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SMS and MMS Notifications with C# and ASP.NET MVC

Need to hail your server administrators when something goes wrong with your servers? We've got you covered - today we'll cover adding notifications on server exceptions to your C# ASP.NET MVC application. We'll cover all the key plumbing to make it happen!

See how EMC uses Twilio SMS to send IT alerts to 68,000 employees.

Why wait? Click the button below to move to the next step of the tutorial.

Let's Notify the Administrators!

List The Server Administrators - and Whomever Else to Contact

Here we create a list of administrators who should be notified if a server error occurs. The only essential piece of data we need is a PhoneNumber for each administrator.

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        ServerNotifications.Web/App_Data/administrators.csv

        CSV list of phone numbers to notify

        ServerNotifications.Web/App_Data/administrators.csv

        With this list in hand, let's configure the Twilio REST client and see how we use it to send a notification on application exceptions.

        How Do We Configure the Client?

        Configure the Twilio C# REST Client

        To send a message, we'll need to initialize the Twilio C# Helper Library. This requires reading our TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID and TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN defined at ServerNotifications.Web/Web.config

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              ServerNotifications.Web/Domain/Twilio/RestClient.cs

              Twilio Client Wrapper

              ServerNotifications.Web/Domain/Twilio/RestClient.cs

              Now that we have our Twilio Client setup, let's see how to handle exceptions.

              You're Exceptional

              Handle All C# Application Exceptions

              In an ASP.NET MVC application, we can handle errors at the application level. Note that any other exceptions caught in the code (using your own try/catch blocks) are not being captured and processed here.

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                    ServerNotifications.Web/Global.asax.cs

                    Catch any uncaught exception raised in the application

                    ServerNotifications.Web/Global.asax.cs

                    Any uncaught exception will be handled here. Let's see how we can use this exception to hail our administrator list.

                    Next

                    Creating a Custom Alert Message

                    Here we create an alert message to send out via text message. You might also decide to include a picture with your alert message... maybe a screenshot of the application when the crash happened? A meme to calm everyone down?

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                          ServerNotifications.Web/Global.asax.cs

                          Send a notification to the administrators for an uncaught exception

                          ServerNotifications.Web/Global.asax.cs

                          The error handling is setup to capture application wide errors and forward them to all the lucky administrators.

                          Let’s take a closer look at how the Notifier forwards these errors to the administrators.

                          Getting the Administrator List Into the Application

                          Read the Administrators from the CSV File

                          With CSVReader, we can open and parse our list of administrators from our CSV file. We use the method GetRecords to read all the records.

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                                ServerNotifications.Web/Models/Repository/AdministratorsRepository.cs

                                Open and parse our administrator list

                                ServerNotifications.Web/Models/Repository/AdministratorsRepository.cs

                                We've seen how to load a list of administrators from a file. Now let's see how to send a message to each of them.

                                Next

                                Send a Text Message Blast

                                There are the three parameters needed to send an SMS using the Twilio REST API: From, To, and Body.

                                US and Canadian phone numbers can also send an image with the message. (Other countries can as well, but a shortened URL pointing to the image will be appended).

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                                      ServerNotifications.Web/Domain/Twilio/RestClient.cs

                                      Uses the Twilio Client to send a message

                                      ServerNotifications.Web/Domain/Twilio/RestClient.cs

                                      That's it! We've just implemented an automated server notification system that can send out C# ASP.NET MVC server alerts if anything goes wrong.

                                      Let's see some other fine features you can add to your application, next.

                                      What Else Can I Build?

                                      Where to Next?

                                      Twilio and C# are great together! Here are two more ideas for useful features:

                                      Two-Factor Authentication

                                      Increase the security of your login system by verifying a user's mobile phone in addition to their password.

                                      Appointment Reminders

                                      Send your customers a text message when they have an upcoming appointment, this tutorial shows you how to do it from a background job.

                                      Did this Help?

                                      Thanks for checking out this tutorial! Tweet us @twilio to let us know what you've built... and what you're building.

                                      Hector Ortega Kat King Samuel Mendes Andrew Baker Jose Oliveros Paul Kamp
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                                      Need some help?

                                      We all do sometimes; code is hard. Get help now from our support team, or lean on the wisdom of the crowd by visiting Twilio's Stack Overflow Collective or browsing the Twilio tag on Stack Overflow.

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