3.4.7 Africa's Talking

This section allows you to configure Africa's Talking as a data source and receive SMS messages as unstructured posts in your Ushahidi deployment.

Prerequisite Information: Username, SMS Short Code, and API Key

1. Login to Africas Talking dashboard

2. Click on App name

Take note of Username

1. Click on SMS -> Short Codes -> My Shortcodes

Take note of Short Code

1. Click on Settings -> API Key

2. Enter account password and click Generate

Take note of API Key (will also be automatically copied into your clipboard)

Setup Africa's Talking Data Source in Ushahidi

1. Login to Ushahidi.

1. Click on Settings -> Data Sources

2. Click Add source

1. Select Africa's Talking

1. Enter your Username, API Key, and SMS Short Code, and then click Save.

Setup Ushahidi Callback in Africa's Talking

1. Login to Africa's Talking Dashboard and click on app

1. Click on SMS -> Callback URLs -> Incoming Messages

2. Enter the Ushahidi's callback URL and click Submit.

The URL is your deployment backend's API URL, ending with "/sms/africas-talking"

The API URL is often slightly different from your deployment's website URL.

• If you are using the ushahidi.io hosting service, you will always need to insert ".api" after your subdomain. Example:

  • Assuming your deployment's URL address is My-Deployment.ushahidi.io

  • The API URL for your deployment would be: My-Deployment.api.ushahidi.io

• Consult with your system administrator if you are configuring a deployment hosted outside of ushahidi.io

• Don't forget to append "/sms/africas-talking" to the resulting API URL

e.g. https://quakemap.api.ushahidi.io/sms/africas-talking