Email Server

talisman · Post by **talisman** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 9:18 pm

Maybe I'm your best friend with this one, since both of us are really hard at trying to get something done for the mobile folk

I see a problem with your implementation. You require a person to send an e-mail first to the server in order to have that request processed by a server-side script and finally the processed result is sent back to the person via e-mail. How about leaving e-mail completely out? What we are talking of here is data anyway, whether the person has an unlimited data plan or not. Why not have the person in need of this service just use the browser on their smartphone, access your PHP script directly and have the person enter the bus stop in a form, submit that form and finally get the processed results directly on the screen, without waiting for any e-mail.

If you really need the e-mail approach, push e-mail is the answer, but push e-mail requires both the backend and frontend to support it, otherwise any e-mail is delivered with this delay you are currently experiencing. BlackBerry for example supports push e-mail, but uses the Research In Motion server as backend, which actually does the e-mail processing. Another approach is to use Funambol or similar, but here again it is required to use the server of the push e-mail service provider. In other words, you can not have your own personal server do the duty.

Can you describe exactly what you need? It seems there are multiple ways to achieve this, but you "blindly" require it to be done that exact way only you know of

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Aug 29, 2009 10:27 pm

Well I don't want to use data because most people who will use the service don't have a data plan to access the internet, otherwise it is a nice option. Texting is a separate plan. Also, not every phone that will use this is a smartphone, so push email isn't good either.

Perhaps there is no way to speed it up then.

talisman · Post by **talisman** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 12:16 am

Matt wrote:Well I don't want to use data because most people who will use the service don't have a data plan to access the internet, otherwise it is a nice option. Texting is a separate plan. Also, not every phone that will use this is a smartphone, so push email isn't good either.

Perhaps there is no way to speed it up then.

So it is SMS text after all. I understood that it was e-mail and not SMS text, which the person must submit. Let's try to isolate the troublemaker, shall we? What software/service do you actually use to receive SMS text on the server side?

P.S. I know, there is no real definition for a "smartphone", but trust me, most phones out there are smartphones one way or another. Maybe not all are advanced e-mail gadgets such as BlackBerry, but most are capable of doing something similar. As a developer myself, I also want to take care of the "minority" of people who do not have so new or advanced devices (think developing applications for people with Windows 98 now, even if Windows 7 is already out!).

infratec · Post by **infratec** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:03 am

@Matt,

I think it is not really complicated.
Threre are many examples on the net how to ask an imap server via telnet.
You have only todo the opposite.
Or/and look at the corresponding RFCs.

Than a 'findstring()' and 'runcommand()' and you have what you want.

Bernd

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 3:47 pm

@talisman:
Well SMS is the same as email. On the server side I just receive the email and forward it to a PHP script (using cPanel to do so. It allows forwarding emails to scripts). The PHP script then just parses the email, looks for who it is from and the message data... looks up the bus and then sends an email out to the person.

infratec wrote:@Matt,

I think it is not really complicated.
Threre are many examples on the net how to ask an imap server via telnet.
You have only todo the opposite.
Or/and look at the corresponding RFCs.

Than a 'findstring()' and 'runcommand()' and you have what you want.

Bernd

Thanks I will look into this more

talisman · Post by **talisman** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:39 pm

Matt wrote:Well SMS is the same as email.

Matt wrote:Well I don't want to use data because most people who will use the service don't have a data plan to access the internet, otherwise it is a nice option. Texting is a separate plan.

I'm confused

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 7:43 pm

lol well SMS/Text Messaging = Email. Most phones allow sending text messages to emails. Send a text message to your email address and look who it is from. yournumber@phoneservice.something. Sending an email back will send a "text message" to the phone. Text messaging is simply over priced email really.

talisman · Post by **talisman** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 8:05 pm

Still, SMS <> e-mail. What you are talking of is not real SMS! That is certainly NOT a feature of the smartphone, rather a service put up by your carrier!

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:00 pm

Please name a carrier not supporting this. it is not just me. all phones have this functionality. the only phone that doesnt that i am aware of is the iphone. but it still recieves sms this way. i am not just talking about smartphones. all phones with text message functionality.

talisman · Post by **talisman** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:43 am

Matt wrote:Please name a carrier not supporting this. it is not just me. all phones have this functionality. the only phone that doesnt that i am aware of is the iphone. but it still recieves sms this way. i am not just talking about smartphones. all phones with text message functionality.

SMS and e-mail are VERY different. Of course, the mobile phone must support using a carrier provided SMS gateway, but it again is NOT a feature of the mobile phone, it is a service provided by YOUR carrier. For a complete list check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ca ... MS_transit

Certainly does not cover everyone. Most of European carriers for instance do not offer this type of service. I do wonder why you still insist on saying SMS = e-mail... Also of course the iPhone or any other phone is able to receive SMS via the gateway, because on the carrier side it gets sent back as regular SMS. Get some clue.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 1:55 pm

I don't care about any phone carriers other than ones provided in the us. And for that case email gives the same functionality as sms. That is my point.

talisman · Post by **talisman** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:01 pm

Fair enough. Now that Wikipedia article seems outdated, since it lists AT&T as being the ONLY carrier in the USA to provide that service. It is nonetheless a carrier dependent service and I do understand your service is / will be U.S. only.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:55 pm

Yes that wikipedia article is marked for deletion lol. Well as far as my research for that has gone I have not found an issue with a US carrier for that functionality.

Anyway...

talisman · Post by **talisman** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:56 pm

Umm... yes, what was the issue again you were experiencing?

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:58 pm

Well there is no issue. Works fine, just wondering if there is a way to speed up. Rather than have cpanel accept the email I was wondering if there was a way to intercept email myself on my own computer to do this.