Quick Overview
Twilio-ruby is the official Ruby gem for interacting with Twilio's API. It provides a convenient way to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and perform other communication-related tasks using Twilio's services within Ruby applications.
Pros
- Easy integration with Twilio's API for Ruby developers
- Comprehensive documentation and examples
- Regular updates and maintenance by Twilio
- Support for both synchronous and asynchronous requests
Cons
- Dependency on Twilio's services and pricing
- Learning curve for developers new to Twilio's API
- Limited functionality outside of Twilio's ecosystem
- Potential for breaking changes in major version updates
Code Examples
- Sending an SMS:
require 'twilio-ruby'
client = Twilio::REST::Client.new(account_sid, auth_token)
client.messages.create(
from: '+15551234567',
to: '+15557654321',
body: 'Hello from Twilio!'
)
- Making a phone call:
require 'twilio-ruby'
client = Twilio::REST::Client.new(account_sid, auth_token)
call = client.calls.create(
url: 'http://demo.twilio.com/docs/voice.xml',
to: '+15557654321',
from: '+15551234567'
)
- Retrieving call logs:
require 'twilio-ruby'
client = Twilio::REST::Client.new(account_sid, auth_token)
calls = client.calls.list(limit: 20)
calls.each do |call|
puts call.sid
end
Getting Started
- Install the gem:
gem install twilio-ruby
- Set up your Twilio credentials:
require 'twilio-ruby'
account_sid = 'your_account_sid'
auth_token = 'your_auth_token'
client = Twilio::REST::Client.new(account_sid, auth_token)
- Make your first API call:
message = client.messages.create(
body: 'Hello from Twilio!',
from: '+15551234567',
to: '+15557654321'
)
puts message.sid
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twilio-ruby
Documentation
The documentation for the Twilio API can be found here.
The individual releases here.
Versions
twilio-ruby
uses a modified version of Semantic Versioning for all changes. See this document for details.
Supported Ruby Versions
This library supports the following Ruby implementations:
-
Ruby 2.4
-
Ruby 2.5
-
Ruby 2.6
-
Ruby 2.7
-
Ruby 3.0
-
Ruby 3.1
-
Ruby 3.2
-
JRuby 9.2
-
JRuby 9.3
-
JRuby 9.4
Migrating from 5.x
Installation
To install using Bundler grab the latest stable version:
gem 'twilio-ruby', '~> 7.3.4'
To manually install twilio-ruby
via Rubygems simply gem install:
gem install twilio-ruby -v 7.3.4
To build and install the development branch yourself from the latest source:
git clone git@github.com:twilio/twilio-ruby.git
cd twilio-ruby
make install
Info If the command line gives you an error message that says Permission Denied, try running the above commands with sudo.
For example:
sudo gem install twilio-ruby
Test your installation
To make sure the installation was successful, try sending yourself an SMS message, like this:
require "twilio-ruby"
# Your Account SID and Auth Token from console.twilio.com
account_sid = "ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
auth_token = "your_auth_token"
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token
message = @client.messages.create(
body: "Hello from Ruby",
to: "+12345678901", # Text this number
from: "+15005550006", # From a valid Twilio number
)
puts message.sid
Warning It's okay to hardcode your credentials when testing locally, but you should use environment variables to keep them secret before committing any code or deploying to production. Check out How to Set Environment Variables for more information.
Usage
Authenticate the Client
require 'twilio-ruby'
# Your Account SID and Auth Token from console.twilio.com
account_sid = 'ACxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
auth_token = 'yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'
# Initialize the Twilio Client with your credentials
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token
Use An API Key
require 'twilio-ruby'
# Your Account SID from console.twilio.com
account_sid = 'ACxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
# API Key from twilio.com/console/project/api-keys
api_key_sid = 'zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'
api_key_secret = 'yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'
# set up a client to talk to the Twilio REST API using an API Key
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new api_key_sid, api_key_secret, account_sid
Specify a Region and/or Edge
To take advantage of Twilio's Global Infrastructure, specify the target Region and/or Edge for the client:
# set up a client to talk to the Twilio REST API over a specific region and edge
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token, nil, 'au1'
@client.edge = 'sydney'
# you may also specify the region and/or edge after client creation
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token
@client.region = 'au1'
@client.edge = 'sydney'
This will result in the hostname
transforming from api.twilio.com
to api.sydney.au1.twilio.com
.
Make a Call
@client.calls.create(
from: '+14159341234',
to: '+16105557069',
url: 'http://example.com'
)
Send an SMS
@client.messages.create(
from: '+14159341234',
to: '+16105557069',
body: 'Hey there!'
