Software Engineer, Blogger, and ColdFusion master Ben Nadel wrote a great article (inspired by a talk by Aaron Foss) describing how to get started with TextMarks and ColdFusion to build a basic SMS-enabled web app.  We’re excited to see how the ColdFusion community can continue to build on the powerful TextMarks text messaging platform.

Here’s the actual entry on Ben Nadel’s blog:

Using SMS Short Codes And TextMarks To Send Text Messages With ColdFusion

And here’s a followup Ben did showing how to use TextMarks powerful “Contextual Response” feature (docs here) to make request/response text message interactions easier for users:

Using Contextual SMS Short Code Messages With TextMarks And ColdFusion

A new Drupal module is available to help web sites easily integrate TextMarks functionality and broadcast SMS text messages to their users.  (Drupal is a popular open source content management platform.)

This module provides three screens in Drupal:

1. A settings screen to track your API connection settings (see below)
2. A screen to send messages to all subscribers of your TextMark
3. A screen to subscribe a mobile number to your TextMark (the mobile user must opt-in)

Drupal Module Settings

Great work, Justin!

Webmonkey just published a great tutorial to help you get started with a simple request/response SMS text messaging app powered by TextMarks. Their example app lets you find out sunrise/sunset times for any location by simply texting e.g. “sunrise portland or” to 41411.

« Click for Webmonkey tutorial

TextMarks user Jesse Andrews saw this tutorial, and in only 14 minutes built his own app to lookup ISBN numbers by SMS! Read about his experience:

Google, Amazon, and TextMark (and web.py) have made building an SMS app trivial and fun. Also the user experience is much nicer than with Twitter. Users of my twitter bots have to: 1) follow the bot, 2) private messages d amazon [ISNB].

Overview

Instead of giving out paper business cards, give a keyword anybody can text to 41411 and get your contact info texted back automatically. Save a tree, travel light, win friends, and influence people!

What it looks like

Here’s how a typical exchange might go:

Alice: “OK Bob, I’ll contact you next week. Do you have a business card?”

Bob: “Business cards are so 20th century. Just get out your phone and text BIGBOB to 41411.”

Alice: “Hmm… OK, cool.” Alice sends the following text message…

Text the keyword to 41411

TextMarks servers receive the message, look up Bob’s keyword, and respond with his information. Within a few seconds, Alice gets a text message back from 41411…

How the response looks on a phone

Alice: “Wow, neato! I’ll call you on Monday! I gotta get me one of those.”

Step by Step

Follow these easy steps to create your own free (std text charges apply) mobile business card.

1. Go to www.textmarks.com.
2. Click the “CREATE” tab.
   

   Click the "CREATE" tab.

3. Select your unique keyword (”BIGBOB” in the example above), type in your response, and set the options as shown:
   

   Set the options and fill out the form as shown here.

4. Click the “CREATE” button. Now test it from your phone!
5. Important: Your new TextMark will expire in 24 hours if you don’t register on the next screen!
6. Once you’re registered, you can login and click on the “MANAGE” tab any time to view stats, change your response, tell TextMarks to send you an SMS each time your keyword is requested (including the other person’s phone#), and lots more.

Want to let your blog readers subscribe to your blog’s RSS via SMS?  TextMarks user Michael Yuan used the TextMarks API to create a WordPress plugin to do just that.

It’s very easy to use.  Below is a screenshot of the admin’s settings.  Visit Michael’s blog to get the plugin and installation instructions.

Great work, Michael!