Media Upload Methods

fmMMS supports a number of different methods to include media attachments with MMS messages that you send. The options available will depend on which MMS Gateway you are using - see our MMS Gateways list for further details on which options are supported by each Gateway.

Base64 Encoding - this method involves Base64 encoding the file stored in the FileMaker container field prior to uploading to the MMS Gateway. Each media file is Base64 Encoded during the sending process and included in the message payload that is sent to the MMS Gateway.

Gateway Direct - some Gateways support directly uploading media files to their servers (e.g. Bandwidth). This allows you to generate a URL on the fly if required by the Gateway that they can then referencing when sending the MMS message. Check with each Gateway to determine how long Media files are kept on their servers before deletion.

Get Media Record URL - this method lets you generate a publicly accessible URL for a media file stored in a FileMaker container field, without having to first export and upload that to a web server.  This methods involves using the supplied getMediaURL.php file (versions for both the FileMaker Data API and the FileMaker PHP API are included) to generate a dynamic URL on the fly that the Gateway can use to download a media file from the container field in the Media table record. This requires the fmMMS file to be hosted on FileMaker Server.

N.B. the getMediaURL.php file currently doesn't work with FileMaker Cloud 2.x deployments due to the differences in how authentication is handled for FileMaker Cloud 2.x users with the Data API. We hope to have a version of the getMediaURL.php file that supports FileMaker Cloud 2.x soon.

For further details on this method and how to setup the getMediaURL.php file please visit out dedicated page on setting up the getMediaURL.php file.

Public URL - this method requires the user to enter a publicly accessible URL for each media file they wish to send. Simply enter the publicly accessible URL for each media file that you wish to send. You would typically upload the file (jpeg, png etc) to a server and determine the URL to that file and enter this into the URL field for the media file when sending the message. It would typically look something like this:

https://web01.databuzz.com.au/sample_images/DatabuzzQRCode.png