Product Guide - OZEKI · Web viewIt works on Microsoft Windows 98, Me, Nt4, 2000, XP operating...
Transcript of Product Guide - OZEKI · Web viewIt works on Microsoft Windows 98, Me, Nt4, 2000, XP operating...
Product Guide
Table of Contents
1Table of Contents
3Introduction to OZEKI SMS
3Overview of the Features
4Improve the efficiency of your Business with Ozeki SMS
4Customer Relationship Management
5Scheduled SMS plugin - Event reminder service
5SMS bulletin board service
5Webpage monitor
6SMS Chat service
6SMS Newsletter service
6What is the Ozeki SMS Server applicable for in a school?
7What are the advantages of sending SMS messages?
8Workflow Automation
8Financial service support
8Improved marketing system
9Getting more attention on exhibitions
9Wireless advertising
9Debt Collection
9SMS for Television and Radio Stations
10Entertainment in clubs
10IT security monitoring system
10Improved company information system
11Detailed Feature List
11Out of the box features
14Application extensions
16Webpage support plugins
17Notification plugin
17Files plugin
17Database connectivity
18Technical Information
18System Requirements
20Capacity
20Installing Ozeki SMS Server
28Appendix „B” – Files Plugin
31Appendix “C” – Database Plugin
31Send and Receive SMS messages with the help of a Database
32Database Plugin configuration
36Appendix “C2” – SQL table definitions
40Appendix „D” – Webpage support plugin
41Appendix „E” –Supported Mobile Phones
43Appendix „F” – Abbreviations
44Appendix „E” – References
Introduction to OZEKI SMS
Ozeki SMS is a reliable mobile messaging platform and set of development tools that enables intelligent delivery of relevant information for people using GSM handsets. It is a cost-efficient two-way messaging system that can be used for various purposes. Among these purposes there are many that can help your business whether you are a small, medium size or large company. If you use it, you and your employees will not forget any important events, vital information will reach you as fast as possible and your marketing and customer relationship management team will perform better.
Ozeki SMS is a computer program with an open architecture. It can be attached to existing business applications or it can be used on its own. Ozeki SMS was developed to make it easier to send information to mobile phones both automatically and manually. The offered interfaces make it possible to use it from any computer desktop in the office without any special skills. Also it supports software developers using different environments.
In the following text, you will see what purposes Ozeki SMS is used for. We will provide you with some insight on how the system works and will list all the major features. Finally we give some technical documentation to support your IT department.
Overview of the Features
Ozeki SMS is a powerful, flexible application that runs on Windows 98, Me, Nt, 2000 and XP operating systems. It uses a standard GSM mobile phone to transmit and receive SMS messages. The phone is attached to the computer with a Phone-to-PC data cable or an Infra Red (IR) port. The application can handle more than one device simultaneously.
The "Out-of-the-box", a basis OZEKI SMS application is capable of handling SMS messages in a similar way to your e-mail client. It provides functionality for sending, receiving, forwarding and replying to messages. It maintains a history of all the messages sent and received by the system and can be used in a computer network.
The key reason why Ozeki SMS is better than other products in the market is because it provides many easy-to-use interfaces and has several modules that extend its functionality.
Improve the efficiency of your Business with Ozeki SMS
In the following part case studies and usage examples are presented to give a picture of how Ozeki SMS was used to increase the efficiency of different companies. If you are interested in the technology you might skip to the technical information section.
Customer Relationship Management
Marketing experts say that it is easier to make your existing clients spend more money, than to find new clients. This could be the reason why customer relationship management is becoming more important for many companies. With Ozeki SMS you can build a better relationship with your customers. Here is what you can do at a very low cost, simply by sending SMS messages:
· Ask your customers whether they are satisfied with your product after a couple of weeks they have purchased the product, and offer them another product or service.
· Send an SMS to your clients once in a while to find out their plans that are relevant for your business
· Send a greeting SMS message for Christmas, New Year’s Eve, etc...
SMS greetings, notifications about special offers and customer surveys using SMS messages are used by many of our customers. For example Q. Travel, a travel agency in Budapest, asks its clients about whether they liked their last trip and recommends new travel opportunities.
Scheduled SMS plugin - Event reminder service
The scheduled SMS plugin is very useful if you want to send SMS messages periodically to somebody, or you want to define messages that should be sent in advance.
If you attach this plugin to the Microsoft Outlook Calendar, you will receive an SMS to your mobile phone an hour before your meetings. The SMS tells you when and where the meeting is going to take place. This way it will be easier for you to keep track of what you should do no matter where you are.
Scheduled message sending can also be used to improve your relationship with your customers. You can send a greeting for their birthday automatically, or you can send them some advertisements periodically.
SMS bulletin board service
The SMS bulletin board, sometimes referred to as “SMS Wall” is an application that displays incoming messages on the screen. If displayed on a projector, people who see the screen can share their ideas. The number of messages displayed and the screen layout can be adjusted to be appropriate for the given task.
