Activation for the SMS notification service

Management and Administration
41

blankev wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

Rod,

if it is of any use: In the menu of Skype, click VIEW and click SMS message, in the right frame there is a square that can be filled with a message, received messages appear in the left frama (Default Skype setting).

I don’t know if it will do any good for OpenEMR, but for my family, I can send a message and they receive the message and will read it somewhere in the future and give me a message back in due time. It also work direct if they are behind the computer AND connected through Skype with the Internet.

(I don’t know about the costs. But computer to computer was free, computer to telephone minimal local cost if the country has a Skype base.)

42

blankev wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

In the Skype Directory i found a file with information on Third-party attributions it mentiones:

Elastic 1.6.4
Copyright © 2011 Jan Jarfalk, http://www.unwrongest.com

Provided for Informational Purposes Only
MIT License

Much has been said of Elastix in this part of the Forum… Skype is also baed on FancyBox, jQuerry and many more, or is this Elastc different from Elastix…

43

ahmadnajjar wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

Hello fsgl

I got all the required information from tm4b (SMS Gateway Username, SMS Gateway Password, SMS Gateway API Key)

but still it is not working, can anyone help me in that.

thank you

44

fsgl wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

Hi Seha,

Sounds like you decided to go with tm4b.

When I get a little time later in the day, I will look at their website more closely and at the Wiki article again.

Hopefully some other tm4b user will jump in to help. If not and we are still clueless, we can always contact tm4b support for assistance. By hook or by crook, we will get this done.

45

ahmadnajjar wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

Thank you Boss :slight_smile:

46

ahmadnajjar wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

Thank you Boss :slight_smile:

47

ahmadnajjar wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

48

fsgl wrote on Monday, June 23, 2014:

Seha,

The news is not good after spending some time at the TM4B website and re-reading the Wiki article.

“BELOW (items are)…missing for V4.0 --Tony - www.mi-squared.com 21:03, 2 March 2011 (UTC)…
- Sms notification - set provider name and the body of the sms message
- Email notification - set subject, provider name and the body of the email.”

I interpret the above to mean that you can no longer send SMS from within OpenEMR with version 4.0 and above.

To make things worse, the TM4B website says the following about the API: “Although our SMS API provides extensive functionality and is a leader in its class, its methods are easy enough for any developer to understand.” If you don’t understand their technical manual (I certainly do not), you may have to re-think this.

The Web-to-SMS or the Email-to-SMS methods are technically less difficult. If you had already made a monetary commitment, I would suggest that you speak to TM4B to accommodate a change from the API to one of the above applications.

49

ahmadnajjar wrote on Tuesday, June 24, 2014:

fsgl

is this for TM4B only, or it is applicable for all SMS providers?

50

fsgl wrote on Tuesday, June 24, 2014:

It’s true for TM4B & elastix. Probably true for twilio as well. Suggest you confirm with either Todd or David.

If you need just free SMS, have a look at this.

51

cmswest wrote on Tuesday, June 24, 2014:

nice link, cool that you can send a text through email

new question at front desk, who’s your cell carrier?

52

ahmadnajjar wrote on Tuesday, June 24, 2014:

Hello fsgl

I’m really confused, since in the Open-EMR introduction and all the articles for Open-EMR mentioned that there is an automatic notification for patient’s appointments through SMS.

What I did during this period:
1- read all the needed documents about this subject (Wiki, Discussions, etc…) and till now I can’t find the way how can i make the system send the SMS notifications, and from my point of view it is something basic in any EMR system.
2- Trying to find third party to provide me with SMS service (TM4B, elastix, etc…) and again it is not working.

i’m not blaming anybody here, but what i need is to activate this service only and i need someone to help me in that!!

Thank you fsgl and all of you to your help, put again my issue isn’t resolved.

just I need to know how can i send SMS to patient and whatever the method is (API, Email to SMS, etc)

thank you

and appreciate your advance help

Seha

53

blankev wrote on Tuesday, June 24, 2014:

I like your point of view.

But being sarcastic I would suggest, print with Copy => Paste whatever you want to send to the patient.

If you want to e-mail: Use Hotmail or Gmail and Copy-Paste into the e-mail.

Or buy a fax machine, i.e. this includes Print and Fax.

After having read all the info on SMS and easy, I decided to look into this and indeed it is some kind of relative terrible option yes/no available in OpenEMR.

Elastix and WordPress are my favorites with the most options but…,

I hesitate to start using Elastix, since it has the power to erase all other information on my hard-disk the same way as when I tried to get OpenEMR working in Mint17, I am still on the route to recover, but still need to reinstall many files and other Software.

WordPress is a different kind of option/challenge being under construction by Rod. Very promising, but probably NOT for the faint hearted semi-Developers that are not used to climb mountains and can not yet handle LBV-forms.

If you, after all the info in this part of the forum are still wondering why it is in the WIKI pages and not in your local machine, it is time to ask for professional HELP!

There are many good advisers and some are even willing to give you updated materials, better looking OpenEMR and other stuff not yet included in the official Demos and Distros. If you don’t have the money, you need time to experiment and learn what is to be done to get things running. I am willing to help but only with the stuff I understand and only than, if I get it working.

54

fsgl wrote on Tuesday, June 24, 2014:

Does not work with old folks (“I only turn my cell phone on, when there is an emergency.”).

55

fsgl wrote on Tuesday, June 24, 2014:

Seha,

I know the Wiki article is confusing. It’s the result of having 6 different authors. It needs editing big time. I did not realize all of the problems until I carefully read it and the FAQ at the TM4B website.

The easiest way to resolve this problem:

  1. Forget about sending SMS from within OpenEMR. It’s safer to have it outside, anyway.
  2. Ask your patients their cell phone numbers & carriers. Put that info in Demographics.
  3. Follow the instructions in the Computer Hope link.
  4. Toggle between an open tab of OpenEMR and your email client if you need info from OpenEMR. Hopefully your staff is not as forgetful as mine.
  5. Your emails will become text messages for free. (I used it at home, works great.)

O.K.; free, easy, no setup & no highly technical manual to puzzle over.

Mission accomplished! (said he infamously).

56

fsgl wrote on Wednesday, June 25, 2014:

Found this thread about setting up twilio within OpenEMR.

If you cannot follow F. Kasmani’s tutorial, would suggest that you deploy instead the method in the post above.

57

blankev wrote on Thursday, June 26, 2014:

fsgl,

I have done some extra tweaking on the SMS Wiki page, please check for mistakes or other ommissions.

58

Activation for SMS ASAP