Introduction

© 2006 - 2024 Lekab Communication Systems AB. Version 5.0.220, 2024-03-25.

This is a Web Service using HTTP GET or HTTP POST requests to send SMS, read status of SMS and retrieve incoming SMS.

There are three main endpoints: /send, /status and /incoming, with the obvious purposes.

Each of the endpoints supports the same function with GET and POST, but in the GET case, parameters are given in the calling URL (after a ? sign, separated by & signs) , while in the POST case the parameters are given in a json document in the HTTP POST request body. UTF-8 encoding is assumed in all HTTP bodies. The GET case, for historical reasons, allows either ISO-8859-1 or UTF-8 based url-encoding of the message using different query parameters.

Both the GET and the POST return responses in the HTTP response body as a json document.

Each of the endpoints also has a variant, single data object HTTP POST endpoint (send one SMS, retrieve one status or one incoming SMS), aimed for integration into less sophisticated calling applications which cannot handle lists of objects: /send/single, /status/single and /incoming/single.

The format of the input and output json documents and the input url parameters are described below.

Different authentication methods available for requests

Every request to the service must include authentication, i.e. username and password (or equivalent). For POST requests these can be given in in the corresponding fields in the JSON document which is sent in the (automatically HTTPS = SSL/TLS encrypted) HTTP body. Since GET requests cannot have a body, instead username and password can be sent in the U and P url parameters. Note that everything in the URL after the host name is also part of the encrypted request, so url parameters are as safe during transfer as parameters in the body.

We also offer three different alternative ways of supplying these username and password credentials available in both the GET and POST cases:

  1. Username and password can be given as standard Basic authentication, in which the header Authorization should have the value Basic + token, where the token is the Base64 encoding of (a UTF-8 byte array representation of) username:password. Here testuser:testpass will be encoded as dGVzdHVzZXI6dGVzdHBhc3M=

  2. Username and password can be given in the HTTP headers, X-Lekab-Userid and X-Lekab-Password, respectively. The values have to be the Base64 encoding of (a UTF-8 byte array representation of) the username or password to allow non-US-ASCII characters. Here testuser will be encoded as dGVzdHVzZXI= and testpass as dGVzdHBhc3M=

  3. An API key obtained from Lekab can be used as a query parameter key, as the value of the header X-API-Key or as the field apikey in the POST request body. The length of the key varies depending on the length of the username (which is contained within the key). TUxVOmRHVnpkSFZ6WlhJOjlKUUczTXU2TVZVU1Exd3Y is a possible example key for the username testuser. The key is independent of the account password.

If any of the alternative methods of authentication are used, parameter values pertaining to other authentication methods should be omitted or set to the empty string "".

Supported character sets in the resulting SMS and pricing issues

The character set used in the input to the API does not affect the resulting SMS. Instead, the characters that are requested to be sent will determine the size and pricing of the message.

Most network operators globally support all printable characters in SMS messages. They also support the sending of longer SMS messages by dividing the content into several SMS message parts (with some exceptions, like South Korea). An SMS message part is limited in size to 140 bytes; longer messages will require more parts. The character set used, not the language, will determine how many parts are needed. The pricing is based on the number of SMS message parts sent. Normally, the recipient’s mobile handset will automatically reassemble the parts of a divided message in the correct order, without any action needed by the recipient.

The GSM standard regulates SMS communication globally. While all characters are supported, some characters used in Western European languages are given special treatment. Two character encodings (character sets) are supported by almost all network operators in the world, and therefore by us: GSM-7 and UCS-2.

By GSM-7 we mean the internationally common GSM-7 alphabet according to GSM 03.38 / 3GPP 23.038 without any national language shift table (only the basic character extension). See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_03.38 for details.

The GSM-7 encoding uses 7 bits per character to encode only characters from these Western European languages (including numbers and some punctuation), while the UCS-2 encoding can encode characters from any Unicode alphabet and uses 16 bits per character. If every character in a message can be encoded with GSM-7, the message will employ the more compact GSM-7 encoding. If any character in a message cannot be encoded with GSM-7, UCS-2 will be used for the entire message.

Since the GSM-7 is a 7-bit character set, 160 characters will fit into one 140 bytes SMS part. The UCS-2 is a 16-bit character set and can accommodate only 70 characters in a 140 bytes SMS part. If a GSM-7 encoded message is longer than 160 characters, or a non-GSM-7 encoded message is longer than 70 characters, it will be divided into more than one part. Due to how such parts are constructed, multi-part SMS messages can only fit 153 GSM-7 characters or 67 UCS-2 characters per part. All parts of a message will use the same encoding, so they will all be GSM-7 or all UCS-2.

