The most common SMS API mistake

The most common mistake our new users make when sending SMS in not including all three parameters to, from and message in their request.

This brief blog post will show you an incredibly simple way to fix it and might help answer questions such as:

• How to send SMS from my work number?
• How to send SMS with Python?
• How to send SMS with an API?

Every time you attempt to send an SMS with the 46elks API there are a few key pieces of information you need to provide.

• The SMS API endpoint - https://api.46elks.com/a1/sms
• Your API Username and Password - Finding your credentials
• The key/value pairs to, from and message - Keep reading!

Missing one or more of these key/value pairs is the most common mistake we see.

Here is an example explaining the information that should be included with each parameter:

Here are those same key/value pairs with some typical data:

The most common mistake we see is that one or more of these key/value pairs is completely missing. For example:

If you tried to send the data as above, you would receive the following error message:

This makes sense because out of the three keys ('to', 'from' and 'message') we are missing 'message'. Missing any one of these three key/value pairs will result in an error.

THE SOLUTION

It is simple. Make sure you include all three key/value pairs in your request when sending an SMS. Here is a complete example using Python.

Related to these three common errors are issues with text sender ID's and E.164 phone number formatting. Follow these links if you would like more information:

Information on Text Sender ID's
Information on the E.164 Phone Number Format