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Twilio Connect .Net Quickstart

Overview

Twilio Connect allows developers to obtain authorization to make calls, send text messages, purchase phone numbers, read access logs, and perform other API functions on behalf of another Twilio account holder.

As an example, imagine you want to access the Twilio account of a user of your web application to provide in-depth analytics of their Twilio account activity. In this quickstart we'll solve this problem by creating your first Twilio Connect App, placing the "Connect" button on your website so users can authorize your app to access their Twilio account data and make API requests against their account.

Creating Your First Twilio Connect App

Let's jump right in and create our first Connect app. Log in to your Twilio account dashboard, select "Apps" and click the "Create Connect App" button. Fill in the top section with the name of your application and your company information.

Next, assign an Authorize URL to your Connect application. The Authorize URL is the URL that Twilio will redirect the user's browser to after they have authorized your application to access their Twilio account. Later on in the quickstart, we'll demonstrate how the Authorize URL is used.

Lastly, select the access rights your Connect app requires on the user's account. For this example, we'll only be accessing call logs for analytics so we'll choose "Read all account data".

Here's what our sample Connect application looks like:

Click 'Save Changes' and you're done!

Placing the Connect Button on Your Website

The Connect button is where your customers will start the process of authorizing your Connect App to access their Twilio account.

After saving your application, you will see a bit of HTML code in a popup. Copy the generated code and paste it into the HTML of your website where you would like the button to appear. If you ever need to generate this HTML again, you can scroll to the bottom of your Connect App's details page and click "Generate Connect Button HTML".

Testing the Authorization Workflow

With the Twilio Connect button now on your website, browse to the page where you placed the HTML and click the Connect button. Verify that the information displayed on the authorization screen is correct.

After completing the app authorization process, you are redirected to the Authorize URL you specified when creating your Connect App. Appended to that URL is an AccountSid URL parameter with a value that looks like this:

1http://www.example.com/twilio/authorize?AccountSid=AC12345
2   Your Connect App's Authorize URL       Customer's SID
3

Your application should extract the AccountSid value from the URL and associate it with the user's account within your application. After extracting the AccountSid, we recommend that you redirect the user to another page within your app so the AccountSid isn't hanging around. For example, in this is the code required to access the AccountSid value and redirect to a new location:

authorize-callback.cshtml

1@{
2    string accountSid = Request["AccountSid"];
3    // store accountSid value in database 
4    // associated with a user in your application
5    // redirect back to my app when done
6    Response.Redirect("http://www.example.com/myapp", true);
7}

Making an Authorized Request

With the user's AccountSid in hand, you can now request data from their account via the Twilio REST API. A request to retrieve data from a user's account is nearly identical to a request made against your account with only one key difference. Instead of authenticating with your AccountSid and AuthToken, you authenticate with the AccountSid retrieved during the authorization process and your account's AuthToken.

Here is a request to retrieve call logs from an account using a Twilio helper library. Pay special attention to line 4 where the customer's AccountSid is specified instead of your own:

authorized-request.cshtml

1@Twilio;
2@{
3    string sid = "ACXXXXXX"; // The customer's AccountSid
4    string token = "YYYYYY"; // Your account's AuthToken
5
6    // create a new instance of the Twilio REST client
7    var client = new TwilioRestClient(sid, token);
8
9    // Get Recent Calls
10    var calls = client.ListCalls();
11
12    // Check for errors
13    if (calls.RestException != null) 
14    {
15        Response.Write(string.Format("Error: {0}", calls.RestException.Message));
16        Response.End();
17    }
18}
19<h1>Call Log</h1>
20@foreach (var call in calls.Calls) {
21    <p>Call from @call.From to @call.To at @call.StartTime of length @call.Duration</p>
22}

You're Done! Now What?

Retrieving call logs on behalf of your customers is just the start of what you can accomplish with Twilio Connect. Visit the complete Connect documentation and best practices to learn more about how to integrate Connect's additional capabilities into your applications.