April 2014 Summaries

Introducing Request Replay: An Easier Way To Debug and Deploy Your Twilio Apps`, a new feature from Twilio, aims to make developing and debugging applications easier by allowing developers to replay failed requests and compare them side-by-side. This feature provides insight into the response of web servers and TwiML execution, enabling developers to reproduce problematic requests and debug issues in context. With Request Replay, developers can access a log of all requests made to their application, replay failed requests against different endpoints, and test production requests against development servers, ultimately streamlining the debugging process.

The Vodafone Foundation Wireless Innovation Project Competition has selected eight finalists who are using wireless technologies to address global challenges such as water scarcity, disaster communications, and remote health care access. These projects utilize innovative mobile devices and technologies, including unmanned aerial vehicles, smartphone attachments, and satellite networks, to make a significant impact in various regions of the world. The top three winners will receive a share of the $500,000 grant, with the announcement scheduled for the Social Innovation Summit 2014 at the United Nations Plaza on May 28-29.

Twilio has introduced Canadian Short Codes, allowing businesses to reach millions of customers in North America using one API. These 5 or 6 digit phone numbers enable faster text messaging with a higher bandwidth rate of 30 messages per second or higher. With Twilio's dedicated Short Code Operations Team handling the carrier approval process, businesses can now navigate the short code approval process more easily. Companies like PayByPhone are already benefiting from using Twilio Short Codes to expand their global reach and provide consistent brand experiences across borders.

In this article, Devin Rader explains how to build a simple group messaging application using ASP.NET MVC and Twilio. The application allows users to join a group by sending the command "START" to a specified phone number, and then forwards any messages sent to that number to all other members in the group. The application uses Entity Framework 6 for data storage and includes features such as member subscription and message forwarding. Devin provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up the application using Visual Studio 2013, .NET 4.5, ASP.NET MVC 5, and EntityFramework 6, as well as the Twilio .NET Helper Library. The article concludes by highlighting potential extensions to the application, such as requiring a PIN for joining, allowing members to set display names, and handling messages longer than 140 characters.

The author, Jarod Reyes, explains how to add SMS functionality to a web app using the Twilio Platform, which requires only four lines of code. He provides examples in PHP, Ruby, Node.js, Python, C#, and Java. The article discusses how Twilio works, including sending outbound messages and receiving inbound messages with TwiML instructions. The author also covers basic setup, installing helper libraries, and using the REST API to send and receive SMS messages. Additionally, he mentions various use cases for SMS capabilities, such as two-factor authentication, notifications, proactive alerts, mobile app distribution, and more.

This application uses Twilio's Voice and SMS services to accept incoming text messages and record voicemail messages. The recorded audio is then saved to a MongoDB database, along with other metadata such as the caller's phone number, location, and message content. The application also includes an admin interface for moderating and displaying messages, as well as an AngularJS-powered front end for user interaction. Additionally, Rev.com's transcription APIs can be used to provide accurate human-powered transcriptions of voicemail messages. The application is built using node.js, Express, mongoose, Less CSS, browserify, AngularJS, Buzz, Heroku, and MongoHQ.

PagerDuty has launched a new notification flow powered by Twilio Voice and SMS to intelligently respond to incidents. The company's Multi-User Alerting feature allows teams to set up escalation plans, alerting specific individuals via various channels such as voice calls, SMS, emails, or push notifications. This enables companies to work efficiently with their team members' individual preferences, reducing incident resolution times and increasing reliability. By integrating with IT monitoring tools and following the predefined escalation plan, PagerDuty aims to eliminate chaos and noise in incident management, ensuring that the right people are alerted at the right time.

The Engineering The Customer Experience Roadshow is a series of events that will take place across several cities starting May 13th. The event aims to provide technical training, industry insight, and software-focused communication solutions to help businesses improve their customer experience. Industry thought leaders such as Forrester Research and Twilio customers will share their expertise on topics like streamlining business communications, avoiding carrier negotiations, and using mobile applications to enhance customer interactions. The roadshow schedule includes stops in Atlanta, London, Chicago, New York, Santa Monica, and San Francisco, with limited spaces available for registration. Attendees can expect a half-day workshop featuring market insight, thought leader presentations, and hands-on training on Twilio-powered use cases.

