Internet usage has dramatically increased over the last few years, and today we hardly imagine our lives without it. With approximately 1.8 billion websites registered online as of 2021, it can be challenging to keep customers. Therefore, developers employ strategies to keep users informed; one of them is text messaging integration.
The most popular method for sending emails that are created by a system is called Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Different libraries offer SMTP services based on the backend programming language. Using PHPMailer and SwiftMailer for PHP apps, for example, and Nodemailer for Node.js applications
However, the focus of this tutorial is on how to send SMS texts. I will be using 3rd party application to act as the middleman between the Mail server and the mobile phone.
The above illustration shows a 2-way communication line in The blue arrow illustrates how an SMS is received from the mobile network and sent to an email client (like Outlook) via an email server using the SMTP protocol. Of course, you may disregard the blue arrows if all you're interested in is email forwarding.
It calls for two things:
You don't need PHP if all you need to do is send an SMS. Assume, for instance, that your phone number is 5555551234 and that Verizon Wireless Network is your network provider (A large network provider in US and Canada). Then You can send the message by entering 5555551234@vtext.com in your email client. The recipient of the text message is +1 (555) 555-1234.
PHPMailer or PHP's mail function can be used to achieve the same using PHP. I'm going to use PHP's mail function as an example (You can check the documentation for more details). The function's signature is as follows:
1 bool mail (strings "$to," "$subject," "$message," "$additional headers," "$additional parameters")
Now run the edit function signature and add it to our PHP code:
1\s2\s3
This is the simplest way, but when you receive the text message in the message header, it will display the message is from Gmail. You can go with an alternate SMS Gateway
such as Ozeki SMS Gateway to prevent that.
3. We must install a package in order to communicate with the MessageBird API provider.
require messagebird/php-rest-api in composer
4. You can include an HTML form to collect the recipient's phone number and email, but because our attention is on the backend, I will offer it manually.
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'USE YOUR PHONE REGISTERED WITH MESSAGEBIRD HERE' as the originator; Set the SMS message's sender in the code. The reply from the API will be stored in this response object. $message->recipients = [$recipient]; $message->body = $sms; $response = $messageBird->messages->create($message);
echo $e; catch(Exception $e)?>
You can use the Live API key to obtain the actual message after testing the code with the Test API key. To verify You can print the $responce object, which has the API response, to see the message's delivery status.
3. Making use of the Multi-Channel Notification API
Multi-channel notification services (MNS), as the name suggests, use a standardised API to send alerts across a variety of channels (such as emails, text messages, push notifications, WhatsApp, Slack, etc.). Courier is made to accomplish that. It has a uniform API to notify users of all the channels, and it has real-time logs and analytics where you can monitor the performance of all the channels.
Send SMS Using PHP
Even though this tutorial is about sending text messages, there are some factors we need to take into consideration when we However, this can scale into other notification channels if new requirements arise, as demonstrated in the example above.
You must first visit the website, register, and complete the initial setup.
Log in with your Gmail address.
2. After creating a new notification, you can see a preview of how it will look on the recipient's mobile device.
3. Construct a courier SDK:
Composer must use courier or try courier
Courier will produce the PHP code on its own for your notification. It can be copied and pasted using the Send tab. It will seem as follows:
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sendEnhancedNotification(\s (object) (object) [\s 'to' => ['phone number'] = "RECIPIENT NUMBER HERE", ['template'] = "F3Q0EWXH5W4S70H4CS99695STCYX", ['data'] = echo($result->requestId);?> ['recipientName' => "Indrajith", ], ]);
The queued, dispatched, delivered, opened, clicked, and undeliverable statuses of the SMS message can be seen in the Logs section of the Courier dashboard. If there are any mistakes in the delivery pipeline, the courier will also let you know when they happened.
Making your own decisions is crucial in today's software scalability This scalability is provided by multi-channel notification services, which also keep your codebase tidy. This is a huge bonus because business needs and technological advancements are constantly evolving.
Second, drag-and-drop template builders are accessible through sites like Courier, which can save you a tonne of time. Real-time logs and analytics also assist firms in monitoring and evaluating performance.
The drawbacks of multi-channel notification services are comparable to those covered in the SMS APIs discussion. Each benefit has a corresponding expense (But in Courier, they have free plans up to 10000 notifications per month). Additionally, there is once more outside interference. You rely on a third-party service to send notifications all across the channels.
This article discussed Three ways are available in a PHP web application to send text messages. The advantages and disadvantages of SMTP to SMS, SMS API, and multi-channel notification services have been covered, and you may choose the approach to take based on your time and financial constraints.
