Send a Conversation Message with the Sinch Node.js SDK

Note:

Before you can get started, you need the following already set up:

Learn how to quickly send Conversation messages in a Node.js application with the Sinch Node.js SDK.

Steps:
  1. Set up your Node.js application
  2. Send your first SMS message

Set up your Node.js application

First we'll create a Node project using npm. This creates a package.json and the core dependencies necessary to start coding.

To create the project, do the following steps:

  1. Create a folder called send-conversation-app
  2. Navigate into the folder you created and run the following command.
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    npm init

    This command adds the package.json file. You will be prompted to provide values for the fields. For this tutorial, you can simply accept the default values and press enter at each stage.

You can install the Sinch Node.js SDK using either NPM or Yarn:

NPMYarn
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npm install @sinch/sdk-core
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yarn add @sinch/sdk-core
Note:

If you want to use the SDK with a javascript framework such as React or Angular, you can import it with an import statement.

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import {SinchClient} from `@sinch/sdk-core`

Create your file

Create a new file named index.js in the project and paste the provided code into the file.

Modify your application

The code provided includes placeholder parameters. You'll need to update the parameters detailed in the following subsections with your values.

Note:

This sample code is configured for the US region. If your Conversation API app wasn't created in the US region, update you can set the region when you initialize the Sinch client:

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const sinchClient = new SinchClient({
    projectId: "YOUR_project_id",
    keyId: "YOUR_access_key",
    keySecret: "YOUR_access_secret",
    region: Region.EUROPE
});

Initialize the client

Before initializing a client using this SDK, you'll need three pieces of information:

  • Your Project ID
  • An access key ID
  • An access key Secret
These values can be found on the Access Keys page of the Customer Dashboard. You can also create new access key IDs and Secrets, if required.
Note:
If you have trouble accessing the above link, ensure that you have gained access to the Conversation API by accepting the corresponding terms and conditions.

Fill in remaining parameters

Assign your values to the following parameters:

Placeholder valueYour value
YOUR_app_idFind your app ID on your Sinch dashboard.
YOUR_channelThe channel you want to use to send the message. This guide presets this channel property to SMS, but you may update it to any channel that's already configured on your Conversation API app. You may add the following channels to your app from the Sinch Customer Dashboard:
  • SMS
  • MESSENGER
  • MMS
  • RCS
  • WHATSAPP
  • VIBER
  • VIBERBM
  • INSTAGRAM
  • TELEGRAM
  • KAKAOTALK
  • APPLEBC
  • LINE
  • WECHAT
RECIPIENT_numberThe channel identity of the recipient to which you want to send the message. When using the SMS channel, this will be a phone number.
YOUR_sms_senderYour Sinch virtual phone number, available on the customer dashboard. This is only required if you are using the SMS channel.

Ensure that you save the file.

Send your first Conversation message

Now you can execute the code and send your test Conversation message.

Run the following command:

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node index.js

You should receive a text to the phone number you entered and you'll see a response in your terminal or command prompt. You did it!

Next steps

The code you used in the index.js file sends a POST request to the Sinch API /Messages endpoint to send the text message. Click here to read more about the messages endpoint.

Additional resources

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