Autoreply SMS from database

[LeslieJohn]

I am trying to create an application which will send a reply back once a customer (registered user) sends a a question to the system. The application will select the correct answers (based on keywords) from a database and send it back in SMS to the customer’s mobile phone. For example I will use Microsoft SQL Express as the database server. I found a software, OzekiSMS Gateway that can handle SMS receiving and sending. The database connection is the question. How should I organize the data in the database? Is this the best way as they recommend? (http://www.ozekisms.com/index.php?owpn=392&info=users-and-applications/autoreplydatabase-user)

For example:

> select * from autoreplymessage;
id          keyword                        msg
----------  ------------------------------ -------------------------------------
 1          default                        There is no data for this keyword.
 2          red                            Red is a good color.
 3          blue                           Blue is not the best option.

Please share with me your suggestions.
Bye,

Leslie

[rotten69]

Well, that'll depend on the tasks you've got. What do you want to store? Do you want to store messages from users? how do you determine if the keyword is the right one in user's message? E.g let's say you've got "two" red keywords in your table. So in this case, what message content are working out to send to users? how are you matching keyword(s) from user's message and database?

I'd go with mySql database since it is an open source and you can get it hosted almost on every server. At the end, that is a personal preference.

[ajbest]

Agree with Rotten. I would suggest first thinking about the text messages that will be sent to the system. How would they be structured? What questions need to be answered? This will let you know how to structure the database so that it provides answers that match the questions.

Your example could work if you are only expecting a text like "red" to be supplied and the answer to come in as "Red is a good color."... However if you have someone text in "I like red and blue" your db structure might not handle it as well.