I have a scala client that talk to the CallFire API. I can't find anything in the documentation about having a phone number be immediately available (accept phone calls) after placing an order from the API. Here is the specific line I use: https://github.com/oGLOWo/callfire-scala-client/blob/master/src/main/scala/com/oglowo/callfire/Client.scala#L166
I need these numbers to be available when my customers purchase them. Are there any parameters that I don't know about or something that I'm doing wrong that is causing the numbers to not pick up for several minutes?
Number purchases can take several minutes to fulfil as the order is processed by the upstream number provider, which can vary according to the region and number type. As such, this is necessarily an asynchronous process.
My suggestion would be that after you create the number order, each time that it is necessary to know the status of the number you purchased, you can invoke the GetNumber operation to get status information for that number.
The most relevant field for your purposes would be the "Status" field, which indicates where in the number fulfilment process that number is. Once the status has transitioned to "Active", your number should be fully available.
Additionally, you can look at the "CallFeature" and "TextFeature" fields, in the NumberConfiguraton section of the Number resource, to see whether the number has confirmed call or text service yet, respectively.
Alternatively, you can also invoke the GetNumberOrder operation to get the status of your order. This will give you information on the status of the number order itself, but in my opinion is less useful for your purposes than querying the number status directly.
It is also worth mentioning that there are cases where the number is technically being serviced, but CallFire's number inventory hasn't yet been updated to indicate this. This can be pushed along by creating inbound traffic to the number on each of the features. That is, you might have a number which "activates" the numbers you purchase more rapidly by sending a call or text to them. This is due to the slight delay between the number being configured upstream, and CallFire's systems being notified of that fact. By sending traffic to the number, you more rapidly give CallFire's systems feedback that the number is enabled. This can save you up to a couple of minutes, if time is of the essence.
Your question has prompted me to create a feature request for CallFire internally, to add an event type to CreateSubscription for when number orders transition between statuses. This way, you could avoid having to poll for number/order statuses repeatedly, and instead we would notify your server by HTTP POST when the number order transitions to finished.