Jump to Section
- Connecting to the API
- General Parameters
- Check Credits
- Check Message Status
- Send Message
- Cancel Message
- Reports
- Create User
- Update Credits
- Import Contacts CSV
- Get All Contacts/Groups
- Delete All Contacts
- Delete All Groups
- Empty Group
- Delete Group
- GetBGMessages
- Inbound Message HTTP Forwarding
- Error Codes
Connecting to the API
The URL for accessing the API from within your script is: https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api
The API can be called with an HTTP GET or POST, passing in the relevant parameters. All parameters are mandatory unless otherwise stated. All parameters must be URI Encoded.
General Parameters
The general parameters are applicable to all calls to the API
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Token (required) | Your token (found in your settings within the fastsms platform) |
| Action (required) | The action that you would like to perform. This must be one of (not case sensitive): CheckCredits to check how many credits you have CheckMessageStatus to check the status of a message Send to send a message Report to create a report CreateUser to create a new user UpdateCredits to add/remove credits from an existing user ImportContactsCSV to import contacts DeleteAllContacts to delete all contacts DeleteAllGroups to delete all contact groups |
| ShowErrorMessage (optional) | If this is set (to any value) and an error occurs in the API call, the text for the error message will be shown one line beneath the error code. |
Check Credits
Checks your current credit balance. No further parameters are required. Your credit balance will be returned in the content of the page.
Check Message Status
Returns a status of the message. Possible statuses are listed here.
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| MessageID | The Message ID of the message that you wish to query. This is the ID returned by the Send action and can also be found in a message report |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=CheckMessageStatus&MessageID=[Your Message ID]
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Send Message
Sends a message. The message ID or error code will be returned in the content of the Page. If multiple numbers are submitted, then multiple IDs / error codes will be returned, separated by commas
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| DestinationAddress | The Destination Address(es) to send the message to. If you wish to send to multiple numbers, they should be separated by a comma. When submitting multiple numbers, you should use the POST method rather than the GET method.To send to a list, set the DestinationAddress parameter to “List” and add a new parameter “ListName” with the name of the list to send to.For a group set the DestinationAddress parameter to “Group” and add a new parameter “GroupName” with the name of the group to send to.If the send is successful, the API will return 1. If not, a negative error code will be returned.Note that these sends may occur in the background if the group/list contains more than 200 entries. |
| SourceAddress | The Source Address for the message. If this is alphanumeric, it must be 11 or less characters. All GSM characters are valid, however operators and handsets may support restricted character sets. We recommend you stick to A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and space. |
| Body | The Message Body (max 459 characters) |
| ScheduleDate (optional) | The date that the message should be sent (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS) |
| SourceTON (optional) | The Type Of Number for the source address (1 for international, 5 for alphanumeric) |
| ValidityPeriod | The period in seconds that the message will be tried for (maximum 86400 = 24 hours). Once this expires, the message will no longer be attempted to be delivered. |
| GetAllMessageIDs | If the message is longer than 160 characters, the system by default will return only the first ID for each message. Set this parameter to 1 to return all the Ids for each part of each message. |
| GetBGSendID | If you send to a distlist and set this parameter to 1 the BGSendID for the dist list will be returned. For future proofing, this could be a comma separated list of values, should the send be split into multiple sends. |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=Send&DestinationAddress=[Your Number]&SourceAddress=API&Body=Hello%20World
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Cancel Message
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| MessageID | The Message ID (This is the ID returned by the Send action and can also be found in a message report) of the message that you wish to cancel, if that message has not been sent. If the message has been sent, does not belong to that user or does not exist, a -503 error (invalid message ID) will be returned. |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=CancelMessage&MessageID=[Your Message ID]
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Reports
Retrieve the data from a report. The report, in CSV format, will be returned in the content of the page.
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ReportType | The Type of report. Options are: Outbox (From and To dates are ignored for this report), Messages, Usage, InboundMessages, FailedMessages |
| From | The start date for the report (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS) |
| To | The end date for the report (YYYYMMDDHHMMSS) |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=Report&ReportType=Messages&From=20130704000000&To=20130711000000
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Create User
Only possible if you are an admin user, this will create a child user. If successful, ‘1’ will be returned in the content of the page. If unsuccessful, the first line of the page will be the error code and the following lines will contain text information about the nature of the error(s).
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ChildUsername | The username of the user you wish to create |
| ChildPassword | The password for the user |
| AccessLevel | What access level the user should have (Normal or Admin) |
| FirstName | The first name of the user |
| LastName | The last name of the user |
| The email address of the user | |
| Telephone (Optional) | The telephone number of the user |
| Credits | How many credits the user should start with (these will be deducted from your account) |
| Credit Reminder (Optional) | When to send the user a low credit warning email (number of credits left to trigger the email) |
| Alert (Optional) | After how many days of inactivity should an inactivity alert be sent |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=CreateUser&ChildUsername=[Child Username]&ChildPassword=[Child Password]&AccessLevel=Normal&FirstName=[User’s First Name]&LastName=[User’s Last Name]&Email=[User’s Email]&Credits=5
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Update Credits
Transfer credits to/from a child user. If successful, ‘1’ will be returned in the content of the page.
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ChildUsername | The username of the user that you wish to transfer credits to/from. The user must belong to you. |
| Quantity | The amount of credits to transfer. If the number is positive, credits will be transferred to that user. If the number is negative, they will be transferred from that user to you. |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=UpdateCredits&ChildUsername=[Child Username]&Quantity=5
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Import Contacts CSV
This allows you to import contacts into your address book.
