mobiSMS
version 2.0.0
Message Lengths and Unicode Messages
Delivery Reports and Preferences
Delivery Reports inside the midlet
Delivery Reports outside the midlet
Message Lengths and Unicode Messages
Message Lengths and Unicode Messages
Selecting Delete All Contacts/Groups
Appendix A –
Troubleshooting FAQ
General Troubleshooting and Support Suggestions
Appendix B –
Approximate GPRS Data Transferred by mobiSMS
mobiSMS is a SMS product that provides feature rich, low cost SMSing to consumers worldwide. mobiSMS provides end users with the choice over how to send their SMSs – whether from the user’s phone or over the web.
This manual introduces mobiSMS and describes its features in order to enable all users to get the most out of the mobiSMS experience. This manual will be in three parts, each part describing a different interface for using mobiSMS’s features, those being the mobiSMS midlet, the mobiSMS web site and the mobiSMS WAP site
mobiSMS strives to enable messaging at low-cost. With this in mind, our SMS providers attempt to send messages to all of our destinations as cheaply as possible. Sometimes it is not possible to maintain a 1 credit route due to difficulties with the route or the economics of sending SMSs to a given country. All of our pricing is provided at http://www.mobiwireless.com/MobiSMS/coverage.php. This coverage data will change from time to time, so please be aware of this possibility when sending messages through mobiSMS.
The mobiSMS midlet allows users a chance to replace their SMS client with an alternative feature rich client and bypass their mobile operator’s SMS pricing for more favourable pricing from mobiSMS.
The mobiSMS installation process is a simple 5 step procedure that will enable mobiSMS to be installed and run on your java mobile phone.
mobiSMS will now be installed on your java mobile phone and it should now be running. The next thing to do is register to get your password for the mobiSMS midlet. This password is also used to access the mobiSMS web and WAP sites.
The registration process for the mobiSMS midlet is a simple 10 step process that will enable mobiSMS to be successfully registered. Once registered, you will be ready to send SMSs from mobiSMS.
mobiSMS should now be ready to send SMSs. If your account’s current credits are zero, then credits will need to be purchased from the mobiSMS web site. See the mobiSMS web site Purchase section for more details.
Refer to Appendix A: Troubleshooting FAQ for troubleshooting information.
mobiSMS has attempted to have a small and robust user interface. Due to the nature of java midlets and the variability of the user interface design of different phone manufacturers, mobiSMS will appear differently on different phones.
The midlet user interface options mentioned throughout this manual are written in the form of Options->Function where Function is the menu option that may be selected to get to a particular function. Many phones may call the options drop down list by a different name, for instance “Menu”. For the sake of this manual however, “Options” will be used to mean the button that opens up the full drop down menu of options available from a given screen. Many phones may have one of the options available as the left or right button clicks with the other button being the Options button itself. That full menu listing may or may not include the option that is already represented by one of the buttons.
The phone itself may add menus for instance Options->Quit is added on some phones despite the midlet having its own quit option. Always attempt to use the midlet’s own quit option as this will ensure that the midlet closes down correctly as well as allowing the midlet to save the current message that is being edited if necessary. Some phones will add these menu options in a localised format, which may be even more confusing.
One major user interface feature for mobiSMS is the use of Options->Back. On almost all menu items the menu item Options->Back will be available. This enables the user to go back to the last menu or view. It is the equivalent of the back button on today’s Internet browsers.
To send a SMS, simply type your message as normal in the main window of mobiSMS. This is the text box window that opens when mobiSMS starts once the registration process has completed. If your phone supports predictive text (e.g. T9), you will be able to use this within mobiSMS.
A message of up to 450 ASCII characters can be sent. This will span across 3 SMS messages. The character count and number of SMSs that will be used is shown in the upper line of mobiSMS.
Unicode characters can also be sent via SMS. Unicode is a 2 byte character encoding that can encode most of the character sets in the world today. Refer to www.unicode.org for more information on Unicode. A maximum of 195 Unicode characters can be sent spanning 3 SMSs. Select the Options->Preferences menu to change whether a SMS sends Unicode characters as Unicode. If “Enable Unicode Support” is set to “Yes”, Unicode characters will be sent in Unicode SMSs. If “Enable Unicode Support” is set to “No”, question mark characters will replace Unicode characters that cannot be mapped to non-Unicode characters. At present the only mapping that this is done for is for Greek Unicode characters.
When you are ready to send your SMS, select Options->Send and then type the destination mobile number. After typing the number, select Options->Send again to actually send the SMS. Wait for the message to be sent and your current balance will be displayed. This may take a moment while your phone establishes a GPRS connection.
The SMS will now be sent to the destination addresses. It should appear on the receiver’s mobile phone as if it had been sent directly from the mobile phone of the user.
Messages may also be sent to multiple destinations by using comma characters to separate the destination numbers. Messages may also be sent to groups that have been set up on the mobiSMS web site. A list of the available groups that have been synchronised to the phone can be reached by selecting Options->Groups while entering the destination address. The contacts can be reached by Options->Contacts.
Messages can be sent to multiple contacts, multiple groups and any combination of the two. To send to more than one group or contact, simple select more than one group or contact from their respective lists. Each new destination is separated from the last by a comma character.
Initially the destination textbox is in a numeric only mode, to enable the ease of entering numbers for a single destination number. Adding a group or a contact will move the destination textbox out of this mode to enable more numbers to be added with the separating comma between them.
Predefined messages may be inserted into the current message or replace the current SMS message by selecting Options->Messages from the main SMS textbox window and then scrolling to the message in question and then selecting Options->Insert or Options->Select.
Messages may be sent with a time delay. This is useful for sending reminders to groups of people or sending holiday greetings at a specific time. Select Options->Send Later instead of Options->Send once the destination has been entered. Modify the time for when the message is to be delivered and select Options->Send. The message will be queued for delivery on the SMS server and delivered at the specified time. Messages submitted in this way can be cancelled before they have been routed to their final destination by viewing the message from the mobiSMS web site and pressing the “cancel” button.
The mobiSMS midlet provides two mechanisms for receiving delivery reports depending on how you wish to receive the delivery report.
