Skip to main content

Getting Started Guide

Getting Started with the Ribbit Developer Platform

Welcome to the Ribbit Developer Getting Started Guide. You are about to unlock a world of rich communications features available through the Ribbit Platform.

Create Your Developer Account

Before you can start using Ribbit Platform services, you must first create a developer account.

  1. From the Developer Center homepage, click the Sign Up button.
  2. Start by entering your email address. The email address you enter here will be the username you use to login to the Ribbit Developer Portal. Be sure to complete all required fields.
  3. The password you enter here will allow you to access the Developer Center as well as Ribbit Platform services and Ribbit APIs.
  4. Click Submit, then check your email. An activation link will be sent to you. Click the link in the activation email to return to the Developer Center and start using Ribbit. If you have problems receiving your confirmation email or creating your account, click the Resend Activation Email link.

Claim Your $25 Free Credit and Buy Additional Credit

While most features are free, establishing a billing relationship with Ribbit gives you access to our entire portfolio of API features.

  Free Accounts Paid Accounts
Developer Account + 1st Seat included included
1st Voicemail Box included included
Access to Flex SDK included included
Access to Flash Toolkit included included
Email-to-Email Calling included included
Calls to Toll-Free Numbers included included
$25 Free Credit included included
Additional Seats (Users)            included included
Purpose Numbers (Phone Numbers)             1 +1
US Domestic Calling             included included
International Calling   included
SMS Outbound Messages             included included
Voice-to-Text Transcriptions  Automated Business Grade

To help you get started using the new platform features and services, Ribbit is offering developers a $25 Free Credit.

  1. To claim your free credit, login and click the Claim $25 Credit button at the top of the Developer Center homepage.
  2. To claim your free credit, you must first enter your credit card billing information. Once you have used your free credit, you will have to buy more to continue using Ribbit paid services.
  3. Fill out all required fields, and click Submit. Now you can start building your app using Ribbit Platform services.

Start Building Your Application

To start building you app, you must first register as a Ribbit developer. You can then develop multiple applications and assign multiple users. You’ll insert each application’s unique credentials and configuration into the code while developing the app.

  1. From the Developer Portal, select the My Apps tab and click Start an App.
  2. The Project/App Name is how your app will be known in the Ribbit system. Fill out all required fields.
  3. You can upload a thumbnail image to give your app a visual identity.
  4. Designate an app URL that lets Ribbit know where the app will be ultimately hosted.
  5. Click Submit to create your new app and add it to the My Apps tab, where you can access your information and make changes later.

Configure Your App

This page contains important information you’ll need while coding your app. It also provides instructions for adding users and configuring other details about your application.

  1. The App ID is used when coding your app with Ribbit’s Flash platform technologies (Flex SDK and Flash Toolkit). See the sample apps in each Dev Center to see where this data is required. The Ribbit platform requires this data so that it knows which app is accessing the service.
  2. The Secret Key is used when coding your app with Ribbit’s RESTful technologies (currently in private beta).
  3. BYON (Bring your own network) enables you to leverage your own SIP network with the Ribbit service. Requesting this is a manual process and will prompt a Ribbit specialist to contact you to get more details and usage information.

Add Users

Once your app is set up, you'll be able to give multiple users (including yourself) access to Ribbit Platform services.

  1. From the App configuration page, click Users in the left menu. Enter the first name, last name, and email address of each new user.
  2. From here, you can also edit existing users' access information, including your own. (see Edit Users)
  3. Once a user is created, you can add a purpose number to that account. This is a specially assigned number from the Ribbit system that will allow the outside world to call the user designated in the Ribbit system.
  4. A token is special piece of configuration code that lets you build an embeddable widget on behalf of your user that will allow customers to call that user through a Web page. (see Add Token)
  5. You can remove users from an app by selecting Remove.

Edit Users

This page, accessible through the Add Users page, lets you modify details for individual users.

