Esendex Developer Blog

Send SMS with Ruby / Rails and ReST API

Neil — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:59:00 +0000

Currently we don't offer a Ruby/Rails SDK implementation. We do however, offer a RESTful API (currently in beta) which seems to work quite well with ActiveResource that comes with Rails. Thanks to Josh Delsman for pointing this out on his blog :)

For an example, see our Ruby / Rails section on the developers site.

Send Message Using Ruby and ReST API

Neil — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:59:00 +0000

We just spotted this handy example whilst on Twitter of sending a message using Ruby and our ReST API.

Thanks to voxxit for this straight forward Ruby send SMS example - you can find it here.

.Net Beta SDK Released (with new Voice functionality)

Neil — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:45:00 +0000

Another update to the Beta-Zone has been released in the shape of a new .Net SDK. The SDK has been written in C#, but can be used with any of the Microsoft .Net CLI languages.

This SDK provides an easy to use client to the Esendex ReST API allowing you to integrate messaging into your application. Functionality provided by the SDK includes; sending / receiving messages (inc. Voice messages), checking the delivery message status and lots more.

This release is still in beta, so don't be surprised if something doesn't quite work as expected and be prepared for changes. Our developers site contains info and a download for the .Net SDK plus many more SDKs.

Esendex Developers @ the white board

Nicholas — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:19:00 +0000

At Esendex we practice eXtreme programming an Agile development methodology which among other things promotes technical discussions amongst the team often involving the use of the white board. The attatched picture shows one such discussion taking place.

New Year’s Resolution – Share More

Drew — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:09:00 +0000

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions yet? We’ve decided that this year we should publish some technical articles based on the work we’re doing here at Esendex. The plan is to take it in turns to create an article roughly once a month. I’ve written the first article that describes and demonstrates a HTML control library for ASP.NET MVC, published last week on CodeProject.

Our new web application is being built using this technology so it seemed like a good place to start. Not only do you get access to the source code for the controls, we’ve included a basic example showing how to send SMS messages with the potential to connect to one of our APIs/SDKs . You also get a sneak peak at our compose page which should be ready for public testing in the next few months.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/custom-controls/MVCCustomControls.aspx

Testing Testing 1-2-3

Neil — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:56:00 +0000

Over 3000 lines of test code in our new MVC project so far and counting. That's over 60% of the number of lines of application code! We've noticed a lot of time being spent on writing tests for our web application code but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Our tests make our applications robust and ensure changes don't break/change existing functionality; this hopefully keeps our customers happy. This in turn means development reduce the time spent on fixing bugs and have more time to spend on developing exciting new features/projects; this hopefully keeps the development team happy too :)

Moving Forward the MVC Way

Neil — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:13:00 +0000

Our new web application development is now well and truly underway and the team has decided to give some insight into the way the development team are approaching the application. We've decided on taking the Model-View-Controller (MVC) approach to the application design. For those of you that haven't designed using this pattern before I'll give you a very brief run down. In MVC, the model represents the information (the data) of the application and the business rules used to manipulate the data; the view corresponds to elements of the UI such as the controls; and the controller manages details involving the communication to the model of user actions.

The team have been making use of the brand new ASP.Net MVC framework from Microsoft. The framework is completely different to the standard web forms ASP.Net implementation that we are used to, but believe that the MVC approach is a great and in some ways superior alternative. With the separation of the business logic from user interface (UI) considerations, Microsoft have been able to design the MVC framework to be very Test-Driven-Development friendly (something that was a struggle with web forms) - and unit testing is something we can't live without anymore in this team! Other features include intuitive URLs within the application (à la ReST) and the welcome addition of the bundled jQuery library.

Microsoft we salute you!

Simple, Fast & Professional

Neil — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:36:00 +0000

The Esendex Development team have been working on a new simple, fast and professional web application for our customers. The team are quite excited in the advancements over our existing application and think our customers will be too. But we aren't only excited by the design and features of our new web application, the team is developing this application using a new CSharp SDK and our new beta ReST API - that's right, the same SDK and API that will be released for public consumption.

Eating our own dog food...

You may ask "Why do it this way?" - to put it simply, we want to create the best APIs and SDKs for our customers. By creating our new application to sit on top of our API and CSharp SDK, we are developing just as our customers would. We are struggling with the same problems our customers face and can therefore make the process of integrating with the Esendex services as pain-free, efficient, and enjoyable as possible :)

Esendex SDKs to Become Open Source

Neil — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:52:00 +0000

The Esendex development team have been considering making their SDKs open source for some time now. Finally, with the progression of our new beta ReST API and the development of a new set of SDKs to consume this API, we've decided now is the time for this.

Why Make our SDKs Open Source?

Esendex has always tried to produce easy to use and helpful SDKs in the past. Always listening to our customers' feedback and updating the SDKs when appropriate. By making the source code available to the general public for use/modification free of charge, we believe that the developers can benefit greatly. We can evolve the SDKs continuously in partnership with the developers consuming our services and we believe this is the most efficient way to manage and enhance our SDKs.

