Twilio SDK Starter Application for Node.js

This sample project demonstrates how to use Twilio APIs in a Node.js web application. Once the app is up and running, check out the home page to see which demos you can run. You'll find examples for Chat, Sync, and Notify.

Let's get started!

Configure the sample application

To run the application, you'll need to gather your Twilio account credentials and configure them in a file named .env. To create this file from an example template, do the following in your Terminal.

cp .env.example .env

Open .env in your favorite text editor and configure the following values.

Configure account information

Every sample in the demo requires some basic credentials from your Twilio account. Configure these first.

Config Value	Description
TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID	Your primary Twilio account identifier - find this in the console here.
TWILIO_API_KEY	Used to authenticate - generate one here.
TWILIO_API_SECRET	Used to authenticate - just like the above, you'll get one here.

A Note on API Keys

When you generate an API key pair at the URLs above, your API Secret will only be shown once - make sure to save this information in a secure location, or possibly your ~/.bash_profile.

Configure product-specific settings

Depending on which demos you'd like to run, you may need to configure a few more values in your .env file.

Configuring Twilio Sync

Twilio Sync works out of the box, using default settings per account. Once you have your API keys configured, execute npm install; npm run start and open a browser!

Configuring Twilio Chat

In addition to the above, you'll need to generate a Chat Service in the Twilio Console. Put the result in your .env file.

Config Value	Where to get one.
TWILIO_CHAT_SERVICE_SID	Chat

Configuring Twilio Notify

You will need to create a Notify Service and add at least one credential on the Mobile Push Credential screen (such as Apple Push Notification Service or Firebase Cloud Messaging for Android) to send notifications using Notify.

Config Value	Where to get one.
TWILIO_NOTIFICATION_SERVICE_SID	Generate one in the Notify Console and put this in your .env file.
A Push Credential	Generate one with Apple or Google and configure it as a Notify credential.

Once you've done that, run the application and open a browser!

Run the sample application

Now that the application is configured, we need to install our dependencies from npm.

npm install

Now we should be all set! Run the application using the node command.

npm start

Your application should now be running at http://localhost:3000/.

Check your config values, and follow the links to the demo applications!

Running the SDK Starter Kit with ngrok

If you are going to connect to this SDK Starter Kit with a mobile app (and you should try it out!), your phone won't be able to access localhost directly. You'll need to create a publicly accessible URL using a tool like ngrok to send HTTP/HTTPS traffic to a server running on your localhost. Use HTTPS to make web connections that retrieve a Twilio access token.

ngrok http 3000

Meta

• No warranty expressed or implied. Software is as is. Diggity.
• MIT License
• Lovingly crafted by Twilio Developer Education.