Webpage monitor
The webpage monitor extension is an alert system that notifies the webmaster of the company using SMS messages if unwanted changes occur on the company website. This is very useful to detect the fact that somebody has broken into the company web server and modified the webpage.
Here is how it works: The monitoring application downloads the webpage through the Internet periodically and compares it to a locally stored version. It analyzes the images, the table structure and many other things to determine whether the downloaded version matches the locally stored version. If it finds differences it sends out SMS messages. The algorithm is ready to handle CGI scripts and dynamic web pages. This means that predefined changes are not detected as unwanted modifications.
SMS Chat service
The SMS chat service is not the part of the basic SMS Server but can be an additional service which this software is easily able to operate. So Ozeki SMS Server can be the fundament of this useful additional service, which works in a similar way to Internet chat engines. People can enter different chat rooms and they can share their ideas with others in the same room. If an SMS is sent to a room, all the participants of the room will receive the message. If somebody enters or leaves the room, the members are notified. This can be used to have discussions using SMS messages among a lot of people.
SMS Newsletter service
Similarly to the SMS Chat service. Newsletter service can also be an additional tool to Ozeki SMS Service. The newsletter service is helpful if once in a while a group of people should be notified about company events, news or any other information. Participants can be added to the newsletter manually, or they can subscribe if the settings allow it. If news should be sent to all the subscribed parties it can be entered on the user interface newsletter service and it will be sent to everybody on the list.
What is the Ozeki SMS Server applicable for in a school?
In kindergartens and elementary schools
The server is appropriate to support the communication - by sending and receiving SMS messages - among teachers, students, parents and administration staff of the school. The school can inform the parents about all the occurrences of their children.
The Ozeki SMS Server is able to connect to other softwares in order to take data from them and can forward the so received data to a specific phone number.
The Ozeki SMS Server can forward marks directly to the cell phone of the parents, by connecting to the electronic log-book of the school, in SMS messages.
The classteacher can write and send circular SMS, in which all the parents are alerted about the concerning issues.
In higher studies e.g. courses, colleges and universities
The higher study institutions can inform their students about the exam results, admission exam dates and requirements, date of specific courses, replacement of missing documents etc.
What are the advantages of sending SMS messages?
Each message is registered and can be retrieved any time. The parents are informed about every important event in a discreet way and receive all the concerning personalized information on their own cell phone.
The school, by being given a notification, can find out when the parents receive the messages.
If the school develops an operation service connected to the entry system at the gate, the parents are absolutely aware about their children’s arrival at the school.
Examples:
The school sends information to the parents:
· ’ Joe got excellent marks in History, sufficient marks in Music and didn’t make his homework today.’
· ’On 25 February the last lesson is cancelled, school is closing at 12.’
· ’Today we are expecting all the parents for the monthly parents’ meeting.’
The parents send information to the school:
· ’Joe, due to sickness, is not coming to school today.’
Workflow Automation
Before Ozeki developed its mobile messaging platform, it had created many business applications for large companies. As we have talked with our clients, we discovered that the goal of the management in each company, was to create an infrastructure, where the „computer operates the operator”. In other words the computer system of the company should tell the employees what to do, how to do it and when to do it. With the Ozeki Sms mobile messaging platform attached to the company’s IT workflow management infrastructure it is possible to notify the employees about certain events and tasks when they become relevant. Also it is possible to provide mobile information retrieval services.
As an example, think of a large supermarket, where the computer detects that the stocks are running low on one of the products. In this case the computer automatically sends an SMS to the supplier to ship some more. If the shipment does not arrive by the time it should, the computer sends an SMS to the manager to check what the problem is.
Financial service support
For financial institutes - such as banks, brokerage firms and investment funds - security trust is very important. For their customers additional services that increase the confidence can be offered using Ozeki SMS. For example clients of a bank appreciate if they receive SMS notification about all transactions on their account. Clients of a broker firm are happy if they receive stock quotes and investment tips. Two way information retrieval services, security and confirmation services can be created with Ozeki SMS. Some examples: Quaestor, a major brokerage firm in Hungary uses Ozeki SMS to notify its clients about stock quotes. Hungary’s largest bank OTP makes it possible to raise the limit of maximum spending on a credit card by sending an SMS from a specified mobile phone.
Improved marketing system
The most successful companies in the world are marketing-driven. It means their success relies heavily on their marketing techniques. AS David Cameron [2] points out:’…Future of marketing lies in enabling costumers to talk to each other about your products. Why? Because they trust each other…’ The problem with this approach is that it is hard to find a way to connect customers who are interested in the same product. One idea is to set up an SMS chat system to enable customers to talk to each other about your products.
