Category: COVID-19 Communications

COVID-19 continues to spread around the world. Let's stay connected. And make the world a better place.

What I want to build

I want to build a web-based solution that allows people to schedule calls using a calendar to find out how people are.

So people will receive a call at the same time, conveniently and everyone can connect and share their wellbeing with each other.

Using the Twilio conference API and a Google Calendar a person can set up a scheduled call. And call anyone in the world.

This allows a person to reach people anywhere in the world. And reach rural areas where phone coverage may not be as good. Only one person needs to have a smartphone capable of loading a web page. And a Google account to sign in and use the online service.

I wanted to provide the best solution, which was as simple as possible and had the most reach, inclusive of the smaller demographics relating to smartphone ownership.

It's all about connecting everyone. Taking the responsibility of remembering to call everyone. Making it easier. Giving people less to do each day. And in many cases a friendly voice at the other end of the line.

Demo Link

https://lets-connect.xyz

Link to Code

https://github.com/bernardbaker/lets-connect.xyz

How I'm building it (what's the stack? did I run into issues or discover something new along the way?)

Tech stack

• Netlify
• G Suite
• Google Calendar API
• Twilio
• Zapier
• React
• Node
• GitHub
• NPM
• JavaScript ES6
• HTML5
• SCSS

Issues

• Scheduling a database read.
• Creating cron jobs on the fly.
• Finding a way to extract telephone numbers from an event in Google calendar.
• Integrating a single Zapier ⚡ with different Google accounts.
• Getting the twilio-node SDK working correctly. E.g. calling multiple people using a Twilio conference call. Without the person actually making a call to a Twilio number.
• Setting up Google's API access.

Discoveries

• Webhooks are available in Zapier.
• Twilio has good, understandable documentation and quick start guides that lead you to the API for more advanced use cases.
• Google OAuth verification process is way too long. When you don't provide the information that they request.
• Google's APIs are really good.

Additional Resources/Info

GitHub handle: bernardbaker

• Hackathon page https://dev.to/devteam/announcing-the-twilio-hackathon-on-dev-2lh8
• Netlify https://www.netlify.com
• G Suite https://gsuite.google.com
• Google Calendar API https://developers.google.com/calendar
• Google Devloper Console account https://console.developers.google.com
• Twilio https://twilio.com
• Zapier https://www.zapier.com
• React https://reactjs.org
• Node https://nodejs.org
• GitHub http://github.com
• NPM https://www.npmjs.com
• JavaScript ES6 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
• Google Material UI https://material-ui.com
• HTML5 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/HTML/HTML5
• SCSS https://sass-lang.com/documentation/syntax
• Google Toolbox https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/main