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Overview

You can use call forwarding to dynamically route incoming calls based on any of several factors.
  • Agent availability: You can place calls in a holding queue and route them to an available agent as soon as one is available.
  • Business hours: You can route calls to an office number during business hours and to a mobile phone or voicemail during non-business hours.
  • Time zones: You can forward calls to agents from different time zones to ensure round-the-clock availability.
This guide shows how to forward calls either by using our PHLO visual workflow builder or our APIs and XML documents. Follow the instructions in one of the tabs below.
  • Using XML
Here‘s how to use Plivo XML to forward calls.

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How it works

Plivo requests an answer URL when the call is answered (step 4) and expects the file at that address to hold a valid XML response from the application with instructions on how to handle the call. In this example, when an incoming call is received, Plivo forwards the call using the Dial XML element.

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Prerequisites

To get started, you need a Plivo account — sign up with your work email address if you don’t have one already. You must have a voice-enabled Plivo phone number to receive incoming calls; you can rent numbers from the Numbers page of the Plivo console, or by using the Numbers API. If this is your first time using Plivo APIs, follow our instructions to set up a Node.js development environment and a web server and safely expose that server to the internet.

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Create an Express server to forward incoming calls

Create a file called forward_call.js and paste into it this code.
var express = require('express')
var app = express()

app.post('/forward_call/', function(req, res) {
    var plivo = require('plivo');
    var response = plivo.Response();
    var dial = response.addDial();

    dial.addNumber("<destination_number>"); // call wll be forwarded to this number
    res.send(response.toXML());
})

app.set('port', (process.env.PORT || 5000));
app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
    console.log('Node app is running on port', app.get('port'));
});
Replace the destination number placeholder with an actual phone number (for example, 12025551234).Save the file and run it.
$ node forward_call.js

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Create a Plivo application to forward calls

Associate the Go application you created with Plivo by creating a Plivo application. Visit Voice > Applications in the Plivo console and click on Add New Application, or use Plivo’s Application API.Give your application a name — we called ours Forward Call. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example https://<yourdomain>.com/forward_call/) in the Answer URL field and set the method to POST. Click Create Application to save your application.

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Assign a Plivo number to your application

Navigate to the Numbers page and select the phone number you want to use for this application.From the Application Type drop-down, select XML Application.From the Plivo Application drop-down, select Forward Call (the name we gave the application).Click Update Number to save.

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Test

Make a call to your Plivo number using any phone. Plivo will send a request to the answer URL you provided requesting an XML response and then forward the call according to the instructions in the XML document the server provides.