Automated Surveys Using Laravel

This application demonstrates how to use Twilio and TwiML to perform automated phone surveys.

Read the full tutorial!

Running locally

1. Clone the repository and cd into it.

2. Install the application's dependencies with Composer.

   $ composer install

3. The application uses PostgreSQL as the persistence layer. You should install it if you don't have it. The easiest way is by using Postgres.app.

4. Create a database.

$ createdb surveys

1. Copy the sample configuration file and edit it to match your configuration.

   $ cp .env.example .env

2. Generate an APP_KEY.

   $ php artisan key:generate

3. Run the migrations.

$ php artisan migrate

1. Load a survey.

$ php artisan heroku:initialize bear_survey.json

1. Expose the application to the wider Internet using ngrok

   $ ngrok http 8000

   Now you have a public URL that will forward requests to your localhost. It should look like this:

   http://<your-ngrok-subdomain>.ngrok.io
   

2. Configure Twilio to call your webhooks.

   You will also need to configure Twilio to send requests to your application when an SMS or a voice call is received.

   You will need to provision at least one Twilio number with SMS and voice capabilities. You can buy a number right here. Once you have a number you need to configure it to work with your application. Open the number management page and open a number's configuration by clicking on it.

   

   For this application you must set the voice webhook of your number. It will look something like this:

   http://<your-ngrok-subdomain>.ngrok.io/voice/connect
   

   The SMS webhook should look something like this:

   http://<your-ngrok-subdomain>.ngrok.io/sms/connect
   

   For this application you must set the POST method on the configuration for both webhooks.

3. Run the application using Artisan.

   $ php artisan serve

   It is artisan serve default behavior to use http://localhost:8000 when the application is run. This means that the ip addresses where your app will be reachable on you local machine will vary depending on the operating system.

   The most common scenario is that your app will be reachable through address http://127.0.0.1:8000. This is important because ngrok creates the tunnel using that address only. So, if http://127.0.0.1:8000 is not reachable in your local machine when you run the app, you must set it so that artisan uses this address. Here's how to set that up:

   $ php artisan serve --host=127.0.0.1

How to Demo

1. Set up your application to run locally or in production.

2. Update your Twilio Number's voice and SMS webhooks with your ngrok url.

3. Give your number a call or send yourself an SMS with the "start" command.

4. Follow the instructions until you answer all the questions.

5. When you are notified that you have reached the end of the survey, visit your application's root to check the results at:

   http://localhost:8000

Running the tests

The tests interact with the database so you'll first need to migrate your test database. First, set the DATABASE_URL_TEST and then run:

$ createdb surveys_test
$ APP_ENV=testing php artisan migrate

Run at the top-level directory.

$ phpunit

If you don't have phpunit installed on your system, you can follow these instructions to install it.

Meta

• No warranty expressed or implied. Software is as is. Diggity.
• MIT License
• Lovingly crafted by Twilio Developer Education.