Step 1: Create an account and add credits

To send an SMS with 46elks you first have to create an account. Go to the registration page and fill in your details. You will then receive an automatic phone call or an email to verify your new account.

To start using 46elks to send a text messages you will need to purchase some credits. The minimum purchase is 10 EUR, which is more than enough to get started.

Step 2: Locate your API credentials

The 46elks API uses Basic Auth to verify API calls which requires a 46elks username and a password. You will find your “API Username” and “API password” in the dashboard. Here is how it looks.

Where to get your API credentials from with password visible

The username and password should be used for every API request. That way 46elks knows who you are and what you are allowed to do (like sending an SMS from your phone number).

Step 3: Write your Node.js code

An example using node.js and the querystring library


    


      
An example using node.js and the requests library

      
      

    

        

    


      
Now you can run your code. If you are using the terminal it will look like this:


      

    

        

    


      
If successful, you should expect a result similar to this:

      

    

        

    


      

        Some tips on SMS parameter formatting
      

      
The basic API request to send an SMS must contain these three key:value pairs which are 
      to, from and message. 

            
"to" - Who you want to send an SMS

            

                The "to" parameter
                should be the E.164
                formatted number of the recipient. 
Example: "to":"+46766861004"

            

            
"from" - Who you want to send the SMS from

                

                    The "from"
                    parameter should be either an E.164 number or
                    a string. That string is often called a "Text sender" or
                    an "alphanumeric sender ID".
                    

                    Example: "from":"+46766861004"

                    Example: "from":"+ElkCo"



"message" - The content of the message itself


Fun fact about the "message" string
                        - you can even send emojis!

                        Example: "message":"How was this interview, 👌🏽 or 👎🏽 ?"

                        
Here is a full data packet:

                        
                        

    

        

    


                        
Next step



You’ve just sent a text message with a text sender (i.e. not from a phone number). By doing this you can use SMS to remind customers of reservations, send confirmations of new orders, etc.



To send an SMS is the easiest way to get started with 46elks, but you can do so much more. For example you can receive SMS, automatically respond to an incoming SMS or handle voice calls. There are more Python code examples at GitHub.



If you have any questions then get in touch, we love talking to our users!







	

		


							Written			
							 2021-02-23 
			
							
			
																			by Ben Chatwin