<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><title>Full Stack Python</title><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/" rel="alternate"></link><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/feeds/all.atom.xml" rel="self"></link><id>https://www.fullstackpython.com/</id><updated>2016-10-27T00:00:00-04:00</updated><entry><title>Dialing Outbound Phone Calls with a Bottle Web App</title><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/dial-outbound-phone-calls-python-bottle.html" rel="alternate"></link><updated>2016-10-27T00:00:00-04:00</updated><author><name>Matt Makai</name></author><id>tag:www.fullstackpython.com,2016-08-30:dial-outbound-phone-calls-python-bottle.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Python web apps built with the &lt;a href="/bottle.html"&gt;Bottle web framework&lt;/a&gt; can

&lt;a href="/blog/send-sms-text-messages-python.html"&gt;send&lt;/a&gt; and

&lt;a href="/blog/reply-sms-text-messages-python-bottle.html"&gt;receive SMS text messages&lt;/a&gt;.

In this tutorial we will go beyond texting and learn how to dial outbound

phone calls. The calls will read a snippet of text then play an MP3 file,

but they can then be easily modified to create conference lines and many

other voice features in your Python web apps.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Tools We Need&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You should have either &lt;a href="/python-2-or-3.html"&gt;Python 2 or 3&lt;/a&gt; installed to

create your Bottle app, although Python 3 is recommended for new

applications. We also need:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/"&gt;pip&lt;/a&gt; and

&lt;a href="https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/"&gt;virtualenv&lt;/a&gt; to handle

&lt;a href="/application-dependencies.html"&gt;application dependencies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://ngrok.com/"&gt;Ngrok&lt;/a&gt; for localhost tunneling to our Bottle

application while it's running on our local development environment&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/bottle.html"&gt;Bottle&lt;/a&gt; web framework&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Free &lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio"&gt;Twilio account&lt;/a&gt; to use their

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/rest/making-calls"&gt;phone calling web API&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Twilio's

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/libraries/python"&gt;Python helper library&lt;/a&gt;,

which is &lt;a href="https://github.com/twilio/twilio-python"&gt;open source on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;

and &lt;a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/twilio"&gt;available for download from PyPI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Take a look at

&lt;a href="/blog/python-3-bottle-gunicorn-ubuntu-1604-xenial-xerus.html"&gt;this guide on setting up Python 3, Bottle and Gunicorn on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS&lt;/a&gt;

if you need help getting your

&lt;a href="/development-environments.html"&gt;development environment&lt;/a&gt;

configured before continuing on through the remainder of this tutorial.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;You can snag all the open source code for this tutorial in the

&lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai/python-bottle-phone"&gt;python-bottle-phone&lt;/a&gt;

GitHub repository under the

&lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai/python-bottle-phone/tree/master/outbound-calls"&gt;outbound directory&lt;/a&gt;.

Use and copy the code however you want - it's all open source under the

MIT license.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Installing Our Application Dependencies&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our Bottle app needs a helper code library to make it easy to dial outbound

phone calls. Bottle and the Twilio helper library are installable from

&lt;a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi"&gt;PyPI&lt;/a&gt; into a virtualenv. Open your terminal

and use the &lt;code&gt;virtualenv&lt;/code&gt; command to create a new virtualenv:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;virtualenv bottlephone

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Use the &lt;code&gt;activate&lt;/code&gt; script within the virtualenv, which makes this virtualenv

the active Python installation. Note that you need to do this in every

terminal window that you want this virtualenv to be used.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;source bottlephone/bin/activate

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The command prompt will change after activating the virtualenv

to something like &lt;code&gt;(bottlephone) $&lt;/code&gt;. Here is a screenshot of what my

environment looked like when I used the &lt;code&gt;activate&lt;/code&gt; script.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/activate-virtualenv.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next use the &lt;code&gt;pip&lt;/code&gt; command to install the &lt;a href="/bottle.html"&gt;Bottle&lt;/a&gt; and

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/libraries/python"&gt;Twilio Python&lt;/a&gt; packages

into your virtualenv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;pip install bottle twilio

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After the installation script finishes, we will have the required

dependencies to build our app. Time to write some Python code to dial

outbound phone calls.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Bottle and Twilio&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our simple Bottle web app will have three routes: &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;/&lt;/code&gt; - returns a text string to let us know our Bottle app is running&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;/twiml&lt;/code&gt; - responds with &lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/twiml"&gt;TwiML&lt;/a&gt;

(a simple subset of XML) that instructs Twilio what to do when someone

picks up the call to them from our Bottle web app&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;code&gt;/dial-phone/&amp;lt;outbound_phone_number&amp;gt;&lt;/code&gt;, where "outbound_phone_number" is

a phone number in the format "+12025551234" - this route uses the Twilio

helper library to send a POST request to the Twilio Voice API to dial a

phone call&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can build the structure of our Bottle app and the first route right now.

Create a new file named &lt;code&gt;app.py&lt;/code&gt; with the following contents to start our

app.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;bottle&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;bottle&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;route&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;run&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;post&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;twilio&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;twilio.rest&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;TwilioRestClient&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;app&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;bottle&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;default_app&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# plug in account SID and auth token here if they are not already exposed as&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# environment variables&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;twilio_client&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;TwilioRestClient&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;TWILIO_NUMBER&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;environ&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;TWILIO_NUMBER&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;+12025551234&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;NGROK_BASE_URL&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;environ&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;NGROK_BASE_URL&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;https://c6c6d4e8.ngrok.io&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nd"&gt;@route&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;/&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;def&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;index&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;():&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; Returns a standard text response to show the app is up and running.&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;return&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Bottle app running!&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;__name__&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;==&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;__main__&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;run&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;host&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;127.0.0.1&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;port&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;8000&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;debug&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="bp"&gt;False&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;reloader&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="bp"&gt;True&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Make sure you are in the directory where you created the above &lt;code&gt;app.py&lt;/code&gt;

file. Run the app via the Bottle development server with the following

command. Make sure your virtualenv is still activated so our code can rely

on the Bottle code library.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;python app.py

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We should see a successful development server start up like this:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;(bottlephone) matt@ubuntu:~/bottlephone$ python app.py

Bottle v0.12.9 server starting up (using WSGIRefServer())...

