User Manual - Email-to-SMS
Retarus Email-to-SMS also supports Microsoft Office 365.
SMS messages can be delivered to mobile phone numbers from your email client via the Retarus Email-to-SMS gateway. To send an SMS, you create an email that contains the desired content. As soon as you send the message, it is conveyed to the recipient, which makes it convenient to send SMS messages from an email client.
Please discuss with your administrator whether you want the text of the message taken from the subject, the email body, or from both areas. You should also discuss the maximum number of characters per SMS. Texts that exceed this number are truncated.
Addressing
To send an SMS via email, enter the recipient’s number using one of the following formats:
For Microsoft Exchange:[SMS: [country code] [mobile phone number]]
For all other email clients (incl. Outlook):Mobile phone number@sms.retarus.com
If the mobile number has a specific mobile network prefix, be sure to enter it (e.g., 0151 if you are sending an SMS to a German mobile phone number. You do not have to enter a country code when sending an SMS in-country.
Here are some sample addressing formats:0176xxxxxxxx@sms.retarus.com0049176xxxxxxxx@sms.retarus.com[SMS:0049151xxxxxxxx]
In the above examples, the “x” is a wild card, meaning it can be any digit from 0 to 9. 0049 is the country code for Germany, and 0176 is a German mobile phone number prefix.
Not all countries use mobile phone prefixes. For example, mobile phone numbers in the United States cannot be distinguished from fixed-line numbers by looking at their numbering format.
You can address multiple recipient numbers one at a time or opt to use a distribution list instead. When you send a message to a distribution list, it comprises a single job despite having multiple recipients. For this reason, you will receive a cumulative report for the job rather than receiving a separate report email for each recipient.
After successful delivery of a message to Retarus, you will receive a confirmation notice via email:
SMS transmission to a distribution list
With Email-to-SML, you can send personalized messages to everyone on a given distribution list instead of to individual recipients. Three files are required in order to send messages to a large number of recipients:
the distribution list
the body attachment
the command attachment
The distribution list contains a list of recipients, while the body attachment defines the message content. The information stored in the command attachment is required to generate report emails. You can use placeholders to personalize your messages.
Distribution lists
The file name for the distribution list must be list.csv. The CSV document is saved under this name. When you use a distribution list to send a message, instead of entering SMS numbers as the recipient addresses, enter the following address: list@sms.retarus.com.
The distribution list can contain as many personalization columns as desired. These columns then get inserted into the text when you send the SMS message. The REF, TYPE, and ADDR fields are mandatory fields for sending your message. The information for these fields must be included in all lines in the distribution list.
The following table describes the columns in the distribution list:
Column name | Description |
|---|---|
REF | Reference information. This information is required in order to assign the SMS number in the report. For example, you can enter the name of the person allocated the SMS number. |
TYPE | This field defines the transmission medium. SMS is always the value entered here. |
ADDR | In this field, you enter the SMS number. |
INS_(Number) | Personalization field that you can overwrite at any time. |
Body attachment
The body attachment file is required because it contains the personalized SMS message content. Ensure that the personalization fields you want to configure have exactly the same names as the associated columns in the distribution list and attach this file in TXT format to the email that you will send.
Command attachment
You will also need a command attachment, which is a TXT file that contains the following control data:
Column name | Description |
|---|---|
BC | Enter the cost center for this transmission. |
REPORT_ADDR:INET | If you enter a recipient here for the report email, it will be sent to this addressee. If this field is left blank, the addressee saved in EAS will receive the report. |
Body | Enter the name of the file that contains the SMS text to be personalized. |
Special SMS transmission settings
With the assistance of specific settings in the subject line (see the table below), you can influence the SMS transmission. Any settings configured in the email client override the settings configured in the EAS portal.
Function | Options/additional information | Command in the subject line |
|---|---|---|
Status request | Delivery notification via email is sent to the sender (on, off). | [DN:ON] |
Validity | How long delivery will be attempted when not immediately successful. | [VALIDITY:(In hours, 0-9)] |
Quality of Service | Transmission priority (express, normal) You can also control the priority of your sms via the priority selection of your email client. | [QOS:EXPRESS] |
Duplicate detection | Duplicate transmission prevented (on, off). | [DUPLICATEDETECTION:ON] |
Schedule timestamp (ISO-8601) | Time message will be sent, in ISO-8601 standard format. | [JOBPERIOD: 2016-05-20T17:42:00+02:00] |
Sender ID | Sender ID as displayed to recipient. | [SRC:Retarus] |
Blackout periods (ISO-8601) | Period during which no messages will sent, in ISO-8601 standard format. | [BLACKOUTPERIODS:2016-11-17T01:00:00.000-08:00/2016-11-17T08:00:00.000-08:00] |
Flash transmission | SMS appears directly in the display (on,off). | [FLASH:ON] |
Billing Code | Billing code for invoices. | [BC:xxx] |
Customer Reference | Reference information for the job. | [CUSTOMERREF:reference-info] |
A flash transmission is used when you want to send a message directly to the destination display screen. However, not all terminal devices and mobile service providers can support this function.
Reports
Transmission report
At least one notification email is sent when Email-to-SMS is used. This email informs the sender that the message was/was not successfully delivered to Retarus’ infrastructure. If the message was not successfully delivered, the email informs the sender why the job was rejected, e.g., the format for the mobile phone number was incorrect. The email also lists all recipients of the SMS.
The notification email will have the following format:
Transmission report statuses
The statuses that appear in report emails are displayed in the table below. If the SMS text is entered in the subject line, the status will be displayed there, and in the body if that is where the text is entered.
Status | Significance |
|---|---|
accepted | The message for the specified recipient was successfully handed over to Retarus’ infrastructure. |
rejected | The message could not be transferred. The reason, e.g., a syntax error, is displayed in the email. |
Status requests and notification
When status requests are made an additional email notification displaying the delivery confirmation is sent after the SMS transmission is complete. The email will consist of the following format:
Delivery confirmation statuses
When you use status requests to ascertain the successful delivery of a message, you will see status messages with different meanings. The status messages listed here appear in both the notification emails and the monthly reports.
Status | Significance |
|---|---|
DONE SUC_FIN | Delivery to the terminal device was successful. |
DONE INVALID_DST | The recipient’s number was invalid. The delivery attempt failed. |
DONE BLOCKED | The recipient’s number was blocked. The delivery attempt failed. |
DONE TIMEOUT | No final notification was received within the delivery timeframe. This generally means that delivery was not successful (e.g., a mobile phone was off). |
DONE FAILED_FIN | The delivery was not successful. |
DONE SEND_ERR | The terminal device does not provide a delivery confirmation. However, the message could still have been successfully delivered. |
Character sets
GSM-7 is the default standard coding setting for transmission of single-part messages of up to 160 characters long via Retarus Email-to-SMS. Each concatenated SMS message can contain a maximum of 153 characters. If you require a greater range of special characters or scripts that are non-Western European, non-North/South American or non-Australian, you can switch the coding to UTF-16.
SMS in UTF-16 have a maximum of 70 characters per single-part message and 67 for each part in a multi-part message.
The characters in the tables below correspond to the GSM 7-bit standard character set. The characters in the second table take up the space of two regular characters.
Character set 1
Character set 2
