| How widespread is text encoding for MMS? |  Search
|
|
NowSMS Support Forums ⬆ MMS & SMS Technical Discussions (unsupported) ⬆ Archive through June 02, 2011 ⬆ |
◄ ► |
| Author | Message | |||
| Caius Jard New member Username: Cjard Post Number: 1 Registered: 03-2010 |
I saw in a recent spec (March 2009) from the OMA discussing MMS encapsulation, that text encoding should be supported. How widespread is the use of this? Should I still be encoding my MMSes using binary? | |||
| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 1940 Registered: 08-2008 |
Hi, I suspect you are taking something out of context. One of the last statements in the introduction section of the MMS Encapsulation Specification says "Textual encoding of MMS PDUs is out of scope of this specification." I'm guessing that you're getting confused by a statement like this: "A device implementing OMA MMS 1.1 must support text/plain MIME type according to [MMSENC]. This enables a basic messaging service." This statement means that text/plain must be supported as one of the content type objects inside of the MMS structure. Recall that an MMS message contains a header, followed by a multipart collection of one or more objects. This statement is saying that text/plain must be supported as one of the content objects inside of the MMS message. If, on the other hand, I'm misunderstanding your point, please quote a specific reference. Cheers, Des NowSMS Support | |||
| Caius Jard New member Username: Cjard Post Number: 2 Registered: 03-2010 |
Ah, maybe I'm getting confused between a few things.. I can't currently find the exact sentence in the docs, but essentially my task is to write an email to mms gateway, and I was rather hoping that I could take the mime multipart email I receive, and perform some quick string manipulations on it to insert a suitable smil and send it on. It would appear that I should decode and strip the email of attachments and text, and build a binary packed MMS together with smil, that I will then http post to the mmsc? | |||
| Caius Jard New member Username: Cjard Post Number: 3 Registered: 03-2010 |
For content types that have no WSP encoding, we can express them as text; does this mean we can always express them as text too? | |||
| Caius Jard New member Username: Cjard Post Number: 4 Registered: 03-2010 |
Also, on the topic of MM7 (which I believe I will be using to deliver messages to the MMSC that will be used) I see some SOAP examples which is, i guess, what I'm thinking of as a "text encoding" rather than a "binary encoding" Can MMS be sent froma device (a phone) to a telco's MMSC using SOAP (i.e. allowing me to achieve a scant reconfiguration of the mime multipart email I get, rather than stripping it and repacking it) on a wide-spread basis? Perhaps I'm getting confused because of the plethora of options for MMS delivery; it's like the most complicated email system in the world. I can't even see the difference between a VASP and a mobile phone, conceptually; they both seem to send and receive MMS | |||
| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 1946 Registered: 08-2008 |
It is indeed confusing. With the additional background that you've provided, I think I understand better where you have confusion. MM1 is the over-the-air protocol through which mobile phones/devices interact with the operator MMSC. MM1 uses WSP binary encoding for the MMS message header and WSP binary multipart encoding for the MMS message content. MM7 is the protocol that is designed to be used by value added service providers. It is XML/SOAP based, and uses XML encoding for the MMS message header, and standard text based MIME multipart encoding for the MMS message content. The technical realisation of MM1 is defined by the OMA. The technical realisation of MM7 is defined by the 3GPP. (3GPP only defines MM1 in an abstract format and leaves the technical realisation to OMA.) Which protocol do you use? It depends on what type of account that you have. MM7 requires a value added service provider (VASP) account with your mobile operator. You cannot use MM7 (or any other SOAP based protocol) to submit MMS messages from a mobile device with a standard MMS subscriber account. A mobile device with a standard MMS subscriber account uses MM1 to interface with an operator MMSC. NowSMS Lite (http://www.nowsms.com/lite) can be a useful tool in the type of scenario that you describe. NowSMS Lite sends/receives MMS messages using a GSM/3G modem. However, it allows applications to interface with it using MM7. -- Des NowSMS Support | |||
| Caius Jard New member Username: Cjard Post Number: 5 Registered: 03-2010 |
Des, thats incredibly helpful; many thanks! i guess i now have to go and build an mm1 encoder in Qt.. i think i'll make the first iteration bare minimum.. The only other question i currently have that you may have some experience with, though dont feel you have to provide an answer because youve already clarified so much, is the question of connectivity that mobile operators set up. let us take the uk network o2. they send two lots of settings to the phone; internet and wap. the wap differs in access point and that it has a proxy of some sort. it seems frim my tests that the wap+proxy is vital for mms, possibly because the proxy is important for billing. the question is, if the proxy were accesible over the nonwap connection could i route through it to use the mmsc or is there something essential about using a wap intended access point versus a normal internet one..? thanks! cj | |||
| Des - NowSMS Support Board Administrator Username: Desosms Post Number: 1953 Registered: 08-2008 |
Hi cj, It depends on the provider and their internal network setup. The MM1 protocol itself does not include any authentication. Subscriber identification/authentication is performed independent of the MM1 protocol. Generally speaking, the APN, WAP proxy and MMSC are configured to work together to perform this identification. It is possible that additional APNs and/or proxies of the operator are similarly configured, but more often they are not. -- Des NowSMS Support | |||
| Caius Jard New member Username: Cjard Post Number: 6 Registered: 03-2010 |
Sir, you're a credit to your company. If I ran a telco, it would use Now as its MMS platform. Many thanks. | |||