Getting more attention on exhibitions
Companies often invest a lot of money on displaying their products on various exhibitions. Sometimes however they fail to supply enough information to the potential customers in order to pique their attention. With Ozeki SMS more attention can be taken. In an exhibition, next to the product a sums bulletin board can be set up. This means that a computer monitor or a projector can be used to display SMS messages. When somebody sees the bulletin board, he can send an SMS message that will appear on the screen pushing up the already displayed messages. This way customers can exchange their ideas about the displayed product. It is possible to display the sms bulletin board on the company website as well.
Wireless advertising
A large portion of Ozeki’s income comes from companies who buy the Ozeki SMS platform to do advertising. The reason for this is simple: very often sending SMS messages is the most efficient way to get someone’s attention. If the URL of a website is sent to a mobile phone, the owner of the phone will visit the site with a high probability. In Budapest many discos and clubs use Ozeki SMS to notify their customers about events or special offers. A restaurant for example every week sends the menu to its clients in SMS. After having introduced this system these companies could generate a larger profit.
Debt Collection
Sometimes companies serving the public often spend a lot of money on collecting debts. A certain portion of the debt comes from customers forgot to pay their invoices on time. The Hungarian Electricity Supplier introduced a service in the spring of 2002, which notifies the customers using SMS messages in case they forget to pay their bill on time. The service is very successful. A few days after sending the messages out most of the bills are paid.
SMS for Television and Radio Stations
In the media market interactivity is becoming more important to attract more viewers and listeners for television and radio programmes. In this field premium rate SMS messages propose a possibility to create a large income. The viewers of the TV program can share their ideas using SMS messages that are displayed either on the teletext screen or as a sliding ticker on the bottom of the screen. This way the program becomes more attractive. It is a good tool to make interactive surveys about different questions as well.
TV2, the largest television station in Hungary uses Ozeki SMS to provide interactive services on the teletext screen. Hungarian Radio, a company operating 5 radio channels uses Ozeki SMS to collect information from listeners for different programmes (e.g. traffic monitoring).
Entertainment in clubs
In Budapest most of the discos are equipped with a system called SMS wall. This means that a projector attached to a computer is used to display SMS messages sent to the „wall”. On the wall the last three SMS messages are displayed in a fancy way. This service is popular among the youngsters who visit these places.
IT security monitoring system
With a special IT monitoring module attached to Ozeki SMS it is possible to monitor the desktop computers, servers and the computer network of the company. If the monitored network connection or the computer hardware fails, Ozeki SMS sends an SMS message to the appropriate person in the IT department to solve the problem. After the alert, the person must acknowledge that he has read the message. If no acknowledgement is received another person is notified. This way the time it takes to detect and solve the problems is reduced. This IT security monitor module is used by a number of those small and medium size companies where a 24-hour IT supervision is not available.
Improved company information system
With little effort Ozeki SMS can be attached to existing company information systems. This makes it possible to query information from these systems using mobile phones. Also if basic events and meeting appointments are stored in these systems, then involved parties can be notified prior to the event. For one of our major clients Quaestor, we have built a system that manages all the events present in the life of the company. These events are tasks that should be done once, or periodically (e.g. once in every month), some of these events trigger notifications in SMS.
Detailed Feature List
Ozeki SMS provides a friendly, easy-to-use interface that makes it possible to send an SMS from anywhere in your computer network. It also has a lot of pluggable modules that help if you want to do messaging from other applications.
Please go over the basic features of the platform. Many additional features are provided by pluggable modules that can be attached to the application. For the latest module lists, please visit our website at http://www.ozeki.hu
Out of the box features
Feature
What is it for
Intelligent Message Sending
In certain situations, for example on New Year’s Eve, the GSM network fails. In these cases it is not possible to send SMS messages. The intelligent message sending capability of Ozeki SMS helps in these situations. If a message cannot be sent for any reason, the software tries to re-send it a couple of times. Between each retry a certain amount of time (e.g. 10 minutes) is spent, to wait for the network to be available again. If there are six failures, the message is considered undelivered and the users are notified.
Multiple Device Support
For one GSM module it takes around 5-6 seconds to send an SMS message. You can speed this up by attaching more than one module to your computer. If you have two phones attached to send messages, you get twice the speed.
Least Cost Routing
If you attach more than one GSM terminal to the system, each with a different network operator (e.g. Vodafone, Orange, Sunrise, Westel), Ozeki SMS will select the device that offers the best price automatically when you try to send an SMS.
Message Forwarding
The built-in user interface makes it possible to forward any incoming message to other phone number(s).
Message Replies
The reply feature of the built in GUI is similar to the e-mail clients’ user interfaces. It is very easy to reply to any incoming SMS message.
Message Templates
To speed up work, you can define default messages in advance. These predefined messages are called message templates. When you want to send an SMS you can choose a template and edit it.
