[Under consideration] Web SMS

[cocayden]

http://maemo.org/community/brainstorm/view/telepathy_plugin_for_web_sms

I am looking at developing a plugin or application to allow for the use of web sms services on the maemo platform.

My thoughts so far are that a telepathy plugin could be created that would send sms's through a web based service and add the sent sms's to the normal sms outbox.

Does anybody have any experience with the apis for sms's or telepathy plugins?

Is anybody else interested in seeing this developed?

Thanks
cocayden

[quipper8]

seeing as google voice does sms, i think most people are probably going to be focusing towards that.

[gecebekcisi]

seeing as google voice does sms, i think most people are probably going to be focusing towards that.

As Google Voice is only available for users in the United States, we need a solution available globally.

[cocayden]

Unfortunately google voice is not available where I live or anywhere apart from the US as a far as I am aware.

I am simply trying to give users from outside the US another option for web sms'ing

[cocayden]

After more research it appears a number of providers provide a web address api. That allows messages to be sent by a specially crafted url. This would make creating a telepathy plugin a lot simpler as no protocol would have to be implemented. Messages would just have to be added to the sms sent box or a special sent messages box.

Do web sms providers in other countries use a similar api?

[bni]

I would find this useful. Currently I use a web based SMS service (http://sms.ballou.se). It is cheaper to by credits there than to send with my current GSM provider :D

I know they have a REST API for sending aswell but havent used it and dont know any details.

I also know there are places where you can send 1 free sms per day and so on, but I doutbt they have API:s

[Netweaver]

Any news on this ?

I need this feature badly as well.
As I'm mostly abroad and can't get a lot of times a local SIM card at a decent tariff as I don't have an offical address (Hotel X or Y doesn't really count). So I try to go for an IP only solution. I'm sure the telcos love this ... NOT :)

I'm looking into the (standard) telepathy but for now still a bit lost. I didn't really find the a single bit of code in there that deals with SMS. If someone has at least a pointer to the 'standard' Maemo 5 source code, that would be helpfull to understand how the pieces fit together.

Thanks.

[cocayden]

@Netweaver

I am looking at developing this when my n900 arrives.

The telepathy deals with text chat and from my understanding this is what is used for sms's. The main issue is how voip companies allow you to send an sms. Some allow using a simple url containing everything in the url, others use email to sms and some web interfaces. The provider i am looking at provides all three of these. Making it more difficult is the face that web interfaces are all different and finding a way to template these for different providers would prove difficult.

[frals]

Adding the SMS's to the Outbox might be as simple as adding them to the sqlite database in ~/.rtcom-eventlogger/el.db

About Telepathy, the docs for phone/SMS features haven't been published yet (afaik) (http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=319365&postcount=15), as I've been looking for them for a while now :) Last I heard they were delayed.. :P

[Netweaver]

@cocayden

Indeed, I was also looking into developing this.

Have a look in the work the colleagues from xda-developers. They are quite some steps ahead in creating a more or less generic solution.

Of course UI wise and backend are completely different, But at least the generics have been developed already.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321137&page=13

It looks like this package can be helpfull to get an idea on the current SMS implementation, at least on the backend side : http://maemo.org/packages/view/csd-sms/

From reading upon it, it looks D-Bus indeed but not the Telepathy framework.
We're out of luck on the backend code though, as per http://lwn.net/Articles/356825/

Maemo 5 uses a closed-source stack called the cellular service daemon (CSD), and Denis-Courmont said that oFono is unlikely to make it to Maemo 6 by launch time, either.

Free software purists may decry the N900 for its inclusion of proprietary code, including the CSD phone stack. Unlike other closed applications on Maemo devices, however, there has never been a free alternative, so oFono represents a big piece of the "purity" puzzle — even if it is several years from appearing in consumer devices. When asked by the audience why Nokia did not simply open up CSD, Denis-Courmont responded that the company was not satisfied with the code and preferred to write a proper open source solution from scratch, even if that takes time.

Maybe the frontend side is more open and we can learn some stuff from there. But I haven't found that package/code yet. Still looking. I have some real work as well to do sometimes :D

[allnameswereout]

There used to be CLI tools to send SMS using the web frontends. Then the CLI tools were blocked, and they started to mask as browser. Then the web frontends decided to use CAPTCHA, and I think that was the end of it.

For Windows Mobile there is a program called SMSoIP.

[ossipena]

i'll look into it probably tonight and see if saunasms could get ported. It is written as qt by a friend of mine. can be used with finnish operator saunalahti that has option of sending smses via their webpage with reasonable pricing. it means that if you are abroad and have wlan access, you get cheaper smses.

[toojays]

My VOIP provider has a SOAP API for sending SMS messages. (See <https://www.pennytel.com/api.pdf>). So sending the message is quite straightforward.

It's integrating with Contacts that I'm not sure how to do. Basically I want to add an "SMS via Pennytel" option for any mobile phone number assigned to a contact. Similar to the existing "SIP audio" call option which appears when you have a SIP account enabled. Can anyone tell me where this is handled?

