What the International DNC Loader does in VICIdial

When your call center dials across borders, compliance means more than checking the US national DNC list. Each country may maintain its own suppression list, and VICIdial provides a dedicated tool for managing them: the International DNC Loader. It stores do-not-call numbers by country inside the dialer database, and the Lead loader can then scrub any incoming batch against those records automatically. Without it, international compliance depends entirely on manual pre-processing outside VICIdial, which is both error-prone and hard to audit.

What the loader actually does

The loader solves a specific problem: storing large DNC (do not call) lists on a per-country basis so VICIdial can consult them at dial time. When you upload a file through the admin interface, a background script running on the server watches a defined folder and picks up queued files. It processes them into country-specific suppression tables inside the database. Once those tables are populated, the scrub happens automatically during lead import — numbers that appear in the country's table are flagged and skipped before they ever reach the dialer hopper.

flowchart TD
  A[Admin uploads DNC file] --> B[File placed in watched folder]
  B --> C[Background script detects file]
  C --> D{File status}
  D -->|READY| E[Admin sets country code, action, layout]
  E --> F[Admin clicks START FILE]
  F --> G[Status set to PENDING]
  G --> H[Processing script loads numbers]
  H --> I[Country DNC table updated in DB]
  I --> J[Lead loader scrubs against table on next import]

The system setting you must enable first

The International DNC feature is not active by default. A system-level setting called "Enable International DNC" must be turned on in the VICIdial system settings before the loader will function. If that setting is off, uploaded files will queue but never be processed, and the scrub will not run against imported leads. Check this setting first if the loader appears unresponsive or if files remain stuck in a READY state indefinitely after you have pressed START FILE.

What the interface shows you

The International DNC Loader page displays the contents of the file queue table. From this view you can see every file that has been uploaded, which files are currently being processed, and which are finished or cancelled. This gives you a live audit trail of every suppression file that has touched the system. For each uploaded file in a ready state, you set three parameters — the DNC country code, the file action (PURGE or APPEND), and the file layout format — then trigger processing. The background script handles the rest. You do not need to stay on the page while it runs; the queue table will reflect the updated status when you return.

The three parameters every file needs

• DNC country code — drawn from the vicidial_country_iso_tld table. This tells the system which country's suppression table the file should be loaded into.
• DNC file action — either PURGE (replaces all existing data for that country) or APPEND (adds new distinct numbers alongside existing records). On a first load for a country, both options behave the same.
• DNC file layout — tells the processing script what format the file is in and where to find the phone number in each row. The available formats come from the DNC_IMPORT_FORMATS settings container.

Where this fits in your compliance workflow

For teams running campaigns in countries with active National DNC Registry equivalents, this loader is the correct ingestion point. You obtain the country's DNC file from the regulatory body or a third-party data provider, upload it here, and VICIdial takes care of scrubbing every subsequent lead import against it. There is no need to pre-filter files before uploading to the dialer. The tool is designed to handle that inside the system, keeping the audit trail in one place rather than scattered across external spreadsheets or manual database edits.

For the full picture of bulk admin tools in VICIdial, including lead list operations and other batch controls, read our VICIdial admin bulk tools guide. For the step-by-step upload process, see how to upload and load a country DNC list in bulk.

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