SMS Text Translator with IBM Watson Language Translation

This example uses IBM Watson Language Translator to translate SMS messages.

SMS Messages sent through Nexmo will be sent to IBM Language Translator and the translation is returned to the console.

IBM Tone Analyzer Service

Reference: https://www.ibm.com/watson/services/language-translator/ API Docs: https://cloud.ibm.com/apidocs/language-translator GitHub: https://github.com/watson-developer-cloud/node-sdk#language-translator

Register for the IBM Language Translator service. Once created, make a note of the API Key and URL for use later. These can be found in the Manage page of the IBM Cloud dashboard after login.

Running the App

This sample app uses a .env file to provide the API key and URL.

Copy the provided .env.example file to a new file called .env:

cp .env.example > .env

Then update the values with those from the IBM Tone Analyzer service Manage page, and then save.

TRANSLATE_IAM_APIKEY=
TRANSLATE_URL=

Also, expose the application to the internet using tools like ngrok. To see how, check out this guide.

Using Docker

To run the app using Docker, run the following command in a terminal:

docker-compose up

This will create a new image with all the dependencies and run it at http://localhost:3000.

Using Node

To run the app using node, run the following command in a terminal:

npm install && node index.js

This will install all the dependencies and run it at http://localhost:3000.

Linking the app to Nexmo

For this example app a Nexmo number and SMS webhook setup is needed.

This can be achieved with the Nexmo CLI. Install the CLI by following these instructions.

Rent a New Virtual Number

Renting a number will need to be in place. This can also be achieved using the CLI by running this command:

nexmo number:buy --country_code US

Adding the SMS Webhook

Update the number created with the URL of the hosted or local server.

nexmo link:sms phone_number https://my-hostname/message

Try it out

With the example Node application running in the terminal, send various SMS messages to the virtual number. The terminal will output the response from IBM Language Translator.

Extend

This app prints out to the console. For integration with an application, extend the translateText function to suit your needs.