Why Send SMS Text Messages From U2 With Python
June 24, 2020
I have presented the Rocket MultiValue Python solution dozens of times to hundreds of people and have touted the 240,000+ projects at pypi.org as a major benefit of a MultiValue Python solution. Yet one reoccurring question I have received is “what Python open source project(s) should MultiValue Developers use”, and my answer has been “what problems are you trying to solve?”
While I know it is not good form to answer a question with a question, this question is at the heart of any Solutions Architect. I can not answer what your solution should look like until I know what you need it to do. Yet recently Lou Tur and I came upon the same Python module at roughly the same time. While I cannot guarantee any module can be used by all MultiValue solutions, I feel there are enough use cases for sending SMS Text messages that this module can provide value to most.
Considering that as of June 2020, the number of people who have either a smart or feature phone is roughly 4.78 Billion (or 61.43% of the world’s population), the expectation that integrating SMS into your MultiValue solution would provide value is high. (External source for numbers)
So, Lou answered the question “How to Send SMS Text Messages from U2 with Python”, and the fact that over 60% of the world’s population has a phone that can receive a test is part of the why. What remains is the ‘What’.
What do your customer’s and/or stakeholders need from you that can be better served through text messages.
Top 5 Business Use Cases of Text Message
- Transactional receipt
- Appointment reminders
- Fulfillment updates
- Deals/loyalty program updates
- Security
It is the last use case that Lou and I had a chance to explore. A customer expressed the need to employ some extra security to their application, in addition to the other MFA ( Multi Factor Authentication ) methods already employed at the OS level. Our suggested solution included the use of the Python module to send a one-time code to the user’s cell phone when he or she attempted to login. The routine would then sit and wait for the user’s response and either allow access or log the user out of the application.
Running the following program from the LOGIN paragraph we can then provide a one-time code to the user (via the SMS routine described in the previous article), and only allow access if it is entered at the prompt.