For each line in the ContactsCSV parameter, a corresponding line will be returned in the content of the page in the format:
[line] : [result]
Where result is one of:
Success
Duplicate Name
Duplicate Number
Partial
Failed
If there are any Partial or Failed lines, then there will be a blank line, followed by text with details of all the errors below. Partial will usually mean that the contact was added, but could not be put in the group.
Example:
ContactsCSV Parameter contains:
Contact 1,447777777771,noone@anywhere.com,group1
Contact 2,447777777772,
Contact 3,447777777773,,group1,group2,group3
,447777777774,noone@anywhere.com,group3
Contact 5,mynumber,noone@anywhere.com,group3
Gives the reponse:
1 : Success
2 : Success
3 : Success
4 : Failed
5 : Failed
Errors:
4 : No name
5 : Invalid number (mynumber)
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| ContactsCSV | A comma separated list of contacts to add, one per line formatted as follows: name,number,email,group1,group2,group3 |
| IgnoreDupes (Optional) | If set to 1, the system will allow duplicate contacts (name or number) to be created. By default the system will not allow duplicate names or numbers in contacts. |
| OverwriteDupes (Optional) | is set to 1, the value of IgnoreDupes is ignored. |
| OverwriteDupes (Optional) | is set to 1, then any duplicate number will be overwritten. If a duplicate name exists, but with a different number, the original contact will not be overwritten, instead a new contact will be created. |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=ImportContactsCSV&ContactsCSV=contact%201%2C447777777777%2Cnoreply%40anywhere.com%2Cgroup1%2Cgroup2%2Cgroup3%0Acontact%202%2C447777777778%2Cnoreply%40anywhereelse.com%2Cgroup1%2C
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Get All Contacts/Groups
Retrieve Your Contacts or Groups. They are in CSV format and will be returned in the content of the page.
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| GetAllContacts | Returns a CSV with all your contacts. |
| GetAllGroups | Returns a CSV with all your groups. |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=GetAllContacts
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Delete All Contacts
Deletes all contacts in this account. No further parameters are required. 1 will be returned if the deletion was successful, the relevant error code will be returned if an error occurred.
Delete All Groups
Deletes all groups. No further parameters are required. 1 will be returned if the deletion was successful, the relevant error code will be returned if an error occurred.
Empty Group
Remove all contacts from the specified group
Delete Group
Delete the specified group
GetBGMessages
Returns a JSON array of MessageID/Number/Status objects (e.g. [{“MessageID”:”3509592″,”Destination”:”447777777777″,”Status”:”Sent”},{“MessageID”:”3509593″,”Destination”:”447777777778″,”Status”:”Sent”}]
or a json error array as follows: {“error”:”-521″,”message”:”Unknown Background SendID”}
Possible errors:
-521 : Unknown Background Send ID
-522 : Background Send Not Finished
-523 : No messages were found
This function will be unable to access messages that have been archived.
| Parameter Name | Description |
|---|---|
| BGSendID | ID of the send you want to retrieve messages for. |
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Example GET URL : https://my.fastsms.co.uk/api?Token=th1S-15my-t0ken&Action=GetBGMessages&BGSendID=[BGSendID]
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Inbound Message HTTP Forwarding
If you have bought an Virtual Mobile Number (VMN or MSISDN), you can set up the system to forward messages sent to that VMN to a web page on your website.
To do this, login into the web interface, go to your inbox and click on the manage button for the VMN you want to forward.
Once there you will be able to choose the URL to forward to, whether you want to forward with the GET or POST method and what to pass with the auth parameter. (The auth parameter is a passthrough variable designed to add some security by having a password passed through)
The following parameters are used in the call to your site:
source – the phone number that the message came from
dest – the VMN that the message was received on
msg – the body of the message
id – the ID of the message
receivedts – the timestamp that the message was received by us in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
auth – the passthrough variable defined in manage VMN on the web interface
Supplemental Data from a Distribution List
If you have selected a distribution list to receive supplemental data from, you will receive the following additional parameters, with data from the mail merge fields of that list
MMName – the data from the Name field
MMEmail – the data from the Email field
MM1 – the data from the first mail merge field
MM2 – the data from the second mail merge field
MM3 – the data from the third mail merge field
MM4 – the data from the fourth mail merge field
MM5 – the data from the fifth mail merge field
Error Codes
Code Description -100 Not Enough Credits -101 Invalid CreditID -200 Invalid Contact -300 General Database Error -301 Unknown Error -302 Return XML Error -303 Received XML Error -400 Some numbers in list failed -401 Invalid Destination Address -402 Invalid Source Address – Alphanumeric too long -403 Invalid Source Address – Invalid Number -404 Blank Body -405 Invalid Validity Period -406 No Route Available -407 Invalid Schedule Date -408 Distribution List is Empty -409 Group is Empty -410 Invalid Distribution List -411 You have exceeded the limit of messages you can send in a single day to a single number -412 Number is blacklisted -414 Invalid Group -501 Unknown Username/Password -502 Unknown Action -503 Unknown Message ID -504 Invalid From Timestamp -505 Invalid To Timestamp -506 Source Address Not Allowed (Email2SMS) -507 Invalid/Missing Details -508 Error Creating User -509 Unknown/Invalid User -510 You cannot set a user’s credits to be less than 0 -511 The system is down for maintenance -512 User Suspended -513 License in use -514 License expired -515 No License available -516 Unknown List -517 Unable to create List -518 Blank or Invalid Source Address -519 Blank Message Body -520 Unknown Group -601 Unknown Report Type -701 No UserID Specified -702 Invalid Amount Specified -703 Invalid Currency Requested