Send SMS with Spring Boot and Azure Communication Services - Complete Guide

Explanation of the Sequence:

1. User: The external actor who sends a request to the SmsController to initiate the SMS sending.
2. SmsController: Receives the user's SMS request and delegates it to the SmsService to process.
3. SmsService: The service layer that interacts with the SmsClient to send the SMS message via the Azure Communication Services API.
4. SmsClient (ACS): This is the client that interacts directly with the Azure Communication Services API to send the SMS.
5. Azure Communication Services (ACS): The actual service that processes the SMS request and sends the SMS message.
6. Return Flow: After sending the SMS, the response (either a success status or error message) is returned all the way back to the user through the controller.

This sequence diagram demonstrates the step-by-step interaction flow from the user initiating the request to receiving the response, along with all intermediate service layers and interactions with Azure.

Here’s a basic guide for building a Spring Boot application to send SMS using Azure Communication Services (ACS) from scratch.

Prerequisites:

1. Azure Communication Services Account: Set up an ACS resource via the Azure portal.
2. Spring Boot Application: Create a Spring Boot application.
3. Azure SDK for Communication Services: You'll need the Azure SDK for Java to integrate ACS into your app.

Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Set Up Spring Boot Project:

You can use Spring Initializr (https://start.spring.io/) to generate your project with dependencies:

• Spring Web

Alternatively, you can use Maven or Gradle to manually configure the dependencies.

pom.xml example:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.azure</groupId>
        <artifactId>azure-communication-sms</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.30</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

2. Add Configuration for ACS in application.properties:

azure.communication.sms.connection-string=<Your ACS Connection String>

Replace <Your ACS Connection String> with the connection string from your ACS account.

3. Create the Service Class to Send SMS:

This class will handle communication with Azure to send SMS.

import com.azure.communication.sms.SmsClient;
import com.azure.communication.sms.SmsClientBuilder;
import com.azure.communication.sms.models.SendSmsOptions;
import com.azure.communication.sms.models.SmsSendResult;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class SmsService {

    private final SmsClient smsClient;

    public SmsService() {
        this.smsClient = new SmsClientBuilder()
                .connectionString("<Your ACS Connection String>")
                .buildClient();
    }

    public String sendSms(String toPhoneNumber, String messageContent) {
        try {
            SmsSendResult result = smsClient.send(
                    new SendSmsOptions()
                            .setFrom("<Your ACS Phone Number>")
                            .setTo(toPhoneNumber)
                            .setMessage(messageContent)
            );
            return result.getMessageId();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            return "Error sending SMS: " + e.getMessage();
        }
    }
}

Make sure to replace <Your ACS Phone Number> with the phone number from your ACS resource.

4. Create a Controller Class:

This will expose an endpoint for sending SMS.

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/sms")
public class SmsController {

    private final SmsService smsService;

    public SmsController(SmsService smsService) {
        this.smsService = smsService;
    }

    @PostMapping("/send")
    public String sendSms(@RequestParam String toPhoneNumber, @RequestParam String messageContent) {
        return smsService.sendSms(toPhoneNumber, messageContent);
    }
}

5. Test Your Application:

• Run your Spring Boot application.
• You can now use any tool (e.g., Postman or curl) to send a request like:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/sms/send?toPhoneNumber=+1234567890&messageContent=Hello+from+ACS"

Important Notes:

• Phone Numbers: Ensure that the phone number you send to is in E.164 format, i.e., +1XXXXXXXXXX for US, +44XXXXXXXXX for UK, etc.
• Azure Pricing: Sending SMS via ACS is a paid service, so be aware of the costs.

This is a basic example of how you can integrate ACS with Spring Boot to send SMS. You can expand this by adding exception handling, validation, logging, or even queuing messages for batch processing.

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