Connection Software


         Connection Software

Sending SMS Text Messages Web Service
Email (SMTP) API

With the email API you can send text messages to one, or hundreds, of recipients at once. The email API is simple to use, quick to setup and compatible with almost any application, script or programming language that can generate an email with a specific to, subject and message body.

Which email format should I use?

You can use any of these e-mail formats. Each has been designed to meet a common need and offers different facilities. Choose the one that best meets your requirements. Call us if you would like to discuss the options and get our advice.

Simple Email Input API
Just send an email to <phone_number>@itsarrived.net and the subject and body of the email becomes the text message that is sent to <phone_number>.

Format 1 API
This is most useful for sending different messages to different users in one email.

Format 2 API
This is ideal for sending the same message to many users or where you need advanced options like delayed delivery

Format 3 API
Similar to Format2, but with the ability to send non-textual content such as Nokia OTA picture messages, operator logos and RTTTL ringtones.

Format 4 API
Designed to send multimedia, but also plain text, messages. Ideal for sending a message and an image together, for example.

Authentication Information

You will be sent a Username, a Password and a PIN when you create an account with us. For example Username= ANOther.61234 , Password= BLUE.Music , PIN= 123456 . Use your Username and Password to access your online account area where you can purchase credit, review your account and check the status of messages you have sent. Use your Username and PIN for this API as instructed below.

As well as your Username and PIN we also check the e-mail to make sure that it came from the usual PC that you use to send massages. The first time you send us an e-mail containing SMS messages, we profile the email and extract some "fingerprint" information that helps us identify your particular system. We then check all subsequent e-mails against this profile before accepting them. As a result you must send all emails from one particular PC or system. Should you decide to change or upgrade the PC, let us know and we will clear the profile until your next email arrives.

This is done to reduce the chance of fraudulent use of your account.

Character Sets

The server will send the first 160 characters of the text message (as defined by the API below). If the text message contains any characters that are not part of the default GSM character set, such as international character sets, the message is limited to 70 unicode characters. Any characters over this limit will be truncated.

Test Numbers

Once you have an account, you can test the system without spending any money by sending messages to test numbers in the range 4477009 00000 to 4477009 99999. Messages to these numbers will be processed in the normal way but

  • They will not be charged to your account
  • They will be visible to you online in the Message History
  • They will not be passed to any network operator.
  • You must have credit to use these numbers, though you will not be charged.

See the Test Numbers page for more details.

Email Templates

If you are using Outlook 2000/2003 to compose the emails for sending SMS or MMS messages using our API's then you can significantly speed up the process by creating a template for the email message and assigning it to a toolbar icon. The whole process takes less than ten minutes to set-up and will save you alot of time and effort.

See the Creating An Email To SMS/MMS API Outlook Template page for more details.

Simple Email Input API

With Simple Email Input you just send an email to <mobile/cell number>@itsarrived.net and the subject plus body of the email with be delivered as a text message to <mobile/cell number>. This makes it particularly easy to send an SMS message from applications such as Outlook or Outlook Express and is ideal for small offices that need a simple way to add text messaging facilities for staff, for example.

The mobile/cell phone number should be in full international format, including the country and area code. For example 447700912345 for a UK mobile.

In order to use the service you must first register those email addresses that you wish to permit to send messages using your account. You can do that from the Configure Services menu when you login to your account. Anyone sending an email from the email addresses you register will be able to send an SMS message which will be charged to your account.

Note that it is very easy to "spoof" email messages and anyone can, potentially, send SMS messages and charge them to your account if you decide to use this facility.

If a person with registered email address another@somecompany.com wants to send an SMS message to +447700912345 then they would send an email like this:

From: another@somecompany.com
To: 447700912345@itsarrived.net
Subject: Call the office

Please call Mary on 01234567 as she needs to know when you will be back.

When this is received by the server a plain text SMS message will be sent to the handset whose number is 447700912345 containing the text:

"Call the office Please call Mary on 01234567 as she needs to know when you will be back."

Email Format 1 API

This is useful for sending different messages to different users in the same email.

The To: is your account <Username>@itsarrived.net. For example ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net.

The subject line must contain the single word format1.

The body contains your PIN, the messages and their recipients in the following format:

Identifier=<PIN>
|<mobile/cell number1>|<message1>|
|<mobile/cell number2>|<message2>|
|<mobile/cell numberN>|<messageN>|

For example:

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format1

Identifier=123456
|4477009123456|Call the office urgently|
|4477009345678|How about a meal after work? Love from Jenny|

The first line must contain the tag Identifier= immediately followed by your PIN and a newline.

The second and subsequent lines are a list of telephone numbers and the messages you want to send. You must have three pipe characters "|" in each line, as shown, to delimit the different values.

The mobile/cell phone number should be in full international format, including the country and area code. For example 447700912345 for a UK mobile.

You must not have a blank line in the middle of the telephone number/message list. List processing stops at any blank line so as to ignore any "signature" at the end of the message. It's a good idea to leave a blank line after the last telephone number/message - this makes the end of the list unambiguous.

Each e-mail message can contain one, or hundreds, of such messages.

Email Format 2 API

This is useful for sending the same message to many users. Format 2 also offers the ability to set the delayed delivery and delivery service options.

The To: is your account <Username>@itsarrived.net. For example ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net.

