The web-based SMS marketing system is highly flexible and user-friendly but one of its limitations is that you can’t automate sending SMS based on a time or event trigger. So if for example you wanted to send a customer an appointment reminder by text you would have to log into your account and set the message up manually.

This year we think there is going to be a large increase in the number of companies using the SMS Gateway as a way of routing messages. The SMS Gateway allows you to integrate and automate the sending of texts from your own systems, software or website. So instead of having to set up an appointment reminder manually, the SMS Gateway would allow you to automate the task. As the use of business SMS starts to become standard practice, it makes sense that companies streamline and optimise systems to take full advantage of this most responsive communication channel.

Integrating with the SMS Gateway is more technically involved than using a standalone SMS system but offers you far greater flexibility in the way that you use SMS.

If you would like to look at this, please feel free to set up an account. You’ll get some free text credits for testing and our experienced technical team can help you out if you have any queries. If you would like a chat, do give us a call on (0117) 205 0202.

The aim is to keep customers better informed of any delays or cancellations. Using an SMS gateway means that customers are alerted wherever they happen to be. A recent text sent to French customers sailing on the Cork to Roscoff line, informed them that due to bad traffic on one of the main arterial roads into the port, the ferry was being delayed to allow customers time to fight through the traffic.

Using an SMS gateway as supposed to a standalone, web-based SMS system, means that Brittany ferries can automate the sending of texts directly from their systems. This allows them to submit messages to the SMS gateway on a wide range of subjects, triggered by their customer management platform.

Setting up the SMS gateway itself is very straightforward. If you would like to set up an account you can set one up here. You will receive 10 free text credits so that you can try the SMS gateway at no cost. There is no setup cost, monthly fee or contract. Text Marketer operates a simple pay-as-you-go service. You can purchase text credits for your SMS gateway either by credit card or by invoice.You can also set up a low credit alert to warn you when you SMS credits dip below a certain level.

If you would like to discuss using our SMS gateway, please feel free to call us on (0117) 205 0202.

A quick Google search by project leader Simon Pearce, unearthed Text Marketer and a few other likely looking sms gateway providers. We were lucky enough to be the first company that Simon contacted. Having explained the urgent predicament, Richard Hawley talked Simon through the simple process of getting a test sms gateway account set up. 1.5 minutes later, account set up was complete.

Show me an example

Now to the potentially tricky part, the sms gateway integration itself. The last thing Simon needed at this stage was to be presented with a massive technical document detailing all the intricate tools and features. What he needed was an example.

“How do your send data using Text Marketer’s sms gateway? Show me an example and I’ll be able to pick it up from there.”

Richard directed Simon to his ‘sms api account settings’ page where there is an preformatted example of how to send sms.

By clicking on the example shown, Simon was sent a test sms, so he could see the sms gateway actually working.

http://www.textmarketer.biz/gateway/?username=xxxxx&password=xxxxx&message=test+message&orig=test&number=44790012234X

This gave Simon all he needed to get started. A quick reference to the simple, clear sms gateway documentation and 5 .5 minutes later, the live system was sending texts again. So the total time from picking up the phone to getting the first text delivered was 7 minutes. (Admittedly, there was some further refinement for collecting delivery reports and setting up long messages.)

Set up a free sms gateway account. We’ll automatically give you 10 free text credits for testing. You’ll probably need more, so do give us a call on 0117 2050202 and we’ll gladly add as many credits for testing as you need. I’m sure it won’t be quite as quick as Simon but we’re always standiing by to answer any of your questions.

Text Marketer’s SMS gateway has been designed to be as easy as possible for developers to work with. Having set up Text Marketer account, users can instantly view the correct format for the http posts.  A live sample post is created, which sends you a test sms, so users can see the whole sms gateway up and running in seconds.

Simple, Clear, Concise SMS Gateway Documentation

Nick Rich, Text Marketer’s technical director, spends considerable time listening to users about the best and clearest way of presenting sms gateway documentation. What’s needed is a quick overview so developers can understand the basics of how the sms gateway works, before drilling down to provide the detailed information. The result is a set of very clearly and logically set out sms gateways api documents which can either be read online or can be printed off as hard copies.

