Botium Connector for Twilio IVR

This is a Botium connector for testing IVR (Interactive Voice Response) bots by phone call.

Did you read the Botium in a Nutshell articles? Be warned, without prior knowledge of Botium you won't be able to properly use this library!

How it works

Uses Programmable Voice of Twilio to make calls. See Pricing of Twilio.

This connector is separated into two parts.

To communicate with Twilio we have to provide webhook endpoints. See Botium webhook service.
The Connector can be used as any other Botium connector with all Botium Stack components:
The Connector, and the Webhooks are communicating via Redis

Supports DTMF (accepted characters: "0123456789*#w". w is 0,5s delay). Example:

#me
BUTTON 012w345

Limitations

Twilio uses Text To Speech, and Speech To Text. A test can fail if TTS or STT is not converting the text well.
It is not possible to send DTMF and speech like this:

#me
Hello
BUTTON 1

Special fail cases:
- If the dialed number is wrong, or not permitted, then the testcase will fail with error
- If the bot answers the phone, then error handling follows Botium standards
- In every other case (For example he is busy, or picks up the phone but does not say anything, or number is temporary not available...) then the test will fail with timeout
Flow:
- We expect that the bot starts the conversation. (Otherwise call initiated, but you got error while phone ringing: error sending to bot Error: Illegal state, conversation should be started by bot!)

Prerequisites

Node.js and NPM
(optional) a Redis instance (Cloud hosted free tier for example from redislabs will do as a starter)
Twilio Account (Trial account is not sufficent because Limitations)
- Sign up at Twilio
- Upgrade trial account
- Note accountSid and authToken
Purchased, or verified phone number (Otherwise you got error: The source phone number provided, xxxxxxxxxx, is not yet verified for your account. You may only make calls from phone numbers that you've verified or purchased from Twilio.)
Enabled call destination (Otherwise you got error: "Account not authorized to call xxxxxxxxxx. Perhaps you need to enable some international permissions: https://www.twilio.com/console/voice/calls/geo-permissions/low-risk")
a project directory on your workstation to hold test cases and Botium configuration

Install Botium and Twilio IVR Connector

When using Botium CLI:

> npm install -g botium-cli
> npm install -g botium-connector-twilio-ivr
> botium-cli init
> botium-cli run

When using Botium Bindings:

> npm install -g botium-bindings
> npm install -g botium-connector-twilio-ivr
> botium-bindings init mocha
> npm install && npm run mocha

When using Botium Box:

Already integrated into Botium Box, no setup required

Install and Run the Botium Twilio Webhook Proxy

If the host you are running Botium can be reached from publich internet (directly or via a service like ngrok) you can skip this step

Twilio communicates with Botium by calling webhooks published locally by Botium. If the host you are running Botium is not reachable from public internet, you have to run an additional component on a host which can be reached from public internet.

Call is initiated by the Botium Connector
After the call is established, it is controlled by Botium Twilio Webhook Proxy via 3 webhooks
Botium Twilio Webhook Proxy communicates with the Botium Connector via Redis

If you are using Botium Box, then the Botium webhook service is integrated.

Installation with NPM:

> npm install -g botium-connector-twilio-ivr
> botium-twilio-ivr-proxy-cli start --help

There are several options required for running the Botium webhook service:

--port: Local port to listen (optional, default 5001)

--redisurl: Redis connection url, ex "redis://my-redis-host:6379"

Botium is providing the service, but you have to take care for connectivity and process management yourself:

If your server is not reachable from the internet, consider to use a service like ngrok for publishing your endpoint (If you use ngrok start it on the port of the Webhook Service)
For process management, logging, monitoring we recommend to use pm2

Connecting Twilio to Botium

Open the file botium.json in your working directory fill it. See Supported Capabilities.

{
  "botium": {
    "Capabilities": {
      "PROJECTNAME": "<whatever>",
      "CONTAINERMODE": "twilio-ivr",
      "TWILIO_IVR_ACCOUNT_SID": "...",
      "TWILIO_IVR_AUTH_TOKEN": "...",
      "TWILIO_IVR_FROM": "...",
      "TWILIO_IVR_TO": "...",
      "TWILIO_IVR_REDISURL" : "...",
      "TWILIO_IVR_PUBLICURL": "...",
      "TWILIO_IVR_LANGUAGE_CODE": "en-US"
    }
  }
}

Botium setup is ready, you can begin to write your BotiumScript files.