Address Book
Ozeki SMS uses the built-in Windows address book, which is also used by Microsoft Outlook and many other applications. This helps to find phone numbers of contacts you already have in your system. Often it is possible to synchronize your phone with outlook. In this case all your telephone numbers, saved to your computer, will be available in OZEKI SMS.
Group Messaging
Sometimes (e.g. around Christmas) you need to send a large number of SMS messages with the same or similar content. In this case the group messaging feature provided by Ozeki SMS can make your job easier. You can send messages to a lot of phone numbers (up to a few thousand) with only a few clicks
Message History
With Ozeki SMS, you can keep track of your messages anytime. A list of all messages, which have been sent by you, helps you to remember what, when and to whom your message have been sent to. Certainly a list of all messages received is also available.
Multilingual Interface
The user interface of Ozeki SMS is available in many languages: English, Hungarian, Italian, German, etc…
Folders
In case of having a lot of incoming messages it is a good idea to organize them into folders. Ozeki SMS provides a possibility to create new folders and to save your messages to them.
Integrated Printing
You can print your messages and log files to your default system printer.
Advanced, Dynamic Module support
Ozeki SMS uses Microsoft’s COM/COM+ technology to communicate with application extensions. This way the pluggable modules that provide a lot of additional features work very efficiently at a high speed.
Integrated Microsoft Excel Support
If you have your contacts in Microsoft Excel, you can use the built-in Excel support of Ozeki SMS. This allows you to send your SMS messages directly from Excel, simply by pressing a button. This feature is created with an Excel Macro that loads all the messages into the server.
MS Outlook Server Support
With the exchange server support built into Ozeki SMS, you can use your e-mail client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) to send SMS messages. If you have a computer network, equipped with several clients, this option provides a comfortable way to add SMS-messaging to your existing communication infrastructure
E-mail Support
The e-mail support provided by Ozeki SMS has two main features. It is an sms-to-email gateway, which means you can send an SMS by sending an e-mail to an appropriate e-mail address. You need to add the phone number to the subject line, and the message text to the body of your message. You will receive delivery and failure notifications in e-mail. The other feature is the intelligent message handling for incoming messages. You can set up rules that sort the received SMS messages by content or by sender number and send those to the appropriate e-mail address. The sorting is done by regular expressions, which provides great flexibility.
Remote User Interface
If you have Ozeki SMS installed on one of the computers in your office, you can install its remote user interface to other computers in your network. The remote user interface makes it possible to send and receive messages by anyone with the appropriate privileges.
Application extensions
The following application modules extend the functionality of OZEKI SMS. They are attached to the server using Microsoft COM/COM+ technology. This means that they are reliable and efficient. These modules can be installed independently after the server was installed.
Microsoft Excel plugin
Ozeki SMS Server provides a way to send SMS messages using Microsoft Excel from any computer in your office. All you have to do is to set up the SMS server on one of the computers and configure the Excel client on the others. (The server and the Excel client can be on the same machine.) After installing the system, in order to send messages follow these steps:
Steps for sending SMS messages
Create a list of mobile phone numbers and messages
Open the Excel file with the SMS Macro (sms.xls)
Configure the SMS Macro
Send the messages by pressing the "Send all" button
Step 1As you can see on the screenshot below, you must create an Excel Sheet in the following way: in column "A" enter the mobile phone numbers in international format and in column "B" enter the messages! (Note: international format means, you must start your phone number with a plus sign and should avoid spaces. e.g.: +36201234567)
Step 2After creating the message list; open the Excel file containing the Excel Macro. You can open it from the Start menu or you can find it at the following location: C:\Program Files\Ozeki\Ozeki SMS Excel Client (You can copy this file to any location you like)
Step 3 In the sms.xls file you must specify the IP address of the computer running the SMS Server, and the TCP port number. You have to do this only at the first time.
Step 4: By pressing the Send All button a popup window appears, where you can select the name of the sheet that contains the phone numbers and the messages. If you press OK here, the messages will be sent automatically within a few seconds.
Webpage support plugins
The webpage support plugins can be used if somebody wants to integrate SMS messaging to a dynamic website. Most dynamic websites are created using the following technologies:
· PHP
· ASP
· CGI
· Perl
· Python
Ozeki provides example code to show how SMS messaging is possible using these technologies. The example applications can be included in any webpage. In Appendix “D” you can see how this is possible using PHP.
Notification plugin
This module can be used to start applications when an incoming SMS message arrives. You can specify a set of shell commands that can accept the incoming message text and sender phone number as parameters. Whenever an incoming message is received by Ozeki SMS these applications will be executed with the appropriate parameters. With the help of this module you can create many event-driven solutions. For example you can notify people on a Novel network with the ‘SEND’ system command, or you can execute a batch job with a received parameter. See Appendix “A” for more information!
Files plugin
Often the simplest way for two applications to communicate, is the method of creating files for each other on the file system. If you use the Ozeki sms files plugin, you can accomplish SMS messaging this way. This provides the simplest way to add SMS facility to your applications.
