Real-time, multi-user chat interface for SMS / text messages. Imagine a call center where customers can send a text message to a single number and have a live chat with any agent(s) available.
You can run enviar entirely on free hosted platforms: Heroku for the application and Cloudant for the database. But you may prefer to run it locally or on your own server.
To use enviar in production, you'll need a Twilio account for sending SMS and a Postmark account for sending password reset emails. If you're setting enviar up for production, I recommend creating those ahead of time because you'll need your twilio account's "Account SID" and "Auth Token", and your postmark account's "server token" as part of the application install process. If you're not setting up enviar for production, you can skip this part for now.
You can use Cloudant's free tier for the database by
setting up an account there. Create a database called enviar once you've signed up.
You can run the application on Heroku's free tier.
Fill in the parameters from the accounts you've setup, including your Cloudant
account in the COUCHDB settings.
You should be able to view your application at https://<app-name>.herokuapp.com
and login using your Cloudant credentials.
This application uses CouchDB to store messages. Follow their install docs to run CouchDB locally.
By default, CouchDB considers everyone an admin, which is known as "Admin Party."
Disable this by going to the control panel (usually at http://localhost:5984/_utils)
and disabling it (image credit @nolanlawson).
In doing so, you'll create your admin account with a password.
- Clone this repo using
git clone https://github.com/timwis/enviar.git - Install node dependencies via
npm install - Copy
.env.sampleto.env - Fill in your the
COUCHDB_HOSTin.env(ie.http://localhost:5984), along with theCOUCHDB_USERandCOUCHDB_PASSyou setup. The other variables are only required in production mode. - Enable CORS
by running
npm run corsfrom the terminal
- Run the server using
NODE_ENV=development npm start - Access the server at
http://localhost:3000
You can simulate sending messages using the interface. To simulate receiving a message,
send a POST request to http://localhost:3000/api/inbound.
Sample inbound POST request: (note the + in the phone number is encoded as %2B)
curl -X POST -d 'SmsSid=123456&From=%2B12597150948&Body=hello' http://localhost:3000/api/inbound- Make sure all the credentials are filled out in
.env - Run the server using
npm start - Point twilio's incoming message webhook to
http://<your-server>/api/inbound(check out ngrok to expose your localhost)
Access the server at http://<your-server>:3000 (override port using PORT environment variable)