ActiveXperts SMS and MMS Toolkit Add SMS and MMS capabilities to any Windows or .NET application

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Using the SMS and MMS Toolkit with Visual C++ 5.x/6.x

The SMS and MMS Toolkit is a software development kit (SDK) to enhance an application or script with SMS, MMS and Pager functionality. SMS messages can be sent using a GSM/GPRS modem, an SMPP provider, an HTTP compliant SMS provider or using a standard dialup or fixed-line SMS modem. MMS messages can be sent via a GSM/GPRS modem (MM1), an SMTP server (MM4) or an XML/SOAP compliant provider (MM7).

SMS features:

  • Send and receive numeric- and alphanumeric text SMS messages
  • Verify delivery of outgoing SMS messages
  • Support for multimedia SMS messages, including ringtones, pictures and logo's
  • Support for WAP Push, WAP Bookmarks, vCards, voicemail/e-mail/fax/MMS indications
  • Support for Unicode, to support foreign languages like Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, etc.
  • Support for multi-part messages, to allow messages longer than 160 characters
  • Support for GSM modems, GSM phones, SMS/HTTP providers, SMPP (Short Message Peer to Peer) providers, TAP/XIO and UCP dial-in SMSC providers
  • Support Multi-threading environments. The component is thread-safe, which means it can be used in a multi-threaded environment
  • Samples included for various development platforms: MS Visual Basic, MS Visual Basic .NET, MS Visual C++, MS Visual Studio C# .NET, ASP, ASP .NET, Borland Delphi, Borland C++ Builder, Windows Powershell ColdFusion and more

MMS features:

  • Support for many multimedia formats incl.: JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP, TIF, WAV, MP3, MIDI, AC3, GP3, AVI, MPG, MP4, VCARD, VCALENDAR, JAR and more
  • Support for MM1 (MMS over WAP), MM4 (MMS over SMTP) and MM7 (MMS over HTML/SOAP)

Pager features:

  • Send alpha-numeric Pager messages through SNPP

This document describes how the SMS and MMS Toolkit can be integrated into Visual Studio C++ 5.x/6.x projects.

Step 1: Download and install the SMS and MMS Toolkit

Download the SMS and MMS Toolkit from the ActiveXperts Download Site and start the installation. The installation guides you through the installation process.

Step 2: Create a new Visual C++ project

Launch 'Microsoft Visual C++' from the Start menu, and choose 'New' from the 'File Menu'. The 'New' dialog appears.

Select the type of project (for instance: 'Win32 Console Application'), enter a 'Project name' and select the 'Location':

Visual C

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Select the kind of project, for instance a 'Hello, world!' application and click 'Finish':

Visual C

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Step 3: Refer to the SMS and MMS Toolkit Library

A new Project is created now.

Before you can use the SMS and MMS Toolkit, you need to refer to the SMS and MMS Toolkit library. The actually reference files are shipped with the product and are located in the following directory: 

C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\SMS and MMS Toolkit\Samples\Visual C++\Include

Copy all files in the above directory ('AXmsCtrl.h', 'AXmsCtrl_i.c' and 'ASmsConstants.h') to your project directory.

Step 4: Declare and create the objects

Since the SMS and MMS Toolkit is a COM object, you must initialize the COM library before they can call COM library functions (e.g. SMS and MMS Toolkit functions): 

CoInitialize(NULL);

On top of your code, declare the following objects:

ISmsProtocolHttp     *pHttpProtocol  = NULL;
ISmsMessage          *pSmsMessage    = NULL;

Create the objects in the following way:

CoCreateInstance( CLSID_SmsProtocolHttp, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ISmsProtocolHttp, (void**) &pHttpProtocol );
CoCreateInstance( CLSID_SmsMessage, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ISmsMessage, (void**) &pSmsMessage );

Step 5: Send SMS messages

You can now send SMS messages.

The following code shows how to send a SMS message:

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

#include <comdef.h>

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

void CDemoDlg::OnButtonSend() 
{
  BSTR bstrMessageRef = NULL;

  UpdateData ( TRUE );

  if ( m_pSmsProtocolHttp == NULL )
  {
    AfxMessageBox ( _T("Failed to load AXmsCtrl.dll") );
    return;
  }

  BSTR  bstrTemp    = NULL;
  LONG  lLastError  = 0L;

  AfxGetApp ()->DoWaitCursor ( 1 );

  GetDlgItem ( IDC_BUTTON_SEND ) -> EnableWindow ( FALSE );

  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->Clear ();

  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->put_LogFile                  ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strLogFile    ) );
  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->put_ProviderHost             ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strHostName   ) );
  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->put_ProviderPort             ( _ttol   ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strHostPort   ) );
  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->put_URLText                  ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strUrlText    ) );
  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->put_URLUnicode               ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strUrlUnicode ) );
  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->put_ProviderSuccessResponse  ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strSuccess    ) );

  m_pSmsMessage->put_Data                          ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strMessage    ) );
  m_pSmsMessage->put_Sender                        ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strSender     ) );
  m_pSmsMessage->put_Recipient                     ( _bstr_t ( ( LPCTSTR ) m_strRecipient  ) );
	
  if ( m_comboType.GetCurSel () == 1 )
  {
    m_pSmsMessage->put_Format ( asMESSAGEFORMAT_UNICODE );
  }
  else
  {
    m_pSmsMessage->put_Format ( asMESSAGEFORMAT_TEXT );
  }

  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->Send( &_variant_t ( ( IDispatch*) m_pSmsMessage ), &bstrMessageRef );

  AfxGetApp ()->DoWaitCursor ( 0 );

  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->get_LastError ( &lLastError );

  if ( lLastError == 0L )
  {
    m_strResult = "SUCCESS";
  }
  else
  {
    m_pSmsProtocolHttp->GetErrorDescription ( lLastError, &bstrTemp );
    m_strResult.Format ( _T("ERROR #%ld (%ls)"), lLastError, bstrTemp );
    SysFreeString ( bstrTemp );
  }

  m_pSmsProtocolHttp->get_ProviderResponse ( &bstrTemp );
  m_strResponse = bstrTemp;
  SysFreeString ( bstrTemp );

  GetDlgItem ( IDC_BUTTON_SEND ) -> EnableWindow ( TRUE );

  UpdateData ( FALSE );

  if( bstrMessageRef != NULL )
     SysFreeString( bstrMessageRef );
}

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

There are many working samples included with the product. You can also find them on the ActiveXperts FTP site: ftp.activexperts-labs.com/samples/mobile-messaging-component.