Firetext (SMS Messages)

Created by Martin Parkinson, Modified on Tue, 12 Dec, 2023 at 4:30 PM by Graeme Orchard

Overview

Influence now has the ability to integrate with FIRETEXT, a great SMS facility, which you can now use from within your Influence Database.

Firetext is our preferred supplier because of advanced features such as SMS scheduling, ability to attach PDF documents an SMS message and the ability to upload a database of names/mobile numbers, so that replies can show the NAME of the responder.

See more at www.firetext.co.uk

How to Sign Up

THE BASIC PROCESS IS -

Step 1:

Get in touch with your Influence accounts manager to enquire about this service and purchase an SMS licence for your Influence database if you do not already have this.

Step 2:

Contact FIRETEXT - You will need to setup and account with FIRETEXT and you will be able to manage the purchase of SMS credits from there.

Step 3:

Once you have details of your FIRETEXT account contact Influence with those details and we will put them into your database so that the two systems talk to each other.

(Or follow the instructions below to add the details of your account yourselves.)

NOTE: If you want us (Influence) to setup the details for you, you will need to send us your API KEY, Username (Login), Password and VMN (Virtual Mobile Number/Reply No. allocated to you by Firetext - If applicable)

Alternatively you can go to Maintenance > Setup > Parameters then open the JNL - Journals parameter set and simply enter the details in there yourself.

Contents (Click on an item to jump to that section)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

System Setup
User Setup - Additional Information
Uploading names/numbers
TROUBLESHOOTING
- Authentication Error

System Setup

You will need to login to Influence as the UserID "ADM" and then go to Maintenance > Setup > Parameters
Choose File > Open and select the relevant parameters.

Below are the parameters you will need to set to use Firetext as your SMS provider.

Parameter	Setting	Details
Journals, Flag(10)	F	Use this to indicate Firextext
Journals, Integer(18)	If set to 0 system will always show the balance after sending.	If set to anything else, a low credit warning will be displayed when the remaining credits go below the threshold.
Journal, Text(10)	@sms.firetext.co.uk	When sending an sms, it will prefix this with the mobile no, eg [email protected]
Journals, Text(14)	???????	the user ID for your Firetext account.
Journals, Text(15)	??????	the password for your Firetext account.
Journals, Text(16)	???????	Your Firextext API ID: You will need to contact Firetext who will tell you your API ID - you will need to store this here.
Journals, Text(17) (See NOTE below)	???????	From - If you want to send a REPLIABLE text you must put a VMN (virtual Mobile number) here - which will need to be allocated to you by your SMS supplier (such as Firetext) e.g. 07535000123
Journal, Flag(33)	Y/N	SMS Repliable in Macro Manager
Journal, Flag(35)	Y/N	Use Subject in SMS Text
Journal, Flag(36)	1/2/Y/N	User Team on SMS Reply. Select the relevant 'Team' to use, 1,2 or Y for either.
Journal, Flag(38)	Y/N	Confirm Before Sending SMS
Journal, Flag(39)	1-4	Max SMS Parts Allowed - When sending an SMS each messages is limited to 240 characters, but using multiple messages increases this.

NOTE: Journals, Text(17)
If you have a virtual mobile number assigned to your account from Firetext to allow replies, you should put the number here. e.g. 07535701801

If you are not using repliable texts, you can put a NAME here, e.g. Influence
When texts are received they will show they have come from 'Influence'

You can use a mixture of BOTH - if you do this you must put the number first then the name, separated with a semi-colon e.g. 07535701801;Influence

When using BOTH users can decide at the time of sending if the text will be Repliable (or not) => Repliable texts get sent using the 'number; and non-repliable texts using the name.

User Setup - Additional Information

1) For a consultant to be able to use texting service you will need to tick the "Allow sms" tick box in their Influence user profile

2) Influence has the ability to pull the text replies back into the system and into the alert managers of the consultant who sends them, please refer to the support desk for further information.

After version 1.00.18.100 It is possible to exclude the SUBJECT line from a journal when passing the message to Firetext to send as an SMS. This can be activated using parameter JNL,Flag(35)

Other useful links: How to send SMS using Influence

Uploading names/numbers

With FIRETEXT it is possible to store NAMES associated with a mobile number. This then allows Firetext to send emails to users with details of any replies, and include the name of the respondent.
[This ability can be configured on your Firetext Portal - please login to www.firetext.com or contact them for more details.]
e.g.

Influence user John Smith might send an SMS Firetext to George Jones - 07800 987 6543. If George replies to the text, that reply can be sent to John as an email, and the email can show both the number (07800 8987 6543) the name (George Jones).

What can be uploaded

A valid mobile number is required for each contact. You can upload up to 6 pieces of information:

Mobile Number *Mandatory
First Name (optional)
Surname (optional)
Custom Field 1 (optional)
Custom Field 2 (optional)
Custom Field 3 (optional)

Note: You must make sure each piece of information is in it's own column. (e.g. Firstname, Surname, Mobile, Custom1... ). Start your first line of data on the first row.

How to Upload Files

Go to www.firetext.com and login.
Select Contacts then choose [Add Contacts]

Select a Group and choose to upload CSV
[Select A File] and choose the *.csv containing the Mobile/name details.

IQ Report to help provide the CSV file.

Within Influence it is possible to extract the names/Mobile numbers of candidates by using an IQ Report. Simply run the IQ report, then export the results to Excel.

Save the Excel file as a *.csv then upload this to Firetext.

The attached report below will export the following info.

Mobile, Forename, Surname, Custom1*

*Custom1 contains the Influence reference number for the candidate.

Please scroll to the bottom of the article to find the report which has been attached.
The report can be downloaded and Dragged/dropped into your database as an IQUERY report.

TROUBLESHOOTING

From time to time there may be issues or problems sending SMS messages; Firetext will return an error code some of which are listed below: Problem sending SMS to=?????????????

Message returned from Firetext

{"Code":5, "description":"Message Error","responseData":""."data":[[]]}

In this case there is a problem with the Message being sent. The Most Likely issue is that the SMS message you are sending is too long. By default Firetext allow messages to be up to 4 Credits (about 800 characters ish)

They do this to protect users and stop them accidentally using too many credits by sending ridiculously long messages.

The Number of Credits(max) can be increased - The customer just needs to contact Firetext directly and ask them.

Message returned from Firetext

From Error (Phone No=44xxxxxxxxxx)

In this case there is a problem with the length of the 'From' number which is too long. The Maximum length of the number is 11 digits.

This explains why: https://thesmsworks.co.uk/sms-sender-id

The Most Likely issue is that the number has been stored/saved incorrectly in your system.

Solution: Check parameter JNL, Text(17) which should hold the NUMBER for replies (as supplied to you by Firetext) and optionally a "Sender ID" of no more than 11 characters separated with a semi-colon (;)