June 2016 Summaries

Twilio Lookup is a phonebook REST API that allows developers to check whether a number exists, determine if it can receive text messages, and retrieve carrier data associated with a number. To validate phone numbers using the Twilio Node module, you need to install the Twilio module, set up your account SID and Auth Token, and create a file named lookup.js with a code sample that performs a basic phone number lookup. The basic functionality is free, but carrier lookups require an extra parameter and cost $0.005 per request. You can use this API to determine if a phone number is valid by trying to do a carrier lookup and checking for errors. Twilio Lookup also supports looking up invalid phone numbers and retrieving information from 3rd party data sources via the Twilio Marketplace.

Douglas Olsen, a CIO and entrepreneur, was inspired to build his company Kmunic8 after his mother's personal tragedy led him to focus on improving communication among family and friends. He discovered that there wasn't an existing solution to this problem, so he decided to create one, which would now automate the process of relaying the same message across multiple mediums. With the backing of the TwilioFund, Douglas has the financial support needed to expand his app, with the goal of paying back his mother for her lifetime care and honoring her memory by donating 10% of profits to a relevant charity.

The three developers, along with a 35-year veteran of the NYSE who had never coded before, built three Twilio-powered apps in just hours, including an app that lets users contact their congressional representative via SMS and another that provides real-time stock prices through text messages. The team's creation was made possible by the NYSE's Code Jam event, which brought together developers to build innovative applications using Twilio technology. The apps were built with a focus on community engagement and social impact, with one of the apps even featuring a hotline where users can call "Hodor" and be put on hold by the fictional character from Game of Thrones.

David Prothero provides a comprehensive guide on building an SMS-based app using C#, ASP.NET, and Azure, designed to help users find their federal representatives by ZIP code. The project utilizes Microsoft tools alongside the Twilio API and the Sunlight Foundation's Congress API to process text messages and return representative details. After setting up an ASP.NET MVC project, users install necessary NuGet packages and create a Legislator controller that integrates with the Congress API to fetch data. The app processes incoming messages to extract ZIP codes, queries the API, and formats the response to inform users about their legislators. The guide covers local testing using PowerShell and deployment on Azure, with instructions to configure a Twilio phone number for handling SMS messages. The complete source code is available on GitHub, allowing readers to further customize and deploy their application.

Twilio has released TwiML Bins, which allow users to create simple programmable phone numbers and hotlines without setting up a server. With these bins, developers can build their own hotlines in just five minutes, including one for the popular character Hodor from Game of Thrones. To get started, users need to sign up for a free Twilio account and follow three steps: writing code to respond to text messages and phone calls, buying a programmable phone number, and setting up TwiML bins. The process is easy and can be completed in just five minutes, making it accessible to developers with no prior coding experience. Once set up, users can customize their hotlines to perform various tasks, such as playing audio files or forwarding calls to other numbers.

A developer built an SMS app using Python and Twilio that can retrieve stock prices via a simple HTTP request, allowing users to check stock prices with limited mobile connectivity. The app uses Flask as a microframework, requests for making HTTP requests, and the Twilio helper library to send and receive SMS messages. After setting up the dependencies and creating a basic route, the developer modified the code to include a URL parameter that allows users to request specific stock symbols, retrieve their prices from the Yahoo Finance API, and display the results in an SMS message. The app is then exposed via ngrok to a public URL, allowing it to receive incoming SMS messages from Twilio. With this simple app, users can quickly check stock prices on their mobile devices using only a few bars of signal strength.

The NYSE Code Jam event will take place on Twitch tomorrow, where three developers - David Huerta, Leah Culver, and Rob Spectre - will design, develop, and deploy as many Twilio apps as they can. The event will be live-streamed starting at 9:00 AM EDT, with a focus on breaking down the technologies behind the apps and providing insights on how to build them. The event is being sponsored by Twilio, which is offering its Class A common stock for sale through Goldman Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. Viewers will be able to watch the developers' coding efforts live and learn about the latest developments in developer tools and technologies.

Node.js has a built-in debugger that can make debugging code easier, allowing developers to step through their code line by line, set breakpoints, and examine variables. This enables them to identify and fix errors more efficiently. The debugger provides an interactive environment where developers can inspect the state of their program, making it an essential tool for any developer working with Node.js. By using the built-in debugger, developers can gain a deeper understanding of their code and improve the overall quality of their applications.