If you’re a developer looking to add an sms functionality to your systems, why not set up a free account? You’ll get 10 free text credits for testing our sms gateway, (although you’ll probabaly need more, in which case just ask and we’ll gladly give you all the test credits you’ll need.) Then make your way to our documentation area to find all the sms gateway documentation that you’ll need. Our prices are incredibly low so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to reduce your costs too if you already use sms. We’re always available to speak to if you have any specific question, so please feel free to call us on 0117 2050202.

We look forward to working with you

The SMS gateway debate.

Buying from the mobile marketing industry is a tricky business. There are a vast range of similar looking sms companies all seeming to offer the same service. What should be near the top of your list of things to look out for is which sms gateway the company use. The sms gateway can make the difference between your message arriving on the customer’s mobile phone as planned or disappearing into a black hole.
The main thing to check is whether the sms gateway is a direct UK connection. A UK sms gateway delivers the highest level of reliability.

Why not use an overseas sms gateway?

This is simply a question again of reliability. An overseas sms gateway is far more likely to lose messages and will probably not support features such as delivery reporting or dynamic sender ID. Our view is that an overseas sms gateway is serious false economy.

Won’t a UK sms gateway be more expense?

We don’t believe it should! Text Marketer uses a UK sms gateway and our sms gateway prices are highly competitive.

The charity, which helps a million mums and dads each year through pregnancy, birth and the early days of parenthood, adopted sms as a faster and more responsive way of keeping in touch.

Members now receive subscription reminders by sms as well as receiving them by email.

More Organisations Using SMS Gateway

Many more UK organisations are now using sms as part of their communications strategy and integrating with Text Marketer’s SMS gateway, allowing them to send tailored messages to their customers, prospects and staff.
Using the sms gateway is very straightforward. Accounts are free to set up and come with 10 free text credits so you can test the sms gateway before you spend any money.

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

In addition to our simple HTTP SMS Gateway API, explained here, we also provide a ‘RESTful’ SMS API to give you access to information about your SMS marketing account (don’t have one? Create a free account).

If you are familiar with REST APIs, you may wish to jump to our REST API specification document.

WHAT’S A ‘RESTful’ SMS API?

REST is a term used to describe a type of two-way communication via the Internet. It is an architectural style, not a standard, but makes use of well-known web technologies such as HTTP, XML and MIME types. For more information about REST APIs, read this great description of REST.

At its most simple, our RESTful SMS API allows you to request (‘GET’) information. For example, from this ‘resource’

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits

you can access the number of credits available in your account. The response is an XML document that looks like this:

<response processed_date="2010-03-19T09:37:26+00:00">
<credits>37</credits>
</response>

The SMS REST API is that simple!

WHAT ABOUT SECURITY?

Although it’s not apparent from the example above, the interface does require authentication using your SMS API account username/password. We provide two ways of passing this information to the server.

The first is via HTTP Basic Authentication, which is demonstrated by the login box that appears if you click on the resource link above. HTTP Basic authentication can of course be handled within your code. However if you prefer a simpler method, you can pass the parameters via the URL as GET arguments, e.g.

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits?username=myusername&password=mypassword

It is also recommended that you use encrypted communication with the REST Web Services by accessing resources via the HTTPS protocol (https://… etc.).

HOW DOES THE RESTful API HANDLE ERRORS?

An advantage of using a RESTful API is that the underlying technologies already do a lot of the work for us. All responses via the HTTP protocol include headers that give us some information about the response. The headers in the above example would look like this:

Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:11:40 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.11 ZendServer/4.0
Content-Length: 272
Connection: close
Content-Type: application/xml

200 OK

The MIME type (Content-Type) is set to application/xml which identifies the type of content in the response. It is followed by the response status code ’200′ and the status message ‘OK’. This is a standard response to a successful request.

