SMS to WordPress Comments
Posted by James Saunders on February 16th, 2007
Following my previous post in which I discussed the great opportunity to interlink blogs and mobile text messaging I have now implemented a very basic solution on this blog.
Setup: I used a Enfora SA GSM Modem and along with SQL2GSM Software was able to implement a simple forwarding rule, which, when a Text Message is recieved with a prefix of “blog”, will interact with my WordPress Database to add a blog comment.
How to Comment: Blog readers can send a text to +447913694107 starting with the word “blog” followed by the blog post ID (end number of post url), a colon and then the comment message, for example:
“blog 126:Hello World”
The text message above will post a comment to this blog (entry 126). You will then shortly receive a “Thank you for your comment.” reply and your text message will appear in the blog comments.
It is still in very basic testing stage at the moment but please feel free to give it a whirl, I would love to read your comments both via mobile text messages or by commenting the standard way below.
“Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.” –Mary Kay Ash
Send a text to +447913694107 starting with 'blog' followed by the Blog Post ID, a colon and then your message e.g. "blog 126:Hello World".
February 16th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
THIS COMMENT WAS MADE VIA SMS, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO TEXT YOUR THOUGHTS TOO! JIM
February 16th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
BOO
February 19th, 2007 at 7:50 am
JIM SMELLS
February 19th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Very neat!
Although you would need to have been browsing the blog with a web browser to get the number of the item to comment on, so it’s just as easy to type in here…unless you’re planning to extend it to receive new blog posts by SMS.
Where did you get the modem from? Is it possible to tell who left which comment?
February 19th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
WELL JIM I THINK COMMENTING BY TEXT IS COOL BUT THEN I AM A GEEK! ALLI
February 19th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Hi Ricky,
Yes indeed I agree it is a bit daft to comment by mobile phone when you are already looking at the blog on a browser, however where I think this would be fun is to take the idea one step further and use it for polls. For example, you could pose a poll question in a blog entry, and also send the poll question out by SMS to mobile phones asking for replies. The votes then could come up in the blog comments and/or poll summary chart.
As for the modem I got it on eBay for a few quid, further details of the setup can be found here:
http://www.jlsnet.co.uk/index.php?tab=3&page=projects_sms2blog
I can indeed tell who sent the text messages (thanks Jon for your ‘Jim Smells’ comment, much appreciated!!!), I do store the mobile phone numbers in the blog database, although I decided it best not to display them for obvious privacy reasons.
February 19th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
THANKS ALLI, YES INDEED YOU ARE A GEEK! JIM
February 20th, 2007 at 11:34 am
This is a good idea but how many people will use it is a question
February 20th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Whaaaaaaaat! U lost me at “basic solution”
February 20th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I don’t think it’s going to catch on
February 23rd, 2007 at 12:47 pm
JIMBO WE NEED TO GO HIKING!!
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:03 pm
This is a great idea for developing countries. People can raise their voices to a plataform of collaboration. Keep going on your idea. Jim
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Jim, is this posible from cells from other countries? Lets say someone from England or Mexico Areas code such as 011 (502) Thanks, Jorge
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Hi Jorge,
Yes indeed you can send texts to the blog from any country in the world (costs depended on mobile operator).
It is an interesting comment you make about the combination of mobiles and internet potentially being useful in developing countries, unlike the UK where nearly everyone has a mobile phone and access to the internet, it may be more difficult to voice ideas.
Please do give it a try yourself, I would love to hear your views (and prove international texts work!).
Jim
March 23rd, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Jim, SMS to blogs could be missing link for mass collaboration in developing countries. Most people use cells, but unfortunately not everyone has access to Internet every day. Im currently working on a platform for the local community to collaborate and raise their concerns, ideas and even create their own National Agenda. So, Im looking into SMS to Blog capability to help them with this alternative. Do I need to extra software to upload this into my web? Check this Spanish site to see what Im talking about: www.colaboremos.com then go to the blog.
March 26th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Hi Jorge,
The way it was put together is documented here:
http://www.jlsnet.co.uk/index.php?tab=3&page=projects_sms2blog
You need software called SQL2GSM, a free trial download can be found on their website. Hope you find it useful.
Jim
April 4th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
WOW JIM
May 17th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Do you have to pay for the reply messages?
May 17th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Well kind of, I have lots of “free” text messages on my Virgin Mobile account, but yes ordinarily it would cost to send the “Thank you..” reply.
However you can easily set SQL2GSM up so it does not send a reply.
Jim
June 7th, 2007 at 10:48 am
I found your site after looking for information on wordpress / SMS….
I was thinking that I could write a plugin that sent a blogger comments by SMS and allowed them to reply to those comments, also by SMS.
It would be a bit of a pain as it would, IMO have to handle the popular brians threaded comments plugin to post comments in the correct place….
I was thinking of using Clickatell who have fairly competitive rates and a two way HTTPS API… with that it should be possible to, for example, receive a text of the comment (posted by a reader) preceded by a database ID (number).
The blogger could reply by sending an sms, again preceding it with clickatell account info, and the same database ID and have the comment inserted back into the site at the appropriate place.
Using Clickatell would negate the need for special software, and would be available to almost anyone in the world.
The disadvantage is that users would have to sign up with clicatell to use the plugin.
Clickatell have an affiliate program so you could potentially earn 10% of SMS income from users of the plugin.
The thing is it would take a while to write, and dont think there is demand…
I think potential users would be limited to geeks with low traffic / comment numbers who would try for fun, then disable it…. so I am not going to bother with it, but reading your post on the subject was interesting
June 26th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
You know you could expand this using a “Long Code” which would mean that you could earn a few pence every time that someone commented on your blog.
