The mobile optimised site has been plugged into Text Marketer’s SMS gateway so that order confirmations are now sent to customers by text. By integrating into the sms gateway, customers receive messages that merge information from the customer’s record such as products ordered, name and address and order value. For customers who are making their first purchase from their mobile, the sms alert provides peace of mind that their order has been received correctly.

Increase in SMS Gateway Traffic

Text Marketer has noticed a rapid increase in the use of its sms gateway in the past 12 months as more and more business start to integrate the use of sms into their web sites and applications.

Integrating your systems with the sms gateway is very straightforward. Account s are free to set up and come with 10 free text credits so you can test the sms gateway before you spend any money. Text Marketer’s low sms costs, combined with its Best Deal Guarantee will ensure that you always have the best overall package.

If you have any queries, please feel free to call us on 0117 9249207.

The Cineworld Group, which has over 75 cinemas nationwide has launched a new sms ticket confirmation service. Customers buying tickets online can now choose to get a booking confirmation text containing film booked, date and time, venue, number in party and credit or debit card used.

The new text alert initiative provides customers with a useful reminder and receipt for their booking.

Using Text Marketer’s SMS gateway API service, Cineworld are able to send out unique messages to individuals merging an unlimited number of data fields. Their confirmation message uses 7 separte pieces of information.

“Thanks for booking with Cineworld. We hope you enjoy District 9 at Crawley on 21/09/2009 18:45 for 2 Adult paid £16.80 with card ending 1234.”

Text Marketer’s SMS Gateway is an ideal way to send SMS messages from your own software application, server or web site. You need a little technical knowhow, but we have helped as much as possible with a number of articles on how to integrate an SMS Gateway which should help you along. If you have any technical queries we are always happy to provide you as much support at you need. (0117 9249207)

The Cineworld Group is one of the leading cinema groups in the UK and Ireland. It has a portfolio of 75 cinemas and 775 screens operating under the Cineworld brand which stretches as far north and south as Aberdeen and Jersey and as far east and west as Ipswich and Dublin.

Adding SMS as a communication method to a system is often very useful, for instance you don’t have issues with spam filtering, it doesn’t require the person to make an immediate response like a phone call, so it’s great for alerts and triggers. Another good application for SMS (text messaging) which is often over looked is the ability to use it as a method to update a system or retrieve information without needing any equipment other than a mobile phone, any one would work. This is done using a short code.

Consider this example:

You own a fictitious “temporary employment agency” with several hundred people on your books.  Your client has asked you to fulfill a specific job such as a receptionist. You send an SMS:

Receptionist cover required for 2 weeks 4 hr per day @ £10 per hr, location Bristol. Reply with “more 4567a” for more info.

The last bit (more 4567a) is the information that allows us to automate things, the keyword more is used to identify you, and the code would be a reference to the job. The potential candidate could then reply where by (in this case) you could :

1. Send more details from the job description
2. Update the database that this person is a likely candidate
3. The person has expressed interest in the receptionist job, we could make an assumption that they maybe interested in other receptionist jobs so you could start creating groups that could be used for later targeting.

Implementation

So how do we set up the SMS gateway and send messages? Fortunately it’s easy.
First you need an account (it’s free) and automated. You’ll get the user name and password you need plus you get some free sends. You will also need to ask for the API URL.

Next use the out bound API (sometimes called an SMS gateway) for your message. This is a simple HTTP GET request which can either be sent via http or https. You will need to url encode the message.
http://<request the url>?username=myUsername&password=myPassword&number=447777777777&message=Receptionist+cover+required+for+2+weeks+4+hr+per+day+%40+%C2%A310+per+hr%2C+location+Bristol.+Reply+with+%22more+4567a%22&orig=88802
You can try the above in any old browser.

There is an example class (in PHP 5) that would do this for you

Next we want to use the incoming response from the recipient

This is the bit where we need to speak to or email the company,  a keyword is required  (which is free) on the 88802 short code, in our example we are using the word “more”. You then supply Text Marketer with a URL on your domain that will get notified with the parameters once a response is received. For example www.mydomain.com/myscript.php

If the applicant replied with “more 4567a” you would receive an HTTP GET like this http://www.mydomain.com/myscript.php?number=4477777777&message=more+4567a&network=ORANGEUK

It is then up to you how you use this information, the example gives a few ideas.

