Get Started with Python using Flask Framework

When you sign up with Plivo, you will start with a free trial account to experiment with and learn about our services. This free trial account comes with free credits. If you wish to continue with our service, you can add more credits and purchase a number by clicking here. Add a number and credits to your account to start testing the full range of our voice and SMS service features.

Follow these steps to successfully sign up for a free trial account:

Sign up with your work email address
Check your inbox for an activation email from Plivo. Click on the link in the email to activate your account.
Enter your mobile number to complete the phone verification step.

If you have any issues creating a Plivo account, please reach out to our Support Team for assistance.

Start your implementation with Plivo to send/receive messages using PHLO or the traditional API/XML way. PHLO allows you to create the call flows using its intuitive canvas and deploy it with few clicks. Refer to the instructions from the respective tabs below to start your integration with PHLO or API as you wish.

Using PHLO
Using API

Send your First Outbound SMS/MMS

To send your first outbound sms, you can create and deploy a PHLO in just a few clicks using the PHLO canvas. PHLO also lets you visually construct your entire use-case. With PHLO, only pay for sms you send/receive. Building with PHLO is free.

Prerequisites

Create a Plivo account (if you don’t have one already): Sign up with your work email address and complete the phone verification step using your mobile number.
Set Up Your Python Flask Dev Environment: To set up your dev environment in Python Flask, please refer to the instructions available in the Set Up Your Python Flask Dev Environment section.
Buy a Plivo Number(optional): You must have an SMS-enabled Plivo phone number if you wish to receive incoming sms. Purchase numbers from the Numbers section of your Plivo Console. It is also possible to purchase numbers using the Numbers API.

Create the PHLO

Create a PHLO to send your first outbound sms by following these instructions:

On the side navigation bar, click PHLO. The PHLO page will appear and display your existing PHLOs, if any exist. If this is your first PHLO, then the PHLO page will be empty.
Click Create New PHLO to build a new PHLO.
In the Choose your use-case window, click Build my own. The PHLO canvas will appear with the Start node.
Note: The Start node is the starting point of any PHLO. You can choose between the four available trigger states of the start node; Incoming SMS, Incoming Call, and API Request. For this PHLO, we will use the API Request trigger state.
From the list of components on the left-hand side, drag and drop the Send Message component onto the canvas. This will add an Send Message node onto the canvas.
Connect the Start node with the Send Message node, using the API Request trigger state.
Configure the Send Message node with the source/from number using the From field. Enter the destination number you wish to send message in the To field.
If you’d like to send MMS then Configure the Media URLs node with the Media files you’d like to send using the Media URLs field.
Once you have configured the node, click Validate to save the configurations.
After you complete the configurations, provide a recognizable name for your PHLO and click Save. Your PHLO is now ready. You can trigger the PHLO and test it out. For more information, refer to the following section.

Set Up Your Python Flask Dev Environment

You must set up and install Python and Plivo’s Python SDK to send your first outbound sms. Here’s how.

Install Python

Operating System	Instructions
macOS & Linux	To see if you already have Python installed, run the command python --version in the terminal
Windows	To install Python on Windows follow the instructions listed here.

Install Plivo Python Package

Create a project directory, run the following command:
```
$ mkdir mypythonapp
```
Change the directory to our project directory in the command line:
```
$ cd mypythonapp
```
Install the SDK using pip
```
pip install plivo
```
Alternatively, you can download the source code from this repo and run
```
python setup.py install
```

We recommend that you use virtualenv to manage and segregate your Python environments, instead of using sudo with your commands and overwriting dependencies.

Trigger the PHLO

Once you have created and set up your Python dev environment, go to your Plivo Console and copy the PHLO_ID. Integrate a PHLO into your application workflow by making an API request to trigger the PHLO with the required payload.

With Static Payload

You can choose to either configure the mandatory params required for a PHLO while creating the PHLO itself or, you can pass the params as payload while triggering the PHLO from your app.

Note: When you configure the params while creating the PHLO, the values are hardcoded and act as static payload.

