CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsrubytwilio
J Calton
J Calton

Reputation: 28

How to deal with Twilio API SMS errors and invalid phone numbers in Rails

How can I handle errors in the Twilio API in regards to creating an SMS message?

Every time an invalid phone number gets entered, I get a message and a 500 error:

Unable to create record: The 'To' number is not a valid phone number.

How can I have it redirect back to the home page and simply flash an error notice? 

class Messager

def initialize
  @account_sid = ENV['ACCOUNT_SID']
  @auth_token = ENV['AUTH_TOKEN']
  @twilio_number = ENV['TWILIO_NUMBER']


  @client = Twilio::REST::Client.new @account_sid, @auth_token

end
def send_message(phone_number, movies, username)

  text_message = @client.api.account.messages.create(
    from: @twilio_number,
    to: phone_number,
    body: "Hello movie lover, #{username}!\nHere is your current watch list:\n#{movies}"
    )
  puts text_message.to
end
end

I don't need anything fancy, just a redirect to the main page and a quick error message saying their phone number is invalid, not a 500 error page. I'm new to the Twilio API, and I've been troubleshooting this issue for hours.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2471

Answers (1)

philnash
philnash

Reputation: 73027

Twilio developer evangelist here.

When you make a request to the Twilio API using the Ruby gem and something goes wrong, the library will throw an error of type Twilio::REST::RestError.

In order to avoid a 500 error for your user you should rescue from this error and do something else with your controller. I'm not sure what your controller looks like, so I'll take a guess at what you should do.

First, I'd update the Messager class to store the error message if you get one. Also, the send_message function should return a boolean to describe whether the message was successfully sent.

class Messager
  attr_reader :error

  def initialize
    @account_sid = ENV['ACCOUNT_SID']
    @auth_token = ENV['AUTH_TOKEN']
    @twilio_number = ENV['TWILIO_NUMBER']
    @client = Twilio::REST::Client.new @account_sid, @auth_token
  end

  def send_message(phone_number, movies, username)
    begin
      text_message = @client.api.account.messages.create(
        from: @twilio_number,
        to: phone_number,
        body: "Hello movie lover, #{username}!\nHere is your current watch list:\n#{movies}"
      )
      return true
    rescue Twilio::REST::RestError => error
      @error = error
      return false
    end
  end
end

Then, in your controller you can call send_message and do different things if the message is successful or otherwise.

class MessagingController < ApplicationController
  def create
    messager = Messager.new
    if messager.send_message(params[:phone_number], current_user.movies, current_user.username)
      # Success! Message sent!
      # Now do what you were going to do with the successfull result
    else
      # Boo, something happened.
      Rails.logger.warn("#{messager.error.code}: #{messager.error.message}")
      # Redirect or render an action with an error here.
    end
  end
end

Let me know if that helps at all.

Upvotes: 8

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