If Ozeki SMS receives a message, it will create a file with the message content in the directory you have specified. The file format can be adjusted to your needs (see Appendix “B” for more details on file formats). This way all your application needs to do is monitor the given directory for new files. Once your application processed the incoming message, it can delete the file.
If you want to send a message, all you need is to create a file and place it in the outgoing directory. Ozeki SMS will pick up this file and send the SMS message.
You can also use shared directories on your network for this feature.
Database connectivity
The database connectivity extension is one of the most popular features of Ozeki SMS. It makes it possible to send and receive SMS from any database. (Access, Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, etc…) Combined with a database application this gives a great power to software developers. Please look at Appendix “C” for more information.
Technical Information
System Requirements
In order to send and receive messages with the OZEKI SMS Server, you need a suitable GSM device, a Win32 based operating system and a way to connect the GSM device to the computer. The recommended system configuration is Microsoft Windows 2000 on a personal computer with a Pentium III processor and 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
Minimum Requirements
Computer/Processor
Computer with Pentium 133 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor; Pentium III recommended
Memory
RAM requirements depend on the operating system used:
· Windows 98, or Windows 98 Second Edition 24 MB of RAM plus an additional 8 MB of RAM for each telephone driver (e.g.: Nokia 6310, Ericsson GM12), and plugin (such as SQL, Notification) running simultaneously
· Windows Me, or Microsoft Windows NT®32 MB of RAM plus an additional 8 MB of RAM for each telephone driver (e.g.: Nokia 6310, Ericsson GM12), and plugin (such as SQL, Notification) running simultaneously
· Windows 2000 Professional64 MB of RAM plus an additional 8 MB of RAM for each telephone driver (e.g.: Nokia 6310, Ericsson GM12), and plugin (such as SQL, Notification) running simultaneously
· Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Home Edition128 MB of RAM plus an additional 8 MB of RAM for each telephone driver (e.g.: Nokia 6310, Ericsson GM12), and plugin (such as SQL, Notification) running simultaneously
Hard Disk
Hard disk space requirements will vary depending on configuration; custom installation choices may require more or less. Listed below are the minimum hard disk requirements for Ozeki SMS
· Ozeki SMS8 MB of available hard disk space
· Directory for storing incoming messages 30 Mb of available hard disk space
An additional 115 MB is required on the hard disk where the operating system is installed.
Operating System
Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (SP6) or later Windows 2000, or Windows XP or later.
Drive
CD-ROM drive
Display
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution monitor with 256 colors
Peripheries
Mouse or other pointing device
Capacity
The Ozeki SMS Server can send and receive about 14 000 messages per day. It needs a Pentium class PC with 64Mb memory and 25Mb hard disk space. It works on Microsoft Windows 98, Me, Nt4, 2000, XP operating system and supports a large number of mobile phones.
Installing Ozeki SMS Server
If you want to install Ozeki SMS first you should make sure that all the GSM devices, which you intend to connect to the server, are configured properly. Here is what you should do:
Setting up the GSM devices
In order for the SMS server to work properly the following settings should be made on the mobile phones prior to installation:
- All the PIN codes and security locks should be switched off- The voice and data calls should be redirected to another phone number- Delete all SMS messages stored in the phone- The SMS Service Center should be set
When all these settings are done, you should test your GSM device by sending and receiving SMS messages manually.
First installation steps
The Ozeki SMS Server installation is similar to any Windows applications. You need to start Setup.exe and follow the on-screen instructions. When the installation completes, a shortcut can be found in the Windows Start menu. Use this shortcut to start the application. During the installation various selections are made. You will find step-by-step information in the Setup windows.
If you want to quit the Setup program without installing or uninstalling, just click Cancel and the Exit Setup window will offer you the possibility of quitting the Setup program. Click Exit Setup to quit Setup.
If you want to rerun Setup after having quit the installation before it was completed, follow the installation steps normally as if you were installing the program for the first time.
Here are the detailed steps:
1.
Exit all Windows programs.
2.
Insert the CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive.
3.
Click the Windows START button.
4.
Select the Run command. The Run dialog box appears on the screen. Type in the following command line: D:\setupIn the above command line, "D:\" is the CD-ROM drive
5.
Click OK or press Enter. Wait while the system initializes Setup. The Welcome window of the Setup is then displayed.
6.
Click Next to continue with Setup.
Starting the application for the first time
After installing Ozeki SMS you should start it by clicking on SENDSMS from the Windows START menu. At this phase you cannot send or receive any messages because no phones are installed and configured in the system. To install one or more phones you should open the preferences form, by clicking on “Preferences” in the Server menu.