Listening on http://127.0.0.1:8000/

Hit Ctrl-C to quit.

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Here is what the development server message looks like in my environment

on Ubuntu:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/bottle-app-running.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Successfully starting the Bottle development server from the command line."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Let's test out the app by going to &lt;a href="http://localhost:8000"&gt;localhost:8000&lt;/a&gt;

in the web browser. We should get a simple success message that the app

is running and responding to requests.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/bottle-app-web-browser.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Simple success message in the web browser that the Bottle app is running."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next we need to obtain a phone number that our Bottle app can use to

call other phone numbers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Obtain a Phone Number&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our basic Bottle web app is running but what we really want to do is dial

outbound calls - which will be handled by &lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/"&gt;Twilio&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In your web browser go to the

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio"&gt;Twilio website and sign up for a free account&lt;/a&gt;.

You can also sign into your existing Twilio account if you already have one.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/try-twilio.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Twilio sign up screen."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Twilio trial account allows you to dial and receive phone calls to

your own validated phone number. To dial and receive calls from any phone

number then you need to upgrade your account (hit the upgrade button on the

top navigation bar to do that). Trial accounts are great for initial

development before your application goes live but upgraded accounts are where

the real power comes in.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once you are signed into your Twilio account, go to the

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/console/phone-numbers"&gt;manage phone numbers screen&lt;/a&gt;.

On this screen you can

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/console/phone-numbers/search"&gt;buy one or more phone numbers&lt;/a&gt;

or click on an existing phone number in your account to configure it.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/manage-phone-numbers.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Manage phone numbers screen."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is nothing for us to configure right now on the phone number

configuration page because we are making outbound phone calls for this

tutorial. Now that we have a phone number in hand, let's add the final bit

of code to our Bottle app to get this app working.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Making Phone Calls&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We need to add two new routes to our Bottle app so it can dial outbound

phone calls. Modify your existing app.py file with the two new functions

below, &lt;code&gt;twiml_response&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;outbound_call&lt;/code&gt;. None of the other code in

this file needs to change other than adding those two new functions to

what we wrote in the previous section.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;bottle&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;bottle&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;route&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;run&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;post&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;twilio&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;twilio.rest&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;TwilioRestClient&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;app&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;bottle&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;default_app&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# plug in account SID and auth token here if they are not already exposed as&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# environment variables&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;twilio_client&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;TwilioRestClient&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# add your Twilio phone number here&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;TWILIO_NUMBER&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;environ&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;TWILIO_NUMBER&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;+16093002984&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# plug in your Ngrok Forwarding URL - we&amp;#39;ll set it up in a minute&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;NGROK_BASE_URL&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;environ&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;NGROK_BASE_URL&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;https://c6c6d4e8.ngrok.io&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nd"&gt;@route&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;/&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;def&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;index&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;():&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; Returns a standard text response to show the app is up and running.&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;return&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Bottle app running!&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nd"&gt;@post&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;/twiml&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;def&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;twiml_response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;():&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; Provides TwiML instructions in response to a Twilio POST webhook&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; event so that Twilio knows how to handle the outbound phone call&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; when someone picks up the phone.&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;say&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Sweet, this phone call is answered by your Bottle app!&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;play&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;https://api.twilio.com/cowbell.mp3&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;loop&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;10&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;return&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="nb"&gt;str&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;))&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nd"&gt;@route&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;/dial-phone/&amp;lt;outbound_phone_number&amp;gt;&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;def&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;outbound_call&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;outbound_phone_number&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;):&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; Uses the Twilio Python helper library to send a POST request to&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; Twilio telling it to dial an outbound phone call from our specific&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; Twilio phone number (that phone number must be owned by our&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; Twilio account).&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="sd"&gt; &amp;quot;&amp;quot;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# the url must match the Ngrok Forwarding URL plus the route defined in&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# the previous function that responds with TwiML instructions&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;twilio_client&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;calls&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;create&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;to&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;OUTBOUND_NUMBER&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;from_&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;BLOG_POST_NUMBER&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;url&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;NGROK_BASE_URL&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;/twiml&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;return&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;phone call placed to &amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;outbound_phone_number&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;!&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;__name__&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;==&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;__main__&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;run&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;host&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;127.0.0.1&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;port&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;8000&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;debug&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="bp"&gt;False&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;reloader&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="bp"&gt;True&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is just one problem with our current setup if you're developing on

a local environment: Twilio won't be able to reach that &lt;code&gt;/twiml&lt;/code&gt; route.

We need to deploy our app to a reachable server, or just use a localhost

tunneling tool like &lt;a href="https://ngrok.com"&gt;Ngrok&lt;/a&gt;. Ngrok provides an external

URL that connects to a port running on your machine.

