The above figure describes a high level overview of the platform behavior.

Each of the steps are described in detail below-

1. User sends a request to the txtWeb number e.g. @dictionary alibi to 9243342000.

2. The request is forwarded from the phone carrier to the platform as a SMS.

3. Platform accepts the keyword and maps it to the external URL for the application (or to the text provided if it’s a text site).The AppUrl /text should be provided by the developer when he is building an app. If it is a txtSite, the content is retrieved from the platform’s database. If it is a txtApp steps 4 and 5 described below are followed

4. A HTTP call is made to the URL of the application.

5. The content of the app is sent back to the platform over HTTP.

6. Platform accepts the content . This is converted to an SMS.

7. The SMS is transferred to the phone carrier.

8. The SMS reaches the end user.

Given below is a pictorial description of how the flow takes place

txtsites are static text pages used to publish information. It is analogous to a static web page on the internet. A publisher can provide content and the same can be published as a txtSite for consumption over SMS. For e.g Just sms @manjutea to 0924334200 to check out a sample txtSite. A txtSite can be updated by logging on to txtWeb and changing the content against your txtSite keyword.

Steps to build your first txtSite-

1. Click on "Create a txtSite" on your home page.

2. Enter a keyword which would be the handle for your application.(say the keyword is Hello)

3. Give your txtSite an appropriate description. This description would help in easy discovery of your application. The Search on the platform takes the description into account when searching for relevant apps against the search term entered by the user.(You could enter- "This is my first text application".

4. Enter relevant text to be sent to the end user when he accesses your application e.g- "Hello World!! I am live"

5. Click "Publish" to get our app up and running on the platform.

Txtapps are dynamic pages used to provide information to an end user on the basis of the request he makes via SMS. It is analogous to dynamically populated web pages on the Internet. Unlike a txtsite, one needs to develop a web application, to render dynamic information to the end user using a txtApp.

Steps to build your first txtApp on txtWeb.

To build a txtapp, you first need to build a web application. Every txtApp should map to a txtApplication. Few points to keep in mind while building a web application-

1. The web application should contain content in the form of html.

2. The response to be returned to the user should be within the body tags of the html content.

3. The entire content within the body tag is returned to the user as a response on SMS.

4. Remember to insert your application key in every html response.

There are 5 parameters that the platform sends to an application viz-

• txtweb-mobile: The mobile number of the end user in hash format
• txtweb-message: Message sent by the end user
• txtweb-id: Unique identifier for the message
• txtweb-verifyid: The id used to verify the source. Check API documentation for more details
• txtweb-protocol: The protocol through which the message was received
  • SMS: 1000
  • USSD: 1001
  • WEB: 200x
  • EMULATOR: 2100
  • INSTANT MESSENGER: 220x

We have also exposed APIs to access certain other information such as the user's location. These  can be found in - "API Guide for developing Apps on txtWeb".

It is also possible to mix and match the parameters your app receives, based on the URL you specify. Parameters can be specified by their name as part of the URL, and txtWeb will perform the appropriate replacements when calling your app.
If you don't specifiy any parameters, txtWeb will send all parameters to your app using the default parameter names. Otherwise, txtWeb will only send the parameters you specify.
Note that the fewer the parameters you specify, the more likely txtWeb will be able to cache responses from your app.

An example of a url with replaceable parameters may look something like this: http://domain.com/txtweb-protocol/myApp?m=txtweb-message.
Here, txtweb-protocol and txtweb-message will be replaced by the actual values applicable to the request to your app.

private String TestMessage() {
            String resp="";
            Resp= "+ "\" />Hello World ";
            return(resp);
        }
     

This is a html response that would display hello world on the browser once the servlet is invoked. The String resp is sent to a method sendResponse which is given below-

        private void sendResponse(HttpServletResponse response, String resp) {
            try{
                //resp contains htmlized version of Hello World
                PrintWriter out = response.getWriter();
                out.println(resp);
            } catch (IOException e) {}
        }
   

As txtWeb is language agnostic, you could use a hosting platform that satisfies your need.

Java Developers – could use Google App Engine(http://appengine.google.com) or Amazon Web Services(http://aws.amazon.com)

.Net Developers- Could use Azure platform

Php Developers- There are many free hosting sites like –fun.gg (http://fun.gg) or alwaysdata.net(http://alwaysdata.net).

Ruby Devlopers- Check http://heroku.com

Summary of steps -

1. Click on "Create a txtApp" on your home page.

2. Enter a keyword which would be the handle for your application.(say the keyword is Greetings)

3. Give your txtSite an appropriate description. This description would help in easy discovery of your application. The Search on the platform takes the description into account when searching for relevant apps against the search term entered by the user.(You could enter- "Building my first txtApp".

4. Enter relevant URL of your web application .(The location where you would host your "Hello World Application".

5. Click "Publish" to get our app up and running on the platform.