January 2022 Summaries

The new version of Rails, version 7.0, marks a significant departure from its predecessors, offering a more unified application architecture that eliminates the need for heavy-weight front-end frameworks or custom JavaScript code to provide a reactive user experience in the browser. The introduction of Hotwire, which combines Turbo, Stimulus, and Strada libraries, aims to simplify front-end development by abstracting away complexity through innovative conventions and integrations with existing Rails features like ActionCable and ActiveRecord. This approach provides a more Rails-y experience, aligning closely with the framework's doctrine of optimizing for programmer happiness.

The Vonage PHP Server SDK has undergone significant changes with this major release, which aims to simplify the library while considering a change in team ownership. The library now tracks the PHP language release lifecycle and supports PHP8.1, dropping support for versions 7.2 and 7.3. The branching strategy has been altered, and array accessors have been removed, replaced with getters and setters. Other deprecated interfaces, such as jsonSerialize and jsonUnserialize, have also been removed. The Vonage\Call client has been replaced with the Vonage\Voice client, and some minor changes have been made to improve code quality and support for modern PHP frameworks and logging standards. The library's maintenance is expected to change, with a focus on regular releases and increased transparency.

The DotSlash 5.0 hackathon was organized by Vonage and the Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, which challenged student developers in India to build applications that are useful for society. Over 1,600 students participated in the 36-hour event, designing and building 117 impressive projects on various challenging problems such as road safety, smart city management, developer tools, tech for everyone, personal growth & well-being, among others. The hackathon provided an opportunity for developers to learn from each other and gain hands-on experience with various APIs, including the Vonage Video Express and Video API. Two winning teams, CodeTogether and Mozart DevTool, showcased their projects which utilized these APIs to create innovative applications that addressed real-world problems, such as collaborative coding and task management. The hackathon was a success, providing a platform for student developers to learn, grow, and make a positive impact on society.

The evolution of communications technology has brought numerous benefits to businesses that leverage these technologies, but it also creates opportunities for malicious actors to exploit changes in technological trends. One such example is the increase in SMS 2FA fraud, where fraudsters use Premium Rate numbers or virtual numbers created by them to route non-legitimate traffic through 2FA systems. To mitigate this type of fraudulent activity, businesses can implement various measures, including rate limiting and input validation. By checking a customer's mobile number against certain pre-set parameters, such as country codes or prefixes, businesses can prevent Premium Rate numbers from being used in the 2FA verification process. Additionally, using the Vonage Number Insights API to obtain information on a customer's mobile number can help identify potentially fraudulent numbers. Furthermore, contributing to robust routing data via the Vonage Conversion API can provide longer-term and more overarching mitigation against SMS 2FA fraud. By implementing these measures, businesses can reduce the risk of falling victim to this type of fraudulent activity.

This is an exciting time for developers and customers alike at Vonage as we look forward to delivering a successful 2022. Last year was challenging but also had its highlights, including the introduction of new features such as Vonage Video Express, which provides a quick and easy way to integrate multiparty video into web applications. The Vonage AI studio is another exciting development, offering a low-code/no-code conversation designer that empowers developers and non-developers to create customer engagement applications in natural language. Additionally, the company has addressed regulatory changes with 10DLC guidelines and is expanding its capabilities for conversational commerce through features like Payments over the Phone and Messages API improvements, including new WhatsApp capabilities.

I'm Lucinda, excited to join my first tech company as part of an expert team. With a background in events management and experience in community building, particularly with women in tech, I'm eager to leverage my skills in process-driven organization and people-first approach to help build a thriving developer community. In my free time, I enjoy staying fit, listening to podcasts, reading, and spending time with my dog, while also being open to new experiences and recommendations. I'm looking forward to immersing myself in the tech world and making it official as a full-time job.

The Messages API is being integrated into the Client SDK to enable a straightforward method for customers to communicate with applications via Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, and more. A sample web application has been created that can send and receive messages from a Facebook page and its Messenger. The process involves creating a Facebook page, setting up the sample web application, linking the Facebook page to the Vonage application, and verifying permissions. When a user sends a message to the Facebook page, it is sent to the web application's inbound webhook, which returns an object that lets Vonage know how to handle the message. The web application's backend takes this event and repackages it as a custom event to notify the agent's dashboard to display the new conversation. The chat application has a message event listener that fires when a message is received from the Facebook User and updates the UI accordingly.

Stickers are visual artifacts used in WhatsApp chats, similar to emojis but with larger images. Anyone can create custom third-party sticker packs, which can be a novel way to build brand awareness and customer engagement. To publish a custom sticker pack, developers need to create a sticker app, release it to the Google Play store or Apple App Store, and follow specific requirements for sizing and format. Once published, customers can download and use stickers in their WhatsApp chats. Developers can provision stickers for use by their WhatsApp Business Account using the Vonage WhatsApp Provisioning API, which requires provisioning a WhatsApp deployment first. The process involves sending POST requests to specific endpoints with required data, such as the sticker pack name and publisher information. Once stickers are provisioned, developers can send them in WhatsApp messages using the Vonage Messages API by making a POST request with the sticker id.

The new standard for Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging in the US, 10-Digit Long Code (10DLC), is designed to support higher volumes of text messages and improve deliverability, with benefits including reduced spamming and misuse. Long codes, which were previously used for person-to-person communication, are now being phased out for A2P traffic, forcing businesses to use short codes instead. The introduction of 10DLC aims to cut down on spamming and intrusive activities, while offering a cost-effective option for customers to migrate off US shared short codes. Businesses must register with the carrier networks (Brand Registration) and specify the type of messages they are sending (Campaign Registration) in order to comply with the new rules, which may incur additional fees from carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

Waape is a Ugandan startup that aims to make hiring underrepresented African freelancers more accessible for startups and SMEs through its digital talent marketplace platform, built on diversity, equity, and inclusion principles with cutting-edge technology. The company was initially founded as a talent agency but pivoted after realizing the need to balance efforts between employers and freelancers, overcoming challenges such as running virtual training sessions during the pandemic. With over 500 users and 100 employers on its platform, Waape plans to create 100,000 job opportunities in three years and expand to cities across Africa.

In this summary, we built a core feature of a social CRM using Django and Vonage Messages API. We created two apps: `lead_manager` to manage leads and `conversation` for sales agents to communicate with potential customers on Facebook in real-time. We set up a WebSocket consumer in the `conversation` app to enable communication between SalesFox agents and leads in real-time. We also created a property method `messages` for the `Lead` model to return all incoming and outgoing messages of a lead. Additionally, we defined URL configurations for both apps and created frontend files with HTML templates and CSS stylesheets. Finally, we got SalesFox running locally by setting up an HTTP tunnel with Ngrok, defining environment variables, and updating the Vonage application page.