Here are some use cases that I've received from my mentors. There are some great ideas here, and I hope to implement as many as I can. Please add you ideas if you have any.
Events Integration
If you have events posted on your website, you should be able to collect cell phone numbers in your event sign up form and then use them to send an SMS blast if there is a last minute change in location, a weather update, or even a full parking lot.
- Show field for mobile number on RSVP form
- Enable on an event-by-event basis
CCK Integration
Have a display option for any CCK field that will turn on a "text this" button. User's would be able to have the contents of that field sent to their mobile phone. The admin should be able to configure what happens in the event that the filed length is greater than 160 characters. The follow options could be:
* The text this button does not appear
* The user is notified of the length and allows to cut it down manually
* Multiple concatenated messages are sent after warning the user. The admin should be allows to cap the maximum number of messages.
Shout Box
Users can submit updates via browser or SMS, which are forwarded to other users. This would be a good solution for small groups who need to be in constant contact with each other regardless of their location.
Just collect them
If you have a political website, you should be able to send your die hard fans sms alerts on breaking news.
Ideally you could add an SMS option to any form that someone would create.
Comments
User account creation
One common usage is to authenticate user accounts via SMS. So, put in your mobile number, the site SMS you a pass code, and then you enter that passcode. Your phone number then becomes your login. This would be something like an sms_auth module.
The generic aspects of proving you own that mobile number are necessary as well, I believe.
This sounds cool. This would
This sounds cool. This would be more than just a simple double opt-in mechanism that sends a validation code to your mobile? I have plans to implement that in some fashion, but I basing the entire user account system around mobile phones sounds interesting.
I'm having trouble imagining any use cases though. Do you know of any sites that do this?
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Will White
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Will White
Yes
Mobile sites :P
It's a simple entry in the drupal auth table. If all you need is a person's mobile number to "prove" their identity, then you can use a mobile number only system. I've seen similar things done with IM systems -- e.g. with Jabber, enter in your jabber account, get sent an IM with a passcode, then come back and enter that. Voila, you have an entry in the system based on your Jabber ID.
Cooool
Yeah, you could potentially have a system which has multiple methods available for verification of users - if the user has entered a mobile number on their "profile", send them an SMS, alternatively send them an email. I guess there are different instances when this kind of functionality would be useful...
Web Development in Nottingham, UK by Kineta Systems / Follow me on Twitter! @NikLP
Do I have the right idea? 1.
Do I have the right idea?
1. User registers by entering their mobile number (and any other info that the admin wants to collect).
2. User account is created. SMS message is sent to handset with a code.
3. User enters code into site and is logged in.
4. User can change password and use their mobile number for future logins.
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Will White
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Will White
Yes
That's exactly it.
Personal Use Case:-)
Ok First up., I'll just explain what I need.
[I haven't even tried to build this, but I reckon most of it is possible, and there is certainly work ongoing to make it possible.]
I have a CCK content type [called 'contact'], which stores mobile phone numbers.
I have a view that lets me pick and filter the nodes I need [by location or age, for example].
I need to be able to send an SMS to this 'filtered' list, by some means.
There is work ongoing to make a 'views' table function like a form.
http://groups.drupal.org/node/4725
So a best case scenario for me, would the work in the thread above, combined with an 'action' that lets me send a message to just those nodes.
I'm not sure how clear this is.... but suffice to say that I could do with SMS integration!
In short, actions integration is probably what I need from an SMS framework, and the other bit I mentioned could be done with views, in time.
Best of luck, I watch with interest!
Alan
small use-case
http://epiclub.com.au allows users to register Epipen (adrenalin auto-injector) expiration dates. The user can opt for SMS notification and is sent a reminder to buy again before the Epipen expires.
SMS voting
most of the use cases i see above involve sending messages. collecting votes involves receiving messages. there are actually a number of ways this could be highly useful. a few off the top of my head:
Rate / review a node
Let's say, for example, you want to build a directory of local restaurants. Each restaurant has an ID#...like, say, a node ID. For starters, you do something like text: search "name of restaurant" -- you get a list of likely matches as a response, along with their codes/node IDs.
Next, you would do "review 8765" followed by your review (text). Or do "rate 8765 6" which would rate node 8765 6/10.
Same thing could be done for doing comments via mobile. e.g. comment on this picture on tv / image / whatever by texting comment 8765 and then your comment. There are TV shows in Europe that do this.
That is a good idea for
That is a good idea for information retrieval & submission through SMS.
Take the same restaurant directory example, you can key in: list "location/town/street name" - to get a list of restaurants, maybe sorted by ranking/rating.
CK Ng | myFineJob.com
Logging/Event Escalation
To use SMS as alert notification. Take drupal logging/watchdog, there are certain events which webmaster particularly be interested in, which most of the time overlooked. It would be nice to be able to receive alert when a certain events reach some preset threshold - sudden spike in visitor, spam flooding, cron job error, etc...
