Calling Card Interactive Voice Recording (IVR) Application

Configuration options

Basic options

Trusted CLI related options

Password change

Billing related options

Authentication

Custom scripts

Hot Dial & Smart Dial

Top-Up

Black List

Please note that attempts to enter numbers less than 4 digits long are not treated as fraud activity. Only numbers more than 3 digits long trigger black list.

Miscellaneous

Destination Check Script

This is a Python script in the following format. The script is to be put into some file (/home/ssp/check_dest.py for example) and path to this script is to be added to the configuration. This file has to contain the function checkDestination() with six mandatory parameters - CLI, translated CLI, CLD, translated CLD, username of account making the call and original CLI of the IVR session. The function must return boolean value where True means that the destination is allowed and False - destination is prohibited. This script is loaded dynamically so there is no need to restart ivrd after the script has been changed. Should any problem occur during script load, the script is disabled and corresponding error message is written to the log. If any problem occur during script execution, the Calling Card application treats this as a prohibition to make call.

Duration Script

The script is run with the following parameters: account's username, account's balance, CLI, CLD, calculated maximum duration (in seconds), i_tariff, translated CLI and translated CLD. The script must print to the stdout a duration that is to be announced to the user. Please note that the duration returned from the script does not affect the maximum session time, it only changes the duration announcement message.

Database usage

The application uses the accounts table for authentication purposes, to retrieve the value of the user's balance, to make balance transfers and to change password.

The calling_card_cli_map table is used to store CLI-to-CallingCard mappings. These mappings are used to automatically select the calling card account based on the CLI of the user.

Use of multiple instances of Calling Card Application

The application can be configured not only via central configuration but also by CLD rewriting. This allows to use several differently configured instances of application within the same server. The CLD options always override the corresponding global configuration options.

The following parameters are accepted.

All other two-character parameters are treated as language list specification.

Example of CLD rewriting rule:

   s/.*/callingcard_en_th_ru_cliregext003_trustcli_noplaybalance/

The balance of account won't be played in the following cases:

- there is a minutes plan configured in the service plan of the account - service plan status is suspended - account's balance is equal to zero

Late Greeting example

Late Greeting feature allows to make announcement after calling card has been identified and before the balance played. To play the audio the IVR Prompts facility is used. The facility allows to specify a language specific versions of the prompt. Here is how one can prepare a prompt to work as a Late Greeting:

• Create a prompt with the default audio recording:

  $ /home/ssp/scripts/ivr_prompt_utils -c default_audio.sln late_greeting 'Long description'
  New prompt created with i_ivr_prompt = 29

• As you see the prompt created and was assigned an identifier of 29. Add all needed localized recodings to this prompt (Thai and Chinese are showed in the following example):

  $ /home/ssp/scripts/ivr_prompt_utils -u 29 -a thai_audio.sln --lang=th
  IVR prompt updated
  
  /ivr_prompt_utils -u 29 -a chinese_audio.sln --lang=zh
  
  IVR prompt updated
  
  $ /home/ssp/script
  s

• Now you've prepared the prompt and can start to use it - just specify 29 as the value to an advanced parameter Late Greeting Prompt ID.

• As you see the Japan and English languages are included here also but we haven't prepared the corresponding localized prompts. In this example the users of the Calling Card that have chosen Japan or English will hear the announcement in the default language (the audio from the default_audio.sln file).

• Please note that the *.sln files must contain audio in signed linear format. Almost any audio format can be relatively easily converted to the signed linear format. Here is an example how to covert 'file.wav' into 'file.sln':

  /usr/local/bin/sox file.wav -t raw -s -2 -r8000 -c1 file.sln
  

Notes

An i_environment must be specified since version 3.0 in a form:

ivr_prompt_utils.py -E I_ENVIRONMENT -c audio_file name description

Early Greeting example

Early Greeting feature allows to make announcement before the user proposed to choose a language. The procedure of setting up the greeting is very similar to the Late Greeting except the language specific audio is not needed. Here is how to prepare a prompt to work as an Early Greeting:

• Create a prompt with the default audio recording:

  $ /home/ssp/scripts/ivr_prompt_utils -c greet_audio.sln early_greeting 'This is an early prompt'
  New prompt created with i_ivr_prompt = 30

• The prompt is ready. Specify 30 as the Early Greeting Prompt ID and now configuration is completed.

Notes

1. CLI Registration extension relies on correct CLI delivery to the application. Sometimes the CLI is not delivered correctly, or when PSTN user blocks his CLI some bogus CLI is delivered instead. This may result in user registering this bogus CLI and other users not being able to use the service when they also have CLI disabled. Therefore routing shall be configured to block any suspicious CLI, for example the following CLI Translation Rule could be used to only pass 10-digits numeric CLIs that start with 0:

   s/(^0[0-9]{9,9}$|^).*$/\1/

2. Calling Card application allows the user to disconnect outgoing call by pressing pound sign twice in a row (##) during any phase of the call.

3. If you want to deny some CLI the possibility of adding itself to the trusted numbers (someone calls to the DID, that is assigned to Calling card IVR application in our system, authorize using some account "Please, enter your PIN code" and then can be prompted whether he wants to add the number he calls from as a trusted one) you'll have to do the following:

a) Find out the CLI you want to ban b) Add the CLI translation rule to the specific DID number you want to be affected by the change, e.g. to ban CLI 33nonymous from adding it as a trusted one you'll need to add the following translation rule:

 s/^{33nonymous$/Anonymous/}

As a result if the incoming CLI = 33nonymous it'll be rewritten to Anonymous, which is not allowed to save itself to the trusted numbers by default. No other CLI will be affected by this change.