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2-Way MMS Support

This just in: More information about 2-way MMS and routing received MMS messages to a PHP script using HTTP File Upload Post at http://www.nowsms.com/support/bulletins/tb-nowsms-016.htm.

Support for processing received MMS messages is slightly more complex than received SMS messages, because the content of MMS messages is more complex. To enable received MMS messages to be processed, on the “2-Way” tab of the Configuration dialog, both “Process Received SMS Messages” and “Process Received MMS Messages” must be checked.

 

 

The Now SMS/MMS Gateway can receive MMS messages via two different types of connections.

  • MMS messages can be received via a direct connection to an operator MMSC using one of the supported protocols, including MM7, MM4 or EAIF. When any of these protocols are used, the operator MMSC will automatically connect to your Now SMS/MMS Gateway to deliver messages. For more information on this type of connection, please refer to "Receiving MMS Messages" in the section titled Connecting to an Operator MMSC.
  • MMS messages can be received using a combination of SMS and WAP technologies. When an MMS message is sent to a mobile phone, the mobile phone first receives an MMS notification message over SMS. The Now SMS/MMS Gateway can receive this MMS notification over SMS, and then retrieve the content of the MMS message over WAP or the internet, just as it would be received by a mobile device. For more information on this type of connection, please refer to "Using a GPRS Modem" in the section titled Connecting to an Operator MMSC.

There are different options for the processing of received MMS messages. Because MMS messages typically contain multiple objects, as opposed to the simple text string of an SMS message, they are routed to applications via different interfaces.

The routing choices for received MMS messages is configured separately for each potential connection through which the gateway can receive MMS messages.

When the gateway is receiving MMS messages via an operator MMSC, an account is defined in the “MMSC VASP” page of the configuration dialog, and the option for how to route MMS messages received over this connection is defined as part of the account definition.

When the gateway is receiving MMS messages via an SMSC or GSM modem connection, the “Properties” dialog for the SMSC configuration will include an “MMS Settings” dialog.

The choices for how received MMS messages are processed are:

"Receive to MMS-IN Directory" - In this case, the MMS message is parsed into text format, and individual components of the message are extracted into separate files. A ".hdr" file is written to the MMS-IN directory which contains a text version of the MMS header. This header file includes "X-NowMMS-Content-Location:" headers that point to the different file components that are included in the MMS message (text, images, etc.). These additional file components are stored in a subdirectory, and the location specified in the header is relative to the MMS-IN directory. The format of these ".hdr" files is consistent with the format used by the MMSCOMP utility, which is described in the section titled Creating MMS Message Files – MMSCOMP.

"Route via MM7" - MM7 is an XML/SOAP interface that is defined by the 3GPP as a format for applications to send/receive MMS messages. When this type of routing is defined for received MMS messages, NowSMS reformats the MMS message into MM7 format, and performs an HTTP POST of the content to the specified MM7 connection. You must first define an MM7 connection on the "MMSC Routing" page of the configuration dialog before you will be able to select this option for routing a received MMS message. (Additional information on the MM7 message format can be found in the section titled Submitting MMS Messages via MM7.)

"Forward to E-Mail Address" - The MMS message is converted into an e-mail message (with components of the MMS message converted to attachments) and sent to a specified e-mail address. (Note: This option requires that a valid "SMTP Relay Host" be configured on the "MMSC" page of the configuration dialog. NowSMS will connect to the SMTP server specified as this relay host in order to send the message.)


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