Part III j: NetNotify Module

Requirements:

* Microsoft Access 2000 (tm)

* high speed connection to the internet

* SC Bus voice board

* If using the WebWatch and/or the CalenDialer, you must have a website set  up with particular parameters (see Sample website section)

The add-on NetNotify module allows for internet connectivity. You must have a connection to the Internet via a high speed, constant connection, such as a DSL line, or a cable connection. The modem connection can either be in the machine where the voice and email program are operating, or, it can operate in a network environment and access a proxy server set up on your server.

This feature is run from a separate executable file, \netnotify\email.exe. By default the installation program (netnotify.exe on your cd) will create a NetNotify directory and put the email.exe in it. After installation, you will have a separate icon for this program. You will want to add this \netnotify\email.exe to your start-up folder (see Chapter 24: Background Processing, etc.).  Changes need to be made to the \winnt\netnotif.ini as described below.  Although this is a separate executable file, it is tightly integrated with and requires specific information from the Voice Service Bureau stplus.exe program.

You will need to install the netnotify.exe from your CD AFTER installing the  voice board driver, program.exe, the 8bitprompt.exe., manual.exe, options.exe and any other add-on modules you may have in your VoiceStamps.com CD package.

You must already have Microsoft Access 2000 (tm) installed. The \netnotify\db\config.mdb file must be registered through ODBC in order for the NetNotify program to access it. 

To Register the config.mdb:

Click on My Computer, then Control Panel. 

Find the ODBC32 icon and double click on it.

In the User DSN tab, highlight the  Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb) and click on Add.  Select the Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)  and click on Finish.

Then enter 'config' (without the quotes) in both the Data Source name field and in the Description field. Click on Browse to locate the \netnotify\db\config.mdb file to select it as the database file. Then, just click on OK, and exit. The file is now registered.

If you open the email.exe and see an error that the data source cannot be found, then the config.mdb has not been registered properly. Try re-booting.

There are 3 possible modules to the NetNotify:

a) NetNotify Voice to Email

b) NetNotify WebWatch

c) NetNotify Email Notification

If you also have the IVR module, you will be able to take advantage of the Fast Database Lookup the email.exe provides.

Fast Database lookup for use with Voice Service Bureau IVR - see Part IIId: IVR

The Text To Speech Module will also utilize the email.exe.

Text to Speech

All require the installation instructions as above.

If you are using both voice to email and the fast database lookup,
it is possible to run email.exe on more than one machine, or
simply disable either the voice to email, or the database lookup.

You could run stplus.exe and email.exe with only database lookup 
on one machine, and email.exe with only voice to email on another,
networked machine. Be sure that the email.exe on the separate
machine has the correct path in the netnotif.ini.

[EMail]
DoSendEMail=yes ;Send EMail - yes/no
DoDBLookUp=yes ;Database lookup - yes/no

a) NetNotify Voice to Email

The voice-to-email feature will capture a voice message left in a mailbox and send it as an attachment to an email message, directly to the mailbox owner's email address which you will have entered in the mailbox screen under the Internet button. Providing the mailbox owner has a sound card in the computer where they receive their email, they will be able to listen to the message just as if they had called into the Voice Service Bureau program to pick up their messages.

Special hardware is required. You must be using an SC bus type board in order for the Voice Service Bureau Program to be able to record the caller's message in .wav format - the only format that is available both on Dialogic voice cards and sound cards in computers. You do not need to have all of your voice files in .wav format. Even if you have a different format chosen in your \winnt\stplus.ini file, these messages will be recorded in .wav format. If a mailbox owner calls in, they can still hear the messages. The program will know by the .wav extension to play it in the correct format. 

It is recommended that you test sending a regular email message from the Voice Program machine, using an email program such as Outlook, to be sure you can make an internet connection and send email.

You will first create a mailbox, (see Chapter 13: The Mailbox), and set it up using whatever parameters you would like. Then, click on the Internet Button and enter proper information in all the fields, including checking the 'send email' at the top. When a caller goes to leave a message in a mailbox with the 'send email' checked, they system automatically switches from normal recording format to .wav format. Be careful you do not check that field if you are not using an SC bus board. Non SC bus boards are not capable of .wav format recording and the file will be blank.

