December 2018 Summaries

The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) aims to simplify online payments by opening up the payment ecosystem, but also introduces new regulations such as strong customer authentication. This requires payment service providers to implement dynamic linking, which involves generating unique authentication codes specific to each transaction amount and recipient. The code must be displayed to the payer at the time of the transaction, and any changes to the amount or payee result in invalidation of existing codes. Additionally, payment service providers must adopt security measures to ensure confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of all data exchanged during the authentication process. Proper compliance with PSD2 is crucial for online and mobile commerce to continue growing, and payment service providers must balance security and compliance with user experience and scale.

The Joomla extension XT Twilio for Joomla has been modified to add a first name field to the Contact by SMS module. The modification involves adding code to the module's template, JavaScript file, and PHP plugin file to support the new field. The changes enable users to input their first name when sending an SMS message, which is then sent with the rest of the message to the recipient's phone number via Twilio. The extension can be installed and configured on a Joomla website to provide a more personalized communication channel for customers.

This tutorial guides users through setting up an incoming webhook to forward SMS sent to a Twilio number to a Slack channel using Laravel. The process involves creating a Slack app, enabling incoming webhooks, and integrating the Twilio SDK for PHP in the Laravel application. Users must also require Guzzle dependency, update environment files with the webhook URL, create models, controllers, and endpoints to handle user inputs and send messages to the Slack channel. Additionally, users need to disable CSRF verification and configure a phone number to reply to incoming messages with a webhook. The completed code provides a functional SMS forwarding system from Twilio to Slack.

Twilio is announcing the introduction of CIDR Block support for IP Access Control List (ACL) used in SIP Interfaces and Elastic SIP Trunking products, allowing customers to define an IP address range with a network prefix to improve security and save time. This feature can be easily accessed through both the Console and API, enabling customers to block communications from rogue hosts and making IP ACLs more scalable. The new control also provides a quick and easy way to add or update IP addresses in access control lists, reducing the need for manual intervention.

Magenta, a Python library built by the TensorFlow team, makes it easier to process music and image data. The author of this article started learning how to code as a freshman in college and was fascinated by computers artificially creating music, even publishing a paper on the topic. To generate simple melodies in MIDI format, one can install Magenta using pip or by running an installation script created by the Magenta team. A pre-trained melody model is used, and users can provide a priming melody to generate 8-measure long melodies. The author tried different models, including Lookback RNN and Attention RNN, which provided more structured compositions. Using a MIDI file as a priming melody allows for creating musical collaborations between man and machine. Magenta offers various models to work with, and the author encourages users to explore and train their own models.

This tutorial provides a comprehensive guide to creating a Single Page Application (SPA) using Symfony and Vue.js, coupled with the Twilio API for building a sophisticated application. The author walks through setting up a new project, installing required packages, and configuring Webpack Encore to integrate Vue.js into the Symfony application. They also create a basic landing page and a main component, App.vue, which hosts other components. Additionally, they install the Twilio PHP SDK to generate tokens for API requests. The tutorial concludes with a complete code repository available on GitHub, allowing developers to build their own Twilio-powered applications using Symfony and Vue.js.

Brandon Sherman created an app that sends business cards over SMS using Twilio and Node.js, after realizing he didn't have any with him at a conference. The app listens for keywords sent via SMS and responds with his contact information, allowing him to share selective information with people. To build this app, one needs a Twilio account and phone number, and the Node.js code creates a TwiML MessagingResponse object based on the received keyword. The app was extended at DerbyCon to include tracking who reached out, and Brandon encourages users to explore more possibilities with Twilio's APIs, such as building smart response bots or custom group messaging services.

This article introduces speech recognition in Swift using FlyoverKit and Twilio. To set up the project, developers need to clone the corresponding GitHub repo, install Xcode 10, and run a command to check into the right branch. They also need to add keys to the Info.plist file for microphone usage description. The code initializes libraries, asks for user permission, uses speech detection to find landmarks from an audio input stream, and implements FlyoverKit to drive the experience. The Speech library is used to recognize speech, and a delegate protocol is implemented to handle recognition tasks. The app records audio, measures its progress, and displays the recognized text on a label. Once the recording is complete, the app enables or disables the record button based on the user's permission status.

Twilio Flex is a fully programmable contact center platform that enables the launch of a contact center in minutes, allowing for complete customization through RESTful APIs and React.js UI components. It runs on top of Twilio's secure Super Network infrastructure, scaling elastically to thousands of agents. A free trial account includes 5,000 active user hours, with paid plans starting at $1 per active user hour or $150 per named user per month. The platform offers carrier connectivity and integrations through the Flex Marketplace, where new channels can be added instantly. A video demonstrates how to deploy a contact center using Flex in minutes, showcasing its features and customization options.

Authy offers a backup feature for its two-factor authentication (2FA) tokens, which is an opt-in service that encrypts the accounts before uploading them to the cloud. The password used for encryption is not stored anywhere in their cloud service and must be remembered by the user. Backups are executed through several steps, including salting and running the password through a key derivation function called PBKDF2, using a secure hash algorithm, and encrypting each authenticator key with AES-256 in CBC mode along with a different initialization vector for each account. Restoring Authy keys involves confirming ownership of the original account, receiving a OneCode notification on another device, syncing keys, and providing the backup password to decrypt the keys.

Today we covered an important challenge for all mature applications: internationalization. As you can see, you can bring internationalization to server-side rendering, making your application search engine optimized in every language that you support.

