> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://plivo.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Get Started with the Ruby on Rails Framework > Send your first SMS using Ruby on Rails with Plivo APIs and SDKs ## Sign up for a Plivo account When you [sign up with Plivo](https://cx.plivo.com/signup), we give you a free trial account and free credits to experiment with and learn about our services. You can [add a number](https://cx.plivo.com/phone-numbers) to your account to start testing the full range of our voice and SMS service features. Follow these steps to get a free trial account: 1. [Sign up](https://cx.plivo.com/signup) with your work email address. 2. Check your inbox for an activation email message from Plivo. Click on the link in the message to activate your account. 3. Enter your mobile number to complete the phone verification step. ### Sign up with your work email address

If you have any issues creating a Plivo account, please contact our [support team](https://support.plivo.com/hc/en-us/) for assistance. To get started, try sending an SMS message either by using our API and XML documents, or via {/* [PHLO](/phlo/) */}, our visual design tool, which allows you to create message flows using an intuitive canvas and deploy them with few clicks. ## Install Ruby, Rails, and the Plivo Ruby SDK You must set up and install Ruby, Rails, and Plivo’s Ruby SDK before you send your first SMS message. ### Install Ruby [Download and install Ruby](https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/documentation/installation/) from its official site. ### Install Rails ```shell theme={null} $ gem install rails ``` ### Create a Rails project Create a Rails project to autogenerate code in the Ruby on Rails folder structure. ```shell theme={null} $ rails new plivotest ``` This command creates a `plivotest` directory with the necessary folders and files for development. ### Install the Plivo gem Edit the Gemfile and add this line. ```shell theme={null} $ gem 'plivo', '~> 4.25.1' ``` Then install the Plivo Ruby gem into the bundle. ```shell theme={null} $ bundle install ``` ## Send your first outbound SMS/MMS message You must have a Plivo phone number to send messages to the US or Canada; you can rent a Plivo number from Phone Numbers > [Buy Numbers](https://cx.plivo.com/phone-numbers) on the Plivo console or via the [Numbers API](/numbers/api/phone-number/#buy-a-phone-number). ### Create a Rails controller Run this command in the project directory. ```shell theme={null} $ rails generate controller Plivo sms ``` This command generates a controller named plivo\_controller in the app/controllers/ directory and a respective view in the app/views/plivo directory. We can delete the view as we don’t need it. ```shell theme={null} $ rm app/views/plivo/sms.html.erb ``` Edit app/controllers/plivo\_controller.rb and paste into it this code. ```rb theme={null} include Plivo include Plivo::Exceptions class PlivoController < ApplicationController def outbound api = RestClient.new("","") response = api.messages.create( src:'', dst:'', text:'Hello, from Rails!' ) puts response render json: response.to_s end end ``` ```rb theme={null} include Plivo include Plivo::Exceptions class PlivoController < ApplicationController def outbound api = RestClient.new("","") response = api.messages.create( src:'', dst:'', text:'Hello, MMS from Rails!', media_urls:['https://media.giphy.com/media/26gscSULUcfKU7dHq/source.gif'], type: "mms", media_ids:['801c2056-33ab-499c-80ef-58b574a462a2'] ) puts response render json: response.to_s end end ``` Replace the auth placeholders with your authentication credentials from the [Plivo console](https://cx.plivo.com/home). Replace the phone number placeholders with actual phone numbers in [E.164 format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.164) (for example, +12025551234). In countries other than the US and Canada you can use a [sender ID](/messaging/concepts/sender-id-usage/) for the message source. **Note:** We recommend that you store your credentials in the `auth_id` and `auth_token` environment variables to avoid the possibility of accidentally committing them to source control. If you do this, you can initialize the client with no arguments and Plivo will automatically fetch the values from the environment variables. You can use `ENV` to store environment variables and fetch them when initializing the client. ### Add a route Edit config/routes.rb and change the line ```shell theme={null} get 'plivo/sms' ``` to ```shell theme={null} get 'plivo/outbound' ``` ### Test Run your code. ```shell theme={null} $ rails server ``` ## Receive your first inbound SMS/MMS message To receive incoming messages, you must have a Plivo phone number that supports SMS; you can rent numbers from the [Numbers](https://cx.plivo.com/phone-numbers) page of the Plivo console or by using the [Numbers API](/numbers/). ### Edit the Rails controller Edit the app/controllers/plivo\_controller.rb file generated earlier and add paste this code into the PlivoController class after the outbound function. ```rb theme={null} def inbound from_number = params[:From] to_number = params[:To] text = params[:Text] puts "Message received - From: #{from_number}, To: #{to_number}, Text: #{text}" end ``` ```rb theme={null} def inbound from_number = params[:From] to_number = params[:To] text = params[:Text] media_url = params[:Media0] puts "Message received - From: #{from_number}, To: #{to_number}, Text: #{text}, Media: #{media_url}" end ``` ### Add a route Edit config/routes.rb and add this line after the outbound route we added earlier. ```shell theme={null} get 'plivo/inbound' ``` Run your code. ```shell theme={null} $ rails server ``` You should see your basic server application in action at /plivo/inbound/. ### Expose your local server to the internet To receive incoming messages, your local server must connect with Plivo API services. For that, we recommend using [ngrok](https://ngrok.com/download), which exposes local servers running behind NATs and firewalls to the public internet over secure tunnels. Using ngrok, you can set webhooks that can talk to the Plivo server. ngrok block diagram

