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Get Started with Node.js Using Express

Start by signing up for a free trial account that you can use to experiment with and learn about our services. The free trial account comes with free credits, and you can add more as you go along. You can also add a phone number to your account to start testing the full range of our voice and SMS features. A page in our support portal walks you through the signup process.You can start making and receiving calls either by using our PHLO visual workflow builder or our APIs and XML documents. Follow the instructions in one of the tabs below.
  • Using XML

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Install Node.js, Express, and the Plivo Node.js SDK

You must set up and install Node.js, Express, and Plivo’s Node.js SDK before you make your first call.

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Install Node.js

You can check whether you have Node.js installed under macOS or Linux by running the command node --version in a terminal window. Under Windows, open a Windows command prompt or PowerShell and type node -v. If you don’t have Node.js installed or want a more current version, download and install it.

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Install Express and the Plivo Node.js SDK

Create a projects directory and change into it.
$ mkdir mynodeapp
$ cd mynodeapp
Install Express and the Plivo Node.js SDK using npm.
$ npm install express plivo
Once you’ve set up your development environment, you can start making and receiving calls using our APIs and XML documents. Here are three common use cases to get you started.

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Make your first outbound call

Plivo requests an answer URL when the call is answered (step 4) and expects the file at that address to hold a valid XML response from the application with instructions on how to handle the call. To see how this works, you can use https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.plivo.com/answer.xml as an answer URL to test your first outgoing call. The file contains this XML code:
<Response>
<Speak>Congratulations! You've made your first outbound call!</Speak>
</Response>
This code instructs Plivo to say, “Congratulations! You’ve made your first outbound call!” to the call recipient. You can find the entire list of valid Plivo XML verbs in our XML Reference documentation.

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Code

Create a file called Makecall.js and paste into it this code.
var plivo = require('plivo');

(function main() {
    'use strict';

    var client = new plivo.Client("<auth_id>","<auth_token>");
    client.calls.create(
        "<caller_id>",
        "<destination_number>",
        "https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.plivo.com/answer.xml",
        {
            answerMethod: "GET",
        },
    ).then(function (response) {
        console.log(response);
    }, function (err) {
        console.error(err);
    });
})();
Replace the auth placeholders with your authentication credentials from the Plivo console. Replace the phone number placeholders with actual phone numbers in E.164 format (for example, +12025551234).
Note: We recommend that you store your credentials in the auth_id and auth_token environment variables to avoid the possibility of accidentally committing them to source control. If you do this, you can initialize the client with no arguments and Plivo will automatically fetch the values from the environment variables. You can use process.env to store environment variables and retrieve them when initializing the client.

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Test

Save the file and run it.
$ node Makecall.js

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Receive your first inbound call

Plivo requests an answer URL when it answers the call (step 2) and expects the file at that address to hold a valid XML response from the application with instructions on how to handle the call. In this example, when an incoming call is received, Plivo’s text-to-speech engine plays a message using the Speak XML element.You must have a voice-enabled Plivo phone number to receive incoming calls; you can rent numbers from the Numbers page of the Plivo console, or by using the Numbers API.

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Set up an Express server to handle incoming calls

Create a file named receive_call.js and paste into it this code.
var plivo = require('plivo');
var express = require('express');
var app = express();

app.all('/receive_call/', function(req, res) {
    var response = plivo.Response();
    var speak_body = "Hello, you just received your first call";
    response.addSpeak(speak_body);
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/xml'});
    res.end(response.toXML());
})

app.set('port', (process.env.PORT || 5000));
app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
    console.log('Node app is running on port', app.get('port'));
});
Save the file and run it.
$ node receive_call.js
You should see your basic server application for inbound calls in action at http://localhost:5000/receive_call/.

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Expose your local server to the internet

To receive incoming calls, your local server must connect with Plivo API services. For that, we recommend using ngrok, which exposes local servers running behind NATs and firewalls to the public internet over secure tunnels. Using ngrok, you can set webhooks that can talk to the Plivo server.
Install ngrok and run it on the command line, specifying the port that hosts the application on which you want to receive calls (80 in this case):
./ngrok http 80
This starts the ngrok server on your local server. Ngrok will display a forwarding link that you can use as a webhook to access your local server over the public network.

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Create a Plivo application to receive calls

Associate the controller you created with Plivo by creating a Plivo application. Visit Voice > Applications and click Add New Application. You can also use Plivo’s Application API.Give your application a name — we called ours Receive_call. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example https://<yourdomain>.com/receivecall/) in the Primary Answer URL field and set the method to POST. Click Create Application to save your application.

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Assign a Plivo number to your application

Navigate to the Numbers page and select the phone number you want to use for this application.From the Application Type drop-down, select XML Application.From the Plivo Application drop-down, select Receive Call (the name we gave the application).Click Update Number to save.

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Test

Make a call to your Plivo number using any phone.

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Forward an incoming call

Plivo requests an answer URL when the call is answered (step 4) and expects the file at that address to hold a valid XML response from the application with instructions on how to handle the call. In this example, when an incoming call is received, Plivo forwards the call using the Dial XML element.You must have a voice-enabled Plivo phone number to receive incoming calls; you can rent numbers from the Numbers page of the Plivo console, or by using the Numbers API.

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Set up an Express application to forward calls

Create a file called forward_call.js and paste into it this code.
var express = require('express')
var app = express()

app.post('/forward_call/', function(req, res) {
    var plivo = require('plivo');
    var response = plivo.Response();
    var dial = response.addDial();

    dial.addNumber("<destination_number>");
    res.send(response.toXML());
})

app.set('port', (process.env.PORT || 5000));
app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
    console.log('Node app is running on port', app.get('port'));
});
Replace the destination number placeholder with an actual phone number (for example, 12025551234).If you haven’t done so already, expose your local server to the internet.

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Create a Plivo application to forward calls

Associate the Express application you created with Plivo by creating a Plivo application. Visit Voice > Applications in the Plivo console and click on Add New Application, or use Plivo’s Application API.Give your application a name — we called ours Forward Call. Enter the server URL you want to use (for example https://<yourdomain>.com/forward_call/) in the Answer URL field and set the method to POST. Click Create Application to save your application.

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Assign a Plivo number to your application

Navigate to the Numbers page and select the phone number you want to use for this application.From the Application Type drop-down, select XML Application.From the Plivo Application drop-down, select Forward Call (the name we gave the application).Click Update Number to save.

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Test

Make a call to your Plivo number using any phone. Plivo will send a request to the answer URL you provided requesting an XML response and then forward the call according to the instructions in the XML document the server provides.

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More use cases

We illustrate more than 20 use cases with code for both API/XML and PHLO on our documentation pages.