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The Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit

The Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit is a collection of open source communications tools any developer or technically inclined user can deploy quickly. Scroll down to INSTALLATION to get started.

Twilio.org is an initiative of the communications API platform company Twilio. Our mission is to provide nonprofit organizations with communications technologies to help them reach their goals and further the impact of social good.

If you are a qualified nonprofit, apply at Twilio.org/apply. Find other open source tools and resources at twilio.org/resources

Prerequisites

Twilio Rapid Response Kit is a built on python and the flask microframework. It uses virtualenv to sandbox the Twilio Rapid Response Kit from the rest of your development or server environment. Twilio Rapid Response Kit uses pip to resolve and install dependencies.

Please make sure that before you begin you meet the minimum requirements:

• Python 2.7
• virtualenv
• pip

Tools available out-of-the-box

Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit comes with several tools already installed. When you start up the Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit it will report what tools are available and where. Below is a brief description of every tool provided.

Auto-Respond

Use this tool to set up an recorded auto-responder to inbound voice calls or text messages. Respond to voice calls with a spoken message or to an incoming SMS message with a response SMS.

Useful for setting up and updating information lines.

Broadcast

A simple messaging broadcast app. Send a one-way communications blast to a defined group of contacts.

Useful for broadcasting information to volunteers.

Conference Line

Configures a Twilio Number to behave like a conference line. Anyone who calls into the conference line will be dropped into a conference room. Supports whitelisting numbers and multiple conference rooms.

Forwarder

Forwards all voice traffic from a Twilio Number to a given Phone Number.

Useful for temporary public phone numbers.

Ringdown

A tool that allows you to dial one number, which then will sequentially dial down a list of prioritized contacts until one of those contacts answer. You are able to set up contact lists ahead of time and if no one answers an optional message will be spoken.

Useful for setting up ad-hoc response teams and rudimentary call centers.

Simple Help Line

Use this interactive voice response app to set up simple options for callers to press a number for information, or to connect to a pre-determined agent. Each key on the dialpad can be configured to either dial a Phone Number or provide information.

Useful for setting up simple phone menus a la "Press 1 to call the Site Manager, Press 2 to hear shelter hours, etc"

Survey

Survey requires integration with Parse to record results.

An SMS-powered survey app to send out questions to a specified list of numbers and gather responses. You define the response parameters. Survey is similar to Broadcast but instead of broadcasting an informational message, it broadcasts a yes / no question. Responses will be recorded in Parse for analysis and action.

Useful for quick status and safety checks. Ex: "Can you help at 12th Street Response Center?"

Getting Firebase Url and Secret Key

• Create a free Firebase project here

• Once you are in the Console, create a new project.

• To get the Url click on the Database tab:

• For the Secret keys, click on the Project settings link:

• From here you can get your Secret Key:

• Add your Firebase credentials to the file rapid_response_kit/utils/config.py like so:

FIREBASE_URL = 'Firebase Url'
FIREBASE_SECRET = 'Firebase Secret Key'

Town Hall

With this group conference call tool, an organizer can dial one number which then dials a list of predefined contacts. Individuals who answer the call are dropped into the same conference. This can handle up to 40 people in one conference call.

Useful for quickly gathering key stakeholders together for conference calls without requiring everyone to dial into a predefined number.

Volunteer Signup

Volunteer Signup requires Google credentials to record results. Broadcast an sms message to a group of numbers with a volunteer opportunity and record responses to a Google spreadsheet.

Useful for quickly signing up volunteers and easily determining who is available to show up.

Note : If your Google account has 2-factor authentication enabled, you may need to generate an application specific password.

Gettin Google account credentials

• If you're not using 2-factor auth, just use your username and password. Be careful not to share them!

• If you are using 2-factor authenthication, visit the app passwords page here

• After signing in, choose "custom app" from the "select app" dropdown menu:

• Name your application and click generate to get your new Google password:

• Copy your email and new password into rapid_response_kit/utils/config.py like so:

GOOGLE_ACCOUNT_USER = 'email'
GOOGLE_ACCOUNT_PASS = 'password'

Noticeboard

Noticeboard requires Pusher credentials for realtime updates Noticeboard is a virtual noticeboard where people can send MMS pictures of missing people, damaged items, or useful information to a publicly accessible webpage that will update in realtime as it receives MMS messages, allowing people in disaster relief to share information.

This tool was developed using the brand new MMS messaging capabilities at Twilio.

Noticeboard is a perfect tool to have running in disaster relief centers where people might congregate.

Getting Pusher keys

• Sign up for a free account as pusher.com

• Go to the app page and click on "new app":

• Name it, do not click on any other options, and click "create app".

• Your Pusher keys will be displayed on the right hand side of the page. Copy and paste them into rapid_response_kit/utils/config.py like so:

PUSHER_APP_ID='app_id'
PUSHER_KEY='key'
PUSHER_SECRET='secret'

Installation

To install Twilio Rapid Response Kit to your development environment for testing or development work, you can follow these simple steps.

1. Download or git clone this project.
2. From the project directory run make install on the command line
3. During installation you will be prompted for your Twilio Account credentials, you can access these credentials from your [Twilio Account Dashboard] (https://www.twilio.com/user/account). If you don't have a Twilio Account yet you can sign up for a free trial account

Once the Twilio Rapid Response Kit is installed, you can run it in debug mode by running the make debug command from the Twilio Rapid Response Kit folder. This will start the application running on http://localhost:5000.

Stateless Design

You may have noticed that we haven't discussed what database Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit uses yet. This is because Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit is comprised of stateless tools that do not require a database to maintain the application state.

This was a conscious design decision, Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit does not require a database to function and therefore does not require the overhead generally associated with administering a database.

Just the beginning

These sample tools are just the beginning, if you want to extend Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit to do more, please read our [Contributor's Guide] contributors.md)

This kit, and all other repos in the Twilio.org Github are open source. If you’d like to be a contributor to this project please contact ebalbuena@twilio.com

Deploying

Once you have evaluated Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit and are happy with its functionality, it's time to deploy it. For Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit to function correctly it must be able to communicate with Twilio and vice-versa, so it must be on a publicly accessible server.

Your own hardware

To deploy Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit on your own server you can follow the same installation guide. The flask server is not meant for production deployment, we suggest running the Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit via uwsgi and forwarding to it from nginx.

Heroku

Running locally

1. pip install gunicorn
2. Create local_config.py with your environment variables and add to .gitignore
3. run foreman start

Deploying on Heroku

Click the button below to automatically set up the Rapid Response Kit in an app running on your Heroku account. You will be prompted to enter your Twilio credentials during setup.

Alternatively, you can manually create a Heroku app and use Git to push and deploy.

Meta

No warranty expressed or implied. Software is as is. MIT License Powered by Twilio.org

The Twilio.org Rapid Response Kit is just a flask app, so feel free to deploy as you would any flask application.