&lt;a href="https://ngrok.com/download"&gt;Download and install the Ngrok application&lt;/a&gt;

that is appropriate for your operating system.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We run Ngrok locally and expose our Bottle app that is running on

port 8000. Run this command within the directory where the Ngrok executable is

located.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;./ngrok http 8000

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ngrok will start up and provide us with a Forwarding URL, with both HTTP

and HTTPS versions.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/start-ngrok.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Ngrok started and running to serve as a localhost tunnel."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can use the Forwarding URL to instruct Twilio how to handle the outbound

phone call when someone picks up. Insert the Ngrok forwarding URL into the

&lt;code&gt;app.py&lt;/code&gt; file where &lt;code&gt;NGROK_BASE_URL&lt;/code&gt; is specified.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/access-ngrok.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Paste the ngrok Forwarding URL into the Twilio webhook configuration text box."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If Ngrok is useful to you, make sure to read this

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/blog/2015/09/6-awesome-reasons-to-use-ngrok-when-testing-webhooks.html"&gt;6 awesome reasons to use Ngrok when testing webhooks post&lt;/a&gt;

to learn even more about the tool.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Time to test out our app, let's give it a quick spin.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Making Phone Calls&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Make sure your Bottle development server is still running or re-run it with

the &lt;code&gt;python app.py&lt;/code&gt; command in a shell where your virtualenv is still

activated.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Bring up the application in a browser, this time test out the phone calling

capabilities. Go to "localhost:8000/dial-phone/my-phone-number", where

"my-phone-number" is a number in the "+12025551234" format. For example,

here is what happens when I dialed +12023351278:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/phone-call-placed.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Dialing an outbound phone call with Bottle."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And here is the inbound phone call!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/inbound-call.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Receiving an incoming phone call on the iPhone."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When we pick up the phone call we also see the &lt;code&gt;/twiml&lt;/code&gt; route get called via

Ngrok.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160830-phone-calls-bottle/ngrok-twiml.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="/twiml route being called via Ngrok."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;With just two routes in our Bottle app and Twilio we were able to make

outbound phone calls. Not bad!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;What's next?&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Sweet, we can now dial outbound phone calls to &lt;em&gt;any&lt;/em&gt; phone number from

our Bottle web application. Next you may want to try one of these tutorials

to add even more features to your app:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Upgrade your &lt;a href="/blog/reply-sms-text-messages-python-bottle.html"&gt;Bottle app to also send and respond to text messages&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Create a &lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/blog/2016/05/add-phone-calling-slack-python.html"&gt;phone-calling Slack bot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Implement &lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/tutorials/walkthrough/call-tracking/python/django"&gt;call tracking&lt;/a&gt;

for both inbound and outbound phone calls made through your app&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Questions? Contact me via Twitter

&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/fullstackpython"&gt;@fullstackpython&lt;/a&gt;

or &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/mattmakai"&gt;@mattmakai&lt;/a&gt;. I'm also on GitHub as

&lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai"&gt;mattmakai&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Something wrong with this post? Fork

&lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai/fullstackpython.com/blob/gh-pages/source/content/posts/160830-phone-calls-bottle.markdown"&gt;this page's source on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</summary></entry><entry><title>Python for Entrepreneurs</title><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/python-entrepreneurs.html" rel="alternate"></link><updated>2016-08-22T00:00:00-04:00</updated><author><name>Matt Makai</name></author><id>tag:www.fullstackpython.com,2016-07-30:python-entrepreneurs.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mikeckennedy/python-for-entrepreneurs-video-course"&gt;Python for Entrepreneurs&lt;/a&gt;

is a new video course by the creators of

&lt;a href="https://talkpython.fm/"&gt;Talk Python to Me&lt;/a&gt; and

&lt;a href="https://fullstackpython.com/"&gt;Full Stack Python&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We are creating this course and running a Kickstarter for it based on

feedback that it's still too damn difficult to turn basic Python programming

knowledge into a business to generate income as a side or full time project.

Both Michael and I have been able to make that happen for ourselves and we

want to share every difficult lesson we've learned through this course.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Python for Entrepreneurs videos and content will dive into building

and deploying a real-world web application, marketing it to prospective

customers, handling search engine optimization, making money through credit

card payments, getting help from part-time contractors for niche tasks and

scaling up to meet traffic demands.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If this course hits the mark for what you want to do with Python,

&lt;a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mikeckennedy/python-for-entrepreneurs-video-course"&gt;check out the Kickstarter&lt;/a&gt; - we've

set up steep discounts for early backers.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Update&lt;/em&gt;: The Kickstarter is now closed - Michael and I are hard at work

on the course content. Thank you to everyone who supported us as a backer!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you have any questions, please reach out to

&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/mkennedy"&gt;Michael Kennedy&lt;/a&gt;

or me, &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/mattmakai"&gt;Matt Makai&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</summary></entry><entry><title>Setting Up Python 3, Django &amp; Gunicorn on Linux Mint 17.3</title><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/python-3-django-gunicorn-linux-mint-17.html" rel="alternate"></link><updated>2016-07-22T00:00:00-04:00</updated><author><name>Matt Makai</name></author><id>tag:www.fullstackpython.com,2016-06-26:python-3-django-gunicorn-linux-mint-17.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa" is December 2015 release of the polished and

widely-used Linux distribution. This Mint release includes both Python 2.7

and 3.4 by default, but in this tutorial we will download and install the

latest Python 3.5.1 version to run our Django application. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to use a different Linux distribution such as

&lt;a href="/ubuntu.html"&gt;Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt; instead of Mint, check out

&lt;a href="/blog/python-3-django-gunicorn-ubuntu-1604-xenial-xerus.html"&gt;the tutorial for Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus"&lt;/a&gt;. If Mint is your desired

&lt;a href="/development-environments.html"&gt;development environment&lt;/a&gt; though, let's

get started!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Tools We Need&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our setup will use several system packages and code libraries to get

up and running. Do not worry about installing these dependencies just yet,

we will get to them as we progress through the tutorial. The tools and

their current versions as of June 2016 are:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2947"&gt;Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa"&lt;/a&gt; with the

default Cinnamon desktop&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/why-use-python.html"&gt;Python&lt;/a&gt; version

&lt;a href="https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-351/"&gt;3.5.1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/django.html"&gt;Django&lt;/a&gt; web framework version

&lt;a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/releases/1.9/"&gt;1.9.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/green-unicorn-gunicorn.html"&gt;Green Unicorn (Gunicorn)&lt;/a&gt; version

