SMS and MMS Marketing Notifications with Ruby and Rails

Time to read: 4 minutes

January 10, 2017
Written by
Jarod Reyes
Twilion
Reviewed by
Paul Kamp
Twilion
Mica Swyers
Contributor
Opinions expressed by Twilio contributors are their own
Kat King
Twilion
Lizzie Siegle
Twilion
Hector Ortega
Contributor
Opinions expressed by Twilio contributors are their own
Andrew T. Baker
Twilion

sms-mms-notifications-ruby-rails

Ready to implement SMS and MMS marketing notifications for your Ruby on Rails Application?  This post is for you!

Here's how it'll work at a high level:

  1. A user you'd like to reach sends an SMS message to a Twilio phone number you advertise somewhere.
  2. Your application confirms that the user wants to receive SMS and MMS notifications.
  3. An administrator or marketing campaign manager uses a web form to craft a message that will be sent to all subscribers via SMS/MMS message.

Building Blocks

To get this done, you'll be working with the following Twilio tools:

  • TwiML and the <Message> Verb: We'll use TwiML to manage interactions initiated by the user via SMS
  • Messages Resource: We will use the REST API to broadcast messages out to all subscribers

Let's get started!

Creating a Subscriber

We begin by generating an Active Record model that we will store in a postgres database. For our purposes we don't need to store very much information about the subscriber - only their phone number (so we can send them updates) and a boolean flag indicating whether or not they are opted-in to receive updates.

We'll use the Rails generate command to create our model:

bin/rails generate model Subscriber phone_number:string subscribed:boolean

This generator creates our model, migration and schema for us. Now all we need to run is rake db:migrate and we have a table of Subscribers.

Editor: this is a migrated tutorial. Clone the original code from https://github.com/TwilioDevEd/marketing-notifications-rails/

class Subscriber < ActiveRecord::Base

  # Create an opt-in subscriber entry for marketing notifications
  def send_message(msg, image_url)
    @twilio_number = ENV['TWILIO_NUMBER']
    @client = Twilio::REST::Client.new ENV['TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID'], ENV['TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN']
    message = @client.api.messages.create(
      :from => @twilio_number,
      :to => self.phone_number,
      :body => msg,
      :media_url => image_url
    )
    puts message.to
  end

end

Now that we have a model object to save a Subscriber, let's move up to the controller level to see how we receive incoming messages.

Handling An Incoming Message

Since the incoming function will be called every time our application receives a message, it has a lot of business logic it needs to implement.

We'll look at how this function works piece by piece as the tutorial continues, but let's focus on the first message a user sends us for now.

 

Twilio can send your web application an HTTP request when certain events happen, such as an incoming text message to one of your Twilio phone numbers. These requests are called webhooks, or status callbacks. For more, check out our guide to Getting Started with Twilio Webhooks. Find other webhook pages, such as a security guide and an FAQ in the Webhooks section of the docs.

class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
  # Receive incoming SMS
  def incoming
    # Grab the phone number from incoming Twilio params
    phone_number = params[:From]

    # Find the subscriber associated with this number or create a new one
    subscriber_exists = Subscriber.exists?(phone_number: phone_number)
    subscriber = Subscriber.find_or_create_by(phone_number: phone_number)

    begin
      if subscriber_exists
        # Process the command from our subscriber
        body = params.fetch(:Body, '').downcase
        output = process_message(body, subscriber)
      else
        output = "Thanks for contacting TWBC! Text 'add' if you would to receive updates via text message."
      end
    rescue
      output = "Something went wrong. Try again."
    end

    # Render the TwiML response
    respond(output)
  end

  # Create a new notification
  def new
    message = params[:message]
    image_url = params[:image_url]

    begin
      Subscriber.where(:subscribed => true).each do |s|
        s.send_message message, image_url
      end
      flash[:success] = "Messages on their way!"
    rescue Exception => e
      flash[:alert] = "Something when wrong: #{e.message}"
    end
    redirect_to '/'
  end

  def index
  end

  private
  # Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.

