Web Responder & Click-to-Call — How-To Guide

This service powers two customer-facing features, both set up through a Zoho form — you normally don't need server access:

1. SMS Responder — a caller reaches a treatment and gets texted back hours/address info. Submitting the SMS form also auto-builds the NetSapiens routing (system user + dial rule + answer rule) for you.
2. Click-to-Call widget — a "Call Us" button you embed on a website; a visitor enters their number and NetSapiens calls them into a queue.

Both are keyed by a Config ID of the form <ns-domain>-<suffix> (e.g. pressone.net-sms, pressone.net-sales). One NS domain can have many configs.

Prerequisites

• Access to the Zoho forms (SMS form → /update-sms, Click-to-Call form → /update-domain).
• The form secret is already baked into each form as a hidden field — you don't enter it.
• Only for verifying NS objects or reading SMS inventory: access to ucportal.pressone.net.
• SSH to ns-scripts.pressone.net is only needed for troubleshooting (password in 1Password).

How to Add an SMS Responder

Step 1 — Gather the values

Finding the SMS Number Owner (user): look up which extension owns the DID:

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(grep NS_TOKEN /opt/ns-scripts/webresponder/.env | cut -d= -f2)" \
  "https://ucportal.pressone.net/ns-api/v2/domains/pressone.net/smsnumbers"

Find the row where number matches your from-number — the dest field is the user.

Pick a free ns_system_user extension. It must not already be a real user. The auto-provisioning creates it as a Simple User dedicated to routing this responder (service-code=system-webresponder).

Step 2 — Submit the SMS Zoho form

Fill the fields above and submit. On success the form returns:

{"status":"ok","id":"pressone.net-sms",
 "provisioning":{"user":"ok","dial_rule":"ok","answer_rule":"ok"}}

• All three provisioning values should be "ok".
• If any reads "error: ...", the config still saved but that NS step failed — see Troubleshooting below.

Behind the scenes this saves the config and builds the NS routing: call → {ns_system_user}@{api_domain} → answer rule forward-always → webresponder{ns_system_user} → dial rule (To Web) → webhook → SMS sent.

Step 3 — Point the treatment at the responder

The auto-created dial rule already routes webresponder{ns_system_user} to the webhook. In the customer's NS portal, route the inbound treatment (Auto Attendant digit, etc.) to the NS System User extension (e.g. 8001).

Step 4 — Test

Call the number/treatment and confirm you receive the SMS.

How to Add a Click-to-Call Widget

Step 1 — Gather the values

The queue MUST include @domain (e.g. 9002@pressone.net). A bare extension silently fails with "Call Queue not found".

Step 2 — Submit the Click-to-Call Zoho form

On success it returns {"status":"ok","id":"pressone.net-sales"}.

Step 3 — Embed the widget on the customer site

<script src="https://ns-scripts.pressone.net/widget.js?id=pressone.net-sales"></script>

Step 4 — Test

Load the page, click the button, enter a phone number, and confirm the callback rings and bridges into the queue.

How to Update Hours / Message / Branding

Just re-submit the same form with the same Config ID and changed values. - SMS re-submit: provisioning re-runs but is idempotent — existing NS objects are left in place (a 409 / "already exists" counts as success), so editing the message text won't error. - The two forms preserve each other's fields, so an SMS submit won't wipe a widget's queue/branding on the same id, and vice-versa.

How to Change the Voice/SMS Wording in Code

The confirmation message callers hear (and other in-code strings) live in webresponder/app.py (_XML_SUCCESS). To change it, follow the deploy process in the reference doc (edit local → test → commit → push → pull on server → restart). Do not hand-edit files on the server.

How to Remove a Customer Config

Edit domains.json on the server to delete the entry (it's re-read on every request, no restart needed):

ssh root@ns-scripts.pressone.net
nano /opt/ns-scripts/webresponder/domains.json

For an SMS responder, also remove the NS objects (system user, dial rule, answer rule) in the NS portal if you want them gone — the app doesn't delete them.

How to Check If It's Working

Service status:

ssh root@ns-scripts.pressone.net
systemctl status ns-webresponder

Watch live logs during a test:

journalctl -u ns-webresponder -f

A successful SMS call logs:

INFO webresponder: caller=+19734321440 id=pressone.net-sms digits=1 call_id=...
INFO SMS sent to +19734321440 via 19294873999

Probe the SMS webhook from the command line:

curl -s "https://ns-scripts.pressone.net/webresponder?id=pressone.net-sms&NmsAni=%2B19734321440&Digits=1"

Should return XML containing texted you.

Troubleshooting

Quick Reference