Checking for received SMS

A common use case is to verify that an SMS has been received during the call to an IVR engine.

Add the asserter to your botium.json:

  ...
  "ASSERTERS": [
    {
      "ref": "CHECKTWILIOSMS",
      "src": "botium-connector-twilio-ivr/CHECKTWILIOSMS"
    }
  ]
  ...

Use it in the #end-section to verify that an SMS has been received by the caller:

#end
CHECKTWILIOSMS

Or check for the content of the SMS (a common pattern is to give it some time to receive the SMS, in this example 10 seconds):

#end
PAUSE 10000
CHECKTWILIOSMS welcome to our service

Supported Capabilities

Set the capability CONTAINERMODE to twilio-ivr to activate this connector.

TWILIO_IVR_ACCOUNT_SID

See accountSid in Prerequisites

TWILIO_IVR_AUTH_TOKEN

See authToken in Prerequisites

TWILIO_IVR_FROM

Purchased, or verified phone number

TWILIO_IVR_TO

Arbitary telephone number. It must be enabled

TWILIO_IVR_PUBLICURL

URL on which Botium (or the Botium Twilio Webhook Proxy) is reachable from public internet.

If you are using ngrok, then it looks like this: http://xxxxxxxx.ngrok.io

TWILIO_IVR_INBOUNDPORT and TWILIO_IVR_INBOUNDENDPOINT

only required when NOT using the Botium Twilio Webhook Proxy

Local port and endpoint to be used for launching the webhook

TWILIO_IVR_REDISURL and TWILIO_IVR_REDIS_TOPICBASE

only required when using the Botium Twilio Webhook Proxy

Redis Url and base topic name for Redis subscription topic.

The default url for local redis is redis://localhost:6379

TWILIO_IVR_LANGUAGE_CODE

The language code used for the call, like 'en-US' (optional, default en-US) (All language code)

TWILIO_IVR_SPEECH_MODEL

See Twilio Docs

TWILIO_IVR_SPEECH_MODEL_ENHANCED

See Twilio Docs

TWILIO_IVR_RECORD

Record the call (true/false)

TWILIO_IVR_REDIAL

Number of redial attempts if no answer (default 5)

TWILIO_IVR_SPEECH_TIMEOUT

tbd

TWILIO_IVR_WAIT_CALL_STARTED

tbd

TWILIO_IVR_WAIT_CALL_COMPLETED

tbd

TWILIO_IVR_WAIT_BOTIUM_RESPONSE

tbd

WAITFORBOTTIMEOUT

Depending on how fast your IVR responds, the default Botium timeout of 10 seconds can lead to timeout failures. Most likely you will have to increase it (see here for more)

Roadmap

Error case fail instead of timeout
Increasing STT accuracy
Asserter to check call state
Cancel phone call if conversation test finished succesful

botium-connector-twilio-ivr

Botium Connector for Twilio IVR

How it works

Limitations

Prerequisites

Install Botium and Twilio IVR Connector

Install and Run the Botium Twilio Webhook Proxy

Connecting Twilio to Botium

Checking for received SMS

Supported Capabilities

TWILIO_IVR_ACCOUNT_SID

TWILIO_IVR_AUTH_TOKEN

TWILIO_IVR_FROM

TWILIO_IVR_TO

TWILIO_IVR_PUBLICURL

TWILIO_IVR_INBOUNDPORT and TWILIO_IVR_INBOUNDENDPOINT

TWILIO_IVR_REDISURL and TWILIO_IVR_REDIS_TOPICBASE

TWILIO_IVR_LANGUAGE_CODE

TWILIO_IVR_SPEECH_MODEL

TWILIO_IVR_SPEECH_MODEL_ENHANCED

TWILIO_IVR_RECORD

TWILIO_IVR_REDIAL

TWILIO_IVR_SPEECH_TIMEOUT

TWILIO_IVR_WAIT_CALL_STARTED

TWILIO_IVR_WAIT_CALL_COMPLETED

TWILIO_IVR_WAIT_BOTIUM_RESPONSE

WAITFORBOTTIMEOUT

Roadmap

Readme

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