-- My main question is that, when I test the Pregnancy app that I built
during the tutorial, I have have had many SMS messages arrive here in
thailand correctly (of all three types: welcome, conditional (high risk
reminder), and date based (due date reminder.) HOWEVER, I have of course
been watching the behavior very closely and I have now had a couple of
situations where the scheduled SMS's did not arrive! Though most did.
Ones that have clearly failed were a welcome message (in my testing today)
and a high risk reminder (yesterday.)
These messages, when triggered, did appear in the calendar. And
afterwards, they did appear in the Message Log as having been sent. But
none of them have ever appeared in the "Reminders in Error" list.
Note, all of the ones that failed have been sent to the same the same
phone. But it is a phone succeeded in receiving an SMS message from this
app earlier on. The failing tests were:
Yesterday, the "welcome" message arrived at the phone fine, but
then the following "conditional" reminder a few minutes later did not, even
though it appeared on the calendar and the message log, etc. (I've set
Twilio as the delivery system.)
One day later, i.e. today, I decided to start with a clean slate,
so I totally deleted the mobile user that had created the clients and
registered a new pregnant woman on a different phone, which worked fine for
both welcome and conditional messages, and then registered a new pregnant
woman on the phone that was troublesome yesterday, and it didn't even
succeed in getting its welcome message.
One more note about the troublesome phone: I messaged it with a
normal SMS from my own personal phone and the message arrived no problem.
In the phone number fields I am remembering to use the country code
in them (which accounts for why there's been success in messages arriving
usually.)
Related to the above failures, I will admit that I did adjust the
conditional message so that it doesn't wait until Sunday at 9am, but
instead sends "immediately...immediately" when the condition was met. So I
was wondering if somehow it was scheduled "too darn soon" but I'm sure that
is silly, I am certain the code can handle that, and also, again, it
appeared in the calendar and the log.
Also relevant, I am realizing that the failures that I have been
having
... In short -- any experience with Twilio or other elements of this
system just "dropping" messages?
... It's not related to the system slowdown these past days, is it?
-- Another question. I am trying to recall what I've learned about pricing
for the various elements of CommConnect and SMS. Let's say I decide to go
with your built-in link to Twilio, which your documentation flags as
possibly an expensive option. Am I correct that the total fees would be:
(1) my monthly CommCare fee to be in the "Standard" software plan so that
CommConnect can send outbound SMS, (2) The fee that Twilio charges per SMS
(which Twilio's own website says is USD $0.02 in Thailand, can you tell me
if that posted fee is correct in this context?) (3) no other per-sms or
other cost that I'm forgetting? (if that is indeed all, then I have to
say, it doesn't seem that high-cost in my context, USD $20 for 1000
messages.)
-- Also, that Twilio $0.02 per SMS charge -- would that Twilio cost be
billed directly through my CommCare credit that I had on my CommCare
account, or do I need to make a separate setup or payment to Twilio?
Thanks, and again, hats off to you for the good tutorial, I'm delighted I'm
better informed now --
Once a message shows up in the Message Log Report, it means that it has
been successfully handed off to the SMS Gateway (Twilio in this case),
which then handles the actual delivery of the message. Since our
connection with Twilio uses a US number, delivery to US numbers will have
high reliability. But since sending SMS internationally can be difficult,
it's not uncommon to notice occasions where an internationally-sent SMS is
dropped, depending on the countries involved. If you are seeing messages
show up in the Message Log but then they don't get delivered, it most
likely means that the SMS got dropped.
I think the solution to your problem is just about choosing the right SMS
gateway, so you can either experiment with trying out other gateways we
offer, or alternatively you can setup an Android phone in-country to use as
an SMS gateway as described here: Setup an Android SMS Gateway - CommCare Public - CommCare Public.
The Android gateway setup would likely give you the best delivery rates but
requires more maintenance as described on that page. Either way, I would
recommend testing the gateway with as many different networks in your
country as possible, as delivery can vary based on network too.
