Request for Tips: Setting up a Simple SMS Service using Gnokii and Python

[Federico Sevilla III]

Hi everyone,

I've been lurking on the list for awhile now, and have been
experimenting with gnokii with my Nokia 3310 for a school project.  What
I intend to do is develop simple software using Python as the overall
wrapper/glue that will in effect use gnokii as its engine for sending
and receiving short messages via SMS. The project intends to implement a
very simple SMS-based service, that will accept keyword-based reports
and will parse them and store them in a database and reply if needed.

I had originally looked at using smsd from the smstools package (that
AFAIK is also distributed with the original sources of gnokii).
Unfortunately this doesn't support the Nokia 3310, and I cannot afford
to buy a GSM modem for this school project. I also tested using gnokiid
to create a virtual device, and then told smsd to access /dev/gnokii.
This got a little bit farther, except the messages wouldn't get sent out
either. The logs say that putsms sends "AT+CREG?^M" to the modem device,
receive nothing, and repeats after a 10 second delay.

I will probably need to use gnokii's --getsms and --sendsms functions,
implementing a Python wrapper around these. They don't seem to be quite
intuitive for that purpose, though (especially sendsms). I am wondering
if I should use some other library, instead.

Would anyone have tips to help me find out how best to interface with
the mobile phone for this simple automated tasks?

I hope my questions are not too vague. Thank you for your time.

 --> Jijo

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