Tutorial: a poll

A one-question poll. The caller picks an answer, and your API receives the choice with the caller's phone number, so each number counts once. It takes about fifteen minutes and uses four kinds of step: a menu, Send Data, a Smart Router and End Session.

Which road should be fixed first?
1. Spintex Road
2. Kaneshie-Mallam
3. Adenta-Dodowa

Thank you. Your vote is recorded.

One address that accepts a vote and says whether it was new. Asterisks will send:

{
  "phone": "233241234567",
  "choice": "spintex"
}

and expects one of these back, within 2 seconds:

{ "status": "recorded" }
{ "status": "duplicate" }

Create an app with New app and Start from a blank canvas, as in the Quickstart. Then add the steps.

1. Set up the welcome screen

   Open the Entry Point. In What the phone shows type Accra Roads Poll. Under Menu options, name the options Vote and Exit.

2. Add the question

   Click Choice Menu in the toolbox. Set What the phone shows to Which road should be fixed first? and add three options. Give each a label and a Value, the short code your API will receive:

   Label	Value
   Spintex Road	spintex
   Kaneshie-Mallam	kaneshie_mallam
   Adenta-Dodowa	adenta_dodowa

   In Save the choice as, type road.

3. Send the vote to your API

   Click Send Data. In its Request section choose POST and enter your address. Then fill in the body:

   Request bodyCopy

   {
     "phone": "{{MobileNumber}}",
     "choice": "{{road}}"
   }

   Under Save From Response, press Add and pair $.status with voteStatus.

4. Branch on the answer

   Click Smart Router. In Branches, set the first branch to voteStatus == duplicate. Everything else will leave by ELSE.

5. Add the closing screens

   Click End Session three times and set the text of each:

   • Thank you. Your vote is recorded.
   • You have already voted. Thank you.
   • We could not record your vote. Please try again later.

   Add one more End Session with Goodbye. for the Exit option.

Drag from the dot on the left-hand step to the top of the right-hand one:

Press Check flow, fix anything it names, then Save.

1. Open the phone preview

   Press Test in the top bar. In Dial from, type the number the test should call from, such as 0241234567. Your app receives it as {{MobileNumber}}.

2. Vote once

   Reply 1, then 2. You should see the recorded message.

3. Vote again from the same number

   Press Dial again and repeat. Your API answers duplicate and you see the already-voted message. The Smart Router never appears: it picks the branch and moves on.

4. Vote from another number

   Change Dial from to a different number and dial again. The vote is recorded.

5. Break it on purpose

   Put a typo in the Send Data address and dial again. You should land on the try-again screen, by the FAIL route. Fix the address afterwards.

• More than one question: add another Choice Menu after the first, save it under its own name, and add it to the request body.
• A typed answer: use Ask a Question in place of the menu and send {{comment}}.
• Options from your system: switch the menu's Options come from to Your API. See Logic and data.
• Show the tally: have your API return it, save it with Save From Response, and write {{tally}} on the closing screen.