July 2021 Summaries

Flask and FastAPI are two popular Python microframeworks used for building APIs and web applications. While both are stripped-down frameworks with faster development time and flexibility, they differ in their reliability, testing, and documentation support. Flask has been battle-tested and widely used, but is slightly less reliable than FastAPI, which is a newer framework known for its speed and built-in support like Pydantic and SwaggerUI. Both frameworks have similar installation processes, but FastAPI requires Uvicorn for faster performance. With FastAPI's automatic documentation, data validation, and asynchronous server capabilities, it offers advantages in development time, performance, and bug reduction. Ultimately, the choice between Flask and FastAPI depends on individual project needs, with Flask suitable for battle-tested frameworks, prototyping, and web application development, while FastAPI is ideal for speed, API building from scratch, and reducing errors.

The Vonage Video API team has released a new version of the Vonage Video Client SDK, v2.20 (formerly TokBox OpenTok), which includes several new features to improve video sharing quality and moderation capabilities. The `contentHint` feature provides an additional level of improvement to video and screen sharing quality by helping the encoder prioritize either high frame rate for motion-rich content or high image quality to emphasize details. This feature is available for Web and coming soon to Native SDKs, allowing developers to direct the browser to use one of several encoding methods to better tailor rendering for the type of content. Additionally, the team has introduced a new moderation capability called `forceMuteAll` which allows hosts to mute all publishers in a session, as well as support for the Unified Plan and Plan B session discovery protocols, which will be phased out by Google in August 2021. The new features are now available to Vonage Video API customers running on the Standard Environment, with plans to release them to the Enterprise Environment in the coming weeks.

Callspot is a SaaS call analytics platform that helps businesses convert their web visitors into sales calls by providing features such as Call-me-now, which drives relevant traffic to the website and engages visitors in real-time voice conversations, Call-scheduling, which allows visitors to schedule callbacks for the next day, and Call-Analytics, which provides insights on caller behavior. The company was founded in 2020 with a focus on reducing sales time and increasing efficiency for both companies and customers. Despite facing challenges such as mental fatigue and the COVID-19 pandemic, Callspot has made progress since its launch, including developing intelligent algorithms to pre-qualify visitors and engage them in real-time voice conversations. With plans to grow into new markets, expand its customer base, and develop more features, Callspot aims to become a leading call management software that helps businesses communicate faster and more personally with their potential customers.

SMS is a standardized service for sending short messages over wireless networks using standardized communication protocols. The first SMS message was sent by Neil Papworth on December 3, 1992, to his co-worker Richard Jarvis. Today, over four billion people send text messages every year, and companies increasingly use them to reach their customers due to their convenience and high open rates. Companies also use SMS for two-factor authentication, mobile marketing, customer service, alerts, and reminders. The SMS standard allows sending 160 characters of text or 70 characters in Unicode, but longer messages are broken into multiple shorter ones. SMS messages do not go directly to the recipient's phone, instead they first get sent to a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which looks up the recipient and sends the message to them. MMS is another technology for sending multimedia content over wireless networks, and OTT applications like iMessage and WhatsApp are examples of "Over the Top" or instant messaging that do not require cellular network connectivity. SMS has several advantages over OTT applications, including being able to send messages to anyone with a phone number and not relying on internet connectivity. The Vonage SMS API documentation is available for those who want to send SMS messages programmatically in just a few lines of code.

This tutorial demonstrates how to make phone calls to a Dialogflow agent using a Vonage WebSockets integration, allowing developers to build conversational user interfaces with natural language understanding capabilities. To accomplish this, users must create a Dialogflow agent, set up a service account for authentication and access control, and integrate the Vonage Voice API with the Dialogflow Reference Connection. The tutorial covers various deployment options, including ngrok and Heroku, and provides step-by-step instructions for setting up the Dialogflow Voice API Sample Application. Additionally, users can improve their Dialogflow agent by adding intents, entities, and responses to create a more conversational experience. The final step involves calling the phone number linked to the Voice API application and interacting with the Dialogflow Agent to test the entire setup.

This tutorial helps users build a virtual business phone using Google Cloud Functions and Vonage APIs. The system allows users to receive calls on their virtual number while keeping their personal number private. It also enables users to make calls from their virtual number, capturing the destination number via DTMF input for connecting with a specific phone number. The system is built using two call directions: receiving a call through the virtual number and making a call from the virtual number to another phone number. The tutorial covers the prerequisites, including setting up a Google Cloud Platform account, creating a Vonage API account, and purchasing a virtual phone number. It also provides an example code snippet that demonstrates how to build the proxy-calling service using Node.js and Express.js.