The inclusion, even accidentally, of a non-GSM-7 encodable character in a message will therefore transform it into a UCS-2 encoded message. This message will have a larger number of shorter parts, and the send-out will be more costly. Therefore, when sending SMS messages in Western European languages, it is often advisable to be on the lookout for any such characters that may be included in the message. For instance, some characters automatically generated in some circumstances by Microsoft Word, like curved citation marks (curved quotes) and unbreakable spaces, are not included in the GSM-7 character set. French vowels with the accent circonflexe also do not fit into GSM-7. Unsurprisingly, Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and many other alphabets are not included, and neither are emojis, while ordinary text in English, Swedish, Finnish, German and similar languages will fit into the GSM-7 encoding. The Euro-sign (European Union currency symbol) is included in the GSM-7 basic character extension, which we support.

1. The /send endpoint

Used for sending SMS

1.1. GET request example

e.g. from web browser or curl

curl https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/send?U=testuser&P=testpass&T=46701234567,46CALLMENOW&F=LEKAB&M8=Hall%C3%A5+d%C3%A4r!&2=TRUE&X=CONV123

1.2. POST request example

probably from an application

https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/send

With the contents of the HTTP body:

 {"username":"testuser","password":"testpass","from":"LEKAB",
  "to":["46701234567","46CALLMENOW"],
  "message":"Hallå där!","twoway":true,"conversation":"CONV123","checknumber":true}

1.2.1. Explanation of parameters for /send

POST json key GET query param json value (strings quoted) query param value (strings without quotes)

username

U

string

string

username of the LEKAB SMS sending account

password

P

string

string

password of the LEKAB SMS sending account

apikey

key

string

string

API key of the LEKAB SMS sending account

to

T

json list of string

comma separated strings

recipient phone number list

tosubst

TS, H

json list of json objects, see format below

comma separated strings, URL-encoded UTF-8 , see below

recipient numbers, substitutions and placeholders. See explanation below

from

F

string

string

sender id of the SMS (ignored for two-way SMS)

message

M

string UTF-8

string URL-encoded ISO-8859-1

Message to send (alternative GET query param, only specify one)

message

M8

string UTF-8

string URL-encoded UTF-8

Message to send (alternative GET query param, only specify one)

templateid

TPID

string containing long integer

string containing long integer

id of saved template (edited in web portal). See explanation below

onlytemplateplaceholders

TPONLY

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

Only replace template derived place holders of the form {Text:abc} and {DateTime:def}, not the words abc or def themselves. See explanation below

twoway

2

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

sender id from reply number pool

conversation

X

string

string

conversation id not sent but echoed with two-way reply

costcenter

C

string

string

grouping in billing

flash

Z

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

send flash SMS. When sending a flash SMS make sure the SMS contains only characters from the GSM 03.38 character set and contains 160 characters or less.

validminutes

V

string containing integer

string

validity time of  SMS (default is 1440 i.e. 24h)

shownumberparts

N

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

number of SMS parts of multipart message in HTTP response

defaultcountrycode

D

string containing digits

string containing digits

replaces leading zero in to numbers starting with single zero

toaddressbookcustomtagfilter

A

string containing tag filter

string URL-encoded UTF-8 containing tag filter

filter specifying combination of tags in the user’s address book

toaddressbooktagfilterjson

(n/a)

json list of filter parts (see below)

(n/a)

filter specifying combination of tags in the user’s address book

toaddressbooksavedtagfilters

S

json list of saved tag filter names

comma separated strings each URL-encoded UTF-8 containing saved filter name

names of saved tag filters from the user’s address book

toaddressbookgroups

G

json list of group/distribution list names

comma separated strings each URL-encoded UTF-8 containing group/distribution list name

names of groups/distribution lists from the user’s address book

replacecharacters

R

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

Replace certain characters not in the GSM-7 standard character set with similar characters in that set (e.g. non-breaking space u00A0 replaced by ordinary space u0020). Only applied if enabled for the account; contact Lekab sales for details.

scheduletime

AT

string containing time

string URL-encoded UTF-8 containing time

Schedule sendout for sending in the future. ISO 8601 standard format like "2022-02-14T15:00:00Z" or "2022-02-14T15:00Z" or "2022-02-14T17:00:00+02:00 or "2022-02-14T13:00-02:00"

checknumber

check

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

Check using Google library if recipient number format is in an official mobile number series for the country in question and reject if not a possible mobile number. Will reject too long numbers used for cheaper incoming SMS, but those are rarely recipients.