A short code could do the same, only it’s country specific.
Dan
FreebieSMS
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:53 am
Hi Jim, love the app. I could use this for a client who wants to release a financial presentation online and have users comment via SMS on the blog (as well as posting comments).
Can you do that? Do you have an idea what you would charge?
many thanks
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:33 pm
@Derek: Thanks for your comment, I have had a quick read over your website and your recent posts on Microblogging. Indeed the short nature of SMS (SHORT Messaging Service) does lend itself very nicely to Microblogging, it also sounds like you could use it for your finantial presentation feedback.
I would not charge or implement this for you - the solution I propose above is something which you could implement yourself if you had the correct hardware (a GSM Modem) and software (like SQL2GSM).
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:41 am
Hi James,
1. Thanks so much, I should have read your explanatory post.
2. The subthread is correct: in South Africa (SA) you have about 5million desktop internet users, and 25 million mobile phones. In the rest of Africa its less desktop and same high mobile penetration. A lot of mobile work in SA is geared towards the mobile web, and the W3C Mobile Web Initiative recently got an airing when they opened a chapter here.
3. This is a great idea that I’ve not seen duplicated elsewhere online whilst researching this project. I think you should license this idea, at least under a Creative Commons license. Fortunately, friends work for them and I could find out the necessaries or put them in contact with you for a (free) license
4. I’ve been sending SMS (text) from a SA number (+2782906….) since yesterday. These don’t appear in the comments, any idea? Do you see them getting to the modem at least?
thanks again,
August 28th, 2007 at 8:26 am
@Dekek: Thanks! Indeed you are right I have not come across this kind of implementation for SMS and Blogs anywhere else either. I would love to pursue the idea further (I also have a few other ideas) but unfortunately time permits me to do much at the moment.
Sorry, I do not appear to have received your texts from SA, have you tried sending them to the full international number ‘00447913694107′ instead?
September 4th, 2007 at 10:35 am
so weird, still not showing. I tried from an online service too, with country codes and sans. anything show up in ur logs?
September 21st, 2007 at 10:17 am
got the email to comments working, and the SMS we just sent to the email address which showed up too. Thanks for your help. I’ll put the code up when I have time, or if you want it I’ll just zip and send
January 29th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Great!!!! Now I can upgrade my website and post blogs and comments from my phone. I will have to upgrade my phones memory, I was thinking a 2GB SD Intergral and SD USB Reader card available for under 12 pounds at http://www.directsaleschat.co.uk/memory/sd_high_speed-137.html let me know what you guys think. Thanks a ton.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
wow, that was great post.. thanx for sharing the same…
Mobile Social networking
September 18th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Hi is this function still working? I tried to post via sms this morning and nothing happened?
January 9th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Hi James,
Are you by any chance the BT Engineer that visited our barn last year? If so please could you contact us, as we’ve tried to contact you but your mobile number has changed.
Thanks, Janet.
p.s. If you are not the same James, please could you let me know. Much appreciated.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
How do I install this on my own blog?
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Hi. I read a few of your other posts and wanted to know if you would be interested in exchanging blogroll links?
May 26th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
It will be so good.
cheers.
September 23rd, 2009 at 7:48 am
I am officially confused however couldn’t agree more with the Mary Kay Ash quote.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Jls are the most popular guys I know they brilliant and great they have the most excellant albums ever.by Sharna Brelsford,Nottingham chilwell
January 13th, 2010 at 9:12 am
exactly this JLSNet :: Blog » SMS to WordPress Comments is really nice.
I came through one more jokesmsquote.com
January 15th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
SMS For Free http://www.smsforfree.lt
Nemokami SMS http://www.smsdykai.lt
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Do you have to pay for the reply messages?
March 13th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
А разве это верно ? Мне кажется что тут очень как-то не так.
March 20th, 2010 at 2:51 am
Блог отличный, буду рекомендовать друзьям!
March 23rd, 2010 at 11:48 am
Отличная статья. Краткость явно Ваша сестра
March 24th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Я писал что-то подобное, но у Вас тема более глубого раскрыта
March 26th, 2010 at 1:34 am
Спасибо автору блога за предоставленную информацию.
March 30th, 2010 at 6:45 am
Discount Watch Store offers men’s and women’s watches
fossil wrist watch
frogman watches
geneva fashion watches
geneve watches
gerald genta watches
April 2nd, 2010 at 5:11 am
где можно вашу аську увидеть? хотела бы пообщаться.
April 5th, 2010 at 12:10 am
Спасибо огромное!
April 5th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Мне понравился ваш блог, особенно дизайн
April 29th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Thanks bro
May 11th, 2010 at 9:29 am
THANKS FOR YOUR SHARİNG
May 11th, 2010 at 9:29 am
thanks again
June 7th, 2010 at 12:16 am
Thank very veri bir zite. ne kadar very ya
June 11th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
I wrote a similar blog regarding this subject but your is better.
June 22nd, 2010 at 1:37 pm
hello
rinkey
how r u dear
im so miss u
June 22nd, 2010 at 1:38 pm
June 27th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Here Here! Thanks for putting together another
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:01 am
Great, military loans price [url=http://www.wearediabetic.org/militaryloanss/bio#1]military loans price[/url], azzg,
July 22nd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Thanks kro
July 22nd, 2010 at 4:47 pm
What is “Thanks kro” o bro olmasın :S
August 2nd, 2010 at 7:55 am
Thank kro