Delivery reports are not guaranteed to work. Delivery reports are requested from the carriers that mobiSMS uses to send SMSs through. Due to the nature of the mobiSMS service, which is based around providing low-cost messaging, not all of the carriers used provide the delivery reports feature. Carriers change from time to time as prices change and so this feature may stop working when moving from one carrier to another and start working again when moving to yet another carrier.
mobiSMS enables polling from the midlet once a SMS has been sent. The midlet will poll to check whether the status of the message has been changed to a final status. If it has been changed to a final status or 3.5 minutes have passed, then the current status of the SMS is displayed on the midlet’s screen.
Polling can be enabled or disabled in the Preferences menu. This is reached from the main SMS textbox window by selecting Options->Preferences. The approximate amount of data expected to be used by polling for an SMS’s status is shown in Appendix B – Approximate GPRS Data Transferred by mobiSMS.
Delivery reports may also be delivered via email or SMS.
Email delivery reports are sent to the email address with which the user registered the mobiSMS midlet. This email address can be modified on the mobiSMS web site under the Account section. Email delivery reports are delivered free of charge.
SMS delivery reports are sent to the sender’s mobile number. The delivery report SMS is charged at the same rate as a single SMS sent to the user’s phone.
The email and SMS delivery report defaults can be modified by selecting Options->Preferences from the main SMS textbox window. The preference can be set to “Email”, “SMS”, “None” or “Server Default”. “Server Default” is the initial default for the midlet. The “Server Default” for delivery reports is set in the Accounts section of the mobiSMS web site.
The Preferences menu can be reached from the main SMS textbox windows by selecting Options->Preferences. This allows the user to change the Unicode sending defaults [see Message Lengths and Unicode Messages] and the delivery report defaults for email and SMS delivery reports [see Delivery Reports outside the midlet] and for polling from the midlet [see Delivery Reports inside the midlet].
The mobiSMS midlet provides contacts and groups to be added for ease of use. Unfortunately the phone’s own contacts and groups lists can not be used due to the nature of MIDP (the java profile that the phone must support). Java applications on a phone are run under tight security that does not allow them to access anything that the application did not put there itself and so mobiSMS can not access the phone’s own contacts and group lists.
Contacts can be added from the midlet and manipulated there or they can be added on the mobiSMS web site and synchronised down to the phone. Groups can be added on the mobiSMS web site and then synchronised down to the phone. Groups cannot be created by the midlet itself.
The contacts menu can be reach by Options->Contacts from the main SMS textbox and from the destination textbox when destination numbers are being entered.
The contacts menu shows the address book of names and numbers that is currently available on the phone to send messages to. Initially this list will be empty and only the options of “Search”, “Select” and “Add” will be available.
Selecting Options->Add will allow the adding of a contact. Enter the name and number for this contact and select Options->OK to save the contact. Select Options->Back to not save the new contact and go back to the Contacts menu.
The newly added contact will appear in the menu list of names. The options menu will now also contain “View”, “Edit”, “Delete” and “Delete All” entries.
Select Options->Select to send a SMS to this destination. This will place the contact’s number in the destination textbox. If a SMS has already been written, then the destination textbox will be displayed. If the SMS is empty, then the main SMS textbox entry will be displayed. On selecting Options->Send, the destination textbox will be displayed and this will include the destination number selected from the Contacts menu. This process can be repeated multiple times to add additional contacts to the destination textbox entry.
Selecting Options->Edit will result in the currently selected contact being edited. The contact’s name and number will appear in the edit boxes and these can be modified as done when adding a contact.
Selecting Options->Delete will result in a message box asking if the currently selected contact is to be deleted or not. Select Options->Yes to delete the contact from the midlet’s contacts or Options->No to not delete the contact at this time.
Selecting Options->Delete All will result in a message box asking if all the contacts are to be deleted or not. Select Options->Yes to delete the contact from the midlet’s contacts or Options->No to not delete the contact at this time.
This feature can be a very powerful feature in conjunction with the mobiSMS web site as it can provide a detailed contacts database to the user.
Selecting Options->View simply displays the contact’s name and their mobile number. Selecting Options->Details while viewing the contact’s name and mobile number will instruct the midlet to request all the additional contact data that is available on this contact to be fetched from the mobiSMS web site and viewed in the midlet. This can be useful for fetching contacts’ addresses, additional phone numbers, email addresses or general comments such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
This feature is made even more powerful with mobiSMS 2.0.0 with the online contacts search feature.
Selecting Options->Search allows the user to enter a search string and then a search type. The two types of search are “Local Search” and “Online Search”.
Selecting Options->Local Search after entering a search string will search the local contacts database for the search string. The menu cursor will move to the closest menu entry to the search string. This search type is also available under Groups and Messages.
Selecting Options->Online Search after entering a search string will search the online contacts for the search string. The first 10 contacts that match the search string will be returned to the midlet and displayed in a new menu containing the matches. Sending an empty search string will return the first 10 contacts in the online contacts database.
The new menu returned by the online search will have “Select”, “Details” and “Back” options. Selecting Options->Select will place the contact’s number in the destination textbox as if any other contact were selected. Selecting Options->Details will request all the additional contact data that is available on this contact to be fetched from the mobiSMS web site and viewed in the midlet. This can be useful for fetching contact’s addresses, additional phone numbers, email addresses or general comments such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
Groups can be added and modified on the mobiSMS web site. When a synchronisation is executed, these groups will be downloaded and can then be used from the mobiSMS midlet. Groups can be selected from the Groups menu by selecting Options->Groups while entering destinations in the destination textbox window.
When viewing the Groups menu the options “Select” and “Search” will be available if there are groups available in the menu. If not, only the “Back” option will be available.
Select Options->Select to send to the currently selected group. This will place the group in the destinations textbox.
Select Options->Search to move down the groups list to a specific position in the menu. For instance searching for ‘Z’ will move the current position for the menu to either the last entry in the menu or the first group item beginning with ‘Z’.
mobiSMS allows the user to save predefined messages that are sent often, such as driving directions or birthday greetings, on the mobiSMS web site. These can then be synchronised to the mobiSMS midlet and can be made available on the midlet. To access these predefined messages, select Options->Messages from the main SMS textbox window.
