SMSsync is a simple SMS to HTTP sync utility. It turns a mobile phone into a local SMS gateway that syncs to the web.It is already used internally in the Ushahidi Android app, to allow people without computer access to easily send messages to an Ushahidi deployment.
Other uses include: creating your own in-country SMS-to-Twitter app now utilizing SMSsync and the Twitter API; a radio station using SMSSync to have users respond to something on air.
How To Set It Up
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- To start the SMSSync Gateway, you’ll need to specify a callback URL. This URL is where all incoming text messages will be transmitted to.
- For security you can specify at secret at the callback URL. If the secret doesn’t match, the callback URL will ignore the transmission.
- Additionally, you can specify keywords with which to filter incoming messages. Only matching text messages will be sent to the SMSSync Gateway URL.
- The SMSSync sends the following variables via the POST method:
- from
- message
- secret
In order for SMSSync to account for perfect transmission, the callback URL needs to give back a formatted JSON string such as its shown below to indicate if it received the message or not.