If we had tried to access a resource which didn’t exist, e.g.

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/anotherResource

we would get the following response headers:

Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:18:23 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.11 ZendServer/4.0
Content-Length: 549
Connection: close
Content-Type: application/xml

404 Not Found :  (ERR101)

The status code is 404, which is the HTTP protocol’s standard code for ‘resource not found’. The status message also contains some additional debugging information (ERR91) which you can ignore.

In addition to the status code, the response body contains XML detailing the error. In this example it might look like this:

<response processed_date="2010-03-24T14:45:54+00:00">
<errors>
	<error code="404">Not Found :  (ERR101)</error>
</errors>
</response>

Thus, you can check the header status code for an error code, as well as the response body.

WHAT RESOURCES CAN I ACCESS THROUGH THE REST SMS API?

At the moment, the resource URIs available to you are:

• http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits – to get the credits available on your account / transfer credits between accounts
• http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/deliveryReports – to list your delivery reports
• http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/deliveryReport/a_report_name – to access the details of a specific report
• http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/sms – to send an SMS
• http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/keywords – to get the availability of a given keyword (see Short Code SMS Service)

More will be added in the future.

Here are 2 walk-through examples for using the REST SMS API.

EXAMPLE REQUEST 1 – GET CREDITS

Make an HTTP GET request like this:

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits?username=myAPIusername&password=myAPIpassword

Obviously, replace ‘myAPIusername’ and ‘myAPIpassword’ in the URL with the ones you received when you signed up.

When you send this request using your favorite programming language, you should receive the following HTTP headers in response:

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:17:28 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.11 ZendServer/4.0
Content-Length: 272
Connection: close
Content-Type: application/xml

200 OK

Using your programming language, you can easily extract the status code (200 in this case), which indicates success (200) or failure (not 200). The status code of 200 here shows us the request was successful, i.e. the response contains the number of credits in your account.

Thus the HTTP response body that you receive will contain XML similar to this:

<response processed_date="2010-03-24T15:17:28+00:00">
<credits>10</credits>
</response>

In your programming language you can parse the XML to extract the value of the credits, in this case 10.

But if, for example, you use an incorrect password, the response headers will look like this:

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:30:10 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.11 ZendServer/4.0
Content-Length: 377
Connection: close
Content-Type: application/xml

403 Forbidden : Your username/password combination did not match an account. (ERR145)

The 403 status code shows that an error occurred (all codes except 200 indicate an error). And the XML response body will also contain:

<response processed_date="2010-03-24T15:29:22+00:00">
<errors>
	<error code="403">Forbidden : Your username/password combination did not match an account. (ERR145)</error>
</errors>
</response>

EXAMPLE REQUEST 2 – SEND SMS

In your programming language, create an HTTP POST request to this URL:

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/sms

Since this is a POST request, you cannot pass the username and password via the URL, so you need to use HTTP Digest Authentication, or simply include these parameters along with the other POST parameters you’ll need:

• message=’my message’
• originator=’me’
• mobile_number=’447777777777′
• username=’myAPIusername’ (replace with your own – or skip this parameter and use HTTP Digest Authentication)
• password=’myAPIpassword’ (replace with your own – or skip this parameter and use HTTP Digest Authentication)

POSTing an HTTP request using the above as POST parameters would send an SMS message of ‘my message’ to the mobile number 447777777777 from “me”.

NOTE: It will not work to pass these parameters as GET arguments (e.g. by appending them to the URL); this is the principle of a REST API.