Euro Symbol Encoding Issue

Neil — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:50:00 +0000

Recently an Esendex customer had an issue submitting a euro symbol (€) via our form post API. After investigating it turns out that the API was fine, but some of our form post examples were not. The affected areas were our form post HTML examples, the PHP SDK and our Perl SDK. These have now all been updated and rolled out.

Apologies to any of our customers affected by this and for not spotting this issue sooner.

If you find you have issues you believe are encoding related, please ensure you are correctly submitting the data in a UTF-8 encoding.

Remember you can always contact our support team who are always happy to help!

Esendex Developer Competition Winners Announced

Adam — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:00:00 +0000

The SMS Developer Challenge invited talented developers form across the globe to submit their ideas for innovative use of 2-way SMS.

With fellow judges Mike Short, Chairman of the Mobile Data Association, Ewan MacLeod, Editor of SMS Text News, we awarded first place - a cash prize of £1,000 - to TextQube. Developed by UK-based Reynardine Software, TextQube makes it very easy for companies to mobilise their existing data by simply querying database information on a PC by SMS.

We all agreed that TextQube has real potential to drive more innovation in 2-way SMS as it allows businesses to trial a service to assess the business case before committing to further development and enhancements.

Mike Thompson of Reynardine Software said "It’s terrific to win this competition and a big thanks to Esendex for the opportunity to demonstrate the product and Reynardine's passion for efficient 2-way communication by mobile. TextQube is fantastic for SMEs that want to mobilise and control information on a new level."

Two runners-up have been awarded £500 each, CotralisSMSGPS from the Netherlands, and CallMeBack from Singapore. CotralisSMSGPS, chosen because it uses SMS to augment a blog post with a location, enables blog postings to be made from anywhere. Conference call service, CallMeBack was chosen due to its ability to use SMS to put the user in control of a conference call.

Mike Short commented, “All entries to the challenge have shown extraordinary levels of creativity and innovation. Dedicated to the mobile industry, I’m always eager to know about new developments so it was interesting for me to see the ideas that people have for the use of 2-way SMS.”

“As a mobile fanatic, I’ve really enjoyed judging this competition” said Ewan MacLeod. “The high quality of entrants reflected the interest in technology for the future of SMS as a communication and business service.”

Esendex SDKs to Become Open Source

Neil — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:15:00 +0000

The Esendex development team have been considering making their Software Development Kits (SDKs) open source for some time now. Finally, with the progression of our new beta ReST API and the development of a new set of SDKs to consume this API, we've decided now is the time for this.

Why make our SDKs open source?

Esendex has always tried to produce easy to use and helpful SDKs in the past. Always listening to our customers' feedback and updating the SDKs when appropriate. By making the source code available to the general public for use/modification free of charge, we believe that the developers can benefit greatly. We can evolve the SDKs continuously in partnership with the developers consuming our services and we believe this is the most efficient way to manage and enhance our SDKs.

Brand New Beta-Zone

Neil — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:00:00 +0000

With a new API and a number of new SDKs in the works, the Esendex development team have a new 'Beta-Zone' in our web site's developer section. The Beta-Zone will be an area for new projects and concepts that aren't fully finalised yet, but offer exciting new functionality that can be made use of by our customers. Currently, we have details on consuming the new ReST API and PHP SDK; both these offer the brilliant new Voice SMS functionality you've been keen to work with programmatically. We will also disclose details of future releases in the works too (new .Net, Ruby and Perl SDKs).

As with anything new we offer to our customers, we are keen to hear all feedback and suggestions - don't be shy, let us know what you think!

Enjoy.

Why ReST for the new API?

Neil — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:55:00 +0000

Why choose ReST for the new API you ask? ReST has caught our and other leading service providers on the web's attention for a number of reasons...

It's simple, lightweight and lacks unnecessary bloat
It's built on simple and established standards, following the architecture of the web; no special toolkits are required

The lightweight nature of ReST, coupled with our powerful web servers results in a lightning fast API for our customers. The simple, established standards that ReST can be built upon means we can support a wider range of programming languages more easily than ever before.

Check back soon for our new Developer beta section where you'll find details on using the new API and possibly even some SDKs.

Win £1000! - enter the SMS Developer Challenge

Ann — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:57:00 +0000

The Esendex SMS Developer Challenge is now open!

Over the years we've come across some diverse and innovative ideas for the application of SMS in businesses - both good and bad! Now we want to hear from all the developers out there who are developing new and interesting SMS applications. It doesn't matter whether your SMS application is focused on a specific niche market or has global appeal as each entrant will be judged on the same criteria.

Use of 2-Way SMS
Clear customer benefits
Commercial potential
Ease of use

So.....the prize!

The grand prize - winner gets £1000 to spend on whatever takes your fancy
Runner up - wins £500
Further 5 prizes of £50 in Amazon vouchers

All successful applicants will be provided with a free Esendex virtual mobile number and a business SMS account to support their entry. All you need to do is complete the application form. We'll send all successful applicants a sign-up page within one business day and all entries must be submitted by 31-May-08. So get in touch today and grab the opportunity to win!

For more information refer to our Developer Challenge website pages. For a list of handsets on which we can test your application, refer to our terms and conditions.