Import To Send SMS
- Peter Humphries (Deactivated)
- Shea Johns (Deactivated)
- Evan Warburton (Deactivated)
Overview of the Feature
Import to Send provides a fast and easy way to send SMS messages or Email messages to a large list of recipients that is not maintained with the contact records of our application. The sending process runs in the background and provides a progress indicator.
The process now has five different structure of import files. This gives you greater flexibility on how you can construct the message you send and allow you to send from more than one AppSender per file imported.
Navigation
Click on the Import To Send left menu item;
Import To Send Job Overview
This is the initial page of the import to send feature and shows the list of prior import to send records created.
Each line shows the total number of rows in the file imported - the total number of recipients that passed the number validation process, the total send at the time you displayed the page and finally the status of the sending process for each import file.
If the send process has not started you can cancel it by clicking on the cancel link. A cancelled job can be restarted.
Create New Import Send Process
The image below shows the form for creating an ImportToSend record that represents your import to send job.
Import To Send Fields and Form Completion;
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Select an Import Type | The options are "Import to Send SMS" and "Import to Email". |
| Country | This defines the Recipient Mobile Number validation process which differs by country. You can only import to send to one country destination at a time. |
| Message | Required for File Type 2 and 3. Not required for file type 1 if the message is defined in column 2 of the file. For File type 2 and 3 you can insert replacement tokens using {{}} eg for a column in the file call "Name" in the header row you can use replacement token {{Name}} in the message. Note If you put replace tokens in the message that are not in the file the messages will fail validation. |
| SMS Expires In | This sets what we call the validity period for the SMS message. It is the length of time the Carrier will attempt to deliver the message if the recipient handset is not available to receive the message. Max is two days. |
| Scheduled | Here you can set a Date and Time you wish the messages to start sending - leave this set as it is to send immediately. |
| Country | This defines the Recipient Mobile Number validation process which differs by country. You can only import to send to one country destination at a time. |
| Source Address | Select a source address option - these will include
This box displays the value from the AppSender record "Source Address" and it can only be edited here. If left blank your message will be set with a source address selected from a pool of numbers in our system. Reply messaging will work in this scenario. ie a message recipient will be able to reply to the message and the message will show in your message history in this application. Whether or not the message will be forwarded to you depends on the configuration in this system. It is possible that in scenario 1 above you will be forwarded an inbound message but it will not be forwarded to you in scenario 2. Please confirm us to confirm your setup. if the "Source Text Edit" box contains a "Name" then the message cannot be replied to by the recipient. |
| Exclude Duplicate Destinations | If checked the system will remove duplicate recipient mobile numbers from your imported list. the first number will be kept and the following number removed. Numbers removed are included in the import file errors list sent to you via email. |
| Exclude OptOpts | If checked the system will remove any destinations match to your contacts database (match my mobile number) that are flagged for OptOut. Destinations removed are included in the import file errors list sent to you via email. |
| Split into Batches | Check or uncheck this box to choose if you wish to split your import file in batches they are sent spread by the batch interval time. This will in effect slow the sending down for you. For example you may wish to send 100,000 messages - but the message content maybe initiate the recipient to call your call centre. Your call centre may have limited capacity to respond so you may choose to split this 100,000 messages into batches of size 10,000 and send one batch every 1 hour from the start date time. The system will then create 10 import to send records each with 10,000 recipients and each spaced 1 hour apart. This is required for File Type 3 as this file is split into batches and we need a Batch Interval defined by you. You can set the batch size such that the file will only be split by IntegrationId and not by qty of recipients. |
| Batch Size | The number of recipients your want in each batch |
| Batch Interval | The duration in time between the send for each batch. |
| Import File Type | There are three import file types; Type 1 - Number, Message - This file type can be one or two columns in CSV format. First column is mobile number for the message recipient and second columns is the message content for that message recipient, The second column is optional. If the message is not defined in the second column the message content in the form above will be used. If the message is not in either location message validation will fail and the message will not be sent. Type 2 - Number, ReplacementText1, ReplacementText2, ReplacementText3 etc - This file type can have multiple columns, allowing fields to be inserted into your message: In this case the message content must be defined in the Form field "Message" For example your import file can contain columns with the header column names; Number, Name, Policy, Product_Type, Website, CompanyName. In your message you may then use the following replacement tokens; {{Name}} {{Policy}} {{Product_Type}} {{Website}} {{CompanyName}}. So you message content might be "Dear {{Name}}, referring to the your Policy No {{Policy}} for {{Product_Type}}, from {{CompanyName}}, please call us to renew it." Note that we have not used column Webstie. This is OK. However if we were to put the token {{expiryDate}} into the message the validation process will fail as expiryDate is not defined in the import file. Type 3 - AppSender.IntegrationId, Number, ReplacementText1, ReplacementText2, ReplacementText3 etc - File Type 3 is the same as Type 2 but allows the user to send messages for Multiple AppSender Accounts in the one file. If you are logged in as Reseller user these appsender accounts can be for different customer accounts as long as the customer accounts belong to your reseller account. The link between the Name/Id in the first column of the import file and the AppSender record in our system is the AppSender.IntegrationId field of our AppSender Record. If these values don't match the lines will fail validation and will be returned to your in the error file attached the email you get sent with the import results defined. General The numbers are validated on import and can be in format 614, 04 or 4 for Australian numbers, 642 02 and 2 for New Zealand numbers . For 04 and 4 numbers, 61 is appended on import. For validation for other countries contact support for details. Message content on import is also validated for each import row. The import file name must be unique; The import file must contain column headers for each column See Below for some examples; |
| Send Test Message | It is highly recommended that you send a test message to yourself when using file type 2 or 3. Put your mobile number in the Test Recipient field and and click on the send test message button. This process will also validate the data in your form. |
Import to Send File Types
Type1 - Number/Message
This file type can be one or two columns in CSV format. First column is mobile number for the message recipient and second columns is the message content for that message recipient, The second column is optional. If the message is not defined in the second column the message content the form above will be used.
Type 2 - Number, ReplacementText1, ReplacementText2, ReplacementText3 etc -
This file type can have multiple columns, allowing fields to be inserted into your message:
As a minimum it must have the first column as the mobile number (header name can be anything ) and one ReplacementText column.
See the example below: The message replacement tokens for this file would be {{Name}} {{PolicyNo}} {{Website}} etc
Type 3 - AppSender.IntegrationId, Number, ReplacementText1, ReplacementText2, ReplacementText3 etc
Example a file for FileType 3, IntegrationId must be in the first column and Moblie number in the second column. You must have at least 1 replacementtext column.
The column names for column 1 and 2 can be anything except blank or not defined.
The image below shows the AppSender record and the field which must match the name in column one of the import file.
In the case above you would need 4 AppsSenders set up with the different integration ids of . evanid, johnid, loid, and peterid
