Sms and Email Notification Howtos

The email/sms notification module is used to notify a patient about an upcoming event/appointment. The module consists of two parts, a front end setup and a back end engine. The front end is used to set the message template, access for the Sms/email engines and specify if a certain patient should receive notifications. The back end is set to query the database every hour for upcoming events which are set to send notifications and send them.

To setup Sms/email notification module you need follow these steps:

1. Edit the interface/globals.php fine and adjust the configuration as appropriate for your setup:

$SMS_GATEWAY_USENAME - user name used for tm4b or clickatell sms gateway access

$SMS_GATEWAY_PASSWORD - access password

$SMS_GATEWAY_APIKEY - used to interface with clickatell

$GLOBALS['smtp_host_name'] - email outgoing server host/ip

$GLOBALS['smtp_host_port'] - email outgoing server port

$GLOBALS['smtp_use_ssl'] - if to use ssl

$GLOBALS['smtp_localhost'] - local host name used to send email

$GLOBALS['smtp_auth_user'] - outgoing server user

$GLOBALS['smtp_auth_pass'] - outgoing server password

$log_folder_path - this is the path where the back end process will save the logs. You must set this with write access for the user which will run the cron jobs.

(Note: at the moment only to Sms engines are supported Tm4B - http://www.tm4b.com and Clickatell - http://www.clickatell.com)

2. Install backend notification processes you need to add cron_email_notification.php and cron_sms_notification.php in system crontab to run every hour. Do this in the command line:

bash$ crontab -e

then put in the following lines:

* */1 * * * /var/www/html/openemr/modules/sms_email_reminder/cron_sms_notification.php

* */1 * * * /var/www/html/openemr/modules/sms_email_reminder/cron_email_notification.php

(note: make sure you adjust the path as per your configuration)

3. Login into openEmr and go in section Admin.Notification and there you will find three new sections:

- Sms notification - set preferred sms gateway, provider name and the body of the sms message

- Email notification - set the email address of the sender, subject, provider name and the body of the email message

- Sms/Email alert settings - set the time in hours prior to the event for the notification to be sent for each type (sms or email). You can also set the username/password and api key.

4. In openEmr front end, under patient summary page, in Choices section you will find two new options: Allow Email and Allow Sms. This is to be set as required if you want your patient to be notified about an upcoming appointment.