jaydroidbot / aft

Africa's Talking SMS

SMS Comms Module

This module integrates to the Africa Is Talking (AFT) API to send messages.

File Structure

aft
├── logs // Log Files for debug
|	├── sent_sms_logs.txt
| 	├── callback_logs.txt 
|	└── database_logs.txt
|
├── vendor // Vendor Files
├── callback.php // AFT callback handler
├── sms.php // Main file with send SMS
├── logger.php // Logger class
└── README.md

Using This Module

• The sms.php file contains the callSmsApi function that accepts ($phone, $message, $orderId)
• The callSmsApi function returns a JSON payload with the result of the operation
• The function creates logs of sent SMSs to sent_sms_logs.txt
• The getStatus function returns message details from the db.

Getting message status

• Pass in either one of the following params:

   	$params = Array(
   		"orderId" => "orderxyz",
   		"sessionId" => "wxyz"
   	)
  

• The function will query the database using the provided param and return a JSON payload of the message details.

AFT Callback

• For a case where the SMS is not recieved immediately by the recipient e.g if the recipient's phone is on Airplane mode, the message status is marked as SENT.
• As soon as AFT servers get an update from the Telco on the SMS deliver, they make a call to callback.php which picks the reponse and updates the status of the sent message i.e whether it was SUCCESSFUL or FAILED.
• The module creates logs of callback actions to callback_logs.txt
• More logic can be inserted into the module as necessary e.g to display response to a user

Logger

• The logger module create log files as required
• Simply instantiate $log = new Logger("sent_sms_logs.txt");
• Insert desired log $log->insert(json_encode('This is a log'));

Database

• The logger module uses SQLite to write SMS responses from AFT

Setting Up

1. Create a new bitnami app follow the official docs:

   https://docs.bitnami.com/aws/infrastructure/lamp/administration/create-custom-application-php/
   

2. Host the files there. In our case the app is called sms

   You can use git to pull code from your repository into the server.
   

3. On the AFT console, navigate to the appropriate app

4. Go to SMS > SMS Callback URLs > Delivery Reports

5. Set the callback url as https://gobeba.com/sms/callback.php

Notes:

Ensure the owner of the **htdocs** folder of your app is set as **daemon**. This is because the system
will need to be able to create app resources like the sqlite db and log files in order to function.

Use the unix command:

sudo chown daemon:daemon -R htdocs