SMS Text Messaging

[chrisnetronix]

Can SMS text Messaging be done?

Vicidial 2.4-278 Build 100901-2055 | Asterisk 1.4.21.2 | Single Server | No Digium/Sangoma Hardware | No Extra Software After Installation

[boybawang]

what kind of sms integration are you looking at? ive done one using kannel but its purpose is to remind the client through sms the campaign stats after the campaign has came to a stop or if the client wants to generate a custom reprt per campaign he will just sms the server for queries

[chrisnetronix]

actually I need it for the same function that a voice broadcast would be, which basically means, create a campaign, load leads, and send a sms text message to all leads loaded

[mflorell]

What country are you in?

Are you looking to use a service or connect to a gateway device?

[chrisnetronix]

US I basically just need to know how to set it up for this feature

[williamconley]

You have (I presume) a VOIP carrier. For SMS, you need an SMS carrier. Find one for your area ... the rest will depend on the carrier (they will dictate or allow the method of communication). Generally SMS is as easy as email.

[chrisnetronix]

once I acquire the carrier, can vicidial utilize new carrier settings and run voice plus sms

which means the carrier allows voip /sms / did

could i run a sms campaign and voice campaign at the same time

[williamconley]

nope. vicidial does not run SMS or eMail or any one of several other protocols. SMS is not related to Voice any more than email is.

BUT: If you can find an SMS provider, it will get much easier (when they tell you how to provide them an SMS message, you can figure out how to convince Vicidial or php/MySQL to generate the SMS calls ... and then how to tie it in with Vici)

[boybawang]

looks like you need a sms blaster, it can be a custom php script that lets you store numbers and let you send sms to those numbers in the list, ive made a php script that blasts sms to the numbers stored in a csv file through clickatel, it could be done in vicidial but you need to modify some parts of the dialplan, instead of the called number to be actually dialed and passed to a meetme conference you need to make that number just a variable for a System() command which you are going to execute, system() function is an asterisk which lets you execute a command or a script, now most sms gateways on the internet have an api which you can use to send messages and most of these api's are built on php which you can execute using system(), so basically you are just taking advantage of vicidials ability to load leads and dial them but instead of dialing them you are just using the number as a variable to send an sms to via System()

[williamconley]

sounds cool, but i'm not sure i'd use asterisk to execute a system command which would in turn use a bash command to activate a php script ... when most of vicidial is already IN php ... seems a little roundabout.

many SMS and other gateways allow for generating an email that sends the message ... and there are lots of other ways ... all directly from within php.

i'd keep it away from the vicidial arena (although perhaps use the mysql data reservoir and the admin screens for reporting ... and use the php code to manipulate the status's and log entries to mimic vicidial ...). After all: there will NOT be a conversation for the most part, and if there is: you'll need to build an interface to allow the Agent to send SMS! (which will without question be done in php!)

but whatever works.

[covarrubiasgg]

Actually this will be a cool feature, maybe this is not a call feature indeed, but vicidial is a call center suite and many call centers use this function.

Here next year we are going to implement a campaign with this service, here in Mexico i dont know any decent SMS over internet carriers, so we are going to use a GSM Card with a local GSM carrier =P.

I am planning to use asterisk 1.6 or 1.8 since i know it supports SMS (i dont know if 1.4 does support it) but if i find a way to do it on 1.4 and do a script to use it as an AGI maybe this can be integrated to vici, anyway i will share my results when i try it.

[williamconley]

how would you handle an SMS "campaign" in vicidial? after you send out 500 SMS messages ... you can't have that many "conversations" active with one agent in Vicidial,and responses may come in 60 seconds or 3 hours ... would you have to have a "multi-prospect" reponse interface of some sort?

I guess if you set up a system where ONLY responses generated an entry in a visible table, but when a response came in the system would find the associated outbound message and put both on the "SMS Agent's" screen in a table, allowing response to the message or queing for a phone call (or some other action) for each returned message (allowing for automated processing of specific responses such as "stop":) )

[Natashawilliams]

This is really a vague question can please justify your statement what do you actually want. Do you want to integrate SMS API or you just want to have knowledge about SMS text messaging services?