Add new message type (WISe only)

In the Auron WISe, you can add custom message types. A message type has a set of properties distinct from other message types. Messages are the central data structure in the Auron WISe. Message are sent or received by channels and processed by triggers.

While the Auron SMS Server comes with a fixed set of message types, you can add your own custom message types to the Auron WISe.

Please note that to add a new message type requires some technical knowledge. If you are unsure how to do this, feel free to contact us.

For the remainder of this article we’ll assume that you’re able and authorized to connect to the Auron WISe server and database.

Message_Types table

Add a new message type to the Auron WISe by adding a new record to the Message_Types table. You’ll also need to add a data table to the WISe message database and archive database. Here’s a relation diagram:

These are the fields in the Message_Types table:

Data table

The data table is both the storage for your custom message fields as well as the structure definition for you custom message. When creating a data table only field field is required:

MessageID INT

The following SQL data types are supported in the data table:

• DATETIMEOFFSET, DATETIME; Date values; prefer DATETIMEOFFSET
• INT; Natural numbers
• FLOAT; Real numbers
• BIT; Boolean values
• NVARCHAR, VARCHAR; Strings; prefer NVARCHAR

Arch Data Table

You message data table needs to have a sibling in the archive database. The name must be the name of your data table prefixed with ‘Arch’. For example, if you message data table is called: ‘CustomMessage’ then the archive sibling must be: ‘ArchCustomMessage’.

Please note, if you’ve configured a separate archive database, you must create this table in the archive database. If the message database and archive database are the same then it doesn’t matter.

The arch data table must have the same fields as the DataTable.

Insert View (Optional)

Insert views are an optional optimization you can use to insert into both the message table and your data table at once without causing race conditions.

The insert view is a view that joins the massage table (Messages) with your data table. Since it’s not possible to insert into such a view you’ll have to setup an insert trigger.

You can setup this insert trigger automatically by calling the stored procedure: ‘CreateInsertTriggerForMessageView’ on the view.

Example

Find an example for how to setup a custom message type in the Auron Software GitHub.

To add a custom message type we can run the following statement:

INSERT INTO Message_Types(ID, Description, LongDescription, InfoUrl, DataTable,
 EditorPath, ProgramId, HasAttachments, SupportReply, SupportForward, Icon, DisplayOrder) 
VALUES (
  'CUSTOM_MESSAGE_TYPE',      -- ID
  'Custom Message Type',      -- Description
  '', '',                     -- LongDescription, InfoUrl
  'Messages_CustomMessage',   -- DataTable
  '"MsgCustomMessage.exe"',   -- EditorPath
  '',                         -- Program ID 
  1, 1, 1,                    -- HasAttachments, SupportReply, SupportForward
  NULL, 1)                    -- Icon, DisplayOrder

Next we’ll need to create the data table as well as the archive data table. For this example we assume that we’re archiving in the message database.

CREATE TABLE Messages_CustomMessage
(
    MessageID INT NOT NULL
  , TestField NVARCHAR(255)
  -- Other custom fields
  , CONSTRAINT pk_Messages_CustomMessage_MessageID PRIMARY KEY (MessageID)
)

CREATE TABLE ArchMessages_CustomMessage
(
    MessageID INT NOT NULL
  , TestField NVARCHAR(255)
  -- Other custom fields
  , CONSTRAINT pk_ArchMessages_CustomMessage_MessageID PRIMARY KEY (MessageID)
)

Finally we can setup the insert view and insert view trigger for our own convenience.

CREATE VIEW InsertCustomMessage AS 
  SELECT * FROM Messages M 
    INNER JOIN Messages_CustomMessage D ON M.ID = D.MessageID

EXECUTE CreateInsertTriggerForMessageView @sViewName='InsertCustomMessage', 
  @sDataTable='Messages_CustomMessage', 
  @sTypeID='CUSTOM_MESSAGE_TYPE'

Reset service and restart manager

After adding a new message type you’ll need to restart both the Auron WISe service and manager to be able to use the new message type.

We can now add and process messages of our own custom message type.