The management of datastores has traditionally been handled by specialist teams, requiring significant setup and maintenance work, which can be challenging for microservices with frequent changes. To address this, the VCC technology team adopted a self-service model using automation, enabling teams to carry out many tasks themselves, such as creating and managing their own datastores, making schema changes, securing data changes, and supporting their store. This approach aims to reduce the workload of centralized teams and provide faster and less costly changes for feature teams, while focusing on higher-value tasks for the datastore team. The team has implemented a self-service strategy using automation tools, such as AWS Aurora MySQL, and is planning to add more capabilities, including secure low-friction data access and detailed query analysis, to further improve the benefits of this approach.

When developing a video conferencing solution, it's crucial to provide a good pre-call experience by allowing users to choose audio and video devices, ensuring microphone detection, and verifying network strength. Implementing moderation is also essential in certain applications like health, education, or webinars. The sample app covers moderation, device selection, and pre-call best practices. It uses Node.js Express for the server-side and Webpack with Bootstrap for client-side development. The application logic is handled by Host and Participant classes, which leverage additional files to improve code readability. Device selection is implemented in both views using the MediaDevices API, and a pre-call test is run on participants to ensure connectivity and quality. A progress bar is used to indicate the status of the test, and the results provide recommended resolutions and MOS scores. The completed project is available on GitHub for further exploration.

The global virtual events market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.2% from 2020 to 2027, driven by the increasing importance of online communities and events during the pandemic. Airfair, a startup aiming to create an all-in-one engagement platform, aims to provide software for running virtual events and engaging audiences all year round through personalized social experiences. With a focus on creating a unified platform that combines various tools and features into one, Airfair differentiates itself from competitors by offering a comprehensive solution for event organizers, digital native communities, and tech companies. The company has secured funding from Partech and several business angels and is currently recruiting a team of 15 employees to help achieve its ambitious goals, including becoming the de-facto platform for engaging audiences online within three years.

The Vonage SMS API service allows developers to send and receive SMS messages globally, with a Java SDK providing an easier-to-use alternative to REST APIs. The tutorial builds on existing knowledge of sending SMS messages with Java, creating a web service around it using Gradle, Gretty, and the Vonage Java SDK. The process involves setting up a Gradle project, downloading the Vonage Java SDK, building a web service, and configuring the servlet in the servlet container. The resulting web service can be tested using Postman, allowing developers to send SMS messages with their chosen virtual phone number and API credentials.

The application built using Flutter and Vonage Video SDKs enables video calls between two devices, showcasing the potential of cross-platform development with Flutter as the foundation for managing and displaying the UI and containing the application logic. The integration of Flutter and Vonage Video is smooth despite a few drawbacks, allowing developers to quickly create full-fledged apps that run on Android and iOS devices without relying on native packages.

This WebSocket server can handle both text and binary messages, allowing for bi-directional and real-time communication between the client and server. The Java API for WebSockets (JSR 356) provides a specification that enables developers to integrate WebSockets into their applications without being tied to a specific container's implementation. The server uses Gretty as an embedded servlet container, which can be configured to use Tomcat as the underlying container. The WebSocket endpoint is created using the `@ServerEndpoint` annotation and handles incoming messages with the `@OnMessage` annotation, allowing for echo-like behavior. A client application written in HTML and JavaScript is also provided to test the server's functionality.

The Vonage JavaScript Client SDK has released version 8.0 with several changes and additions aimed at improving data retrieval and accessibility. The Conversation.members Map is being deprecated in favor of new functions such as getMembers(), which returns a paginated list of Members, while getMember() retrieves information for a specific Member by its ID. Additionally, the new getMyMember() function provides easy access to the local user's Member information in the Conversation.

I am Nick, a new member of the Writing Team at Vonage, having joined in mid-May 2021. I have been learning about the company's agile-based Docs as Code pipeline and looking forward to contributing to it. Born in Yorkshire, UK, I currently live in Sussex and enjoy playing sports, chess, and other hobbies. My background includes working as a scientist, transitioning into IT, and later becoming a consultant and contractor for various clients, including major companies like Intel and Unilever. I am excited about the opportunity to bring my experience to Vonage and work with lean technology for document management. I believe that documentation should be recorded, collaborated on, and shared, rather than lost or hidden.

<|fim_end|>`<|fim_start|>`<|fim_end|>`<|fim_start|>`<|fim_end|>` This tutorial aims to guide developers through the process of integrating ShazamKit with the Vonage Client SDK for iOS to detect music playing and send a message to a chat. The tutorial requires an Apple Developer account, Xcode 13, Cocoapods, and a Vonage API account. It covers setting up a Vonage application, cloning an iOS project, authenticating the client SDK, enabling ShazamKit, detecting music, creating an audio buffer, and implementing the SHSessionDelegate to receive updates. The tutorial concludes by providing instructions on how to build and run the project on both an iOS device and simulator.