TringMe, based in Bangalore, India, looks to capitalize on the number of PHP developers out there who are interested in advancing their applications to become telephony apps. The company announces VoicePHP for the masses. The idea is that PHP code is much easier to develop and read than VXML.
There is no doubt that PHP code is easier on the eyes, but the reality is that most VXML apps are developed using some sort of GUI-based, drag-and-drop IDE. I can see VoicePHP being popular among developers who just wants a quick and dirty telephony feature built into their apps, but for an enterprise scale IVR app, VoicePHP may not be a suitable choice.
IVR apps are often visualized as call flow diagrams. Menus, prompts, database access, transfer points, etc. Development tools like OpenVXML presents the application as a call flow on an Eclipse canvass, where the developer can easier spot where the menus are, where the transfer happens, and so forth. The tool then generates VXML code from the call flow. It is much easier to administer and maintain.
Best of all, OpenVXML and many other similar tools offer the ability to incorporate customized code blocks by using familiar programming languages like JavaScript. This greatly expands the features that a developer can tap into.
It’s wonderful to see companies come up with more ways to develop telephony apps, especially those that draw on the popularity of Web-friendly scripting languages. However, VXML adoption has reached critical mass, and it is the modern standard for voice applications. It would take a lot to convince a sizable enterprise today to move away from VXML and into something like VoicePHP.
Eugene