Your HTTP POST request should return something similar to the following response headers:

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:17:28 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.11 ZendServer/4.0
Content-Length: 272
Connection: close
Content-Type: application/xml

200 OK

…the ’200′ status code showing that your request was successful. The HTTP response body will consist of XML containing the ID of the SMS sent as well as the number of credits used to send it:

<response processed_date="2010-03-23T10:31:39+00:00">
	<message_id>4172870907</message_id>
	<credits_used>1</credits_used>
</response>

If, however, there was a problem with your request parameters, for example you set mobile_number to ‘garbage’, you would get similar response headers to this:

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:30:10 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.11 ZendServer/4.0
Content-Length: 377
Connection: close
Content-Type: application/xml

404 Bad request

And the response body would contain XML detailing the precise problems with your request, like this:

<response processed_date="2010-03-24T14:37:41+00:00">
<errors>
	<error code="10">invalid number or not an integer</error>
	<error code="9">invalid number or too short</error>
</errors>
</response>

See the specification of the sms resource for more details of the possible error codes.

TESTING/SANDBOX

A sandbox service is available for testing your code without changing your account or using any credits.

MORE INFORMATION

For detailed information about our RESTful SMS API, please see our REST API specification document.

For reference, a list of the DTDs that correspond to the resources available can be found here.

For an overview of what REST and our RESTful SMS API is all about you may like to read our RESTful SMS API Overview.

If you prefer you can use the simple SMS gateway, rather than our RESTful implementation.

To get straight into the details, jump to:

Quick Start
Error codes

Sandbox

You can preform the following actions using the REST web service:

• send an SMS (sms post)
• get the number of credits available (credits get)
• transfer credits from one account to another (credits post)
• get a list of delivery reports (deliveryReports get)
• get the contents of a specific delivery report (deliveryReport get)
• check availability of a given keyword on our ShortCode number (keywords get)
• check the names and IDs of your send groups (groups get)
• add number(s) to a send group (group post)

Specification of the resources

1. credits
2. deliveryReports
3. deliveryReport
4. sms
5. keywords
6. group
7. groups

QUICK START
Three things are essentially needed to use the REST SMS API:

1. Ability to make a HTTP request
   • e.g. to https://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits
2. Ability to read the HTTP response headers
   • e.g. ’200 OK’
3. Ability to parse the XML response
   • e.g. <credits>37</credits>

The Request URI Explained

You will make the HTTP request to a request URI such as:

https://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits

The base request URI is thus composed of :

‘https://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/‘ + a string that denotes the resource to be accessed, e.g. ‘credits‘, ‘deliveryReports‘, etc.

You can use http instead of https, but https is recommended.

Note that cAsE matters, i.e. ‘deliveryReports‘ will work, whereas ‘deliveryreports‘ (lower case ‘r’) will return an error.

You must obviously identify yourself during the request. If you know how to handle HTTP Digest Authentication, that is the preferred method of authentication.

Otherwise you should attach the following to the end of the resource URI:

?username=myAPIusername&password=myAPIpassword

Or, in the case of a POST request, such as for sending an SMS, include the username/password parameters in the POST parameters (e.g. see sms post).

In our example, the complete URI that results is:

https://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits?username=myAPIusername&password=myAPIpassword

And this should return XML containing the number of credits available on your account.

The HTTP Response Headers

The only vital part of the response headers that you need is the status code. 200 means a successful request, all other codes returned will be errors.

If you get an error, the status message may give you some extra information about the error. For more details about the error codes and their meanings, see Error Codes below.

The XML response

The structure of the XML response is generally quite simple. The response to our credits request example would look like this:

<response processed_date="2010-03-19T14:08:40+00:00">
<credits>37</credits>
</response>

Your preferred programming language will have a method for parsing the XML response to obtain the value.

Example PHP code

<?php
/**
 * GET request on the 'credits' resource
 */
$url = 'http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits';
$username = 'myAPIusername'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$password = 'myAPIpassword'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$url = "$url?username=$username&password=$password";

// we're using the curl library to make the request
$curlHandle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$responseBody = curl_exec($curlHandle);
$responseInfo  = curl_getinfo($curlHandle);
curl_close($curlHandle);

// deal with the response
if ($responseInfo['http_code']==200)
{
	$xml_obj = simplexml_load_string($responseBody);
	$credits = (int) $xml_obj->credits;
	// do something with the result
	echo $credits;

} else {
	// handle the error
	var_dump($responseBody);
}

?>

See the REST API Code Examples for some more example code that you can use.