&lt;a href="http://docs.gunicorn.org/en/stable/news.html"&gt;19.6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you are on Mac OS X or Windows, my recommendation is to use

virtualization software such as

&lt;a href="https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/"&gt;Parallels&lt;/a&gt; or

&lt;a href="https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads"&gt;VirtualBox&lt;/a&gt; with the

&lt;a href="https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php"&gt;Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop .iso&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We should see a desktop screen like this one when we boot up the operating

system for the first time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/mint-desktop.jpg" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Linux Mint default desktop"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Open up terminal to proceed with the configuration.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;System Packages&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can see the Python version Linux Mint comes with, as well as where its

executable is stored.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;python3 --version

which python3

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;em&gt;output&lt;/em&gt; of those two commands should be (these are not commands to run):&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;Python 3.4.3

/usr/bin/python3

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/which-python.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Output of 'python --version' and 'which python3' commands."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We really want to use the latest Python release instead of the default 3.4

when starting a new Python project, so let's download and install 3.5.1 now.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Run these commands in the terminal to download Python 3.5.1 source code:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;cd ~/Downloads

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.5.1/Python-3.5.1.tgz

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/download-python.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="wget Python source code output."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Extract the Python source code:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;tar -xvf Python-3.5.1.tgz

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Linux Mint is not configured by default to build the Python source code. We

need to update our system package lists and install several packages to

make building the Python source code possible. If you have a password on

your user account, enter it when prompted to allow the installation to

proceed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;sudo apt update

sudo apt install build-essential checkinstall

sudo apt install libreadline-gplv2-dev libncursesw5-dev libssl-dev

sudo apt install libsqlite3-dev tk-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev libbz2-dev

sudo apt install python3-dev

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Once the packages are installed, we can configure and install Python from

source.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;cd Python-3.5.1

./configure

sudo make install

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Test that the installation worked properly by starting up the Python REPL:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;python3.5

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If the REPL starts up properly with Python 3.5.1 in the output then we're

good to go.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/python351-output.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="wget Python source code output."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The basic system packages we need are now installed so we can proceed to

our Python-specific dependencies.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Virtual environment and pip&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Python 3.5 comes with the virtual environment and pip applications so we

can use them to handle our

&lt;a href="/application-dependencies.html"&gt;application dependencies&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Create a directory to store virtual environments then create a virtualenv

for our Django project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;# the tilde &amp;quot;~&amp;quot; specifies the user&amp;#39;s home directory, like /home/matt

cd ~

mkdir venvs

# specify the system python3 installation

python3.5 -m venv djangoproj

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Activate the virtualenv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;source ~/venvs/djangoproj/bin/activate

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our virtual environment is properly activated when we see &lt;code&gt;(djangoproj)&lt;/code&gt;

prepended to our prompt. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/venv-activated.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Output from the virtualenv environment activation."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our virtualenv with Python 3.5.1 is activated so we can install whatever

dependencies we want, such as Django and Gunicorn. Our default &lt;code&gt;python&lt;/code&gt;

command is also set to use the Python 3.5.1 installation instead of the

Python 2.7 version that comes with Linux Mint.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Django and Gunicorn&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now we can install Django and Green Unicorn into our virtual environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;pip install django==1.9.7 gunicorn==19.6

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If there are no errors in the pip output then that is a good sign we can

proceed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/good-sign.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Django and Gunicorn properly install via the pip command."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Create a new Django project named &lt;code&gt;djangoproj&lt;/code&gt;, or whatever you want to name

your project. Change into the directory for the new project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;cd ~

django-admin startproject djangoproj

cd djangoproj

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can run Django using the development server with the

&lt;code&gt;python manage.py runserver&lt;/code&gt; command. However, start Django up with

Gunicorn instead.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;gunicorn djangoproj.wsgi

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/gunicorn-run.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Result of running gunicorn djangoproj.wsgi on the command line."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Awesome, we can bring up our shell project in the web browser at

the &lt;a href="http://localhost:8000"&gt;http://localhost:8000&lt;/a&gt; or

&lt;a href="http://127.0.0.1:8000"&gt;http://127.0.0.1:8000&lt;/a&gt; address.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160626-mint-django-gunicorn/it-works.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Django project running in the Firefox web browser."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now you're ready for Django development!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Ready for Development&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Those are the first few steps for beginning development with

&lt;a href="/django.html"&gt;Django&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="/green-unicorn-gunicorn.html"&gt;Gunicorn&lt;/a&gt; on

Linux Mint 17.3 "Rosa". If you need an even more in-depth walkthrough for

deploying your Python web application to a production environment, check

out the

&lt;a href="http://www.deploypython.com/"&gt;Full Stack Python Guide to Deployments book&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To figure out what to do next for your Python project, read the topics

found on the &lt;a href="/table-of-contents.html"&gt;table of contents&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Questions? Contact me via Twitter

&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/fullstackpython"&gt;@fullstackpython&lt;/a&gt;

or &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/mattmakai"&gt;@mattmakai&lt;/a&gt;. I'm also on GitHub with

the username &lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai"&gt;mattmakai&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;See something wrong in this post? Fork

&lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai/fullstackpython.com/blob/gh-pages/source/content/posts/160626-django-gunicorn-mint-linux-17.markdown"&gt;this page's source on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;

and submit a pull request.&lt;/p&gt;</summary></entry><entry><title>Configuring Python 3, Pyramid and Gunicorn on Ubuntu 16.04</title><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/python-3-pyramid-gunicorn-ubuntu-1604-xenial-xerus.html" rel="alternate"></link><updated>2016-08-10T00:00:00-04:00</updated><author><name>Matt Makai</name></author><id>tag:www.fullstackpython.com,2016-06-19:python-3-pyramid-gunicorn-ubuntu-1604-xenial-xerus.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="/ubuntu.html"&gt;Canonical's Ubuntu 16.04 Long Term Support (LTS)&lt;/a&gt; Linux

&lt;a href="/operating-systems.html"&gt;operating system&lt;/a&gt;, also known as "Xenial Xerus",

was released in April 2016. It is the first Ubuntu release to include

&lt;a href="/python-2-or-3.html"&gt;Python 3&lt;/a&gt; instead of Python 2 as its default Python

installation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="/pyramid.html"&gt;Pyramid&lt;/a&gt; web framework has long supported Python 3.

