After being spoiled with Git, I, along with many other developers, are dropping their subversion support in favor for git. From now on, you can grab the latest version of SMS Fu directly from GitHub. Feel free to fork it and contribute some changes here.

Also, unless you're on Edge rails you can install SMS Fu by doing the following below:

git clone git://github.com/brendanlim/sms-fu.git vendor/plugins/sms_fu

I've received quite a few requests to add some International carrier support to SMS Fu, so I've decided to go ahead and do just that. On top of adding some International carriers, I've also externalized the carrier list into sms_fu.yml, so that anybody can simply add their own custom carriers. You can grab the latest through git or svn.

Now, there's over 30 different carriers that are supported right out of the box. Here is the new complete list of supported carriers: Alltel, Ameritech, AT&T, BellSouth Mobility, BlueSkyFrog, Boost Mobile, Cellular South, Fido, Metro PCS, PSC Wireless, Qwest, Southern Link, Sprint, Suncom, T-Mobile (US/UK/Germany), Virgin Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone (UK,Italy,Japan).

View the updated README and view the super simple installation instructions here or here.

Grab the latest through svn:

script/plugin install http://sms-fu.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/sms_fu

Be cool and grab the latest through GitHub:

git clone git://github.com/brendanlim/sms-fu.git vendor/plugins/sms_fu

This plugin has been sitting dormant for a while and I haven't had a chance to really write about it since I've been so busy lately. Basically what this is, is just a quick Rails plugin that allows you to send an SMS from your application. This does not require any kind of "gateway" or third-party service to get the job done. The plugin takes in a phone number, the carrier, and a message. From this information, it will format an e-mail correctly that will actually end up being sent to that phone in the form of a text message. How easy is it to use? Very.

You can grab the latest from GitHub.

git clone git://github.com/brendanlim/sms-fu.git vendor/plugins/sms_fu

Supported Carriers: Sorry, International carriers aren't supported at the moment. Alltel, Ameritech, AT&T, BellSouth Mobility, BlueSkyFrog, Boost Mobile, Cellular South, Fido, Metro PCS, PSC Wireless, Qwest, Southern Link, Sprint, Suncom, T-Mobile (US/UK/Germany), Virgin Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone (UK,Italy,Japan).

Add this one include line to one of your controllers.

      class ExampleController < ApplicationController
        include SMSFu
      end

After this, just edit /config/sms_fu.yml with your custom reply-to address.

The three required parameters are the phone number, carrier, and the message itself. You can find the correct carrier codes in sms_fu.yml.

      deliver_sms("5558675309","AT&T","your message here")

You can set the maximum length of the SMS message, which is not set by default. Most phones can only accept 128 characters, and each phone can handle these messages differently. To set the limit, just pass it in as an option when delivering an SMS.

      deliver_sms("5558675309","AT&T","your message here", :limit => 200)

If you want to roll your own mailer and just want to use SMS Fu to retrieve the formatted address of the recipient, you can do so by doing the following below.

      get_sms_address("5558675309","AT&T")

Hope you all enjoy, and please send me some feedback on any new features you'd like added.

Today, I felt like making a quick little Rails plugin and what better & easier than one that ties into TinyURL's tinyurl.com URL shortening services. The service works by you submitting them a URL, and they return to you a nice shortened version that redirects to the URL that you originally submitted. I've had to integrate their services into a web application before, but I didn't see a plugin made for this, so I thought I'd whip one up called ActsAsTinyURL because it was quick and easy.

script/plugin install http://acts-as-tiny-url.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/acts_as_tiny_url

How do you use it? It's extremely simple. Once installed, open up a controller you want to use it in and put 'include ActsAsTinyURL' right underneath the class declaration.

class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
  include ActsAsTinyURL
end

Once you've got this in place, you can start doing some quick magic.

tiny_url("http://brendanlim.com")  # => http://tinyurl.com/3274fk

Expect updates within the next few days when I get some added time in my schedule.