Messaging
Overview
The Messaging service can be used to send SMS messages and emails to recipients throughout the world.
Features
The Web21C Messaging Service currently provides a number of features, including the following:
- Short Message Service - Allows the sending of SMS messages up to 459 characters per message (189 characters for UTF-8 messages).
- Email - Allows the sending of email.
- Delivery Status - Allows you to obtain delivery status information.
- The Inbound SMS service provides a phone number that can be used to receive SMS messages. To do this please see Inbound SMS
- Status Events - this allows an application to send a message(s) with a URL passed in as a parameter from which we will post HTTP requests when the status of their message(s) change e.g. from "Initial" to "Sent" to "Delivered". This saves the sending application the need to poll for getMessageStatuses. We can send these events securely (HTTPS) if necessary and can include your own unique parameter in the post as a further verification that the event is legitimate. For more details on doing this please look at the How-Tos
Applications
The Web21C Messaging Service can be used for delivering short messages to GSM mobile telephones. For example, to write an SMS newsletter web application, you could confirm the subscription by SMS and send messages within headlines. Other examples:
- Inform potential customers of your current offerings
- Remind current customers of appointments
- Confirm transactions with customers for their peace-of-mind
- Keep in contact with your friends
- The options are seemingly endless...
The SMS Service is used in the SMS sample application, which is available as part of the Web21C
SDK in the Downloads page.
Using the Web21C SMS Service to
send an SMS message requires a single line of code.
Code Example: (C#, using the Windows Forms component)
//Drop an SMS component onto your form from the Toolbox
sms1.SendMessage("the message content", "44123456789");
//In this case, 44 represents the country code and the telephone number follows