Integration with Text Messaging Providers

  • 1. Introduction
    The purpose of the integration is to provide a seamless user experience for station members during the initial registration and subsequent updates to the member profile maintained by the Frankly Media (FM) platform on one hand and by the Text Messaging Provider (TMP) platform on the other. This integration can also allow for the crediting of points for actions completed on the TMP’s platform, such as responding via text to a code word broadcast by a station or voting in a text-based poll. The single point of entry is established through the FM platform. New members use the FM registration form to sign up. If a new member chooses to opt in to the Text Messaging program, the FM registration passes the new member data to the TMP portal, but the new member remains on the FM site. In order to edit the TMP-specific profile, the member clicks on the ‘Text Messaging’ link, at which time FM posts the member data to the TMP portal and the portal page is loaded within the provided IFrame. Any updates to the member data pertaining to Text Messaging is then handled by the TMP portal.
  • 2. Set-up requirements
    • 1. Field Mappings for registration information exchange
    • 2. TMP provides a URL for FM to post a new member data to (e.g. stationTMPortalnewsubscriber.asp).
    • 3. TMP provides a URL for FM to post an existing member data to (e.g. stationTMPortalprofileupdate.asp). The URL opens the TMP portal which will be loaded within the 660 pixel wide IFRAME. Ideally, this portal will not contain headers or other graphics that might conflict with the look/feel of the client’s main club program.
    • 4. Map of station names (call letters) to respective portal names used by the TMP. The portal name is typically a part of the posting URL (see 2.2.)
    • 5. Activity codes setup. FM provides the required activity code(s) to TMP. FM and TMP will establish point values for each activity.
    • 6. Points update interface. FM provides an API (HTTP POST method) for crediting external member activity. Refer to this article for details.
  • 3. Flow
    • 1. New Registration (FM to TMP)
      New User comes to the FM registration page and provides the required information. Upon the successful registration, FM posts the new member data to the URL (see 2.2). The provider performs the necessary validation (which may include a text message to the new member to confirm the subscription, enter a generated confirmation code, etc.) and sends back a code (OK or Error), which is logged by FM for that member.
    • 2. Existing member updates TMP profile (FM to TMP)
      To update the TMP profile, the member clicks on the Text Messaging link on the FM site and FM posts the member data to the URL referred to in 2.3. The TMP portal is then loaded in the IFrame and the passed-in member data is prefilled on the member profile page.
      In both cases (new member registration and the profile update) FM posts the following fields to the Text Message Provider:

      • fromsite – URL of the site, also referred to as Login Domain
      • UserName – User Name
      • EnticentMemberID – Unique numeric identifier of the consumer in the FM database
      • CheckSum – a hash of the FM member ID and a private key provided by FM to TMP. FM produces a checksum of the member ID and key according to an agreed-upon algorithm for each post request. TMP validates the checksum value for security purposes
      • page – reserved
      • PartnerID – a static value (e.g. “SF” for Sticky Fish).
      • emailaddress – Email address of the consumer
      • mobilephonenumber – consumer’s mobile number
      • firstname -first name of the consumer
      • lastname – last name of the consumer
      • gender – consumer’s gender (M, F, U)
      • dob – consumer’s date of birth
      • zip – consumer’s zip code
      • SendOKMessage – indicates whether a “ReplyToConfirm” message should be sent out to the consumer’s mobile phone by the TMP.
      • EnticentRegistrationPage – reserved
    • 3. Posting points (Text Message Provider  FM)
      For details on posting points for external activities to the FM database, refer to this API article.
    • 4. Listen and Win Promotions
      The FM platform can credit points to members who use Text Messaging to submit a code related to an aired points promotion. (Typically, the texting of Listen and Win codes or Watch and Win codes is done using a keyword. Stations direct their audience to text in a keyword and the L&W or W&W code to their short code. For example, ‘you can text in the name of today’s artist of the day. Just text VIP Shania Twain to 12345 to earn your points’. In this example ‘VIP’ is the keyword is used by the TMP platform to identify that the message should be forward to FM and ‘Shania Twain’ is the code word is used by FM to credit points.) The FM platform exposes an API that TMP can use to submit the member ID (EnticentMemberID) and the keyed-in code. If the code matches any of the codes associated with an active Listen and Win promotion, FM assigns points to the member. If the points are assigned, the response sent to back to the TMP contains the number of points earned for the keyword and the total number of points of the member, allowing the TMP to provide this as a response to the member in the form of a text message.
      Keyword Posting API parameters:
      Memberid
      CodewordXML Response examples:
      1.Success scenario
      SUCCESS
      123
      100
      15002. Error condition
      FAIL
      123User does not exist

      Alternatively, TMP can obtain a list of active Listen and Win promotions using this API, validate consumer responses and credit points using this API method.