Sending SMS from PHP

Create your own SMS form at your website

An engine sending short messages directly from a PHP script is very useful for webmasters. Headwind SMS Suite may be used to send SMS from the website in two manners. The first solution is to use a separate SMS server which periodically asks a web server about pending messages. However, if you have a Windows-based web server, you may implement the SMS engine directly in PHP! All you need is Headwind GSM Modem Driver and the support of COM/.NET in PHP (the latter is included in a latest version of the PHP package for Windows by default).

Step-by-step guide

The whole description of the SMS API provided by Headwind may be found in the SMS API guide. In this article, we describe what you need to send your first SMS from a personal web server in a step-by-step manner.

Download and install Headwind GSM Modem Driver. Setup the GSM modem in accordance with the user manual.
Setup the application access mode for Headwind GSM Modem Driver API objects using the dcomcnfg utility (here is some more info about using dcomcnfg with Headwind GSM Modem Driver):
- Run dcomcnfg.exe (Start->Run->dcomcnfg.exe)
- Open the item Component Services->Computers->My Computer->DCOM setup->HeadwindGSM, right-click the item and select 'Properties'
- Open the 'Identity' tab and select 'Current user'.
- Click 'Apply' to change the access mode.
Allowing web scripts to start applications from other user identity may potentially increase the host vulnerability. If you have a public web server, please consult your system administrator on the security issues!
Download and install Apache and PHP 5 for Windows. We recommend to use WAMP server (Windows Apache, Mysql, PHP): http://www.wampserver.com. Check that it works properly by typing http://localhost/index.php in your web browser.
Allow to interact web pages using Headwind GSM Modem Driver with desktop:
- Open the list of Windows services (Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Services)
- Find the service 'wampapache', click it by right mouse button and select 'Properties'
- Select the tab 'Log On', select 'System account' and set the flag 'Allow to interact with desktop'
- Click OK, then close WAMP server and start it again
Put a sample PHP script into your www directory.

<?php
    // Get address and message
    $addr = $_GET['addr'];
    $body = $_GET['body'];

    // Open Headwind GSM Modem Driver
    $hgsmdrv = new COM("HeadwindGSM.SMSDriver") or die("Unable to open Headwind GSM Modem Driver");

    // Connect to GSM modem
    $hgsmdrv->Connect();

    // Create message
    $sms = new COM("HeadwindGSM.SMSMessage") or die("Unable to create SMS message");

    $sms->To = $addr;
    $sms->Body = $body;

    // Send message
    $sms->Send();

    //free the objects
    $hgsmdrv = null;
    $sms = null;

    echo "Message '$body' has been sent to '$addr'";
?>

Save this code in your www directory as sms.php, then type in the web browser the following URL (replace '12345678' to your mobile phone number):

http://localhost/sms.php?addr=12345678&body=Hello+World

The web server must open Headwind GSM Modem Driver and send an SMS to you.