The Messages menu comes with several emot-icons predefined. These can be inserted into the current SMS message by selecting Options->Insert. Options->Select will also insert an emot-icon into the current message.
Selecting Options->Select on a message that is not a predefined emot-icon will result in a query asking whether the user wishes to modify the message before sending it. If the selected message is to be modified, then the message will be fetched from the mobiSMS web server and replace the current SMS text in the SMS textbox window. If the selected message is not to be modified, then the destination address is requested and the message sent immediately.
Selecting Options->Insert on a message that is not a predefined emot-icon will result in the message being fetched from the mobiSMS web server and inserted onto the end of the current SMS message.
Selecting Options->Search will enable a local search within the local selection of predefined messages in the menu.
The synchronisation feature enables the phone and web site to synchronise their contacts lists as well as for the phone to get the most recent list of groups and messages from the server. Synchronisation is initiated by selecting Options->Synchronise from the main SMS textbox window. Synchronisation may take a while if there are a large number of changes to the contacts, groups and messages lists. It is not recommended to synchronise more than 50 contacts down to a low-end phone due to these phones’ onboard database processing capabilities being very limited.
The mobiSMS web server provides a feature to import contacts from Microsoft Outlook into mobiSMS. This provides a significantly easier method to add multiple contacts to the midlet and the web site. This feature is found on the Contacts page under the Import/Export option on the mobiSMS web site. Once contacts have been imported and added to the user’s account, they can be synchronised down to the mobiSMS midlet by selecting Options->Synchronise from the midlet. The contacts list on the midlet will now include the contacts added up on the web site. See Import/Export in the mobiSMS web site section for more details on importing contacts.
The mobiSMS SMS history is available from the mobiSMS midlet by selecting Options->History from the main SMS textbox window. This will display up to 5 messages at a time. Options->Next fetches the next page. Options->Previous will fetch the previous page of history viewed when there is one available.
The SMS History provides information on the destination of the SMS, the current status of the SMS, the time that the message was delivered and the charge of the SMS.
Credits can be purchased via the mobiSMS web site. Unfortunately due to security reasons, mobiSMS cannot provide a purchase mechanism direct from the mobiSMS midlet.
See Purchasing Credits in the mobiSMS web site section.
The mobiSMS web site provides a standalone SMSing experience for Internet users as well as an enhanced experience for mobiSMS midlet users. The mobiSMS web site is available at http://mobiSMS.mobiwireless.com.
Registering at the mobiSMS web site is a simple 10 step process.
mobiSMS should now be ready to send SMSs. If your account’s current credits are zero, then credits will need to be purchased from the mobiSMS web site. See Purchasing Credits for more details.
Refer to Appendix A: Troubleshooting FAQ for troubleshooting details.
The mobiSMS user interface has menu options provided along the top bar of each page when logged into the web site. These menu options are also available at the bottom of each page as quick links.
Information is generally provided in the left sidebar on any given page. This information can be of a general manner, for instance as seen on the home page, or it can be more specific, such as on the Account page with information regarding delivery reports and on the SMS History page with a link to the coverage page.
Below the main menu and to the right of the sidebar is generally where all the user interaction occurs.
SMSs are sent from the log in page. This is also reached by clicking the “home” option on the menu bar.
To send a SMS, enter the destination mobile number in the “Destination Numbers” box. Multiple destination numbers can be separated by commas. Enter the message to be sent in the “Message” box and press the “send” button.
The current message and destination boxes can be cleared by pressing the “clear” button.
A message of up to 450 ASCII characters can be sent. This will span across 3 SMS messages. The character count and number of SMSs that will be used is shown to the right of the bottom right corner of the SMS message entry box.
Unicode characters can be sent as well. A maximum of 195 Unicode characters can be sent spanning 3 SMSs. If the “Send Unicode characters as Unicode” tick box is ticked, Unicode characters will be sent in Unicode SMSs. If the “Send Unicode characters as Unicode” tick box is not ticked, question mark characters will replace Unicode characters that cannot be mapped to non-Unicode characters. At present the only mapping that this is done for is Greek Unicode characters.
Emot-icons can be inserted into the current SMS message by selecting the relevant emot-icon from the “Insert an Emot-icon” drop down box. Emot-icons will be inserted at the end of the current message.
Messages may be sent with a time delay. This is useful for sending reminders to groups of people or sending holiday greetings at a specific time. Modify the time for when the message is to be delivered in the time drop down window. Note that this time must be set to Greenwich Mean Time. Tick the “Use date/time for send” tick box and press the “send” button. The message will be queued for delivery on the SMS server and delivered at the specified time. Messages submitted in this way can be cancelled before they have been routed to their final destination by viewing the message from the “SMS History” page and pressing the “cancel” button.
Email delivery reports are sent to the email address with which the user registered. This email address can be modified on the mobiSMS web site under the Account section. Email delivery reports are delivered free of charge.
SMS delivery reports are sent to the sender’s mobile number. The delivery report SMS is charged at the same rate as a single SMS sent to the user’s phone.
The delivery report type is displayed in a drop down list next to the “send” button. What this drop down list is set to when the SMS is sent is what will be used for sending the SMS. The delivery report defaults can be modified in the Accounts section.
mobiSMS provides contacts and groups to be added online for ease of use. Contacts and groups that are added to the mobiSMS web site can be synchronised down to the phone via the use of the Options->Synchronise function. The contacts page is reached via the “Contacts” menu option at the top of any page or the “Contacts” link at the bottom of any page.
Contacts appear in the contacts list in the format <name> - <mobile number> [edit] (sync …). The <name> is the name of contact and is also a blue link to view the contact’s details. The <mobile number> is the mobile number of the contact. The [edit] link enables editing of the contact and the (sync…) allows the user to know whether synchronisation is enabled for this contact or not.
Groups appear in the contacts list in the format <name> - <n> contact(s) [edit] (sync …). The <name> is the name of the group and is also a purple link to view the group’s details. The <n> is the number of contact(s) in the group. The [edit] link enables editing of the group and the (sync…) allows the user to know whether synchronisation is enabled for this group or not.
