SMS Notify
 

Mod Version: 0.1 BETA
vB Version: 3.8.0 or higher (probably works on lower versions, but untested)

Description:

When users subscribe to threads in a forum you specify, they can be automatically SMS'd when there is an update. Only sends the most recent post.

Let me try and explain how this works. It uses the forums for it's integration, there are no custom pages, etc. This allows you to use all of vBulletins usergroup/forum settings to manage the access and whatnot.

I have a category called "SMS Notifications" Under that I have two forums. In the mod options, you set the PARENT forum ID. Basically any forums with this parent ID will be processed. This is the structure that I use.

SMS Notifications (category)

• Commanders (forum)
  • SMS - We're meeting reminder! (Thread)

• Members (forum)
  • SMS - We're under attack! (Thread)
  • SMS - We're all safe now! (Thread)
  • SMS - Servers status update (Thread)

I then set permissions for who can post and who can reply, etc on the forums as you normally would. Just in this case when you're doing it, think about who can send and SMS message. So basically only a few people have POST/REPLY and various people have READ.

The mod will hook events for replies only.

So, I create a separate thread for each "event" that people might need to be alerted about. The members then subscribe to the threads they would like to get a text message about.

Anytime a thread is replied to, all subscribers will get only the latest reply's text sent to them. The way it's setup with the forums also allows you to keep track of who is doing the paging, for what, etc. This doesn't interrupt the standard subscription emails from going out either. That way those without SMS can still get whatever updates if say they have email alerts on their phones or simply just want email subscriptions like normal.

Installation:

Create a new user profile field, this field will be used to contain your members SMS email address.

Import the product as normal.

Edit the options for the mod (Under vBulletin Options -> SMS Notify) in the Admin CP.

Make sure it's on.

Set the parent forum ID

Set the full variable name that you created earlier that holds the SMS email addresses.

Please note, this *IS BETA*. I use it currently, but there may be issues, etc. Please kindly report them here and I'll do my best to correct them. This is only my second vB mod and the other one was just a tweak of someone else's. I'm still learning and if you have tips/pointers, please feel free to suggest things!

What sms service does it use and what countries will it work?

Can you send a message to members anyways? i.e. events news or something?

There is no service that it uses as it uses email to send the alerts. So it's only sending out from the forum email server. So.. as far as I know, it should work with anyone with an SMS email address. I know we've tested, AT&T, Sprint and a few others.

Currently, there is no way to manually select something and SMS everyone with an SMS address. I did this at first, but thought it was better to only send messages to those that have subscribed as not everyone has unlimited text messages, etc.

this is Free ? Or we have to pay per SMS ?

Lg

It sends a message via email. So it depends on each person that gets the message, not the sender. The sender (you, if you're running the forum) only sends out an email, there's no special SMS magic behind it. =)

looks good.

Gonna test it now

Interesting... this may have alot of potential... let me have a beer and think about how I can use this... thanks!

Hello Trek and thanks for this mod! I'm having trouble installing it though.

I created the "new user profile field" then imported the xml per your instructions, but I'm not seeing any vBulletin Options for "SMS Notify". The product is set to "Active". Any ideas?

Hmm, I'll see what I can find. Did you go into the actual vBulletin Options section in the Admin CP? It's not it's own item on the lefthand nav, but listed under the vBulletin Options.

Thanks for the quick reply! I did go into the actual vB Options as you described. In fact I expanded the vB Options view and looked at every item line by line thinking it could have been placed within one of the top level options.

Let me know what you find. I too will be digging around this issue this afternoon so I'll let you know if I find anything. Cheers! --Josh

The xml file (product-sms_notify.xml) seems to be missing some info. There are no parameters listed for "Options". In fact, there's only a close tag for options... <options /> No open tag and nothing in between! ;)

Sorry it's taken me so long, I'll check into it again today, just had a lot going on. =)

I just exported it again to see. I have open and close tags for options, it's just not grabbing the options for some reason. No idea... I'll see what I can do.

Ok, I've gone back and made sure the settings were under the correct product, I've changed the product, resaved it, changed it back, resaved, etc... nothing seems to work. No idea why the options aren't being included... I'll keep working on it.

Thanks again for all your help Trek. I'm really excited about seeing this mod work so keep up the good work! I know life sometimes gets in the way too so please don't apologise when you aren't able to reply for a few days! LOL

Thanks for understanding. =) I just deleted the settings group I was using, recreated it from scratch and it still won't export. I'll do some more looking around. =/ It obviously works, I use it on my own site. heh

Any updates? I would like to deploy this on my site.

