Application Components Overview
The application will be deployed as three software components.
- Web Application
- Web Service
- Windows Service
Web Application
The included web application is the user interface of the entire system. It consists of three sub-sections. The user interface as a web application has several benefits including;
- Deploying the application is very easy. It is only done at one point.
- Can be easily accessed by anyone on your network using just a web browser.
- Web applications can be easily updated.
- Users are familiar with browsing websites and using internet applications.
The web application enables the following functionality:
- Manage Tasks
- Create, modify, enable, or disable Tasks.
- Amend the triggers and actions associated with a specific task.
- Monitor the activity of a task. View task activity log to see what exactly the task is doing.
- Run a task on demand; i.e. manually trigger a task as opposed to the task running on schedule.
- Manage Reports
- Create and export reports incoming and outgoing messages.
- View the system activity log.
- Manage Address Book. Entries in the address book are simply mobile numbers.
- Create and modify address book entries
- Create tags that can be used to describe entries in an address book as some sort of metadata. This metadata will make it possible for users to select phone numbers into a message distribution list.
- Create and modify distribution lists that messages can sent to. This is great for advertising new products and services via SMS.
- Send Messages. A console that can be used to send SMS messages.
- Send a single message to single address.
- Send a single message to a distribution list.
- Send personalized messages to a distribution list. The phone numbers in the distribution list must match the phone numbers in the personalized message file.
The systems message processing engine runs as a windows service and also provides the framework for both 1-way messaging, and 2-way messaging.
Most aspects of the behaviour of the system are fully customizable to suit any additional requirements.