July 2023 Summaries

The article provides a step-by-step guide on how to create a Flutter application that makes a voice call to a physical phone using the Vonage Android and iOS SDKs. The process involves setting up a free Vonage Developer account, installing the Vonage CLI, purchasing a Vonage number, creating a webhook server, and linking the number with a Vonage application. The article also covers the installation of the Vonage client SDK for both Android and iOS, as well as the setup of permissions and authentication in the native code. With this guide, developers can create a fully functional app-to-phone-flutter that allows users to make voice calls using the Vonage Voice API.

The Vonage developer portal offers a range of powerful tools for developers, including the online JWT Generator, which enables seamless creation of JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) for Vonage applications. The generator is an intuitive tool that empowers developers to instantly generate JWTs, streamlining the setup process and making it easier to test Vonage applications. To create a JWT, developers can follow simple steps, including accessing their Vonage dashboard, retrieving their application ID, obtaining their private key, opening and verifying the private key, and generating a JWT with the generator. The online JWT Generator also offers features such as effortless JWT authentication, comprehensive guide on secure authentication with JWTs, and bonus features like setting JWT permissions. Additionally, the Vonage developer community provides resources for developers to collaborate, share insights, and exchange knowledge.

This article discusses design systems, their importance, and how they can benefit organizations by providing a common language for designers and developers to communicate and creating reusable components that ensure brand uniformity and save development time. The author shares their experience building a design system at Vonage, which was initially based on Material Design but was later revamped to be more scalable and accessible. The article highlights the importance of identifying core concerns in an organization, such as scalability, cross-framework uniformity, and accessibility, and how a well-implemented design system can address these challenges. It also emphasizes the need for collaboration between designers and developers and provides examples of tools like Figma and web components that can facilitate this process. Ultimately, the article encourages readers to try out design systems like Vivid and share their experiences in order to build a better understanding of how they can benefit organizations.

We are building a custom disk usage monitoring system that tracks and alerts users when their disk usage exceeds a certain threshold. The system uses Python 3.6+ as the programming language, Vonage Messages API for sending SMS notifications, and psutil library to get disk usage statistics from the server or local development machine. We set up an arbitrary threshold of 50% of disk usage that triggers an alert when exceeded. The system also includes a bonus section on setting up a cron job or scheduled task to run daily for regular disk checks.

The Vonage Video API has introduced Secure Callbacks, a feature that provides an additional layer of security for webhook callback requests, protecting against unauthorized callbacks and ensuring compliance with specific industry requirements. To enable this feature, developers can toggle the Secured Callback slider button to "on" in the Project Settings section of their video project, and configure their callback URL and signature secret. Secure Callbacks verifies the authenticity of request headers and payloads, including a JWT that includes a signature secret corresponding to the `api_key` included in the JWT claims. This ensures that requests originate from Vonage and have not been tampered with during transit, defending against intercept and replay attacks.

The Number Insight API v2 offers fraud prevention features to protect users from fraudulent activities, particularly phone number-related scams. It uses artificial intelligence to analyze phone data and user behavior, providing a fraud score that indicates the likelihood of fraudulent behavior associated with a specific phone number. The API also detects SIM card swapping, which is a form of fraud where a bad actor tricks a mobile network operator into transferring a victim's phone number to a new SIM card they control. By incorporating these features into account sign-up or registration processes, organizations can preemptively identify potential red flags and create a safer environment for their users.

You've learned how to confirm SMS delivery using Vonage's Messages API with a Python application built using Flask. You created a webhook for SMS delivery receipts, made the webhook URL publicly accessible through ngrok, configured your Vonage account for delivery receipts, and sent an SMS to test delivery reports in Python. This tutorial demonstrates how to include delivery receipts as a critical feature in large-scale applications when working with SMS messages.

The Vonage DevRel team has released several game-changing features in 2023, including the Live Captions API in beta, new client SDKs for Android and iOS, enhanced 2FA solution Verify V2, a revamped Video Toolkit with Secure Callbacks, improved React Native SDK support, and the general availability of the Vonage Cloud Runtime Marketplace. Additionally, MongoDB Atlas can be seamlessly integrated with Vonage APIs to build sophisticated applications, offering security, user authentication, and multifaceted communication capabilities. The team is excited for summer and invites developers to follow them on Twitter and join their Community Slack group for feedback and updates.

This is a summary of creating a SwiftUI application that uses the Vonage Client SDK for iOS to make calls to a specified phone number. The application has three parts: the Vonage application, the webhook server, and the iOS application. The Vonage application requires two URLs, an answer_url and an event_url, which are used to handle incoming and outgoing calls. The webhook server exposes two URLs that return a Call Control Object with instructions for Vonage to connect the app to the specified phone number. The iOS application creates a new project in Xcode, installs the Vonage Client SDK as a dependency, and sets up the model class to handle delegate calls from the Client SDK. The model class also handles microphone permissions, logging in as the Alice user with the Client SDK, and implementing required delegate functions for voice client events. Finally, the application creates a SwiftUI view that displays the status of the Client SDK and allows the user to enter a phone number, start a call, or end a call.

Vonage is excited to return to Berlin for the WeAreDevelopers World Congress in July, building on last year's success with a focus on content this time around. The company will have a booth in Hall A at Stand #50, featuring a disco party theme and offering interactive experiences, including demo stations and giveaways. Vonage will also deliver fresh content from the Micro Stage, including sessions by Senior PHP Developer Advocate Jim Seconde and Software Engineering Director Max Mednikov, covering topics such as Communications APIs and serverless cloud development. The event promises to be fun and engaging, with a variety of activities and opportunities for attendees to learn and network. Vonage is encouraging everyone to attend, with exclusive discounts available for ticket holders who use the code WWC23-FRIENDS10.