http_post

[Walter]

Hello All,

I need help on the http_post function please. I am not sure if this is the correct function for the values I need to send as I am not too clued up with this one.
Basically, I need to send values to their server in order for them to send out an sms or bulk sms'es
In the example they wanted the following values:
Type of post: single or bulk
username
password
etc.

They did send me an example of the values to be posted and mentioned I should use a http_post function for this:

</form>
</td></tr>
<tr><td height="10"></td></tr>
<td><tr>
<form method="POST" action="http://www.smsportal.co.za/httppost3.aspx">
<input type="hidden" name="Type" size="20" value="Bulk">
<Table border=1>
<tr><td colspan="2">Bulk SMS</td></tr>
<tr><td>Username</td><td><input type="text" name="Username" size="20"></td></tr><!--You username -->
<tr><td>Password</td><td><input type="text" name="Password" size="20"></td></tr><!--You Password -->
<tr><td>Number</td><td><input type="text" name="Numbers" size="20"></td></tr><!--Numbers in a comma seperated string eg: 0832297941,0832297911-->
<tr><td>Message</td><td><input type="text" name="Message" size="20"></td></tr><!--Your message no longer than 160 chars -->
<tr><td>SendDate</td><td><input type="text" name="SendDate" size="20" value="2/Nov/2005"></td></tr><!--date in the format dd/mmm/yyyy -->
<tr><td>SendTime</td><td><input type="text" name="SendTime" size="20" value="21:00"></td></tr><!--24 hour time format HH:mm -->
<tr><td></td><td> <input type="submit" value="Submit" name="B1"></td></tr>
<!--It will return the a "true" or "false" and then a description eg: "False, your username and password do not match!" or "True, Successfully sent"

Any asistance with this will be much appreciated.
Walter

[Finian Lennon]

Re: http_post

I haven't done this yet myself - but I will have to soon using http_post2, so I'm interested in this topic.

Result as P = HTTP_POST( URL as C [, Body as C [, Cookie as C [, Port as N [, Timeout as N, [ Show_Before_Send as L [, Validate_SSL_Certificate as L ]]]]]] )

It looks like they have sent you a sample of what the body of the submission should look like. You need to construct a similar string, substituting variables where the body contains submission-specific information

So if my user name is "Finian" and password is "hello" then I can format a text variable similar to the example and substitute my name and password (and any other values) into the string. The following is a very primitive attempt to communicate with the server in question. Because the body is incomplete and the submitted information is not valid, the script can't work, but it does generate a response from the server.

dim user as c;dim pass as c
user = "Finian";pass = "hello"
dim postbody as c
dim posturl as c
posturl = "http://www.smsportal.co.za/httppost3.aspx"   
postbody = "</form>"\
+ Crlf() + "</td></tr>"\
+ Crlf() + "<tr><td height=\"10\"></td></tr>"\
+ Crlf() +"<td><tr>"\
+ Crlf() + "<form method=\"POST\" action=\"http://www.smsportal.co.za/httppost3.aspx\">"\
+ Crlf() + "<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"Type\" size=\"20\" value=\"Bulk\">"\
+ Crlf() + "<Table border=1>"\
+ Crlf() + "<tr><td colspan=\"2\">Bulk SMS</td></tr>"\
+ Crlf() + "<tr><td>Username</td><td><input type=\"text\" name= '" + User + "' size=\"20\"></td></tr><!--You username -->"\
+ Crlf() + "<tr><td>Password</td><td><input type=\"text\" name='" + Pass + "' size=\"20\"></td></tr><!--You Password -->"
ui_msg_box("",postbody)
'submit the information to the server
response = http_post(posturl,postbody)
'show the server response in a msg_box
ui_msg_box("",response.body)
'write the server response to a file
file.from_string("C:\temp\http_post_response.txt",response.body)
end

The http functions are documented, but just barely so. So there will likely be a lot of trial and error in this. There are also a bunch of functions that deal with processing URLs etc but I find it difficult impossible to determine how or whether they would/should be used in the context of these functions.

[Walter]

Re: http_post

Thanks Lenny,

Looks like this one is more intersting than I thought it would be.
I am going to give this a go this evening, I will keep posting the progress on this.

Walter

[Walter]

Re: http_post

Hello Lenny,

In the end it was simpler than expected.
This is what they were looking for.

posturl = "http://www.smsportal.co.za/httppost3.aspx"
postbody = "type=bulk"+ "&" +"username=xxx"+"&"+"password=xxxx"+"&"+"number=0000000000"+"&"+"message=test from cms new post"+"&"+"sendDate=25/Oct/2006"+"&"+"sendTime=10:31"

'--> END OF BODY

ui_msg_box("",postbody) '-->message to user before sending http_post
'submit the information to the server

file.from_string("C:\commercial merchants\data\sms_server_reply\http_post_preview.txt",postbody)'--> record details of post before sending

response = http_post(posturl,postbody)'-->the actual post to your server

'show the server response in a msg_box
'ui_msg_box("",response.body)
'write the server response to a file
file.from_string("C:\commercial merchants\data\sms_server_reply\http_post_response.txt",response.body)'--> record reply from your server to file
end

Thanks for the help
Walter

[Walter]

Re: http_post

Hello Lenny,

I have another question please.
I receive data from the sms server in this format:

<table cellspacing="0" rules="all" border="1" id="DataGrid">
<tr>
<td>SentID</td><td>PhoneNumber</td><td>Data</td><td>DateTime</td><td>CustomerID</td><td>SentStatus</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>8903130</td><td>+27000000000</td><td>This sms directly from cms application. Walter</td><td>10/25/2006 11:54:07 AM</td><td>None</td><td>Sent</td>
</tr><tr>
<td>8903131</td><td>+27000000000</td><td>This sms directly from cms application. Walter</td><td>10/25/2006 11:54:08 AM</td><td>None</td><td>Sent</td>
</tr>
</table>

Is there any way to get these values into a table from here?

Thanks
Walter