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Arifa

Arifa is a module for Ignition by Inductive Automation that sends alarm notifications as SMS through Africa's Talking. The person who receives an alarm SMS can acknowledge the alarm by replying with the code it contains. No modem is needed on site, and the gateway opens no port: every connection starts from the gateway.

How Arifa sends an alarm and receives the replyAn alarm in Ignition goes through the alarm pipeline to Arifa, which sends it over outbound HTTPS to Africa's Talking, which delivers an SMS with a code to the operator's phone. The operator replies with the code. Arifa checks Africa's Talking for replies, also outbound, and acknowledges the alarm in Ignition. No inbound port is opened on the gateway.Ignition gatewayAlarmon a tagAlarm pipelineNotification blockArifanotification profile4. The alarm is acknowledged in Ignition, as that userAfrica's TalkingSMS serviceOperator'sphone1. Sends the alarm2. SMS with a code3. Reply: NEDAMA 4821Arifa checksfor repliesEvery connection starts from the gateway, outbound on HTTPS port 443. No inbound port is opened.

To try it in about 15 minutes, at no cost, follow the quick start.

Network requirements​

Outbound HTTPS only

The gateway needs outbound HTTPS, on port 443, to:

  • api.africastalking.com, when Live is on;
  • api.sandbox.africastalking.com, when Live is off.

Nothing inbound. Arifa opens no port and accepts no connection, and replies are fetched by Arifa asking Africa's Talking for them.

Supported versions​

IgnitionSupportedTested on
8.18.1.33 or later8.1.53
8.38.3.3 or later8.3.10

Each Ignition line has its own module file, and the two are not interchangeable. The current release is 0.10.0. See the release notes.

Licence​

Arifa is open source under the Apache License 2.0. The source code, the releases and the build instructions are in the arifa-sms repository on GitHub.

Arifa is an independent project. Ignition and Inductive Automation are trademarks of Inductive Automation. Africa's Talking is a trademark of its owner.