Clickatell is an affordable and reliable international SMS text messaging provider that allows for seamless integrated SMS text messaging from within AYS.
Configuring Clickatell SMS text messaging is a two-step process:
- Set up and configure an account with Clickatell
- Enter your Clickatell settings within AYS
Setting up and Configuring a Clickatell account with One API
One API is the newer, more flexible API used by Clickatell, and is recommended for all new setups. If you already have a HTTP API set up, or an older configuration that requires HTTP, you can see the next section below.
Step 1: Go the Clickatell web site to set up an account.
Step 2: Sign up for a Send SMS or Americas 2 Way SMS account. Accounts may be set up for North America, international, or for selected individual countries. (Be sure to ask for extra free credits for testing.)
Step 3: You will be provided with a Client ID, User name, and Password. Keep a record of these as you will need them.
Step 4: Go to the Clickatell Login page and login using your user name and password. If you already had a Clickatell account with a username instead of an email to login, you may need to use their old Communicator login portal here.
Step 5: Once you are logged in and viewing your workspace, find the Channels section and click on SMS.
Step 6a: Click the New SMS Setup button. Choose the option for Two-way messaging.
You must configure two-way messaging in order to send messages to users in the USA. However, AYS does not yet have the capability to receive messages from SMS.
Step 6b: If you do not need to send messages to users in the USA, you can choose One-way messaging. On the next screen, you can choose
Step 7: If you do not already have a long number or short code you would like to use with AYS, choose Long Number and Toll-Free Number, and select I need a new long number. You can then choose your country from the list.
Step 8: You have the option to Select API. Choose One API and Create a new One API and click next.
If you already have a One API set up in Clickatell, you could reuse that if you don’t want to set up a new API. However, if you create a new one, you can track more specifically the messaging from AYS to understand and control its usage. Either choice will work as far as the configuration in AYS.
Step 9: Fill in the One API Details that will help you identify and track the API used for AYS use, such as name, description and SMS service class. Under Setup type, choose Production. Click Next.
Step 10: You will now see One API Details screen. Copy the API Key to the clipboard and keep track of it to set up the integration with AYS, below.
Setting up and Configuring a Clickatell account with the HTTP API
The One API from Clickatell is preferred, it is a more flexible and future-proof solution, see the section above for configuring this. If you already have a HTTP API set up, or you have legacy reasons to use the HTTP API, you can configure it as described here.
Step 1: Go the Clickatell web site to set up an account.
Step 2: Sign up for a Send SMS or Americas 2 Way SMS account. Accounts may be set up for North America, international, or for selected individual countries. (Be sure to ask for extra free credits for testing.)
Step 3: You will be provided with a Client ID, User name, and Password. Keep a record of these as you will need them.
Step 4: Go to the Clickatell Login page and login using your user name and password. If you already had a Clickatell account with a username instead of an email to login, you may need to use their old Communicator login portal here.
Step 5: Once you are logged in, open the APIs menu and select Manage APIs.
Step 6a: If you do not already have an auto-created API of type HTTP, click the Setup a new API button and you will be provided with an API ID. (There are additional optional settings on the HTTP API that you may wish to explore and configure.)
Step 6b: If you have an auto-created HTTP API, click on “info & help” for that API in the table. This will display your API ID.
Step 7: You may need to configure a Sender ID so that message recipients see the name or phone number of who is sending the message. This is a requirement in some countries such as the United States. Open the Manage account menu and select Manage Sender ID. Click the Add Sender ID button and follow the directions on screen. (Note that the verification process for your Sender ID may take some time while Clickatell verifies that you are who you say you are.)
Configuring Clickatell in AYS
Step 1: From either the main AYS program or the Internet Utility, select Setup > Communication Options from the main menu.
Step 2: Select the SMS Text Messaging tab.
Step 3a: Choose your SMS API method you configured on the Clickatell site, either Clickatell (HTTP) or Clickatell (One API).
The Clickatell Mobile Messaging Internet SMS Service (via e-mail) has been removed from recent versions of AYS. If you had this configuration set up before, you will need to migrate to the One API or HTTP API as detailed above.
Step 5: (HTTP API only) – Enter your Clickatell username and password.
Step 6: Enter or paste the API Key from the Clickatell API setup web page into the API Key field.
Step 7: In the Clickatell HTTP API ID, enter the Clickatell API ID you generated above.
Step 8: If you have registered a Clickatell sender ID as described in the above section, then in the Clickatell sender ID field, enter your Sender ID.
To test your settings, enter a test mobile phone number and click the checkbox icon to try sending a test message. If the message is successful, you should receive an acknowledgement message and a long message ID. You can verify the message status on “Message reports” on the Clickatell site. You may need to select “Generate detailed report” to see recent messages.
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