how to send sms from within Twilio programmable voice function - node.js

I have a Twilio function which executes whenever someone calls a certain number. I'm trying to have the function send an sms. It's not working, but I'm not getting any error. Any help debugging would be great.
exports.handler = function(context, event, callback) {
let response = new Twilio.twiml.MessagingResponse();
response.message({
to: '+11234567890',
}, 'new sms from testing');
};
Additionally, If you could let me know how to access the incoming phone number within this function, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance for any suggestions or insights.

You will not be able to send a messaging response to a voice event, you'll need to create a messaging client and send separately. See docs here: https://www.twilio.com/docs/sms/tutorials/how-to-send-sms-messages-node-js .
For incoming phone numbers, that is included in the event object. It should be event.From, but you can log the event object to get all the parameters. They should follow the Call object schema: https://www.twilio.com/docs/voice/api/call

Related

How to programmatically manipulate voice in real time while dialing using Twilio?

I have a small Twilio app that calls a real phone number (e.g. +3333333) whenever my Twilio number (e.g. +22222222) is called using my personal number (e.g. +1111111). I implement this using the following Twilio function:
exports.handler = (context, event, callback) => {
const twiml = new Twilio.twiml.VoiceResponse();
twiml.dial("+3333333");
return callback(null, twiml);
};
Now when the owner of +3333333 picks up his phone, a call connection is established between the caller (+1111111) and the target (+3333333).
How can I intercept speeches in this call, in real-time, by running a function whenever either the caller (+1111111) or the target (+3333333) speaks, to do things such as changing voice, filtering profanity, etc?
I have tried using <Gather> and <Say> TwiML verbs in my Twilio function but these will only get triggered after the call has ended or hung up.
You can actually achieve this with Twilio now. You can receive and send audio streams using the <Connect><Stream> TwiML. <Stream> allows you to receive and send audio to the call over a websocket connection in real time.
To change the audio in between, you would want to connect the callers just to the <Stream>, not to each other, and relay the audio from one call, through the websocket and whatever processing you want to do to it, and then out through the websocket connected to the other call (and vice versa).
I don't have more information on how to do that, as I've not seen it done. But it's possible in theory.

Using an Azure Web Function to receive a Twilio SMS Message

I'm trying to get an Azure Web Function to receive a Twilio SMS message - and failing!
I've created a Web Function to successfully send SMS messages - now I want to listen and react to responses.
I've set up a web function as per the below. Its pretty simple at the moment, and is supposed to parrot back the original message:
public static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> Run(HttpRequestMessage req, TraceWriter log)
{
log.Info("C# HTTP trigger function processed a request.");
var data = await req.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
var formValues = data.Split('&')
.Select(value => value.Split('='))
.ToDictionary(pair => Uri.UnescapeDataString(pair[0]).Replace("+", " "),
pair => Uri.UnescapeDataString(pair[1]).Replace("+", " "));
// Perform calculations, API lookups, etc. here
var response = new MessagingResponse()
.Message($"You said: {formValues["Body"]}");
var twiml = response.ToString();
twiml = twiml.Replace("utf-16", "utf-8");
return new HttpResponseMessage
{
Content = new StringContent(twiml, Encoding.UTF8, "application/xml")
};
}
In Twilio, I've configured the phone to use web hooks:
I've deployed the Web Function, however when I try testing by sending a message, I get the following error in the Twilio logs:
11200 There was a failure attempting to retrieve the contents of this URL
Msg Unsupported Media Type
Message: The WebHook request must contain an entity body formatted as JSON.
Does anyone have any experience in how to fix this error?
I just got this working with Twilio's SMS services. In the Azure Portal, if you go to the function, then go to Integrate, change the mode to Standard. This forces the Azure function to return a normal HTTP response and you can control the content type. If you use application/xml it will work fine.
Okay, the current solution to this is .... it can't be done in Azure Web Functions. An Azure Web Function expects a JSON payload. Twilio Webhooks are an XML value/pair. So, the web function will reject the webhook call.
The best/easiest approach is to use a WebAPI or MVC Controller as per the Twilio example. I tried a sample version and had my Twilio Webhooks working to reply to an SMS in about 15 minutes from start to finish.
To debug, I'd use a tool such as Postman or Fiddler to manually replay (or create from scratch) an identical request to what you're expecting from Twilio. You can then see what kind of response you get and not have to solely rely on Twilio's error message.
From the error code, I'd imagine that the problem is either:
Your URL set up in the Twilio number configuration isn't actually reaching your function.
Your function is taking too long to respond. Twilio will throw 11200 if it doesn't get a response in a certain time.
Your response is formatted incorrectly. This is where the aforementioned strategy can help you diagnose the issue.

