How to get SMS sender info using python?

Question

I'm using Twilio and Django for an SMS application (I started learning Python yesterday, be gentle).

Here's what I need help with: When Twilio sends an incoming SMS message to my URL, I want my app to automatically add the incoming phone number, date/time, and incoming message to some lists. How do I do that?

Thanks!

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

2

Twilio sends it as the 'From' parameter when it requests your URL. The documentation is at: http://www.twilio.com/docs/api/twiml/sms/message

It will be similar to this code, I wrote this in webapp with python (not Django).

class MainHandler(webapp.RequestHandler):  

  def get(self):
    model = Storage()
    from = self.request.get("From")
    if from is not '':
      model.sms_from = self.request.get("From")
      model.sms_body = self.request.get("Body")
      model.put()

    models = Storage.all()

    for i in models:
      self.response.out.write(i.sms_from + ' ' + i.sms_body +'<br>')

UPDATE:

When I get my phone and send a text to xxx-xxx-xxxx, twilio will receive that text and then make a request to the URL I configured.

From that point it looks exactly the same as a request from a web browser.

This question will help you with the specifics with Django Capturing url parameters in request.GET

There should be all the parameters you need from the sender.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:52

Community

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answered Jul 27 '11 at 23:47

mcotton

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Sorry if this is a silly question, but how do I connect all that to Twilio's request of my URL? I don't know what it means codewise for Twilio to request my URL. Is that MainHandler a function? And Twilio's request is the input for that function? – Kevin Jul 28 '11 at 03:06
In your twilio account, you setup a URL that you want twilio to request when there is an incoming SMS message. That URL will have the 'From' parameter with it (along with tons more). – mcotton Jul 28 '11 at 03:36
Thanks for the reply I get that. What I'm asking is how do I get the program to know that it's supposed to get that information from Twilio's request? Kinda like how you have to have some sort of raw_input('Type your name here:') statement in order to get input from the user. – Kevin Jul 28 '11 at 03:49

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 23 '11 at 01:25

I just wrote a sample app using Twilio and Django on GitHub, but here's the specific answer you're looking for.

For this example I'm using the '/reply/' URL on my server (and have told Twilio that's where to POST to)

In urls.py you're just going to do a standard mapping: url(r'^reply', 'twilio_sms.views.sms_reply'),

Here's a really basic response to the user, responding with what the Twilio server expects. def sms_reply(request): if request.method == 'POST': params = request.POST phone = re.sub('+1','',params['From'])

    response_message =  '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8">'
    response_message += '<Response><Sms>Thanks for your text!</Sms></Response>'
    return HttpResponse(response_message)

In my code I actually build the XML response using a library, which I suggest in general, but for a code sample it's too much information.

How to get SMS sender info using python?

2 Answers2