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It is not possible to send an SMS message (text message) directly from JobScheduler. There are, however, three work-aroundsworkarounds:
- Use JobScheduler's E-Mail notification feature. JobScheduler can send e-mails mail in the event of a job or order being completed, ending in error, etc. This feature can be used to send an e-mail to a service provider who then automatically forwards either all or part of the e-mail in the form of a SMS to a predefined telephone number. The configuration of JobScheduler to send e-mails when events such as errors, job or order completion, etc is described in our Mail issues FAQs FAQ - Scripting article. Note that with this solution it is important to determine the reliability of the forwarding service before using it in mission critical areas.
- Install your own SMS forwarding gateway software. One provider of this type of software is Ozeki NG.
- Please note we are providing this link only to say that Ozeki NG provides SMS gateway software. We have no knowledge of the suitability of this software for, for example, mission-critical use. Users have to assure themselves of the reliability of an SMS service driven by this type of software.
- At the moment (June 2013) we have neither impelmented an SMS gateway with JobScheduler nor are in the process of developing a job to do this. However we would not expect this to be particularly difficult to do.
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- JobScheduler can be connected to a monitoring system that is able to send SMS text messages. The operation of JobScheduler in conjunction with System Monitors is described in our Monitoring article.
Caveat
We are not convinced of the suitability of SMS as a notification medium for critical applications.
This is due to the fact that telephone operators would often reduce the frequency with which they attempt to send the SMS if the recipient should be offline. Our experience in Germany is that operators will attempt to send out an SMS quite often in the first few hours after the message is received from the sender. However, they will quickly increase the intervals between attempts to several hours. This can mean that after being offline for a number of hours (in an aeroplane, in a dead spot, or having an empty battery) the recipients may receive SMS 12 or more hours after coming online.
We have no experience of commercial push e-mail services but we think this could be a more suitable alternative.