leopoldodonnell / simple-sms

A very simple example of using the Twilio SMS API

simple-sms

A very simple example of using the Twilio SMS API

This node project uses very rudimentary express and Twilio to build an example website that will send an SMS to a given phone number.

There are two routes:

GET /sms - send an sms to a phone number

Params:

• msg - the message to send
• phone - the phone number to send the message to

Example: curl '/sms?phone="555-555-1212"&msg="Here is a message"'

GET /sms-about - send an sms to a phone number at a random time between two hours of the day

Params:

• msg - the message to send
• phone - the phone number to send the message to
• start - the start hour when the message could be sent. Formatted either in 24hr or am/pm format. Eg: 13:00 or 1:00 pm
• end - the end hour is the latest the message could be sent Formatted either in 24hr or am/pm format Eg: 13:00 or 1:00 pm

Example: curl '/sms?phone="555-555-1212"&msg="Here is a message"&start="11:00 am"&end="2:30pm"'

Getting Started

Get your Twilio Credentials

You'll need Twilio Credentials to run this application. Got to Twilo and sign up for your free API key. Fill in the forms and you'll receive a small credit that should be enough for plenty of development.

Once you are logged in, create a new SMS project and request a phone number that you'll use to send SMS messages from.

The project settings page will have Live Credentials and TEST Credentials. When you use the Test Credentials you don't get dinged for charges but it will not send to a real phone, so you'll need to use your LIVE Credentials.

These credentials, ACCOUNT SID and AUTH TOKEN in addition to the phone number will be needed to run this example application.

Install and Run

First clone this repository.

If you are using docker for development, fire up a Node container to run the example in...

$ docker run --rm --name simple-sms -ti -v $PWD:/app -w /app -p 3000:3000 node:slim /bin/bash
root@1941537de931:/app#

Then in either case (node on your machine or using docker)

On Linux

$ cd simple-sms
$ npm install
$ export TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID=THE_ACCOUNT_SID
$ export TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN=THE_AUTH_TOKEN
$ export TWILIO_PHONE_NUMBER=THE_SMS_NUMBER
$ node sms.js

Then enter the following into your local browser:

http://localhost:3000/sms?phone=555-55501212&msg=The first SMS message

Where 555-555-1212 is the phone you are sending the SMS to. You should see a return code that starts with SM followed by numbers in the terminal and you should see a message in your browser that looks like:

Sent msg: 'The first SMS message' To phone number: '555-555-1212'

After a brief delay you should see an SMS on the device with the number you provided.

Next try the /sms-around route

http://localhost:3000/sms-around?phone='555-555-1212'&msg='A Delayed Message'&start='02:21 pm'&end='02:30 pm'

You should see something like the following in your browser

Will send msg: A Delayed Message To phone number: 555-555-1212 A Delayed Message will be sent at: Fri Feb 16 2018 19:26:57 GMT+0000 (UTC)

And something like the following in your terminal

Sent msg A Delayed Message To phone number: 555-555-1212 A Delayed Message at: Fri Feb 16 2018 19:26:58 GMT+0000 (UTC)
SM094cd740ea2543148e085ae52208a62d

NOTE: The times you see are in UTC. I'm in EST, so I've setup an offest of 5 hours in the source code. Update sms.js to reflect your own timezone.