Slides for VoIP Drupal BoF at https://prague2013.drupal.org/bof/voip-drupal

1. VoIP Drupal
building sites that answer calls,
send SMS, and more
Tamer Zoubi
tamerzg@gmail.com

2. History
• The first beta version of VoIP Drupal was
launched in March 2011.
• 20+ contrib modules until now
• We are currently promoting the platform and
building more systems on top of it.
• Supported by TerraVoz, a spin-off from the
MIT Media Lab

3. VoIP Drupal is…
A software platform that enables Drupal sites to
•Make and answer phone calls
•Play and record audio messages
•Send and receive SMS
•Organize conference calls
•Implement voice menus and call routing
•Run polls, surveys, and many more things

4. • The goal of VoIP Drupal is to provide a
common API and scripting system that
interoperate with popular Internet-telephony
servers (Asterisk, FreeSwitch, Tropo, Twilio,
etc)
• Dramatically reduces the learning and
development costs associated with the
construction of unified communication
systems that combine voice and text
technologies together.

5. VoIP Drupal
modules

6. How things work

7. VoIP script commands
addSay() , to play audio from URL or read text-to-speech text
addRecord(), to record audio input from user
addGetInput(), to read input from the telephone keypad
addRunIvrMenu(), to execute interactive voice response menu
addBeep(), to play beep sound
addJoinConference(), to connect the current call to the specified
conference room
addGoto(), addGotoIf(), addGoSub(), to control flow of script
Further modules can easily extend script commands like Tropo’s
addGetVoiceInput() to read input using speech recognition.

8. $script = new VoipScript('hello_world');
$script->addSay('hello world');
$script->addHangup();
Hello world

9. $script = new VoipScript('voipscript_small_office_ivr');
$script->addSay(t('Welcome to our office hotline.’));
$script->addLabel(‘office_menu’);
$options_menu = t(‘For sales, dial 1. For customer support, dial 2. For hours of operation, dial 3. To hang up, dial
the star key.’);
$input_options = array(
‘1’ => ‘sales’,
‘2’ => ‘customer support’,
‘3’ => ‘hours’,
‘*’ => ‘hang up’,
‘I’ => ‘hang up’,
‘t’ => ‘hang up’
);
$invalid_msg = t(‘Invalid option selected.’);
$script->addRunIvrMenu($options_menu, $input_options, $invalid_msg);
$script->addGoto(‘%ivr_option_selected’);
$script->addLabel(‘sales’);
$script->addSay(‘Sales department’);
$script->addGoto(‘hang up’);
$script->addLabel(‘customer support’);
$script->addSay(t(‘Customer support department’));
$script->addGoto(‘hang up’);
$script->addLabel(‘hours’);
$script->addSay(t(‘Our office is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.’));
$script->addGoto(‘office_menu’);
$script->addLabel(‘hang up’);
$script->addSay(t(‘Thanks so much for calling our office. Bye bye.'));
$script->addHangup();
Office hotline

10. Visual VoIP Drupal

11. Key benefits of the platform
• Facilitates the construction of unified communications systems
integrating SMS, email, web, and voice
• Makes Drupal accessible from any phone – no data plan
required!
• Enables the expansion of “community plumbing” beyond the
web
• Is open source and free – you are in control

12. Benefits for administrators
• Easy installation and configuration – no programming required
• Fully customizable – enable only the features you need
• Run as part of the Drupal system itself
– Enable access to VoIP Drupal features using roles and permissions
– Assign Rules, Actions and Triggers
• Enhance user interaction with ready-to-use audio blogs, click-to-call fields,
phone recorders, audio announcements, etc.
• Visual programming language for non-coders.
(http://drupal.org/project/vvd)

13. Benefits for developers
• Well defined API that can be extended to other VoIP services
• 20+ sample scripts that can be customized
• 20+ modules that already implement common functionality –
no need to reinvent the wheel
• Simple, yet powerful PHP-like scripting language with a short
learning curve
• Easily switch to another VoIP provider without porting your
applications.

14. Demo
• How to configure VoIP Drupal with one of
VoIP providers (Twilio)
• How to write your first VoIP Script
• How to receive your first VoIP Drupal call

15. Ideas
• Go Out to Vote campaigns
• 2-1-1 and 3-1-1 community hotlines
• Call centers
• Phone- and SMS-based surveys
• Group communication
• Story recording / playback
• Audio speed dating services
• Language training
• Audio tours
• Adventure games
• Interactive community radio programs
• Emergency announcements
• And much more!

16. How to contribute
• Migrate VoIP Drupal to 8.x
• Many of contrib modules are still 6.x
https://drupal.org/node/1078790
• Come up with new out of box solutions
• Explore and spread the word

18. • Source code:
http://drupal.org/project/voipdrupal
• General documentation:
http://drupal.org/node/1078710
• API information:
http://drupal.org/node/1155572
• Sandbox: http://voipdrupal.org
• Discussion group:
http://groups.drupal.org/voip-drupal
Useful links

19. Thank you for listening!