There are many places within Autoline where you can send SMS messages - eg CRM Customer record / Point-of-sale
Customers have asked in the past can I send a longer message than 160 characters. eg We have moved premises - I would like to advise our customers of their service booking confirmation as well as our new address.
The answer is Yes. The maximum in report generator is 254 characters (so you can have an extra 94 characters)
Will a message that is longer than 160 characters cost more to send?
Yes SMS messages are billed in multiples of 160 characters.
eg. you send a message 280 characters long you would be billed for 2 messages.
This is the same on your phone although it may appear you are just sending one message - the phone receiving the message joins it all back together.
The Report Generator
How to set this up
Within the Autoline UserEnv.txt file a new parameter must be set.
System Utilities / Autopack Utilities
Within Site Setup Section
Add
B"SMS_TEXTLEN","255" (yes 1 number higher than the maximum allowed 254)
The number represents how long you wish to allow - the current maximum is 254 (2 messages)
You will need to relogin after making this change for it to take effect.
Within your repgen increase the length of the SMS field name|
This is normally SMS_160$
The Format Tab will now have a longer field for the SMS message
Be sure to select/insert your new variable SMS_254$ on the Format Tab