With Static Payload

Code

Now, create a file called trigger_phlo.py and paste the following code.

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import plivo

auth_id = 'Your AUTH ID'
auth_token = 'Your AUTH Token'
phlo_id = 'Your PHLO ID' # https://console.plivo.com/phlo/list/
phlo_client = plivo.phlo.RestClient(auth_id=auth_id, auth_token=auth_token)
phlo = phlo_client.phlo.get(phlo_id)
response = phlo.run()
print str(response)

With Dynamic Payload

To use dynamic values for the parameters, follow the below steps.

Select the StartNode - under API request, fill the Payload key as From & To and keep the values empty, then click validate & save.

With Dynamic Payload

Use the liquid templating params while creating the PHLO and pass the values while triggering the PHLO.

With Dynamic Payload

Code

Now, create a file called trigger_phlo.py and paste the following code.

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import plivo

auth_id = 'Your AUTH ID'
auth_token = 'Your AUTH Token'
phlo_id = 'Your PHLO ID' # https://console.plivo.com/phlo/list/
payload = {"From" : "+14157778888","To" : "+14157778889"}
phlo_client = plivo.phlo.RestClient(auth_id=auth_id, auth_token=auth_token)
phlo = phlo_client.phlo.get(phlo_id)
response = phlo.run(**payload)
print str(response)

Get your Auth_ID and Auth_token from your dashboard AUTHID

You can find the PHLO_ID on the PHLO Listing page.

Test and Validate

Save the file and use the below command to run your code.

$ python trigger_phlo.py

Note: If you are using a Plivo Trial account for this example, you can only send sms to phone numbers that have been verified with Plivo. Phone numbers can be verified at the Sandbox Numbers page.

Receive Your First Inbound SMS/MMS

Create and deploy a PHLO to receive your first inbound SMS and forward to your web server with a few clicks on the PHLO canvas. PHLO also lets you visually construct your entire use-case. With PHLO, only pay for calls you make/receive. Building with PHLO is free.

Prerequisites

Create a Plivo account (if you don’t have one already): Sign up with your work email address and complete the phone verification step using your mobile number.
Buy a Plivo number: You must have a sms-enabled Plivo phone number to receive incoming calls. Purchase numbers from the Numbers section of your Plivo Console. It is also possible to purchase numbers using the Numbers API.
PHLO Application: When you receive a call on a Plivo sms-enabled number, you can control the call flow by associating a PHLO application to that Plivo phone number. Plivo will fetch the PHLO associated with the number and expect valid instructions via PHLO to handle the sms.

Create the PHLO

You can create a PHLO by referring to the below instructions to receive your first incoming call:

On the side navigation bar, click PHLO. The PHLO page will appear and display your existing PHLOs, if any exist. If this is your first PHLO, then the PHLO page will be empty.
Click Create New PHLO to build a new PHLO.
In the Choose your use-case window, click Build my own. The PHLO canvas will appear with the Start node.
Note: The Start node is the starting point of any PHLO. You can choose between the four available trigger states of the start node; Incoming SMS, Incoming Call, and API Request. For this PHLO, we will use the Incoming Message trigger state.
From the list of components on the left-hand side, drag and drop the HTTP Request component onto the canvas. This will add a HTTP Request node onto the canvas.
Connect the Start node with the HTTP Request node, using the Incoming Message trigger state.
Configure the HTTP Request node to send the details to your Web Server.
Once you have configured the node, click Validate to save the configurations.
After you complete the configurations, provide a recognizable name for your PHLO and click Save. Your PHLO is now ready.

Assign the PHLO to a Plivo Number for Incoming SMS/MMS

Once you have created and configured your PHLO, assign your PHLO to a Plivo number.

To assign a PHLO to a number:

Log in to your Plivo Console
On the Product Navigation bar, click Phone Numbers.
On the Numbers page, under Your Numbers, click the phone number you wish to use for the PHLO.
In the Number Configuration window, select PHLO from the Application Type list.
From the PHLO Name list, select the PHLO you wish to use with the phone number, and then click Update Number.