Adding telephones / GSM devices
In the preferences form you can set various options. You can add mobile phones (GSM devices) and you can install server extensions. First you should install a GSM device. In order to do this, click on the GSM Device tab. On the GSM device tab you can add a new device by selecting ”GSM Terminal for SMS Sending” from the combo box and clicking on “Install”. Once it is done, you should Select “GSM Device1” and click on Configure then the configuration screen for the selected device appears.
Note: Sometimes the configuration screen appears in a different window, and it can be activated from the Windows task bar
On the configuration screen select the type of device attached, specify the serial port and enter the telephone number of the phone. This phone number is used as the outgoing address in your SMS messages.
Important: the phone number should be entered in international format e.g.: +36209937723
Also it is important to supply an operator name for the device. Each installed device should have a different operator name set
When this is done, don't forget to select your SMS Service Center phone number. The number should be entered in international format. The Service Center address is provided by your GSM service provider. For example, in Hungary you would select one of these numbers:
Westel
+36309888000
Pannon GSM
+36209300099
Vodafone
+36709996500
Testing the configuration
If you have configured one or more GSM devices successfully, you should test the application by sending and receiving a few SMS messages from the built in user interface. First you should start the service by clicking on Start. If the service is started the small mobile phone in the left hand side lights up. To send a message click on the Create SMS button in the task bar and fill in the form that pops up. If you have incoming messages, they will appear in your inbox. If this testing was successful you can move onto installing plugins.
Installing server extensions and plugins
In this paragraph we explain how you can install the SQL Plugin for Ozeki SMS. Other server extensions can be added in a similar way. To Install the SQL plugin, first you should locate the sql2sms.exe file on your CDROM. This file can be found in the Plugins\Sql directory. Copy this file to your hard disk! The recommended directory is C:\Program Files\Ozeki\Ozeki SMS\Plugins\ if this directory does not exist yet you can create it manually.
When the plugin is in the correct location, you should open the preferences form of Ozeki SMS and select the Plugins tab. On this tab you can install the SQL plugin using the Select and Install buttons. If the plugin is installed it appears in the “Already Installed Plugins” listbox.
After the plugin is listed, you can close the preferences form, and move onto the plugin configuration. Every installed plugin registers one or more menu items in the Plugins menu. The Sql2Sms plugin for example can be configured using the Database Configuration menu item. If you click on this menu, the plugin configuration screen pops up. This allows you to specify the plugin specific settings.
Starting the application
Once these settings are done start the SMS sending and receiving service by clicking on the "Start SMS Engine" menu item in the main screen of the application or click on the “Start” button.
Appendix „A” – Notification Plugin
If you install the notification plugin you can specify a set of shell commands that should be execute when an incoming SMS arrives or an SMS delivery fails. You can use special strings that will be replaced to the message text and the sender’s phone number. These strings are helpful if you want to supply parameters to the commands to be run.
As you can see on Figure „A1” you need to check the „Execute notification script” checkbox to enable the notification script execution routine. The shell command that need to be executed must be entered into the Notification memo.
Figure A1 – Notification plugin configuration
Appendix „B” – Files Plugin
OZEKI SMS enables you to send and receive SMS from a personal computer through a GSM device attached to the computer. The sending task could be performed by placing txt files into a certain directory and the receiving can be done by reading txt files form another directory in the file system.
If you want to send and receive SMS this way, you should configure the OZEKI SMS Server to place the incoming messages into the selected directory and to check another directory periodically for messages to send. The directory we use for receiving messages is called the incoming directory; the one we use for sending messages is called the outgoing directory. Please take a look at Figure B1 to see how you can configure the directories for sending and receiving:
Figure B1 – File plugin configuration
When the directory settings are configured, an appropriate txt file format should be selected. The OZEKI SMS Server supports three kinds of file formats. You should select the one that fits your needs the most.
The three supported formats are: simple, verbose and list.
THE SIMPLE FILE FORMAT
When you select the simple file format, each incoming message is saved in a separate file. The name of the file is the phone number and the first row of the file contains the message. (Figure 1.)
c:\smsout\+36203105366
Hello world
Figure 1.
If you want to send messages using the simple file format, you should create a separate text file for each outgoing message and place these files into the smsout directory.
THE VERBOUSE FILE FORMAT
The verbose file format is similar to the simple file format in the way that each message resides in a separate file. The difference is it contains more detailed information about the SMS messages. The main advantage of this file format is that more than one message could be placed into the same directory with the same destination.
If you want to send messages using this format, make sure that the extension of the file name, which is placed into the outgoing directory is .sms and the file format is the following:
The first row of the file is the sender's phone number, the second row contains receiver phone number and the message text follows these in the next row. Take a look at the following example:
c:\smsout\valamilyennev.sms
c:\smsout\anyname.sms
+36203105366
+36209937723
The message text
THE LIST FILE FORMAT
The list file format is a convenient way to send and receive a large numbers of sms messages. In this case more than one message is stored in the same file. The format of the file can be seen below.