The system will then send an email with all the information you have provided on this screen (with the .wav voice recording as an attachment file) via your internet connection. Mailbox owners can still call in to hear their messages as usual, providing you have not checked the 'do not keep message'.

Do Email Notification:

Once this is checked, system will record all incoming messages in this mailbox in .wav format.

Send Message, Keep as New:

System will send message as email, but keep as regular 'new' message. This means that if you have any type of notification set up for the mailbox, it will still occur. Mailbox owner will hear it as a 'new' message.

Send Message, Keep as Old:

System will send via email, but mark message as 'old'. No other notification will occur. Mailbox owner will hear it as an 'old' message.

Send Message, Then Delete:

System will send via email and delete the message.

Do Not Send Message, Keep as New

When this item is selected, the program will retain the voice message as a new message, but will not send it as an attachment. The mailbox owner will simple receive an email notification. They will need to call the voice program to actually hear the message.

Email From Address:

Enter the email address you want to appear as the sender of the message.

Email Subject:

Enter the information you want to appear in the email Subject field.

Email Comment:

Information entered here will appear in the body of the email.

Email Names and Addresses:

You may enter up to 3 possible Email Names (this would typically be the mailbox owner's name) and Email Addresses where the message is to be sent.

NetNotify program (email.exe):

This NetNotify program will actually grab the voice file and do the sending via your internet connection. You must first establish your internet connection, then open the NetNotify program.

There is also a \winnt\netnotif.ini that contains the path for the NetNotify program (c:\netnotify) and the Voice Service Bureau program (c:\stplus). If you have changed either of those paths, you will need to amend the file. You will also need to enter your correct server information, so the program knows where to deliver the email. The program will deliver the email to your ISP, who will forward the email accordingly. Otherwise no changes should need to be made to the file.

Clear Logs Choices:

Pop3:

The \netnotify\log\pop3.txt file records system activity for email checking. (Only for WebWatch module)

SMTP:

The \netnotify\log\smtp.txt file records system activity for all voice to email sending.

Error Logs:

The \netnotify\log\error.txt file records any system errors. For example, if you start the program prior to establishing your internet connection, and the program has a file to deliver, you will see a 'no route to host' error message.

The sequence is as follows:

1) voice program records the .wav file message in the mailbox

2) voice program writes a text file to the \netnotify\log directory with an .snd extension. this file contains:

mailbox number

'to' email user name and email address

'from' email address

subject information (or blank)

comment information (if one was attached to a forwarded message or blank)

from box number (if forwarded from another mailbox, otherwise zero)

name of wav file of comment (if no comment, will be blank)

name of wav file of message that was left in mailbox

number of seconds of the wav file

the last line in the file contains one of the following digits:

0 keep as new

1 keep as old

2 send and delete

3 do not send, keep as new

b) NetNotify WebWatch:

Both the WebWatch module and the Email Notification module require that you fill out all fields on the main NetData screen.

With this module, you will need to have a website that users can visit and enter information, such as their name and in particular their phone number, for either a one time call,  or the time of day to call them on a daily basis. They will press a 'submit' button that sends the information the user entered in the form of an email.  The WebWatch module (email.exe) will poll that email address. It will then enter the information entered by the user into a database that the Voice Service Bureau program will use to make a phone call to them. The WebWatch module will also immediately send the user a response email. This is very effective to let the user know you have received their request. What goes into the response email is determined by the fields you complete in NetData under Options, Boxes, then each individual box. Those boxes correspond to boxes you create in the Voice Service Bureau program. Outbound boxes for NetNotify WebWatch and Question Boxes for NetNotify Calendialer.

The WebWatch module utilizes the Outbound Box from the Voice Service Program for all dialing and call progress parameters - that is, which Line Group to use, what recording to play to the web user when they answer, etc. You can get more specific information on the Outbound Box in the Chapter 14: The Outbound Box.  