With just a few short steps we can start a new &lt;a href="/pyramid.html"&gt;Pyramid&lt;/a&gt;

project and run it with

&lt;a href="/green-unicorn-gunicorn.html"&gt;Green Unicorn (Gunicorn)&lt;/a&gt; on Ubuntu 16.04.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Required Tools&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our project requires Ubuntu 16.04 plus several code libraries. You do not

need to install these tools yet - we will get to them in turn as the

walkthrough progresses. Our requirements and their current versions are:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://releases.ubuntu.com/16.04/"&gt;Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/why-use-python.html"&gt;Python version 3.5&lt;/a&gt; (default in Ubuntu 16.04)&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/pyramid.html"&gt;Pyramid web framework&lt;/a&gt; version

&lt;a href="http://docs.pylonsproject.org/projects/pyramid/en/1.7-branch/"&gt;1.7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/green-unicorn-gunicorn.html"&gt;Gunicorn&lt;/a&gt; version

&lt;a href="http://docs.gunicorn.org/en/stable/news.html"&gt;19.6&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://docs.pylonsproject.org/projects/waitress/en/latest/"&gt;Waitress&lt;/a&gt;

version 0.9.0&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you are developing on Mac OS X or Windows, you can use

virtualization software such

as &lt;a href="https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/"&gt;Parallels&lt;/a&gt; or

&lt;a href="https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads"&gt;VirtualBox&lt;/a&gt; with the

&lt;a href="http://releases.ubuntu.com/16.04/"&gt;Ubuntu .iso file&lt;/a&gt;. Either the amd64 or

i386 version of 16.04 is fine. While creating this I used the amd64 version. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A desktop screen like this one appears when you boot up Ubuntu.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/ubuntu-desktop.jpg" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Open a new terminal window so we can be ready to install required system

packages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Install System Packages&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The precise Python version can be shown using the &lt;code&gt;python&lt;/code&gt; command with the

&lt;code&gt;--version&lt;/code&gt; argument.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;python3 --version

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can also view where the &lt;code&gt;python3&lt;/code&gt; program is installed on Ubuntu using the

&lt;code&gt;which&lt;/code&gt; command.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;which python3

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/which-python.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Ubuntu requires a few system packages before we can properly install Pyramid

and Gunicorn. When we run the &lt;code&gt;apt&lt;/code&gt; command to install system packages we

will be prompted for the superuser password. Restricted system access is

necessary to modify files within the system folders.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;sudo apt-get install python3-dev

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/install-packages.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Press &lt;code&gt;y&lt;/code&gt; then return to let the system package installation run.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/packages-installed.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The required system packages are installed. We can now install the

Python-specific dependencies.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Set up a virtual environment&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Create a directory for the virtual environments. Then create a new virtual environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;# the tilde &amp;quot;~&amp;quot; specifies the user&amp;#39;s home directory, like /home/matt

cd ~

mkdir venvs

# specify the system python3 installation

/usr/bin/python3 -m venv venvs/pyramidproj

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Activate the virtual environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;source ~/venvs/pyramidproj/bin/activate

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our prompt will change after we properly activate the virtual environment to

something like &lt;code&gt;(pyramidproj) matt@ubuntu:~$&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/venv-activated.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our virtual environment is activated with Python 3.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We should update pip and venv to the latest versions in our virtual environment.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;pip install --upgrade pip setuptools

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can install whatever dependencies we want, in our case Pyramid and Gunicorn. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Install Python Packages&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can install Pyramid, Gunicorn and Waitress into our virtual environment using

the &lt;code&gt;pip&lt;/code&gt; command.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;pip install pip install &amp;quot;pyramid==1.7&amp;quot; gunicorn waitress

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No errors like we see in the following screenshot is a good sign.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/good-sign.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Pyramid comes with a project starter template creation tool named &lt;code&gt;pcreate&lt;/code&gt;.

Run &lt;code&gt;pcreate&lt;/code&gt; to generate the boilerplate for a new Pyramid project named

"pyramidproj".&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;pcreate -s starter pyramidproj

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Use the &lt;code&gt;cd&lt;/code&gt; (change directory) command to move into the new folder.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;cd ~/pyramidproj

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A slew of new files have been created within the "pyramidproj" directory.

These are the basic files you can customize for the web application you want

to build. A good resource for understanding and modifying these files is

to follow the

&lt;a href="http://docs.pylonsproject.org/projects/pyramid/en/1.7-branch/quick_tutorial/index.html"&gt;quick tutorial for Pyramid&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;For now, we just want to use Gunicorn to run our starter pyramidproj app.