Twilio Functions - post data from multiple sms messages?

I have a function that posts the content from an incoming sms message to a third party api. So, a customer sends us a message and Twilio posts the message to the api. But, I want to add an extra step. So, when a user sends us a message, I want Twilio to reply asking for an email then post the message along with the email from the second message to the api. Unless we get that second message, nothing should be posted to the api. Any ideas on how to do something like that?
I was looking through the docs and saw something about the Message instance resource but I'm not sure if that will do it.
const https = require('https');
exports.handler = function(context, event, callback) {
let twiml = new Twilio.twiml.MessagingResponse();
twiml.message("Your message has been recieved.");
let postData = JSON.stringify({
....
});
let postOptions = {
...
};
let req = https.request(postOptions, function(res) {
res.setEncoding('utf8');
res.on('data', function(chunk) {
console.log(chunk);
callback(null, twiml);
});
});
req.write(postData);
req.end();
};
Twilio developer evangelist here.
In order to take two steps like that, you'd need to save the message from the first message somewhere while you wait for the second message. Since the second message will come in via a new HTTP request, you can't save this within a function anywhere, you'd want to use some sort of third party store. Then you'd write your function to check for the existence of the first message in that store, if it exists, then send both messages to the API, if it doesn't then store the first message and respond to the user with your second question.
Alternatively, you could use the Twilio API to look up all the previous messages that the user has sent to you. If there are no previous messages, then this is definitely the first message they have sent. If there is a previous message then you need to determine whether it was an initiating message for this conversation, possibly by how long ago it was or a heuristic on the content, and then decide whether to send both the messages on to your API or ask for the next response.
Let me know if that helps at all.

Trouble with Twilio / TwiML statusCallback using Node.js

When a user texts my number, I would like to respond with a message using TwiML. I'd also like to know whether my response message sends or fails. I'm creating my TwiML response using the Twilio library for Node.js.
Here is my code:
const response = new twilio.TwimlResponse();
response.message(Response, {
statusCallback: '/sms/status/'
});
Here is the code for the route. Please note that the router is mounted upon the "/sms/" router:
router.post('/status/', acceptRequestsOnlyFromTwilio, (req, res) => {
const Event = require('./../models/schemas/event');
const event = new Event({
description:
`MessageSid = ${req.body.MessageSid}
MessageStatus = ${req.body.MessageStatus}`
});
event.save();
console.log(
`MessageSid = ${req.body.MessageSid}
MessageStatus = ${req.body.MessageStatus}`
);
res.sendStatus(200);
});
When I check my logs using the Heroku CLI, I don't log nor do I see a record when I check MongoDB.
Anyone have any ideas or tips on how I can go about debugging this or if I'm implementing this incorrectly?
Thanks for you time!
Twilio developer evangelist here.
Firstly, have you set your Messaging request URL for the Twilio phone number you are using? Is it pointing at the correct route for your Message TwiML response?
Also, your first code block should also be within a router.post endpoint for your server. Do you correctly return the TwiML response as the server response?
As a tip, it might be better to develop this application locally and test your webhook endpoints using a tool like ngrok. I love using ngrok to test webhooks.

how to connect two anonymous callers together using twilio

I am currently doing using node js twilio module for a functionality in a project that i am working on for a client. Basically the server is going to initiate a call using twilio api to call a certain person A the connect him to another person B. I am new to twilio so i am still a noob, but this is the code i have written so far. Please i need u guys input on how to achieve this. cheers
var client = require('twilio')(TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID, TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN);
exports.makeCall = function(callDetails, cb) {
client.makeCall({
to:'+16515556677', // Any number Twilio can call
from: TWILIO_CALLER_ID,
url: 'https://demo.twilio.com/welcome/voice' // A URL that produces an XML document (TwiML) which contains instructions for the call
}, function(err, responseData) {
//executed when the call has been initiated.
console.log(responseData.from); // outputs "+14506667788"
var resp = new client.TwimlResponse();
resp.say('Welcome to Acme Customer Service!')
.gather({
action:'http://www.example.com/callFinished.php',
finishOnKey:'*'
}, function() {
this.say('Press 1 for customer service')
.say('Press 2 for British customer service', { language:'en-gb' });
});
});
};
Twilio developer evangelist here.
You're part way there with this, but you don't want to be creating a TwiML response in the callback to your call to client.makeCall. The responseData there is a representation of the call in Twilio's system.
What you need to do is provide a URL to the makeCall function that hosts some TwiML that connects the call to another phone number. Currently you have the demo URL in place, so you'll need to point that to a URL that you own.
There's a very good in depth tutorial on how to accomplish all of this on the Twilio site which you might find helps out. You can find the tutorial here, give it a go and let me know if that helps.

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