Take that further, it can be integrated with other monitoring systems modules - SNMP trap, IDS, firewall, etc to send out SMS alert, with escalation facility. [Hints: some possible new modules.. but that is totally different territory =) ]
CK Ng
CK Ng | myFineJob.com
I think this is important...
Given that Drupal 6 will have Actions in core, it would be a sensible idea to expose SMS functionality to this module. In this way we can use SMS pretty flexibly.
Web Development in Nottingham, UK by Kineta Systems / Follow me on Twitter! @NikLP
Product Listing / search
This is my idea and is working with a drupal site, as we speak. (not a module but a stand alone folder at this time)
I use the [nid] and the [body] fields as a unique id for my product.
Let say you create a product node. The node ID is 123 (node/123) The body field is limited to 130 characters (MaximumLenth.module)
To use the same ClicKatel number (34790) for different sites I append a short code. (like a database prefix)
Now if I send an SMS message to 34790 containing the words "pc123" I will get a response message e.g. "HP1356-Laptop. Price $100 to add this product to your cart follow the wap link http://www.example.mobi/pc123"
This wap link can contain pictures and more info and the user can go to the shopping cart to add the product and make payment.
Boris Mann's idea of user account creation will be very useful in this case, to get users verified before a purchase.
So we need a server to listen to all incoming SMS messages, Identify the node ID and post back the body to the senders mobile number.
To enhance the system a cck field can be created called a Keyword. If I SMS HP1356 it will know the associated [nid] and will send the body message.
Usage for such a system. I use it as a Free Property listing service. On the for sale board it says SMS Ad123 to 34790 and then the customer receives an SMS message with the owners contact details and property description, with a wap link. Here is the link: http://www.goprivate.co.za
Product SMS Logs
With the above [body] and [nid] send and receive gateway, a log system would be a good idea.
First the user creates a product node. This is his sms short code. He sends himself a sms and receives a sms reply with his body text.
Now the user can login to his user account, and with the right privileges, he can view the sms logs for his specific node.
The log would contain the following: The SMS number (the number who made the request). The body message that was sent. The time the message was sent. The owner of the node. Error message (send/not send)
These log messages can then be used for marketing, by adding the sms numbers to a bulk sms group, or sending individual sms.
Notification can also be send to the node owner via email, when new requests are made on his node. (notification.module)
Invitations to join the site or become the owners buddy can also be send via SMS by the node owner (invite.module and buddylist.module)
Here is a case scenario:
The user creates a product node/123. He advertise in a printed medium his node ID number and the mobile number the SMS must be sent to. The print ad states there is only 10 available, now the potential buyer must SMS to view availability of the product.
With the log and notification system and drupals easy node edit and submit features. The product/node owner can manage the availability in real time. Administrators can view all log messages, and the time specific body message that was sent.
Hello
I can't seem to figure out what drupal does :( Can someone tell me?
Taxonomy SMS search and SMS views
Using the taxonomy module as a sms keyword search, will go hand in hand with the [body] and [nid] send and receive gateway.
If you create a product node (node/123) you can add vocabulary terms to the node. In the case of computer hardware, you would tag the node with HP, Laptop, Small. Now the potential hardware buyer can search for hardware via SMS. E.g. SMS the words "Small HP Laptop" to 12345. The result would be a reply SMS to the buyer, stating a list of Small HP Laptop models (model name - CCK SMS Keyword) and the Price (Normal CCK field).
These result display can be controlled with the views.module. I call it SMSviews for now.
SMSviews is similar to the teaser view in drupal when you select a specific term. The number of posts can be controlled and extra cck fields can be added. So this would be a teaser view with no body content displayed, but rather CCk fields. In this way you can control the length of the post, or at least know how many posts would fit in the returning SMS.
E.g. 4 Posts in 1 SMSview:
HP-1357:Price $100 AMD
HP-1330:Price $120 P4
HP-1566:Price $230 AMD
HP-1547:Price $320 P4
In the SMSviews you would select the Price CCK field and the Processor CCK field to display in your view. The drupal node title "HP-1357" is the SMS keyword. If the buyer would sms the desired keyword "HP-1357" the node body message would be sent to the buyer, containing more info on the product + wap link.
SMS Logs can then log the keyword searches, and notify the node owner when his SHORT post was sent via SMS to a user. To log the search tags and the SMSviews reply message would also be a good idea.
can you gurus help with this case?
Hi all,
Ever since I saw the SMS framework module I've been quite intrigued and i've been studying it (with the hope that it would be the solution to my challenge) but not with much success.
Here's an application idea I'm thinking of:
Take a hypothetical city government council that needs to communicate with its citizenry. It needs to send out information on its programmes, service delivery reminders and so on to its constituents. Also it requires that constituents who require specific information be able to sms predetermined formats to a short code and will then receive replies based on the requests made.
I want to use Clickatell as my sms gateway and have already setup an account. I've been able to successfully send out smses but that's where it ends for me. How do I go about this? I would appreciate it if I can be pointed in the right direction. I'm still taking baby steps here. :D
Thanks