How To Send SMS via ELMER Server Suite Using VB.NET

SMS or Short Message Service is one of the most common used communication protocol today. It is also now widely used by companies to share information to their clients. Example of these services are product inquiries, SMS alerts, mobile banking and mobile payments. On our company, we use SMS to send wind speed alerts to managers if the wind rise up to a critical level. To setup a SMS capable system you need two components, one is a GSM modem which accepts a SIM card, and operates over a subscription to a mobile operator, just like a mobile phone. Another component is a software like eScience ELMER that will interface with the GSM modem.

For this coding tip, I will show you some custom .NET codes that can communicate with ELMER to send messages. You can use this code to start working on bigger SMS application.



Here is a code snippets from the VB.NET project. The code is using SendSMS.dll (it comes with the Elmer Server Suite) to send a message.

    Private Sub btnSend_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSend.Click
        Try
            If btnSend.Text = "Send SMS" Then
                intSMSCount = 0
                If ValidateFields() Then
                    If Not chkRepeat.Checked Then 'Send one time only
                        SendSMS()
                    Else
                        tmrInterval.Interval = 1000 * nudInterval.Value
                        tmrInterval.Enabled = True
                        btnSend.Text = "Stop SMS"
                    End If
                End If
            Else
                tmrInterval.Enabled = False
                btnSend.Text = "Send SMS"
            End If

        Catch ex As Exception
            MessageBox.Show("Error encountered while sending. " & ex.Message, "SMS Agent")
        End Try
    End Sub

    Private Sub SendSMS()
        Try
            Dim SendSMS As Object = CreateObject("SendSMS.Send")
            SendSMS.SendSMS(txtCellNo.Text.Trim(), txtMessage.Text.Trim(), 1)
            intSMSCount += 1
            UpdateStatus()
        Catch ex As Exception
            MessageBox.Show("Error encountered while sending. " & ex.Message, "SMS Agent")
        End Try
    End Sub

Download SMS via ELMER Project


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