Install pyramidproj into your virtual environment using the &lt;code&gt;python&lt;/code&gt; command on

&lt;code&gt;setup.py&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;python setup.py develop

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now we can run our app with Gunicorn. Pyramid is a

&lt;a href="http://docs.pylonsproject.org/projects/pyramid/en/latest/api/paster.html"&gt;paste&lt;/a&gt;-compatible

framework, so we use the &lt;code&gt;--paste&lt;/code&gt; argument to run the WSGI server with

the "development.ini" configuration file. In addition, the &lt;code&gt;-b&lt;/code&gt; argument

tells Gunicorn which port number to bind on when the server starts.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;gunicorn --paste development.ini -b :8080

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/gunicorn-run.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Cool, we can bring up our starter Pyramid project up in the web browser at

the &lt;code&gt;localhost:8000&lt;/code&gt; or &lt;code&gt;127.0.0.1:8000&lt;/code&gt; address.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160619-ubuntu-pyramid-gunicorn/it-works.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Time to develop a full-fledged web application with &lt;a href="/pyramid.html"&gt;Pyramid&lt;/a&gt;!&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Ready to Develop with Pyramid&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now you have a simple setup to develop Pyramid web apps using Gunicorn as

the &lt;a href="/wsgi-servers.html"&gt;WSGI server&lt;/a&gt; on Ubuntu 16.04. If you need a

full step-by-step tutorial to deploy your Python web application to a

production environment, check out the

&lt;a href="http://www.deploypython.com/"&gt;Full Stack Python Guide to Deployments book&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;To decide what to do next with your Python project, check out the

&lt;a href="/table-of-contents.html"&gt;Full Stack Python table of contents&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;See something wrong in this post? Fork

&lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai/fullstackpython.com/blob/gh-pages/source/content/posts/160619-pyramid-gunicorn-ubuntu-1604.markdown"&gt;this page's source on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;

and submit a pull request.&lt;/p&gt;</summary></entry><entry><title>Replying to SMS Text Messages with Python and Bottle</title><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/reply-sms-text-messages-python-bottle.html" rel="alternate"></link><updated>2016-08-10T00:00:00-04:00</updated><author><name>Matt Makai</name></author><id>tag:www.fullstackpython.com,2016-06-05:reply-sms-text-messages-python-bottle.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Python applications can

&lt;a href="/blog/send-sms-text-messages-python.html"&gt;easily send SMS&lt;/a&gt;

by using a &lt;a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html"&gt;web API&lt;/a&gt;.

Web apps built with the &lt;a href="/bottle.html"&gt;Bottle&lt;/a&gt; framework can also reply

to incoming text messages by handling inbound HTTP POST webhooks. In

this post we'll quickly walk through how to set up a Bottle web app to

handle SMS data in the form of HTTP POST requests.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Tools We'll Need&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This tutorial works with either &lt;a href="/python-2-or-3.html"&gt;Python 2 or 3&lt;/a&gt;,

although Python 3 is recommended by the community for new applications.

Install one of those two Python versions on your system to use for this

walkthrough. We also need:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/"&gt;pip&lt;/a&gt; and

&lt;a href="https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/latest/"&gt;virtualenv&lt;/a&gt; to handle

&lt;a href="/application-dependencies.html"&gt;application dependencies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="/bottle.html"&gt;Bottle&lt;/a&gt; web framework&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://ngrok.com/"&gt;Ngrok&lt;/a&gt; for localhost tunneling to our Bottle

application while it's running on our local development environment&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Free &lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio"&gt;Twilio account&lt;/a&gt; to use their

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/api/rest/sending-messages"&gt;SMS web API&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Open source

&lt;a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/twilio"&gt;Twilio Python helper library&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Check out the guide on

&lt;a href="/blog/python-3-bottle-gunicorn-ubuntu-1604-xenial-xerus.html"&gt;how to set up Python 3, Bottle and Gunicorn on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS&lt;/a&gt;

if you need help getting your

&lt;a href="/development-environments.html"&gt;development environment&lt;/a&gt;

configured.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Application Dependency Installation&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our application will use a helper code library to reply to inbound SMS.

Bottle and the helper library are installable from

&lt;a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi"&gt;PyPI&lt;/a&gt; into a virtualenv. Open your terminal

and use the &lt;code&gt;virtualenv&lt;/code&gt; command to create a new virtualenv:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;virtualenv replysms

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Invoke the virtualenv's &lt;code&gt;activate&lt;/code&gt; script, which makes it the "active"

Python installation. Note that you need to do this in every terminal window

that you want this virtualenv to be used.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;source replysms/bin/activate

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The command prompt will change after activating the virtualenv:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle/activate-virtualenv.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Use the &lt;code&gt;pip&lt;/code&gt; command to install the &lt;a href="/bottle.html"&gt;Bottle&lt;/a&gt; and

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/docs/libraries/python"&gt;Twilio Python&lt;/a&gt; packages

into your virtualenv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;pip install bottle twilio

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We have installed the required dependencies so now Python code that is run

with the virtualenv activated will be able to use those packages. It's time

to build our Bottle web app and reply to incoming text messages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Coding Our Bottle App&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Bottle web app will have two routes. One route will allow us to test

that the app is running. The other route will handle and respond to incoming

HTTP POST requests from Twilio. Create a new file named &lt;code&gt;app.py&lt;/code&gt; in your

in the directory where you want to store this Python project.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Write the following code in the new &lt;code&gt;app.py&lt;/code&gt; file. There is also

&lt;a href="https://gist.github.com/mattmakai/6ec3b46e40a1020a3ea9c772c601199a"&gt;a GitHub Gist&lt;/a&gt;

with the code that you can copy and paste.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;bottle&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;post&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;request&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;route&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;run&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;twilio&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nd"&gt;@route&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;/&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;def&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;check_app&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;():&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# returns a simple string stating the app is working&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;return&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;It works!&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="nd"&gt;@post&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;/twilio&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;def&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nf"&gt;inbound_sms&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;():&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml_response&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;Response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;()&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# grab message from the request. could also get the &amp;quot;To&amp;quot; and &lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# &amp;quot;From&amp;quot; phone numbers as well from parameters with those names&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;inbound_message&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;request&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;forms&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Body&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# we can now use the incoming message text in our Python application&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;inbound_message&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;==&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Hello&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml_response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;message&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Hello from Bottle right back at you!&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;else&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml_response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;message&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Hi! Not quite sure what you meant, but okay.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# we return back the mimetype because Twilio needs an XML response&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;content_type&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;application/xml&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;return&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nb"&gt;str&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;twiml_response&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;__name__&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;==&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;__main__&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;run&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;host&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;127.0.0.1&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;port&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="mi"&gt;5000&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;debug&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="bp"&gt;True&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;reloader&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="bp"&gt;True&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The lines starting with &lt;code&gt;#&lt;/code&gt; are comments that give explanations for what

