Handle an incoming message
Note:
Before you can get started, you need to do the following:
- Set all Conversation API configuration settings.
- .Net Core 3.1 SDK and a familiarity with how to create a new MVC application.
- ngrok. You'll use ngrok to open a tunnel to your local server.
Using the Conversation API, you can receive and respond to messages from any channel you have configured. This tutorial shows you how to set up a .Net Core MVC application that receives and responds to messages.
Note:
This tutorial is easier to accomplish if you have already completed the steps for Sending a message.
Set up your .Net Core application
- Create a new folder where you want to keep your app project. Then, open a command prompt to that location.
- Create a new .Net Core MVC app with the following command:
dotnet new mvc
- Add the
Newtonsoft.Json
NuGet package.dotnet add package Newtonsoft.Json
Modify your application
Note:
This tutorial uses basic authentication for testing purposes. We recommend OAuth 2.0 authentication in a production environment. Read more about authentication methods here.
- In the Controllers folder of your project, create a new file named
IncomingController.cs
. Populate that file with the provided "IncomingController.cs" code found on this page. This code starts a server that listens for incoming messages. It then sends a text message in response.
Note:
This sample code is configured for the US region. If your Conversation API app wasn't created in the US region, replace all instances of https://us.conversation.api.sinch.com
with https://eu.conversation.api.sinch.com
in the sample code.
IncomingController.cs
This code sample is to be used with the instructions on this page to build a web server that will handle and respond to incoming messages.
// Get your Access Key and Access Secret at dashboard.sinch.com/settings/access-keys
using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
public class IncomingMessage
{
public string app_id {get; set;}
public string accepted_time {get; set;}
public string event_time {get; set;}
public string project_id {get; set;}
public ContactMessage message {get; set;}
public Message_Delivery_Report message_delivery_report {get; set;}
public string message_metadata {get; set;}
}
public class ContactMessage
{
public string id {get; set;}
public string direction {get; set;}
public Contact_Message contact_message {get; set;}
public ChannelIdentity channel_identity {get; set;}
public string conversation_id {get; set;}
public string contact_id {get; set;}
public string metadata {get; set;}
public string accept_time {get; set;}
}
public class Contact_Message
{
public TextMessage text_message {get; set;}
}
public class TextMessage
{
public string text {get; set;}
}
public class ChannelIdentity
{
public string channel {get; set;}
public string identity {get; set;}
public string app_id {get; set;}
}
public class Message_Delivery_Report
{
public string message_id {get; set;}
public string conversation_id {get; set;}
public string status {get; set;}
public Channel_Identity channel_identity {get; set;}
public string contact_id {get; set;}
public string metadata {get; set;}
}
public class IncomingController : Controller
{
public string accessKey = "Access_Key";
public string accessSecret = "Access_Secret";
[HttpPost]
public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> ReceiveMessage([FromBody]IncomingMessage incomingMessage)
{
HttpResponseMessage res = new HttpResponseMessage();
try
{
Console.WriteLine(incomingMessage.app_id);
if (incomingMessage.message != null)
{
Console.WriteLine(incomingMessage.message.contact_message.text_message.text);
SendMessage sendMessage = new SendMessage(incomingMessage.app_id,
incomingMessage.message.channel_identity.channel,
incomingMessage.message.channel_identity.identity,
incomingMessage.message.contact_message.text_message.text);
var response = await sendMessage.send(sendMessage, accessKey, accessSecret, incomingMessage.project_id);
res.Content = new StringContent(response);
Console.WriteLine(response);
}
res.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK;
return res;
}
catch
{
res.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.BadRequest;
return res;
}
}
}
public class Recipient
{
public Identified_By identified_by {get; set;}
public Recipient(string channel, string identity)
{
identified_by = new Identified_By(channel, identity);
}
}
public class Identified_By
{
public Channel_Identity[] channel_identities {get; set;}
public Identified_By(string channel, string identity)
{
channel_identities = new Channel_Identity[] { new Channel_Identity(channel, identity) };
}
}
public class Channel_Identity
{
public string channel {get; set;}
public string identity {get; set;}
public Channel_Identity(string channelVar, string idVar)
{
channel = channelVar;
identity = idVar;
}
}
public class Message
{
public Text_Message text_message {get; set;}
public Message(string text)
{
text_message = new Text_Message(text);
}
}
public class Text_Message
{
public string text {get; set;}
public Text_Message(string textVar)
{
text = "You sent: " + textVar;
}
}
public class SendMessage
{
public string app_id {get; set;}
public Recipient recipient {get; set;}
public Message message {get; set;}
public SendMessage(string appIdVar, string channel, string identity, string text)
{
app_id = appIdVar;
recipient = new Recipient(channel, identity);
message = new Message(text);
}
public string encodeAuth(string key, string secret)
{
var plainTextBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(key + ":" + secret);
return Convert.ToBase64String(plainTextBytes);
}
public async Task<string> send(SendMessage sendMessage, string key, string secret, string projectId)
{
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Basic " + encodeAuth(key, secret));
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(sendMessage);
var postData = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var request = await client.PostAsync("https://us.conversation.api.sinch.com/v1/projects/" + projectId + "/messages:send", postData);
var response = await request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
return response;
}
}
}
- Assign your values to the following parameters:
Parameter | Your value |
---|---|
Access_Key | Find your access key on your Sinch dashboard. |
Access_Secret | Find your access secret on your Sinch dashboard. Note: Access secrets are only available during initial key creation. |
- Save the file.
- Compile your application by executing the following command:
dotnet build
Start your web server and set up a tunnel
- Start the server by executing the following command:
dotnet run
By default, your web server is started on port 5001.
- Now you need to open a tunnel to the server you just set up. We are using ngrok for this. if you don't have ngrok installed already you can install it with the following command:
npm install ngrok -g
- Open a terminal or command prompt and enter:
ngrok http https://localhost:5001
- Copy the HTTPS address that ends with .ngrok.io and add
/Incoming/ReceiveMessage
to the end of it.
Configure your webhook
For your application to receive messages from Conversation API, you must configure a webhook in your Conversation API app. For detailed instructions on configuring a webhook, click here.
- Set your webhook URL to the HTTP address you copied in the previous step.
- Assign the following triggers:
CONVERSATION_START
CONVERSATION_STOP
EVENT_DELIVERY
EVENT_INBOUND
MESSAGE_DELIVERY
MESSAGE_INBOUND
UNSUPPORTED
Test the application
Now that your server is running and your webhook is configured, you can test the application. From your messaging platform, send your Conversation API app a message. You will receive a message back in response on the messaging platform.
Additional resources
Read the links below to learn more: