes on these commands:

~\statuschangepostURL(“User’s specified URL”)~
This posts information about the call to a URL you specify. Using this method is highly suggested if you have a server to postback to on the web. The posturl must be in lower case. In this instance, when an inbound call is placed a conference key is posted to the URL specified here.

~\ActOnDigitPress(false)~ 
Turns off Message Interruption for digit commands (i.e., 1 for repeat). This is useful for a message that, for example, says “enter your zip code” and it won’t jump around in the Dial Plan when the digits are pressed.

~\ClearDTMF()~
Provides a clean slate for Acting on DTMF Commands. This will clear the default of “press 1 to repeat.”

~\Label(MainMenu)~
Sets the label, “MainMenu,” which states in TTS “Thank you for calling CDYNE Corporation. Please choose a selection from one of the following options.”

~\AssignDTMF(1|Join)~
Assigns 1 on the dial pad to go to the label “Join.” In this script, the star (*) is subsequently assigned to the label “MainMenu” and the pound sign (#) is assigned to go to the label “EndCall.”

~\WaitForDTMF(5)~
This function will wait 5 seconds for a DTMF Command ( it accepts only one digit). Make sure that ActOnDigitPress(true) is set (It is true by default).

~\Goto(MainMenu)~
This will go to a label defined by the Label command. In this instance, if the recipient does not press a designated digit within 5 seconds, the Goto command instructs the script to go to the MainMenu.    

~\Label(Join)~
Sets the label, “Join,” which states in TTS “Please wait while you are connected to the conference call.”     

~\Conference()~
Provides a way to conference multiple Notifies together. The first Notify that uses the conference command will return a ConfKey variable (you must use StatusChangePostURL to get it). You can then start other Notifies with the same ConfKey to join the person to the same room using the ~\SetVar(ConfKey|the confkey guid)~ command.  

~\Label(Unavailable)~
 Sets the label, “Unavailable,” which states in TTS “We’re sorry no one is available at this time.”  

~\Label(EndCall)~
Sets the label, “EndCall,” which will end the call.                                                               

Step 3: Add a Caller to Conference

In the example below, an outbound call to an operator or representative is initiated to let them know that the caller in Step 2 is in queue. This is done with the NotifyPhoneAdvanced method. If the operator or representative accepts the call, both calls will be joined in a conference.

~\SetVar(ConfKey|”Conference Key”)~
The conference key is placed here. In most cases the servers handling the process will know to grab the conference key generated and posted to the URL during the phone call in Step 2.

Step 4: Cancel Conference

The CancelConference operation cancels the conference if the inbound call (from Step 2) is not accepted by the operator or representative in Step3. It will play the message, “We’re sorry no one is available at this time.” This is specified in Step 2 to play in the event the conference is cancelled.

For more information about CDYNE Phone Notify! API, please contact an account representative at 1-800-984-3710, inquire by email, or initiate a chat for more details.

Or sign up for a free trial license key to test CDYNE Phone Notify! API.

Developers find CDYNE Phone Notify! API integration details on the CDYNE developer’s wiki.

Phone Notify! Web Service supports 50 operations to build customizable and scalable voice applications. It’s designed to enable any business application to send or receive up to 5,000 tier-1 quality phone calls per minute using text to speech, recorded files, or both. This article will take a look at 2 operations to build a basic voice application that will use text to speech and a recorded sound file to send out an appointment reminder.

This tutorial uses  C# in Visual Studio 2010. You can find additional source code examples and download code examples from the Phone Notify! developer’s wiki.

Phone Notify! Operations Used 

• NotifyPhoneBasic
• RecordSoundViaPhoneCall

 Step 1: Consuming Phone Notify! Web Service 

• Open a new or existing project in Visual Studio 2010
• From the top tool bar, go to Project>Add Service Reference, which will open up the following screen:

• Click on the Advanced button in the lower left-hand corner, which will open up another screen:

• Click on the Add Web Reference button, which will open up a third screen:

• Add the Phone Notify WSDL URL: http://ws.cdyne.com/NotifyWS/PhoneNotify.asmx?wsdl to the URL box, and click on the green arrow. This will pull up the Phone Notify! Web Service Description as shown in the next screen:
• Name the web reference. In this case, we named it WSDL. Then click the Add Reference button.

Step 2: Setting Up a Basic Notify

The example below shows the code used to send a Basic Notify using the NotifyPhoneBasic method.