That’s the end of the Quick Start. You know to send the request, check the status code is 200, and then parse the XML according to its declared structure.

Error codes

ERROR CODES

The HTTP status codes returned by our REST SMS API follow normal HTTP conventions. An example of the HTTP response headers from a request to our REST API:

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:45:54 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.3 (Red Hat)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.11 ZendServer/4.0
Content-Length: 317
Connection: close
Content-Type: application/xml

404 Not Found :  (ERR101)

You see the status code, 404 on the last line. Their meaning of the status codes in the context of our REST SMS API are as follows:

This list is not exhaustive, any code from the complete list of HTTP status codes may be returned.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Error 503 may be returned if you exceed a certain number of requests per minute. You will see an error message similar to: “Your 201 requests exceed the maximum allowed of 100 requests within 15 minute(s). Please try again later”. This to reduce load on our servers, in order to guarantee a good service to all our users.  There is no restriction on SMS sends.

USEFUL NOTE: the HTTP status message may contain more specific information. If you encounter an unexpected error, the ‘(ERRnn)’ found in the status message is useful in any reports you send us.

In addition to the status codes, an error will also produce an XML response containing details of the error. In this example the XML response might look like this:

<response processed_date="2010-03-24T14:45:54+00:00">
<errors>
	<error code="404">Not Found :  (ERR101)</error>
</errors>
</response>

Some resources, such as http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/sms, have additional error codes specific to the resource. These are documented along with the description of the resource.

Resource Identifier

THE RESOURCE IDENTIFIER

The example of a resource identifier used previously was:

https://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits

All our REST SMS Web Service resource identifiers take the general form:

PROTOCOL://RESOURCE_NAMESPACE/RESOURCE_NAME[/RESOURCE_ID]

where

PROTOCOL = http|https
RESOURCE_NAMESPACE = www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest
RESOURCE_NAME = credits|deliveryReports|deliveryReport|sms|keywords|etc

RESOURCE_ID = an_ID (optional) which specifies a particular resource element, e.g. a specific delivery report

e.g.

https://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/deliveryReport/GatewayAPI_09-02-10

will access a delivery report named ‘GatewayAPI_09-02-10‘.

Resources

RESOURCES

The currently implemented resources are:

1. credits
2. deliveryReports
3. deliveryReport
4. sms
5. keywords
6. group
7. groups

1. credits

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits

• GET method - get the number of credits currently available on your account
• POST method - transfer credits between accounts

See the full description of this resource for details.

2. deliveryReports

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/deliveryReports

• GET method - Gets a list of available delivery report names

See the full description of this resource for details.

3. deliveryReport

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/deliveryReport/test-190310

• GET method - Gets the contents of a delivery report – the delivery status of sent messages for a given day/campaign.

See the full description of this resource for details.

NOTE: An individual delivery report that is accessed using this resource shows the current known status of all messages sent on a given day, or for a particular campaign. The REST API resource deliveryReports (note the trailing ’s’) gets a list of available delivery report names, including delivery reports for campaigns (see above).

4. sms

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/sms

• POST method - Used to send an SMS message.

See the full description of this resource for details.

5. keywords

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/keywords/mykeyword

• GET method - get the availability of a given keyword (see Short Code SMS Service)

See the full description of this resource for details.

6. group

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/group

• POST method - add number(s) to a send group

See the full description of this resource for details.

7. groups

http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/groups

• GET method - list the available send groups

See the full description of this resource for details.

Sandbox

TESTING/SANDBOX

A sandbox service is available to allow you to test your integration code without using any credits or executing any function that would modify the data in your account. The service is available at

http://sandbox.textmarketer.biz/services/rest

i.e. only the hostname changes from www.textmarketer.biz to sandbox.textmarketer.biz within the resource URI.

The sandbox will do the same validation of your request as the live REST API and return the appropriate errors, but will not perform any action that modifies your account data or your credits. Nor will it actually send any SMS messages, so no delivery report will be generated.

