E-mail to a phone number

This how-to describes how to setup the Auron SMS Server to e-mail to a phone number. The e-mail will arrive as an SMS on the target phone.

We’ll assume that you already have the Auron SMS Server setup on a local windows server. Also, you’ll have a Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes server setup to relay messages to a given subdomain to this server.

Jump to section:

• Setup an e-mail server
• Pickup incoming e-mails
• Setup SMS channel
• Forward e-mail file to SMS
• Testing our solution

Setup an e-mail server

First we’ll setup an e-mail server on the Auron SMS Server. This e-mail server will be the relay target on your central MS Exchange or Lotus notes server.

To setup the e-mail server you can simply enable the SMTP server in Window Server like this:

Install SMTP Server

Add a domain alias to the SMTP server by using the IIS Manager:

Add SMTP Domain Alias

If you run into issues while editing SMTP properties from the IIS Manager have a look at this FAQ item.

An easy way to test the e-mail server is to create an SMTP e-mail channel. You can then send a test message through this channel to see that it arrives in the drop folder on your server.

By default this configuration works:

Setup test SMTP channel

Send a new e-mail with the test channel and verify that it arrives in the drop folder:

Test E-mail in Drop Folder

By default the drop folder for incoming e-mail in the SMTP server will be:

C:\Inetpub\Mailroot\Drop

Pickup incoming e-mails

Now that we’re capturing incoming e-mail we’ll have to introduce them into the Auron SMS Server. The best way to do this is via a File channel.

Setup your file channel like this:

Create a new File Channel

Setup SMS channel

Before we can start forwarding we’ll also need an SMS channel to forward to. This can be either GSM, SMPP, HTTP or Android or a combination. You can choose which is most convenient for you.

By now you should have at least three channels:

SMS Server Channels

Forward e-mail file to SMS

We now have a situation where you can send an e-mail to a phone number and that e-mail appears automatically in the Auron SMS Server as a file. In this step we’ll automatically forward this e-mail to an SMS by creating a new trigger.

We’ll start with creating an empty VBScript trigger that runs when a file is received:

Empty VBScrip Trigger on File

Next go to the VBScript tab and edit the script:

CONST STR_DEBUGFILE     = "C:\ProgramData\Auron\SMS Server\Log\TRIGGER1.txt"
CONST B_ENABLE_DEBUG    = True

' // ========================================================================
' // Function: ProcessMessageEx
' // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
' // ProcessMessageEx trigger function to process incoming messages
' // ========================================================================
Function ProcessMessageEx(objMessageIn, objMessageDB, dctContext)

  Log ">> ProcessMessageEx"

  Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  Set objFile = objFso.CreateTextFile("c:\temp\in.eml", True)
  objFile.WriteLine(objMessageIn.Body)
  objFile.Close

  Set objEmail = CreateObject("AxEmail.Message")
  objEmail.LoadMime("c:\temp\in.eml")
  If objEmail.LastError <> 0 Then
    objMessageIn.AddTrace "Error while opening MIME"
    objMessageIn.StatusID = "FAILED"
    Log "Error while opening MIME"
    Log "<< ProcessMessageEx"
    Exit Function
  End If

  Set objSms = objMessageDB.Create("SMS")
  objSms.ToAddress = Left(objEmail.ToAddress, Instr(objEmail.ToAddress, "@") - 1)
  objSms.Body = objEmail.BodyPlainText
  objMessageDB.Save(objSms)

  Log "<< ProcessMessageEx"

End Function

This script works by reading the e-mail file into an e-mail object and creating a new SMS using the plain text body of the e-mail.  The e-mail message object is a part of the Auron E-mail component which comes with the Auron SMS Server.

Testing our solution

We’re ready to send a test e-mail to our new e-mail server and very that it’s send as an SMS.

First create a new outgoing e-mail through our test SMTP channel:

Send a test e-mail

If you have correctly integrated with your Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes configuration you should be able to send an e-mail to a phone number from any e-mail client in your office.

Verify the handling of incoming e-mails:

Verify e-mail forwarding to SMS

The last screenshot shows two successful results:

1. The e-mail is sent on the test SMTP Channel
2. The e-mail file is picked up from the drop folder by the File channel
3. The file is converted into an SMS and sent by SMS channel