For WebWatch to operate with the Voice Service Bureau Program, that is for the Voice Service Bureau Program to be told to look for the files that the email.exe will generate, you must add the following lines to your \winnt\stplus.ini file:

[NetNotify]

stplus=yes

Calendialer for WebWatch:

When 'Require Confirmation Call' is checked under Options, Boxes, then double clicking to open the individual box, the box is assumed to be a Question Box, so the program will first make a confirmation call, playing the greeting in the Question Box, followed by the system prompt nnconfrm.voi. If the called party presses a 1 to cancel, no further calls will made and the job will be deleted from the queue. If the called party presses a 99 to confirm, then the job will go into the queue for the requested timed calls. Jobs that are in the queue to made can be seen from the Voice Service Bureau program under Messages, then Schedule Queue. From this screen, jobs can be viewed and/or deleted.

 Line Group

Under Options, then Boxes, 

Email Address:

Enter the email address to be checked, whether for WebWatch or for Email Notification.

User Name:

Enter the User Name you will use to identify this account.

Password:

Enter the password required to pick up email from the above address.

Mail Server:

Enter the mail server information require to reach the email address. You will be able to get this information from your ISP.

Phone Number:

The phone number entered here will be used to call the email address owner when doing Email Notification. If you are using the WebWatch for this particular Email address, then this is the phone number that the system will use to call in case it cannot connect to the internet. This will notify you so you can contact your ISP to see what the problem is and get it resolved.

The Outbound Box to be used is determined by the information that will appear in your website. All Subjects must be set in the following manner:

stplus:80

stplus:100

etc.

The first listing above will use the information for Outbound Box 80 that you have set up in the Voice Service Bureau program, as well as the information that you enter in the NetData under Options, then Boxes, for box 80. Click on Options, then Boxes, Then, click on Add. Enter box #80.

This means the web user will be called using the outbound box 100 parameters - Line Group, scheduling, etc. 

To eliminate your emails piling up if the subject is not correct - that is, your getting a bunch of junk emails to this address, you can check the 'delete email if no subject'. That will keep your email address clear for the given purpose of picking up the website submissions. It will delete all emails it encounters that do not have "stplus:" as the start of the Subject.

Send From Address: Enter the name you want the user to see when they get their response email - typically, this would be your company name. For example:

"John L. Smith" <johnlsmith@abccompany.com>

The above information must be in EXACTLY that form. The person's name in quotes, followed by the < (less than sign-shift, comma), followed by the email address, followed by the > (greater than sign-shift, period).

Send Subject: This will be sent in the subject field. It could be something like:

Here is the information you requested!

Send File:

The contents of the filename you enter here becomes the body of the response email. It could be a text file that contains further information on your company, or a particular item, such as a price list that the user requested. THIS MUST BE A PLAIN ASCII TEXT FILE ONLY. Not an .html, nor a .jpg, nor any other type of file.

Require Confirmation Call:

When checked, the Voice Service Bureau program will call the user immediately to confirm that they intended to request a daily call at 3 PM (or whenever). The Voice Service Bureau will play the greeting of the Outbound Box, followed by the system prompt, nnconfrm.voi. The nnconfirm.voi can be re-recorded under Maintain, Prompts, but the digits to either confirm or deny must remain the same. When they press the digit to confirm, the 'job' will be added to the schedule queue. The Voice Service Bureau will abide by the schedule you have set up in the appropriate Outbound Box for making the confirmation call. So, you should say on your website, that the confirmation call will come between the hours of 9-5, or whatever your parameters are.

This eliminates someone using the website at 3 AM, and having it call their least favorite friend!

Sample Website - click here to view:

c) NetNotify Email Notification

This feature will allow you to check multiple email addresses for new email and call the owner to alert them.

Fill out all screens as above for WebWatch, but check under Type "Email Notification". The phone number entered here will be the one the VoiceStamps.com Service Bureau will use to call and alert the owner of email messages.

d) NetNotify for use with IVR Module (fast database lookup)

If you are also using the IVR Module and want to utilize the NetNotify (email.exe) for fast database lookups, you can check that feature in your IVR boxes. Open the IVR box,  then click on Record Handling, then Use Database Program.

With that set, be sure you have the email.exe running. The voice program (stplus.exe) will create a text file that the email.exe will pick up and use to search the database. Email.exe will then create a response text file the stplus.exe will use to speak the information back to the caller.