Many have described it as a roll-your-own Google Voice for businesses, where you create your own auto-attendants, call forwarding, conference and voicemail systems, but I want you to think of it as much more.

I don’t have a large business, so many of these possibilities aren’t much use to me, but what interests me are all the things small businesses could use it for. Especially since OpenVBX does not require any programming knowledge.

Today I am going to show you how you can use it to create your own text message and phone polling system in under 5 minutes.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Requirements

• Twilio account
• Web server
• MySQL
• PHP5
• OpenVBX
• OpenVBX Subscriptions Plugin
• OpenVBX Keyword Matching for SMS Menus

If you haven’t used Twilio before, try it out. They’ll give you a free trial with $30 worth of credit so you can build your apps.

For this application you’ll need a full account as we will be purchasing a phone number.

Part 1 – Installation

1. Download OpenVBX and plugins.

   

2. Unzip the archives and upload them to the correct location on your server.

   The entire content of the plugins archives should go in the /plugins directory.

   Rename the folder chadsmith-OpenVBX-Plugin-Subscriptions-xxxxxxx to subscriptions and chadsmith-OpenVBX-Plugin-Match-xxxxxxx to match.

3. Create your database and browse to the domain you’re using for the install. Hopefully everything will check out on your server, if so hit next.

   

4. Configure your database.

   

5. Enter the SID and token for your Twilio account.

   

6. Enter the options for your site and create your account, then login.

   

Part 2 – Prepare the poll

The Susbcriptions plugin is something I created so people can make their own opt-in text message marketing/auto-dialer campaigns (more on that later) but it also works well for polls.

1. Click Manage Lists

   Our poll will simply be one where people call in or text their response on which is better: Team Edward or Team Jacob.

   Disclaimer: I know nothing about Twilight and really don’t care.

2. Create a list called “Team Edward”

   

3. Create a list called “Team Jacob”

   

Part 3 – Creating a flow

Flows are the part of OpenVBX where you tell Twilio’s server what should happen on a call or when someone sends a message. OpenVBX has an amazing setup where you drag widgets, or as they call them, applets, to build your application.

1. Click Flows and push the button to create a new flow.

   Give the flow a name and hit OK.

   

   Then you’ll see a screen that asks what we should do.

   

2. Create a menu.

   Drag the menu applet to where it says ‘Drop applet here’.

   

   A Menu Prompt screen will appear.

   

3. Enter a prompt.

   We want our poll to greet the caller and say the options, so click Read Text like a robot, and enter the text for our poll.

   

   “Thank you for calling the Twilight Phone Poll. To vote for Team Edward, press 1. To vote for Team Jacob, press 2.”Click save.

   

4. First Menu Option

   The callers can either press 1 or 2, so enter 1 for the first option where it says Keypress, and drag a Subscription applet next to it.

   

   The Subscription window will open where we want to mark them down for Team Edward, but since Twilight fans can’t be trusted, we want to make sure they only vote once.The Subscriptions plugin is written so you can only subscribe to each list once, but since we’re using two lists we want to make sure they’re unsubscribed from the Team Jacob list first.

   

   Select Team Jacob from the dropdown and Remove.

   Next, add another Subscription applet where we will add them to the list Team Edward.

   

   Drop a Greeting applet, and click Read Text. Here we will tell the caller their selection.

   

   After their vote is recorded we want to hang up. Drop a Hangup applet.

   

5. Second Menu Option

   Now that we’ve added option 1, scroll back to the Menu window (or minimize all other applets) and enter the settings for option 2.

   

   Again, we will need to drop a Subscription applet, make sure they’re not on the list for Team Edward, add them to the list for Team Jacob, read their selection, and hang up.

   

6. Other Menu Settings

   Some people are rude, so since we’re paying by the minute we’ll want to finish the call flow by adding a few additional settings to the menu.

   Scroll back to the Menu window and enter 0 times since we do not want to repeat the menu, and drop a Hangup applet so they’re disconnected if they press something incorrect or nothing.
   

   Now click save and close.

Part 4 – Creating an SMS flow

Once our call flow is saved we will create one for SMS, so people can also vote by text.

