drewwilliams5280 / footytext_app

README

This is a Rails app using the Telnyx platform to receive text messages and autorespond using the telnyx gem.

How It Works

The core functionality of the app is built with a messages_controller, models for contacts, contact_messages, and telnyx_messages, and Active Record callbacks to perform model methods automatically.

When a text message is sent to the phone number associated with your Telnyx account, a webhook designated to hit a /messages endpoint in your app will initiate the process.

Rails.application.routes.draw do
  resources :messages, only: :create
end

The controller will parse through the request and make sure the message is an "inbound" message to perform the tasks. "Outbound" messages will render 204 No Content. A contact will then either be created or found in the database if it already exists, and a contact_message will be created.

class MessagesController < ApplicationController
  skip_before_action :verify_authenticity_token
  def create
    json = JSON.parse(request.body.read)
    if json['direction'] == "inbound"
      contact = Contact.find_or_create_by(phone_number: json['from'])
      ContactMessage.create(
        contact: contact, 
        text: json['body']
      )
    end
  end
end

Contacts consist of a phone_number attribute and relationships with contact_messages and telnyx_messages

class Contact < ApplicationRecord
  validates_presence_of :phone_number, require: true
  has_many :contact_messages
  has_many :telnyx_messages
end

When the controller creates the contact_message, a respond model method is initiated using the after_create Active Record callback. This model method creates a related telnyx_message based on the contents of self.text.

class ContactMessage < ApplicationRecord
  validates_presence_of :text, require: true
  belongs_to :contact

  after_create :respond
  def respond
    if pizza? && ice_cream?
      TelnyxMessage.create!(contact: contact, text: "Chicago pizza is the best and I prefer gelato")
    elsif pizza?
      TelnyxMessage.create!(contact: contact, text: "Chicago pizza is the best")
    elsif ice_cream?
      TelnyxMessage.create!(contact: contact, text: "I prefer gelato")
    else
      TelnyxMessage.create!(contact: contact, text: "Please send either the word ‘pizza’ or ‘ice cream’ for a different response")
    end
  end

  def pizza?
    text.downcase.include?("pizza")
  end

  def ice_cream?
    text.downcase.include?("ice cream")
  end
end

When the telnyx_message is created, it is then immediately sent to the contact using a send_message model method, the functionality provided to us by the telnyx gem, and another Active Record after_create callback. Our ENV variables are provided to us by using Figaro and an application.yml file.

class TelnyxMessage < ApplicationRecord
  validates_presence_of :text, require: true
  belongs_to :contact

  after_create :send_message
  def send_message
    Telnyx.api_key = ENV['TELNYX_API_KEY']
    Telnyx::Message.create(
      from: ENV['TELNYX_PHONE_NUMBER'],
      to: contact.phone_number,
      text: text
    )
  end
end

How To Run Locally

To run locally, you will need:

• A Telnyx account
• A Telnyx phone number
• A Telnyx API key
• A tunneling tool, such as ngrok, to connect your localhost to the internet
• Your Telnyx messaging account's webhook set to your tunnel URL/messages. (Example: https://example-url.ngrok.io/messages)

After the above steps are completed:

1. Clone (or fork and clone) down this repo.
2. Run bundle install to install dependencies (See gemfile).
3. Run the command bundle exec figaro install to create your application.yml file.
4. Edit your application.yml file to include your Telnyx phone number and API key. This gives you access to your ENV variables used above. Example:

TELNYX_API_KEY: "Insert your API key here"
TELNYX_PHONE_NUMBER: "Insert your Telnyx phone number here"

5. Run rails db:create and rails db:migrate to setup your Postgres database.
6. Run rails s to boot up your localhost:3000 server.

Tip: If using ngrok, make sure to run the command ngrok http 3000 instead of the recommended/default command in ngrok docs of ngrok http 80 since our localhost is using port 3000

Testing

This app uses the rspec testing suite for early-stage testing (ice cream and pizza vs football teams), as well as other tools such as capybara, shoulda-matchers, and simplecov for coverage reports. To run the tests, use the command bundle exec rspec. Tests that are making active API calls to Telnyx are currently skipped and can be recognized by looking for the xit beginning block rather than a traditional it block. Simply remove the x to run those tests.

Helpful Links

• Receiving SMS
• Receiving Webhooks
• Sending Messages
• Environment Setup
• Telnyx gem docs
• developers.telnyx.com