Assign PHLO to a Plivo Number

If you have not purchased a phone number yet, you can buy a phone number(s) by referring to the instructions available here.

Test and Validate

You can now send a message to your Plivo phone number to receive an incoming sms and see how the inbound sms is handled using PHLO.

For more information about creating a PHLO app, see the PHLO User Guide.
For information on components and their variables, see the PHLO Components Library.

Forward an Incoming SMS/MMS

To forward an incoming sms, you can create and deploy a PHLO with a few clicks on the PHLO canvas.

Prerequisites

Create a Plivo account (if you don’t have one already): Sign up with your work email address and complete the phone verification step using your mobile number.
Buy a Plivo number: You must have a sms-enabled Plivo phone number to receive incoming sms. Purchase numbers from the Numbers section of your Plivo Console. It is also possible to purchase numbers using the Numbers API.
PHLO Application: When you receive a sms on a Plivo sms-enabled number, you can control the flow by associating a PHLO application to that Plivo phone number. Plivo will fetch the PHLO associated with the number and expect valid instructions via PHLO to handle the sms.

Create the PHLO

You can create a PHLO by referring to the below instructions to forward an incoming SMS/MMS:

On the side navigation bar, click PHLO. The PHLO page will appear and display your existing PHLOs, if any exist. If this is your first PHLO, then the PHLO page will be empty.
Click Create New PHLO to build a new PHLO.
In the Choose your use-case window, click Build my own. The PHLO canvas will appear with the Start node.
Note: The Start node is the starting point of any PHLO. You can choose between the four available trigger states of the start node; Incoming SMS, Incoming Call, and API Request. For this PHLO, we will use the Incoming Message trigger state.
From the list of components on the left-hand side, drag and drop the Send Message component onto the canvas. This will add a Send Message node onto the canvas.
Connect the Start node with the Send Message node, using the Incoming Message trigger state.
Configure the Send Message node with the phone number to which you want to forward the Message. For example, in this case, “+14157778889”.
Once you have configured the node, click Validate to save the configurations.
After you complete the configurations, provide a recognizable name for your PHLO and click Save. Your PHLO is now ready.

Assign the PHLO to a Plivo Number to Forward Incoming SMS

Once you have created and configured your PHLO, assign your PHLO to a Plivo number.

To assign a PHLO to a number:

Log in to your Plivo Console
On the Product Navigation bar, click Phone Numbers.
On the Numbers page, under Your Numbers, click the phone number you wish to use for the PHLO.
In the Number Configuration window, select PHLO from the Application Type list.
From the PHLO Name list, select the PHLO you wish to use with the phone number, and then click Update Number.

Assign PHLO to a Plivo Number

If you have not purchased a phone number yet, you can buy a phone number(s) by referring to the instructions available here.

Test and Validate

You can now send a sms to your Plivo phone number and see how the inbound sms is forwarded to the phone number specified in the PHLO.

For more information about creating a PHLO app, see the PHLO User Guide.
For information on components and their variables, see the PHLO Components Library.

Install Python and the Plivo Python Server SDK

You must set up and install Python and Plivo’s Python SDK to send your first SMS. Here’s how.

Install Python

Operating System	Instructions
macOS & Linux	To see if you already have Python installed, run the command python --version in the terminal
Windows	To install Python on Windows follow the instructions listed here.

Install Plivo Python Package

Create a project directory, run the following command:
```
$ mkdir mypythonapp
```
Change the directory to our project directory in the command line:
```
$ cd mypythonapp
```
Install the SDK using pip
```
pip install plivo
```
Alternatively, you can download the source code from this repo and run
```
python setup.py install
```
For features in beta, use the beta branch:
```
pip install plivo==4.2.0b1
```
Alternatively, you can download the source code from this repo(beta branch) and run
```
python setup.py install
```

We recommend that you use virtualenv to manage and segregate your Python environments, instead of using sudo with your commands and overwriting dependencies.

