==== External Interaction Campaign ====

=== Overview ===

Sometimes the response intended to the mobile user cannot be configured statically and needs to be a query into an enterprise system or website. 

This is a common situation for businesses that already operate a comprehensive website where users can access the necessary information in real-time.  In this case the business will naturally want to extend the access to the same information through a text-messaging interface.

The External Interaction Campaign is a very simple campaign that receives the user's MO and calls a third party Web Service to retrieve the desired information and goes back to the user with the MT message.

=== The Call ===

The External Interaction Campaign will always deliver (as a web parameter) the following information:

  - **mobile**: The user's mobile number.
  - **mo**: The user's MO message.
  - **ts**: The MO origination timestamp in milliseconds 
  - **shortcode**: The shortcode where the MO were received.

For example: "Campaign manager parameters on <color blue>blue</color> / Configured URL on <color brown>brown</color>"

<color brown>http:%%//%%third.party.url</color><color blue>?mobile=13057763416&mo=Hello&ts=1456847686174&shortcode=67213</color>

<color brown>http:%%//%%third.party.url/?fixedparam1=fixedvalue1&fixedparam2=fixedvalue2</color><color blue>&mobile=13057763416&mo=Hello&ts=1456847686174&shortcode=67213</color>

=== The Response ===

The third party web service must respond with a XML message as follows:

<code>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<message> 
    <text></text> 
</message> 
</code>

^ Tag ^ Description ^
| %%<text>%% | The response text |

**Example 1**: A valid XML response with static text:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
  <message> 
    <text>This is a simple static message</text> 
  </message> 

=== Sample Use Case ===

Airlines that want to provide on-demand flight status information to their customers is a prime use case of this feature. User can simply text in the flight number and will receive the latest flight status information as a response.

For this case the Web Service call will look like:

  http://www.airline.com/textservice/mobile=18131234567&mo=Flight%20Status&ts=1456847686174&shortcode=67213
  
And the response:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <message>
    <text>Airline name flight number YLL3212 is on time and is expected to land at 12:00 today.</text>
  </message>
  
=== Reporting ===

Standard reports for keyword linked to Web Service type campaigns are similar to the simpler keyword campaign:

  * Opt-in history
  * Carrier distribution
  * Full MO log – includes Mobile numbers, MO texts and timestamps