the code lines below them are doing. Bottle web apps define URL routes with

the &lt;code&gt;@route&lt;/code&gt; and &lt;code&gt;@post&lt;/code&gt; decorators, depending on the type of HTTP request

the route should handle. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Make sure your virtualenv is still active so that the application can use

the Bottle and Twilio code libraries we installed earlier. Give the

application a try by running it with &lt;code&gt;python app.py&lt;/code&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Open a web browser and go to localhost:5000 (or 127.0.0.1:5000). We should

see "It works!" on the screen.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle/bottle-app-local.jpg" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Bottle application running locally on Ubuntu."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;However, there is an issue with our web app running on our local development

environment. Twilio cannot send a the HTTP POST request to the web app

server unless a localhost tunnel is created.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Ngrok Localhost Tunneling&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://ngrok.com"&gt;Ngrok&lt;/a&gt; is a localhost tunneling tool that bridges

your local development environment to an external URL.

&lt;a href="https://ngrok.com/download"&gt;Download and install&lt;/a&gt; the Ngrok version that's

appropriate for your operating system.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We can run Ngrok locally and expose our Bottle app that is running on

port 5000. Run this command within the directory where the Ngrok executable is

located.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;./ngrok http 5000

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle/start-ngrok.jpg" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Ngrok started and running to serve as a localhost tunnel."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Cool, now we can use the Forwarding URL so Twilio can send POST requests

to our application when there is an inbound SMS. Replace the URL in the

text box with your own Forwarding URL, like I did in this screenshot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle/access-ngrok.jpg" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Paste the ngrok Forwarding URL into the Twilio webhook configuration text box."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now we just need a Twilio phone number that will send POST request to our

application when there is an inbound SMS.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Obtain a Phone Number&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our Bottle web app's route can respond to incoming POST requests but we

need to use Twilio to have a phone number that will convert the inbound SMS

data into the POST request. In your web browser go to the

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio"&gt;Twilio website and sign up for a free account&lt;/a&gt;.

You can also sign into your existing Twilio account if you already have one.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle/try-twilio.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Twilio sign up screen."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Twilio trial account allows you to send and receive text messages to

your own validated phone number. To send and reply to SMS to and from any

phone number then you need to upgrade your account. Trial accounts are

great for initial development before your application goes live.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When you sign up, you receive a free Twilio phone number. We can

configure that phone number to forward the SMS information to our web

application by setting up the response webhook.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Go to the

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/console/phone-numbers"&gt;manage phone numbers screen&lt;/a&gt;

and click on the phone number you want to configure for replying to

text messages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Scroll down and look for the "Messaging" header. Change the

"A Message Comes in" text box to input the ngrok Forwarding URL plus

the "/twilio" route, as shown in the screenshot below.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle/webhook-ngrok.jpg" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Paste the ngrok Forwarding URL into the Twilio webhook configuration text box."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Click the "Save" button so that our changes take effect.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our application is ready to go - time to give our phone number a try!

Send "Hello" or whatever text you want to your phone number. Here is what

the result looks like on my iPhone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle/bottle-success.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Example screenshot of what SMS replies look like on the iPhone."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The concise Bottle web app is a good start to build more complicated

programs such as

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/blog/2014/11/choose-your-own-adventure-presentations-with-reveal-js-python-and-websockets.html"&gt;Choose Your Own Adventure Presentations&lt;/a&gt;

or

&lt;a href="https://www.twilio.com/blog/2016/05/build-sms-slack-bot-python.html"&gt;SMS Slack bots&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;What's next?&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Awesome, our Bottle application now replies to inbound SMS text

messages! &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Questions? Contact me via Twitter

&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/fullstackpython"&gt;@fullstackpython&lt;/a&gt;

or &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/mattmakai"&gt;@mattmakai&lt;/a&gt;. I'm also on GitHub with

the username &lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai"&gt;mattmakai&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Something wrong with this post? Fork

&lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai/fullstackpython.com/blob/gh-pages/source/content/posts/160605-reply-sms-python-bottle.markdown"&gt;this page's source on GitHub&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</summary></entry><entry><title>How to Build Your First Slack Bot with Python</title><link href="https://www.fullstackpython.com/build-first-slack-bot-python.html" rel="alternate"></link><updated>2016-10-27T00:00:00-04:00</updated><author><name>Matt Makai</name></author><id>tag:www.fullstackpython.com,2016-06-04:build-first-slack-bot-python.html</id><summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="/bots.html"&gt;Bots&lt;/a&gt; are a useful way to interact with chat services such as

&lt;a href="https://slack.com/"&gt;Slack&lt;/a&gt;. If you have never built a bot before, this

post provides an easy starter tutorial for combining the

&lt;a href="https://api.slack.com/"&gt;Slack API&lt;/a&gt; with Python to create your first bot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We will walk through setting up your development environment, obtaining a

Slack API bot token and coding our simple bot in Python.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Tools We Need&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our bot, which we will name "StarterBot", requires Python and the Slack API.

