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NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ NowSMS Support - SMS Issues ⬆ Archive through September 15, 2003 ⬆ |
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| Author | Message | |||
| Anonymous |
HI I just got the latest trial version of the NowSMS. I have a GSMmodem(COM2) and a VB application. Before that I am using XXX software to process incoming and outgoing SMS. but now there is a need for me to do MMS which I see the possible migration of the current software to NowSMS.Few questions 1) I need to do a trial on receiving MMS only using the software, what do i need to configure in the software to send and receive MMS msg thru the GSMmodem. Cause the installation steps are so complicated. 2) The current software (receiving and sending) SMS, has an application running on VB to process the SMS message. If I migrate to nowSMS, will i be able to call the current VB application | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
1.) Sending and receiving MMS is complicated, because the procedure can vary somewhat depending upon the mobile operator to which you are subscribed. Let me explain a bit about how MMS actually works. When a mobile phone receives an MMS message, what it is actually receiving is an MMS notification message which it receives over SMS. This MMS notification message contains header information about the MMS message, and a URL pointer that the recipient must fetch in order to retrieve the content of the MMS message. So, when you are using NowSMS, and you receive an MMS message, NowSMS receives this MMS notification message via SMS, and it knows that it must then fetch the URL that contains the content of the MMS message. Here's the problem ... This URL usually points to a dynamically generated URL on the operator's MMSC. And most operators have firewalled off their MMSCs so that they are not accessible via the internet. Without special configuration information, NowSMS will simply loop trying to retrieve the MMS message content, but it will not be able to. With our v5.0 release (which is still in beta, details at http://www.nowsms.com/beta5 and some discussion information in a separate discussion forum here), we can use the GPRS capabilities of a GSM/GPRS modem to make a GPRS connection over the modem, and fetch the MMS message content over the GPRS connection just like the MMS client on a mobile phone would do when it receives an MMS message. Unfortunately, configuring this can be a bit confusing. When you configure the GSM modem in NowSMS, if you select "Properties", there is a setting to enable "Receive MMS Messages", and an additional dialog for "MMS Settings". Here, you need to configure the GPRS settings for receiving MMS messages, just like you would configure the MMS client on a mobile phone connected to the same operator. (We have some settings documented here in a thread titled MMSC Operator Settings.) You need to tell us the GPRS modem that you are going to use (usually the same one that is receiving the MMS notification over SMS), the IP address of the operator WAP gateway that is used for MMS connections, and the GPRS APN that is used for MMS connections, which might require a login name and password. You also configure a URL for the MMS message server (MMSC) at the mobile operator. You can find all of these settings in the MMS client configuration details of a mobile phone subscribed to the same operator as the SIM in your GSM modem. (If you need help, we can also usually track down the settings on the web.) When an MMS message is received, there are also options for what happens to the message on this "MMS Settings" dialog. "Receive to MMS-IN Directory" means that the message will be parsed and stored in the "MMS-IN" subdirectory beneath the installation directory for the gateway. Your application would need to scan this directory for receiving new MMS messages. "Route via MM7" indicates that the message will be converted to MM7 format and posted to your application via an HTTP POST. (MM7 is an XML based format for MMS messages.) In order to activate this setting, you must first define an MM7 connection on the "MMS Routing" page of the configuration dialog. "Forward to E-Mail Address" reformats the MMS message as an e-mail message and forwards it to an e-mail address that you specify. Note that in order to activate this feature, you must configure an "SMTP Relay Host" on the "MMSC" page of the configuration dialog. Okay. So far we have just talked about receiving MMS messages. Now let's talk about sending MMS messages. Normally you would submit an MMS message to be sent into the NowSMS gateway via an HTTP POST, HTTP GET, SMTP or MM7 (XML-based HTTP POST). By default, NowSMS acts as an MMSC and performs direct delivery of the MMS message to the recipient mobile phone. What this means is that NowSMS stores the MMS content locally and generates a dynamic URL pointer to the content of the MMS message. It then sends an MMS notification to the recipient mobile phone over SMS which tells the recipient mobile phone a URL from which it can retrieve the MMS message content from the NowSMS server. (This requires that the NowSMS server have a permanent internet connection and be internet accessible. The dynamic URL that is generated by NowSMS uses the "Local Host Name or IP Address" setting on the "MMSC" page of the configuration dialog as the host name of the URL.) This setting will not work with many mobile operator networks for firewall reasons similar to what I described above for receiving MMS messages. The MMS client on every mobile phone has configuration parameters that tell it how it sends and receives MMS messages. The MMS settings that are pre-configured for mobile phones by many mobile operators point to a GPRS APN that can only connect to a special WAP gateway at the mobile operator, where this APN/WAP Gateway combination only allows connections to the operator MMSC. So while you can generate an MMS notification to a mobile phone pointing to any URL ... the settings on the receiving mobile phone may prevent that phone from retrieving the MMS message. If this is the case with your mobile operator, you can configure NowSMS to send outbound MMS messages over GPRS through the operator MMSC. This is done with similar configuration settings as described above. On the "MMSC Routing" page, Add a new routing for connecting to the operator MMSC. The "Account Name" and "Account Description" fields are for local use by the NowSMS server only, so set these to any value that you want. It is usually best to leave the "Default Sender Address" field blank. "Route messages to this account for recipient phone number(s)" should be set to "*" if you want all messages to be routed outbound via this connection. "Route messages via" should be set to "MM1" when you are submitting to an operator MMSC. And then the remaining settings are similar to what I described above for the receiving of MMS messages. 2.) SMS is a lot simpler. When an SMS message is received, NowSMS can be configured to call an application. This application can either be a command-line executable, or an HTTP script running on another server. You configure a command with replaceable parameters, and when NowSMS receives a message, it puts in information about the received message (such as the text of the message, or the sender of the message) into the replaceable parameter that you configure. These settings are configured on the "2-way" page of the configuration dialog. -bn | |||
| william |
what use is UAProf ? how do i use it in MMS program ?thanks . | |||
| Bryce Norwood - NowSMS Support |
Every MMS client or WAP browser client should have a User Agent Profile (UAProf) associated with it. The UAProf is an XML formatted document that describes the capabilities of the device using an XML format defined by the Open Mobile Alliance. You don't really use this in your MMS application, as you won't see it. (You can see it if you are developing a WAP application, in which case it will be transmitted via the "Profile:" header in inbound HTTP requests.) An MMSC might use the UAProf information to perform content adaptation, and perform some conversions on your content based upon the UAProf capabilities of the receiving device. -bn | |||