)
List your SMS Messages
@client.messages.list(limit: 20)
Fetch a single SMS message by Sid
# put the message sid you want to retrieve here:
message_sid = 'SMxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
@client.messages(message_sid).fetch
Iterate through records
The library automatically handles paging for you. Collections, such as calls
and messages
, have list
and stream methods that page under the hood. With both list
 and stream
, you can specify the number of records you want to receive (limit
) and the maximum size you want each page fetch to be (page_size
). The library will then handle the task for you.
list
 eagerly fetches all records and returns them as a list, whereas stream
 returns an enumerator and lazily retrieves pages of records as you iterate over the collection. You can also page manually using the page
 method.
For more information about these methods, view the auto-generated library docs.
require 'twilio-ruby'
account_sid = 'ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
auth_token = 'your_auth_token'
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new(account_sid, auth_token)
@client.calls.list
.each do |call|
puts call.direction
end
Enable Debug logging
In order to enable debug logging, pass in a 'logger' instance to the client with the level set to at least 'DEBUG'
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token
myLogger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
myLogger.level = Logger::DEBUG
@client.logger = myLogger
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token
myLogger = Logger.new('my_log.log')
myLogger.level = Logger::DEBUG
@client.logger = myLogger
Handle Exceptions {#exceptions}
If the Twilio API returns a 400 or a 500 level HTTP response, the twilio-ruby
library will throw a Twilio::REST::RestError
. 400-level errors are normal
during API operation (âInvalid numberâ
, âCannot deliver SMS to that numberâ
,
for example) and should be handled appropriately.
require 'twilio-ruby'
account_sid = 'ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
auth_token = 'your_auth_token'
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new account_sid, auth_token
begin
messages = @client.messages.list(limit: 20)
rescue Twilio::REST::RestError => e
puts e.message
end
Debug API requests
To assist with debugging, the library allows you to access the underlying request and response objects. This capability is built into the default HTTP client that ships with the library.
For example, you can retrieve the status code of the last response like so:
require 'rubygems' # Not necessary with ruby 1.9 but included for completeness
require 'twilio-ruby'
# Your Account SID and Auth Token from console.twilio.com
account_sid = 'ACXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX'
auth_token = 'your_auth_token'
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new(account_sid, auth_token)
@message = @client.messages.create(
to: '+14158675309',
from: '+14258675310',
body: 'Ahoy!'
)
# Retrieve the status code of the last response from the HTTP client
puts @client.http_client.last_response.status_code
Customize your HTTP Client
twilio-ruby
uses Faraday to make HTTP requests. You can tell Twilio::REST::Client
to use any of the Faraday adapters like so:
@client.http_client.adapter = :typhoeus
To use a custom HTTP client with this helper library, please see the advanced example of how to do so.
To apply customizations such as middleware, you can use the configure_connection
method like so:
@client.http_client.configure_connection do |faraday|
faraday.use SomeMiddleware
end
Get started With Client Capability Tokens
If you just need to generate a Capability Token for use with Twilio Client, you can do this:
require 'twilio-ruby'
# put your own account credentials here:
account_sid = 'ACxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
auth_token = 'yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy'
# set up
capability = Twilio::JWT::ClientCapability.new account_sid, auth_token
# allow outgoing calls to an application
outgoing_scope = Twilio::JWT::ClientCapability::OutgoingClientScope.new 'AP11111111111111111111111111111111'
capability.add_scope(outgoing_scope)
# allow incoming calls to 'andrew'
incoming_scope = Twilio::JWT::ClientCapability::IncomingClientScope.new 'andrew'
capability.add_scope(incoming_scope)
# generate the token string
@token = capability.to_s
There is a slightly more detailed document in the Capability section of the wiki.
Generate TwiML
To control phone calls, your application needs to output TwiML.
You can construct a TwiML response like this:
require 'twilio-ruby'
response = Twilio::TwiML::VoiceResponse.new do |r|
r.say(message: 'hello there', voice: 'alice')
r.dial(caller_id: '+14159992222') do |d|
d.client 'jenny'
end
end
# print the result
puts response.to_s
This will print the following (except for the whitespace):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Response>
<Say voice="alice">hello there</Say>
<Dial callerId="+14159992222">
<Client>jenny</Client>
</Dial>
</Response>
Docker Image
The Dockerfile
present in this repository and its respective twilio/twilio-ruby
Docker image are currently used by Twilio for testing purposes only.
Getting help
If you need help installing or using the library, please check the Twilio Support Help Center first, and file a support ticket if you don't find an answer to your question.
If you've instead found a bug in the library or would like new features added, go ahead and open issues or pull requests against this repo!
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