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OpenVBX – A Web-Based Open Source Phone System for Business by Twilio

49 points by nikolay 11y ago

sb8244 11y ago
The interesting thing that stood out to me is seeing a product built by Twilio (even if it is open source and probably needs work to be fully business ready). I remember seeing before that Twilio explicitly won't build business products to not step on potential users (they just want to offer the API to build the apps). This seems like something that would definitely exist from a vendor.
- qq66 11y ago
  Most platform providers can't/don't resist the temptation to clone the most lucrative apps built on their platform.
  - devonkim 11y ago
    Amazon AWS is a great example of this to a pathological degree.
mpermar 11y ago
So, how is different from the other two posts sent like... 5 years ago?! Hacker News new | threads | comments | show | ask | jobs | submit | from mpermar (98) | logout OpenVBX 0.83 Released (openvbx.org) 1 point by dmor 2032 days ago | past | web | add to buffer OpenVBX 0.77 Release (openvbx.org) 3 points by dmor 2105 days ago | past | web | 1 comment | add to buffer
- biot 11y ago
  From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645 "If a story hasn't had significant attention in about the last year, reposts are ok. That's been the policy for a while..." Also probably worth mentioning that you work for Tropo, a Twilio competitor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822982
tyingq 11y ago
If this looks useful to you, you might also want to see Anveo and their visual call flow editor. The UI isn't quite as polished, but it's been around quite a while and has a lot of features and integration points. It's not open source...runs on Anveo's servers. Couple of screenshots: http://www.anveo.com/features/images/variable_sample1.png http://www.anveo.com/features/images/variable_sample1.png http://www.anveo.com/features/images/callflowsample.png http://www.anveo.com/features/images/callflowsample.png Edit: No association with Anveo other than being a customer. There are very few services that provide a drag/drop IVR or call flow builder with very low end pricing, so I thought it worth mentioning.
- pyvpx 11y ago
  I'm also a customer and sorely disappointed there is no API for the call flow. It'd be really neat to call my number, press some keys, enter a PIN, and add the caller ID to a huntgroup, for example. but, can't do that. or anything else. must login and edit call flow manually. :(
  - tshtf 11y ago
    Another Anveo customer here... Have you looked at the Anveo API documentation: http://www.anveo.com/api.asp http://www.anveo.com/api.asp Particularly Call Flow variables? http://www.anveo.com/api.asp?code=apihelp_callflow_presetvariable&api_type= http://www.anveo.com/api.asp?code=apihelp_callflow_presetvar...
spdustin 11y ago
I'm just happy to see that development is picking back up. It was stagnant for a while, and I'm interested to see how quickly they iterate now.
dsr_ 11y ago
Presumably there is deep reliance on Twilio's API. This makes it rather less attractive to everyone who isn't/doesn't want to be a Twilio customer. Isolating the Twilio API the same way that many PHP apps isolate their database API would be a great move -- then other services could supply their adaptor library, and there would be a much wider base of people interested in developing and using it.
- tyingq 11y ago
  >>Presumably there is deep reliance on Twilio's API There is, but the api itself uses fairly generically named, and well documented methods and arguments. Being that there's not really a industry standard, I don't see that they are deliberately trying for some kind of lock in. The path to create an adapter for say, Plivo, seems clear enough.

49 points by nikolay 11y ago

The interesting thing that stood out to me is seeing a product built by Twilio (even if it is open source and probably needs work to be fully business ready). I remember seeing before that Twilio explicitly won't build business products to not step on potential users (they just want to offer the API to build the apps). This seems like something that would definitely exist from a vendor.

qq66 11y ago
Most platform providers can't/don't resist the temptation to clone the most lucrative apps built on their platform.
- devonkim 11y ago
  Amazon AWS is a great example of this to a pathological degree.

mpermar 11y ago

biot 11y ago
From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645 "If a story hasn't had significant attention in about the last year, reposts are ok. That's been the policy for a while..." Also probably worth mentioning that you work for Tropo, a Twilio competitor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822982 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10822982

tyingq 11y ago

If this looks useful to you, you might also want to see Anveo and their visual call flow editor. The UI isn't quite as polished, but it's been around quite a while and has a lot of features and integration points. It's not open source...runs on Anveo's servers. Couple of screenshots: http://www.anveo.com/features/images/variable_sample1.png http://www.anveo.com/features/images/variable_sample1.png http://www.anveo.com/features/images/callflowsample.png http://www.anveo.com/features/images/callflowsample.png Edit: No association with Anveo other than being a customer. There are very few services that provide a drag/drop IVR or call flow builder with very low end pricing, so I thought it worth mentioning.

pyvpx 11y ago
I'm also a customer and sorely disappointed there is no API for the call flow. It'd be really neat to call my number, press some keys, enter a PIN, and add the caller ID to a huntgroup, for example. but, can't do that. or anything else. must login and edit call flow manually. :(
- tshtf 11y ago
  Another Anveo customer here... Have you looked at the Anveo API documentation: http://www.anveo.com/api.asp http://www.anveo.com/api.asp Particularly Call Flow variables? http://www.anveo.com/api.asp?code=apihelp_callflow_presetvariable&api_type= http://www.anveo.com/api.asp?code=apihelp_callflow_presetvar...

spdustin 11y ago

I'm just happy to see that development is picking back up. It was stagnant for a while, and I'm interested to see how quickly they iterate now.

dsr_ 11y ago

Presumably there is deep reliance on Twilio's API. This makes it rather less attractive to everyone who isn't/doesn't want to be a Twilio customer. Isolating the Twilio API the same way that many PHP apps isolate their database API would be a great move -- then other services could supply their adaptor library, and there would be a much wider base of people interested in developing and using it.

tyingq 11y ago
>>Presumably there is deep reliance on Twilio's API There is, but the api itself uses fairly generically named, and well documented methods and arguments. Being that there's not really a industry standard, I don't see that they are deliberately trying for some kind of lock in. The path to create an adapter for say, Plivo, seems clear enough.