1.2.2. HTTP response to /send

A successful request will return 200 OK and a json document of either of the two following formats (depending on the shownumberparts/N parameter). Note that the request for sending is successful even if the send status of some SMS sendings are failed. A successfully sent message may sometimes not be delivered due to external factors (phone turned off, phone subscription expired, no such subscriber), but such requests will be reported as successful by this endpoint, and the later fortune of the message can be followed via the /status or /status/single endpoints. A scheduled message is reported as accepted, and will have status SCHEDULED until the scheduled send time. The Content-Type header of the response is application/json for all responses.

{
  "accepted" : [ {
    "to" : "46701234567",
    "id" : "354284289"
 } ],
  "rejected" : [ "46CALLMENOW" ]
}

Or with number of parts enabled

{
  "accepted" : [ {
    "to" : "46701234567",
    "id" : "354284289",
 "parts" : "1"
 } ],
  "rejected" : [ "46CALLMENOW" ]
}

Note that in this example, the mobile recipient number was accepted while the alphanumeric recipient number was rejected. Note that the checknumber parameter will lead to rejection of some unofficial mobile numbers, e.g. the extra long numbers issued as a group of numbers by some operators as a less expensive way of having many different numbers. These are usually not real mobile phones, but may in some cases be Internet-of-things-type devices, so to send to such numbers, checknumber should be set to false.

1.2.3. Explanation of response to /send

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

accepted

json list of json documents

list of acknowledged queued SMS, never empty because no queued SMS will cause a HTTP 400 status

rejected

json list of string

list of rejected recipients

to

string

recipient phone number

id

string

id of the SMS (use this for future references to this SMS, e.g. for status queries)

parts

string

number of SMS parts (decimal digits only) sent, since a SMS has a max length depending on character set

1.2.4. Example Python 3 code

import json
import requests

sendreq =  {"username" : "testuser", "password": "testpass", "from": "Lekab", "to":["46700112233","46CALLMENOW"], "message":"Tjo flöjt!"}
sendreq_json = json.dumps(sendreq)
url = 'https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/send'
response = requests.post(url, data=sendreq_json)
sendresp = response.json()
for a in sendresp["accepted"]:
    print("SMS to recipient " + a["to"] + " got message id " + a["id"])
for r in sendresp["rejected"]:
    print("Cannot send to " + r)

will output

SMS to recipient 46700112233 got message id 6205
Cannot send to 46CALLMENOW

1.2.5. Tag filter usage

A user, or a company with many users, can have an address book in the Lekab SMS system, with contacts that each contain a phonenumber that can receive SMS messages. These contacts can be marked with tags consisting of a tag type and a tag value. For instance, a contact can be marked with the tag Base:STO if the person is based in Stockholm. The same contact can have many tags, for instance Group:Management or On call:Yes. Which tags types and tag values are used is up to the user/company, but they should preferably consist of letters and numbers, and can especially not contain the characters ;, | or :. A tag filter in the SMS rest interface consists of a list of filter parts, which are connected by logical AND (a contact is selected only if it fulfills every part of the filter). A filter part consists of a tag type and a list of tag values. A contact fulfills the filter part criterion if it has a tag with the given tag type and one of the given tag values (logical OR). Filters can be given either as a string in GET or POST or as a json document in the POST input. Using the string notation, the example contact would fulfill a Base:STO|OSL|CPH;On call:Yes filter, which consists of two filter parts, one saying that the contact needs to have a Base:STO or a Base:OSL or a Base:CPH tag, and the other that the contact needs to have an On call:Yes tag. Note that filter parts are separated by a semicolon, tag type and tag values are separated by a colon and tag values are separated by vertical bars (UNIX pipe symbols).

A user may have access to several address books, but only the address book set as default address book for the user will be searched with the tag filter.

If a tag filter is given, the to parameter is optional, and any numbers selected both by the filter and by the to parameter will not receive duplicate messages but only one. Only one tag filter can be given per send call.

In the following three parameter examples (two POST, one GET), the same tag filter is specified. Note the URL-encoding of the filter string in the GET parameter.

 {"username":"testuser","password":"testpass","from":"LEKAB",
  "toaddressbookcustomtagfilter":"Base:STO|OSL|CPH;On call:Yes",
  "message":"Hallå där!","conversation":"CONV123"}
 {"username":"testuser","password":"testpass","from":"LEKAB",
  "toaddressbooktagfilterjson":[{"tagtype":"Base","tagvalues":["STO","OSL","CPH"]},{"tagtype":"On call","tagvalues":["Yes"]}],
  "message":"Hallå där!","conversation":"CONV123"}
/send?U=testuser&P=testpass&A=Base%3aSTO%7cOSL%7cCPH%3bOn%20call%3aYes&F=LEKAB&M8=Hall%C3%A5+d%C3%A4r!&X=CONV123

Tag filters may be saved in the address book for repeated use, under a name. Note the toaddressbooksavedtagfilters/S parameter which takes a list of such names.