1. Click Create SMS Flow

   Here we see a similar screen as when we created our call flow. Our call flow is started by Twilio whenever someone texts our poll.

   

2. Create a keyword matching menu.

   Drop a Match applet where it says ‘Drop applet here’. The match applet is similar to the one for the phone menu, except it decides what to do based on what the person texts.

   For the SMS portion of our poll, people will text either the word EDWARD or JACOB to place their vote. It’s not case sensitive but will only record their vote as long as the message doesn’t include anything else.

   

3. First keyword: Edward

   Enter Edward for the first keyword and drop a Subscription applet next to it.

   

   Again we want to remove them from Team Jacob first and add them to Team Edward.

   

   After recording their vote, Drop a ‘Send a Reply’ applet to thank them for their vote.

   

4. Second keyword: Jacob

   Do the same thing for Jacob, but first remove them from Team Edward, and then send a reply.

   

5. Backup plan

   If they don’t text one of our two keywords, maybe they didn’t know how it works.

   Scroll back to the Match Options window and where it says ‘Oops, the message didn’t match any of our choices.’ drop a ‘Send a Reply’ applet.

   

6. Here we will respond with our instructions.

   

7. Save

   Save the flow and press close.

   

Part 5 – Set up a number

Now that our flow is created, we need a phone number to use with our poll. If you don’t already have one, click ‘Get a Number’.

1. Get a Number.

   Twilio offers toll free numbers, but those do not support SMS, so for our poll we will need a local one. Enter your desired area code and click Add number. Your number will be purchased (they cost $1) and will appear on the screen.

   

2. Assign the flow

   We’ve already created our Flow, so you’ll want to press Setup later.

   From the Numbers screen, click ‘Connect a Flow’ and choose our poll.

   You will receive confirmation that it worked. Once you do, call the number to try it out.

   

If you already had OpenVBX installed, hopefully that didn’t take too much longer than 5 minutes. If it did, you’ll will be a lot faster next time.

I figure the only way Google Voice could be improved is if it magically knew where I am and make my phones ring accordingly – so that’s exactly what I made it do.

You can too with an Android phone, the Locale app and a web server.

Requirements:

• Google Voice
• Android phone w/ internet and GPS
• Locale for Android ($9.99, QR code)
• Locale GPS Plug-In (Free, QR code)
• HTTP Poster and Locale Plug-In (Free, QR code)
• Web server w/ PHP 5 (uses cURL and json_decode)

Part 1 – The PHP:

1. Download googlevoice-locale.php
2. Add your Google Voice login and password to the top and save
3. Upload the script to a secret location on your web server

Part 2 – Configure Locale:

1. Create a new Situation with a condition of where or when your Google Voice settings should change (ie: while you’re sleeping, at home or in the office)
2. Add a Setting using the HTTP Post plugin to tell your server which phones to turn off or on

   HTTP Post settings:
   URL – http://yourawesomeserver.com/googlevoice-locale.php?on[]=home&off[]=work
   Select GET
   Save

3. Name, save and activate the Situation

The PHP script is set to toggle numbers using the names you assigned them on the Google Voice settings page, so if your phone is named “Work” use “work” (lowercase) in the URL.

The possibilities with Google Voice and Locale are endless. In addition to toggling phones based on your location, you can toggle them when you’re with your mistress, when your phone is charging or about to die, and can even route your calls through Gizmo when you’re connected to your home WiFi.

My favorite trick is to forward all calls to my wife by turning my phone face down.

Let me know in the comments if you need help or think of other useful situations for Locale and Google Voice.  Enjoy.

I recommend the official Google Wave notifier instead.

Google probably isn’t going to be happy about this, but I present to you the first ever Google Wave Notifier… for Firefox.

This add-on reuses code from my other add-on, the Google Voice Add-on for Firefox (I’m great with names).

If you have a Google Wave account, enter your login and password in the settings and it will log you in and notify you of new wavelets in your inbox.

Let me know if you encounter bugs. Enjoy.

