tie-api-example-twilio-whatsapp

This node.js example connector allows you to make your Teneo bot available on WhatsApp using the Twilio API for WhatsApp. This guide will take you through the steps of setting up a Twilio WhatsApp sandbox phone number and deploying the connector so it can respond to messages sent using WhatsApp.

Note that the Twilio API for WhatsApp is currently in Beta and is subject to change before becoming generally available.

Prerequisites

Https

Making the connector available via https is preferred. Ngrok is recommended for this.

Teneo Engine

Your bot needs to be published and you need to know the engine url.

Setup instructions

Download, install and start connector

Download or clone the connector source code:

git clone https://github.com/artificialsolutions/tie-api-example-twilio-whatsapp.git

Install dependencies by running the following command in the folder where you stored the source:
```
npm install
```
Start the connector with the following command (replacing the environment variable with the appropriate value):
```
TENEO_ENGINE_URL=<your_engine_url> node server.js
```

Make the connector available via https

You can make your locally running connector available via https using ngrok as follows:

The connector runs on port 4337 by default, so execute the following command:
```
ngrok http 4337
```
Running the command above will display a public https URL, copy it, we will use it in the following steps.

Setup a Twilio WhatsApp phone number

Setup a free Twilio account, which comes with free credit money you can spend on buying a number.
Go to the left panel menu and click the Programmable Messaging item, then from the submenu choose Try it Out > Try Whatsapp.
Follow the 5-step process to setup communication between Twilio Sandbox and WhatsApp on your phone.
Next, in Programmable Messaging > Settings > Whatsapp Sandbox Settings submenu, add the https URL you copied earlier to the When a message comes in field. Hit save at the bottom of the page.

That's it! Now you can use the WhatsApp sandbox to interact with your bot!

Running the connector on Heroku

Note: Starting November 28, 2022, free Heroku Dynos, free Heroku Postgres, and free Heroku Data for Redis® plans will no longer be available.

Click the button below to deploy the connector to Heroku:

In the 'Config Vars' section, add the following:

TENEO_ENGINE_URL: The engine url

Next, follow the 'Setup a Twilio WhatsApp phone number' instructions above. Make sure that in the step 4 you set the 'When a message comes in' URL to the url of the Heroku app.

Twilio API for WhatsApp

The Twilio API for Whatsapp is currently in beta. For more details, visit the Twilio website: Twilio API for WhatsApp.

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