A few notes about using the NotifyPhoneBasic method:

• This method will call any phone number in the US/Canada and read the TextToSay to that phone number
• PhoneNumberToDial and CallerID must be filled in (they can be in any format as long as there is 10 digits)

When the program below is run with a license key, CDYNE Corporation will call 3215554757 with a text to speech message stating, “John Williams has an appointment with Dr. Smith on Tuesday, May 13 at 3pm.” The strings written in red in the screenshot is made up of the following components:

• Phone number to dial – “3215554757″
• Script -  “John Williams has an appointment with Dr. Smith on Tuesday, May 13 at 3pm.”
• Caller ID - “7575449510″
• Caller ID Name - “CDYNE Corporation.”
• Voice ID - “4″
• License Key – this is required to send or receive phone calls with Phone Notify! Web Service.

This notify uses voice ID 4, named Callie, and represents a US English female voice, age 30.You can invoke all voices available with Phone Notify! with the getVoices method. You may also listen to the voices at http://cepstral.com/demos/. Please note that the Cepstral website may contain voices not currently available with the Phone Notify! Web Service.

WSDL.PhoneNotify pn = new WSDL.PhoneNotify();

            WSDL.NotifyReturn nr = pn.NotifyPhoneBasic(“3215554757″,

            “John Williams has an appointment with Dr. Smith on Tuesday, May 13 at 3pm.”,

           ”17575449510″, “CDYNE Corporation”, “4″, “LicenseKey”);

Step 3: Request a Phone Call to Record a Sound File

One way to make automated phone reminders more personal is to use a recorded voice. Although text to speech can be very useful in some applications, it is a mechanical and impersonal sounding messaging tool for some customer interactions. In this step, we will use the RecordSoundViaPhoneCall method to call a designated phone number and record a sound file. The sound file recording states, “has an appointment with Dr. Smith on,” and leaves out the customer’s name, and the date and time of the appointment. These three values will remain as text to speech when we put the script together in Step 4.

A few notes about the RecordSoundViaPhoneCall method:

• SoundfileIDs can only be lowercase and contain normal file characters
• The CallerIDName will be the SoundFileID
• The CallerID will be an 800 or 866 number

When this program is run with a license key, the phone number designated in the code (3215554757) will receive a phone call with instructions to record sound file “smith1.” Once recorded, the file will play back and the user has the option to accept or rerecord the message. We’ll access this file in the next step.

WSDL.PhoneNotify pn = new WSDL.PhoneNotify();

            WSDL.RecordSoundViaPhoneCall(“3215554757″, “smith1″, “LicenseKey”);

Step 4: Putting Together the Script

In the final step, we’ll use the NotifyPhoneBasic method to combine the text to speech and recorded file, which we named smith1.

When the program below is run with a license key, CDYNE Corporation will call 3215554757 with a recorded message combined with text to speech variables. The variables include, “John Williams” and “Tuesday, May 13 at 3pm.”

WSDL.PhoneNotify pn = new WSDL.PhoneNotify();

            WSDL.NotifyReturn nr = WSDL.NotifyPhoneBasic(“3215554757″,

            “John Williams ~^smith1~ Tuesday, May 13 at 3pm.”,

            “17575449510″, “CDYNE Corporation”, “4″, ” LicenseKey”);

For more information about CDYNE Phone Notify! API, please contact an account representative at 1-800-984-3710, inquire by email, or initiate a chat for more details.

Or sign up for a free trial license key to test CDYNE Phone Notify! API.

Developers find CDYNE Phone Notify! API integration details on the CDYNE developer’s wiki.

CDYNE Corporation offers helpful account reporting features for Phone Notify! API, a two way voice API that sends and receives text to speech phone messages. Reporting features include the date, number of calls, answered status, whether or not voicmail or a fax picked up, as well as transfers. All reports can be exported to an .xls or.csv file. It is simple to access the reports by following these steps.

1. Log into your account online at http://www.cdyne.com/ in the upper-right hand corner.

2. Once logged in, select “Manage Services” on the left-hand gray menu.

3. After selecting Manage Services, you will navigate to a page listing your active and inactive Web Services. Active Web Services will be listed on the top of the page.

4. Select an active service to open up the details.

5. Let’s look at Phone Notify! reporting features. There are two reports available, and they include a usage report and a DID report. Select “Report” to access the usage report.

6. The license key must have transactions or usage in order to run this report. You can customize the date range to suit your search needs. The Phone Notify! Report includes the date and number of calls sent, whether or not the call was answered, if a machine, voicemail, or fax picked up the call, and whether or not the call was transferred. Each report can be refreshed and viewed, as well as exported to an .xls or .csv file.

7. Select “DID” to access a list of phone numbers assigned to your Phone Notify! license key. This report will also show any associated PostBackURLs, and allow you to edit those URLS.