It is recommended that you use the  RESTful version of the API which has largely superseded this document (you can do more with it). However if you want to get up and running quickly then it might still be the best way for you.

When you create a free account you can also use the Text Marketer API (sometimes known as a gateway).
The API uses simple HTTP GET requests to communicate with the Text Marketer gateway server. The requests allow you to send SMS’s through the system, you can also retrieve delivery reports discussed here.

HTTP GET Request Parameters

* optional parameter, discussed below.

URL ENCODING
You must url encode the orig and message parameters, if you dont do this you’ll get gateway failures or odd results.

SUPPORTED CHARACTERS
The GSM alphabet is a subset of ISO-8859-1. The SMS GSM characters we can support is documented here

CONCATENATION
If you exceed 160 characters you automatically covert to concatenation sending, this has the following connotations. Each message consists of a 153 character ‘chunk’ (not 160 chars) the extra characters are used to glue the messages together. Therefore a message that is 307 characters long will require 3 messages to send.

An Example HTTP GET Request

http://www.textmarketer.biz/gateway/?username=n&password=s&number=4477777777&message=test&orig=me&option=xml

This would send an SMS to 4477777777 from “me” with the message “test”, remember the username “n” and password “p” can be found un your account under the Text Response => API Settings menu option.

SSL (HTTPS) Support

The API also supports SSL, just use port 443 instead ( https:// )

Gateway Responses

The API or Gateway can respond in 2 formats depending if you have set the option=xml (recommended) or not.

No option parameter (or option blank).  Simple ‘plain text’ response

Once you have made a successful connection (HTTP 200) to our server and sent the request the server will reply in two different ways.

• SUCCESS <new line><number of credits remaining><new line>
• FAILED <new line> <reasons><number of credits remaining if available><new line>

The final line of the response contains the number of credits you have remaining, you get 10 free credits with your account.

A simple PHP 5 class for sending bulk SMS is available here

Using the option=xml (recommended)

A better way of decoding the response is to use the parameter option, this will make the gateway respond in the  XML format which gives room for future proofing and also it’s a better way to interpret / parse the results.

XML Example (success)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE response SYSTEM "http://www.textmarketer.biz/dtd/api_response.dtd">

<response status="success" id="1213465434">

    <credits>1000</credits>

   <credits_used>1</credits_used>

</response>

XML Example (failure)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE response SYSTEM "http://www.textmarketer.biz/dtd/api_response.dtd">

<response status="failed" id="0">

   <reason>invalid message or missing</reason>

   <reason>invalid number or too short</reason>

</response>
 

The DTD for the xml is available here. In reality it doesn’t get any more complicated than the above.

A simple PHP 5 class for sending bulk SMS is available here

Help and an example of our short code API

Help with ASP Bulk SMS

NET Examples

Supported and Unsupported characters in Text Messages – GSM Character Set

PHP 5 Delivery Report Helper Class for our SMS Gateway

PHP 5 SMS Send Class implementing listeners on our SMS Gateway

Using the SMS Gateway API, Automating Delivery Report Collection

Text Marketer short code API options

By integrating with our SMS Gateway you can effectivel ‘text enable’ any software, web site of web service. Also, each message can be tailored to the recipient. For example, banks use this service for bank balance notifications and alike.

One of the most powerful ways we’ve seen it working is forconfirming information to customers automatically. For example, when a package is going  to be delivered or what the status of an order is or a change in flight times, the list is endless. And, unlike email, people always have their phones with them and so the information is to hand.

You do need a certain level of expertise to integrate web systems or software with our SMS Gateway but it isn’t difficult. For the technically minded amongst you, it is a simple ‘HTTP GET’ request.  See our integrating an SMS Gateway document or talk to us for more details.

An easy example of how this can work is password distribution on sign up. To try it, sign up for a free sms account and you’ll see that particular method in action!