1. How long have you worked at Plivo?

I joined Plivo in February 2012 as the second hire. Its been a year full of constant learning and fun filled excitement. I came in right out of college having worked on mini python project. It was after I had finished my work with prosody (XMPP Server) under Google Summer of Code, Venky reached out to me through github.

2. What has been your greatest accomplishment within the company so far?

I learned a lot of good stuff at Plivo. One of the greatest accomplishments personally for me would be learning how to create end to end products and working on a stack. Something which I am keen on working now is internal analytics, we have a whole lot of data dumped on S3 which is crying to get on a graph!

3. What websites/apps do you visit/use/think are great?

You’ll find me on reddit and quora.

4. What are the software tools you use at work?

I work on a Debian VM running on 13” MBA.  vim and Xcode for writing code. I usually have Advanced REST Client open on my chrome for quick API tests. Wunderlist to manage my daily tasks and we use asana and github Issue tracker internally. We use HipChat with customized hubot scripts running on it which notifies us about customer details, current calls running on our system or some payment fraud which has been triggered.

5. What is your day to day like?

I have worked on a variety of stuff at Plivo, right from the code running on our API proxy to the call and message graphs you see when you open plivo dashboard. Currently I’m working on rolling out the iOS SDK. So a typical day starts by adding tiny features along with fixing the bugs that have come up out of our beta.

6. Hobbies? Interests aside from Plivo?

I do some light reading here and there. Trying my hand at cooking currently.

7. Any inputs/tips/suggestions for folks deciding to join startups as initial team members?

Before deciding to join a startup, try to work with the team for at least a week. Figure out how things move around, and what kind of work is expected out of you. This would also give you a brief outline about the culture of the company.

Connect with Kunal on Twitter

We’re so excited to have members of PyLadies SF join us this weekend to develop their Python skills!

During the two day tutorial, participants will:

1. Learn python basics, including types, containers, functions, iterators and generators.
2. Learn how to create a web application in Python (using flask).
3. Use the Plivo package to learn how to make outbound telephone calls.
4. Create an Interactive Voice Response application. IVR is used to interact with humans on a telephone, for example: When someone calls a number, you can ask for the option of selecting a language preference. ‘Press 1 for English, Press 2 for Spanish’ and then depending on the input you can control the flow of the call.
5. Learn how to create a conferencing app which will let you connect multiple users using Python and Plivo.

PyLadies is an international mentorship group with a focus on helping more women become active participants and leaders in the Python open-source community. Their mission is to promote, educate and advance a diverse Python community through outreach, education, conferences, events and social gatherings. Learn more here!

Got waitlisted for the event or can’t make it? Reach out to our community manager Rachel at rachel@plivo.com or at @rachelmaesmith to be added to the Plivo events newsletter.

by Kunal Kerkar, @tsudot

Language: Python (see comments for additional languages)
Function: API Call

Preliminary Steps

1. Go to www.plivo.com/accounts/register  and sign up for an account.

2. Follow the steps in your activation email. You now have access to $10 free developer credits each month until you upgrade to a standard account.

3. Create an Endpoint by visiting this link, https://www.plivo.com/endpoint/. Click on ‘New Endpoint’ and fill in the required details. For the purpose of this tutorial, 
Username - yoda, Password - obiwan, Alias - obiwan

Make a note of the username Plivo assigns you. It will be something like yodaXXXXXX where XXXXXX are random numbers

How to Setup a Softphone

1. Download a Softphone.

If you are using Windows/Mac. Download X-Lite http://www.counterpath.com/x-lite-download.html
For linux, Download blink. http://projects.ag-projects.com/projects/documentation/wiki/Repositories

 2. Open the softphone. On Mac, in the menu bar, click X-lite -> Preference. Choose the Accounts tab and click on the ‘+’ button.

3. Use your endpoint credentials here,

User ID - yodaXXXXXX
Domain - phone.plivo.com
Password - obiwan
Display Name - Yoda
Authorization Name - yodaXXXXXX (same as your username)

 Click on OK when you’re done.

4. Your endpoint entry in the list would be shown as Enabled.

To Make the Call Using API

1. Install the Plivo Python package by typing the following in the terminal and hitting enter:
pip install plivo. 
If you don’t already have Pip installed, youll want to follow this guide (for Mac) first: http://guide.python-distribute.org/installation.html#installing-pip

2. Copy this code in your prefered text editor.

Make sure you replace the auth_id and auth_token variables with your AUTH ID and AUTH TOKEN found here, https://www.plivo.com/dashboard/

Replace the ‘to’ variable with your full endpoint SIP URI.

For eg. sip:yoda130320221021@phone.plivo.com

3. Save it as plivo_call.py. Run the script by typing ‘python plivo_call.py’ in your terminal.

Welcome to Plivo! Should you have any questions, feel free to ping our 24/7 live chat support at www.plivo.com 

To show our appreciation for developers, and to make it easy to get started with Plivo, we now offer free developer accounts for life to all new registrants!

What does this mean?
You will be given $120 credit every year which can be used to build voice applications. While these accounts are meant for getting your feet wet with our platform, they also provide the freedom needed to prototype and test applications before fully committing.

Restrictions

1. Plivo numbers cannot be purchased nor can you receive inbound voice calls and SMS on Plivo phone numbers; however, you can bring your own phone numbers. Services like virtualphoneline.com (comes with free minutes!) let you get numbers that you can use with your developer account. A comprehensive list of services and documentation which will describe this in more detail to come. 

2. Outgoing voice calls and SMS to regular phones, including mobile and landline phones, will not be possible.

 Now the Possibilities!

Apart from the above two restrictions listed above, you can do everything else on a developer account, such as:

1. Place and route calls between Endpoints. Endpoints could be any regular SIP phone, browser phones using our Web SDK or even Mobile SDK. You can even use any physical SIP devices like Polycom/Cisco phones. Find documentation here, here and here.

2. Use all of our powerful APIs and XML and build advanced applications like PBXs, conferencing bridges, and IVRs. There are no restrictions on this. You can even use our high quality text to speech feature with the developer accounts.

3. Bring your own phone numbers (DIDs) from various external providers at no extra cost. These can be services offering free or paid international DIDs. In fact , once you upgrade to a regular account these DIDs will still work. :)

The Fine Print
1. $120 is credited to your account @ $10/every calendar month. There are no rollovers of remaining credit.

2. When you charge your account for the first time, your account becomes a regular account. A regular account has no limitations. 

Extra Bonus..

Create your first real application, blog about it to the world and we will upgrade you a $240 per year developer account. That gives you $20 every month for life.

Sign up for your free developer account today and get started with this tutorial!

If you need help getting started, or would like more information, please e-mail hello@plivo.com or ping our 24/7 live chat support at www.plivo.com. Attending Pycon US 2013? Stop by our booth (#322) to receive a larger free dev account and register in person.