Using rapidsms-threadless-router

Caveats and Incompatibilities

threadless_router can integrate into existing RapidSMS projects. However, legacy backends will not work, so you should use the backends bundled with threadless_router, available in the community, or create your own. As all routing is handled from within the HTTP thread, non-HTTP backends, such as pygsm, are not (and will never be) compatible with threadless_router. You should use an HTTP backend with Kannel to achieve the same functionality.

The following legacy RapidSMS applications cannot be used with threadless_router:

• rapidsms.contrib.httptester - A new httptester is bundled as a replacement.
• rapidsms.contrib.scheduler - The legacy scheduler uses threads to achieve crontab-like functionality. Instead, you can use other schedulers such as celerybeat.
• rapidsms.contrib.ajax
• rapidsms.contrib.messagelog

httptester

httptester, bundled with threadless_router, overrides key components in the legacy httptester app to provide identical functionality. Django’s cache backend is used as dummy storage.

httptester Setup

• Add httptester to INSTALLED_APPS:

  INSTALLED_APPS = [
      # ...
      "threadless_router.backends.httptester",
      # ...
  ]
  

• Add httptester to INSTALLED_BACKENDS:

  INSTALLED_BACKENDS = {
      # ...
      "httptester": {
          "ENGINE": "threadless_router.backends.httptester.backend",
      },
      # ...
  }
  

• Add httptester urls:

  urlpatterns = patterns('',
      # ...
      url(r'^httptester/$',
          'threadless_router.backends.httptester.views.generate_identity',
          {'backend_name': 'httptester'}, name='httptester-index'),
      (r'^httptester/', include('threadless_router.backends.httptester.urls')),
      # ...
  )
  

• Update RAPIDSMS_TABS to reference new view:

  RAPIDSMS_TABS = [
      # ...
      ("httptester-index", "Message Tester"),
      # ...
  ]
  

HTTP backend

The http backend provides the foundation for building http-powered services. Built on top of Django 1.3’s class-based generic views, the BaseHttpBackendView allows for easy extension and customization. A simple SimpleHttpBackendView is bundled as a quick start example.

simple-http Setup

• Add http app to INSTALLED_APPS:

  INSTALLED_APPS = [
      # ...
      "threadless_router.backends.http",
      # ...
  ]
  

• Add simple-http to INSTALLED_BACKENDS:

  INSTALLED_BACKENDS = {
      # ...
      "simple-http": {
          "ENGINE": "threadless_router.backends.http.outgoing",
          "outgoing_url": 'http://myservice.com/?identity=%(identity)s&text=%(text)s',
      },
      # ...
  }
  

• Add http urls:

  urlpatterns = patterns('',
      # ...
      (r'^http/', include('threadless_router.backends.http.urls')),
      # ...
  )
  

• Now incoming requests will be handled by the http thread:

  >>> import urllib
  >>> import urllib2
  >>> data = urllib.urlencode({'identity': '1112223333', 'text': 'echo hello'})
  >>> urllib2.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/http/simple-http/', data).read()
  'OK'