I hope this question is NOT way out of the interest of many people here.
I am working on a project that deals with mobile phone applications. I have already written the application (MIDlet) that works just fine on these cell phones.
Now, I am at a stage where I need to implement a feature that alerts the user of the MIDlet by placing a voice call automatically from our server.
Say, user of MIDlet A sends files to user of MIDlet B through our server using http protocol.
As you very welll know, the IP address of a phone is not known to our server unless the MIDlet makes the http connection by itself.
Therefore, we need to worry about some way of alerting the user of MIDlet B about the file that is waiting for him at our server which he can pick by launching his MIDlet and opening http connection.
One possibility I am suspecting could have value is placing ‘missed call’ alert. A collegaue mentioned that Asterix may be used for this.
As this is kind of new to me, I am kind of stomped on this one and appreciate any pointers on how to solve this.
If setting AsteriX on our servers gives as a VOIP server, then how will the call could go to the destination address? Do we have to set up an account for VOIP providers?
Any reason why you would not use SMS for this? Asterisk cannot send a missed call alert, it could ring a phone for X seconds but that would not guarantee a missed call, it may ring long enough for the user to pickup or go straight to voicemail. You could setup a call that plays a recorded message once the user picks up.
make the midlet ‘phone home’ every hour or so which should update its IP address. This may not be preferable for those with PAYG data.
Send a SMS. This is probably your best option by any account.
have Asterisk place a voice call which they can respond to.
as the previous poster said, having it ring for 2 seconds or whatever is not a guarantee that they will get a missed call. Often the ringing you hear is the network finding the phone, not the phone itself ringing…
Well, the product I am working on is a direct competetitor to traditional SMS…sort of SMS over IP. Therefore, using conventional SMS beats the purpose.
So, the thinking here is to have Asterisk place a voice call from our server automatically when user B gets a message. Ringing once or twice is what is required just to alert the user and direct him to launch his MIDlet.
Will anyone reading this message be interested to consult with us interms of implementing this feature? Please PM or send your e-mail.
it actually really isnt hard at all. Search the wiki (voip-info.org) for how to make a .call file. You willw ant your .call file to timeout after like 5-10 seconds, and if he does pick up to play a recording explaining what happened. A .call file is a simple text file which your application can dump into asterisk’s /var/spool/asterisk/outgoing, asterisk will IMMEDIATELY snarf it and act on it.