Using Twilio SDK, Call Array of Numbers Consecutively Until Someone Picks Up

Question

I'm working on building a call center functionality that when receiving an inbound call, it dials through a list of agent's phone numbers (as determined by a separate piece of code) and on the first number connection we break out of the code and run a separate function to connect the agent into a queue where the customer is waiting. This is being built in Laravel 5.7 since there are some other future dashboards that are being created and I wanted to place it in the code the team is going to use.

The initial customer queueing and connecting the agent to the call seems to be working.

I am looking for help with the following code:

public function findAgentByPriority($agentCount) {
    $twilio = new Client(env('TWILIO_SID'),env('TWILIO_SECRET'));

    // test numbers
    $agentArr[] = ["agent" => env('TWILIO_TEST_AGENT1')];
    $agentArr[] = ["agent" => env('TWILIO_TEST_AGENT2')];
    // $agentArr = json_encode($agentArr);

    //build the array by querying /api/v1/agile/users
    $numbers = $agentArr;

    // this part of the code will call one person after the next
    // call the next number
    if($agentCount == NULL){
        $agentCount = count($numbers);
        echo "in if<br>";
        $call = $twilio->calls
                       ->create(
                            $numbers[0],
                            env('TWILIO_MAIN_NUMBER'),
                            [
                                "url" => "https://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/ivr/connect-agent",
                                "statusCallback" => "https://{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}/ivr/next-agent?c=$agentCount",
                                "timeout" => 20
                            ]
                        );
    }elseif($agentCount > 0){
    // when we run out of numbers move out of the loop
        $agentCount = 0;

    }else{
    // when we run out of numbers move out of the loop

    }


    // once there are no more agents that were logged in today we
    // will move to dial cell phone fallback for 40s
    // and last we'll call on the voicemail function       

}

And here is our connectAgent function that the connect-agent route is calling.

    public function connectAgent() {
    $response = new Twiml\VoiceResponse;
    $dequeue = $response->dial('');

    $dequeue->queue('main');
}

I was thinking basically have the "statusCallback" shoot to a new method when we read that there was "no-answer" and call the next number in line. I don't know how to keep track of what numbers are left by passing a variable through the callback. Would setting it into a database be better and do something like look for any remaining arrayIDs where records still exist and dial down the next one? I could establish the array and it's parameters in the database on the first function call.

I could avoid the issue of two people calling at once and messing up the code by just building out different arrayIDs and only going through one set at a time.

Any guidance is appreciated!

UPDATE PHP's server was causing infinite loops. Moving testing to my vagrant box has resolved this so now I can call on the Laravel route from the same server without issue. This along with the answer of passing an array through the callback has helped me solve this problem. Updated code to follow for reference.

this following issue helped me figure out the second request getting stuck issue: Calling route from same server causes an infinite loop

Answer 1

Twilio developer evangelist here.

What you could do is add the current number as a query parameter to the statusCallback URL. That way, when the callback is called you can find that number in your list of numbers and then move on to the next one. This way you don't need to store anything in the database.

Let me know if that helps at all.