At the API hackathon at Drupalcon Denver in March, Chris Teitzel led a team working on Hope One Source, a Drupal-based tool for organizing humanitarian aid workers. Using Hope One Source, aid workers can mark their location and classify themselves across a variety of categories. Then an aid organization can post messages to those categories. This way, an aid organization in northern Haiti can deliver a message to all doctors near Cap Haitien.
Twice a year we like to get together with some friends and give back to the world. Over the past two years, Tropo has been an active sponsor of Random Hacks of Kindness events in Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston, Milwaukee, Portland, and San Francisco and, through our unique ongoing partnership with Geeks Without Bounds, we are now in a position to help even more.
Many applications need a connection to a database to function – cloud databases like couchDB are one option (which we discuss in more detail here), but often a local database is more practical. In this blog, we’ll be using the Tropo WebAPI with a local MySQL database via MAMP, a personal webserver with both Apache and MySQL built in. We’re going to connect them in order to save important data provided by Tropo about a call, in this case specifically the callerID, timestamp of the call, and a recording of the call. MAMP isn’t the only option – any webserver will work.
Sending texts or making calls with Tropo can be a little counter intuitive if you’re accustomed to the pure REST implementations common to SMS APIs – POST the destination phone number and the message content to a specific URL, text goes out, end of story. With Tropo, you need a “launcher” app that handles the REST bits and a “catcher” app that actually sends the text, which adds a bit of complexity but also an immense amount of features.
Happy Star Wars day! May the 4th be with you.
Poster courtesy Wikipedia
At the time, we created a copy of the telephone hotline, and since we’re big Star Wars fans around here (I have a lifesize Yoda and dozens of vintage posters in my office), we’ve updated it for Star Wars day, complete with a vanity phone number.
Call (630) 92-FORCE ((630) 923-6723) to hear one of the original messages from the Empire Strikes Back hotline. Want to hear more? You don’t need to wait a month for the next one. Just call back. Each time you call, we’ll play a randomly-selected recording. There are five in all.
Outside the US? Call in via SIP at 9991443239@sip.tropo.com or Skype at +990009369991443239. Or call one of the 36 local access numbers listed below.
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