Magpi has two ways to collect data using SMS/text messaging: structured (available to Pro and Enterprise users) and interactive ("iSMS", available to Enterprise users). To learn more about the general differences between them, click here. To learn how to design a form to be deployed by structured SMS, click here. This article will explain how to deploy your structured SMS form.


Once you've created your form for use with iSMS, you'll need to click on the Sharing tab to add authorized data collectors (i.e. phone numbers that are able to send data into the form). Once you do, you will see three sub-tabs:

 

  • Mobile App or Website
  • Structured SMS
  • Interactive SMS


You'll want to select Structured SMS, at which point your screen will look something like this (without the red circles):



To add a data collector to the authorized list


  1. enter the mobile numbers in the box marked A
  2. review and (optionally) modify the one-time message marked B that will be sent to all authorized data collectors
  3. review and (optionally) modify the short form name marked D that will start all the text messages sent into the system from the data collectors. In this example, you could change the random default of U57709 to something more memorable like HIVINFO (if that has not already been claimed by another Magpi user).
  4. click the button marked E to send the outgoing message and add all the entered phone numbers to the list marked C.

After step 4, each authorized data collector will receive the outgoing message and can begin sending texts into the system.  They will remain authorized until you remove them from the list C.


Note: although structured SMS is restricted to Pro and Enterprise users, any user can test with a single phone number, following the steps above.