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SMS Inbox & Composer

Purpose​

SMS Inbox & Composer adds a composer to record chatter, with sender-number selection, character and segment estimates, attachments and voice-recording controls. It also supplies message selection and a soft-delete archive; cleanup is unavailable within this guide pending administrator validation of permissions and retention. The actual inbox model, routing and provider reception come from the inbound dependency.

Before you start​

Install corvus_sms_workspace for your exact version with corvus_mms_base, mail and web. MMS Base in turn requires Two-Way SMS & CRM Inbox and the routing foundation. No Enterprise-only dependency is declared. Configure a gateway, available sender numbers and inbound routing first.

This guide describes the 20.0 source, with selected version comparisons; no runtime test or delivery was performed. Check the installed package version before following it. The reviewed 19.0 package needs a template correction before its chatter controls can be relied upon; these instructions do not establish that the 19.0 build renders successfully.

Access and roles​

Internal users inherit inbox read, create and write access from Two-Way SMS & CRM Inbox; they do not receive inbox deletion permission from that ACL. The soft-delete archive has full access only for Settings administrators (base.group_system). Underlying business-document and composer permissions remain prerequisites. The archive ACL alone is not validation of the cleanup action; do not use cleanup until the installed behavior has been independently verified.

Sender access uses the inbound module's user-number assignments. Ask an administrator to configure the intended assignments explicitly and verify sender access in the installed package before live use.

Setup and menu​

Open an existing Contact, CRM record or other supported document with chatter and a usable recipient phone. The frontend adds Send SMS. The standard SMS composer gains SMS Sender → From, with the hint Auto (gateway rules); leaving it empty uses the configured routing/defaults.

The dependency supplies Discuss → SMS Inbox and SMS Inbox Conversations. The workspace source contains duplicate inbox view/model files, but they are not loaded by its reviewed manifest/imports; do not treat those files as additional installed screens. Soft Delete under the phone/SMS menu opens Soft Deleted SMS Archive for authorised administrators.

Workflow​

  1. Open the intended business record and check its phone, linked contact and country. Use an international number with a + country code. The composer refreshes the number from the record before submitting.
  2. Choose Send SMS. Review the recipient and the sender number. Available-number selection filters for active senders on active gateways and the configured hourly/daily limits.
  3. Enter the message and review the character/segment estimate. Unicode and long content can change segmentation; the display is an estimate, not a provider billing statement.
  4. Inspect media capability before preparing attachments or recordings. The composer stages media for an MMS-capable gateway, but the reviewed media dependency has an unresolved public-serving prerequisite. Attachment delivery is outside this guide's usable scope until that path is validated.
  5. Review text and destination before Send. This action creates a composer and invokes Odoo's send flow; it is an external delivery action when the provider is live. Inspect the resulting chatter entry and gateway status before deciding whether to retry.

Cleanup controls are reference information only. Soft Deleted SMS Archive contains original message details, Deleted By, Deleted At, body and media URLs. Cleanup can hide messages and remove attachments; Hard Delete removes linked records permanently. These controls are unavailable for use under this guide pending independent validation. An archive entry is not a restore guarantee.

Practice scenario​

In an authorised training database, create the fictional contact Linden Workshop with +12025550123. Open the composer and draft “Your sample order is ready for collection.” Compare Auto selection with an explicitly assigned training sender, then cancel before sending. Keep the exercise to a local text draft; do not rehearse cleanup or attachment delivery. This scenario is derived from source and was not executed.

Troubleshooting and limitations​

Number and body required means the composer lacks a recipient or nonblank text; Invalid record means the document context is missing. A country-code warning calls for correcting the contact phone, not assuming automatic validation guarantees delivery. You do not have access to the selected sender number comes from the server-side composer check.

An empty sender list can also indicate disabled gateways or exhausted limits. Media controls depend on the selected gateway's MMS capability. Microphone recording additionally depends on browser permission and support. No provider format, recording or browser permission was tested here.

Soft deletion is not a complete reversible archive of attachments. Cleanup remains unavailable until an independent review verifies the installed permissions and attachment-retention behavior; a confirmation dialog or informal approval does not establish those protections.

Catalogue packages exist for 17.0–20.0. The 20.0 module workflow is source-reviewed. It uses updated configuration reads, SMS send signatures and access declarations. The selected 18.0 comparison shows different mail-record/voice-recorder frontend integration. The 19.0 chatter template has a source-structure issue absent from the inspected 20.0 template. No version has received a runtime workflow test in this documentation task.

Choose the exact package and available Live Test selector in the Corvus app catalogue. A direct demo fetch could not be confirmed; no demo was launched. Read Two-Way SMS & CRM Inbox, MMS Media & Attachments and SMS Chatter Conversations for the surrounding features.