Controlling Voicemail/Forwarding via URL?

[pdessart]

Hi -

Love my Sonic.net Fusion service! I've also been very impressed with how responsive I've found Sonic customer service.

I'm trying to figure out how I can control my voice line options using my home automation system. Specifically, I'd like to be able to either enable forwarding or set voicemail to zero rings (immediate p/u) when leaving for vacation (and the reverse upon my return). My Universal Devices ISY-99i automation system is already programmed to configure lights, heat, etc. for vacations.

This could be as simple as accessing a URL such as:
https://user:password@members.sonic.net/voice/settings/5105551212?phone=5105551212&rings=0
(Assuming the Sonic.net webserver is configured to support GET as well as POST requests using standard HTTP(S) authentication.)

Unfortunately, based on my testing, it seems as though standard HTTP login authentication is not one of the supported methods. I'm hoping that either I'm missing something which a Sonic.net webmaster can point out, or that I'll pique your curiosity enough to look into what I hope might be a simple webserver reconfiguration.

Thanks in advance,
Peter

[kgc]

Peter, this kind of configuration via http isn't currently possible without quite a bit of work on your part. If you are comfortable programming you could use something like perl's WWW::Mechanize to mimic a browser session. Perhaps the home automation system is capable of making phone calls if it is provided with a modem? If so, maybe it is possible to program it to navigate the call forwarding and voicemail ivrs?

[pdessart]

Thanks for the prompt response. Not the answer I was hoping for, though.

The ISY is very powerful in it's core capabilities of home control (lighting, hvac, irrigation, etc.), and reasonably programmable. In theory, anything is possible since external resources can be accessed via TCP/IP (anything from HTTP(S) to raw bits). However, it's not a generic (Linux/Unix, OS X or Windows) server platform.

I could certainly introduce another host as a proxy to create a stateful browser emulation (I'm guessing the missing piece the ISY doesn't currently support is accepting a cookie upon login and resubmitting it with a subsequent POST) or to emit DTMF to drive the IVR. That, however, introduces a lot of complexity for very little return.

May I suggest Sonic consider whether adding (I'm not suggesting changing the way the website operates interactively) an access method more conducive to simple, stateless, programmatic access could result in people adding value to Fusion in much the same way that APIs do for Google, Amazon, eBay, etc. (This needn't be HTTP authentication - it could just as easily be an "APIKEY" within the HTTPS POST data which told the webserver to ignore the presence/absence of a session cookie and validate the key instead.)

For now, it looks like I'll be putting this idea on hold until after I've implemented my Asterisk server (a more natural intermediary for the ISY...).

Cheers,
Peter