The Arduino MKR GSM 1400 is a development board that combines global GSM connectivity with the functionality of the Arduino Zero, making it an ideal solution for IoT prototyping. The board integrates a modem with a microcontroller, enabling Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication using Twilio Programmable Wireless SIMs. This tutorial demonstrates how to send M2M Commands from the Arduino MKR GSM 1400 to a server written in Go, which plays an audio file saying "hello" when the command is received. The project requires the installation of the MKRGSM library and the Arduino SAMD Boards cores, as well as setting up the Twilio SIM and creating a server using Go and Beep libraries. ngrok is used to bridge the gap between the hardware and software pieces, allowing the M2M Command to be routed from the Twilio SIM to the server running on the machine. The project showcases the potential of the Arduino MKR GSM 1400 for IoT prototyping and provides a foundation for building more complex projects.

By Michelle Glauser, a software engineer since 2012, Michelle aimed to address the lack of diversity in tech teams by helping underrepresented groups transition into careers. She began organizing free coding workshops and later founded Techtonica, a nonprofit providing six months of free tech training with stipends for women and non-binary adults with low incomes. The organization's first cohort started in January 2018, and Michelle eventually found a job as a Community Developer at Twilio, where she leverages her community skills to support the company's community initiatives and engage its members.

Joe Previte's guide details the creation of a Python application that enables users to identify unknown phone numbers using AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, and Twilio APIs. The app functions by receiving a text message sent to a Twilio phone number, which triggers a POST request via the API Gateway to AWS Lambda. The application then processes the phone number from the message, checks its validity, and uses Twilio's Lookup API to find any associated caller name. Results are sent back to the requester using Twilio's SMS API. The setup involves configuring various AWS services and writing Python scripts for parsing phone numbers, sending messages, and checking caller names. The guide provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the necessary environment, including the creation of a deployment package and linking the Twilio number to the AWS setup. The application aims to alleviate the awkwardness of not recognizing a contact by offering a serverless solution for phone number identification.

To build a WhatsApp chatbot, developers can use Twilio, Dialogflow, and PHP. Natural Language Processing (NLP) enables computers to understand human language, allowing for more nuanced interactions. Dialogflow provides a natural language understanding engine that allows users to build conversational interfaces. To set up the project, developers need to create a new directory, install required dependencies, and activate their Twilio sandbox and Dialogflow account. The PHP fulfillment webhook receives user input, processes it, and provides an appropriate response. Developers can test the webhook by sending messages on WhatsApp and observing the responses from the chatbot. With this setup, users can build simple chatbots for various applications, such as restaurant booking or online store support.

Benjamin Lofo's detailed guide explores the integration of Twilio Sync with Laravel to create real-time applications using WebSockets. By leveraging Laravel's Broadcasting feature, developers can efficiently manage Twilio Sync calls, dispatch events, and maintain a synchronized front-end experience. The tutorial outlines the process of setting up a Laravel project, incorporating Twilio's PHP SDK, and enabling broadcasting capabilities. It further explains how to bind Twilio Sync as a service container, create a broadcaster, and manage event broadcasting with SyncStreams, which are noted for their low latency. The guide also provides instructions for setting up authentication methods and configuring environment variables necessary for Twilio's API, as well as deploying a simple front-end implementation to demonstrate real-time event broadcasting. Lofo highlights alternative broadcasting methods like Sync Maps and encourages further exploration of Presence and Private Channels, while providing source code and additional resources for developers interested in extending their applications.

Red is a next-gen programming language inspired by REBOL. It's an imperative and functional language that allows for cross-compiling GUI applications into stand-alone executables about 1 MB in size, making it suitable for developing portable applications. The goal of this project was to build a simple GUI application that sends text messages using Twilio, which is achieved through the use of Red's built-in features and its ability to make POST requests to Twilio's API. The code is written in a concise manner, with most functionality implemented in just 50 lines of code or less. The development process involves installing the Red toolchain, setting up a Twilio account, creating a new project, and writing the application code in a text file named `twilio-sms.red`. The application can be built for different operating systems by changing the target flag during compilation.

In this tutorial, Alex Laird demonstrates how to build a serverless SMS raffle using Python and Twilio. The raffle uses an AWS Lambda function to store entries in a DynamoDB table, with API Gateway routing incoming texts to the Lambda. When ready, another Lambda function chooses winners at random and updates their records in DynamoDB. The tutorial covers setting up AWS roles, creating Lambdas, configuring DynamoDB tables, and integrating Twilio for SMS notifications. With these components in place, users can text a super secret passphrase to enter the raffle, which is then closed and winners are randomly chosen using another Lambda function.

To protect your Twilio account from smishing attacks and unauthorized access, keep your auth token safe, never hard-code keys or tokens, don't push credentials to public repositories, rotate your tokens regularly, create limited-scope tokens, monitor your account, and follow best practices to avoid fraud and phishing by design.

Twilio has now enabled programmable voice participants in video group rooms, allowing customers to add callers from SIP or the PSTN, improving collaboration and call quality. With just a few lines of code, developers can receive phone calls to a Video Group Room from any Twilio phone number, make outbound calls to add Participants, and enable PSTN/SIP participants to share their audio with other connected participants. A new TwiML verb `<Connect>` has been introduced to connect PSTN/SIP callers to Twilio Video Group Rooms, making it easier for developers to integrate this feature into their applications. Pricing for these connections will be based on Programmable Voice rates and Video Group Rooms Participant minute charges. This feature is available today and can be implemented using Twilio's server-side Helper libraries.