[TUTORIAL] How to Build an Echo SMS Server Using Twilio API
Twilio is a SMS/Voice gateway that allows us to turn our app easily into a voice and SMS app without dealing with the service provider.
For instance, when a user text messages or calls the Twilio number, Twilio will make a request to your application and interact with the user based on the output of your application.
Here are the necessary steps to get started with Twilio:
1. Install Python
http://python.org/download/
2. Install one of the Python Frameworks (here we use Flask)
http://flask.pocoo.org/
3. Install the API Libraries(Twilio-Python) for Python
https://github.com/twilio/twilio-python#readme
4. Sign up for a Twilio account
http://www.twilio.com
5. Create a smsEcho.py file
Import the libraries and initiate the Twilio API.
from flask import Flask, request, redirect, session from twilio.rest import TwilioRestClient import twilio.twiml import time
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route("/")
def smsEcho():
client = TwilioRestClient(SID,TOKEN)
return "HelloWorld"
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=True)
6. Run Python and you should see HelloWorld on http://localhost:5000
python smsEcho.py
6. Config the API by Setting the Number, SID, TOKEN which can be found on the main page after you login to Twilio
SERVER_NUMBER = “YOUR NUMBER”
SID = “YOUR SID”
TOKEN = “YOUR TOKEN”
7. Obtain the sender’s number and the content.
clientNumber = request.args.get('From');
clientTextContent = request.args.get('Body').lower()
8. Now, we can echo back the message.
client.sms.messages.create(to=clientNumber, from_=SERVER_NUMBER, body= clientTextContent)
9. The source code is shown as below.
from flask import Flask, request, redirect, session
import twilio.twiml
from twilio.rest import TwilioRestClient
import time
SERVER_NUMBER = "YOUR NUMBER"
SID = "YOUR SID"
TOKEN = "YOUR TOKEN"
app = Flask(__name__)
@app.route("/")
def smsEcho():
client = TwilioRestClient(SID,TOKEN)
clientNumber = request.args.get('From');
clientTextContent = request.args.get('Body').lower()
client.sms.messages.create(to=clientNumber, from_=SERVER_NUMBER, body= clientTextContent)
return "HelloWorld"
if __name__ == "__main__":
app.run(debug=True)
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