Contacts and groups can either be sync enabled or sync disabled. If the user does not use the mobiSMS midlet at all, this is not relevant. However if the user uses the mobiSMS midlet, this is very relevant. Any contact or group that is set to “Sync Disabled” will not synchronise down to the mobiSMS midlet. Any contact or group that is “Sync Enabled” will appear on the mobiSMS midlet once a synchronise has occurred. To enable or disable synchronisation for a given contact or group, tick the contact or group and press the “sync enable” or “sync disable” button.
It is not recommended to allow more than 50 contacts to be synchronised down to low-end phones. The number of “Sync Enabled” contacts is displayed in the left sidebar.
To add a contact, click the “Add Contact” button on the left sidebar. This starts the process of adding a new contact to the contacts database. Enter the details for the contact in the “Add Contact” page. Only the contact’s name and mobile number are mandatory fields on this page. Then press the “save” button to save the new contact and go back to the contacts page or press the “save and add” button to save the contact and add another one.
A new contact may be added to a group during the initial add process by ticking any groups that the contact is to be added to before pressing the “save” or “save and add” button to save the contact. The groups are shown next to the “Member of” entry.
Click the edit link of a specific contact to edit the contact. This allows the contact’s details to be changed. The “Edit Contact” page is identical to the “Add Contact” page in content.
To add a group, click the “Add Group” button on the left sidebar. This starts the process of adding a new group to the groups database. Enter the details for the group in the “Add Group” page and then select the contacts that should be members of the group from the contacts listing. Press the “save” or “save and add” buttons to save the current group.
Click the edit link of a specific group to edit the group. This allows the group’s name and its members to be modified. The “Edit Group” page is identical to the “Add Group” page in content.
Ticking a contact or group or any number of contacts or groups on a given page and then pressing the “delete” button will delete those contacts and groups. When the next synchronise is done from the mobiSMS midlet, these deleted contacts and groups will be removed from the midlet also, assuming that they were “sync enabled” already.
Pressing the “delete all” button will result in all the contacts and groups being deleted from the database.
Clicking on the name link of a contact will show the details that have been stored about that contact.
Details that are stored on the mobiSMS server are available to the mobiSMS midlet via the contacts menu Options->View and then Options->Details. This can be useful for fetching contacts’ addresses, additional phone numbers, email addresses or general comments such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc while being mobile.
This feature is made even more powerful with mobiSMS 2.0.0 with the online contacts search feature.
Clicking on the name link of a group will show the group’s name and all the current members of the group.
When more than 50 contacts and groups are available in the contact menu, a Find option will become available. This is useful for quickly moving to the correct page of contacts that you wish to deal with. For instance entering the first letter of a contact and pressing the “go” button will move the contacts page to display the first page where that letter occurs in a listed contact or group. Then the user can easily find the specific contact from there.
The mobiSMS web server provides a feature to import contacts from a Microsoft Outlook CSV into mobiSMS. This feature is found by pressing the “Import/Export” menu option, which is available on the contacts page.
Import contacts by pointing the “Select file to import” file browse box at your Microsoft Outlook CSV and press “import now”. A Microsoft Outlook CSV can be generated by selecting the “Import and Export” option on Microsoft Outlook’s “File” menu. Select the “Export to File” option and press “Next”. Select either “Comma Separated Values (DOS)” or “Comma Separated Values (Windows)” from the list and press the “Next” button and walk through the rest of the exporting wizard to export your Microsoft Outlook contacts to CSV. Now import them into mobiSMS as already mentioned.
A CSV of the below format will work the same as a Microsoft Outlook CSV.
"First Name","Last
Name","Mobile Phone"
"Joe","","2712345678"
"Alice","Wills","6112345678"
Once the contacts have been imported and added to the user’s account the user will be taken back to the contacts page where all the uploaded contacts will now be available. These can now be synchronised down to the mobiSMS midlet by selecting Options->Synchronise from the midlet.
To export contacts, go the Import/Export page and press the “export now” button. This will result in a CSV being downloaded to your computer containing all your contacts. This CSV is in the Microsoft Outlook format and can be imported into Microsoft Outlook as well as online address books such as Yahoo!
mobiSMS allows the user to save predefined messages that are sent frequently, such as driving directions or birthday greetings. These can then be synchronised to the mobiSMS midlet and be made available on the midlet via the use of the Options->Synchronise function. The messages page is reached via the “messages” menu option at the top of any page or the “Messages” link at the bottom of any page.
Messages appear in the messages list in the format <name> - <message> [edit]. The <name> is the name of message and is also a link to view the full message. The <message> is the beginning of the message stored. The [edit] link enables editing of the message.
Messages are added, viewed and edited in a very similar way to contacts and groups.
To add a message, click the “add” button on the left sidebar. This starts the process of adding a new message to the messages database. Enter the details for the message in the “Add Message” page. The message’s name and content are necessary to add a new message. Press the “save” button to save the new message and go back to the messages page or press the “save and add” button to save the messages and add another one.
Click the edit link of a specific message to edit the message. This allows the message’s content and name to be changed. The “Edit Message” page is identical to the “Add Message” page in content.
Ticking a message or any number of messages on a given page and then pressing the “delete” button will delete those messages. When the next synchronise is done from the mobiSMS midlet, these deleted messages will be removed from the midlet also.
Pressing the “delete all” button will result in all the messages being deleted from the database.
Clicking on the name link of a message will show the message that has been stored for that message.
mobiSMS stores SMSs sent on the mobiSMS server. SMSs sent via the web, WAP or midlet are all stored in the same common history. This history is available from the midlet and WAP as well as via the mobiSMS web site by clicking on the “SMS History” menu option at the top of any page or the “SMS History” link at the bottom of any page.
Queries regarding SMSs in the SMS history can be emailed to support@mobiwireless.com.
Messages are displayed with the most recent message sent first. The destination mobile number, time sent and the beginning of the message are all showed in the history list.
Messages may be resent by clicking the “resend” link. This will prepopulate the SMS sending fields with the destination number and message from the already sent SMS.
