Voxeo Developers Corner

Recently I had someone ask me about how simple the process was to create a new application on Voxeo’s voice application platform and assign it a phone number in our hosted Evolution developer environment. It’s really only a few steps and I probably will do an Emerging Tech Talk screencast at some point, but I thought I’d also just outline the steps in a blog post. Here is the quick summary of what you are going to do:

1. Create a CallXML, VoiceXML or CCXML file and put that file either on your own web server or in our free web hosting space.

2. In the Evolution Application Manager, create a “new application”.
3. Name the app, map it to the XML file you created in step #1 and give it an inbound phone number if you want to do so.
4. Click the “Create Application” button.

That’s really all there is to it. You can then start calling into the app right away.

Now let’s make it truly “step-by-step” and go through the steps in excruciating detail complete with screenshots:

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1. LOGIN TO EVOLUTION – Yeah, I know it’s a “Duh!” thing, but you do have to login to evolution.voxeo.com. If you don’t have an account, you can create one for free. (This entire process here, including obtaining inbound phone numbers is entirely free. No charges anywhere.)

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2. CREATE THE APPLICATION FILE – Now, you can skip this step if you are going to use our graphical Designer tool, but if you are creating a voice application in CallXML, VoiceXML or CCXML you have to… well… create the application file first. Yes, I realize this is another “Duh!” moment, but hey, if I was going to skip steps I wouldn’t call this a “step-by-step” tutorial, would I?

2a. IF YOU ARE HOSTING YOUR APPLICATION FILE ON YOUR OWN WEB SERVER, simply create the XML file and put it somewhere on your web server that is publicly accessible. You can skip ahead to Step 3.

2b. IF YOU ARE USING OUR (FREE) WEB HOSTING, you need to follow this quick process.

• First, scroll down the first page inside Evolution until you see “Files, Logs and Reports” and click on that link:
  
• Click on “www” to go into that directory. (All XML files that you want to map to applications need to be stored in “www”.)
• You will now see the list of files in your www directory (obviously I have some in here for various apps) and at the bottom you’ll see fields to either “Upload File” or create a “New File”:
  
• If you have created the XML file on your local computer, you can simply locate the file and click the “Upload” button. If you want to create a brand new file, you can enter the name of the file and click the “Create” button. I’m going to create a file called “mysimplesample.xml“.
• Once you’ve done that, you’ll see the directory again and if you have uploaded an XML file you wrote, you’re all set and can go on to Step 3. If you are creating a new file, you need to click the pencil icon next to your new file and go into the editor:
  
• You’ll now see a blank editor window:
  
• You can now just type in your text. I’m going to have the editor help me by choosing the “CallXML 3.0 Template” and clicking the Insert button. I’m then going to type in simple “<say>Hello, World!</say>“. The end result will look like this:
  
• Click on the “Save Changes” button and wait to see “Successfully saved file” on the top of the page.
• Click on the “Account” link in the upper left corner to return to your main “Account Overview” page:
  

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3. GO INTO THE APPLICATION MANAGER – Now to get to the mapping of an application to a phone number, click on the Application Manager link:

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4. ADD AN APPLICATION – You will now see a list of all the applications you currently have in your account (which may be none if its a new account). Click the Add Application button at the bottom of the list:

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5. CHOOSE THE TYPE OF APPLICATION – You next need to choose the type of application you are adding. This could be an application built using our visual Designer tool or it could be an application written in either CallXML, VoiceXML or CCXML (see our Platform Guide to understand the differences):

After choosing the platform type, click the “Next” button. For the purpose of this blog post, I’m just going to create a quick CallXML application.

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6. ENTER AN APPLICATION NAME – The next screen you see will involve a couple of actions. First you need to provide some name for the application. It’s going to show up in your list of applications in the application manager but only you see it, so as long as you remember what the name means, you can use any name you want:

Do NOT click the “Create Application” link yet. We still have work to do.

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7. ASSIGN A URL – This is where you connect the “application” created in Evolution to the actual XML file you have created (or are about to create).

7a. IF YOU ARE HOSTING YOUR OWN XML FILE on your own webserver, simply enter the URL here in the field marked “Start URL 1″. You can now skip down to step 8.

7b. IF YOU ARE USING OUR WEB HOSTING, do the following:

• Click on the “file manager” link next to “Start URL 1″:
  
• In the File Manager window that pops up, just click on the name of the file and click the “Map” button:
  
• Ta da… you should see your URL entered in “Start URL 1:

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8. ADD A PHONE NUMBER – You now have a choice. If you just want to test your voice app calling in via Skype (read more about calling into your apps using Skype), SIP, or using an 800-number and a PIN, you’re done. Just click “Create Application” and your application will be created. If you would like to assign a direct phone number to your application, click on the “Application Phone Number” pop-up menu and choose from one of the available regions:

Then just simply click “Create Application” and you’re done.

Now before you ask… no, you can’t choose a specific number. Only US numbers are available. The available regions will change over time as we exhaust some pools of numbers and add others. And it’s for a region, not necessarily the precise area code visible in the popup (For example, right now it’s showing “Boston, MA (617)” but the numbers being allocated are 857.) Please remember that these are free inbound phone numbers we’re making available for you to use in developing your application. If you move your application into our production environment then as part of establishing a commercial relationship with you we’ll work with you on setting phone numbers.

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9. CALL YOUR APPLICATION! You’re done with the creation of a new app and mapping a phone number in our system. Just give it a call! For a complete list of available phone numbers, click on the “Phone Numbers” tab to see the many different ways you can call into your voice application:

That’s it! You’re now creating voice applications.

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And yes, if you’re really bored you can indeed call this “Hello, world” app at +1-857-366-6244 or one of the other numbers.

But why call my highly-exciting sample app? Why not sign up for a free developer account on Evolution and create your own sample apps? (And then quickly move on from there into creating much more powerful voice applications?)

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