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sms-location-bot

Sample SMS interaction I’m a bot! You send me a location via SMS, and I reply with the nearest location I know of for the thing I know how to locate.

Running sms-location-bot

sms-location-bot is an Express app that can be run via e.g. node index.js, but see configuration documentation below. It has a POST endpoint at /sms and is designed to be used as a Twilio webhook. It also expects to be run in some kind of host that handles SSL termination on its behalf and so uses HTTP.

To run sms-location-bot, first get yourself a Twilio number that can receive and send SMS. Then, execute node index.js in some kind of container that is capable of terminating SSL and setting PORT and DATA_URL in the process environment (Heroku dyno, DO droplet, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, etc.) and point a stable DNS name at the running instance location. Next, provide that DNS name plus /sms to your Twilio number's webhook for incoming messages:

Twilio Console showing webhook configuration

Texts to your Twilio number will now process the incoming message for inputs (e.g., ZIP codes), look up relevant data in the DATA_URL file, and compile a response.

Configuring sms-location-bot

Environment variables

Here is a list of the configuration parameters sms-location-bot expects to find in its process environment:

  • PORT: the HTTP port for the Express server to listen on
  • DATA_URL: the location of the geo.json-style location file

Data format

sms-location-bot expects to find at DATA_URL a JSON file describing the resources it is helping callers to locate. The first use of sms-location-bot for the Hurricane Barry response in 2019 leveraged an existing geo.json file with a shape like:

{"type":"FeatureCollection",
    "features":[
        {"type":"Feature",
            "geometry":{"type":"Point","coordinates":[xx.nnnn,yy.nnnn]},
            "properties":{"accepting":"yes",
                "shelter":"Shelter Name","address":"Full mailing address","city":"CITY_NAME","state":"ST","county":"County Name","zip":"99999","phone":null,"updated_by":null,"notes":null,"volunteer_needs":null,"longitude":-99.7487,"latitude":40.7868,"supply_needs":null,"source":"Source org id","google_place_id":null,"special_needs":null,"id":2,"archived":false,"pets":"No","pets_notes":null,"needs":[],"updated_at":"2019-07-11T13:52:43-05:00","updatedAt":"2019-07-11T13:52:43-05:00","last_updated":"2019-07-11T13:52:43-05:00","cleanPhone":"badphone"}},
            ...
    ]
}

The extractGeoJsonData function in index.js expects this format implicitly:

const extractGeoJsonData = (json) => {
    let extractedData = new Map();
    json.features.map((val, _idx, _ary) => {
        const { zip } = val.properties;
        if(!extractedData.has(zip)) {
            extractedData.set(zip, new Array());           
        }
        extractedData.get(zip).push(val.properties);
    });
    return extractedData;
}

Working with other data formats, even ones that depend on some other key than ZIP code like area code, date, etc. would need to alter extractGeoJsonData to suit.

Tests

PRs are welcome!