 {"username":"testuser","password":"testpass","from":"LEKAB",
  "toaddressbooksavedtagfilters":["Pilots Helsinki","Security Helsinki"],
  "message":"Hallå där!","conversation":"CONV123"}
/send?U=testuser&P=testpass&S=Pilots%20Helsinki,Security%20Helsinki&F=LEKAB&M8=Hall%C3%A5+d%C3%A4r!&X=CONV123

Lekab’s recommendation is to use the more flexible tag filters, but legacy customers using named groups/distribution lists can give a list of such names in the toaddressbookgroups/G parameter.

 {"username":"testuser","password":"testpass","from":"LEKAB",
  "toaddressbookgroups":["IT Dept","Managers"],
  "message":"Hallå där!","conversation":"CONV123"}
/send?U=testuser&P=testpass&G=IT%20Dept,Managers&F=LEKAB&M8=Hall%C3%A5+d%C3%A4r!&X=CONV123

1.2.6. Use of saved text templates and substitution of place holders

It is sometimes convenient to use a set of standard message templates where only a part of the message text is unique to the individual message. In such a template, some character sequences function as place holders, which are to be substituted with the individualized text pieces. In the web portal, such templates can be edited and stored with an id. The id of the template is shown on the editing page in the newest version of the web portal, and is used in this API with the templateid / TPID parameter. If a template id is given, any explicit message given in the message / M / M8 parameters is ignored. When no template id is given, a template text with placeholders for substitutions can be equally well be supplied as the message.

Hello CUSTOMER! You can pick up your delivery ITEMNO at our store in CITY. Best regards, Our Company

Currently, this API allows substitutions in messages to recipient phone numbers that are explicitly entered, with substitution texts that are also explicitly entered (i.e. not for search results from tag filters and not substituting with stored data e.g. from address book contact entries).

The POST version of the /send endpoint uses the tosubst field to specify the substitutions to be used for each number. The field is a json list of objects, where each object has a to field and a subst field. The to field is a string with the recipient number, and the subst field is a json object, with the form of what is called a dictionary, library, or map of string to string in different programming languages, where the place holders are keys and the texts to substitute are the corresponding values.

"tosubst":[
  {
    "to":"46701234567",
    "subst": { "CUSTOMER":"Anna", "ITEMNO":"1234567", "CITY":"Stockholm" }
  },
  { "to":"46709876543",
    "subst": { "CUSTOMER":"Sven", "ITEMNO":"1234568", "CITY":"Västra Frölunda" }
  }
]

The GET version of the /send endpoint uses the TS and H parameters for the same purpose as the tosubst field in the POST version. The H parameter is a list of k place holders, and the TS parameter has k+1 comma separated (url encoded utf-8) strings per recipient, where the first is the recipient number and the next k are the substitutions.

TS=46701234567,Anna,1234567,Stockholm,46709876543,Sven,1234568,V%C3%A4stra+Fr%C3%B6lunda&H=CUSTOMER,ITEMNO,CITY

In the /send/single endpoint, where all efforts are aimed at a simple, flat input object, the phone number is given in the same to field as non-substituted messages, and the holderX and substX fields are used to specify place holder substitutions. This endpoint sends to one recipient per call.

"to": "46701234567",
"holder1": "CUSTOMER",
"subst1": "Anna",
"holder2": "ITEMNO",
"subst2": "1234567",
"holder3": "CITY",
"subst3": "Stockholm"

In the newest version of the web portal, the feature for editing and saving text templates is improved to allow a use case where logged-in users send single SMS messages by manually adding individual data for slots in the template message into input boxes on the SMS sending web page, allowing a coherent messaging strategy between different recipients. When editing such a template in the web portal, convenient buttons add place holders of the form {Text:customer} or {Text:ITEMNO} or {Text:City:Location of the store} or {DateTime:today}. In this API, there is a short-cut to substitute such template derived place holders in in the same way as place holders without curly brackets, taking care to keep the upper-case and lower-case exactly as in the template. Any curly bracket substitutions not given a value are replaced with the empty string in the output message. Substitutions not found in the template are ignored. Note that the editing page can also add place holders for data pertaining to the logged-in user or the address book contact of the recipient, and these types are not supported currently in this API.

"tosubst":[
  {
    "to":"46701234567",
    "subst": { "customer":"Anna", "ITEMNO":"1234567", "City":"Stockholm", "today":"Jan 1 2022" }
  },
  { "to":"46709876543",
    "subst": { "customer":"Sven", "ITEMNO":"1234568", "City":"Västra Frölunda" }
  }
],
"templateid":"123456789123456"

If any labels used inside the curly bracket place holders happen to coincide exactly with words in the message, there is a parameter onlytemplateplaceholders / TPONLY that can be used to not substitute the single words but only the place holders from the saved template.

