Using The SMS and MMS Toolkit with Visual Basic 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 Basic 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 Basic project

Launch 'Microsoft Visual Basic' from the Start menu, and choose 'New' from the 'File Menu'. The 'New Project' dialog appears.
Select 'Standard Exe' and click 'OK':

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Step 3: Refer to the SMS and MMS Toolkit Library

A new Project is created, with a blank form.

First, you must add a reference to the SMS and MMS Toolkit in the project to be able to use the SMS objects. To do so, choose 'References...' from the 'Project' menu. In the 'References' dialog that pops up, enable the ActiveXperts SMS and MMS Toolkit Type Library' reference as shown in the following picture:

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Click 'OK' to close the 'References...' dialog.

Then, select the Project form and choose 'View Code' from the context menu:

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Step 4: Declare and create the objects

On top of your code, declare the following objects for SMPP:

Dim objSmppProtocol As AXmsCtrl.SmsProtocolSmpp
Dim objSmsMessage   As AXmsCtrl.SmsMessage
Dim objSmsConstants As AXmsCtrl.SmsConstants

From the Code window, select 'Form'. The Private Sub 'Form_Load()' will be displayed now.

In the 'Form Load' function, create the SMS objects in the following way:

Set objSmppProtocol    = CreateObject("ActiveXperts.SmsProtocolSmpp")
Set objSmsMessage      = CreateObject("ActiveXperts.SmsMessage")
Set objSmsConstants    = CreateObject("ActiveXperts.SmsConstants")

Step 5: Send SMS messages

The following code shows how to send an SMS message:

Option Explicit

Private Declare Function GetTempPath Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetTempPathA" (ByVal nBufferLength As Long, ByVal lpBuffer As String) As Long
Private Const MAX_PATH = 260

Public objSmppProtocol As AXmsCtrl.SmsProtocolSmpp
Public objSmsMessage As AXmsCtrl.SmsMessage
Public objSmsConstants As AXmsCtrl.SmsConstants
Public objStatus As AXmsCtrl.SmsDeliveryStatus

Private Sub Connect_Click()
    
    MousePointer = vbHourglass
    
    objSmppProtocol.Server = TextServer.Text
    objSmppProtocol.SystemID = TextSystemID.Text
    objSmppProtocol.SystemPassword = TextPassword.Text
    objSmppProtocol.SystemType = TextSystemType.Text
    objSmppProtocol.ServerPort = TextServerPort.Text
    objSmppProtocol.LogFile = TextLogFile.Text
    objSmppProtocol.ServerKeepAlive = 60
    objSmppProtocol.ServerTimeout = 5000
    'objSmppProtocol.SystemVersion = objSmsConstants.asSMPPVERSION_34
    objSmppProtocol.SystemMode = objSmsConstants.asSMPPMODE_TRANSMITTER
    
    objSmppProtocol.Connect
    
    If GetResult = 0 Then
    
        TextRecipient.Enabled = True
        TextMessage.Enabled = True
        ListView1.Enabled = True
        Disconnect.Enabled = True
        Connect.Enabled = False
        Send.Enabled = True
    End If
    
    MousePointer = vbDefault
    
End Sub
Private Function Disc()
    
    MousePointer = vbHourglass
    
    objSmppProtocol.Disconnect
    
    TextRecipient.Enabled = False
    TextMessage.Enabled = False
    ListView1.Enabled = False
    Disconnect.Enabled = False
    Connect.Enabled = True
    Send.Enabled = False
    
    MousePointer = vbDefault
End Function

Private Sub Disconnect_Click()
    Disc
End Sub

Private Function SetDefaultLogFile()

Dim Buffer As String
Buffer = Space(MAX_PATH)

If GetTempPath(MAX_PATH, Buffer) <> 0 Then
    TextLogFile.Text = Left$(Buffer, InStr(Buffer, vbNullChar) - 1) & "SmppLog.txt"
Else
    TextLogFile.Text = "C:\SmppLog.txt"
End If

End Function
Private Sub Form_Load()

Set objSmppProtocol = CreateObject("ActiveXperts.SmsProtocolSmpp")
Set objSmsMessage   = CreateObject("ActiveXperts.SmsMessage")
Set objSmsConstants = CreateObject("ActiveXperts.SmsConstants")

SetDefaultLogFile

End Sub

Private Function GetResult() As Long
    
    Dim lResult As Long
    
    lResult = objSmppProtocol.LastError                                ' Get Last Error
        
    TextResult.Text = "ERROR " & objSmppProtocol.LastError & " ( " & objSmppProtocol.GetErrorDescription(lResult) & " )"     ' Set Result
    
    GetResult = lResult
    
End Function

Private Sub Send_Click()

    Dim strReference

    If objSmppProtocol.IsConnected = False Then
        Disconnect_Click
    End If
        
    objSmsMessage.Recipient = TextRecipient.Text
    objSmsMessage.Data = TextMessage.Text
    objSmsMessage.Format = objSmsConstants.asMESSAGEFORMAT_TEXT

    objSmppProtocol.LogFile = TextLogFile.Text
    
    strReference = objSmppProtocol.Send( objSmsMessage )
    
    If GetResult = 0 Then
    
         Dim lList As ListItem
      
         Set lList = ListView1.ListItems.Add(, , strReference)     ' Add data to list control
        
         lList.SubItems(1) = objSmsMessage.Recipient
         lList.SubItems(2) = "n/a"
         lList.SubItems(3) = "Submitted"
    End If
End Sub

Private Function Query()
    Dim i As Integer
         
    If objSmppProtocol.IsConnected = False Then
        Disconnect_Click
    End If
    
    
    For i = 1 To ListView1.ListItems.Count
    
        Dim lList As ListItem
        
        Set lList = ListView1.ListItems(i)
        
        If lList.SubItems(2) = "n/a" Then
            
            On Error Resume Next
            Set objStatus objSmppProtocol.QueryStatus ( ListView1.ListItems(i).Text )
            On Error Goto 0
            
            If objSmppProtocol.LastError = 0 Then
                                
                lList.SubItems(2) = objStatus.StatusCompletedTime
                lList.SubItems(3) = objStatus.StatusDescription
                
            End If
        End If
    Next
End Function

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    Query
End Sub

Private Sub Form1_Unload()
    Disc
End Sub

Private Sub View_Click()
    If FileExists(TextLogFile.Text) = True Then
    Shell "notepad " + TextLogFile.Text, vbNormalFocus
    End If
End Sub

Public Function FileExists(sFileName As String) As Boolean
  FileExists = CBool(Len(Dir$(sFileName))) And CBool(Len(sFileName))
End Function

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.

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