Twilio Sample App Template

About

This is a GitHub template for creating other Twilio sample/template apps. It contains a variety of features that should ideally be included in every Twilio sample app. You can use GitHub's repository template functionality to create a copy of this.

Implementations in other languages:

.NET	Java	Ruby	PHP	NodeJS
TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	Done

How it works

This is only a barebones python/Django application. Whenever, possible we should be using this. However, if you are using another framework like Flask that comes with their own standardized application structure, you should try to merge these by using the same README structure and test coverage, configuration etc. as this project.

Features

• Django framework version 3
• User interface to send SMS with bootstrap.
• End to End UI testing using Selenium
• Automated CI testing using GitHub Actions. Windows workflow is not included as there is an issue with the chrome driver and the selenium tests.
• Linting using flake8
• Formatting using Black
• Project specific environment variables using .env files.
• One click deploy buttons for Heroku, Glitch and now.sh
• Pre-commit hooks using pre-commit to ensure standardized code style and formatting.

How to use it

1. Create a copy using GitHub's repository template functionality
2. Update the README.md with the respective values.
3. Build your app as necessary while making sure the tests pass.
4. Publish your app to GitHub

Set up

Requirements

• Python version >= 3.6.x.
• ChromeDriver for the Selenium tests. Ensure the chromedriver executable is on the OS path. For Linux/Mac the easiest way to do this is to install it through the OS package manager:
  • Mac:

    brew install --cask chromedriver

  • Ubuntu:

    sudo apt-get install chromium-chromedriver
    sudo ln -s /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chromedriver /usr/bin/chromedriver

• A Twilio account - sign up

Twilio Account Settings

This application should give you a ready-made starting point for writing your own appointment reminder application. Before we begin, we need to collect all the config values we need to run the application:

Config Value	Description
Account Sid	Your primary Twilio account identifier - find this in the Console.
Auth Token	Used to authenticate - just like the above, you'll find this here.
Phone number	A Twilio phone number in E.164 format - you can get one here

Local development

After the above requirements have been met:

1. Clone this repository and cd into it

   git clone git@github.com:twilio-labs/sample-template-django.git
   cd sample-template-django

2. Create a virtual environment and activate it

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

4. Set your environment variables

   cp .env.example .env

   See Twilio Account Settings to locate the necessary environment variables.

5. Configure pre-commit hooks

   pre-commit install

6. Apply db migrations (You can use SQLite or set up the connection with you DBMS of preference)

   python manage.py migrate

7. Run the application

   python manage.py runserver

   This will start a development server. It will reload whenever you change any files.

8. Navigate to http://localhost:8000

That's it!

Tests

NOTE: Be sure you have Google Chrome installed with the same version as the chromedriver installed earlier. Usually it's the latest version.

You can run the tests locally by typing:

python manage.py test

Cloud deployment

Additionally to trying out this application locally, you can deploy it to a variety of host services. Here is a small selection of them.

Please be aware that some of these might charge you for the usage or might make the source code for this application visible to the public. When in doubt, research the respective hosting service first.

Service
Heroku

Some notes:

• For Heroku, please check this to properly configure the project for deployment.
• Glitch is not included because it only supports NodeJS officially. Instead, you can try PythonAnywhere which is a similar alternative por Python projects.
• Zeit Now is also not included because it uses a serverless architecture which doesn't work with frameworks such as Django.

Resources

• GitHub's repository template functionality

Contributing

This template is open source and welcomes contributions. All contributions are subject to our Code of Conduct.

Visit the project on GitHub

License

MIT

Disclaimer

No warranty expressed or implied. Software is as is.