Send your first Outbound SMS/MMS

This section will guide you through how to use Plivo APIs to Send SMS from your application. First, let’s make sure you meet these prerequisites before we dive into the code.

Plivo Auth Id and Auth Token: You will find your Plivo Auth Id and Auth Token on the home screen of your Plivo Console. Click here to sign-up for a Plivo account if you haven’t already!

Find Your Auth Credentials on Plivo Console

Plivo Phone Number: You must have a SMS-enabled Plivo phone number to send messages to the US and Canada. Purchase numbers from the Numbers section of your Plivo Console. It is also possible to purchase numbers using the Numbers API.

Buy a New Plivo Number

Now, create a file called SendSMS.py and paste the following code.

Code

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from flask import Flask, Response
from plivo import plivo

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/send_sms/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def outbound_sms():
    client = plivo.RestClient('<auth_id>','<auth_token>')
    response = client.messages.create(
      src='<Caller_ID>',
      dst='<Destination_Number>',
      text='Hello, from Flask!')
    return Response(response.to_string())

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', debug=True)

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from flask import Flask, Response
from plivo import plivo

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/send_mms/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def outbound_mms():
    client = plivo.RestClient('<auth_id>','<auth_token>')
    response = client.messages.create(
        src='<Caller_ID>',
        dst='<Destination_Number>',
        media_ids=['801c2056-33ab-499c-80ef-58b574a462a2'],
        text='Hello, MMS from Flask server!',
        media_urls=['https://media.giphy.com/media/26gscSULUcfKU7dHq/source.gif'],
        type_='mms')
    return Response(response.to_string())

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', debug=True)

Note:

Replace the placeholders auth_id & auth_token with your credentials from Plivo Console
Replace the placeholder plivo_source_number with the Phone number which you have purchased and +14157654321 with the phone number you will be sending SMS text messages to.
Both plivo_source_number and +14157654321 should be in E.164 format

Save the file and use the below command to run it.

python SendSMS.py

Set up a Flask server for Incoming Messages & Callbacks

In this section, we’ll walk you through how to set up a Flask server in under five minutes and start handling incoming messages & callbacks.

Plivo supports receiving SMS text messages in several countries (see complete SMS API coverage). When an SMS is sent to a Plivo phone number, you can receive the text on your server by setting a Message URL in your Plivo app. Plivo will send the message along with other parameters to your Message URL.

Setup a virtual env (optional)

Go to the directory where you want to write the code for your server. We will first set up a virtual environment so that the packages installed won’t interfere with the system ones.

To create a virtual environment with the name env_name use the following command.

virtualenv env_name

This creates a directory with the name env_name along with the required binaries inside it. The next step is to activate the virtual environment so you can start using it.

source env_name/bin/activate

You should now see that your CLI is in the env_name environment. The next time you do a pip install some_package it would installed in this environment and will not over-write the system versions.

Once you are done with your development and want to return to the normal environment, you can deactivate this environment using

deactivate

Set up a Flask server

Use the following code snippet to start a local server.

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from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/receive_sms/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def inbound_sms():

    from_number = request.values.get('From')
    to_number = request.values.get('To')
    text = request.values.get('Text')
    print('Message received - From: %s, To: %s, Text: %s' %(from_number, to_number, text))

    return 'Message Recevived'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', debug=True)

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from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/receive_mms/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def inbound_mms():

    from_number = request.values.get('From')
    to_number = request.values.get('To')
    text = request.values.get('Text')
    media_url = request.values.get('Media0')
    print('Message received - From: %s, To: %s, Text: %s, Media: %s' %(from_number, to_number, text, media_url))

    return 'Message Recevived'

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', debug=True)

Save this code in any file (let’s say the file name is receive_sms.py). To run this file on the server, go to the folder where this file resides and use the following command:

  python receive_sms.py

And you should see your basic server app in action on http://localhost:5000/receive_sms/

Exposing your local server to the internet

To receive Incoming Messages and to handle callbacks, your local server should be able to connect with Plivo API service, Ngrok is a tunneling software used to expose a web server running on your local machine to the internet. Using Ngrok you can set webhooks which can talk to Plivo server.

ngrok block diagram

You can download and install ngrok from here. Follow the detailed configuration instructions to get started.

