Broadcasting SMS

When running the or EasyLink SMS connector in Point To Point mode (SMS Type > Point To Point), StreamServer can send multiple point-to-point sms. To send for example an sms to ten different recipients, StreamServer has to create ten output jobs (personalized to each recipient), and the EasyLink service has to deliver ten individual sm, just as received from StreamServer. In Point To Point mode there is also an option to use a comma separated recipient list, where the same sms can be sent to multiple recipients, but no personalization of the sms content is possible.

When running the EasyLink SMS connector in Broadcast mode (SMS Type > Broadcast), StreamServer can broadcast the same sms content to multiple recipients specified in a destinations table. The destinations table can contain personalized information, and this information can be included in the sms in order to do simple personalization of the content (variable replacement) on Easylink side. In Broadcast mode, only one sms sent to the EasyLink service, and this sms is broadcast to all recipients specified in the destinations table.

Destinations table

The destinations table contains one row for each recipient, and each row contains a number of tab separated information items. The destinations table can be a fixed table resource that you reference as Destinations value in the connector settings, and it can also be generated dynamically by scripts at runtime. When using a dynamic destinations table you must use a variable as Destinations value in the runtime connector settings.

The items in a row must come in the following order:

1	The reference number of the recipient, for example 0003.

2	The phone number.

3	Any other items used for personalization.

Example 10

Destinations table

//!CodePage UTF8!

001  555-1234  "Joe Boe"  "Kingston"  "Jamaica"

002  555-2345  "Bella Air"  "Jokkmokk"  "Sweden"

003  555-3456  "Svante Raavdalen" "Oslo"  "Norway"

 

Output to the EasyLink service

The output to the EasyLink service is a SOAP envelope. The SOAP envelope contains, among other things, the following data:

•	The SMS content. This is the output from the Process and the driver assigned to the connector, for example a Template Engine Process with no driver, or a StoryTeller Process with an HTML unpaginated driver.

•	The information defined in the destinations table. This information is automatically added to separate sections in the SOAP envelope.

Example 11

Destinations table information in SOAP envelope

Row in destinations table:

001  555-1234  "Joe Boe"  "Kingston"  "Jamaica"

Corresponding section in SOAP envelope:

<Internet ref="001">

  <InsertList>

    <Insert number="1">Joe Boe</Insert>

    <Insert number="2">Kingston</Insert>

    <Insert number="3">Jamaica</Insert>

  </InsertList>

  <SMS>555-1234</SMS>

</Internet>

 

 

 

Personalization

All items in the insert list in the SOAP envelope can be used to personalize the content of the SMS.

When you configure the Process that generates the SMS you can add placeholders for the items in the insert list. A placeholder has the format (I<n>), where <n> is the value of the number attribute in the insert list. For example, use the placeholder (I2) to reference the value of the element <Insert number="2"> in the insert list.

Note:

The first two items in the destinations table (reference number and phone number) are not part of the insert list. This means the placeholder (I1) corresponds to the third item in the destinations table. If you, for example, want to have the phone number in the insert list, you must create a new item for the phone number in the destinations table.

Example 12

Template Engine snippet with placeholder

In this example, the placeholder (I1) references the customer name in the insert list.

<p>Dear (I1), due to the recent severe weather and flooding...</p>

 

Using dynamic destinations tables

It would be time consuming and error prone to create large destinations tables manually, and it is better to create them dynamically using scripts.

All elements to use as items in the destinations table should be extracted into variables. These variables and substitution table script functions are used in a Before Message script to create the destinations table dynamically. A variable that references the destinations table is then used as Destinations value in the runtime connector settings to select the destinations table.

See the Scripting Reference for more information about substitution table script functions.

Skipping all Processes but the last

The input to StreamServer may contain thousands of messages, where each message is targeted for a specific recipient. The output to the EasyLink service is one single SOAP envelope containing destination and insert information for all recipients and one single SMS (Process output).

In a standard processing chain in StreamServer, each triggered Event also invokes the Process. Since all Process calls will result in the same output (data including placeholders), it is only necessary to run the Process once in a job. You can therefore use the Skip script function to skip all Processes but the last.