USSD INTERFACE & # 8594; Java communication application

Question

You will need some information on Java web application communication through the USSD interface! we must realize this in order to reach our target customer base in poorer low-end phone communities.

I am learning USSD as a way to communicate with our current Java EE web application.

I believe that I understand how I can create a menu in USSD (via XML and certain parameters / tags). However, I am not sure how to give an answer. I just started reading about it yesterday, but I find a lot of information that Google considers useless.

Our current web application has web services installed. I assume that I need to get the USSD interface / xml file (parameter = - callback - "url request") connected to the web service !? And all the user data sent (received input) is equal to the request URL?

And how do I send an answer ?? how much data can be displayed? and what format or this data needs to be transferred?

It is very difficult to find out what gateways they use from a mobile provider here in South Africa - they are not sure. If I'm right, but it looks like it was a WASP !? if it is a gateway, then this is what all providers seem to use in SA. I tried to contact vodacom SA in several ways, without an answer. All that interests me is what gateway they use, how to build an answer.

EDIT: it was a vodacom email response -> we offer the ussd web service. Then we connect to SMSC via SMPP in our USSD gateway.

Answer 1

You need SMPP. OpenSMPP is a great Java library for SMPP. I made USSD-SMPP with it. Just ask the carrier about the connection options:

• Identifier system
• type system
• IP address
• Port
• password

If you need more information on fields, read the PDF SMPP specification . This is a pretty good simple read.

Usually there are some TLV (special parameters) that you need to install in your SMPP packages to use USSD, but nothing outside the standard protocol. Also, keep in mind that you will need a special packet stream when working with USSD. This stream must be provided by the gateway provider (the one that sold the SMPP-USSD gateway to the carrier).

One last very important thing : you need help from the carrier to do such things. There is no way , as a result, you will get USSD to work without their help. They should provide you with not only giving you access to their platform, but also control of your packages, and sometimes a message about what is wrong.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Vumi is a free software stitch that can use USSD and SMPP bindings for you, etc. It is written in Python. They have documentation, etc. that are of interest to you.