**Note:** Before starting the service, add ngrok in the config.hosts list in the config/environments/development.rb file in your project. You will see *Blocked host* errors if you fail to do this. ```shell theme={null} # Whitelist ngrok domain config.hosts << /[a-z0-9]+\.ngrok\.io/ ``` Run ngrok on the command line, specifying the port that hosts the application on which you want to receive messages (3000 in this case): ```shell theme={null} $ ./ngrok http 3000 ``` This starts the ngrok server on your local server. Ngrok will display a forwarding link that you can use as a webhook to access your local server over the public network. Sample ngrok CLI

Now people can send messages to your Plivo number. ### Create a Plivo application to receive messages Associate the controller you created with Plivo by creating a Plivo application. Visiting Messaging > [Applications](https://cx.plivo.com/xml-applications) and click **Add New Application**. You can also use Plivo's [Application API](/account/api/application/#create-an-application). Give your application a name — we called ours `Receive SMS`. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example `https://.com/receive_sms/`) in the `Message URL` field and set the method to `POST`. Click **Create Application** to save your application.

### Test Send a text message to the Plivo number you specified using any phone. ## Reply to an incoming SMS/MMS message To receive incoming messages, you must have a Plivo phone number that supports SMS; you can rent numbers from the [Numbers](https://cx.plivo.com/phone-numbers) page of the Plivo console or by using the [Numbers API](/numbers/). ### Edit the Rails controller Edit app/controllers/plivo\_controller.rb file and paste this code into the PlivoController class after the inbound function we added earlier. ```rb theme={null} def forward from_number = params[:From] to_number = params[:To] text = params[:Text] # send the details to generate an XML response = Response.new params = { src: to_number, dst: from_number, } message_body = "This is an automatic response" response.addMessage(message_body, params) xml = PlivoXML.new(response) puts xml.to_xml render xml: xml.to_xml end ``` ### Add a route Edit config/routes.rb and add this line after the inbound route we added earlier. ```shell theme={null} get 'plivo/forward' ``` If you haven’t done so already, [expose your local server to the internet](/sdk/server/set-up-ruby-dev-environment-api-messaging/#ngrok-setup). ### Create a Plivo application to reply to messages Associate the controller you created with Plivo by creating a Plivo application. Visiting Messaging > [Applications](https://cx.plivo.com/xml-applications) and click **Add New Application**. You can also use Plivo's [Application API](/account/api/application/#create-an-application). Give your application a name — we called ours `Reply Incoming SMS`. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example `http://.com/replysms/`) in the `Message URL` field and set the method to `POST`. Click **Create Application** to save your application.

### Assign a Plivo number to your application Navigate to the [Numbers](https://cx.plivo.com/phone-numbers) page and select the phone number you want to use for this application. From the Application Type drop-down, select `XML Application`. From the Plivo Application drop-down, select `Reply Incoming SMS` (the name we gave the application). Click **Update Number** to save. ### Test Send a text message to the Plivo number you specified using any phone. You should receive a reply. ## More use cases We illustrate [more than a dozen use cases](/messaging/use-cases/send-an-sms/ruby/) with code for both API/XML and PHLO on our documentation pages.