Hello {Text:customer}! You are our best customer.

Will become "Hello Anna! You are our best Anna." with onlytemplateplaceholders=false, and "Hello Anna! You are our best customer." with with onlytemplateplaceholders=true

2. The /send/single endpoint

Used for sending a single SMS

2.1. POST request example

probably from an application

https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/send/single

With the contents of the HTTP body:

 {"username":"testuser","password":"testpass","from":"LEKAB",
  "to":"46701234567",
  "message":"Hallå där!","twoway":true,"conversation":"CONV123"}

2.1.1. Explanation of parameters for /send/single

The /send/single endpoint accepts a single string field as the "to" parameter, and does not accept any parameters that may lead to sending messages to more than one recipient (groups, tag filters etc.)

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

username

string

username of the LEKAB SMS sending account

password

string

password of the LEKAB SMS sending account

apikey

string

API key of the LEKAB SMS sending account

to

string

recipient phone number

from

string

sender id of the SMS (ignored for two-way SMS)

message

string UTF-8

Message to send

templateid

string containing long integer

id of saved template (edited in web portal). See explanation of saved templates and substitution for /send

twoway

boolean (default false)

use sender id from reply number pool

conversation

string

conversation id not sent but echoed with two-way reply

costcenter

string

grouping in billing

flash

boolean (default false)

send flash SMS. When sending a flash SMS make sure the SMS contains only characters from the GSM 03.38 character set and contains 160 characters or less.

validminutes

string containing integer

validity time of SMS (default is 1440 i.e. 24h)

defaultcountrycode

string containing digits

replaces leading zero in to number starting with single zero

replacecharacters

boolean (default false)

Replace certain characters not in the GSM-7 standard character set with similar characters in that set (e.g. non-breaking space u00A0 replaced by ordinary space u0020). Only applied if enabled for the account; contact Lekab sales for details.

scheduletime

string containing time

Schedule sendout for sending in the future. ISO 8601 standard format like "2022-02-14T15:00:00Z" or "2022-02-14T15:00Z" or "2022-02-14T17:00:00+02:00 or "2022-02-14T13:00-02:00"

checknumber

boolean (default false)

Check using Google library if recipient number format is in an official mobile number series for the country in question and reject if not a possible mobile number. Will reject too long numbers used for cheaper incoming SMS, but those are rarely recipients.

holderX

string UTF-8

placeholder string which will be replaced by the substX string (X is digit 1-5). Placeholder abc also replaces saved template derived {Text:abc} and {DateTime:abc} placeholders. See explanation of saved templates and substitution for /send

substX

string UTF-8

text string which will replace the holderX string or its saved template derived variants (X is digit 1-5). See explanation of saved templates and substitution for /send

onlytemplateplaceholders

boolean (default false)

Only replace template derived place holders of the form {Text:abc} and {DateTime:def}, not the words abc or def themselves. See explanation of saved templates and substitution for /send

2.1.2. HTTP response to /send/single

A successful request will return 200 OK and a json document of the following format. A failure to attempt sending due e.g. to an invalid recipient phone number will return an appropriate error code, e.g. 400 Invalid request. A successfully sent message may sometimes not be delivered due to external factors (phone turned off, phone subscription expired, no such subscriber), but such requests will be reported as successful by this endpoint, and the later fortune of the message can be followed via the /status or /status/single endpoints. A scheduled message is reported as accepted, and will have status SCHEDULED until the scheduled send time. The Content-Type header of the response is application/json for all responses.

{
    "to" : "46701234567",
    "id" : "354284289",
 "parts" : "1"
}

2.1.3. Explanation of response to /send/single

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

to

string

recipient phone number

id

string

id of the SMS (use this for future references to this SMS, e.g. for status queries)

parts

string

number of SMS parts (decimal digits only) sent, since SMS messages are sent in parts, each with a max length depending on character set

3. The /status endpoint

Used to retrieve the status of SMS that were sent earlier.

Reading statuses will by default mark them as read, unless the markasread parameter is explicitly set to false. When the status of a message changes, the status is set to unread by the system

This endpoint can either retrieve unread statuses of SMS messages sent, or retrieve the statuses for a list of given SMS message ids (independent on whether they were read before or not).

Reading the status of a message will by default mark the status as read, but this can be avoided by setting the markasread R parameter to FALSE. This default value is TRUE both when reading unread statuses and when reading listed statuses. If markasread is set to FALSE, the same statuses will be retrieved again on the next call.

