October 2015 Summaries

A developer builds a spooky Halloween-themed hackpack using Arduino, littleBits, and Laravel to create an interactive display that changes based on incoming SMS messages. The hackpack features two images: a bat and a ghost, which are displayed with blinking eyes. The developer uses PHP in Laravel to communicate with Twilio and the littleBits Cloud API, allowing users to send text messages to update the display. The Arduino code reads input from the cloudBit device and updates the display accordingly. The hackpack is completed by integrating the Laravel backend with the Arduino frontend using the littleBits Cloud API.

The author of the article, Ricky Robinett, created an app using PHP, Guzzle, and the SeatGeek API to track World Series ticket prices and receive notifications when prices drop. The app uses Twilio to send text messages with a reminder to buy tickets when it detects a price drop. To build this application, the author used Composer to manage dependencies, initialized a Guzzle client, and made requests to the SeatGeek API to retrieve data about upcoming Royals games. The app stores previous values in a file and compares them to current values to detect a price drop, triggering an SMS notification when it happens. The script is set up to run every hour as a cronjob.

Twilio has partnered with the FbStart program, a initiative by Facebook to support mobile developers, to provide them with tools and resources needed to launch and scale their apps. The partnership offers personalized credits to companies at different stages of growth, ranging from $250 for pre-launch to $2,500 for accelerate stage. This collaboration aims to support the growing mobile and web ecosystem by providing access to Twilio's suite of communication services, as well as other tools on the FbStart platform. By joining FbStart, Twilio is helping developers solve hard problems and find their niche in the massive app landscape, thereby reducing the time and cost associated with finding the right services for their apps.

The four most popular Ruby HTTP libraries, net/http, HTTParty, rest-client, and Faraday, are compared in terms of their convenience, stability, and control over the request/response cycle. Net/http is built into the Ruby standard library but requires more work to use. HTTParty adds convenience methods and works well with RESTful APIs, while rest-client also offers a simple interface but still requires the JSON library for parsing. Faraday provides customization options and control over the middleware, allowing developers to choose from seven HTTP clients. Each library has its strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of which one to use depends on the specific needs of the project.

This article explains how to integrate Twilio Monitor with HipChat, a collaboration tool. To do this, three steps are required: create a HipChat room for the alerts system, establish a way to programmatically post messages to the HipChat room, and configure Twilio Monitor to make webhook calls to expose alerts in the HipChat room. The process involves creating a PHP page that receives and responds to Twilio webhooks, converts the Twilio alert parameters into a JSON object suitable for posting to HipChat, and sends this message to the HipChat API using curl. Ngrok is used to expose the local server to the internet, allowing Twilio to call the PHP page when an error occurs in the application. The final step involves configuring Twilio Monitor to trigger webhooks to the PHP page, which posts messages to the HipChat room, providing a real-time monitoring and alerting system for Twilio applications.

Michael Seid has built Text Nina, a simple text-based to-do list service that uses Twilio SMS, allowing users to easily remember tasks without having to download an app. The service operates with just a few lines of code and is designed to be unintrusive, using a phone number interface instead of traditional app features. As the CTO of Naytev, Seid aimed to create an alternative to list apps that are often cluttered and overwhelming, by providing a clean and simple solution for managing tasks.

There are no days off for Unicef and Greenpeace as they tackle critical global issues, relying on donations to continue their work. To power their donation campaigns, these organizations rely on a network of communications technology, including Twilio-powered Nubitalk, which built out contact centers in Brazil using Twilio Elastic SIP Trunking and WebRTC. With a pay-as-you-go model, Nubitalk enabled cost-effective deployment without prohibitive SIP contracts or outsourcing. For Unicef, this resulted in a fully operational call center in just one day, with agents using WebRTC to make calls from the browser and access donor information easily.

In this post, Devin Rader demonstrates how to add audio controls to the BasicPhone app using Twilio Client for iOS with Swift. The app now allows users to send input tones (DTMF tones) from the device microphone and control the audio output by muting the device microphone and swapping the audio output. The user can select a song to hear, and then toggle the speaker to play it through the built-in speaker and microphone. Additionally, the app includes a feature to mute the user's voice while on call, allowing them to speak into their computer microphone without being heard in the cell phone. The post concludes by highlighting potential future features for the app, such as sending parameters to Twilio from the iOS app, detecting network connectivity, and creating a more beautiful UI.

TalkingPoints is using code as a universal language to connect parents and teachers across language barriers by translating outgoing messages from teachers into the parent's desired language and vice versa. The platform aims to be the Rosetta Stone of educational communication, connecting parents and teachers through common denominators such as SMS, which is ubiquitous, immediate, and allows parents to text in their own language. By using this form of communication, TalkingPoints is working to overcome translation issues and make it possible for low-income, multicultural communities to participate in their child's education. The platform is currently competing in the Google Impact Challenge with a $500,000 prize on the line.

In this article, Phil Nash explores how to improve the performance of a Rails application by moving long-running tasks away from the request itself and performing them in the background using Active Job. The author chooses Sidekiq as the queue backend system and demonstrates how to integrate it with Rails. By delaying API calls to Twilio with Rails, Active Job, and Sidekiq, developers can speed up their application's response times, improve user experience, and reduce stress on servers trying to respond to many users at once.