  # Process incoming SMS
  def process_message(message, subscriber)
    if message == 'add' || message == 'remove'
      # If the user has subscribed flip the bit
      # and let them know
      subscribed = message == 'add'
      subscriber.update subscribed: subscribed

      # Respond appropriately
      output = "You are now subscribed for updates."
      if !subscriber.subscribed
        output = "You have unsubscribed from notifications. Test 'add' to start receiving updates again"
      end
    else
      # If we don't recognize the command, text back with the list of
      # available commands
      output = "Sorry, we don't recognize that command. Available commands are: 'add' or 'remove'."
    end
    output
  end

  # Send an SMS back to the Subscriber
  def respond(message)
    response = Twilio::TwiML::MessagingResponse.new
    response.message(body: message)
    render xml: response.to_s
  end
end

Assuming a user doesn't exist, we'll want to add them as a potential subscriber.  That's where we're headed next.

Creating a New Subscriber

We begin by getting the user's phone number from the incoming Twilio request. Next, we try to find a Subscriber model with that phone number (this should be a unique property of the Subscriber).

If there's no subscriber with this phone number, we create one, save it, and respond with a friendly message asking them to text "add". We require this two-step opt-in to our marketing notifications to keep our customers happy.

We've now created a Subscriber model to keep track of the people that want to receive our messages and have learned how to save them in the database when they text us for the first time.

class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
  # Receive incoming SMS
  def incoming
    # Grab the phone number from incoming Twilio params
    phone_number = params[:From]

    # Find the subscriber associated with this number or create a new one
    subscriber_exists = Subscriber.exists?(phone_number: phone_number)
    subscriber = Subscriber.find_or_create_by(phone_number: phone_number)

    begin
      if subscriber_exists
        # Process the command from our subscriber
        body = params.fetch(:Body, '').downcase
        output = process_message(body, subscriber)
      else
        output = "Thanks for contacting TWBC! Text 'add' if you would to receive updates via text message."
      end
    rescue
      output = "Something went wrong. Try again."
    end

    # Render the TwiML response
    respond(output)
  end

  # Create a new notification
  def new
    message = params[:message]
    image_url = params[:image_url]

    begin
      Subscriber.where(:subscribed => true).each do |s|
        s.send_message message, image_url
      end
      flash[:success] = "Messages on their way!"
    rescue Exception => e
      flash[:alert] = "Something when wrong: #{e.message}"
    end
    redirect_to '/'
  end

  def index
  end

  private
  # Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.

  # Process incoming SMS
  def process_message(message, subscriber)
    if message == 'add' || message == 'remove'
      # If the user has subscribed flip the bit
      # and let them know
      subscribed = message == 'add'
      subscriber.update subscribed: subscribed

      # Respond appropriately
      output = "You are now subscribed for updates."
      if !subscriber.subscribed
        output = "You have unsubscribed from notifications. Test 'add' to start receiving updates again"
      end
    else
      # If we don't recognize the command, text back with the list of
      # available commands
      output = "Sorry, we don't recognize that command. Available commands are: 'add' or 'remove'."
    end
    output
  end

  # Send an SMS back to the Subscriber
  def respond(message)
    response = Twilio::TwiML::MessagingResponse.new
    response.message(body: message)
    render xml: response.to_s
  end
end

Next, let's look at the logic we need to put in place to allow them to manage their subscription status.

Manage Subscriptions

We want to provide the user with two SMS commands to manage their subscription status: add and remove.

These commands will toggle a boolean flag for their Subscriber record in the database, and will determine whether or not they receive messages from our marketing campaign. Because we want to respect our users' preferences, we don't opt them in automatically - rather, we have them confirm that they want to receive messages from us first.

To make this happen, we will need to update the controller logic which handles the incoming text message to do a couple things:

  • If the user is a person already in the database, parse the message they sent to see if it's a command we recognize
  • If it is a add or remove command, update her or his subscription status in the database
  • If it is a command we don't recognize, send a message explaining the two available commands.

