How to send an SMS from the Browser

After reading this lecture you will be able to send SMS messages to pre-setup HTTP API users using Ozeki 10 SMS Gateway. You will see how to compose the API command and how it works. Lastly you will see what message the browser returns if the request was successful and the error message.

Prerequisites

Steps to send an SMS in the browser

  • Open a browser window
  • Click into the URL textbox
  • Type in the sms command template
  • Find out the IP address of the sms gateway
  • Find out the port number of the HTTP API user
  • Refit the command to your likes
  • Hit enter to summit the sms.
  • Check the response

Open a browser

send sms though open browser
Figure 1 - Open browser with desktop shortcut icon

Click in the URL textbox

URL textbox
Figure 2 - URL textbox

Type in the command template

Command template:
https://IP :PORT /api?action=sendmessage&username=USER &password=PASS recipient=NUMBER &messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE

Figure 3 - after typing in the command

Check your IP address

1.) Press the win key and start typing cmd.

2.) Click on the command shell icon.

3.) Type ipconfig

Figure 4 - IP address check

4.) Hit enter

5.) If you use ethernet then go to the line with IPv4 Address and there you will find your IP.
If you use Wifi then go to the Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fisection and on the IPv4 Address you will find your IP.

Replace the API commands parameters to your case

Replace the IP highlighted in red to your computers IP address

https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE

Replace the PORT highlighted in orange to your HTTP API users port number.

1.) Click on the advanced button on the top toolbar.

Figure 5 - advanced button

2.) Then click on the details button.

Figure 6 - details button

3.) Finally in the HTTPS PORT input field you will find your port number.

Figure 7 - HTTPS PORT input field

https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE

Replace the USER highlighted in green to your HTTP API users name

https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE

Replace the PASS highlighted in purple to your HTTP API user's password

https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE

Replace the NUMBER highlighted in blue to the phone's phone number you want to send the SMS to.

https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE

Finally Replace the MESSAGE highlighted in turquoise to a text you want to send but substitute all spaces with + signs

https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE

Finish off

Now that you have fully filled in the parameters this is how your URL textbox should look.

Figure 8 - URL textbox

Now press enter.

Outcome

This is how your browser should look like now.

Figure 9 - Browser

The line highlighted in blue tells you what happened to the message.
The line highlighted in red tells you who have you sent it to.

Message should also arrive at the phone.

Error message

Another scenario is when you did not fill in the parameters as required.
Then this is how browser should appear.

The line in Red is what tells you what went wrong.

Now let's look into how the command works

The first key part is when we write api:
https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE
Description:
This is when we address the API.

After this we addressed some values where the first one was the action:
https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE
Description:
The action value describes the action we want to make but at the current moment has only one value which is sendmessage.

The next value was the username:
https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE
Description:
The username value tells what user to use to send the message and needs to be URL encoded. The max length is 16 characters.

After that came the password:
https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE
Description:
The password value tells what password to use when using the user and needs to be URL encoded. The max length is 16 characters.

The next was the recipient:
https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE
Description:
The recipient value describes the name of the device we are sending to and needs to be URL encoded. The max length is 16 characters.

The next value was the messagetype:
https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE
Description:
The messagetype contains the type of message we want to send and needs to be URL encoded. To see the possible values the mobile message type specification lists the supported message types by Ozeki 10 SMS Gateway.

The next value was the messagedata:
https://IP:PORT/api?action=sendmessage&username=USER&password=PASS recipient=NUMBER&messagetype=SMS:TEXT&messagedata=MESSAGE
Description:
The messagedata this contains the data we need to send, must be encoded in UTF8 and needs to be URL encoded. The max length is 32768.

See more properties we can add to our SMS API command and get a more in-depth explanation.

To sum it up

This article explained how to send an SMS message directly from your browser. Sending SMS from your browser using the Ozeki SMS Gateway will make the flow of information easier and faster. This service can be put into use and can make your organization more efficient because it allows the information to be delivered to mobile phones.

If you want to build a flexible SMS solution, you should not stop reading here. Ozeki has more article that can help you with this project : How to send SMS with Java, or How to send SMS with Python.

Now your next thing to do is to download Ozeki SMS Gateway and configure this solution immediately! Everything is there to get it up and running in less than 10 minutes.

More information