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Version: 2.0.0

SMS Brana

SMS Brana connects your store to the SMS Brana gateway (SmsConnect) and sends transactional SMS messages for order status changes and Booking Hub reservation reminders. Outgoing send attempts that get a response from the SmsConnect API are logged in the Craft CP so admins can see exactly what was sent, to whom, and whether it succeeded (there is no incoming/delivery-report tracking — the plugin only sends).

Admin use cases​

  • Order status SMS — automatically text the customer when their order status changes (e.g. "shipped", "ready for pickup"), with a separate message per status and per site/language.
  • Booking reminders — send SMS reminders for Booking Hub reservations, with dynamic placeholders for the event name, date, time range, and store address. The SMS fields are added to Booking Hub's reminder settings when both plugins are installed and SMS Brana is enabled (see Settings).
  • Admin copy / oversight — configure an admin notification number that receives a copy of every outgoing SMS, so staff can monitor delivery without opening the log.
  • Delivery monitoring — the CP Dashboard shows send/success/failure counts and a daily trend chart; the Logs page lists every message with filters and CSV export.
  • Manual testing — send a one-off test SMS, or a test using the real order-status/booking-reminder message text, directly from the Settings page before enabling the feature for real customers.
  • Emergency pause — a single "Global SMS Pause" switch stops all outgoing SMS (order status, reminders, manual, API) without touching the rest of the configuration.

What admins manage day to day​

SMS Brana is usually touched in three places:

  • SMS Brana -> Settings, where credentials, templates, test sends, admin copies, and the global pause switch are managed.
  • SMS Brana -> Dashboard, where admins can quickly check total sends, successful sends, failed sends, success rate, today's volume, recent activity, and recent failures. The Dashboard nav item is always visible, even when the plugin is disabled (Logs still only appears while enabled).
  • SMS Brana -> Logs, where support can search by phone number or message text, filter by status/source/date range, and export a CSV for investigation or reporting.

The plugin does not queue customer service conversations or receive replies. It is designed for outbound transactional messages where the Craft site decides when to send and SMS Brana records the result returned by SmsConnect.

How it works​

  1. An order's status changes (via checkout purchase or a later status update), or a Booking Hub reservation reminder fires.
  2. If the corresponding setting is enabled and a message template exists for that status/reservation type, SMS Brana builds the message text (replacing {event}, {start_date}, {time_range}, {address} for booking reminders) and sends it through the SmsConnect API.
  3. The send attempt is written to the SMS log with its source (order-status, reservation-reminder, manual-test, system, or mcp), recipient number, message text, and delivery status.
  4. For order status SMS, a note is also added to the order's comment history ("An SMS was sent to {number}.") so the notification is visible in context.
  5. If an admin notification number is configured, every outgoing message is copied to it as well. The copied recipient is included in the same SmsConnect request and log row.

Example: order status notification​

An admin wants customers to get an SMS the moment their order is marked "shipped":

  1. Open Settings -> Plugins -> SMS Brana -> Sales and enable Send SMS on order status change.
  2. In the status list, find "Shipped" and enter the message text for each site (e.g. Your order has been shipped and is on its way.). A live character counter (123/1000 characters) tracks the field's 1000-character limit as you type.
  3. Save. From then on, every order that transitions to "shipped" triggers an SMS to the shipping phone number on the order.
  4. To verify before going live, go to the Testing tab, pick "Shipped" under Order status testing, and send a test SMS to your own number using the exact configured message.
  5. Check SMS Brana -> Logs to confirm the message was logged and succeeded. Test sends from the Testing tab always log with source manual-test, even when you picked an order status or booking reminder to source the message text — a real "shipped" transition later will log with source order-status.

Example: booking reminder SMS​

A studio uses Booking Hub for class reservations and wants guests to receive a reminder before the class starts:

  1. Make sure SMS Brana is enabled and has valid SmsConnect credentials.
  2. Open Booking Hub's reminder settings and enable the SMS Brana Send SMS switch.
  3. Add a message for the relevant reminder type, for example Reminder: {event} starts on {start_date} at {time_range}. Address: {address}.
  4. Save, then return to SMS Brana -> Settings -> Testing and send a Booking reminder test to a staff phone number.
  5. Check SMS Brana -> Logs to confirm the attempt appears with source manual-test — like every Testing-tab send, it does not log as reservation-reminder even though it used the booking-reminder message text. A real, automatically-triggered reminder later will log as reservation-reminder.

Writing reliable SMS text​

Keep transactional SMS short and specific. The order-status text is limited to 1000 characters in the CP, but shorter messages are easier to read and cheaper to send when the provider splits long text into multiple SMS segments.

Good order-status messages usually include:

  • the concrete state change, such as shipped, ready for pickup, or payment received;
  • the action the customer should take, if any;
  • a short shop name or sender context when the recipient may not recognize the number.

Booking reminder messages can use {event}, {start_date}, {time_range}, and {address}. Avoid adding data that the reminder event does not provide, because SMS Brana only replaces those supported placeholders.

Troubleshooting​

  • Nothing is sent — check that the plugin is enabled, valid credentials are saved, and Global SMS Pause is off. If the feature is an order-status SMS, also check that the relevant status has a non-empty message for the current Craft site.
  • A booking reminder does not send SMS — make sure Booking Hub is installed, SMS Brana is enabled, the Booking Hub reminder configuration has SMS enabled, and the reminder type (event or appointment) has message text.
  • A test send fails — open SMS Brana -> Logs and check whether a failed row exists. If there is no row, the request likely did not receive an API response or was skipped before the provider call. If a row exists, the status reflects the SmsConnect response.
  • The wrong language text is sent — order-status templates are resolved per site handle first, then by site language. Check the message saved for the order's site.
  • Admin receives every message — remove the admin notification number if staff should not receive a copy of each outgoing SMS.

Requirements​

  • A SmsConnect account and API credentials from smsbrana.cz (or SmsBrana / Neogate SmsConnect equivalent).
  • For order status SMS: the Craft store checkout/orders plugin must be installed and supported (yui/craft).
  • For booking reminders: the Booking Hub plugin (yui/booking-hub) must be installed and its reminder feature enabled.
  • This page is based on SMS Brana v1.6.0, the latest stable release tag checked for this documentation update.

See Settings for configuration and Developer API for MCP tools, events, and the PHP service API.