ActiveXperts SMS and MMS Toolkit Add SMS and MMS capabilities to any Windows or .NET application

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Using The SMS and MMS Toolkit with Visual Basic .NET

The SMS and MMS Toolkit is a software development kit (SDK) to enhance an application or script with SMS, MMS and Pager functionality. SMS messages can be sent using a GSM/GPRS modem, an SMPP provider, an HTTP compliant SMS provider or using a standard dialup or fixed-line SMS modem. MMS messages can be sent via a GSM/GPRS modem (MM1), an SMTP server (MM4) or an XML/SOAP compliant provider (MM7).

SMS features:

  • Send and receive numeric- and alphanumeric text SMS messages
  • Verify delivery of outgoing SMS messages
  • Support for multimedia SMS messages, including ringtones, pictures and logo's
  • Support for WAP Push, WAP Bookmarks, vCards, voicemail/e-mail/fax/MMS indications
  • Support for Unicode, to support foreign languages like Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, etc.
  • Support for multi-part messages, to allow messages longer than 160 characters
  • Support for GSM modems, GSM phones, SMS/HTTP providers, SMPP (Short Message Peer to Peer) providers, TAP/XIO and UCP dial-in SMSC providers
  • Support Multi-threading environments. The component is thread-safe, which means it can be used in a multi-threaded environment
  • Samples included for various development platforms: MS Visual Basic, MS Visual Basic .NET, MS Visual C++, MS Visual Studio C# .NET, ASP, ASP .NET, Borland Delphi, Borland C++ Builder, Windows Powershell ColdFusion and more

MMS features:

  • Support for many multimedia formats incl.: JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP, TIF, WAV, MP3, MIDI, AC3, GP3, AVI, MPG, MP4, VCARD, VCALENDAR, JAR and more
  • Support for MM1 (MMS over WAP), MM4 (MMS over SMTP) and MM7 (MMS over HTML/SOAP)

Pager features:

  • Send alpha-numeric Pager messages through SNPP

This document describes how the SMS and MMS Toolkit can be integrated into into Visual Basic .NET projects.

Step 1: Download and install the SMS and MMS Toolkit

Download the the SMS and MMS Toolkit from the ActiveXperts Download Site and start the installation. The installation guides you through the installation process.

Step 2: Create a new Visual Basic .NET Project

Launch Microsoft Visual Studio (for instance 'Microsoft Visual Studio 2005') from the Start menu. Choose 'New' from the 'File' menu and click on 'Project'. In the 'New Project' dialog, select a Visual Studio template (for instance: 'Console Application'). Select a name for the application (for instance: 'DemoApp') and a name for the solution (for instance: 'DemoSolution'). Also, select the directory where you want to store the project (for instance: 'C:\MyProjects):

Visual Basic .NET

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Step 3: Refer to the SMS and MMS Toolkit Library

Now that a new project has been created, you must add a reference to the SMS and MMS Toolkit in the project to be able to use the the SMS and MMS Toolkit objects. To do so, choose 'Add Reference...' from the 'Project' menu. In the 'Add Reference' dialog that pops up, select the 'COM' tab and select the ActiveXperts SMS and MMS Toolkit Type Library' as shown in the following picture:

Visual Basic .NET

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Click 'OK' to close the 'Add Reference' dialog.

Step 4: Declare and create the SMS and MMS Toolkit objects

On top of your code, type the following line to use the SMS and MMS Toolkit namespace:

Imports AXmsCtrl

In your Main function, declare and create the following object for HTTP:

Dim objHttpProtocol As SmsProtocolHttp = New SmsProtocolHttp

Insert the following lines to declare and create the SmsMessage object:

Dim objSmsMessage As SmsMessage = New SmsMessage

Insert the following lines to declare and create the SmsConstants object:

Dim objSmsConstants As SmsConstants = New SmsConstants

Step 4: Send and/or receive SMS messages

You can now send and receive SMS messages.

The following code shows how to send an SMS message using an HTTP POST based SMS provider:

Imports AXmsCtrl

Module Module1
  Sub Main()
    Dim objHttpProtocol As SmsProtocolHttp
    Dim objSmsMessage As SmsMessage
    Dim objSmsConstants As SmsConstants

    objHttpProtocol = New SmsProtocolHttp
    objSmsMessage = New SmsMessage
    objSmsConstants = New SmsConstants

    ' Set provider specific properties
    objHttpProtocol.ProviderHost = "post.activexperts-labs.com"
    objHttpProtocol.ProviderPort = 8080
    objHttpProtocol.URLText = "/sendsms/default.asp?username=AX008&password=812056&text=%MESSAGEDATA%&to=%MESSAGERECIPIENT%&from=%MESSAGESENDER%"
    objHttpProtocol.ProviderSuccessResponse = "id:"
    objHttpProtocol.ProviderErrorResponse = "ERR"

    ' Set message properties
    objSmsMessage.Data = "Hello World !!!"
    objSmsMessage.Sender = "+31638740160"
    objSmsMessage.Format = objSmsConstants.asMESSAGEFORMAT_TEXT

    objSmsMessage.Recipient = "+31647134225"

    ' Send the message and display the result
    objHttpProtocol.Send( objSmsMessage )

    If (objHttpProtocol.LastError = 0) Then
      Console.WriteLine("")
      Console.WriteLine("Message submitted successfully")
      Console.WriteLine("Last response from provider : {0}", objHttpProtocol.ProviderResponse)
      Console.WriteLine("")
    Else
      Console.WriteLine("")
      Console.WriteLine("Sending message failed, Error code = {0} ( {1} )", objHttpProtocol.LastError.ToString(), objHttpProtocol.GetErrorDescription(objHttpProtocol.LastError))
      Console.WriteLine("")
    End If
  End Sub
End Module

There are many working samples included with the product. You can also find them on the ActiveXperts FTP site: ftp.activexperts-labs.com/samples/mobile-messaging-component.

NOTE: Demo Projects are created with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005

The the SMS and MMS Toolkit project ships with a set of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET samples, including samples for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET. The projects are created with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

Users with a later version of Microsoft Visual Studio can open such a project. The Visual Studio Conversion Wizard will guide you through the process of converting the project to the version used.