Handle the Marketing Form Submission

On the server, first we grab an incoming form message text and optional image URL from the POST body. Second we loop through all Subscribers and call a function on our Subscriber model to send our marketing message.

When the messages are on their way, we redirect back to the same web form with a flash message containing feedback about the messaging attempt.

class NotificationsController < ApplicationController
  # Receive incoming SMS
  def incoming
    # Grab the phone number from incoming Twilio params
    phone_number = params[:From]

    # Find the subscriber associated with this number or create a new one
    subscriber_exists = Subscriber.exists?(phone_number: phone_number)
    subscriber = Subscriber.find_or_create_by(phone_number: phone_number)

    begin
      if subscriber_exists
        # Process the command from our subscriber
        body = params.fetch(:Body, '').downcase
        output = process_message(body, subscriber)
      else
        output = "Thanks for contacting TWBC! Text 'add' if you would to receive updates via text message."
      end
    rescue
      output = "Something went wrong. Try again."
    end

    # Render the TwiML response
    respond(output)
  end

  # Create a new notification
  def new
    message = params[:message]
    image_url = params[:image_url]

    begin
      Subscriber.where(:subscribed => true).each do |s|
        s.send_message message, image_url
      end
      flash[:success] = "Messages on their way!"
    rescue Exception => e
      flash[:alert] = "Something when wrong: #{e.message}"
    end
    redirect_to '/'
  end

  def index
  end

  private
  # Use callbacks to share common setup or constraints between actions.

  # Process incoming SMS
  def process_message(message, subscriber)
    if message == 'add' || message == 'remove'
      # If the user has subscribed flip the bit
      # and let them know
      subscribed = message == 'add'
      subscriber.update subscribed: subscribed

      # Respond appropriately
      output = "You are now subscribed for updates."
      if !subscriber.subscribed
        output = "You have unsubscribed from notifications. Test 'add' to start receiving updates again"
      end
    else
      # If we don't recognize the command, text back with the list of
      # available commands
      output = "Sorry, we don't recognize that command. Available commands are: 'add' or 'remove'."
    end
    output
  end

  # Send an SMS back to the Subscriber
  def respond(message)
    response = Twilio::TwiML::MessagingResponse.new
    response.message(body: message)
    render xml: response.to_s
  end
end

Let's jump into the model now to see how these messages are sent out.

Using the Twilio REST Client

When the model object is loaded, it creates a Twilio REST API client that it can use to send SMS and MMS messages. The client requires your Twilio account credentials (an account SID and auth token), which can be found in the console.

Next all we need to do is call messages.create on the client object in order to send our message. The Twilio Message API call requires a From and To parameter, and either a Body or a MediaUrl attribute (or both).

These nine lines of code are all you need to send an SMS in Rails.

class Subscriber < ActiveRecord::Base

  # Create an opt-in subscriber entry for marketing notifications
  def send_message(msg, image_url)
    @twilio_number = ENV['TWILIO_NUMBER']
    @client = Twilio::REST::Client.new ENV['TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID'], ENV['TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN']
    message = @client.api.messages.create(
      :from => @twilio_number,
      :to => self.phone_number,
      :body => msg,
      :media_url => image_url
    )
    puts message.to
  end

end

With that?  The tutorial is finished!  Next we'll look at other easily implemented features.

Where to Next?

That's it! We've just implemented a an opt-in process and an administrative interface to run an SMS and MMS marketing campaign through your Ruby on Rails site. Now all you need is killer content to share with your users via text or MMS... and that's on you and your team.

Twilio loves Ruby!  Here are just a couple of our other Ruby tutorials:

Warm Transfer

With Warm Transfers your agents will have the ability to conference in another agent in realtime.

Automated Survey

Instantly collect structured data from your users with a survey conducted over a voice call or SMS text messages.

Did this help?

Thanks for checking this tutorial out! Please let us know by tweeting @twilio what you're building!

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