The fees for using SMS are the subscription fee you mentioned, plus the
per-SMS fees, which consist of the gateway fee and a $0.01 surcharge on
each SMS. For SMS gateways defined globally in CommCareHQ (such as
Twilio), the gateway fees will be included in your invoice from
CommCareHQ. If you setup a local Telerivet gateway, you will pay all of
the Telerivet costs yourself, and the per-SMS surcharge of $0.01 will be in
your invoice.
Thanks,
Giovanni
···
On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 5:23 AM, Eric Stephan wrote:
Hello all -- I'm getting back to training myself on CommConnect. A few
questions have popped up.
-- First of all, let me praise you guys on the CommConnect documentation,
which I believe has become so much more effective and easy to follow.
Especially appreciated the new tutorial at Messaging Beginner Tutorial - CommCare Public - CommCare Public
which made complete sense as I went through it.
-- My main question is that, when I test the Pregnancy app that I built
during the tutorial, I have have had many SMS messages arrive here in
thailand correctly (of all three types: welcome, conditional (high risk
reminder), and date based (due date reminder.) HOWEVER, I have of course
been watching the behavior very closely and I have now had a couple of
situations where the scheduled SMS's did not arrive! Though most did.
Ones that have clearly failed were a welcome message (in my testing today)
and a high risk reminder (yesterday.)
These messages, when triggered, did appear in the calendar. And
afterwards, they did appear in the Message Log as having been sent. But
none of them have ever appeared in the "Reminders in Error" list.
Note, all of the ones that failed have been sent to the same the
same phone. But it is a phone succeeded in receiving an SMS message from
this app earlier on. The failing tests were:
Yesterday, the "welcome" message arrived at the phone fine, but
then the following "conditional" reminder a few minutes later did not, even
though it appeared on the calendar and the message log, etc. (I've set
Twilio as the delivery system.)
One day later, i.e. today, I decided to start with a clean slate,
so I totally deleted the mobile user that had created the clients and
registered a new pregnant woman on a different phone, which worked fine for
both welcome and conditional messages, and then registered a new pregnant
woman on the phone that was troublesome yesterday, and it didn't even
succeed in getting its welcome message.
One more note about the troublesome phone: I messaged it with a
normal SMS from my own personal phone and the message arrived no problem.
In the phone number fields I am remembering to use the country
code in them (which accounts for why there's been success in messages
arriving usually.)
Related to the above failures, I will admit that I did adjust the
conditional message so that it doesn't wait until Sunday at 9am, but
instead sends "immediately...immediately" when the condition was met. So I
was wondering if somehow it was scheduled "too darn soon" but I'm sure that
is silly, I am certain the code can handle that, and also, again, it
appeared in the calendar and the log.
Also relevant, I am realizing that the failures that I have been
having
... In short -- any experience with Twilio or other elements of this
system just "dropping" messages?
... It's not related to the system slowdown these past days, is it?
-- Another question. I am trying to recall what I've learned about pricing
for the various elements of CommConnect and SMS. Let's say I decide to go
with your built-in link to Twilio, which your documentation flags as
possibly an expensive option. Am I correct that the total fees would be:
(1) my monthly CommCare fee to be in the "Standard" software plan so that
CommConnect can send outbound SMS, (2) The fee that Twilio charges per SMS
(which Twilio's own website says is USD $0.02 in Thailand, can you tell me
if that posted fee is correct in this context?) (3) no other per-sms or
other cost that I'm forgetting? (if that is indeed all, then I have to
say, it doesn't seem that high-cost in my context, USD $20 for 1000
messages.)
-- Also, that Twilio $0.02 per SMS charge -- would that Twilio cost be
billed directly through my CommCare credit that I had on my CommCare
account, or do I need to make a separate setup or payment to Twilio?
Thanks, and again, hats off to you for the good tutorial, I'm delighted
I'm better informed now --
I had actually been planning to use Telerivet for our final app... I was
only using Twilio for this introductory practice and learning.
In a way, then, it's oddly a relief to hear that this is "simply a
perennial problem with a gateway when sending internationally." At least I
know it's not my fault, and that things will be better functioning when I
really do launch the tool.
