Replace toll-free 800 numbers with multiple local numbers

This app used the Nexmo Voice APIs to demonstrate the power of using multiple local numbers instead of a toll-free generic number.

Prerequisites

You will need:

A free Nexmo account
The Nexmo CLI installed
A way to run a local server on a public port, for example Ngrok.
Ruby 2.1+ and Bundler

Installation

# clone this repository
git clone git@github.com:Nexmo/ruby-800-replacement.git
# change to folder
cd ruby-800-replacement
# install dependencies
bundle install
# create a .env
cp .env.example .env

Setup

Buy Numbers & Create Application

To run this application we need to buy 2 numbers, set up an application, and tie the numbers to this application.

# create an application
> nexmo app:create "800 Replacement" http://your.domain/answer http://your.domain/event --type voice --keyfile app.key
# check the application ID
> nexmo app:list
12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890 | 800 Replacement
# purchase 2 numbers in different regions
# For example, Chicago
> nexmo number:buy 1312* -c US  --confirm
Number purchased: 13125550000
# And San Francisco
> nexmo number:buy 1415* -c US  --confirm
Number purchased: 14155550000
# link the numbers to the application ID
> nexmo link:app 13125550000 12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890
> nexmo link:app 14155550000 12345678-1234-1234-1234-1234567890

Run Server

The next step is to set up all of our variables in a .env file. You can start off by copying the example file.

mv .env.example .env

Fill in the values in .env as appropriate, where INBOUND_NUMBER_1 and INBOUND_NUMBER_2 are the numbers you just purchased). Finally, DOMAIN is the public domain or hostname your server is available on (including scheme).

With this in place you can start the server.

ruby app.rb

The application should be available on http://localhost:4567. For this to work full though, make sure to expose your server on a public domain (e.g. your.domain in the example above) using a tool like Ngrok.

Using the App

With your server running, call either of the 2 numbers you purchased. Nexmo will then make a call to http://your.domain/answer which plays back a message for the local transit system for the city you just called a local number for. It then allows you to play back the messages for the other cities after a prompt.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.