Ok, I finally updated the mod, it should install correctly now. I apologize for the long delay in releases, etc.

In any case, please let me know if you have any issues with this release. I've exported it and reinstalled it on my own forums and it's working without issue.

Can it be made to allow user to input only the phone number? The majority of users will not know what their phone's e-mail address is.

Also, can you have the option for the user to be automatically added to the sms list? (automatically subscribed) They could be given the option in the profile field to select (yes or no) if they would like to receive free text alerts. I'd like to steer them away from having to go to two different places in order to achieve their goal.

That wouldn't work.
For example in Australia they could enter '0412345678' as their phone number
But the script would have no idea what their SMS email address is.
It could be:
0412345678@three.com.au
0412345678@optus.com.au
0412345678@virginmobile.com.au
0412345678@telstra.com.au
0412345678@vodafone.com.au
The numbers can't be matched to a particular carrier based on the prefix either, because it's possible to transfer the number between carriers (I've had the same number with 4 companies personally).

The only way around that would be to have a list of every single mobile carrier in the world, and have the user choose their mobile network when they enter their number, ie:
Number: (Enter Number)
Carrier: (Select)

But the advantage of doing it this way is that because they can specify an email address, they could also put in their Blackberry address and get short notifications sent there. Or if they have a mobile email account, they could enter that instead.

It's a great idea for a mod! I like it :)

That would be great. We could create another profile field to ask what mobile carrier they have.

I'll look into this. The only problem I really have with making it so that someone can select a carrier is that if that it puts the burden of getting things correct on the mod, not the end users. While normally that's what you'd want, in this case I think it has more room for error than end users not knowing their address.

However, what might be good is just some text in that field with the most common examples. Which should hopefully allow people to figure out what their email address might be.

question... do you have a list of domain email addresses built in to this mod? How does a person specify the carrier they use? Do they have to put in the email address?

It would be easiest if the person could select their carrier from a drop down and if we could add carriers easily.

I haven't used it yet. is this there? I can't just install a mod into production without knowing everything or using a demo.

There are carrier lookup services you can easily tap into. It just needs to be written. This mod has potential but sounds like it hasn't "come of age" yet.

It's not worth it yet if only my more technical users can figure it out.

is there anything like this for private messages

I haven't added anything specific carrier wise into the mod, not sure if I'll get around to it or not though. Shouldn't be too difficult, I just need to find the extra time to mess around with it.

Not that I am aware of, although I'm not entirely sure what you want it to do in a PM anyway? Just text someone the contents of a PM when they get a PM? It probably exists, but as a PM can be more than 160 characters, etc... it's probably not the greatest idea.

Yes, a forum post can be of whatever size as well, but if it's specifically for SMS messages, people know that and will write short messages, unlike open ended PMs.

hey trekk thanks alot... would be doing this work today and check with my site..

does this work for 3.8.4?

No reason why not, but I haven't specifically tested it on 3.8.4

when subscribing to a forum is there an option that should say SMS subscription or do you just use the get daily updates email? Anyways, I subscribed to the forum where the threads are and did a test new thread and nothing happened. i know the sms address works as i sent a test messege from my email account. I checked all my settings and nothing happened. I did notice that when i went to subscribe to a FORUM it only had 3 options, one was no email notifications, daily email notifications, and weekly notifications. When i go to a specific thread under the category i have another option that says instant notification.

You'll need to subscribe to the threads you want, with instant notification and it should work fine.

Ahh i was hoping for more of a notification for a thread posted in a forum.

for instance I post sporting wagers in my VIP forums and wanted the tthreads sent to sent to my members.

guess im a little late but i meant just a text message notifying the users they received a private message from such an such user.

vb4.0 development?

Yeah, I'll get it done shortly for 4.0, should be a quick update. I just haven't gotten to it yet myself and since no one has mentioned it, it's been on the back burner. I'll get it updated now that I know someone is looking for it. =)

very cool! thank you!

wanting this for vb4 also...

I apologize, but I'd completely forgotten about this mod. As I've moved to XenForo, I no longer use vB and this mod (and any others I've done), won't be updated. I've changed the settings of the mod to reflect that and also have flagged the code for reuse if someone else wants to pick it up.

Waste of time on Xenforo booooo... Joking...

Well hope you will come back..