Messages may be viewed by clicking on the “view” link. Viewing a message allows the user to see the full message sent as well as the cost of the message, status of the message and the delivery time as reported by the mobiSMS SMS provider.
Messages may be resent by clicking the “resend” button. This will prepopulate the SMS sending fields with the destination number and message from the already sent SMS.
Messages may be deleted by clicking the “delete” button. This will delete the message from the history and return the user to the SMS history list.
To delete one or more messages displayed in the SMS history list, tick the messages tick boxes and press the “delete” button.
To delete all the messages in the SMS history, press the “delete all” button.
To search for specific numbers or to limit your date view of messages or to do both, press the “search” button. This will move the user to the “SMS Search” page.
To search for messages starting with a certain number, for instance “4466”, enter
“4466” in the “Destination Number” box and press the “search” button. Only messages to destinations starting with that number will now be listed.
To limit the date view of the search, enter the date range by modifying the start and end dates and ticking the “Use date in search” box. Press the “search” button to initiate the search.
SMS history lists resulting from a SMS search can be manipulated in exactly the same way as usual.
To export either all the SMSs or the SMSs returned by the current search, press the “export now” button. This will initiate the download of a CSV to your computer containing all the relevant SMSs.
The only mechanism currently available to purchase credits is via the mobiSMS web site’s “Purchase Credits” page. This can be reached by clicking on the “purchase” menu option at the top of any page or the “Buy Credits” link at the bottom of any page.
Credits can be purchased with a credit card or via PayPal. First time purchases will not be immediately credited to your account until a credit screening has been completed. The credits from first time purchase should be added to your account within 24 hours. Email support@mobiwireless.com if this does not occur.
The “Account Holder Details” page can be reached by clicking on the “account” menu option at the top of any page or the “Account” link at the bottom of any page.
The only use of the account holder details currently is to help enable the migration of available credits from an existing account to a new account. If we do not have this information, we may not be able to verify that the new account is indeed owned by the same user and so we may not be able to migrate credits that are still available on one account to a new account for you.
The “Phone” field is very useful to Mobi Wireless in order to understand what mobile phones our users are using.
Users may opt out of hearing about updates about mobiSMS, for instance new versions, special offers and price changes. To do this, edit the account holder details by pressing the “change” button and untick the “I want to receive information about specials, updates and new releases from Mobi Wireless.” and then press the “save” button.
A delivery reports default can be set up on the “Account Holder Details” page. The default can be set to email, SMS or none. The initial default is set to email for a new account and delivery report emails are sent to the email address that has been registered. This email address is editable in the “Email Address” field when editing the account holder details as is the delivery report default editable in the “Delivery reports” drop down box.
The mobiSMS service is focused on delivering low-cost feature rich messaging from mobile phones and personal computing devices. As an additional feature to our users we are extending our service where possible into other java phone specific content. The mobiSMS web site provides access to several games that can be purchased with credits as well as entertaining messages that can be sent to friends and family. We are extending this content when we can and welcome any input or suggestions in this area.
The Leisure section of the mobiSMS web site can be reached by clicking the “leisure” menu option at the top of any page or the “Leisure” link at the bottom of any page.
The initial leisure page provides the option to view games to purchase, view cool messages or view the games that have been previously purchased.
Click the “games” link to view the games that are currently available. Games can be viewed for all phones or just for a particular phone by using the “Phone Type“ drop down box and clicking the “go” button.
The details about each game as well as some visuals are shown along with details about which phones are supported and the cost of the game. Click the “buy” button next to the game that is to be bought and the web site will move to the purchase page.
The game will be displayed again on this page. Select the phone make and model that is to download the game from the “Select Phone” drop down box and enter the mobile number that is to download the game. This will default to the currently logged in user’s mobile number. Click the “buy” button to complete the purchase.
The credits will be deducted from the account and a link is displayed to allow the download of the game. Either enter this link into the phone’s WAP browsers or click the “send” button to get this URL sent as a link directly to the mobile phone. Once the URL arrives at the phone, just click on the URL.
Clicking the “messages” button will lead to the “Fun Messages” page. These are some fun messages that can be sent to friends and family. Click the “send” button below any of the messages to move this message into the SMS message box on the “home” page for sending. Click the “add” button to add this message as one of your predefined messages.
If you have any additional messages or ideas around these messages, please let us know at support@mobiwireless.com.
Clicking the “my software” button will list the games that have already been bought and for which mobile numbers they have been bought. To send a game that has already been bought to the mobile number that bought it, select the destination number in the drop down “send to” box next to the relevant game and press the “send” button. This will start the process for getting the URL for downloading for this game again. The rest of the steps should be familiar as they were done during the game purchase process.
The mobiSMS WAP site provides a standalone SMSing experience for WAP users as well as an enhanced experience for mobiSMS midlet users. The mobiSMS WAP site is available at http://www.mobiwireless.com/wap.
Registering at the mobiSMS WAP site is a simple 10 step process.
mobiSMS should now be ready to send SMSs. If your account’s current credits are zero, then credits will need to be purchased from the mobiSMS web site. See Purchase Credits in the mobiSMS web site section for more details.
Refer to Appendix A: Troubleshooting FAQ for troubleshooting details.
The mobiSMS WAP user interface uses text links to navigate between the different features. When data is to be entered, for instance when sending a SMS, a WML form is used. This form can either be submitted through the available link or by selecting the “Submit” option for the form. As with midlet interfaces, WAP browser interfaces are all slightly different across each make and model of phone. Different phones provide the submitting of forms in different ways. Read your WAP documentation or alternatively scroll through all the available options in the options menu when at a page that has a form to submit as the submit option is generally available to all phones.
Another feature that may not be obvious is the back option for the browser. Most WAP browsers offer a back option to move back to the last page viewed. This is the same functionality that is seen in an Internet browser. In some places in the user interface it is assumed that this functionality is available and useable.
When logging into the mobiSMS WAP site, the home menu is shown. This menu is the branching point for all the functionality available on the mobiSMS WAP site.
SMSs are sent from the “Send SMS” page. Click the “Send SMS” link from the home page to start writing a SMS to be sent.
