Attempt to Make an Outbound Call

[Mike Lynch]

I am a first-day Plum user, and my inaugural effort was to make an outbound call.

I posted a request to the queuecall.php URL, specifying as the start_url parameter a ColdFusion script residing on my application server. Within the CF script I have code that writes diagnostic information to a text file to provide evidence that I actually reach and execute the script.

The queuecall.php phone_number parameter contains a working number with both the area code and a leading "1". According to the flow diagram in the Plum Outbound HTTP API Reference, the call should be placed and connected before the start_url script executes. I know that the start_url script is executing, since it is writing diagnostic information, but I am not receiving an outbound call at the specified phone number.

I also posted the optional parameter, result_url, to queuecall.php. The ColdFusion script indicated by the result_url also writes out diagnostic information. I know that the result_url script is executing, since it, too, is writing diagnostic information. When I examine the HTTP request data during execution of the script, I see that the request type is GET, although the documentation indicates that my result_url script should receive a POST request. By the way, the start_url script also receives a GET request.

I have directly invoked the start_url and result_url CF scripts from the browser on my local machine and the results appear as expected:

actual source from start_url script:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vxml version = "2.1" >

<form>
<block>
<prompt>
Hello World. This is my first attempt to place an outbound call.
</prompt>
</block>
</form>
</vxml>


actual source from result_url script:

success


Thanks.

[Mike Lynch]

OK, let me wipe the egg off my face before I begin ...

It seems that you have to activate your outbound campaign by going to the Outbound Tools screen and clicking on the Run button in the Status box in the Outbound Campaigns table.

The good news is that, once I did that, everything seemed to work as advertised, including POSTing (no longer GETting) HTTP requests to both my start_url and result_url scripts.

The bad news is that I had to receive 51 "pending" calls on my home phone, calls that were just waiting for me to activate the outbound campaign.

And the really good news is that some other idiot may come along and learn from this.