3.1. GET request example

e.g. from web browser or curl

curl https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/status?U=testuser&P=testpass&R=FALSE&I=1088,4140,4118,4243,4412

3.2. POST request example

Probably from an application

https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/status

with the contents of the HTTP body:

{
   "username" : "testuser",
   "password" : "testpass",
   "markasread" : false,
   "id" : [ "1088", "4140", "4118", "4243", "4412" ]
}

3.2.1. Explanation of parameters for /status

POST json key GET query param json value (strings quoted) query param value (strings without quotes)

username

U

string

string

username of the LEKAB SMS sending account

password

P

string

string

password of the LEKAB SMS sending account

apikey

key

string

string

API key of the LEKAB SMS sending account

id

I

json list of string

comma separated strings

list of ids of the SMS for which send status is to be retrieved

maxnum

N

integer (default 100)

integer

max number of statuses to retrieve (ignored if ids are listed)

markasread

R

boolean (default true)

F, FALSE, N or NO

flag whether the status should be marked as read (defaults to true)

A POST call with default parameters, where the authorization credentials are supplied via Basic Authentication or X-Lekab-headers can supply either a zero-length body or an empty JSON document with the same result.

3.2.2. HTTP response to /status

A successful request will return 200 OK and a json document of the following format. The Content-Type header of the response is application/json for all responses.

{
  "statuses" : [ {
    "to" : "46700123456",
    "from" : "46737494333249",
    "id" : "1088",
    "status" : "DELIVERED",
    "statuscode" : "2",
    "conversation" : "",
    "time" : "1467132305000"
  }, {
    "to" : "46705123456",
    "from" : "Lekab",
    "id" : "4243",
    "status" : "QUEUED",
    "statuscode" : "0",
    "conversation" : "",
    "time" : "1476454236000"
  }, {
    "to" : "46702345678",
    "from" : "46737494333295",
    "id" : "4412",
    "status" : "UNDELIVERABLE",
    "statuscode" : "6",
    "conversation" : "74867653486858240",
    "time" : "1477311457000"
  } ],
  "notfound" : [ "4140", "4118" ]
}

Note that in this example, three of the listed statuses were found, while two were not. If the user is not allowed to read a status for a certain id, because that message belongs to another user, this is treated as not found.

3.2.3. Explanation of response to /status

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

statuses

json list of json documents

list of send statuses retrieved

notfound

json list of string

list of message ids for which no status could be retrieved

to

string

recipient phone number

from

string

sender id (number or alphanumeric)

id

string

id of the SMS

status

string

name of the status state of the message (DELIVERED is good)

statuscode

string containing integer 0 to 15

integer code of the status state of the message

conversation

string

conversation id given when sending the message

time

string containing long integer

timestamp in milliseconds after the epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 Z)

3.2.4. Message status codes

The following message status codes can be received in the message status.

statuscode status Description

0

QUEUED

Queued for delivery

1

SENT

Sent to operator

2

DELIVERED

Delivered to the mobile station

3

DELETED

The message was deleted

4

EXPIRED

The message has expired

5

REJECTED

The message was rejected by the operator

6

UNDELIVERABLE

The message could not be delivered

7

ACCEPTED

The message was accepted by the operator

8

ABSENTSUBSCRIBER

The subscribers mobile station is switched off

9

UNKNOWNSUBSCRIBER

The subscriber is not known

10

INVALIDDESTINATION

The destination address is invalid

11

SUBSCRIBERERROR

The mobile station can not receive the message

12

UNKNOWN

The status of the message is unknown

13

ERROR

Internal error when sending the message

14

SCHEDULED

Not yet sent but scheduled for sending

15

CANCELED

Scheduled message was canceled before sending

3.2.5. Non-final statuses

A later status update from the mobile carrier is quite likely to change the value.

QUEUED (0), SENT (1), SCHEDULED (14)

When the status is updated, the read flag is cleared to unread status, and the new status will be retrieved the next time reading. Note that when the recipient’s phone is turned off, this is where the status is stuck until the phone is turned on or the message expires.

3.2.6. Successful final status

The recipient’s phone has supposedly acknowledged receipt of this message.

DELIVERED (2)

3.2.7. Failing final statuses

The recipient will not get this message.

DELETED (3), EXPIRED (4), REJECTED (5), UNDELIVERABLE (6), ABSENTSUBSCRIBER (8), UNKNOWNSUBSCRIBER (9), INVALIDDESTINATION (10), SUBSCRIBERERROR (11), ERROR (13), CANCELED (15)

3.2.8. Unclear

Probably failing final statuses (probably the mobile carrier has lost or dumped the message, but it may suddenly turn up).

