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Sahana Messaging Architecture

The Sahana Messaging architecture follows some important goals

  • Standards Based
  • F/OSS Component Reusability
  • Implementation independent plugin-architecture

Messaging in Sahana is currently implemented as a module under <sahana-folder>/mod/msg.

The Sahana Messaging is designed with reuse and standards in mind.

Overview Architecture

Features of the Current Messaging Module

  • Module independent API for external modules
  • Developer is able to use the API independently regardless of the actual plugin or data used.
  • Plugin architecture similar to the Sahana framework which automatically detects and handles Messaging plugins
  • Messaging framework and administration section with plugin architecture
  • Kannel plugin
  • SMSTools plugin
  • Ability to send SMS or e-mail to Groups from templates
  • CAP Alerts
  • Surveying: Conduct surveys by sending survey questions: receive responses as survey reports
  • Advanced Contacts management
  • Auto-refreshing SM receiving interface

Features of the Proposed Messaging Module

To be delivered by GSoC 2008 - Work Progress - Work Report:

  • Ability to access Sahana via SMS menus
    • SMSd event handler able to lookup Sahana DB access details from sysconf.inc
    • Login menu: user,pass
    • State held in server based on CallerID: Login name, menus status
    • Modules are able to write scripts for the SMSd event handler to access via a new lib_form_sms.inc (which uses handler_smstools.inc or handler_kannel.inc to write out the plugin-specific syntax for the scripts)
      • each module has a sub_dir to avoid name collisions
    • Users have 2 modes:
      • Basic users answer a single question per txt
      • Expert users can choose to answer multiple in 1 go:
        • 1,3,4 would take them to Module 1's 3rd menu option & then select option 4
        • lat x.xxx,lon y.y.y.y,desc “Bridge Down”
    • Query Data in the Sahana DB
      • Showcase example: “tbc”
        • “List Situations within xxx of my current GPS coords”? (Do we have a GIS query for this?)
    • Input Data to the Sahana DB
      • Showcase example: “Add new Situation to Situation Awareness Module: GPS coords & details”
    • Admin UI to enable/disable forms
      • Reuse GIS layers' approach: 1 tab per module, table of available forms for enabling/disabling
      • Top-level controller for the top-level 'Which Module?' menu
      • Admin UI aware of scripts via conf? Or simply reading scripts from filesystem? (Metadata included in scripts)
  • SMSTools packaged in the PortableApp release

Bugs:

  • Admin UI for Kannel Plugin to use admin_settings.inc from plugin folder not root

Potential deliverables

  • More advanced admin UI for SMSTools Plugin
  • Multiple/Parallel modem management
  • Telco specific message routing: routing messages based on number (with multiple modems on different networks)
  • Localized Messaging: Ability to select language to send (also mobile interface to support receiving localized content? )
  • Keyword Management: select quick contacts based on keywords…
  • MMS Integration
  • SMS alerting channels: users can subscribe to channels to receive SMs. Subscription can be done by SM itself ?

To be delivered later:

  • Gnokii plugin (to use Symbian phones without full AT commands)
  • Clickatell plugin (for bulk SMS without own hardware)

Potential Existing Projects

  • GeoSMS - MIT license, so code freely usable, however uses a very different stack, so maybe only UI ideas useful
  • PlaySMS - GPL, not LGPL

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