What this page is for
Messaging connections is where your business sets up how it sends messages — receipts, tax invoices, statements, points codes and sign-in links — by e-mail, SMS (text message) or WhatsApp. Each channel has its own card on this page, showing whether it is working, what it is set up to send through, and the steps left to a fully working connection.
E-mail and SMS send in this release. WhatsApp arrives in V1.1 (the next release); until then its card shows what is coming and sends nothing. SMS needs an SMS provider add-on — Africa's Talking or Twilio — bought from Add-ons. Anything that cannot be sent is printed at the till instead.
Each channel's card shows a standing: Not set up, Switched off, Sending, delivery reports trusted, Sending, delivery reports not trusted yet, Not tested yet or Test provider only. Below it, Steps to a working connection tracks three things in order: a provider saved, a test message sent successfully, and delivery reports registered with the provider. Until a connection is both tested and a delivery report has been registered, a report that comes in is recorded but never acted on, so nobody can forge a bounce to stop a customer's messages.
Only people whose role can manage settings see this page.
How to…
How to set up or change a channel
Press Set up (or Change details) on the channel's card. See Messaging connections for e-mail, or Set up text messages for SMS.
How to send a test message
Press Send a test on a channel's card, type where the test should go, and press Send the test. If the provider accepts it, the connection is marked as tested. Press Open the message to see what was sent.
How to register delivery reports
Press Register delivery reports, read what it does, and confirm. Tulindo gives the provider two private addresses — one for delivery reports, one for replies such as STOP — and registering again replaces whatever the provider held before. A mail server connection has no delivery reports to register, because a mail server does not report what happened to a message once it is sent.
How to copy a callback address to the provider
Press Copy beside Delivery reports address or Incoming messages address, then paste it into the place the provider's own dashboard asks for it. The instructions beside each address name exactly where that is for your provider.
How to change the signing secret
Press Change signing secret, then Make another to generate a fresh one, and copy it into the provider's settings. The old secret keeps working for 24 hours, so no report is lost while you make the change.
On Africa's Talking the secret is the end of both callback addresses, so the old addresses stop working as soon as you save. Copy the new addresses from the SMS card, update the callback URL in your Africa's Talking dashboard straight away, then press Check credentials: until you do, Tulindo records delivery reports but does not act on them. Twilio and Celcom Africa use no Tulindo secret, so their cards do not offer Change signing secret.
How to switch a channel on or off
Press Switch off or Switch on on its card, then confirm. Switching off stops sending on that channel without losing its saved details; a document that would have gone that way goes by the next channel instead, or prints.
If something goes wrong
- The saved sender ID is not up to 11 letters and digits or a phone number in international form, so the provider will refuse it. Fix your sender ID before the next text is sent. — open Set up text messages and correct the sender ID.
- The provider did not take the test for [address]. Open the message to read why, correct the details, and send another. — press Open the message to see why, fix the connection's details, then send a new test.