To run our Python code we need:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Either &lt;a href="/python-2-or-3.html"&gt;Python 2 or 3&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/"&gt;pip&lt;/a&gt; and

&lt;a href="https://virtualenv.pypa.io/en/stable/"&gt;virtualenv&lt;/a&gt; to handle Python

&lt;a href="/application-dependencies.html"&gt;application dependencies&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://slack.com/"&gt;Free Slack account&lt;/a&gt; with a team on which you have

API access or sign up for the

&lt;a href="http://dev4slack.xoxco.com/"&gt;Slack Developer Hangout team&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;Official Python

&lt;a href="https://github.com/slackhq/python-slackclient"&gt;slackclient&lt;/a&gt; code

library built by the Slack team&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://api.slack.com/tokens"&gt;Slack API testing token&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;

&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is also useful to have the &lt;a href="https://api.slack.com/"&gt;Slack API docs&lt;/a&gt; handy

while you're building this tutorial.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;All the code for this tutorial is available open source under the MIT license

in the &lt;a href="https://github.com/mattmakai/slack-starterbot"&gt;slack-starterbot&lt;/a&gt; public

repository.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Establishing Our Environment&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We now know what tools we need for our project so let's get our development

environment set up. Go to the terminal (or Command Prompt on Windows) and

change into the directory where you want to store this project. Within

that directory, create a new virtualenv to isolate our application

dependencies from other Python projects.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;virtualenv starterbot

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Activate the virtualenv:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;source starterbot/bin/activate

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Your prompt should now look like the one in this screenshot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160604-simple-python-slack-bot/virtualenv-activate.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Command prompt with starterbot's virtualenv activated."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The official slackclient API helper library built by Slack can send and

receive messages from a Slack channel. Install the slackclient library with

the &lt;code&gt;pip&lt;/code&gt; command:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;pip install slackclient

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;When &lt;code&gt;pip&lt;/code&gt; is finished you should see output like this and you'll be

back at the prompt.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160604-simple-python-slack-bot/pip-install-slackclient.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Output from using the pip install slackclient command with a virtualenv activated."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We also need to obtain an access token for our Slack team so our bot can

use it to connect to the Slack API.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Slack Real Time Messaging (RTM) API&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Slack grants programmatic access to their messaging channels via a

&lt;a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html"&gt;web API&lt;/a&gt;. Go to the

&lt;a href="https://api.slack.com/"&gt;Slack web API page&lt;/a&gt; and sign up to create your own

Slack team. You can also sign into an existing account where you have

administrative privileges.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160604-simple-python-slack-bot/sign-in-slack.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Use the sign in button on the top right corner of the Slack API page."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;After you have signed in go to the

&lt;a href="https://api.slack.com/bot-users"&gt;Bot Users page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160604-simple-python-slack-bot/custom-bot-users.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Custom bot users webpage."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Name your bot "starterbot" then click the “Add bot integration” button.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160604-simple-python-slack-bot/starterbot.jpg" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Add a bot integration named starterbot."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The page will reload and you will see a newly-generated access token. You

can also change the logo to a custom design. For example, I gave this bot

the Full Stack Python logo.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160604-simple-python-slack-bot/slack-token.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Copy and paste the access token for your new Slack bot."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Click the "Save Integration" button at the bottom of the page. Your bot is

now ready to connect to Slack's API.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;A common practice for Python developers is to export secret tokens as

environment variables. Export the Slack token with the name

&lt;code&gt;SLACK_BOT_TOKEN&lt;/code&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;export SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=&amp;#39;your slack token pasted here&amp;#39;

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Nice, now we are authorized to use the Slack API as a bot.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There is one more piece of information we need to build our bot: our bot's

ID. Next we will write a short script to obtain that ID from the Slack API.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h2&gt;Obtaining Our Bot’s ID&lt;/h2&gt;

&lt;p&gt;It is &lt;em&gt;finally&lt;/em&gt; time to write some Python code! We'll get warmed up by coding

a short Python script to obtain StarterBot's ID. The ID varies based on the

Slack team. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We need the ID because it allows our application to determine if messages

parsed from the Slack RTM are directed at StarterBot. Our script also

tests that our &lt;code&gt;SLACK_BOT_TOKEN&lt;/code&gt; environment variable is properly set. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Create a new file named &lt;code&gt;print_bot_id.py&lt;/code&gt; and fill it with the following

code.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="kn"&gt;from&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="nn"&gt;slackclient&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="kn"&gt;import&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;SlackClient&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;BOT_NAME&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;starterbot&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;slack_client&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;SlackClient&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;os&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;environ&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;SLACK_BOT_TOKEN&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;))&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;__name__&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;==&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;__main__&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;api_call&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;slack_client&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;api_call&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;users.list&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;api_call&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;ok&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;):&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="c"&gt;# retrieve all users so we can find our bot&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="n"&gt;users&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;=&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;api_call&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;members&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;for&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;user&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="ow"&gt;in&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;users&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;if&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;name&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="ow"&gt;in&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;user&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="ow"&gt;and&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;user&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;name&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;==&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;BOT_NAME&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;print&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;Bot ID for &amp;#39;&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;user&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;[&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;name&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;]&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;&amp;#39; is &amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;user&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="o"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="n"&gt;get&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;#39;id&amp;#39;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;))&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;else&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;:&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;span class="k"&gt;print&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;(&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s"&gt;&amp;quot;could not find bot user with the name &amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="o"&gt;+&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="n"&gt;BOT_NAME&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="p"&gt;)&lt;/span&gt;

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Our code imports the SlackClient and instantiates it with our

&lt;code&gt;SLACK_BOT_TOKEN&lt;/code&gt;, which we set as an environment variable. When the

script is executed by the &lt;code&gt;python&lt;/code&gt; command we call the Slack API to list

all Slack users and get the ID for the one that matches the name "starterbot".&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We only need to run this script once to obtain our bot’s ID.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;python print_bot_id.py

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The script prints a single line of output when it is run that provides

us with our bot's ID.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="/source/static/img/160604-simple-python-slack-bot/printed-bot-id.png" width="100%" class="technical-diagram img-rounded" alt="Use the Python script to print the Slack bot's ID in your Slack team."&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Copy the unique ID that your script prints out. Export the ID as an

environment variable named &lt;code&gt;BOT_ID&lt;/code&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class="highlight"&gt;&lt;pre&gt;(starterbot)$ export BOT_ID=&amp;#39;bot id returned by script&amp;#39;

&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The script only needs to be run once to get the bot ID. We can now use