NOTE: Accesses to the sandbox is limited to a certain number of requests per minute – to reduce load on our servers – in order to guarantee a good service to all our users. Therefore you may prefer to use the Sandbox only to check that individual requests work correctly, rather than testing bulk SMS sends. There is no restriction on SMS sends on the live system.

In our REST API specification document we saw, in general terms, how to make a request to our REST SMS API and how to deal with the response. Here we provide you with some more concrete examples that you can copy & paste!

NOTE: You will want to add additional error checking to the examples below.

In each of the languages used here we create a request, send it, receive the response, and parse its contents.

PHP

Example for getting the number of credits:

$url = 'http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits';
$username = 'myAPIusername'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$password = 'myAPIpassword'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$url = "$url?username=$username&password=$password";

// we're using the curl library to make the request
$curlHandle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$responseBody = curl_exec($curlHandle);
$responseInfo  = curl_getinfo($curlHandle);
curl_close($curlHandle);

// deal with the response
if ($responseInfo['http_code']==200)
{
	$xml_obj = simplexml_load_string($responseBody);
	$credits = (int) $xml_obj->credits;
	// do something with the result
	echo $credits;

} else {
	// handle the error
	var_dump($responseBody);
}

Example for getting the list of delivery reports:

$url = 'http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/deliveryReports';
$username = 'myAPIusername'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$password = 'myAPIpassword'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$url = "$url?username=$username&password=$password";

// we're using the curl library to make the request
$curlHandle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$responseBody = curl_exec($curlHandle);
$responseInfo  = curl_getinfo($curlHandle);
curl_close($curlHandle);

// deal with the response
if ($responseInfo['http_code']==200)
{
	$xml_obj = simplexml_load_string($responseBody);
	$atts = $xml_obj->reports->attributes();
	$num_reports = (int) $atts->quantity;

	if ($num_reports > 0)
	{
		echo "$num_reports reports\n";
		$reports = array();
		foreach ($xml_obj->reports->report as $xml_report)
		{
			$atts = $xml_report->attributes();
			$name = (string) $atts->name;
			$updated = (string) $atts->last_updated;
			$reports[] = array('name'=>$name, 'modified'=>$updated);
		}
		// do something with the report details
		var_dump($reports);
	} else {
		echo 'No reports available';
	}
} else {
	// handle the error
	var_dump($responseBody);
}

Example for getting the details of a particular delivery report:

// TODO the URL will change according to the delivery report to retrieve...
$url = 'http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/deliveryReport/GatewayAPI_09-02-10';
$username = 'myAPIusername'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$password = 'myAPIpassword'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$url = "$url?username=$username&password=$password";

// we're using the curl library to make the request
$curlHandle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$responseBody = curl_exec($curlHandle);
$responseInfo  = curl_getinfo($curlHandle);
curl_close($curlHandle);

// deal with the response
if ($responseInfo['http_code']==200)
{
	$xml_obj = simplexml_load_string($responseBody);

	$reportRows = array();
	foreach ($xml_obj->report->reportrow as $xml_reportRow)
	{
		$atts = $xml_reportRow->attributes();
		$mobile = (string) $atts->mobile_number;
		$updated = (string) $atts->last_updated;
		$msgID = (int) $atts->message_id;
		$status = (string) $atts->status;
		$reports[] = array('mobile'=>$mobile, 'modified'=>$updated, 'messageID'=>$msgID, 'status'=>$status);
	}
	// do something with the report details
	var_dump($reports);

} else {
	// handle the error
	var_dump($responseBody);
}

Example for sending an SMS:

$url = 'http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/sms';
$username = 'myAPIusername'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$password = 'myAPIpassword'; // CHANGE THIS!!!

