Integrating Twilio SMS Notification in BizTalk360

Introduction

 Notification Channels in BizTalk360 sends alert notifications to various channels like email and other external notification channels like Slack, ServiceNow, WebHook, and Microsoft Teams. Notifying the critical circumstances like BizTalk/SQL Server is not available, scheduled Health check Reports and Threshold violations are important information to alert the users about certain conditions that may require prompt action.

In addition to the already existing list of external notification channels, BizTalk360 Version 10.2 has provision for Twilio SMS. BizTalk360’s integration with Twilio sends alert notifications as SMS. BizTalk360 has provisions to integrate with third-party applications to meet the business requirements.

Twilio Notification Channel in BizTalk360

Twilio Notification Channel in BizTalk360 uses Twilio’s SMS API to send the alert notification as an SMS using the user’s Twilio Account Credentials. The user must purchase a Twilio account to utilize the benefits of the Twilio Notification Channel from BizTalk360. On Configuring the Twilio Notification Channel with the user’s Twilio credentials and mapping Twilio to the alarms, the user will receive the Alert Notifications from BizTalk360 as an SMS.  

The user must provide the Auth Token, Account SID, From Number of the Twilio account and the phone number (To Number) to which the notification must be sent, during the Twilio Notification channel configuration to receive alert notifications from BizTalk360.

WHY Twilio?

• Twilio is a widely used platform for communication and the main necessity for Twilio Integration in BizTalk360 is the limitation of the native SMS notification.
• As the default SMS Notification notifies with the overall status of the BizTalk360 Environment due to a character limitation of 160 characters, it is difficult for the user as it takes up a great amount of time to locate and investigate the issue.
• The Twilio Notification Channel works as an alternative to the SMS notification and alerts the user about the status of the different Monitoring Group Types that are not in a healthy state. This precise SMS notification from Twilio helps users know exactly where the issue occurs and quickly resolve the issue which saves time.
• Twilio works similarly to other default notification channels but due to the character limitation of up to 1600 charactersin Twilio SMS Notification, it notifies the user of the status of the Monitor Group Types that are not in a healthy state.
• Twilio charges $0.0075approximate for every 100 characters. The user can send the alert notification to one or many numbers. Alert notification from BizTalk360 can be sent to one or many phone numbers which are entered as a comma-separated value during configuration.

Message Template in Twilio

Twilio Notification Channel has two different message templates for sending notifications.

A detailed message holds a detailed alert notification about the violations in the configured environment. This template holds the Monitor Group Type along with the artifact name and the issue description of the artifact in which the violation has occurred.

Sample Screenshot of Detailed Message

Trimmed Message carries a general overall status of each Monitor Type of the Monitor Group Type whose status is not healthy.

Sample Screenshot of Trimmed Message

By Default, Twilio NC tries to send a detailed message as an alert notification but if the characters of the detailed message exceed the maximum character limit, Twilio Notification Channel trims down the message and sends the Trimmed message which returns the overall status of the Monitor Type under each Monitor Group Type which is not in a healthy state.

These message templates aim in notifying the user precisely about the violation happening anywhere in the environment. These messages help the user quickly identify the issue and take necessary quick action to resolve the issue.

Benefits of using Twilio Notification Channel

• The Twilio Notification Channel sends notifications as SMS, users need not log in to BizTalk360 to view the status of the configured environment at any point in time. If the configured environment is healthy, it notifies that the environment is healthy else it notifies with only the Monitor Group Types which are not in a healthy state which gives a piece of clear-cut information on where the issue must be looked upon.
• This SMS from Twilio saves time and effort when compared to a default SMS notification.
• The user can send alert notifications as SMS to one or more numbers using Twilio Notification Channel.

Twilio Notification Channel Configuration

The primary step to receive notifications in Twilio is to configure the Twilio Notification Channel in BizTalk360. To receive notifications via the Twilio Notification channel, one must necessarily have a Twilio Account. On Twilio Account creation the user will be provided with credentials like Account SID, Auth Token, and From Number which is essential for configuring Twilio. 

Setting up a Twilio notification in BizTalk360 is a two-step process:

• Configuring Twilio Channel in BizTalk360

• Enabling the Twilio Notification channel in BizTalk360 Alarm

• The details of all the notifications sent from the external notification channels are captured in the Alert History found under the Notification History of the Monitoring Section. The users can check the status of the notification and transmission details from the alert history table.

Custom Notification Channels

In addition to the default notification channels, BizTalk360 has provisions for custom notification channels. These custom notification channels can be incorporated as per the customer’s business requirement by integrating with the third-party applications and satisfying the business needs.

Therefore, by using BizTalk360, you can also build your own custom notification channels to send notifications to any external systems. With custom notification channels, it is quite easy to send alerts to any external systems.

Conclusion

Thus, the Twilio Integration helps in receiving precise alert notifications for the different monitoring group types for the configured environment.

If you are new to BizTalk360 and would like to take a product tour, sign up for our free trial and enjoy the all-new BizTalk360 V10.2. Happy Integration!