[robwoelich]

This post is designed to answer common questions and troubleshoot issues. It should contain the extent of my knowledge and/or ability to help you with the Text Messaging modification, so if myself or someone else has directed you here, please take the time to read what I've put together for you.

Please note that as per Paul M, all discussion of the full/"commercial" version of this modification is to be kept to private message or my website. His post stating such can be seen here.



General FAQ About the Product and the Texting Process

Q: How does the modification work?
A: The modification can send texts to your users from your forum at no charge to the forum, and generally no charge to the user (though this depends on their cell phone company). Sending texts, for all practical purposes, is basically done by email as far as your forums are concerned. Emails are translated by the cell phone companies, who then turn them into texts and get them to the user. That's the long and short of it.

Q: Is there any cost associated with this modification?
A: Not to you as the forum owner to use the system and send the texts. And more often than not, there is also no cost to the user to receive texts, but that depends entirely on the user's cell phone plan and not by me. For example, if the user has to pay (according to their contact) to receive texts, they have to pay for them regardless of whether the text is received from your forum or from another cell phone. And while most users should know if that's the case and they don't get free texting, a disclaimer is made anyway during the text messaging setup process.

Q: Something something full version something?
A: I will no longer discuss the full version modification here on vBulletin.org, but don't think that means I don't want to talk to you about it or I don't care what you think. Contact me by PM or on my website and I'll talk to you about it all you want. This decision/policy has been backed by Paul M.

Q: Why are there so few companies? / Your previous modification had a ton more companies?
A: This is a simple two-part answer.

• Only settings for companies that are verified to be working are being included in this version.
• Support for more companies is being added on a regular basis as I can continue to verify that there are no issues with those companies and with the modification itself.

Please have patience as I verify new company entries and add them to the modification. I'm not withholding them because I'm mean, rather I'm trying to control the use and release of the modification and expand it slowly so I don't release something that's broken to hundreds or thousands of people at once.

Q: Can you add my company, _____?
A: You can send me a message on my website requesting for me to do so (don't PM me here, they pile up and I don't have a good way to organize/manage them), but please read the above answer first.

Companies will be added at the rate of approximately two per week, for as long as I have a supply of ones that can be verified to work. After that, I may request volunteers to help test companies I can't verify myself. Keep an eye on the thread and/or modification description if you're interested in helping with that.

Q: Can I change the email / "from" address that appears on the texts?
A: Not really, because how the "from" field on a text message is handled depends on the cell phone company. Some companies show the "from" email as set in the email headers, others show the email address associated with a hosting account, and others just display a random number. These have all been observed regardless of what has been set in email headers in the past.

Since the companies all process the messages differently, there isn't really a way to standardize how the "from" address appears. To help avoid user confusion, I have included your forum title in every message sent out.



Quick Troubleshooting and Problems/Solutions

P: Can't "turn on" texting in usergroups/usergroup permissions:
S: Upload the bitfield XML to /includes/xml/ before you import the product XML.

P: No menu option to set up texting in the User CP:
S: Verify texting is turned on in Admin CP > vBulletin Options > Text Messaging Options. Your User CP templates may have also been modified and are missing the template hook at the bottom of the menu, or another modification is using that template hook incorrectly (YAFB has been known to do this).

Compare your User CP templates to the default ones, or in the case of YAFB, set the User CP Menu plugin to execute after YAFB's (usually execution order 6 or higher).

P: Not receiving the confirmation PIN:
S: Incorrect cell phone number, number format, and/or company selected. Ensure you have selected the proper company, and in the case of U.S. numbers, entered the 10 digit number without spaces or additional characters (1234567890). Alternatively, user is not able to receive text messages as per their contract or has disabled texting.

P: Clicking the "resend PIN" link causes 500 / Internal Server Error:
S: At the bottom of the User CP Text Messaging Options plugin (the very bottom lines), change mail( ... ) to vbmail( ... ), leaving whatever's between the ( ) intact.

P: Not receiving texts, but receiving the confirmation PIN:
S: Verify usergroup has texting permissions (including secondary usergroups), and verify texting is enabled in User CP > Edit Options (both globally, and for each notification type, i.e. private messaging).

P: Anything else:
S: Post it and I'll look into it, and then it will probably end up here.