With the Notification Pack, you can send notifications in three different ways: email, SMS, and Push notifications. These last two however require a small initial configuration. Here’s how to start sending SMS.

• Go to the Booking Activities settings, “Notifications” tab

Further down on the page, you will see an “SMS Notification Settings” section. Three fields must seem unfamiliar to you: “Sender ID”, “Twilio SID” and “Twilio Auth Token”. Let’s see how to fill these fields.

Bind Twilio to Notification Pack

First of all, you need to know that in order to send SMS, we use the Twilio services. You must therefore accept their terms of use and their pricing. If they suit you, the first thing to do is to create an account on their site:

• Go to https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio
• Complete the form and confirm your registration (you will need to validate your phone number)
• You must now acquire a Twilio phone number
  • This number will be the one from which your SMS will be sent. Your recipients will be able to see it
  • Make sure the number you are offered can send SMS (in “capabilities”). Otherwise, click on “Search for a different phone number”. “Voice” and “MMS” capabilities are not used by the Notification Pack
  • It is recommended to take a number in your country
• Copy this number to the “Sender ID” field on your site (with the country calling indicator: “+xx”)
  • If you have a doubt on the number, you can find it again in your Twilio Console in Phone numbers > Manage Numbers > Active numbers
• Now, log in to your Twilio Console
• You will see a box where the “Account SID” and the “Auth Token” are located. Copy them respectively into the “Twilio SID” and “Twilio Auth Token” fields on your site
  • To display the “Auth Token” you have to click on the eye icon on its left
• Save the changes of Booking Activities notification settings page

Install Twilio on your website

You have now filled in the three fields “Sender ID”, “Twilio SID” and “Twilio Auth Token”. There is one more thing to do: Install Twilio on your site. Notification Pack makes it extremely simple for you.

• Go to the Booking Activities settings, “Notifications” tab
• Click the “Install Twilio” button in the “SMS Notification Settings” section.
• It can take several minutes (really), no worry. At the end, an icon indicating the success of the process should be displayed: ✔.
• If it does not, try again. In case of new error, you will have to do it manually, here is how:
  • Download the Twilio PHP library
  • Extract the archive. You should have a folder named “twilio-php-main”
  • Copy this folder to the wp-content/uploads/lib folder of your site (create the “lib” folder if it does not exist). In the end, you should have this path wp‑content/uploads/lib/twilio-php-main/src/Twilio/autoload.php.
  • Return to the Booking Activities settings, “Notifications” tab. Refresh this page and you should see a feedback “Twilio is installed” next to the install button

Configure Twilio

Depending on your test environment, you may need to change these settings:

• If your site does not use an SSL certificate (its URL does not start with HTTPS), you must disable the “SSL Certificate Validation” option in your Twilio Console settings
• If you want to send an SMS to a different number than yours (the one linked to your Twilio account), you must first verify this phone number on your Twilio Console.

Go live

Now you are ready to send SMS. Twilio allows you to send some test SMS for free. To go live, refer to the Twilio documentation.

• Upgrade: Switching from a trial account to a production account
• Alphanumeric Sender ID: Replace the sender’s phone number with the name of your company for example

Congratulations, the initial configuration is done. You need now to set up your SMS notifications, and retrieve the phone number of your customers, as well as their permission.