  1. Click the Edit User icon next to the user name in your application to edit that user.
  2. You can reset a user’s password here. The user will receive an email prompting him or her to reset their password.
  3. This form also alllows you to request a purpose number for an individual user.
  4. Selecting the Remove from Billing option will preserve a user and his or her data, but prevent that user from accessing Ribbit features and logging into your app in the future.
  5. Adding transcriptions (voice-to-text feature for voicemail and messages) is still a manual process. You can request it here.
  6. You can enable or disable voicemail and missed call notifications here. This will toggle your user’s ability to receive emails from the Ribbit system.
  7. You can also request tokens for a user from this form. (See Adding Tokens)

Adding Tokens

A token is special piece of configuration code that lets you build an embeddable widget on behalf of your user that will allow customers to call that user through a Web page.

  1. You can add tokens for users from either the Add User or Edit User pages.
  2. You must select the source phone number for the token, which can be the purpose number assigned to the user. This number will appear as the Caller ID when the user’s number is called through a token-enabled app.
  3. You can request a purpose number to populate the CallerID field.
  4. Currently, there is only one available token type: YouPhone.
  5. The number to call, or destination number, is the number that will ring when a call is made from the token-enabled app.
 

View Account Activity Details

Ribbit provides comprehensive account usage and activity details.

  1. You can view this page by selecting Account Activity from the Accounts tab on the Developer Portal homepage.
 

Manage Your Developer Profile

Once you’ve created a developer account, you can modify almost any detail about yourself and how you plan to work with Ribbit.

  1. You can view this page by selecting My Profile from the Accounts tab on the Developer Portal homepage.
  2. If you've requested a purpose number for your developer account, which you can do from the Add User, Edit User, or Add Tokens pages, that number will appear here. This number lets you test incoming calls in your app, and send messages directly to your Ribbit voicemail.
  3. To access your Ribbit voicemail, use this pilot number.
  4. You can toggle your account’s ability to receive email notifications and SMS messages from the Ribbit service here.

Start Coding

Now that your account is set up, you're ready to code Ribbit into your application. Ribbit offers a variety of platform technologies for you to use, each with their own benefits and features. While general and even advanced familiarity with a platform technology is helpful, Ribbit has designed its code samples and documentation to assist all levels of developers in getting started with their Ribbit applications.

  1. The Flex SDK takes full advantage of Adobe's Flex framework. You can author Ribbit apps with Flex using Adobe's FlexBuilder application. To get started with Ribbit and Flex, select the Flex SDK from the Dev Center tab on the Developer Portal.
  2. The Flash Toolkit leverages Adobe's Flash Professional rich Internet application authoring environment. For coders, we offer an SDK similar to our Flex SDK. For designers, we offer a unique and effective control set that allows drag-and-drop authoring of Ribbit applications in Flash. Both are part of the Flash Toolkit and can be downloaded by selecting Flash Toolkit from the Dev Center tab on the Developer Portal.
  3. A RESTful API will be available soon and is currently being tested in private beta.

 

Getting Support

Ribbit offers some easy and reliable ways to get support while building your app. As a Ribbit developer, you're part of a large community of active coders, application authors, and solution providers.

  1. Our Developer Forum is the best place to engage the community for solutions, ideas, and general support. The forum is frequently visited by Ribbit team members, platform specialists, and engineers. You can access the Developer Forum by selecting Community > Forum from the tab at the top of the Developer Portal.
  2. FAQs comprise the questions our developer and support teams get asked most often. You'll very likely find answers to your questions here. Access the Developer FAQ by selecting Help > FAQ from the tab at the top of the Developer Portal.
  3. Direct support is available if you need assistance with more complicated and timely issues. You can create a developer ticket my submitting your issue via the Talk To us form. Access the Talk to Us form by selecting it from the Help tab, or by clicking Talk to Us from the link at the top of the Developer Portal homepage.