Test CDYNE Phone Notify! API for free.

For more information about CDYNE SMS APIs, please call 1-800-984-3710, inquire or initiate a chat.

CDYNE Announces New Lower SMS API Pricing

Effective immediately, CDYNE is cutting the price of all text messaging transactions to 1 cent. This includes all text messages sent to CDYNE’s worldwide network.

SMS Notify! 2.0 is a 2-way text messaging Web Service that sends and receives text messages through secure SMS gateways. Commonly used messaging features include automated appointment or payment reminders, product delivery status notifications, and subscriber event messaging.

Automated Keyword Management

In addition to cutting the price of SMS transactions, CDYNE has added automated keyword management features into SMS Notify! 2.0. SMS message recipients who type HELP, STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, and QUIT keywords will now receive an automated acknowledgement.

When a CDYNE SMS Notify! 2.0 recipient types “HELP” CDYNE will automatically send back a default string with company name, contact information and STOP instructions to end text messages. This allows the recipient to know who is contacting them, and provides them with information on how they can contact the sender. SMS Notify! 2.0 users have the option to customize the HELP return string.

CDYNE SMS Notify! 2.0 automatically manages the STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, and QUIT keywords. When an SMS recipient sends any of these keywords, CDYNE will send an automated acknowledgement. This will block the recipient’s number from receiving messages from our system in an effort to protect them from unwanted or unsolicited messages.

Free SMS API Test Keys

Sign up today to test CDYNE SMS Notify! 2.0 for free.

For more information about CDYNE SMS APIs, please call 1-800-984-3710, inquire or initiate a chat.

What happens when a user tries to send SMS text messages to an invalid phone number? Fortunately, CDYNE’s SMS Notify! SMS Gateway API will automatically clean up certain errors for U.S. and Canadian phone numbers. For example, if you were to send a message to “7575449510e,” the API would take out the “e” and send the message to 7575449510. In this example, SMS Notify! API would return a parameter of “NoError” and continue to send the message to the cleaned up phone number.

The correct format to send U.S. and Canadian numbers is a string such as 7575551234. The International phone number format is a string that includes 011 + country code + number.

While the SMS Notify! text message API will clean errors such as extra digits and/or letters, it will not clean numbers if it has been entered incorrectly and is still a valid number.  For example if you wanted to send a notification to 7575449510, but instead you had the number as 7575449501 within your script, the message would be sent to 7575449501 as it is a valid number.

So when will SMS Notify! API return a “PhoneNumberInvalid” error?

One example is when a phone number contains a character plus six numbers – such as when the letter “o” takes the place of the number zero. A second example is a series of fives, such as 555-555-5555. The image below shows how SMS Notify! will handle these.

When an error occurs due to an invalid phone number, the notification will not be sent to the intended recipient.  However, the account will still be charged for the transaction. The charge takes place because a request was sent to CDYNE and a response was received from CDYNE servers.

What happens if I send a landline phone number to SMS Notify! API?

CDYNE SMS Notify! API does not do a phone verification check on phone numbers, and it will send all valid numbers out. One work around is to run your phone list through CDYNE Phone Verification API which will return whether a phone number is a landline or cell number. CDYNE Phone Verification API is a cost effective way to distinguish between a landline and cellular or even fake phone numbers. Ask about discounts when used in conjunction with SMS Notify! or Phone Notify! APIs.

Sign up for a free trial key to test the Web Services for free!

You can sign up for a trial license key to test SMS Notify! API and Phone Verification for free. For more information about CDYNE Web Services, please call 1-800-984-3710, inquire or initiate a chat.

CDYNE has upgraded its existing text-to-speech (TTS) voices, as well as added three new voices to the text-to-speech engine. With the addition of TTS voices Miguel, Jean-Pierre, and Matthias, your business can add scalable, multilingual, and customizable voice calls to your application. All voices have an 8kHz sampling rate. This is best suited to telephony applications because it eliminates the overhead that is incurred when using voices of a higher sampling rate.

New voices details:

• Miguel (Americas Spanish), Male, Age 30 –  sample
• Jean-Pierre (Canadian French) , Male, Age 30 - sample
• Matthias (German) , Male, Age 30 – sample

All voices may be found here.

CDYNE’s text-to-speech engine converts raw text to written-out words, and then assigns phonetic transcriptions to those words. Text-to-speech can also be combined with recorded .wav files to create relevant call scripts according to your phone messaging web service needs. Call 704-323-7777 to listen to a sample recorded file and text-to-speech example.

Request a trial key to test Phone Notify! API for free by calling 1-800-984-3710, inquire or initiate a chat.