Getting Started - Send MMS to Single Contact
fmMMS allows you to send an MMS to a single Contact or a bulk MMS to a found set of Contacts. To send an MMS to a single Contact click on the CONTACTS button at the top of the screen to view any existing Contact records (this will be empty for new users). Click the New Contact button on the toolbar to create a new blank Contact record. In order to send an MMS you must enter the following details:
First Name: the First Name of the Contact (this is important if you are going to be using the merge fields function with a Template)
Last Name: the Last Name/Surname of the Contact (this is important if you are going to be using the merge fields function with a Template)
Mobile: enter the Mobile Phone/Cell number of the Contact. Enter this as you would dial it in your Country without any country codes or + symbols.
Country: select the Country for the Contact from the drop down list.
International Format: this is entered automatically by fmMMS once you have entered the Country and Mobile Phone number.Once you have finished entering the required Contact fields click the New MMS button to create a new blank MMS to this Contact. Your screen should look like this:
In order to send an MMS you need to ensure the following are completed:
Account ID: if you setup a default Account this will be pre-populated with the Account Name, otherwise you will need to select the Account you wish to use to send the MMS from the drop down menu.
Type: this will be set automatically to Outgoing when sending messages from fmMMS.
Contact ID: this should be populated with the Contact ID for the Contact you wish to send the MMS to. The Contact Name, Contact Phone, Contact Country and Int Format fields should all be completed using the details for that Contact.
Select Template: if you wish to set the Message Body, Subject and Media files for this message using one of the Templates select the Template from the drop down list and the Message Body, Subject and Media files will be set to the contents of the selected Template. Any merge fields that were present in the Template will be replaced with the actual value for each merge merge.
Scheduled Delivery Date/Time: this feature allows you to submit a Message to the MMS Gateway immediately but delay the actual delivery to the recipient (N.B. not all MMS Gateways support this feature). To delay the delivery of the Message select the Date and Time (your local time) you wish the message to be delivered to the recipient by the Gateway. If your selected Gateway doesn't support this feature you will receive an error when trying to edit these fields.
Sent Timestamp: this is set once you click the Send Message button and the Message has been submitted to the MMS Gateway.
Gateway ID: this is automatically set to the MMS Gateway’s own unique reference number (this is typically used when checking on the Message Delivery Status).
Bulk MMS ID: if the Message was sent as part of a Bulk MMS to a found set of Contacts the Bulk MMS ID will appear here.
Message Subject: MMS supports the inclusion of a short subject line in addition to the message body which often appears in bold on the recipients phone. This can act like a headline or title to your message (not all Gateways support using a Message Subject - if your selected Gateway doesn't support this feature you will receive an error when trying to enter this field). There are usually limits to the length of the Message Subject and you will be warned if you attempt to exceed the maximum subject length for your selected Gateway.
Message Body: this is where you enter the actual text of the Message to be sent (or select a Template to populate this). With MMS Messages the message body can usually be much longer than an SMS and up to 5,000 characters with some Gateways. Not all Gateways support using a Message Body - if your selected Gateway doesn't support this feature you will receive an error when trying to enter this field.
Send Result: this stores the result returned by the MMS Gateway. It typically contains a status/result that you can match to one of the options in the list of Gateway Codes. Each MMS Gateway returns a different result in a different format. Review the Gateway Codes for more details on a particular result.
Media Tab: this is where you can add 1 or more media files to be sent as your MMS (some Gateways only support adding a single media file attachment. If your selected Gateway doesn't support more than one attachment you will receive an error when trying to add multiple media files. Click the New Media button to create a new related Media record for this message. Depending on your Account Media Upload Method settings and the options supported by your selected Gateway you can either insert a local file into the container field, or add a URL for the Gateway to download.
Once you have finished entering your Message Subject, Body and adding your media files you are ready to send the Message to the MMS Gateway – click the Send Message button to send the Message to the MMS Gateway. fmMMS will first check to ensure all required details have been entered before attempting to send the Message and will alert you to any issues. Check the respons returned in the Send Result field and review the Gateway Codes for further details. Once you have sent a Message the Message screen should look like this:
We have also included an option for having Bulk MMS messages sent via FileMaker Server using the Perform Script on Server script step – fmMMS has to be hosted by FileMaker Server/FileMaker Cloud for this to work. To send a message using FileMaker Server simply click the Send via Server button.
We have a short video demonstrating the sending of MMS Messages to single Contacts on our fmMMS Videos page.