Twilio Connect Java Quickstart

Overview

Twilio Connect allows developers to obtain authorization to make calls, send text messages, purchase phone numbers, read access logs and perform other API functions on behalf of another Twilio account holder.

As an example, imagine you want to access the Twilio account of a user of your web application to provide in-depth analytics of their Twilio account activity. This quickstart solves this problem by creating your first Twilio Connect App and placing the "Connect" button on your website so users can authorize your app to access their Twilio account data and make API requests against their account.

Create your first Twilio Connect app

To create your first Connect App, follow these steps:

Log in to the Twilio Console.
Go to Settings > Connect applications.
Click Create a new connect app.
Complete the top section with the name of your application and your company information.
Assign an Authorize URL to your Connect application. After the end user authorizes your application to access their Twilio account, Twilio redirects the end user's browser to this URL.
Select the access rights your Connect app requires on the user's account. This example accesses call logs for analytics.
Choose Read all account data. The sample Connect application should resemble the following:
Click Save.

Place the Connect button on your website

The Connect button is where your customers will start the process of authorizing your Connect App to access their Twilio account.

To get the Connect button code, click Generate connect button HTML on your Connect App details page. Copy the generated code and paste it into the HTML of your website where you would like the button to appear.

Test the authorization workflow

With the Twilio Connect button now on your website, browse to the page where you placed the HTML and click the Connect button. Verify that the information displayed on the authorization screen is correct.

After completing the app authorization process, you are redirected to the Authorize URL you specified when creating your Connect App. Appended to that URL is an Account Sid URL parameter with a value that looks like this:

1http://www.example.com/twilio/authorize?AccountSid=AC12345
2   Your Connect App's Authorize URL       Customer's SID
3

Your application should extract the AccountSid value from the URL and associate it with the user's account within your application. After extracting the AccountSid, we recommend that you redirect the user to another page within your app so the AccountSid isn't hanging around. Let's show an example using Java.

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Warning

This tutorial assumes you have a Java development environment with a Web server capable of running Java servlets and the twilio-java SDK. Please see our post on setting up your environment if you need help installing those programs.

Extract the AccountSid from the Authorize URL

1package com.twilio;
2import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
3import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
4import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
5import java.io.IOException;
6
7import com.twilio.sdk.verbs.TwiMLResponse;
8import com.twilio.sdk.verbs.TwiMLException;
9import com.twilio.sdk.verbs.Sms;
10
11public class TwilioServlet extends HttpServlet {
12
13    public void service(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {
14        // Retrieve the Connect user's Account Sid
15        String accountSid = request.getParameter("AccountSid");
16
17        // Store this account sid in your database, so you can retrieve it
18        // later. You will need to write this section of the code.
19
20        // Finally, redirect the user to your app after you've gathered their
21        // SID
22        response.sendRedirect("http://example.com/myapp");
23    }
24}

Make an authorized request

With the user's Account Sid in hand, you can now request data from their account via the Twilio REST API. A request to retrieve data from a user's account is nearly identical to a request made against your account, with one key difference. Instead of authenticating with your own AccountSid, you authenticate with the Account Sid retrieved during the authorization process and your account's Auth Token.

Here is a request to retrieve call logs from an account using the Java SDK. Pay special attention to line 4 where the customer's Account Sid is specified instead of your own:

Retrieve call logs using the customer's Account SID

1import java.util.Map;
2import java.util.HashMap;
3
4import com.twilio.sdk.TwilioRestClient;
5import com.twilio.sdk.TwilioRestException;
6import com.twilio.sdk.resource.instance.Account;
7import com.twilio.sdk.resource.instance.Call;
8import com.twilio.sdk.resource.list.CallList;
9
10public class CallRetriever {
11
12    // The customer's Account Sid
13    public static final String ACCOUNT_SID = "AC123";
14
15    // Your own Auth Token
16    public static final String AUTH_TOKEN = "456bef";
17
18    public static void main(String[] args) throws TwilioRestException {
19
20        TwilioRestClient client = new TwilioRestClient(ACCOUNT_SID, AUTH_TOKEN);
21        Account mainAccount = client.getAccount();
22        CallList calls = mainAccount.getCalls();
23        for (Call call : calls) {
24            System.out.println("From: " + call.getFrom() + " To: " + call.getTo());
25        }
26    }
27}
28

Next steps

Retrieving call logs on behalf of your customers is just the start of what you can accomplish with Twilio Connect. Visit the complete Connect documentation and best practices to learn more about how to integrate Connect's additional capabilities to your applications.