Create Tasks from Phone Calls using TwiML: Receive an Incoming Call
We've seen how to create Tasks using the TaskRouter REST API and how to accept a Task Reservation using both the REST API and Assignment Callback instructions. TaskRouter also introduces new TwiML instructions that you can use to create a Task from a Twilio phone call.
To receive an incoming phone call, we first need a Twilio phone number. In this example we'll use a US toll-free number, but you can use a Voice capable number from any country.
Before purchasing or setting up the phone number, we need to add on to our run.py to handle incoming calls:
run.py
# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-
from flask import Flask, request, Response
from twilio.rest import Client
from twilio.twiml.voice_response import VoiceResponse
app = Flask(__name__)
# Your Account Sid and Auth Token from twilio.com/user/account
account_sid = "{{ account_sid }}"
auth_token = "{{ auth_token }}"
workspace_sid = "{{ workspace_sid }}"
workflow_sid = "{{ workflow_sid }}"
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)
@app.route("/assignment_callback", methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def assignment_callback():
"""Respond to assignment callbacks with an acceptance and 200 response"""
ret = '{"instruction": "accept"}'
resp = Response(response=ret, status=200, mimetype='application/json')
return resp
@app.route("/create_task", methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def create_task():
"""Creating a Task"""
task = client.workspaces(workspace_sid) \
.tasks.create(workflow_sid=workflow_sid,
attributes='{"selected_language":"es"}')
print(task.attributes)
resp = Response({}, status=200, mimetype='application/json')
return resp
@app.route("/accept_reservation", methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def accept_reservation(task_sid, reservation_sid):
"""Accepting a Reservation"""
task_sid = request.args.get('task_sid')
reservation_sid = request.args.get('reservation_sid')
reservation = client.workspaces(workspace_sid) \
.tasks(task_sid) \
.reservations(reservation_sid) \
.update(reservation_status='accepted')
print(reservation.reservation_status)
print(reservation.worker_name)
resp = Response({}, status=200, mimetype='application/json')
return resp
@app.route("/incoming_call", methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def incoming_call():
"""Respond to incoming requests."""
resp = VoiceResponse()
with resp.gather(numDigits=1, action="/enqueue_call", method="POST", timeout=5) as g:
g.say("Para Español oprime el uno.", language='es')
g.say("For English, please hold or press two.", language='en')
return str(resp)
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=True)
You can use the Buy Numbers section of the Twilio Voice and Messaging web portal to purchase a new phone number, or use an existing Twilio phone number. Open the phone number details page and point the Voice Request URL at your new endpoint:
Using any phone, call the Twilio number. You will be prompted to press one for Spanish or two for English. However, when you press a digit, you'll hear an error message. That's because our <Gather> verb is pointing to another endpoint, enqueue_call, which we haven't implemented yet. In the next step we'll add the required endpoint and use it to create a new Task based on the language selected by the caller.
Need some help?
We all do sometimes; code is hard. Get help now from our support team, or lean on the wisdom of the crowd by visiting Twilio's Stack Overflow Collective or browsing the Twilio tag on Stack Overflow.
