Email to SMS

m-law

I see several references across this forum about integrating SMS!
This is something I am interested in. But has anyone tried using an email-to-SMS provider to work this into OSticket?
My thoughts are as follows:

Set up ticket filter which triggers when box ticked/checked: send SMS (custom form)
- trigger must also include specific user.
Action: send email

You then use the Email-to-SMS email address from the SMS provider.

The downside here is I need to set this filter up for every user on the system, as each SMS-to-email address will be different.

ntozier

I am not aware of anyone having done this in a long time.
I think that it goes with out saying that to achieve this you would likely have to mod the code, or make a plugin.

m-law

ntozier If you take a look at a popular SMS provider, they have the option to have an email address that points to a mobile number. In this fashion you could have a user with a defacto mobile (cell) phone number attached instead of an email. You could CC this user in and send them an SMS friendly canned response.
Just example usage.
No code needed.
I have not tested it yet but plan to try it out in the near future. It will be useful in some scenarios, where the ticket message is important enough to warrant a text message.

ntozier

m-law

This is actually pretty cool. Thanks for clarifying that its an email to sms gateway.

m-law

Also, I know I’m not allowed to advertise, and I won’t. But I’ve just come across a plugin for OST which has an API built in for sending SMS!

The code is on GitHub and you get the API from the provider via a portal!

Just to add though, it’s only for alerting agents!

durangod2

Yes i like the email to SMS idea as well, great stuff. But for now i would just like to implement SMS for the 2FA. I will do a search here and on google to see if there are options for that. I assume its rather easy to implement since basic SMS is so easy to do. Then i will look at SMS for new tickets, then for update to tickets.

m-law

durangod2 That's great. I'm glad you like my idea.
Over the past few years it seems OST has become more pliable. A solution whereby one can take their own ideas to the table and make it what they want it to be.

I recently became aware of ticket filters (Admin > Manage > Filters). To my mind this has the potential to unlock vast new capabilities to the platform and enable the lay user to harness the full potential of OST without coding.

It would be fantastic to see this feature expanded beyond triggers that happen during ticket creation.

Good luck with your 2FA endeavour. It will be interesting to see the results 😃

durangod2

After looking at the code, i am going to make a copy of the current 2FA code and attempt to add SMS 2FA only, NOT email to 2FA (not now) i need a better understanding of the parts. Of course i will share it on github and they can do what they want with it should i succeed. I am not a fan of github at all, i actually hate it. But i will do what i can and let them take it from there, if they choose to add it fine, if not that is fine as well... 🙂 So far it does not appear to be too difficult. 🙂

m-law

Noticed an OST limitation which prevents usage of an email-to-sms gateway through OST filter.
The subject field does not allow for the full auth details as required by the provider.
Example: to send sms to gateway you need to authenticate using subject containing the API key

auth~testaccount~ALDK-3DFDF-DFDSFSDF~Test Subject~MyCompany

KevinTheJedi

m-law

You can easily modify the HTML input to extend the max length.

Cheers.

m-law

KevinTheJedi Struggling to find it any chance you can point me to the file plz?

KevinTheJedi

m-law

Look at the action's class in the filter_action file.

Cheers.

m-law

KevinTheJedi In class.forms.php - where it now says 80 below was 30. After changing it I am able to add 80 characters into the subject field. Not sure if this would break anything else but I'll run with it and see how it goes.

m-law

Small update for anyone interested in using this.
It's working very well in my trials.

I have it sending an SMS to the user when each ticket is created. It basically informs them that a new ticket has been created and to check their registered emails for further updates. Which is perfect as I don't think most people would want SMS sent to their phone for every ticket update, especially as responses can be detailed and require attachments.

The fact you can include ticket/user/organisation data within the SMS is really great. I have it showing the ticket ID and organisation, so the receiver knows exactly what it relates to. You can even have a link to the ticket thread in the SMS, but I have removed this as I think less is more in this case.

Looking forward to going live with it.