The subject line must contain the single word format2

The body contains your PIN, delivery options, message and the recipients:

To: <Username>@itsarrived.net
Subject: format2

PIN=<PIN>
SendTimeDelay=<1...10080>
SendTimeAbsolute=<YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS>
DeliveryServiceOption=<PREMIER|ECONOMY|LEASTCOST|DEFAULT>
Message=<message>

<mobile/cell number1>
<mobile/cell number2>
<mobile/cell numberN>

For example:

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format2

PIN=123456
SendTImeDelay=120
DeliveryServiceOption=Premier
Message=Ritzy Nightclub next Sat special guest star Tiny Tim
and his magic cucumber. Admission £2 or £1 with
this SMS. Call 0800 123 456 for info :)

4477009123456
077009 234 567
077009-987654
077009 12 34 56
+447700912345
447700954321

The first line must contain the text PIN= immediately followed by your PIN and a newline.

If you wish to delay a message then you can, optionally, use the tag "SendTimeDelay" OR the tag "SendTimeAbsolute"

SendTimeDelay is followed by a number indicating the number of minutes that the message should be delayed. The value must be between 1 minute and 10080 minutes (7 days) for example SendTimeDelay=30 will delay the message for 30 minutes.

SendTimeAbsolute is followed by the date and time in the future when you want the message sent. This can be in UTC (GMT) or can specify the offset from UTC and has a maximum delay of 7 days. The general format is SendTimeAbsolute=YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS±HH:MM for example

SendTimeAbsolute=2003-12-25T07:30:00
SendTimeAbsolute=2003-12-25T07:30:00-05:00

The first example will send the messages on 25 December 2003 at 07:30 GMT. The second example will send the message on 25 December 2003 at 07:30 local time where local time is 5 hours earlier than GMT.

If you wish to change the Delivery Service Option then you can, optionally, use the tag "DeliveryServiceOption". The values are ‘PREMIER’, ‘ECONOMY’, ‘LEASTCOST’, ‘DEFAULT’ (case insensitive). When not specified, an unrecognised value is passed, or ‘DEFAULT’ is selected, the setting on the website account is used.

The next line must start Message= is followed by your message which may be split over multiple lines. It will be truncated at 160 characters.

You must leave at least one blank line after the message and then list the mobile phone numbers, one per line. The mobile/cell phone number should be in full international format, including the country and area code. For example 447700912345 for a UK mobile.

You must not have a blank line in the middle of the telephone number list. List processing stops at any blank line so as to ignore any "signatures" at the end of the message. It's a good idea to leave a blank line after the last telephone number - this makes the end of the number list unambiguous.

Each e-mail message can contain one, hundreds or thousands of recipients.

Email Format 3 API

This is useful for sending picture messages, operator logos and ringtones.

The subject line of the e-mail must contain the single word format3. The content of the body of the e-mail depends on whether you wish to send Text, a Picture Message, Group Graphic, Operator Logo or Ringtone.

The structure consists of four blocks:

  1. Block #1- PIN line which may also have additional options to set the DeliveryServiceOption and ReplyTo values
  2. Block #2 - a line defining the message type e.g. Message=, GroupGraphic=, OperatorLogo= or Ringtone=
  3. Block #3 - a line, or lines, that define a recipient and the parameters associated with that recipient. The SendTo tag must be the last tag in each block.
  4. Block #4 - End

Block #3 can be repeated multiple times to send the Message, Group Graphic, Operator Logo or Ringtone to multiple recipients.

MCC & MNC codes can be found on our coverage tables.

Here are some examples:

Format 3 for a Text Message

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format3

PIN=123456
DeliveryServiceOption=Premier
ReplyTo=csoft.co.uk
Message=text to send followed by a blank line

SendTo=4477009123456
End

Format 3 for a Picture Message

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format3

PIN=123456
Message=text to send followed by a blank line

PictureMessage=10014
SendTo=4477009123456
End

Format 3 for a Group Graphic

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format3

PIN=123456
GroupGraphic=10147
SendTo=4477009123456
End

Format 3 for a Operator Logo

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format3

PIN=123456
OperatorLogo=40160
PhoneMake=Nokia
MCC=234
MNC=33
SendTo=4477009123456
End

Format 3 for a Ringtone from the library

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format3

PIN=123456
Ringtone=73337
PhoneMake=Nokia
SendTo=4477009123456
End

Format 3 for a Ringtone from an RTTTL or RTX string

To: ANOther.61234@itsarrived.net
Subject: format3

PIN=123456
Ringtone=songname:d=8, o=5, s=n, l=2, b=250:a,b,c,d,e,f,g
PhoneMake=Nokia
SendTo=4477009123456
End

Email Confirmation

How do I know if the messages were processed?

When we process an email message from you using any of the email API's we will send a reply to you with details of how we handled each message. If all the messages were processed successfully you will get an email like this:

This is an automated response to your e-mail submission of 1
text message sent to It's Arrived at Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:00:18 -0000.

All of your messages have been processed.

You can view the delivery status of the messages by logging onto the website
http://sms.csoft.co.uk/extranet.

Do not hesitate to ask for help if you require it.

If any of your messages were not processed successfully you will receive an e-mail like this:

This is an automated response to your e-mail submission of 1
text message sent to It's Arrived at Wed, 31 Oct 2001 11:07:08 -0000.

One of your messages has not been processed and is shown below. Do not hesitate to ask for help if you require it.

Report #185 - Insufficient Credit to Send Message
The messages below were not sent because you ran out of credit.
Please cut and paste them into an e-mail and send them to <Username>@itsarrived.net
after you have purchased more credit.

---------- Cut below here ----------
PIN=123456789
Message=testing format 2

07700912345
---------- Cut above here ----------

What does "Report Code 38 - Wrong PIN" mean?

Each PIN is associated with a particular email sending program and email user. Each email that arrives is checked to see that it is coming from the usual email program (such as Outlook) and user (such as "Ade Oyeniyi"). If you have multiple users on different computers then each of them needs to use a different PIN. Just make a support request for a new PIN and one will be sent to you free of charge.

SMS This page was last modified at 13:50 UTC on Tuesday April 15, 2008