How do I check for delivery receipts?

To receive delivery receipts, make sure to set the delivery receipt option in the Windows SMS Server interface 'Create Batch' menu or, if you are producing the .SMS files yourself, in your custom made .SMS file.

You must also ensure that the Windows SMS Server is checking for delivery receipts. You can do this by clicking on the 'Start Polling' option in the Windows SMS Server application if you are using the application or by setting the 'Commence Delivery Receipt Polling at Startup' option under Configuration within the Windows SMS Server application and then restarting the Windows SMS Server service if you are using the service.

Delivery receipts will be checked periodically and new delivery receipts will be returned as .DLR files in the 'Incoming' directory.

Delivery receipts are always named in the format sender_reference.dlr where sender is the value given for 'Sender' when the message was sent and reference is the unique user reference specified for the message. If no reference was specified then a unique reference will be generated. Recognisable references are very useful when matched delivery receipts to the messages they are from.

A .DLR file will contain the following parameters:

1. Sender (the value given for 'Sender' when the message was sent)
2. User reference (if absent, a system generated reference will appear)
3. Message status (1 = delivered, 2 = buffered, 3 = failed, 5 = expired, 6 = rejected, 7 = error, 11 = unknown, 12 = unknown
4. Time of delivery (Unix time timestamp)

(Please note the numbers are to illustrate line number and do not appear in the file).

An example .DLR file might look like:

AcmeSMS
myReference0001
1
1192531699

The example above would indicate that a message was sent from AcmeSMS with reference 'myReference0001' which was delivered successfully at 6:48AM on the 16/10/2007.