Run ngrok on the port which currently hosts your application. For example, if your port number is 80, run the following command:

./ngrok http <port_on_which_your_local_server_is_running>

This will give you a UI with links that look like ngrok.io/* which you can use to access your local server using the public network.

Sample ngrok CLI

Create an Application

Create an Application by visiting the Application Page and click on New Application. You can also use Plivo’s Application API.
Give your application a name. Let’s call it Receive SMS. Enter your server URL (e.g. http://example.com/receive_sms/) in the Message URL field and set the method as POST. See our Application API docs to learn how to modify your application through our APIs.
Click on Create Application to save your application.

Create Application

Assign a Plivo number to your app

Navigate to the Numbers page and select the phone number you want to use for this app.
Select Receive SMS (name of the app) from the Plivo App dropdown list.
Click on Update Number to save.

Assign Phone Number to Receive SMS App

Test and validate

Send an SMS to your Plivo number using a regular mobile phone. Plivo will send a request to your Message URL with the parameters listed in the Messages Documentation.

Reply to an incoming SMS/MMS

When an SMS is sent to an Plivo phone number, you can receive the text on your server by setting a Message URL in your Plivo app. Plivo will send the message along with other parameters to your Message URL. You can reply back using the Plivo Message XML.

Note: In order to reply to a US or Canadian phone number, the src (source) phone number must be a Plivo US or Canadian phone number that is SMS-enabled. You can purchase a Plivo number from the Buy Numbers tab on your Plivo Console and filter the Phone Numbers by selecting SMS in the features option to buy SMS enabled numbers.

Create a file called reply_to_sms.py and paste the following code.

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from flask import Flask, request, make_response, Response
from plivo import plivoxml

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/reply_to_sms/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def reply_sms():

    from_number = request.values.get('From')
    to_number = request.values.get('To')
    text = request.values.get('Text')
    print('Message received - From: %s, To: %s, Text: %s' %(from_number, to_number, text))

    # send the details to generate an XML
    response = plivoxml.ResponseElement()
    response.add(
        plivoxml.MessageElement(
            'Thank you, we have received your request',
            src=to_number,  
            dst=from_number))
    print(response.to_string())  # Prints the XML
    # Returns the XML
    return Response(response.to_string(), mimetype='application/xml')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', debug=True)

Note: Create an application in the Plivo console with your Server URL in the message_URL field and assign the app to a Plivo number.

Test and validate

Send an SMS to your Plivo number using a regular mobile phone. Plivo will send a request to your Message URL with the parameters listed in the Messages Documentation.

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Get Started with Python using Flask Framework

Sign up for a Plivo Account

Sign up with your work email address

Send your First Outbound SMS/MMS

Prerequisites

Create the PHLO

Set Up Your Python Flask Dev Environment

Install Python

Install Plivo Python Package

Trigger the PHLO

With Static Payload

Code

With Dynamic Payload

Code

Test and Validate

Receive Your First Inbound SMS/MMS

Prerequisites

Create the PHLO

Assign the PHLO to a Plivo Number for Incoming SMS/MMS

To assign a PHLO to a number:

Test and Validate

Forward an Incoming SMS/MMS

Prerequisites

Create the PHLO

Assign the PHLO to a Plivo Number to Forward Incoming SMS

To assign a PHLO to a number:

Test and Validate

Install Python and the Plivo Python Server SDK

Install Python

Install Plivo Python Package

Send your first Outbound SMS/MMS

Code

Set up a Flask server for Incoming Messages & Callbacks

Setup a virtual env (optional)

Set up a Flask server

Exposing your local server to the internet

Create an Application

Assign a Plivo number to your app

Test and validate

Reply to an incoming SMS/MMS

Test and validate