$data = array('message'=>'hello','mobile_number'=>'447777777777', 'originator'=>'me',
	'username'=>$username, 'password'=>$password);
$data = http_build_query($data, '', '&');
// we're using the curl library to make the request
$curlHandle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
$responseBody = curl_exec($curlHandle);
$responseInfo  = curl_getinfo($curlHandle);
curl_close($curlHandle);

// deal with the response
if ($responseInfo['http_code']==200)
{
	$xml_obj = simplexml_load_string($responseBody);
	// do something with the result
	echo "Message ID: $xml_obj->message_id\n";
	echo "Credits used: $xml_obj->credits_used\n";

	var_dump($responseBody);

} else {
	// handle the error
	var_dump($responseInfo);
	var_dump($responseBody);
}

Example for transferring credits:

<?php
/**
 * POST request on the 'credits' resource (credit transfer)
 */
$url = 'http://www.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits';
// for testing:
//$url = 'http://sandbox.textmarketer.biz/services/rest/credits';
$username = 'myAPIusername'; // CHANGE THIS!!! - the username of the account you're transferring FROM
$password = 'myAPIpassword'; // CHANGE THIS!!!
$targetAccountNumber = 0; // CHANGE THIS!!

$data = array('quantity'=>'1','target'=>$targetAccountNumber,
	'username'=>$username, 'password'=>$password);
$data = http_build_query($data, '', '&');
// we're using the curl library to make the request
$curlHandle = curl_init();
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $data);
curl_setopt($curlHandle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
$responseBody = curl_exec($curlHandle);
$responseInfo  = curl_getinfo($curlHandle);
curl_close($curlHandle);

// deal with the response
if ($responseInfo['http_code']==200)
{
 // success - you may want to read in the return data here to see how many credits were  left on each account

} else {
	// handle the error here
	// var_dump($responseInfo);
	// var_dump($responseBody);
}

?>

For more details on creating REST requests in PHP, see here.

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.

They have integrated their own customer contact system with the sms gateway as a powerful and flexible solution to their sms communication requirements.

By using the sms gateway rather than a standard account, there is no need for them to export mobile data from one system and upload it into another.

Text campaigns are sent directly from the customer’s system and can use specific customer information to send tailored text alerts. Individuals receive messages specifically for them as opposed to one message being sent to a group.

The SMS gateway uses simple HTTP GET requests to communicate with the Text Marketer gateway server which allows for flexible and rapid intergration of systems. The SMS gateway also generares delivery reports so that users can monitor that their campaigns are being delivered and any ‘dead’ numbers flagged.

Set up your SMS Gateway account in 1 minute

Setting up an SMS gateway account is free, accounts come with 10 free text credits so that you can test the system at no costs. (Please let us know if you need more sms credits for texting, we’ll be more than happy to add more to your account.) We’re pleased to offer very low sms costs even if your systems will only be sending low volumes of texts.

At Text Marketer we have an experienced team of techncial people ready to assist with any SMS gateway integration issues of queries that might arise. It’s very likely that they will have come across similar sutuations to yours and will be able to advice on the simplest solution.

We’ve helped many software developers intergrate with our SMS gateway, so please feel free to call on 0117 9249207.

The report in its entirety is a little ‘dry’ but the general gist of it, is that sms is likely to continue and evolve over time rather than be taken over by some new form of communication.

This is good news for marketers wishing to capitalise on the success and responsiveness of sms by using an sms gateway to communicate with prospects and customers. Unlike email which has become increasingly frustrating to work with, using an sms gateway is still refreshingly simple, cost effective and responsive.

Low Spam Count

One of the keys to its success is the lack of spam that we all receive on our mobiles. It’s remarkable that sms has been around for over 10 years yet most people receive little if any sms spam. When was the last time you received a Viagra offer by text? According to the Mobile Marketing Association, the open rates for sms is over 98%, the same certainly cannot be said of any other communication method.

Free SMS Gateway Account

So if your business hasn’t yet taken the plunge and started using an sms gateway, now might be a good time to start. With Text Marketer’s account, there are no set up or monthly fees and your account comes with 10 free text credits so that you can test the system at no cost. As well as taking advantage of the lowest sms gateway costs, Text Marketer is the only sms provider that gives you a free unsubscribe tool so that your customers and prospects can easily remove themselves from your list should they wish.
We are always on hand to give you ideas and advice about how sms can work in your business. Please feel free to give us a call on 0117 9249207.