ACCEPTED (7), UNKNOWN (12)

3.2.9. Example Python 3 code

import json
import requests

statuses = {"username" : "testuser", "password": "testpass", "markasread" : False, "id" : [ "6202", "6203", "6204" ]}
statuses_json = json.dumps(statuses)
url = 'https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/status'
response = requests.post(url, data=statuses_json)
statusresp = response.json()
for s in statusresp["statuses"]:
    print("id=" + s["id"] + ", status=" + s["status"])

will output

id=6202, status=DELIVERED
id=6203, status=UNDELIVERABLE
id=6204, status=QUEUED

4. The /status/single endpoint

Used to retrieve the status of one (1) SMS that was sent earlier.

Reading a status will by default mark it as read, unless the markasread parameter is explicitly set to false. When the status of a message changes, the status is set to unread by the system.

This endpoint can either retrieve an unread status of a sent SMS message, or retrieve the status for a given SMS message id (independent on whether it was read before or not).

Reading the status of a message will by default mark the status as read, but this can be avoided by setting the markasread parameter to false. This default value is true both when reading unread statuses and when reading status by id. If markasread is set to false, the same status will, in most cases, be retrieved again on the next call (unless the status changed in the mean time).

4.1. POST request example

Probably from an application

https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/status/single

with the contents of the HTTP body:

{
   "username" : "testuser",
   "password" : "testpass",
   "markasread" : false,
   "id" : "1088"
}

4.1.1. Explanation of parameters for /status/single

The /status/single endpoint accepts a single string field as the "id" parameter, and if no id is given a maximum of one (1) unread status change is returned.

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

username

string

username of the LEKAB SMS sending account

password

string

password of the LEKAB SMS sending account

apikey

string

API key of the LEKAB SMS sending account

id

string

id of the SMS for which send status is to be retrieved

markasread

boolean (default true)

flag whether the status should be marked as read (defaults to true)

A POST call with default parameters, where the authorization credentials are supplied via Basic Authentication or X-Lekab-headers can supply either a zero-length body or an empty JSON document with the same result.

4.1.2. HTTP response to /status/single

A successful request will return 200 OK and a json document of the following format. The Content-Type header of the response is application/json for all responses.

{
    "to" : "46700123456",
    "from" : "46737494333249",
    "id" : "1088",
    "status" : "DELIVERED",
    "statuscode" : "2",
    "conversation" : "",
    "time" : "1467132305000"
}

If the id given does not correspond to a sent SMS that the requesting user is allowed to see, or if no id is given and no unread status change is available, a 404 Not found error will be returned.

4.1.3. Explanation of response to /status/single

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

to

string

recipient phone number

from

string

sender id (number or alphanumeric)

id

string

id of the SMS

status

string

name of the status state of the message (DELIVERED is good)

statuscode

string containing integer 0 to 15

integer code of the status state of the message

conversation

string

conversation id given when sending the message

time

string containing long integer

timestamp in milliseconds after the epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 Z)

The status values are described above, in the explanations of the /status endpoint.

5. The /incoming endpoint

Used to retrieve incoming SMS that were either sent to a short or long number rented by the user, or to a number pool number in response to a two-way SMS.

Reading incoming SMS will by default mark them as read, unless the markasread parameter is explicitly set to false

This endpoint can either retrieve unread incoming SMS messages, or retrieve incoming SMS messages whose message ids are given (independent of whether they were read before or not).

Reading a message will by default mark the message as read, but this can be avoided by setting the markasread R parameter to FALSE. This default value is TRUE both when reading unread messages and when reading id listed messages. If markasread is set to FALSE, the same messages will be retrieved again on the next call.

5.1. GET request example

e.g. from web browser or curl

curl https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/incoming?U=testuser&P=testpass&R=FALSE&N=10&G=Y

5.2. POST request example

Probably from an application

https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/incoming

With the contents of the HTTP body:

{
   "username" : "testuser",
   "password" : "testpass",
   "markasread" : false,
   "maxnum" : 10,
   "getoriginal" : true
}

5.2.1. Explanation of parameters for /incoming

POST json key GET query param json value (strings quoted) query param value (strings without quotes)

username

U

string

string

username of the LEKAB SMS sending account

password

P

string

string

password of the LEKAB SMS sending account

apikey

key

string

string

API key of the LEKAB SMS sending account

id

I

json list of string

comma separated strings

list of ids of the SMS for which send status is to be retrieved

maxnum

N

integer (default 100)

integer

max number of incoming messages to retrieve (ignored if ids are listed)

markasread

R

boolean (default true)

F, FALSE, N or NO

flag whether the incoming message should be marked as read (defaults to true)

getoriginal

G

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

should original SMS text in a two-way conversation be retrieved?

latest

L

boolean (default false)

T, TRUE, Y or YES

reverse order so that the maxnum latest messages not marked as read are returned (default is the maxnum earliest non-marked)

A POST call with default parameters, where the authorization credentials are supplied via Basic Authentication or X-Lekab-headers can supply either a zero-length body or an empty JSON document with the same result.

