Building a Serverless CRM integration with Twilio and AWS
Overview of the System
We all want a system in which we want near-real-time access to our web-based application as well as the application server for the engineers, or almost zero downtime of our application. Also well we want our engineers to be informed almost immediately to have an idea of what's going on at the backend of the application server even when not present.
The system shows the integration of Twilio, Auth0 Authentication, and different AWS Serverless services represent the user can access the application over the internet, Auth0 authenticates the user credentials based on the organization users, and when the application server is down, it can trigger a call for the engineer to inform the status of the server.
What is Twilio
Twilio is a cloud platform, that allows software developers to programmatically make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, and also carry out other communication functions with the use of its APIs.
Twilio bridges a gap between web-based applications and telephones
Twilio Studio
Twilio Studio is a powerful visual editor used for building, editing, and managing communication workflows.
The studio can be used to design systems from notifications, IVRs, and chatbots.
Studio flows are the entry points for all calls and messages within flex.
Twilio function
Twilio Functions is a Serverless development environment that allows you to build an event-driven and scalable Twilio application.
Functions are server-side code written in Node.js and run directly on the Twilio platform. Also, functions replace the need to find hosting or run a server to serve any other HTTP-based responses. The worry of maintaining your web infrastructure to support your application is not needed.
Authentication
Authentication is the process of identifying a user’s identity. It is the process of linking an inward request with a set of identifying credentials. The credentials given are used in comparison to those in the database of the authorized user’s information within an authenticated server.
Different systems may require a different type of credentials to confirm a user’s identity. The types of authentication include:
- Password-based authentication
- Multi-factor authentication
- Certificate-based Authentication
- Biometrics Authentication
- Token-based Authentication
Auth0
Auth0 is a flexible solution to add authentication and authorization services to your applications. In this system, Auth0 authenticates the user’s identity using password-based authentication and compares it to the credentials of the user in the organization.
Auth0 Organization
Auth0 Organizations feature represent a wide range of Auth0 platform that helps business-to-business (B2B) customers manage their partners and customers efficiently and also customize the accessibility of the end-users to their application.
- In this system, each user belongs to a unique Organization and can be identified and authenticated using the credentials of the user as registered in the organization.
- Each Organization has a unique Organization ID, each user is added to the organization with a user name and password which makes the user a unique member of the organization.
- Only a member of an organization can access the organization.
References
https://www.twilio.com/docs/flex/admin-guide/core-concepts/studio-flows-functions-assets-twiml
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/authentication
