NowSMS NextGen for Linux (and Mac)

Posted by on Oct 7, 2020 in Software Updates, Support Blog

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Now available as a beta release, NowSMS NextGen is the next generation platform of NowSMS, being released initially for Linux and macOS environments.

NowSMS NextGen builds on the foundation of the existing NowSMS product. We reviewed every line of code and every configuration setting, no matter how well hidden. Anything that is possible with NowSMS is possible with NowSMS NextGen.

Initially, NextGen only supports Linux and macOS. A release for Windows is planned for the first half of 2021. Initial Linux support is for the 64-bit AMD/Intel architecture supporting Debian, Red Hat, CentOS, Ubuntu and Mint.

The most significant new feature of NextGen is database support (MariaDB and MySQL). Database support is significant for two reasons:

Log Files – Databases make it far easier to manage and monitor message and traffic history.

Clustered Servers – Multiple front-end servers can share their workload via a shared database, offering powerful new options for fault tolerant systems and scalability.

Speaking of log files, even if you’re not using a database, we’ve made major improvements in our log files. A consistent format and headers make it easy to import these CSV log files into other applications for analysis, even common applications such as Excel and Numbers.

The new web interface has query and export tools, which simplify system management tasks.

Speaking of system management, all configuration and control is via a web interface. This new configuration interface is far more comprehensive than the standalone configuration program of past versions. That said, we still use the same SMSGW.INI config file format, and you can still edit SMSGW.INI directly. Heck, even if you’re in a clustered server environment, we’ll automatically propagate those manual edits out to the other nodes.

On other fronts, we’ve expanded the NowSMS HTTP API to support JSON & XML formats, in addition to the existing HTTP GET or POST URL encoded (form variable formats. These formats are all supported for submitting SMS to NowSMS, or receiving from NowSMS as a 2-way command.

Speaking of HTTP, there is also a new configuration setting to forward a user account’s received messages and delivery reports via HTTP.

There’s more…but, those are the more interesting new features…

As usual, we have a free 30-day trial available for download. It is limited to a throughput of only 30 messages per minute,  but if you need to validate higher throughput, contact us for a higher throughput trial license.

For download and setup instructions, read NowSMS NextGen Quick Install Guide

For support or questions, contact us, or visit our Support Forum Website.

For comments and further discussion, please click here to visit the NowSMS Technical Forums (Discussion Board)...