Orbita can be integrated with Twilio to make phone calls or send SMS with the help of the Twilio node in Experience Designer. The URL of the TwiML used to create the phone call or msg.payload can contain the text of the SMS message.
Prerequisites
Registered Twilio account.
Twilio-powered Phone number.
Twilio node
The URL will be the local endpoint that was created in the first section.
http://127.0.0.1/oeapi/twilioml.xml
If you configure the node to make a phone call, provide a TwiML URL that is publicly accessible. You can add the receiving phone number in the To field, in the Twilio node, so that Twilio will send the text message(s) or make a phone call. If you set the msg.topic property in the function node connected to the Twilio node, the To field should be left blank.
Setting credentials
There are two options in the Credentials drop-down.
Use global credentials. Contact orbitasupport@orbita.ai to get details on the environmental variables used to configure global credentials.
Use local credentials. Use this option to give details of your Twilio account in the node. The recipient(s) will receive messages/phone calls from your Twilio phone number.
Adding a Twilio account to the Twilio node
To add a new Twilio account to the Twilio node:
Open the Twilio node.
Select “Use local credentials“ in the Credentials field and “Add new twilio-api…“ from the Twilio field as shown in the screenshot below. Click Edit against the Twilio field.
A new dialog box appears. Enter the details from your Twilio account.
Account SID and Token - you will get it from the Twilio console (Refer below section).
From - the Twilio phone number.
Name - Name of the Twilio configuration.
Twilio Account SID and token
Go to https://console.twilio.com/ and log in to your Twilio account.
On the console page, you can get the Account SID and Auth Token.
Setting output
There are three types of Output.
SMS. Lets the Twilio node send a text message to the phone number.
Call. Lets the Twilio node make a phone call to the phone number.
WhatsApp. Lets the Twilio node send a message via WhatsApp.
To. The phone number to which a phone call or SMS or WhatsApp should be made or sent. If you use msg.topic property in the function node to add the phone number, you can leave this field blank.
URL. Phone calls that you make from a Twilio number to an outside number are controlled using TwiML. The initial URL for the call is provided as a parameter to the Twilio REST API request, which you make, to initiate the call.
See, https://www.twilio.com/console/voice/twiml/overview to learn more about the URL.
Name. Name of the node.
Example flow
The following flow shows how to integrate Twilio with Experience Designer.
In the example, when a valid user triggers the help intent, Twilio reads TwiML instructions at that URL. In the function node, the TwiML is already instructed to respond in an automated voice “Please leave a message after the tone” and start the recording for 20 seconds.
Two different flows are given in the above example. The first flow creates an endpoint URL that can be used in the Twilio node. The second flow triggers a call when an authenticated user says “help”.
http in node
Creates an http end-point for creating web services.
Method is set to GET.
URL. Enter the XML file that is created.
Function node
The following code is used with parameters like msg.payload, statusCode, and msg.header. Push the XML code in msg.payload for this example. This XML code sends a short message and records the caller's voice post message.
msg.payload='<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Response><Say voice="woman">Please leave a message after the tone.</Say><Record maxLength="20" /></Response>';
msg.statusCode=200;
msg.headers = {"content-type": "application/xml"};
return msg;
http response node
Sends responses back to requests that were received from the HTTP input node.
Intent Request node
Triggers the flow when help is called by the user.
Function node
Checks whether the user is an authenticated user.
Say node
Configure the bot to say something based on the output from the attached function node.