Simple Example of sending SMS with PHP

This class allows you to send SMS using PHP,  please feel free to modify at will. You just need the username and password from your account login as the constructor arguments. Download PHP 5 SMS API Class

Example:

$sms = new SendSMSXML("myUsername","myPassword");

/// send function args: mobile number, your message, the originator (sender id)

$sms->send("4477777777","my message","me");

As you can see there is nothing to it!

Take a look at the  more involved document describing how you can integrate PHP with the SMS short code service. This example uses a game where by you text in the number of sweets you think is in a jar. You then receive a response depending on how close you were.

1. It’s the most responsive direct marketing channel available.

2. It will make your Finance Director smile.
SMS marketing is very cost effective.  Bulk SMS messages cost just a few pence per text and with response rates of up to 15%, you’ll get a great return on your marketing investment.

3. It will save your precious time.
How much time do you spend on the phone getting bogged down in conversations with clients of colleagues, when all you wanted to do was get a simple piece of information across? It’s incredibly frustrating. Using sms takes a fraction of the time of a phone call and costs considerably less. Your time will be freed up to spend on more productive activities!

4. You’ll be gaining a competitive edge.
The take up of companies using an sms service for their communications is still very low, our estimate is that about 32% of UK businesses are using text in any meaningful way. Good news for companies like ours but also good news for you. If you adopt a positive, proactive sms strategy, using a reliable sms gateway, there’s a good chance that you’ll be doing something that your competitors aren’t.

5. You’ll be saving the planet. Bulk sms is a green way of communicating. For every 10,000 pieces of A4 paper that your company uses, you consume 2.5 mature trees. Sending a text is virtually carbon free.

If you’re not yet using an sms service in your business, we’d love to have a chat about how it might work for you. Please give us a call on 01179249207. We’d love to hear from you.
P.S – So that you can try our sms service at no cost, why not set up a free account here and we will add 200 free text credits.

Once you’ve placed you order, you receive an order confirmation sms that contains your unique order reference…

‘Thankyou for placing your order. If you have any questions you can call us on 01159025874 and quote mobile order M19234.’

Text Marketer has been chosen as the SMS service provider to deliver the confirmation texts. Using the sms API service, Inteflora is able to connect its systems directly to the Text Marketer gateway, combining top rate reliability with low cost.

Integrating an SMS Service

Nick Rich, Text Marketer’s technical director said:
“Integrating systems directly to our sms gateway means companies can really embrace an sms service as part of their communications strategy. In the same way that your system might automatically send a customer an e-mail based on certain triggers, using the sms API service, you can do the same with text.”

Setting up your customer communication system to send texts is straightforward and Text Marketer offer a suite of documentation as well as providing as much phone support as is needed.

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.

The critical difference when using an SMS Gateway is that you send each message uniquely, not as a batch. This gives you control or merge capabilities. A classic example would be sending bank balances by text message. Each one would have to be unique and this is where SMS Gateways come in.

You need a small amount of technical knowledge to integrate with our SMS Gateway, but we have helped as much as possible by compiling articles on how to integrate an SMS Gateway which should help you along.

One of the most popular web languages to use is PHP. To assist PHP programers wanting to integrate their applications into our SMS Gateway we have compiled the following;

• SMS Gateway Specification – Inlcuding PHP Code examples
• A simple send class example in PHP 5 for sending text messages through our gateway
• Receiving SMS via a Gateway. A PHP 5 Class code example for implementing listeners.
• Delivery reporting on our SMS Gateway. Collecting reports.
• Using an SMS Gateway with Short Codes

As well as giving unrivalled levels of support, we are also proud that we have the cheapest SMS Gateway product in the UK. This means the lowest per message price!
The quality of our gateway second to none with direct connections to Vodafone. You can get a free SMS Gateway trial here and test the quality with no commitments.