Managed Connection : SignalWire

What is SignalWire?

SignalWire allows us to send and receive text messages globally using applications like VoiceWorx platform.

The VoiceWorx platform allows for the rapid integration of SignalWire Text message service to various voice channels such as, Alexa, Lex, Google Assistant and more.

Prerequisites

You need to have an active SignalWire account
Enough balance so you can send messages.
Configuration
- Base URL
- Project ID
- Auth Token
- Phone Number

To get the required information, Log into your SignalWire Sign In Page. You should a screen like this.

Enter your space to continue.

Once logged in, go to “API Credentials” page by clicking on API menu in left as shown in below screenshot.

From this page, copy Project ID, Space URL and Token as we will need this to apply on VoiceWorx platform.

If you do not have any token created before, you can create a new token by clicking on +New button. This will redirect you to create a New API Token screen as shown below. Enter name and click on save to create it.

Once saved, you should be back on the API Credentials screen as shown in previous screenshot.

Now, to get the phone number, click on the “Phone Numbers” menu at left, you should see a screen as shown below. If you do not have any number, you can purchase one by clicking on +New button.

Now you are ready with above prerequisites, you can configure it on VoiceWorx platform.

Configure SignalWire with VoiceWorx platform:

To Configure SignalWire, browse to: Integration > Connect System > Connect External System in the VoiceWorx platform and select options as shown below.

On the configuration screen, provide the required information as shown below.

You should be already familiar with the above required configuration as it is explained in the prerequisites section of this document.

Once you have saved settings, browse to: Custom Skills > Manage Skills and create a new Custom Skill by clicking on “Create New Custom Skill” button.

Now, create a Data Source for the SignalWire by navigating to Data Source tab in the same screen.

Now you can create methods for the SignalWire Instance.

As of the publication of this document, the VoiceWorx platform supports following SignalWire methods,

SendTextSMS
SendSMSWithMedia

Create App in VoiceWorx

On Manage Apps menu under Custom Apps menu in the left navigation, click on New Custom App.

Fill up following details to create app.

Name: SignalWire Demo

Custom App Type: Search

Category: Default

Click on Save.

Next step is to create a datasource that communicates with the integration created in Step 2.

After the data source has been created, we now have to create methods. VoiceWorx supports

SendTextSMS
SendSMSWithMedia

Send Text SMS

Fill the following details:

You can now test the method. On the actions menu, click on Test, provide the parameter value and

Send SMS With Media

Fill the following details:

You can repeat the same method to test the method. Following screen shows a sample response.

Create Intents:

Create Intents corresponding to the methods.

SendTextSMSIntent

SendSMSWithMediaIntent

Create Slots:

Slots represent the parameters for the intents. You shall create slots of the exact same name as the parameters used in the method. Slots map to the parameters of the method.

SendTextSMSIntent

SendSMSWithMediaIntent

Create Utterances

Utterances are the short texts that invoke the intent. You have to define a unique utterance for each method.

SendTextSMS

SendSMSWithMedia

Create Input

The next step is to create input for the intents. Create Inputs corresponding to every intent. You need to create and manage parameters corresponding to the slots for each intent. For example for SendTextSMSIntent, you had two slots: “ToNumber” and “Message”, hence for SendTextSMSInput , you need to create two parameters: “ToNumber” and “Message”. Let’s look into the process in the following screens:

SendTextSMSInput

Click on Manage parameters on the action menu.

Click on Input Parameters and provide the details as shown below in the resulting pop up: Make sure to map the Input parameter to the same parameter. Also be careful of the data type used. It should be similar/ compatible with the data type of the slot.

Let’s Add another parameter “Message”.

Send SMSWithMediaInput

Repeat the same process for SMSWithMediaIntent. Create Input “SMSWithMediaInput” and create parameters.

Parameter Details:

Create Publish Profile

Once you’ve completed all of the above steps, your app is now ready to be publish to VoiceWorx supported channels. Let’s set up a publish profile.

Click on Save and you shall see the publish profile in VoiceWorx portal. Click on the actions menu and then on Publish to Alexa.

Once the publish profile is created. On the action menu, Click on Publish to Alexa. Select the appropriate LWA account and click on publish.

On success, you shall get a similar screen

Click on Go to Alexa Skill. It will redirect you to Alexa developer console, where you can start testing your app starting with the skill invocation text defined in previous step.

For further details on app building, you can refer to this document for required guidance on building the remaining steps of app building.