A Java developer creates a standalone voicemail system using Twilio and Apache Tomcat. The system receives incoming calls, records the caller's voice, and sends a text message with a link to listen to the recording. The project involves setting up an environment, creating servlets for handling incoming calls and sending outgoing messages, and configuring account credentials. The developer uses ngrok to make the server publicly accessible. The final application allows users to record voicemails without giving out their real number and can be customized for different types of calls.

Lifesize, a division of Logitech, has successfully transformed itself into a software-first company by leveraging Twilio's Elastic SIP Trunking technology. The company's commitment to the cloud and partnership with best-of-breed providers enabled them to deliver an amazing customer experience, including instant provisioning of local dial-in numbers in nearly 50 countries. Lifesize's SaaS offering, Lifesize Cloud, has become the fastest-growing product in company history, with over 70,000 paying users in more than 1,700 companies, and has achieved impressive metrics such as accelerated sales cycles, higher customer satisfaction, and lower churn rates. The use of Twilio's Elastic SIP Trunking technology allowed Lifesize to scale quickly and easily integrate PSTN connectivity into their solution, making it a key differentiator for the company.

Twilio Monitor offers detailed visibility into Twilio operations and applications, allowing users to visualize and examine relevant data. It provides a REST resource called Events that gathers granular details of phone number history, including creation, deletion, and updates. This feature enables users to track changes, audit numbers, and store data for as long as needed. With Monitor, users can access event logs, filter events by resource SID, and query for specific information such as event date, actor SID, and event type. The tool also allows users to dynamically fetch event information, correlate data from other internal systems, and troubleshoot applications more efficiently.

The Particle Photon is a Wi-Fi development kit for creating connected projects and products for the Internet of Things (IoT). It has a small footprint, measuring only 1.44 x 0.8 inch in size, making it suitable for hiding behind devices or in hard-to-reach areas. The Photon has 18 digital pins and 10 analog pins, as well as a built-in LED that can be controlled using the D7 pin. It also features a web-based IDE that allows users to send OTA updates remotely. With its low cost of $19, the Photon is an attractive option for IoT projects where size and power consumption are important considerations. By following the tutorial provided in this blog post, users can learn how to connect their Photon to a computer, flash programs, build forms to control devices, and automate tasks using the web IDE.

Steve Kollmansberger, a renaissance man with interests in software development and aviation, built a Twilio-powered IVR system for his flying club's phone reservation system using Haskell. The system allows users to call a number, enter their member ID, start date, end date, and aircraft number, and confirms the reservation if it is available. The code utilizes Twilio's IVR capabilities and Haskell's concurrency features to create an efficient and user-friendly experience.

### Getting started with Socket.io: Adding Real Time Events to your Node.js Express App Socket.io is a websocket library for adding bi-directional, event-based communication between your server and client. This allows us to receive and emit events in real time whenever our data changes. To get started with socket.io, we need to have Node.js and npm installed, as well as create a Twilio account and purchase a phone number with Voice capabilities. We then set up the Express server by cloning a GitHub repository and installing Socket.io using npm. The code is then written to connect to Socket.io on the client side and log events that are received from the server. Finally, we modify the call status events route to emit an event with Socket.io whenever we receive an update from Twilio, allowing us to display real-time updates of phone calls in our dashboard app.

Twilio Talks UK Ridesharing In London with DriveNow, GoCarShare, and More` highlights the growing trend of on-demand services in the ride-sharing and car-sharing industry. The event brought together industry specialists from companies like DriveNow, Lyft, and Uber to discuss alternatives to car ownership. Twilio powers SMS communications at key stages of these companies' customer journeys, including registration and car reservations. The discussion touched on behavioral aspects of car sharing, government involvement in the sector, and marketing strategies to influence adoption.

Wisby, a digital services agency with customers worldwide, struggled to overcome time and distance barriers in delivering excellent customer service. Their vendor was inflexible, requiring lengthy setup processes for new numbers in different countries, which resulted in lost business opportunities due to international charges. With the help of Twilio-powered Freshdesk, Wisby can now set up a new call center in just 15 minutes, buy local numbers in any country, and expand into new markets without the hassle of manual dialing and proprietary formats.

Christoffer Klemming, a former Google PMM, used his programming skills to develop an SMS notification system for businesses using AngularJS, Firebase, and Twilio. He created Waitwhile, a service that allows customers to receive texts when they're ready to be served at salons or restaurants. Christoffer shares his tutorial on how to build SMS notifications with AngularJS and Firebase in eight steps, including setting up Firebase, Twilio, and Zapier integrations. The system can be personalized and secured with Firebase security rules, and also supports two-way SMS functionality.

The author of this text, Eddie Zaneski, presents a proposal for ECMAScript 2016 (ES7) that aims to improve the experience with asynchronous programming in JavaScript. The current approach relies heavily on callback functions, which can be difficult to work with and understand. The proposed solution is called Async/Await, which allows developers to write asynchronous code that looks synchronous and uses common programming constructs like return statements. This makes it easier to read and write, while still allowing for the performance benefits of asynchronous I/O operations. The author provides examples of how to use this feature in real-world scenarios, such as making HTTP requests and sending text messages using the Twilio Node.js library.

The developers behind Circly aim to combat the stigma surrounding cancer by creating a support system that encourages friends and family to look out for one another. The service uses Twilio's communication tools to send personalized reminders, such as texts or calls, to users about performing self-checks or adopting healthier habits. By doing so, Circly hopes to create a network of emotional support that can help prevent or work through cancer, rather than perpetuating negative conversations surrounding the disease.