For outgoing messages you should create a text file where each line contains a message. The messages consist of a phone number in international format and the messages text. The phone number and the message text are separated by a space character. When an outgoing file is ready for sending it should be placed into the smsout directory. The name of the file should have the .sml extension. (sml stands for sms list)
c:\smsout\lista.sml c:\smsout\list.sml
+36205555366 This a message
+36209937723 This the second message
+36307789723 Use the OZEKI SMS Server
Appendix “C” – Database Plugin
Send and Receive SMS messages with the help of a Database
If you use the OZEKI SMS Server you can send and receive SMS messages with a database query. In this case the SMS server is connected to the selected database through a standard ODBC connection. The database can be Oracle, Access, MSSql or any other database engine that has an ODBC driver. Through this ODBC connection, the Ozeki SMS Server inserts the incoming messages into a database table and reads out the messages to be sent from another table.
SQL Create Table Script (Ozeki SMS Server) If you want to send and receive messages this way, first create two database tables: ozekismsout and ozekismsin. You can find the table definitions for these two tables at the following page:
To send a message you should issue the following SQL statement:
sql> INSERT INTO ozekismsout (receiver,msg,id,status)
VALUES ('+36203105366','test message',23,'send');
It is important to mention, that the SMS Server identifies the messages by their ids. Make sure that you either specify a unique id for each message or you use auto_increment columns.
The incoming messages are placed into the ozekismsin table (you can see the create definition for this table at the URL above). To view the incoming messages you can use the select statement.
sql> SELECT sender,msg,receivedtime FROM ozekismsin;
+--------------+--------------+-------------------+
| sender | msg | receivedtime |
+--------------+--------------+-------------------+
| +36203105366 | test message | 01/11/03 08:43:32 |
+--------------+--------------+-------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
It is interesting that without any external application you can create powerful SMS enabled solutions. You can do this with the help of database triggers. Here is an example:
Autoreply function with a Microsoft SQL Server:
CREATE TRIGGER autoreply ON ozekismsin FOR INSERT
AS
DECLARE @tel VARCHAR(30)
SELECT TOP 1 @tel=sender FROM ozekismsin ORDER BY ID DESC
INSERT INTO ozekismsout (receiver,msg,status) VALUES
(@tel,'Thank you for the message','send')
GO
Database Plugin configuration
To configure the database plugin there are two things to be done: First specify the database connection then create the SQL templates that will be used to look up and modify data in your database. In order to do these open the database configuration form. As you can see on Figure C1 the database connection can be configured by clicking on the Build database connection button.
Figure C1 – Database Configuration
After starting the configuration screen you need to enter the ADO connection string or you should click on Build to create it. (Figure C2)
Figure C2 – Enter the connection string
The Build connection string dialog starts with the provider selection. In most cases you need to select Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers and move onto the Connection tab.
Figure C3 – Select database connection provide
On the connection tab you can select your ODBC source. It is important that you enter the User name and the password as well. If you don’t need to supply a password, you should check the Blank password dialog. Once all these settings are done, you may test your database connection by clicking on the Test Connection button. (Figure C4)
Figure C4 – Testing the connection
Appendix “C2” – SQL table definitions
SQL table definitions for sending and receiving messages
With OZEKI SMS
You can use any database with an ODBC driver. All you have to do is to create two database tables: ozekismsin and ozekismsout. (The tables can have additional columns.) The SMS Server will insert the incoming messages to the ozekismsin table. If you want to send a message, you should insert a record into the ozekismsout table. The sms server checks this table periodically for messages to send.