To send a SMS, enter the destination mobile number in the “Destination” box. Multiple destination numbers can be separated by commas. Enter the message to be sent in the “SMS Text” box and then either press the “Send SMS” link or submit the form.
The SMS will be submitted for sending and a message with the current credits available will be shown. Links to the sending of another SMS or returning to the home page are available.
A message of up to 450 ASCII characters can be sent. This will span across 3 SMS messages. Unicode characters can also be sent via SMS. A maximum of 195 Unicode characters can be sent spanning 3 SMSs.
Messages may be sent with a time delay. This is useful for sending reminders to groups of people or sending holiday greetings at a specific time. Modify the time for when the message is to be delivered in the “Send Time (GMT)” box. Note that this time must be set to Greenwich Mean Time and must be in the format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm GMT. Set the “Use time” selection box to “Yes” and either select the “Send SMS” link or by accepting the form. The message will be queued for delivery on the SMS server and delivered at the specified time. Messages submitted in this way can be cancelled before they have been routed to their final destination by viewing the message from the mobiSMS web site and pressing the “cancel” button.
Email delivery reports are sent to the email address with which the user registered. This email address can be modified on the mobiSMS WAP site under the “Account Details” section. Email delivery reports are delivered free of charge.
SMS delivery reports are sent to the sender’s mobile number. The delivery report SMS is charged at the same rate as a single SMS sent to the user’s phone.
The delivery report type is displayed in a selection list between the time entry and the “Contacts” link. What this selection is set to when the SMS is sent is what will be used for sending the SMS. The delivery report defaults can be modified in the “Account Details” section.
mobiSMS provides contacts and groups to be added online for ease of use. Contacts and groups that are added to the mobiSMS WAP site can be synchronised down to the phone via the use of the Options->Synchronise function. The contacts page is reached via the “Contacts” menu option at the top of any page or the “Contacts” link at the bottom of any page.
Contacts appear in the contacts list as links to the contact’s name. Groups appear in the contacts list as links to the group’s name followed by the number of contacts in the group in brackets e.g. Family (4).
Selecting a contact or group link will lead to the menu options for that contact or group. Contacts and groups can always be added from this menu as well as all of the contacts and groups can be deleted. The individual contact or group that has been selected can be edited, viewed or deleted. Additionally contacts can modify the groups of which they are currently members by selecting the “Modify Groups” option.
To add a contact, click the “Add Contact” link. This starts the process of adding a new contact to the contacts database. Enter the details for the contact in the “Add New Contact” page. Only the contact’s name and mobile number are mandatory fields on this page. If the contact is to by synchronised down to the midlet, ensure that the “Enable sync to midlet” selection is set to “yes”. To save the new contact, submit the form.
Click the “Edit Contact” link to edit a contact. This allows the contact’s details to be changed. The “Edit Contact” page is identical to the “Add New Contact” page in content and interactions.
Selecting the “Modify Groups” link after selecting a contact will show the groups of which a contact is a member and allow them to be modified. Select the groups of which the contact is to be a member and then submit the form to save the changes.
To add a group, click the “Add Group” link. This starts the process of adding a new group to the groups database. Enter the details for the group in the “Add Group” page and then select the contacts that should be members of the group from the contacts listing. If the contact is to be synchronised down to the midlet, ensure that the “Enable sync to midlet” selection is set to “yes”. To save the new group, submit the form.
Click the “Edit Group” link to edit the group. This allows the group’s name and its members to be modified. The “Edit Group” page is identical to the “Add Group” page in content and interactions.
Select a contact or group from the list by clicking its link and then click the “Delete Contact” or “Delete Group” link. Select the “Yes” link to confirm that you wish to delete the contact or group and it will be deleted permanently from the database. When the next synchronise is done from the mobiSMS midlet, these deleted contacts and groups will be removed from the midlet also, assuming that they were “sync enabled” already.
Pressing the “Delete All Contacts/Groups” link will result in all the contacts and groups being deleted from the database after confirming that this is the correct action to take.
Clicking on the “View Contact” link will show the details that have been stored about that contact.
Details that are stored on the mobiSMS server are available to the mobiSMS midlet via the contacts menu Options->View and then Options->Details. This can be useful for fetching contacts’ addresses, additional phone numbers, email addresses or general comments such as birthdays, anniversaries, etc while being mobile.
This feature is made even more powerful with mobiSMS 2.0.0 with the online contacts search feature.
Clicking on the “View Group” link will show the group’s name and all the current members of the group.
mobiSMS allows the user to save predefined messages that are sent frequently, such as driving directions or birthday greetings. These can then be synchronised to the mobiSMS midlet and be made available on the midlet via the use of the Options->Synchronise function. The messages page is reached via the “messages” menu option at the top of any page or the “Messages” link at the bottom of any page.
Messages appear in the messages list with each message name as a link. Messages can be added, edited, viewed and deleted in a very similar way to contacts and groups.
To add a message, click the “Add Message” link. This starts the process of adding a new message to the messages database. Enter the details for the message in the “New Message” page. The message’s name and content are necessary to add a new message. Submit the form to save the new message.
Click the “Edit Message” link to edit the message. This allows the message’s content and name to be changed. The “Edit Message” page is identical to the “New Message” page in content and interaction.
Select a message from the list by clicking its link and then click the “Delete Message” link. Select the “Yes” link to confirm that you wish to delete the message and it will be deleted permanently from the database. When the next synchronise is done from the mobiSMS midlet, the deleted message will be removed from the midlet, assuming that it was “sync enabled” already.
Pressing the “Delete All Messages” link will result in all the messages being deleted from the database after confirming that this is the correct action to take.
Clicking on the “View Message” link will show the full message that has been stored.
mobiSMS stores SMSs sent on the mobiSMS server. SMSs sent via the web, WAP or midlet are all stored in the same common history. This history is available from the midlet and web as well as via the mobiSMS WAP site by clicking on the “SMS History” link from the home page.
Queries regarding SMSs in the SMS history can be emailed to support@mobiwireless.com.
