SEND TO PHONE web form, anyone?

[ZenMartian]

I have a web site and a mobile site which is under construction. I want to have one of those simple web forms that allows visitors to input their 10-digit mobile phone number and click the SEND button, and seconds later, they get an automatic txtmsg (which contains the URL link to my mobile site) sent to their handset. As I am merely a start-up media entertainment business, I cannot afford the expensive fees that most sms gateway services charge. I'm looking for a creative way to utilise this method on my site. IAnd in the interest of learning, I'd also appreciate any explanations on how this particular SEND-TO-PHONE web form actually works.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Keith Welch

[tlcoffee]

I have a web site and a mobile site which is under construction. I want to have one of those simple web forms that allows visitors to input their 10-digit mobile phone number and click the SEND button, and seconds later, they get an automatic txtmsg (which contains the URL link to my mobile site) sent to their handset. As I am merely a start-up media entertainment business, I cannot afford the expensive fees that most sms gateway services charge. I'm looking for a creative way to utilise this method on my site. IAnd in the interest of learning, I'd also appreciate any explanations on how this particular SEND-TO-PHONE web form actually works.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Keith Welch

Sending a txt message to a phone is just a matter of sending an email.

Just like so:

[e-mail]

You just have to know the users phone number and the proper address (messaging.nextel.com) to send the email to.

Thats it.

[ZenMartian]

Sending a txt message to a phone is just a matter of sending an email.

Just like so:

[e-mail]

You just have to know the users phone number and the proper address (messaging.nextel.com) to send the email to.

Thats it.

Thanks very much for your response, tlcoffee...yet, alas... I'm already aware of the 10-digit number coupled with the email address of the service provider method. Heck, I've even got listings for over a dozen mobile phone service providers with their proper sms email adresses. What I'm looking for is that particular web form that works automatically. I'm told it's called a 'web autoresponder' form, yet this thing works by just inputing your 10-digit mobile number into the form, followed by a click button (SEND TO PHONE)...there is a pre-written txtmsg that bounces back to the recipients phone... this all happens automatically and within seconds of clicking that SEND button.

Check out this link to one of Googles' mobile web page... it's the best way I can describe the function that I'm looking for on my site (hopefully, you'll see the form on the lower left portion of the web page): http://www.google.com/intl/en/mobile/index.html

It works with US numbers... if you're in the US, and haven't tried it out before.. go ahead... give it a go, and you'll see what I'm talking about! Does anyone else besides me take notice of how slick that web form function is??!!?

-Keith Welch.

[tlcoffee]

I don't know any pre-made forms that specifically do that and I just can't see why you don't script it yourself. it would only be a few lines of code. I recommend using http://www.swiftmailer.org/ which is a fine mailer class.

I mean really though, what pre-made do you need? all your doing is taking someones phone number, putting it in email format with the proper providers address. _any_ form can do that.

[ZenMartian]

No...no, no... You're not getting what I'm trying to tell you, dude. Here's the link to the Googl Mobile web page (hopefully the proper web page will display for you when you click this link...you'll find the short web form I'm talking about on the lower left-side of the web page): http://www.google.com/mobile/

Look at it. You place your 10-digit number in that form, and simply click send...within seconds you get an autoresponder txtmsg which includes the URL link to Google Mail App download pg for your phone.
It's got to be an sms gateway helping matters out, yet I want to achieve the same or similar function on my site, yet I cannot afford the costly fees tha most sms gateway providers charge for this service.

It's a very slick form function, indeed. It can come in quite handy in many circumstances, yet it seems as if I'm the only one who's noticing this quiet trend sneaking up on us!

Keith Welch.

[tlcoffee]

lol, I sorry to disappoint you man but there is nothing slick about it. I know exactly what it does and exactly how to do it and I just told you how to do _exactly_ what your wanting to do in my previous posts.

There is no sms gateway doing anything. SMS is just a service that provides customers with a short address to use which it then in turn forwards to the phone providers address, just as I previously stated.

I'm afraid your not "...the only one who's noticing this quiet trend..." my friend. It been happening for quite some time.

[ZenMartian]

lol, I sorry to disappoint you man but there is nothing slick about it. I know exactly what it does and exactly how to do it and I just told you how to do _exactly_ what your wanting to do in my previous posts.

There is no sms gateway doing anything. SMS is just a service that provides customers with a short address to use which it then in turn forwards to the phone providers address, just as I previously stated.

I'm afraid your not "...the only one who's noticing this quiet trend..." my friend. It been happening for quite some time.

