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Send a message

Note:

Before you can get started, you need to do the following:

Using the Conversation API, you can send messages to any channel you have configured. This tutorial shows you how to set up and send a message in a Node.js application.

Steps:
  1. Set up your Node.js application
  2. Send your first 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 conv-send

  2. Navigate into the folder you created and run the following command.

    npm init

    This command adds the node_modules folder and 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.

  3. Add the fetch package with npm to generate the necessary dependencies.

    npm install node-fetch
    Note:

    The node fetch package requires us to use node modules, so we need to use a .mjs file type instead of a .js.

Create your file

Note:

This tutorial uses basic authentication for testing purposes. We recommend OAuth 2.0 authentication in a production environment. Read more about authentication methods.

  1. Create a new file named index.mjs in the project and paste the provided "index.mjs" code found on this page into the file. This code sends a text message.

    index.mjs
    // Find your App ID at dashboard.sinch.com/convapi/apps
// Find your Project ID at dashboard.sinch.com/settings/project-management
// Get your Access Key and Access Secret at dashboard.sinch.com/settings/access-keys
const APP_ID = '';
const ACCESS_KEY = '';
const ACCESS_SECRET = '';
const PROJECT_ID = '';
const CHANNEL = '';
const IDENTITY = '';

import fetch from 'node-fetch';

async function run() {
  const resp = await fetch(
    'https://us.conversation.api.sinch.com/v1/projects/' + PROJECT_ID + '/messages:send',
    {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        Authorization: 'Basic ' + Buffer.from(ACCESS_KEY + ':' + ACCESS_SECRET).toString('base64')
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        app_id: APP_ID,
        recipient: {
          identified_by: {
            channel_identities: [
              {
                channel: CHANNEL,
                identity: IDENTITY
              }
            ]
          }
        },
        message: {
          text_message: {
            text: 'Text message from Sinch Conversation API.'
          }
        }
      })
    }
  );

  const data = await resp.json();
  console.log(data);
}

run();
    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.

  2. Assign your values to the following parameters:

    ParameterYour value
    APP_IDFind your app ID on your Sinch [dashboard](https://dashboard.sinch.com/convapi/apps).
    ACCESS_KEYFind your access key on your Sinch [dashboard](https://dashboard.sinch.com/settings/access-keys).
    ACCESS_SECRET Find your access secret on your Sinch [dashboard](https://dashboard.sinch.com/settings/access-keys).
    Note:Access secrets are only available during initial key creation.
    PROJECT_IDFind your project ID on your Sinch [dashboard](https://dashboard.sinch.com/settings/project-management).
    CHANNELThe channel you want to use to send the message. Available channels are configured for the app on your Sinch [dashboard](https://dashboard.sinch.com/settings/access-keys). This guide assumes you've started with an SMS channel, but you can use any channel configured for your app:
    • SMS
    • MESSENGER
    • MMS
    • RCS
    • WHATSAPP
    • VIBER
    • VIBERBM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TELEGRAM
    • KAKAOTALK
    • APPLEBC
    • LINE
    • WECHAT
    IDENTITYThe ID of the contact to which you want to send the message.

  3. Save the file.

Send your first message

Now you can execute the code and send your test message. Run the following command:

node index.mjs

You should receive a message in your configured messaging platform.

Next steps

Now that you know how to send a message, next learn how to handle an incoming message.

Additional resources

Read the links below to learn more: