Configuring Notification Service for SMS Notifications

The SMS notifications are useful for users that are not connected on the internet or away from their computers. Having this in mind we have created a scalable architecture that can support multiple SMS clients with easy to configure settings.

Twilio SMS Client Configuration

The default SMS client we are using is Twillio, because it provides powerful messaging features. To configure Twilio in the wMobile Notification Service you must first go on the Twilio website and receive an Account SID and Authentication Token.

To be specific, after creating the Twilio account, the Account SID and Authentication Token can be found under Dashboard \ Project Name (see Figure 1: Twilio Credentials).

^{Figure 1: Twilio Credentials}

After getting the credentials, for the Twilio account to work you need caller phone number and some verified caller IDs.

Eg: phone x sends messages to phones y and z

The caller phone number can be found under Phone Numbers / Manage Numbers (see Figure 2: Getting caller phone number).

^{Figure 2: Getting caller phone number}

Now that we have the caller phone number (phone x in example above) we need the verified caller ids. Those numbers can be found under Phone Numbers / Verified Caller IDS (see Figure 3: Verified Caller IDS(1) and (2)). This might be your own corporate cell phone number for testing. When you’re ready to go live, each user that will be sent SMS texts from wMobile must be added here.

^{Figure 3: Verified Caller IDs}

Now that we have the caller phone number (phone x in the example above) we need the Verified Caller IDs. Those numbers can be found under  Phone Numbers / Verified Caller IDS (see Figure 4: Verified Caller IDs). This might be your own corporate cell phone number for testing. When you’re ready to go live, each user that will be sent SMS texts from wMobile must be added here.

^{Figure 4: Verified Caller IDs (2)}

In Figure 3 it is shown how a Twilio user can modify or add an existing receiver phone number.

After this step, proceed to the wMobile Manager Console with your wMobile user account and under the Notifications Services locate the SMS Settings (see Figure 5: Notifications SMS Settings).

 Enter the data as follows:

• Test phone (text field) - enter a verified caller ID phone that will be used for testing purposes (see Figure 4)
• Sender phone (text field) - enter the caller phone number (see Figure 2)
• Account SID and Authentication Token (text fields) - enter the Twilio credentials (see Figure 1)

^{Figure 5: Notifications SMS Settings}

After the data is inserted you can test the data or save it. Now the wMobile Twilio SMS Service is running and the users can receive notifications SMS.

SMS Notification Rules

The wMobile Notification Service has a built-in SMS rule that must be active in order for SMS sending to work. This rule can be found in the Rules section under the Notification Services in wMobile Manager Console (Figure 6: SMS Notification Rules). Individual rules can be enabled or disabled.

^{Figure 6: SMS Notification Rules}

In Figure 5 we highlight the “SMS on alarm expiration” rule. This rule sends an SMS when an activity alarm in wMobile occurs. In order to work, this rule needs the “Alarm Expired Monitor” to be enabled. This can be found in the Monitors section under the Notification Services in wMobile Manager Console (Figure 7: SMS Rule Monitor). See also the Notification Monitors section in the related blog post (“wMobile SMS Notifications ”).

^{Figure 7: SMS Rule Monitor}

SMS Failure Management

Sometimes, the system will not be able to send SMS notifications. Maybe the SMS provider is down or is not accessible or the server settings have been changed, but in the end your notifications will not be sent.

By default, the system will try to send a notification for a specified number of times. Once that number is reached and the notification cannot be sent, it will be moved into a list of Failed Notifications.

This list is accessible from Manager Console and the notifications can be further managed as follow:

• They can be reposted in in the notification queue for retry
• They can be removed from failed notification list

^{Figure 8: SMS Failures}

Setting wMobile User Phone Number

In order to receive an SMS, the phone number must be placed in both Twilio and wMobile.

First, the phone number must be registered into Twilio under Manage Caller IDs (See Figure 3: Verified Caller IDs).

After that the wMobile user must insert the mobile phone number into his or her wMobile settings. The location of the setting is in Tools / Options / Personal (Figure 9: wMobile User Phone Number).

^{Figure 9: wMobile User Phone Number}

Although we have presented how our SMS notifications work with Twilio, we can easily integrate other SMS services with wMobile.

Applies to wMobile version 3.1.2.843 and above