Latest Version: v0.0.3

In this release:

• Changed “Incompatible Browser” error to “Cookies Blocked”
• Third-party cookies need to be enabled for wave.google.com (this fixes the issue people were having with Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.7)
• Addon sends custom user-agent per Google Wave Team’s request
• Limits automatic inbox checking to a minimum of 5 minutes
• Now only attempts to check the inbox if you are logged in

Planned for the next release: See note above

• Sandboxed HTTP connection for safer third-party cookies

Known Issues:

“Cookies Blocked” issue: If third-party cookies are blocked for all sites, an exception will have to be added for wave.google.com.

This is done by going to Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Firefox will: Use custom settings for history -> Exceptions -> wave.google.com -> Allow.

This notifier is for regular Google Wave accounts, so Sandbox accounts will not work.  If you would like to use it in Sandbox, let me know and I will upload that version as well.

Updates:

As of this time you will not automatically receive notifications of updates to the addon, so check this page regularly or follow me on twitter to be notified of new versions.

Support: Google Wave Add-on Wave

Compatibility:

This addon has been tested on and is fully functional with Firefox 3.x.x and 3.7a1pre. It has been tested using Windows XP, Vista, 7, Ubuntu, and OS X. It will install in Flock and older versions of Firefox but is unsupported outside of Firefox 3.5+.

License:

This addon is distributed without warranty under the MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 licenses. View the addon source or visit http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ for additional information on the licenses.

Download:

Google Wave Add-on for Firefox v0.0.3

The jQuery TinyMCE plugin differs from the standard TinyMCE configuration in that any jQuery object can be used to create an editor rather than all textareas or a specific DOM element by ID.

The plugin can be downloaded from the jQuery TinyMCE project page and documentation and examples can be found on Mktg Dept.  The plugin is supported on Post Topic.

One of my recent projects is a set of open source scripts for detecting and redirecting mobile visitors to another version of a website, since that seems to be something a lot of people struggle with.

The scripts, which are simply called Detect Mobile Browser, are combined with a URL redirection service that separates mobile visitors from regular users and sends them to one address or another.

See my post on Post Topic for a more detailed explanation or head right over to Detect Mobile Browser to check it out. The scripts and service are both free of charge.

On this day six years ago, I met this young lady for the first time.

We met at a Royals-Twins game at Kauffman Stadium, eventually started dating, and then about 3 years ago, got married.

Additional photos can be seen here.

I recommend the official Google Voice extension instead.

Google Voice is a popular telecommunications service from Google that gives you one number for all your phones.

This Firefox addon makes it so you can click-to-call numbers on any website using your Google Voice number and send text messages without leaving your browser.

There is no Google Voice API for development, but everything including SMS and recorded voice messages can be received via JSON and XML requests.

Screenshots:

Latest Version: v0.9.5

Changes in v0.9.5:

• Fixes Authentication Issue
• Support for 3.7a5pre

Changes in v0.9.1:

• Fixes Gizmo5 support

Changes in v0.9.0:

• Adds Gizmo5 support
• Automatically logs out and in when username or password is changed
• No longer requires a refresh when call out number is changed
• Fixes “Loading Calls” bug on new installs

Features of Google Voice for Firefox:

• Click to Call
• Dial from Task Bar
• SMS from Task Bar
• Select text and double click taskbar to send as SMS
• Select number and double click taskbar to dial
• Auto Login/shortcut to Google Voice
• Display most recent recent call/sms when hovered

Changelog

• v0.0.1pre
• v0.1.0
• v0.1.1
• v0.2.0b1
• v0.2.0b2
• v0.2.0b3
• v0.2.0b4
• v0.2.0b5
• v0.5.0
• v0.6.0
• v0.7.0b1

Features planned for future versions: See note above

• New message notifications
• New call notifications
• New SMS notifications
• Option to hide number on status bar removing number in v1.0
• Send SMS from status bar added in v0.2.0b1
• Listen to most recently voice mail from the status bar
• Switch from XMLHttpRequest to Sandboxed HTTP connections no longer necessary in v0.6.0
• Addon update notifications

Setup:

• Uninstall GrandCentral Click to Call
• Install this addon
• Restart Firefox
• Open Settings…
• Enter your Google Account e-mail address & password
• Enter the number you want to ring for outgoing calls (not your GV number)
• Press OK

Known Issues

SetTimeout bug still needs to be fixed. Hit refresh or enable/disable the addon from the context menu if it get’s stuck on Loading Calls.

