Get Started with Python

Sign up for a Plivo Account

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.

Sign up here to get your free Plivo account today.

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

1. Sign up with your work email address
2. Check your inbox for an activation email from Plivo. Click on the link in the email 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 reach out to our Support Team for assistance.

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

Install Plivo Python Package

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

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!

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

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

Code

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import plivo

client = plivo.RestClient("auth_id","auth_token")
message_created = client.messages.create(
    src='plivo_src_number',
    dst='the_destination_number',
    text='Hello, world!'
)

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 9 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)

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.

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.

Create an Application

1. Create an Application by visiting the Application Page and click on New Application. You can also use Plivo’s Application API.
2. 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.
3. Click on Create to save your application.

Assign a Plivo number to your app

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

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 XML Request - Messages Documentation.

Reply to an incoming SMS

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.

Create a file called reply_to_sms.py and paste the below 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 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))

    # 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)

Test and validate

Send an SMS to your Plivo number using a regular mobile phone and an automatic response will be sent from your Plivo number to your mobile phone. Also, Plivo will send a request to your Message URL with the parameters listed in the XML Request - Messages Documentation.