SMS Gateway Setup

This is an example of using the SMS feature in Collect!. The setup demonstrates interfacing with the SMS Gateway, NowSMS.

There are 3 things that need to be set up in order for this feature to work.

• Connection to Phone (in this example via Bluetooth)
• Email account in Outlook Express
• Setup in NowSMS

This feature enables Collect! to send SMS messages via NowSMS. Both Collect! and NowSMS are installed on the same machine in this example, and this machine has a static IP address.

Connection To Phone

Set up a COM port to be used with your GSM phone. In in this example we have set up COM7 to be used. Any GSM interface can be used, such as, for example, GSM PCMCIA card, or other similar hardware add-ons. The important part is having a dedicated COM port to this device.

Set Up a COM Port

Email Account In Outlook Express

An email account needs to be set up in Outlook. Both Collect! and NowSMS will communicate through this. In this example, we use Outlook Express.

1. Set up a new account:

New Email Account for SMS

2. Set up the server information:

Server Information for SMS Email Account

Now SMS Setup

Install NowSMS. Ensure that it runs as a service on the machine, and run the application.

NowSMS Running as a Service

Next, go to the SMSC tab, and press the ADD button. This is where the relation to the GSM phone on COM7 is made.

SMSC Tab in NowSMS Setup

Pick the top option GSM Phone or Modem.

GSM Phone or Modem Selected

Pick COM7 in the list, as used in this example.

COM7 Selected

Press the TEST AND ADD MODEL button. If everything is OK, and NowSMS can communicate with the phone/modem, it sends back the following message.

Initialized Modem Success

Press OK and now the following message is displayed.

Modem Tested Success

Press OK. You are returned to this screen. NowSMS and the mobile device are now set up successfully.

SMSC Connections

Go to the SMS users tab. Press the ADD button and fill in the form. The User Name and Full Name should relate to the account name that you set up in Outlook Express, as shown previously in this document.

Account Names Set Up

After filling in and pressing the OK button, you should see the following.

SMS Users

Go to the MMSC tab and fill in:

SMS Users

Domain names for MMS, and SMS email should relate to the same set up as in Outlook Express. In this example, sms.mycompany.net and mms.mycompany.net.

Now press the Authorized E-Mail to SMS/MMS Senders button, and put in the mail account from Outlook Express in both boxes.

Authorized Email to SMS/MMS Senders

Now the SMS feature for Collect! should work with NowSMS.

SMS Batch Email

Sending SMS's in big batches and large scale has not yet been tested, but NowSMS has no problem in sending huge amounts of SMS's. The bottleneck might be the GSM phone, since they are sent one by one and are queued up in NowSMS for sending. They will be sent but it just takes time. One solution here might be porting it to file, and sending the file to an SMS provider who can send bulk SMS's from this file.

Debtors With No Phone

If no cell phone number is present for the Debtor in Collect!, nothing is sent or done. One idea would be to create a report in Collect! that shows "all debtors without cell phone number" or some similar reporting function to mark those debtors.

SMS Subject Line

The Name of the report in Collect! will be the Subject line in the SMS sent.

Summary

This document showed one example of using the SMS email feature with a popular SMS Gateway, NowSMS. It is only one solution used to demonstrate this powerful and versatile feature in Collect!

See Also

- SMS Email Setup
- Print Batch Email in Scheduler