Sending SMS using .NET through Web service

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Introduction

This article is about sending SMS using .NET through web service. With the help of this article, we can easily understand how to use web services in .NET, and also you will get some information about SMS, GPRS etc. This web service will help you give a notification if the service is unable to deliver.

How does it work?

Initially, when undergoing this study, I thought sending SMS to different services will be a problem. For sending SMS, we have to tie up with all the services which is not possible at all. While studying this, I learned most of the services provide GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) facility. GPRS has more functionality, and here we are going to use only one, that is Internet email services. So it makes our work a little easier. After that, I thought about how to find out the services for that particular mobile number. Now it became very critical, then I found a web service that provides us all the information that we needed. Let we discuss it in the upcoming paragraphs.

What is GPRS?

With GPRS, you can enjoy a continuous wireless connection to data networks and access your favorite information and entertainment services. GPRS technology allows mobile phones to be used for sending and receiving data over an Internet Protocol (IP)-based network. GPRS as such is a data bearer that enables wireless access to data networks like the Internet. The applications using GPRS are WAP, MMS, SMS, Java and the PC dial-up (for example, Internet and e-mail).

Internet email services come in the form of a gateway service where the messages are not stored, or mailbox services in which messages are stored. In the case of gateway services, the wireless email platform simply translates the message from SMTP, the Internet email protocol, into SMS and sends to the SMS Center. In the case of mailbox email services, the emails are actually stored and the user gets a notification on their mobile phone and can then retrieve the full email by dialing in to collect it, forward it, and so on.

Upon receiving a new email, most Internet email users do not currently get notified of this fact on their mobile phone. When they are out of their office, they have to dial in speculatively and periodically to check their mailbox contents. However, by linking Internet email with an alert mechanism such as SMS or GPRS, users can be notified when a new email is received.

For more information about GPRS, click here.

Using the code

In this article, I am using a web service which already exists. Since this web service is tied up with ICQ instant messaging service, it maked our work easier. With the help of this web service, we can send SMS to various countries like India, US, UK, Malaysia, Japan etc. In this article, I have used the web service from www.webservicex.com. They are providing Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) link for sending SMS:

• For sending SMS to world.
• For sending SMS to India.

Here, I m attaching the sample code for sending SMS.

private void Send_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        SmsTest.net.webservicex.www.SendSMS smsIndia= 
              new SmsTest.net.webservicex.www.SendSMS();
        SmsTest.com.webservicex.www.SendSMSWorld smsWorld =  
         new SmsTest.com.webservicex.www.SendSMSWorld();
        if(rdoType.SelectedValue == "1")
            smsIndia.SendSMSToIndia(txtMobileNo.Text.Trim(), 
                    txtEmailId.Text.Trim(), txtMessage.Text);
        else 
            smsWorld.sendSMS(txtEmailId.Text.Trim(), 
                    txtCountryCode.Text.Trim(), 
                    txtMobileNo.Text.Trim(), txtMessage.Text);
        lblMessage.Visible = true;
        lblMessage.Text="Message Send Succesfully";
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        lblMessage.Visible = true;
        lblMessage.Text="Error in Sending message"+ex.ToString();
    }
}

private void rdoType_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    if(rdoType.SelectedValue =="1")
        txtCountryCode.Enabled = false;
    else
        txtCountryCode.Enabled = false;
}

In the above code, SendSMSToIndia() method will get the three parameters: mobile number, email address, and message text. And sendSMS() will get the four parameters: email address, country code, mobile number and message text. Click here to test the page.

The most important feature is, it will give mail alert if the SMS is not send to the user. But it will not support all the services which have GPRS facilities.

Happy coding!!!