MSSql
CREATE TABLE ozekismsin (
id int IDENTITY(1,1), sender varchar(30),
receiver varchar(30),
msg varchar(160),
senttime varchar(100),
receivedtime varchar(100),
);
CREATE TABLE ozekismsout (
id int IDENTITY(1,1),
sender varchar(30),
receiver varchar(30),
msg varchar(160),
senttime varchar(100),
receivedtime varchar(100),
reference varchar(10),
status varchar(20),
);
Tips:
You can create auto reply functionality with database triggers:
CREATE TRIGGER autoreplyON ozekismsinFOR INSERTASDECLARE @tel VARCHAR(30)SELECT TOP 1 @tel=sender FROM ozekismsin ORDER BY ID DESCINSERT INTO ozekismsout (receiver,msg,status) VALUES (@tel,'Thank you for the message','send')GO
MySQL
CREATE TABLE ozekismsin (
id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
sender varchar(30) default NULL,
receiver varchar(30) default NULL,
msg varchar(160) default NULL,
senttime varchar(100) default NULL,
receivedtime varchar(100) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
CREATE TABLE ozekismsout (
id int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
sender varchar(30) default NULL,
receiver varchar(30) default NULL,
msg varchar(160) default NULL,
senttime varchar(100) default NULL,
receivedtime varchar(100) default NULL,
reference varchar(10) default NULL,
status varchar(20) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);
Note: MySQL ODBC drivers can be downloaded from www.mysql.com
Interbase
Installation instructions for Interbase: http://www.ozeki.hu/index.phtml?ow_page_number=177
CREATE TABLE ozekismsout (id int NOT NULL,sender varchar(30),receiver varchar(30),msg varchar(160),senttime varchar(100),receivedtime varchar(100),reference varchar(10),status varchar(20),PRIMARY KEY (id));
CREATE GENERATOR sms_id;
CREATE TRIGGER set_id FOR ozekismsoutBEFORE INSERT ASBEGINNew.id = gen_id(sms_id,1);END;
CREATE TABLE ozekismsin (id int NOT NULL,sender varchar(30),receiver varchar(30),msg varchar(160),senttime varchar(100),receivedtime varchar(100),PRIMARY KEY (id));
CREATE GENERATOR sms_id_;
CREATE TRIGGER set_id_ FOR ozekismsinBEFORE INSERT ASBEGINNew.id = gen_id(sms_id_,1);END;
insert into ozekismsout (receiver,msg,status) values ('+36209937723','Hello world','send');
Oracle
CREATE TABLE ozekismsin (id int,sender varchar(30) default NULL,receiver varchar(30) default NULL,msg varchar(160) default NULL,senttime varchar(100) default NULL,receivedtime varchar(100) default NULL);
CREATE SEQUENCE X;
CREATE TRIGGER ozekismsin_auto BEFORE INSERT on ozekismsinfor each rowwhen (new.id is null)beginSELECT x.nextval INTO :new.id FROM DUAL;end;/
CREATE TABLE ozekismsout (id int,sender varchar(30) default NULL,receiver varchar(30) default NULL,msg varchar(160) default NULL,senttime varchar(100) default NULL,receivedtime varchar(100) default NULL,reference varchar(10) default NULL,status varchar(20) default NULL);
CREATE SEQUENCE Y;
CREATE TRIGGER ozekismsout_auto BEFORE INSERT on ozekismsoutfor each rowwhen (new.id is null)beginSELECT y.nextval INTO :new.id FROM DUAL;end;/
Appendix „D” – Webpage support plugin
Send SMS messages from PHP
/Send messages from a WWW pages/
The Ozeki SMS Server enables you to send SMS messages from PHP scripts. The SMS Server and the PHP script can be located on two different computers. This means more than one script can send messages at the same time with only one SMS Server (figure 1.).
To send messages from PHP use the file sendsms.php. This file is included in the SMS Server software package. It provides functions to place the messages onto the SMS Servers queue for sending. Take a look at the following example:
<?php
include("sendsms.php");
$credits = sms_connect('192.168.0.1','9010','myAccount');
if ($credits>0) {
sms_send('+36201234567','Hello World!');
}
sms_disconnect();
?>
/ example of sending SMS messages from PHP/
Appendix „E” –Supported Mobile Phones
Operating system
Windows 98Windows MeWindows XPWindows Nt4Windows 2000
Suitable GSM device
(These phones are supportedby OZEKI SMS)
Standard Ericsson PhoneStandard Nokia PhoneStandard Siemens PhoneMotorola TimeportNokia DataSuite 3.0Nokia DataSuite 2.0Nokia CardphoneNokia Cardphone IINokia 22
Nokia 30
Nokia 6210Nokia 6250Nokia 6310Nokia 6519Nokia 7110Nokia 7650Nokia 8310Nokia 8810Nokia 8890Nokia 8910Nokia 9110Nokia 9210Ericsson GM12Ericsson T20Ericsson T28Ericsson T29Ericsson T39Ericsson T65Ericsson R320Siemens C35Siemens M1Siemens M20Siemens M35Siemens S25Siemens S35Siemens SL45Siemens TC35
Connection
An Infra Red (IR) port or a cable is needed that enables the SMS Server to communicate with the GSM device
Appendix „F” – Abbreviations
ASP
Active Server Pages
C++
The programming language C++
CGI
Common Gateway Interface
COM
Common Object Model
GSM
Global System for Mobile Communications
GUI
Graphical User Interface
HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
MSSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
PHP
PHP is a programming language. See www.php.org
SMS
Short message format for GSM networks
SOAP
Simple Object Access Protocol
SQL
Simple Query Language
URL
Uniform Resource Locator
Appendix „E” – References
[1] RIS 2001 – Mobile Telephones – Center of methodology and Informatics, University of Ljubljana,
http://www.ris.org/publikacije/pub/mobile_teleph_june2001.pdf
[2] David Cameron - Online Viral Marketing by SMS Text Messaging
http://www.imagesofone.com/articles/SMS_Text_Messaging_Easy_Targetted_Effective_Marketing.pdf
© 2002-2004 Ozeki Informatics Ltd. All rights reserve. 1.Visit our website at http://www.ozeki.hu
Send an e-mail to [email protected]