SMS - Tutorial: Send an SMS in Ruby using the Telesign SDK

This tutorial teaches you how to use the Telesign Ruby SDK to send an SMS. The complete sample code for this tutorial is available on GitHub here.

Before you begin

Make sure you have the following before you start:

• Authentication credentials: Your Customer ID and API Key. If you need help finding these items, go to the support article How do I find my Customer ID and API Key.
• Testing device: A mobile phone on which you can receive SMS.
• Telesign Self-service Ruby SDK: Install the Self-service Ruby SDK. Source code and installation instructions are on GitHub.

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NOTE:

This tutorial uses Ruby 2.7. Please modify accordingly if you are using a different version of Ruby.

This tutorial uses a Mac, please modify accordingly if you are using a different system.

Set up your project

1. Create a new directory for your project and then enter it. If you plan to create multiple Ruby projects that use Telesign, we recommend that you group them within a telesign_integrations directory.

   Terminal

   cd telesign_integrations
   mkdir sms
   cd sms
   

2. Create a new file called send_sms.rb and open it in your editor:

   Terminal

   touch send_sms.rb
   

Create code to send an SMS

1. Import the Telesign SDK as a dependency.

   Ruby

   require 'telesign'
   

2. Define variables to store your authentication credentials. For testing purposes, you can just overwrite the default values below or use environment variables.

   Ruby

   customer_id = ENV['CUSTOMER_ID'] || 'FFFFFFFF-EEEE-DDDD-1234-AB1234567890'
   api_key = ENV['API_KEY'] || 'ABC12345yusumoN6BYsBVkh+yRJ5czgsnCehZaOYldPJdmFh6NeX8kunZ2zU1YWaUw/0wV6xfw=='
   

3. Define a variable to hold the recipient's phone number. For this tutorial, hardcode your testing device's phone number or pull it from an environment variable.

   Ruby

   phone_number = ENV['PHONE_NUMBER'] || '11234567890'
   

4. Define variables for the message text and the Telesign abbreviation describing the message type. For purposes of this tutorial, use the "ARN" abbreviation (alerts, reminders, and notifications).

   Ruby

   message = 'Your package has shipped! Follow your delivery at https://vero-finto.com/orders/3456'
   message_type = 'ARN'
   

5. Instantiate a Telesign messaging client object with your authentication credentials.

   Ruby

   client = Telesign::MessagingClient.new(customer_id, api_key)
   

6. Make the request and capture the response.

   Ruby

   response = client.message(phone_number, message, message_type)
   

7. Display the response body in the console for debugging purposes. In your production code, you would likely remove this.

   Ruby

   print "\nResponse HTTP status: ", response.status_code, "\n"
   print "Response body: ", response.body, "\n\n"
   

Sample code

The complete sample code for this tutorial can be found on GitHub.