By the way -- Earlier in this thread you pointed out that:
"Twilio uses a US number, delivery to US numbers will have high
reliability. But since sending SMS internationally can be difficult, it's
not uncommon to notice occasions where an internationally-sent SMS is
dropped, depending on the countries involved."
I was thinking -- it would be smart if your documentation pointed out this
fact. Because, as people use your documentation to make their plans for
what gateway to use, the current documentation gives the impression that
the only downside to using Twilio (for example) is that it's more
expensive. But you pointed out another significant downside.
... and added something like the following text to Twilio (and any other
gateways that it applied to): Because this gateway mails from a US number, there is the possibility that
SMSs could be occasionally dropped when sending to some non-US countries.
It is best to test thoroughly.
Thanks for the suggestion! I've noted it, but in the future you can also
use the Report an Issue button at the bottom of the screen to let us about
issues like this that you note.
Thanks!
Sheel
···
On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 1:21 AM, Eric Stephan wrote:
Hello Giovanni and all --
By the way -- Earlier in this thread you pointed out that:
"Twilio uses a US number, delivery to US numbers will have high
reliability. But since sending SMS internationally can be difficult, it's
not uncommon to notice occasions where an internationally-sent SMS is
dropped, depending on the countries involved."
I was thinking -- it would be smart if your documentation pointed out this
fact. Because, as people use your documentation to make their plans for
what gateway to use, the current documentation gives the impression that
the only downside to using Twilio (for example) is that it's more
expensive. But you pointed out another significant downside.
... and added something like the following text to Twilio (and any other
gateways that it applied to): Because this gateway mails from a US number, there is the possibility
that SMSs could be occasionally dropped when sending to some non-US
countries. It is best to test thoroughly.
We are in community plan and we want to know about Data Collection and
reminder is in which plan??
···
On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 6:15 PM, Sheel Shah wrote:
Hey Eric,
Thanks for the suggestion! I've noted it, but in the future you can also
use the Report an Issue button at the bottom of the screen to let us about
issues like this that you note.
By the way -- Earlier in this thread you pointed out that:
"Twilio uses a US number, delivery to US numbers will have high
reliability. But since sending SMS internationally can be difficult, it's
not uncommon to notice occasions where an internationally-sent SMS is
dropped, depending on the countries involved."
I was thinking -- it would be smart if your documentation pointed out
this fact. Because, as people use your documentation to make their plans
for what gateway to use, the current documentation gives the impression
that the only downside to using Twilio (for example) is that it's more
expensive. But you pointed out another significant downside.
... and added something like the following text to Twilio (and any other
gateways that it applied to): Because this gateway mails from a US number, there is the possibility
that SMSs could be occasionally dropped when sending to some non-US
countries. It is best to test thoroughly.
Please see CommCare Pricing which has details on which
plan has which features.
Thanks,
Giovanni
···
On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 1:55 AM, Latika Sb wrote:
We are in community plan and we want to know about Data Collection and
reminder is in which plan??
On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 6:15 PM, Sheel Shah sshah@dimagi.com wrote:
Hey Eric,
Thanks for the suggestion! I've noted it, but in the future you can also
use the Report an Issue button at the bottom of the screen to let us about
issues like this that you note.
By the way -- Earlier in this thread you pointed out that:
"Twilio uses a US number, delivery to US numbers will have high
reliability. But since sending SMS internationally can be difficult, it's
not uncommon to notice occasions where an internationally-sent SMS is
dropped, depending on the countries involved."
I was thinking -- it would be smart if your documentation pointed out
this fact. Because, as people use your documentation to make their plans
for what gateway to use, the current documentation gives the impression
that the only downside to using Twilio (for example) is that it's more
expensive. But you pointed out another significant downside.
... and added something like the following text to Twilio (and any other
gateways that it applied to): Because this gateway mails from a US number, there is the possibility
that SMSs could be occasionally dropped when sending to some non-US
countries. It is best to test thoroughly.