Getting Started - Send a Bulk MMS to a Multiple Contacts
As well as sending an MMS message to a single Contact fmMMS allows you to send a bulk MMS to a found set of Contacts. To send a bulk MMS to a group of Contacts click on the CONTACTS button at the top of the screen to view any existing Contact records (if the Contacts you wish to send the bulk MMS to have not been entered create New Contact records for each recipient first).
To send a bulk MMS to a group of Contacts you first need to create a found set containing just the Contact records you wish to send the bulk MMS to. You can use the FileMaker Find/Omit Record commands to create your desired found set.
Once you have generated your found set of Contact records click the Create Bulk MMS button on the toolbar to start the process of sending a bulk MMS. Your screen should look like this:
In order to send a Bulk MMS you must enter the following details:
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 bulk MMS from the drop down menu.
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 NOT be replaced with the actual value for each merge merge at this stage – this happens when each individual Message is sent.
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.
Total Recipients: this counts the total Contacts that were in the found set selected to receive the bulk MMS. You can remove individual Contacts from the list of Recipients for this bulk MMS by clicking the trash icon to the right of their name under the Recipients for this Bulk MMS section in the bottom right hand corner. N.B. clicking the trash icon removes them from the list of Recipients – it does not delete their Contact record. If you wish to add additional recipients you will need start again by clicking the Contacts button and generating your found set of Recipients.
Sent Timestamp: this is set once you click the Send Bulk Message button.
Send Error: if there is an error sending the Bulk MMS when performed by FileMaker Server (e.g. you have not selected an Account) this will be displayed here. For more details on sending messages using FileMaker Server scripts visit the FileMaker Server Side Sending page.
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.
Media for this Bulk MMS Portal: this is where you can add one 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 Bulk Message button to start sending the Messages to the MMS Gateway. fmMMS will first check to ensure all required details have been entered before attempting to send the Bulk MMS and will alert you to any issues. fmMMS will create a new Message for each Recipient and substitute any Merge Fields with values from the database and update the final Characters/Credits count.
You will receive a final confirmation that you wish to send the Bulk MMS to the selected number of Recipients. Once you click Yes to this dialog there is no way to stop the Bulk MMS:
When the Bulk MMS has finished sending a Message to reach Recipient you will receive a confirmation dialog box:
fmMMS will then display a summary containing the sent Messages:
You can click the arrow button at the left to view the details for an individual Message.
We have also included an option for having 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 Bulk MMS Messages to multiple Contacts on our fmMMS Videos page.