[vintc]

Please, can I ask you...is there some app for sending sms via web, i mean wifi or gprs?! i know WWW2SMS, but it's not finish...please help..thanks :)

[jcompagner]

with webtexter application, you can already send sms over voip. it supports all voip betamaxclients like voipbuster and the like. The app has conversations intergration.

[toph]

I would also love to have well integrated web-sms. A lot of times I use sipgate for sending SMS (<8ct/SMS). Besides their web page they also have a well defined web-api (using xmlrpc) for their products. Programs interfacing with that api exist in python, perl, C, there's also a GPL'd Firefox-plugin.

My idea of a good implementation of this Brainstorm would be to hook directly into rtcomm like the telepathy plugins do. My dream implementation would least-cost-route SMS through the cheapest available channel with GSM as a fallback.

What we need is a "front-end" working somewhat like telepathy-haze: When you send an SMS this plug-in simply logs the message and gives it to the backend.

The backend should basically be a dbus service with a separate configuration-ui. If you didn't enter any accounts, it sends your message via GSM. Otherwise it should work much like WebTexter, integrating many online SMS services as plug-ins, optimally allowing you to set-up multiple accounts and chosing the cheapest one for sending your SMS.

I think WebTexter combined with more services (o2 germany seems to be provided by the package www2sms) is a very good starting point for our back-end.

[voltagex]

Think a little, how are you going to support every VOIP providers differing SMS API?

[Venomrush]

There is already such apps to uses your free SMS from your operator.
It's called www2sms you can get it from extras-devel, see details here http://maemo.org/packages/view/www2sms/

Usual warning for installing apps from devel applies.

[ossipena]

i'll look into it probably tonight and see if saunasms could get ported. It is written as qt by a friend of mine. can be used with finnish operator saunalahti that has option of sending smses via their webpage with reasonable pricing. it means that if you are abroad and have wlan access, you get cheaper smses.

That needs major rewriting with ui. progress is really slow.

It seems to work though but using it is really painful.

[Shane Kerr]

I'm working with the www2sms developer, since I think it is a good proof-of-concept. We have support for another web provider added, and are looking at how to access the address book as well as log text messages.

Ultimately we should use the telepathy framework, which doesn't look that scary. My starting point will probably be here:

http://telepathy.freedesktop.org/wiki/Python%20Example

[matrim]

I'm the original developer of webtexter, and the thread starter (cocayden) has helped provide support for a provider called exetel.

The first goal was to allow the sending of web sms easily which I hope I've done for the supported providers. Similar to what Shane said above the ultimate goal would be to have some kind of telepathy plugin but I don't know enough about it to do one. But if someone started one I'd be willing to try add support for some of the providers that webtexter supports.

[gri]

Hello,

I've created another project called Web2SMS. It's main goal is portability on most platforms. But I'm also interested in a telepathy plugin for websms with clean interface for all our providers.

For those who want to blame me creating a new SMS tool project, please read my release notes (https://garage.maemo.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=5308) first.

I'm not going to compete with webtexter.

[matrim]

That looks interesting gri. I had considered QT when I started webtexter but because I felt the documentation was better for GTK I went for that.

The fact you integrate with the webtexter providers is very interesting, and could possibly allow for us to join forces to try get one app that can do as many providers as possible.

[superg05]

i would have thought people would have been looking for a web based mms solution seeing as sms can be sent from phone and most mobile providers via there websites

[matrim]

i would have thought people would have been looking for a web based mms solution

It's called e-mail ;)


seeing as sms can be sent from phone and most mobile providers via there websites

Webtexter and web2sms use the providers website to send the sms, but simplify the process by auto logging in and allowing you to access your phone's contacts, save sent messages etc.

[Dosenblech]

Hello,

I've created another project called Web2SMS. It's main goal is portability on most platforms. But I'm also interested in a telepathy plugin for websms with clean interface for all our providers.

For those who want to blame me creating a new SMS tool project, please read my release notes (https://garage.maemo.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=5308) first.

I'm not going to compete with webtexter.

Hello grid,
I have just installed the app and it works absolutely perfect.
thanks a lot!!!!
:)

[Roxpike]

I got an idea for this maybe will help, there's a web site where you can send free sms to any number around the world http://for-ever.us/ there's any posibility of using this ulr with a program to send web sms without using a browser?

[gri]

I got an idea for this maybe will help, there's a web site where you can send free sms to any number around the world http://for-ever.us/ there's any posibility of using this ulr with a program to send web sms without using a browser?

Nice service. Did you try it? I don't trust sites without any legal information or company details.

[badstraw]

confirmed, that site works to send sms in my country I have sent like 4 without any problem...

[Roxpike]

Do I...is from an university in liverpool... so will be work?

[Hariainm]

@gri

are considering add new sms web servers, like mjoy.com, wadja.com (registration needed, but works, used by me for years) or for-ever.us?