Messages are displayed with the most recent message sent first. The destination mobile number and time are all shown in the history list.
An SMS may be viewed by clicking on the “View Detail” link. Viewing a SMS allows the user to see the full message sent as well as the cost of the message, status of the message and the delivery time as reported by the mobiSMS SMS provider.
Credits can be purchased via the mobiSMS web site. Unfortunately due to security reasons, mobiSMS cannot provide a purchase mechanism direct from the mobiSMS midlet.
See Purchasing Credits in the mobiSMS web site section.
The “Account Details” page can be reached by clicking on the “Account Details” link on the home page.
The only use of the account details currently is to help enable the migration of available credits to a new mobile number when this occurs. If we do not have this information, we may not be able to verify that the new number is indeed owned by the same user and so we may not be able to migrate credits that are still available on one account to a new account.
Users may opt out of hearing about updates about mobiSMS, for instance new versions, special offers and price changes. To do this, edit the account holder details by clicking the “Edit Details” link and set the “I want to receive information about specials, updates and new releases from Mobi Wireless” selection to “No”. Save the changes by submitting the form.
A delivery reports default can be set up on the “Account Details” page. The default can be set to email, SMS or none. The initial default is set to email for a new account and delivery report emails are sent to the email address that has been registered with. This email address is editable in the “Email Address” field when editing the account details as is the delivery report default editable in the “Delivery Reports” selection.
The mobiSMS service is focused on delivering low-cost feature rich messaging from mobile phones and personal computing devices. As an additional feature to our users we are extending our service where possible into other java phone specific content. The mobiSMS WAP site provides access to several games that can be purchased with credits as well as entertaining messages that can be sent to friends and family. We are extending this content when we can and welcome any input or suggestions in this area.
The Leisure section of the mobiSMS WAP site can be reached by clicking the “Leisure” link from the home page.
The initial leisure page provides the option to view games to purchase, view fun messages or view the games that have been previously purchased under the “My Leisure” link.
Click the “Games” link to view the games that are currently available. First select the mobile phone that you are interested in buying games for, as this will limit the games list to those that are relevant to your mobile phone, and submit the selection form.
A list of available games along with a link to buy each game and the details about them will then be shown. Click the game’s link to move to the purchase page.
Enter the mobile number that is to download the game on the purchase page, this will default to the currently logged in user’s mobile number, and then submit the purchase form to complete the purchase.
The credits will be deducted from the account and a link is displayed to allow the download of the game. Click on this link to download the game.
Clicking the “Messages” link will lead to the “Fun Messages” page. These are some fun messages that can be sent to friends and family. Click the “Send Message” link below any of the messages to move this message into the SMS message box on the “Send SMS” page. Click the “Add Message” link to add this message as one of your predefined messages.
If you have any additional messages or ideas around these messages, please let us know at support@mobiwireless.com.
Clicking the “My Leisure” link will list the games that have already been bought. To send a game that has already been bought to the mobile number that bought it, click on the link to the game to get it again. Then select the destination number from the “Select Destination” selection and submit the form. This will start the process for getting the URL for downloading for this game again. The rest of the steps should be familiar as they were done during the game purchase process.
Several scenarios that users often experience follow in this section. If the answer to your question is not available here, please let support@mobiwireless.com know. When emailing support always let us know the following:
Unfortunately if all this information if not available, then we will most likely have to request it and this will delay the processing and satisfactory resolution to your problem.
If something does not work as described in this manual, please let us know as well so that we can either fix the problem or modify the manual.
The midlet starts to connect to the web and then fails immediately – what do I do?
This is generally due to problem 1 below, but may be due to 2 as well.
1. Web access – On many phones, java applications need to be explicitly given permission to access the Internet. The phones may default to prompt every time that the midlet attempts to access the Internet or may not allow access at all. If there are HTTP errors while registering, this is the most likely source of the problem.
2. APN problems – Some operators limit certain types of traffic on certain GPRS access points. For instance some operators provide internet and WAP access point names and mobiSMS may work on both of these but on other operators mobiSMS may not work on both options. Whether mobiSMS works on one APN type or another is completely dependent on how the mobile operator implements this and varies from mobile operator to mobile operator.
mobiSMS will send the password SMS to your mobile number. There are several possible reasons why the password SMS does not arrive. These are usually all easily detectable if the email address that is used during registration is valid as a delivery report for the password SMS will be delivered to that email address if delivery reports are supported to the destination number.
1. The mobile number is incorrectly entered
This is easily
detectable. On the both the WAP
and web sites, the mobile number that the password was sent to is listed
on the page when it has been sent. Please verify this mobile number.
On the midlet, the page displayed before starting the actual
registration lists the mobile number that the password SMS is to be sent
to. The midlet also provides Options->Back
to enable the checking and re-entering of the mobile number and
registration details already sent.
2. The mobile number is not known by our SMS provider
When this happens, the delivery report delivered to the email address will contain a status of “Routing Error”. Please check that the mobile number is correct and if it is email support@mobiwireless.com for help in fixing this problem.
3. The delivery of the SMS is slower than expected
The delivery of the SMS may take a little while, sometimes up to 5 minutes but sometimes even slower. Please wait a little while before sending an email to support to determine whether this is the case.
If none of the above is valid, then please email support@mobiwireless.com letting us know that you have not received your password. Please also inform us of your mobile number and the country that you are in.
· The password can be found in the mobiSMS midlet under Options->Get Password from the main SMS textbox window.
· The password can also be resent by reregistering. If your password send count has not reached zero, your password will be resent. The password send count is reset over time.
· If the password send count is already at zero, please email support@mobiwireless.com with your details and we will resend your password.
Ensure that your mobile number is being entered as a full international mobile number.
· The mobile number must be written without the plus (+) sign i.e. enter 27821234567 not +27821234567 for the international dialling code 27.
· Add no additional country specific dialling codes prior to the mobile number i.e. enter 27821234567 not 0927821234567 where 09 is entered in that country to signify an international number is to follow.
Ensure that your password is correct. If you have forgotten your password, refer to “I’ve forgotten my password” above.
mobiSMS is a low-cost messaging service. Due to the nature of this, there will be times where message delivery will not be 100% perfect. We trust in our users to understand this and to let us know as soon as they experience problems so that we can rectify this for them.
