Authorised users can send SMS messages in one of three ways:

• As an individual message to a single recipient

• As a batch of individual messages to multiple recipients

• As a common message to multiple recipients

This is an interactive mode, in which the user composes an individual message and manually submits it for sending to a single recipient using the SMS Message window shown below. This is the mode users will most often encounter when clicking the SMS icon.

Where applicable and possible, elements of the window are pre-filled with values from the database for the context from which the window was invoked. This typically would include the destination Country and Mobile Phone Number and the default header and footer text as saved in the Provider Configuration settings in Global Options. Often location data will also be available to this window so that the user can insert a map link to a street address and/or latitude/longitude if desired. The user can edit the destination number; indeed sometimes (eg when invoked from the Utility | Send SMS Message menu) a destination number will not be available to pre-fill so the box will initially be empty.

The default header and footer are displayed in separate boxes above and below the message body for clarity. In the actual message the header, body and footer are one continuous block of text. Users can edit the header and footer, but will be reminded about the requirements of the SPAM Act the first time they go to do so each time after the window is opened.

Note the following additional information displayed on the window:

• The Fully-Qualified Number to which the message will be sent. Grain Trader automatically removes spaces, an Australian International Dialling Prefix or a leading zero if present, and prepends the correct International Country Code, in this case ”+61” for Australia. This is the number which will be passed to your provider and is displayed for verification that it looks correct.

• The Total Character count and Message count. A single SMS message can be up to 160 characters long, but messages of up to 765 characters can be sent. These will automatically be split by your provider into multiple messages and sent consecutively to be automatically reassembled in the correct sequence into one message on the recipient's device. Each of these split messages is usually charged at the same rate as a single message. The counters display the relevant information as the user edits the text, and the window will not allow a message of more than the maximum allowable number of characters.

Clicking the Insert Map Link button automatically forms a URL address to a Google map of the location and inserts it after the text “Click for map: ” at the current cursor position. Note that map links of addresses can consume a large number of characters.

When the user clicks Send Grain Trader attempts to forward the message to your provider without any further notice. Limited checking is carried out, although obviously Grain Trader can't tell if the number is correct. A message box advising the result is displayed.

You can send customised messages to a number of recipients in a batch from the Truck Book window. This is primarily designed for you to send out reminder messages for the next day's loads, for example. You can send messages in this way to Suppliers, Customers, Carriers and individual Trucks, where the recipient has a mobile phone number and is flagged as Accepts SMS (also, for Suppliers, Customers and Carriers there must be one Contact designated as the Default SMS Contact). Messages for each different recipient type are based on a template you create for that type, ie messages to Suppliers will contain different information to those directed to Customers.

When you have the Global Option Enable SMS functionality enabled and the current Grain Trader user is permitted to send SMS messages, the SMS Messaging panel becomes enabled and checkboxes will appear in the grid cells against the relevant recipient type, where all the requirements for SMS messaging have been met for that particular recipient (click image for larger version):

When you first enable SMS Messaging you should preview and if desired edit the templates for each recipient type. Default templates are initially provided but you may wish to customise these to your own preference. Click the Templates… button to display the Edit SMS Templates window:

Select the Template to edit from the drop-down list; the current template will be displayed ready for editing.

Each message consists of a Header, Body and Footer as described above. For template-based messages, tokens are used as placeholders for the variable information which will substitute for them in the actual message. To insert a token:

1. Place the cursor at the appropriate place in the text in the Body section of the template.
2. Select the token from the drop-down list on the right of the window.
3. Review the blue text underneath the drop-down box; this is the expanded text that will be substituted in the actual message. Note that:
   • Tokens whose data is empty for a particular Load record are omitted
   • Where data does exist for a token, a leading space is always added before the expanded text. This avoids unnecessary multiple spaces in the final message, and means you should not type a space character before inserting a token.
4. Click the Insert button to place the expanded token in the message body box.

If Loads are being displayed in the Truck Book grid and one or more recipient types of the same type as that whose template is being edited have checkboxes showing you can preview the fully-expanded message as it would appear to the recipient by clicking the Preview… button, which displays the Preview SMS window:

Click the Next or Previous buttons to preview the message for each Load with a checkbox for that recipient type in the Truck Book grid. Note the character and message count information displayed at the bottom of the Preview window; as described above, long messages of up to 765 characters are automatically split into a number of smaller messages of up to 160 characters which are sent and reassembled at the recipient's device. Each message is charged at the contracted rate. This may be particularly relevant if you decide to include a map link in a message, as these can consume a significant number of characters when expanded into a full address, for example a Truck message with embedded map links might look like this:

When received at the recipient's device, this shows what the above message would look like:

Back on the Truck Book window, you can either toggle the individual checkboxes for those recipients you wish to send messages to, or just select a date and toggle the recipient type checkbox(es) in the SMS Messaging panel to quick-select or de-select all the records matching those criteria. You can select more than one recipient type for a single batch. When satisfied, click the Send button to initiate the send procedure which will iterate each selected recipient type and Load in the grid, automatically expanding the relevant template with the data for that record and sending the message, without any further interaction. As each message is sent, the progress bar displays details and if successful the appropriate checkbox in the grid call is unticked:

If all messages are sent successfully a message box will advise that when finished. If sending a message is unsuccessful a self-explanatory message box like the following will be displayed:

You can send a common message to common recipients from the Supplier or Customer Listing window. Messages are sent to the default SMS Contact only; you can't choose an individual Contact, so it's important that you have configured accounts with a Default SMS Contact. When Grain Trader version 3.3.23 is first installed, Admin users are prompted to have an automatic process applied which does this for all accounts that have only one Contact with a mobile phone number recorded, as described in the Consent section of the Prerequisites For SMS Messaging page of this documentation.

Begin by selecting any filter criteria required, as you would when printing a Listing Report or Mailing Labels. From the Output to drop-down list select Send SMS Messages:

When you select this format:

• Some options that have no logical meaning for SMS messaging are disabled;
• The Compose button is enabled and
• The Print button is disabled and its caption changes to Send SMS.

Click the Compose button to display the SMS Message window, configured for Batch mode:

In Batch mode:

• The window caption indicates that it is in Batch mode and
• Data entry elements for Country, Mobile Number and Map links are disabled

Enter the text you wish to send to all recipients. If you click Cancel you return to the Listing window but the Send SMS button is still disabled. If you click OK the Send SMS button is enabled. Click this button to send the messages without any further interaction, during which a progress bar is displayed:

If all messages are sent successfully a message box will advise that when finished. If a message fails a self-explanatory prompt will appear, for example:

Next: SMS Reporting →