Quick Start SMS: How to Communicate with the SMS Gateway for Beginners

Unable to get in touch with the SMS gateway because you’re not an advanced programmer? No worries! It’s as easy as pie and can be done with a bit of HTML or even a simple text file.

Start Simple

The complexity related to establishing an SMS gateway connection depends on a number of things. First and foremost you’ll have to list your specific messaging requirements and take your current software environment into account. These will help you choose the appropriate Application Programming Interface (API) or application to use. Use this checklist to help you through the process:

Requirements	Y/N
Messaging
Two-way Text Unicode Binary SMS EMS Flash Extended length messages Logos and Ringtone converter VCards and Vcal converter WAP Push Converter MMS Push Converter OTA Settings Converter
API
Delivery Acknowledgment Gateway escalation Client specified message prioritization (queuing) Client specified Sender ID Delivery delay Client specified message IDs Client specified maximum credit charge Coverage Query Stop/Delete Message Query balance Query Message Status (Pull) Query Message Status (Push) Get Message Charge Batch Sending Specify required features Token Pay (spend a voucher) SSL Encryption outbound SSL Encryption inbound

In addition to the above, remember to keep your current software environment in mind and to choose the most suited API for your SMS gateway connection. For a list of the available Application Programming Interfaces, go to our developer page.

Getting in Touch with the SMS Gateway

That being said, what’s the easiest way to get in touch with the SMS gateway? Well, it depends which application or API you are using.

Users of Communicator II Beta or Messenger PRO needn’t apply any programming skills since these interfaces have been designed ready to use.

Getting in touch with the SMS gateway using an API isn’t difficult either, though does take a bit of computing skill. Let’s look at a couple of easy ways to send messages using the HTTP and FTP APIs.

HTTP/S API

Starting small and working your way up will ensure that you get to know the functionality of the various API’s and how messaging works. Let’s look at a bit of sample HTML code needed to send a message using the HTTP/S API:

<form method=”GET” action=”http://api.clickatell.com/http/sendmsg?”;

API_ID:        <input>               <br/>

Username:      <input>                 <br/>

Password:      <input>         <br/>

Mobile Number: <input name=”to”>                   <br/>

Message Text:  <textarea></textarea>               <br/>

<input value=”Send SMS”>

</form>

The form method can either be a POST or GET and the action indicates the string passed to the SMS gateway with the appropriate variables appended to it, such as api_id, user, password, to, etc.

In addition to the above, there are additional commands that can be used to perform specific functions. These include a ‘ping’, used to keep a session open for a period of 15 minutes – used when you want to keep a single session number instead of authenticating each time. Details such as the above can be found in the HTTP/S documentation pages.

FTP API

Now, on to the API and to see how it can help you get in touch with the SMS gateway. The FTP API supports batch sending and two-way messaging and is easy to use if you’ve ever uploaded an FTP file, because that’s all it takes to get your messages sent.

Take care, however, to note that the SMS gateway only accepts files that are in the format below:

api_id:xxxxx
user:xxxxx
password:xxxxx
to: 448311234567
text: This is my first ftp to SMS message

To send messages to multiple recipients, numbers can either be entered one after the other delimited by commas, or in multiple lines. Here’s an example of both:

to:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and

to:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

to:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

to:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

to:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

See how easy it is? For more information on how to you can quick start SMS in your business, read more about the SMS gateway.

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Tags: Easy SMS, FTP API, FTP to SMS, HTML to SMS, HTTP/S API, SMS gateway, SMS Gateways