Please notify us at support@mobiwireless.com if you are experiencing long delays in SMS delivery. Please email your mobile number and the destination number(s) and time(s) at which the offending SMSs were sent. The precise details will be available from your SMS history. We will look into the issue and if necessary get our SMS provider to find out further details and rectify any ongoing problems.
Our SMS provider provides us with the pricing of each SMS and so our SMS pricing may change without notice. If they can dynamically route at a lower cost, our users will see this on their SMS charge. If however a low-cost route fails and our SMS provider removes the route, our SMS provider may route the message at a higher cost. Our SMS provider does not have a facility to notify us when a route changes so there may be a delay between the cost of a route changing to the pricing on our web site changing. We will endeavour to ensure that this time is as short as possible.
All SMSs sent via mobiSMS have their sender IDs set to the user’s mobile number. Setting the sender ID may cause a routing error as there may be no route to send through that will guarantee the sender ID. If this occurs, mobiSMS will resend the SMS without the sender ID set.
Please notify us when the sender ID does not appear correctly on a destination mobile number. We will then investigate this further to determine whether there is a problem with the carrier used or otherwise.
Delivery reports are not guaranteed to work. Routes that do not provide delivery reports lead to the message being marked as “Delivered to SMS gateway” as their final state. Messages that do receive delivery reports will move from the “Delivered to SMS gateway” state to the “Message Received” state when the message has been confirmed as being delivered and should provide SMS or email delivery reports at that time.
My Sony Ericsson T610 doesn’t allow me to enter more than 9 digits into the destination entry box of the midlet – why?
The Sony Ericsson appears to have a strange bug with textboxes that are marked as numeric only. The destination entry box is marked as numeric only initially as this aids the entry of a mobile number. To move the destination textbox out of the numeric state, select a contact from the Contacts menu or a group from Groups menu and insert it into the destination textbox. This problem will be addressed in a future version of mobiSMS.
The Sharp GX10i requires an optional JAD key “MIDlet-Data-Size:” when using a record store. This has been fixed since mobiSMS 2.0.0.
mobiSMS closes when I press down on the joystick while sending an SMS on my Nokia 6600 – why?
The Nokia 6600 seems to exhibit this feature, but it is assumed to be a bug in the initial release of the phone. It is hoped that the midlet will not close automatically with a joystick press in future releases of the Nokia 6600 firmware.
My account hasn’t been credited despite purchasing over 24 hours ago – what can I do?
Please email sales@mobiwireless.com if this is the case. Suspicious transactions will not be processed unless additional confirmation details are obtained. This is not necessarily the case if your credits have not been added, but it is best just to remind the support team if you have not been credited.
mobiSMS only charges you for the SMS messages you send. It does not cost anything to register and install mobiSMS. After registration you will need to purchase credits to send messages with mobiSMS. Some destinations charge more than 1 credit per SMS sent. Please consult the mobiSMS coverage page for more details.
mobiSMS sends messages using GPRS. mobiSMS uses GPRS bandwidth efficiently and a SMS message sent using mobiSMS uses very few bytes of GPRS traffic. Depending on your GPRS service package, a mobiSMS message could cost you less than 1 cent on your GPRS charges. Refer to Appendix B – Approximate GPRS Data Transferred by mobiSMS for data on GPRS traffic usage.
mobiSMS currently only supports a multiple connection model that only looks at reducing GPRS traffic sent. It has been recently brought to our attention that some mobile operators charge per connection made and do not focus on charging for data transferred. We hope to provide a version of mobiSMS that focuses on reducing the cost for users using these operators in the future.
I have a new mobile number. How do I move my mobiSMS credits from my current account to my new mobile number?
Please let us know your old mobile number as well as your new mobile number and any additional information that you have to prove that you own both mobile numbers. Once we have verified your identity, we will transfer the credits from your old account to your new one.
|
Command |
Bytes
Up |
Bytes
Down |
|
160 character SMS, no delivery report polling |
411 |
265 |
|
160 character SMS, delivery report polling |
620 to 1665 |
545 to 1875 |
|
Typical History Query |
213 |
687 |
|
Synchronisation of 5 new contacts |
442 |
616 |
|
Failed Online Search |
212 |
264 |
|
Successful Online Search (just one match found) |
212 |
280 |
|
Credit Query |
209 |
265 |
Note: Sample queries were made against an IIS 5 server, not the Mobi Wireless live server. The Mobi Wireless live server is currently running an Apache server. Most overheads are HTTP data overheads.
|
APN |
Access Point Name – this is the name of the GPRS access point that is required to be entered into a mobile phone to use GPRS data on an operator’s network. |
|
CLDC |
Connection Limited Device Configuration – the device configuration that mobile phones are required to implement along with MIDP in order to be a J2ME compliant phone. |
|
CSV |
Comma Separated Values – this is a file format where data is delimited by commas to indicate when a new data element starts. Most spreadsheet applications can save data as CSV. |
|
GPRS |
General Packet Radio System – system for sending data from a mobile phone in packets instead of requiring a dial-up connection. |
|
J2ME |
Java 2 Micro Edition – the version of java used for mobile devices. |
|
JAD |
Java Application Descriptor – This describes the midlet that is about to be downloaded and helps the phone determine whether there is space for the midlet to be downloaded. |
|
JAR |
Java Application Runtime – this is an archive containing the runtime code for the midlet. |
|
Java |
A machine independent programming language invented by Sun Micro Systems. |
|
Midlet |
This is the name given to a MIDP compliant java application. |
|
MIDP |
Mobile Information Device Profile – the profile that mobile phones are required to implement in order to be a J2ME compliant phone. |
|
SMS |
Short Message Service – and acronym for a text message or txt |
|
WAP |
Wireless Access Protocol – the protocol used to access the internet from a mobile phone. Several phones, such as the Sony Ericsson P800, have moved to using internet browsing instead or WAP browsers. |
|
WML |
Wireless Markup Language – a markup language very similar to HTML but tailored to the requirements of mobile devices. |