An inbound configuration turns texts sent to your Esendex number into Quickbase records. Each text received adds one record to a table you choose, with the sender's number, the message, any attachments, and, for replies, the ID of the text being replied to. This article covers the Inbound Setup tab and ends with a worked example. For the Config Info and EsendEx Info tabs, see Create a Text My QB configuration.
Available to: all roles with the Text My QB extension.
To open an inbound configuration, select Edit on its row in the configurations list. It opens in a pop-up window with the header Text My QB Configurator - Inbound and three tabs: Config Info, EsendEx Info, and Inbound Setup.
How texts flow in
Someone texts your Esendex number, either a new message or a reply to a text you sent.
Esendex passes the text to Text My QB. This connection is set up for you when you create the inbound configuration; there's nothing to set up in Esendex or in your app to trigger it.
Text My QB finds the inbound configuration whose Phone Number (on the EsendEx Info tab) matches the number the text was sent to, and checks that the configuration isn't Disabled.
It adds a record to the Messages Received Table and fills in the fields you mapped: sender, message, reply ID, your Esendex number, and attachments.
Texts arrive as they're received; there's no schedule or processing mode for inbound configurations.
Texts sent from your own Esendex number are ignored, so a configuration can't loop on its own messages.
Inbound configurations don't have a Test Mode. A configuration set to Test Mode records texts the same as Enabled.
Text My QB adds the records with the user token you chose when you authorized the app, so that token's user needs permission to add records to the Messages Received table. See Before you start.
Important
One inbound configuration per Esendex number receives texts. If two inbound configurations have the same Phone Number, only one of them gets the texts. A copy of an inbound configuration keeps the original's number, so don't use an inbound copy as a test copy: make your changes in the original configuration instead.
Inbound Setup tab
Available to: all roles with the Text My QB extension.
Section Inbound Message Table Configuration. Choose the table first (first option Select a Table); the field lists (first option Select a Field, sorted by name) then show that table's fields. Changing the table clears the field selections.
Setting | What's written to it | Field type needed |
|---|---|---|
Messages Received Table | Required. The table where Text My QB adds one record for each text received. | A table in the configuration's app. |
From Phone Number Field | The phone number the text came from. | Phone Number or Text. |
Message Field | The body of the text. | Text - Multi-line. |
Replies Message ID Field | For a reply, the unique ID of the text being replied to. It matches the value an outbound configuration wrote to its Unique Message ID Field. All zeros for texts that aren't replies. | Text. |
Validation Field | Leave it blank. It's only used with message validation, which isn't set up in the configurator. | — |
Esendex Phone Number Field | Your Esendex number that received the text. Useful if you have several Esendex numbers. | Phone Number or Text. |
How replies are linked to the original text
When an outbound configuration sends a text, Esendex gives it a unique message ID, and Text My QB saves that ID in the outbound record's Unique Message ID Field. When the person replies, Esendex includes the same ID with the reply, and Text My QB saves it in the Replies Message ID Field.
So a reply belongs to the outbound record whose Unique Message ID matches the reply's Replies Message ID. You can use that match in your app, for example in a report that lists replies next to the original records, or in a pipeline or formula that updates the original record when a reply arrives. Here is how to setup a pipeline to do this.
Note
If one outbound record texted several numbers, its Unique Message ID Field holds several IDs separated by semicolons, one per recipient. Each reply carries only the ID of the text that person received.
Attachments
Section Attachments Configuration. Choose how pictures and other files sent with a text (MMS) are saved. The text part of an MMS goes in the Message Field; only actual files are saved as attachments.
Setting | What it does | Field type needed |
|---|---|---|
Zip Attachments | Toggle. On: all the files from a text are zipped into a single file, saved in Zip Attachment Field. Off: each file is saved in its own field, using the File Attachments list. | — |
Zip Attachment Field | Shown when Zip Attachments is on. The field that gets the zip file. | File Attachment. |
File Attachments | Shown when Zip Attachments is off. The fields that get the files, in order: the first file goes in the first field, the second file in the second field, and so on. | File Attachment. |
To build the File Attachments list:
The left list, Available Fields, shows the table's fields. The right list, File Attachments, is where files are saved. Add only file attachment fields to the right list.
Move a field between the lists with the arrow buttons between them, or drag and drop it. Use the up and down arrows to set the order.
Add as many fields as the most files you expect in one text. If people often send several photos at once, consider Zip Attachments instead.
Turn it on
On EsendEx Info, make sure Phone Number is the Esendex number people will text, and that no other inbound configuration uses it.
On Inbound Setup, choose the table and fields, and select Save.
On Config Info, set Configuration Status to Enabled and select Save.
Text your Esendex number from your phone, and check that a record appears in the Messages Received table. If nothing appears, see Incoming texts.
To stop receiving texts into Quickbase, set Configuration Status to Disabled and save.
Example: collect replies to appointment reminders
A clinic already texts each patient the day before their appointment with an outbound configuration, asking them to reply C to confirm. On the Appointments table, that configuration's Unique Message ID Field is a Text field named Reminder Message ID, so each text's ID is saved on the appointment. See Outbound Setup tab.
1. Prepare the table
Create a Text Replies table with:
Field | Type | Mapped to |
|---|---|---|
From Number | Phone Number | From Phone Number Field |
Reply | Text - Multi-line | Message Field |
Replying To ID | Text | Replies Message ID Field |
Clinic Number | Phone Number | Esendex Phone Number Field |
Photo | File Attachment | File Attachments (first in the list) |
2. Configure Text My QB
Select + Add Inbound. Name it Appointment replies, choose the clinic app and the same license key as the reminders, and select Save.
EsendEx Info: enter the same Esendex number the reminders are sent from. Save.
Inbound Setup: Messages Received Table = Text Replies, and map the fields as in the table above. Leave Validation Field blank, leave Zip Attachments off, and add Photo to File Attachments. Save.
Config Info: set Configuration Status to Enabled. Save.
3. What happens
A patient gets tomorrow's reminder and replies C. A new Text Replies record appears:
From Number | Reply | Replying To ID | Clinic Number |
|---|---|---|---|
(555) 555-0123 | C | a1b2c3d4-5678 | (555) 555-0100 |
The appointment whose Reminder Message ID is a1b2c3d4-5678 is the one being confirmed. Use that match in a report, or in an automation that marks the appointment as confirmed.
Something not working? See Messages and troubleshooting.