Web Messenger

The Web Messenger adds a web interface to the SMS Server. It’s an easy way to send and receive through the SMS Server channels using your browser.

You can setup the Web Messenger from the Configuration Wizard. Find instructions on this here. It’s no problem if you’ve already ran the Configuration Wizard without enabling the Web Messenger. You can just start it again and leave all other settings as they are.

The Web Messenger relies on IIS (Internet Information Services) together with the .Net Core Hosting bundle. The Configuration Wizard will prepare an initial IIS setup but you’re free to update that after the fact.

Jump to more information on how to setup IIS for the Web Messenger.

Jump to a description of how to secure the Web Messenger.

Using the Web Messenger

SMS Server – Web Messenger

The web messenger is intended to be an easy web interface to use from anywhere in the office to interact with customers or clients directly.

By default it shows all messages from all senders and all channels. Use the filter icon to only show your communication with one specific sender. Use the paperclip icon to add attachments when sending an e-mail or media files when sending an RCS or WhatsApp message.

Web messenger – Balloon menu

Each message balloon has a menu with some message options such as forward, reply, filter and information. Clicking on the information icon shows general information about the message and its processing status.

Web messenger – Balloon details

This shows some of the message properties as well as the full message trace.

All of these messages are sent through the SMS Server so you can always find the full information by starting the SMS Server Manager and clicking on the message in the message view.

Setup IIS and .Net Core Hosting

Setup IIS from the Server Manager

To setup IIS on a Windows Server installation you’ll need to open the ‘Server Manager’ and click on ‘Add roles and features’.

Next continue to the ‘Server Roles’ page and select ‘Web Server (IIS)’. This will popup a dialog that asks if the management tools should be included, click on ‘Add Features’. After that just click on ‘Next’ until finally you can click on ‘Install’.

IIS is now ready and the next step is to setup the .Net Core hosting bundle.

First download the .Net Core hosting bundle here.

.Net Hosting Bundle setup

This setup will complete automatically after clicking on Install.

Securing the Web Messenger

This example shows how to secure the Web Messenger with a self-signed certificate. For most applications where the Web Messenger is only used on the company intranet this will be enough. To secure the Web Messenger with a more universally trusted certificate we recommend to use Let’s encrypt together with a configuration tool such as Win-acme.

To start open the IIS Manager. Click on your server name and next click on the icon ‘Server Certificates’.

Setup IIS – Server certificates

While there create a self-signed certificate like shown in the screenshot below.

Setup IIS – Create self signed certificate

After creating this certificate assign it to your website.

Setup IIS – Assign certificate in binding

To assign the certificate first click on your website in the left tree view. Next click on ‘Bindings’ in the right panel. This opens the ‘Site Bindings’ dialog. In the Site binding dialog click on ‘Add…’ to add a new binding.

The new binding should have the type ‘HTTPS’. The default port number for HTTPS is 443 but you can enter any port here that works for your setup. Select our new self-signed certificate in the bottom of this dialog and click on OK. After that you can safely remove the existing HTTP binding.

And that’s it! You’ve now secured the Web Messenger application.

Web Messenger – Secure connection

With port 443 you won’t have to specify a port in the browser when connecting to the site. However, since the certificate is always for a specific host only you’ll have to connect to the Web Messenger by the host name of you PC.