5.2.2. HTTP response to /incoming

A successful request will return 200 OK and a json document of the following format. The Content-Type header of the response is application/json for all responses.

{
  "incoming" : [ {
    "from" : "46701234567",
    "to" : "54321",
    "id" : "1077",
    "message" : "Please send more info about the club",
    "conversation" : "",
    "resptoid" : "",
    "origmess" : "",
    "time" : "1478538376000"
  }, {
    "from" : "46711223344",
    "to" : "46737494333766",
    "id" : "323",
    "message" : "Yes I would love to",
    "conversation" : "67259314888265728",
    "resptoid" : "3403",
    "origmess" : "Will you join us at the pub after?",
    "time" : "1475497511000"
  } ],
  "notfound" : [ ]
}

Note that in this example where no ids are requested, the list of not found ids will always be empty.

5.2.3. Explanation of response to /incoming

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

incoming

json list of json documents

list of incoming sms messages retrieved

notfound

json list of string

list of message ids for which no incoming message could be retrieved

from

string

sender phone number

to

string

recipient number (long number or short code)

id

string

id of the incoming SMS

message

string

the incoming message text

conversation

string

conversation id associated with this message (two-way SMS response)

resptoid

string

id of original SMS associated with this message (two-way SMS response)

origmess

string

original SMS text associated with this message (two-way SMS response, retrieved if requested)

time

string containing long integer

timestamp in milliseconds after the epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 Z)

5.2.4. Example Python 3 code

Example code for /incoming will be very similar to that for /status above

6. The /incoming/single endpoint

Used to retrieve one (1) incoming SMS that was either sent to a short or long number rented by the user, or to a number pool number in response to a two-way SMS.

Reading incoming SMS will by default mark them as read, unless the markasread parameter is explicitly set to false

This endpoint can either retrieve the next unread incoming SMS message, or retrieve an incoming SMS whose id is given (independent on whether it was read before or not).

Reading the a message will by default mark the message as read, but this can be avoided by setting the markasread parameter to false. This default value is true both when reading unread messages and when reading id listed messages. If markasread is set to false, the same message will in most cases be retrieved again on the next call.

6.1. POST request example

Probably from an application

https://secure.lekab.com/restsms/api/incoming/single

With the contents of the HTTP body:

{
   "username" : "testuser",
   "password" : "testpass",
   "markasread" : false,
   "getoriginal" : true
}

6.1.1. Explanation of parameters for /incoming/single

The /incoming/single endpoint accepts a single string field as the "id" parameter, and if no id is given a maximum of one (1) unread incoming SMS is returned.

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

username

string

username of the LEKAB SMS sending account

password

string

password of the LEKAB SMS sending account

apikey

string

API key of the LEKAB SMS sending account

id

string

id of the SMS for which send status is to be retrieved

markasread

boolean (default true)

flag whether the incoming message should be marked as read (defaults to true)

getoriginal

boolean (default false)

should original SMS text in a two-way conversation be retrieved?

latest

boolean (default false)

reverse order so that the latest message not marked as read is returned (default is the earliest non-marked)

A POST call with default parameters, where the authorization credentials are supplied via Basic Authentication or X-Lekab-headers can supply either a zero-length body or an empty JSON document with the same result.

6.1.2. HTTP response to /incoming/single

A successful request (at least incoming SMS was retrieved) will return 200 OK and a json document of the following format. The Content-Type header of the response is application/json for all responses.

{
    "from" : "46701234567",
    "to" : "54321",
    "id" : "1077",
    "message" : "Please send more info about the club",
    "conversation" : "",
    "resptoid" : "",
    "origmess" : "",
    "time" : "1478538376000"
}

If the id given does not correspond to an incoming SMS that the requesting user is allowed to see, or if no id is given and no unread incoming SMS is available, a 404 Not found error will be returned.

6.1.3. Explanation of response to /incoming/single

POST json key json value (strings quoted)

from

string

sender phone number

to

string

recipient number (long number or short code)

id

string

id of the incoming SMS

message

string

the incoming message text

conversation

string

conversation id associated with this message (two-way SMS response)

resptoid

string

id of original SMS associated with this message (two-way SMS response)

origmess

string

original SMS text associated with this message (two-way SMS response, retrieved only if requested)

time

string containing long integer

timestamp in milliseconds after the epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 Z)