The Twilio Conference team has introduced a new feature called Conference Hold, which allows developers to put a call leg on hold while keeping the participant in the conference. This simplifies complex multi-party scenarios by enabling manipulation of participant resources during ongoing calls. The feature can be enabled by updating the properties of a participant resource with optional parameters such as Hold, HoldUrl, and HoldMethod. This enables easier cold transfers in Contact Center scenarios, allowing agents to put customers on hold while transferring them to different departments or agents. Conference Hold is now available in Public Beta and can be experimented with immediately, along with new documentation.

Building a "Dad Joke" SMS Slack Bot in Python involves setting up a development environment with Python, Flask, Twilio, and Slack APIs. The bot will send random Dad jokes to a Slack channel when @mentioned or receive messages from Slack via an outgoing webhook integration. To set up the bot, users need to create a Slack account, obtain a free Twilio account and phone number, and install necessary libraries using pip. They also need to export environment variables for their Slack and Twilio tokens, as well as configure the Flask app to interact with the Slack API and send SMS messages via Twilio. The final step involves integrating the bot with the Slack channel by setting up an outgoing webhook integration and testing the bot's functionality by @mentioning it in a message.

ngrok has introduced a new local traffic routing feature that allows developers to route calls from their ngrok servers to local phone numbers. The author, Kyle Kelly-Yahner, demonstrates how to use this feature by setting up four Twilio phone numbers in different regions (US, EU, AP, and Australia) and playing music from local artists through ngrok's local data centers. To set up each number, the author uses ngrok's routing feature to forward calls to a specific port on their server, where they play a song stored in a "Jams" directory. The author then configures Twilio to route incoming calls to this port, playing the corresponding song for callers. This hack enables developers to test apps with reduced latency and adds a touch of fun with music-themed voice requests.

To be honest, it was the Orlando shootings. It's easy to feel helpless in the aftermath of situations like these, where something's so absolutely broken in our country and we can't do anything about it. I believe in our representative democracy, and after reading about how representatives review communications from their constituents, I concluded that even a single phone call to a Congressperson can create marginal change. It's not much, but if I believe strongly in something, the least I can do is take action to back it up. I created this app because even though it's very easy to look up your senator's phone numbers, the friction is still too high - you need to find the site, enter your information, and place 4 separate phone calls. Instead of doing all that, I'd rather just store this number in my phone, knowing that I can reach all my senators and representatives with one tap.

Twilio was chosen by Air Products, a large company with 22,000 employees, to provide an SMS solution for incident management due to its flexibility and ability to integrate with ServiceNow. The previous on-premise provider couldn't meet their needs, leading to the decision to switch to a cloud-based hosted solution. With Twilio, critical alerts are sent via SMS to the right IT specialists in real-time, allowing them to quickly respond to incidents. The new system has been successful and easy to adopt, with no issues or complaints reported by Air Products.

The SIGNAL experience is coming to London on September 20th, focusing on empowering developers who build the future of communications. The conference will feature technical tutorials and talks from experts in various areas, including Twilio products and coding languages. Talks include building a friendly C3PO bot, learning about ING's massive scale use of Twilio, and constructing a cloud-based contact center using Twilio. The event is set to take place at The Brewery and more updates will be shared as the conference approaches.

This summary highlights the key points of using Server-Sent Events (SSE) with Rails 4 to implement real-time updates, specifically with Authy OneTouch. The author uses SSE to replace polling in a previous tutorial, enabling real-time updates from the server to the client without having to reload the page. To achieve this, they update the controller to use SSE and add a notification mechanism using PostgreSQL's publish-subscribe feature. The updated JavaScript code listens for SSE events instead of polling, providing a seamless user experience. The author notes that Rails 4 can perform real-time updates, but Action Cable in Rails 5 will provide two-way real-time streams for more complex interactions like chat rooms.

To add push notifications to an iOS app using Swift and Twilio Notify, developers need to create a Twilio Credential and provisioning profile for their Apple developer account, configure a Node.js server to authenticate the iOS app, create a Binding for Twilio to send notifications to the device, write code to register the device with APNS, receive notifications from APNS, and run the app on a real device using ngrok to make the Node server accessible. The process involves setting up an iOS app with a barebones project, registering the device with APNS, creating a Device Binding, and sending push notifications using Twilio Notify's Node.js server. With this setup, developers can send cross-platform notifications to their users, making it useful for various applications such as games, social media, and alerting users when new information is available.

A Web Component is being developed using the APIs available in browsers today, specifically for building a video chat widget using Twilio Video. The component will be reusable and can be used anywhere with just two lines of code, linking to it via HTML Imports and Shadow DOM. The project uses Node.js, Chrome, and Twilio credentials to authenticate with the platform. Once built, the component will encapsulate behavior and content, making it a valuable tool for modern web development.