Sending a Dynamic Text to Voice Call without URL Reference - php

Question

In the Twilio documentation, it states you can send a text to voice call statically like this:
use Twilio\Rest\Client;
$AccountSid = "";
$AuthToken = "";
$client = new Client($AccountSid, $AuthToken);
try {
$call = $client->account->calls->create(
"[phone]",
"[phone]",
array("url" => '/twilio/twilio.welcome.message.php')
);
echo "Started call: " . $call->sid;
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}
I find that to be a little bit much for dynamically created messages. This is fine for static messages. What I want to do is something like this:
use Twilio\Twiml;
$response = new Twiml();
$response->say('Chapeau!', ['voice' => 'woman', 'language' => 'fr']);
$AccountSid = "";
$AuthToken = "";
$client = new Client($AccountSid, $AuthToken);
try {
$call = $client->account->calls->create(
"+phoneNumber",
"+phoneNumber",
array("response" => $response)
);
echo "Started call: " . $call->sid;
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}
It hints at being able to do this in the documentation, but I can't find it anywhere. I'd be really shocked if there wasn't an easier implementation than creating a php script, to call, and then delete to get this to work. But I've seen worse things in my life.

Answer 1

Twilio developer evangelist here.
I'm afraid there's no way to send TwiML to Twilio to be executed when a call is answered. You still need to send a URL that will respond with TwiML when the call is connected.
However, you can make that URL react dynamically. If you are just sending a message to be read out then you could send the message as a query parameter in the URL and then use that message when the webhook is called. For example:
$message = "Hello! This is a message!";
$call = $client->account->calls->create(
"[phone]",
"[phone]",
array("url" => '/twilio/twilio.welcome.message.php?message='.urlencode($message))
);
Then, in your webhook:
<?php
$message = $_REQUEST['message'];
header("Content-type: text/xml");
echo "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>\n";
?>
<Response>
<Say><?php echo $message ?></Say>
</Response>
This way, you can dynamically create messages but only host one webhook endpoint.
Let me know if that helps at all.

Answer 2

What about using Twiml bin? This way instead of pointing to your server, you'd have a twilio hosted URL that generates the twiml for you. It supports dynamic variables, looping etc.
see : https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/230878368
And then use dynamic variables like this :
<Say>Hello {{CustomerName}}</Say>