Oh, Man... I know I'm not so knowledgable when it comes to coding (still a beginner in web design/development), yet tell Me how does it all breakdown? I place my own 10-digit number in that form, or if I have a buddy do the same on his/her end... that Google form is not even asking for your service provider info (heck! even that would make some sense to me, although I don't know how to achieve that function with javascript - wish I did!)... that form allows for your (US only) 10-digit number...nothing more. You enter your number, click SEND... Voila! Pre-written Autoresponder txtmsg hits you back (your mobile). How does it know where to SEND that txtmsg when you didn't even have to input your service provider info? Trust Me, tlcoffee... I can txtmsg myself & a few of my buddies all day, as long as I know there phone number + who ther service provider is, yet I'd be doing it manually. This Google thing (and others, such as BANGO) is something I'd like to have form-wise, yet I don't want to have to be SENDING pre-written msgs manually... Man, you have got to see what I'm talking about. I understand what you're saying...yet this thing I speak of, it works automatically. How does it know from all the many numbers input in that form, how does it know who each particular service provider is, in order for that pre-written txtmsg to hit each device?!

Has to be an sms gateway... I'd like to know how to do the same as in an improvising way, or dare I say "Cough-'hack-it'Cough" ...LOL!!! :-)

Keith!

[autocrat]

erm... ot 100% sure on this....

each "Number" is only available once.
It is associated with a "Provider".

You may not need to know the Provider, as the number is already associated with it!
You do not pick up your mobile... enter in your friends number, then select a proider do you?

It is done enroute.

Does that make sense?

If not... think of it as a Postal Address.
You use a Zip Code - done! it can get where it needs to just by that - everything else is for us, not for the Sorting Machines or that.

So, you have the form, you enter in the number, it parses the number, sends it off to the exchange, along with your default message (in a hidden text area?) and you're done.

Of course, I could be wrong, but that seems to be what ... tlcoffee ... is getting at.

Maybe you are over complicating things? (I do it all the time).

[MattEvans]

An Internet SMS gateway is just a connection between the TCP/IP network and the GSM network. If you access it using an email to a mobile service provider, your gateway is on the machine that collects the email and forwards it onto the SMS user via the GSM network. If you access it by connecting to some high-load multiprotocol server that does the same thing, your gateway is there.

Google can afford as many high-load servers as they need for any protocol they desire. You're probably better off hiring usage on a popular public SMS gateway with accessible connections to all parts of the network, since making your own connections to different service provider's 'parts' of the GSM network isn't likely to be easy, and service providers giving free access to an automated email-to-SMS service probably restrict transmissions to within their own part of the network (i.e. to their own customers ). O2 in the UK used to ( perhaps still? ) provided a web-based service that delivered to all UK networks, but it it was on a monthly credit allowance basis. It was/is a frontend to an HTTP-over-TCP/IP to SMS-over-GSM gateway, but it isn't anything special. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_(telecommunications))

It's not done only in Javascript by any means. The 'number' is submited maybe via HTTP forms, or maybe via Javascript AJAX to the Google server, which subsequently forwards the message into the GSM network via a gateway, where the network provider CAN be derived from the number ( in a conceptually similar way to how TCP/IP requests can get to the correct server ), and the message can be delivered to the correct part of the network, i.e. the receipient. You are making this difficult, by wanting to do any part of the GSM network's work on your own.

[ZenMartian]

An Internet SMS gateway is just a connection between the TCP/IP network and the GSM network. If you access it using an email to a mobile service provider, your gateway is on the machine that collects the email and forwards it onto the SMS user via the GSM network. If you access it by connecting to some high-load multiprotocol server that does the same thing, your gateway is there.

Google can afford as many high-load servers as they need for any protocol they desire. You're probably better off hiring usage on a popular public SMS gateway with accessible connections to all parts of the network, since making your own connections to different service provider's 'parts' of the GSM network isn't likely to be easy, and service providers giving free access to an automated email-to-SMS service probably restrict transmissions to within their own part of the network (i.e. to their own customers ). O2 in the UK used to ( perhaps still? ) provided a web-based service that delivered to all UK networks, but it it was on a monthly credit allowance basis. It was/is a frontend to an HTTP-over-TCP/IP to SMS-over-GSM gateway, but it isn't anything special. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_(telecommunications))

It's not done only in Javascript by any means. The 'number' is submited maybe via HTTP forms, or maybe via Javascript AJAX to the Google server, which subsequently forwards the message into the GSM network via a gateway, where the network provider CAN be derived from the number ( in a conceptually similar way to how TCP/IP requests can get to the correct server ), and the message can be delivered to the correct part of the network, i.e. the receipient. You are making this difficult, by wanting to do any part of the GSM network's work on your own.

Hey, Man.... Thanks for the headzUp on this matter. Yeah, I was sort of thinking that this was surely going to be tough-going, trying to find a decent work-around on this whole 'web-to-sms auto-responder' function. :-( I liked how you broke it all down to me...with the explanation of how it seems to work. I just wish those gateway service providers weren't so darn costly for some of us who are just starting out with our ventures on tiny budgets! And it's too bad that it's not a part of the services on most web host provider services also. I'd pay a few dollars more for it, yet not $499 a month for it!

Anyhow, Thanks!

Keith.

[autocrat]

There are providers out there.

Esendex (or something) do it for the UK.
Have a look around, you will find that there are cheaper options available, and some host will have such features as well, as I said, 1and1 do (both the .com and .co.uk suppliers provide SMS features!).