Python posts
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A GPT-3 chatbot is a software application that is able to conduct a conversation with a human user through written or spoken language. The level of “intelligence” among chatbots varies greatly. While some chatbots have a fairly basic understanding of language, others employ sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to achieve an almost human conversational level.
In this tutorial I’m going to show you how easy it is to build a chatbot for Twilio SMS using the OpenAI platform and the Flask framework for Python.
Want to have an idea of what the capabilities of GPT-3 are? Take a look at the following interaction I had with this bot using the project we are going to build in this tutorial:
Introduction to GPT-3
GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) is a highly advanced language model trained on a very large corpus of text. In spite of its internal …
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Surveys serve as a great tool for gathering information from a sample of people and can take multiple forms but are most common in the form of a questionnaire, either written, online or over the phone.
In this tutorial, I’m going to walk us through how to build an automated Phone Survey System which is a form of an Interactive voice response (IVR) system. An IVR system is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF tone input via the phone’s keypad. To build this application, I will be working with the Twilio Python Helper Library, the Flask framework for Python and Google Sheets. Below is a high-level overview of how the application works:
For the purpose of building this application, I have selected the following three questions to include in the survey:
- Do you own or rent a house? …
Twilio Programmable Messaging makes it easy to embed images in text messages, but a notable omission in the list of supported formats is Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). While SVG is not one of the most popular image formats, it is the preferred choice for generating diagrams and charts, because this format renders without quality degradation at any resolution.
So what do you do if you have an SVG image and need to send it via SMS or WhatsApp? In this article I will show you how I use the CairoSVG package for Python to convert SVG images to the PNG format, which the messaging APIs support.
Tutorial requirements
The only requirement that you need for this tutorial is Python 3.6 or newer. If your operating system does not provide a Python interpreter, you can go to python.org to download an installer.
Installing CairoSVG
Let’s begin by creating a directory …
Airflow is an open source platform used to orchestrate workflows. It is perfect for Extract, Transform, Load tasks, data migration and data integration, among other jobs.
In this tutorial we will see how we can leverage Twilio’s Programmable Messaging to set up an alerting system for Airflow jobs.
Airflow DAG (source: Apache Airflow)
Tutorial requirements
To follow this tutorial you need to have:
- Git. See installation instructions here.
- Docker. You can follow the installation steps provided here.
- A Twilio account. If you are new to Twilio create a free account now. You can review the features and limitations of a free Twilio account.
Set up Airflow to run locally
We are going to start off by cloning a repository that contains the docker image we shall use for this tutorial. The image is based on Python 3.7-slim-buster and will create Postgres and Redis containers. Postgres is …
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When working with Twilio MMS, you often need to access a URL to the pictures contained in a message. Typically when the message is initially received, the webhook request that Twilio sends to your application will contain MediaUrl properties that you can use directly in your application. But if you want to use the REST API to access a URL to an image contained in a Message Resource, you need to do a little more work, as the only option available to you is the uri of the Media resource:
if int(message.num_media) > 0: for media in message.media.list(): media_url = 'https://api.twilio.com' + media.uri[:-5] # Strip off the '.json' print(media_url)
Let's wa …
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Do you remember Second Sky in 2019 when Porter Robinson and his team put up a huge board for attendees to draw and sign on? Due to COVID-19, his music festival transitioned to the virtual world. Inspired by his new song, “Look at the Sky” which debuted at the end of his Secret Sky set, I built this fun digital board to visualize where fans are in the world and how we’re all still connected under the same sky.
In completing this tutorial you will build a data visualization webpage after applying image recognition on WhatsApp photos.
In this article, we’ll walk through how you can view data visualizations from your Python app that easily share and identify media content in a private WhatsApp sandbox using Twilio API for WhatsApp, Clarifai API, and Flask.
Tutorial Requirements
In order to build this project, you will …
Food and photos go hand in hand - if there’s food, then you know there’s going to be an impromptu photoshoot to show it off. There are plenty of apps online that promote the lifestyle of making sure “the camera eats first” on any occasion, no matter where you are.
Completing this tutorial will allow you to apply image recognition on pictures that your friends and family share in WhatsApp.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how you can develop a functional Python program to easily share and identify media content in a private sandbox through WhatsApp using Twilio Programmable MMS, Clarifai API, and Flask.
Tutorial Requirements
In order to build this project, you will need to have the following items ready:
- Python 3.6 or newer. If your operating system does not provide a Python interpreter, you can go to python.org to download an installer. …
In this tutorial we will build a dashboard for receiving Twilio SMS messages on your computer. What we will build here can be a foundation for a custom dashboard project. By the end of the tutorial you will have a web application running on your computer which you can use to check SMS messages on your Twilio phone number.
The dashboard we build will allow us to view all incoming and outgoing messages. Here is how it looks:
Getting set up for this tutorial
There are a few prerequisite steps we need to follow before we begin working through the code.
- Install Python version >= 3.6 on your computer
- Set up your Twilio Account
- Set up your Python virtual environment
We assume that you already have Python installed. We will now walk through setting up your Twilio account and preparing the virtual environment.
Setting up your Twilio Account
If you …
My mother teaches English to visually impaired students. Due to the current situation with the Coronavirus, in-person classes had to be suspended, and now she is teaching through phone conference calls, with all learning material being exchanged on WhatsApp. I saw an opportunity to solve a problem here, so I decided to build a Vocabulary chatbot to assist her in her teaching.
This tutorial will show you how to create a WhatsApp chatbot that can help you in improving your vocabulary using the Twilio API for WhatsApp, Python and Flask. Below, you can see the conversation I had with the bot.
Tutorial Requirements
To follow this you need the following components:
- Python 3.6 or newer. If your operating system does not provide a Python interpreter, you can go to python.org to download an installer.
- Flask. We will create a web application that responds to incoming WhatsApp messages with …
If you've ever sent or received contact information from one phone to another (especially in a time before smartphones), then you may have unknowingly encountered a vCard before. vCards, also known as Virtual Contact Files, are a standardized (RFC 6350) file format for sending business/contact information which can be easily imported into address/contact books.
This post will quickly walk you through creating a vCard using Python and sending it as an MMS using Twilio Programmable SMS.
The sample code used later in this post can be found here.
NOTE: Depending on your location and Twilio number, you may not be able to receive MMS outside the US/Canada and thus won't be able to receive vCards.
Getting Started
It's important to understand that vCards are essentially just text in a specific format.
If you've used Twilio MMS before, vCards can be thought of the same way as …