Feed FM is a service that provides popular music for hold music, aiming to make it less boring. They offer an API and integrate with Twilio to allow developers to easily add music to their apps and websites. Feed FM's Music as a Service philosophy aims to improve customer experience through music. A demo shows how to integrate Feed FM's database into a Twilio app using the TwiML markup language, allowing developers to create a hold queue that plays requested music instead of default Twilio hold music. The integration involves requesting music from Feed FM's API and generating a TwiML document to instruct Twilio to play the song. A node script is used to request music, generate a TwiML document, and cache client IDs for authentication purposes. The final implementation sticks together all the pieces and includes a server-side cache to map caller phone numbers to client IDs.

Twilio's DOer of the Month feature profiles a developer or company that is using Twilio in innovative ways. The featured developer, Mike Turner, co-founded an IT company called TurnKey IT Solutions and created Staff Guardian, a tool for lone workers to send SOS alerts to their managers via Twilio. Mike Turner was inspired to start coding at the age of 11 and has been working with Twilio since 2012, integrating its technology into his project Staff Guardian. The tool uses Twilio's say verb to automatically call and text the manager, providing a vital service for lone workers who work overnight shifts or alone.

Brent Schooley, a Twilio Developer Evangelist, recently joined the Philadelphia tech community after working as a Technical Evangelist for Infragistics. He was inspired by his experience helping a group of developers build a content management system (CMS) for startups in Philadelphia, which showcased the power of collaboration and knowledge sharing among developers. Schooley is excited to work with the community in Philadelphia, leveraging Twilio's platform to help solve real-world problems. The city has a thriving tech scene, with various coworking facilities, successful software businesses, and innovative projects like Club OS and the Philadelphia Police Department's SMS tip system. As a Developer Evangelist, Schooley aims to meet and collaborate with developers, helping them build great applications using Twilio and fostering a sense of community in the process.

The engineering team at Twilio has issued a customer security notice regarding the Heartbleed vulnerability in OpenSSL's handling of heartbeat packets. The company has conducted a comprehensive security review and found that its public services are not secured by a version of OpenSSL with the Heartbleed vulnerability. However, some customers may be using hosting providers or OpenSSL deployments that are affected. Twilio is urging its customers to audit their service providers and check for vulnerable versions of OpenSSL. If the hosting provider or OpenSSL deployment was not affected, there is no further action needed. But if it was, customers should follow a series of steps to secure the vulnerability, including repairing any vulnerable systems, resetting their Auth Tokens, and changing their Twilio passwords. The company has also issued new SSL certificates for twilio.com as a precautionary step and has updated its Twilio Client iOS SDK to eliminate the affected version of OpenSSL.

delivery.com has bridged the gap between dry cleaners and users by integrating Twilio SMS into their service, allowing for easier communication and automation. The company's goal was to make laundry delivery more convenient for customers, while also providing a new way for dry cleaners to get more business. With 95% of their cleaners receiving orders via Twilio calls or SMS, the integration has been successful in reducing hassles for both parties. This technology is part of a larger campaign by delivery.com to automate real-world problems and take on new challenges, with plans to expand into other areas.

Chad Stachowicz, a manager of an enterprise call center with 5,500 seats, needed to conduct a large-scale load test on the call center's infrastructure before deploying new hardware. He initially tried traditional methods but faced high costs and failed tests, resulting in $15,000 in expenses. To find a workaround, Chad used Twilio's API to create a call that simulated 350 calls, achieving his goal at a fraction of the cost, saving his employer thousands of dollars. This experience led to new ideas for using Twilio Queue to improve call center efficiency and proactive SMS alerts to prevent long hold times.

Django is a popular Python web framework used for building web applications, and it's often referred to as "batteries included" due to the many features that come with it out-of-the-box. In this article, Paul Hallett builds a simple SMS message application using Django and Twilio, a cloud communication platform. The goal is to link a Twilio phone number to a Django web application, respond to an SMS message with some basic TwiML, and use twilio-python to build responses pythonically. The author uses Django-twilio, a collection of decorators for views that return TwiML or receive information from Twilio, to make the code cleaner and more secure. The article covers topics such as CSRF exemption, Twilio-specific secure solutions, and discovering Twilio content in the request. Ultimately, the author demonstrates how to build complex systems that leverage the telephony system using Django and Twilio.

The world has changed significantly since the 90s, with high-speed data connections becoming prevalent. Today, we are on the brink of the API revolution, where software developers can "plug in" and use services offered by companies like Twilio. The Nordic APIs Tour aims to bring together an API provider community to learn about needs and harness the power of connected software and services. A comprehensive agenda will be shared across four countries in April, featuring speakers with global business experience. The events are scheduled for March 31st - April 3rd, offering a valuable opportunity for developers to learn from industry experts.