Common Problems

Unable to place call to XXX-XXX-XXXX

Problem: You entered your Google Voice number as the forwarding number, or
Problem: You entered a number that is not on you Google Voice account as the forwarding number

Solution: Enter one of the numbers set up on your Google Voice account

The addon does not detect numbers on “…..”

Problem: The page you are viewing contains frames, or
Problem: The number you are trying to click is loaded via AJAX after the add-on scans for numbers

Solution: If the content was loaded dynamically you can detect new numbers by double clicking the GV icon in the status bar. If the page contains frames (such as Google Contacts) there is nothing you can do at this time.

The addon does not work in Flock

Problem: You are using Flock

Solution: This is the Google Voice Add-on for Firefox. Download Firefox or try the official Google Voice extension for Chrome.

I do not see the addon in the toolbar

Problem: You are looking in the wrong place

Solution: Make sure your status bar is not hidden because that’s where the Google Voice Add-on for Firefox is located.

Updates:

As of this time you will not automatically receive notifications of updates to the addon, so check this page regularly or follow me on twitter to be notified of new versions.

Compatibility:

This addon has been tested on and is fully functional with Firefox 3.x.x and 3.7a5pre. It has been tested using Windows XP, Vista, 7, Ubuntu, and OS X. Please notify me of any other compatible versions or platforms in the comments. The addon will install in Flock and older versions of Firefox but is unsupported outside of Firefox 3.5.

License:

This addon is distributed without warranty under the MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1 licenses. View the addon source or visit http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ for additional information on the licenses.

Download:

Google Voice Add-on for Firefox v0.9.5

Support:

Since the comments are getting a bit lengthy, please post bug reports and support requests here.

If you are looking to update or develop your own application for Google Voice, here is a little information to get you started.

Up until this point, I have shared 125 available domain names from my list of 300+ that are excellent candidates to be used by local small businesses. See names 1-25, 26-50, 51-75, 76-100, and 100-125. This list covers numbers 126-150.

If your small business is new to the local web, welcome.  You should know there are tons of good options out there for registering a .com, usually for around $7/yr, and countless places willing to host your website – ad free – starting around $4/month.  (Read: Don’t be suckered into high prices.)

If you have questions about registering a domain at the lowest cost, or setting one up for e-mail, Mktg Dept and a handful of other local webbies are always willing to meet over a cup of Wichita coffee.

Disclaimer: Please do not register a Wichita domain name only to attempt to resell it. My studies show that most people in Wichita are NOT willing to pay extra for a name that is already taken.

I was recently reminded of the lists and someone asked that I share more, so here are Available Wichita Domains 101 – 125.

I ask that you only register one if you plan to use it.  Buying one in hopes of making a profit will just waste your time, because people in Wichita will not pay for a name that’s taken.  If you have questions about registering a domain at the lowest cost, or setting one up for e-mail, Mktg Dept is always willing to help.

If you find this list helpful, be sure to check available Wichita domains 1-25, 26-50, 51-75, and 76-100 for more.

Let me know if you are looking for a particular domain name for Wichita, because I have a list of soon to be available names, and a few for sale as well.

Instead, I decided to do what any good entrepreneur would do and offer my script for free.

I’m pleased to say my image sharing script is different from others in a number of ways. It has a very small footprint, is written entirely in PHP, uses SQLite to store your data, includes statistics on each image shared, does not require registration, and checks to see if each image uploaded has already been shared.

Some of you have probably already seen the site in action, since I have been posting and sharing pictures on it for a couple months now. I had a request to offer the script for sale, but decided to give it away instead.

Requirements

• PHP5+ w/ GD2, PDO & PDO-SQLite enabled
• Apache w/ mod_rewrite enabled

Features

• It’s FREE
• Image sharing using PHP and SQLite
• Session nonces to deter spam and hotlinking
• Secured against XSS and SQL Injection
• Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict
• One click uploading
• Duplicate image detection
• Viewer statistics

Demo

Download

Support

Screenshots

See my post on Post Topic for more information. The script is released under the GPL.