Traccar Setup Guide

Before you start

You need a self-hosted Traccar server you can edit the configuration of, and a BulkSMS account with credits.

Traccar is set up in its configuration file, not in the web interface, and the server needs a restart afterwards.

Create a BulkSMS API token

Log in to your BulkSMS account and go to Settings > Developers.

Click Create API Token and give it a name, for example Traccar. Copy the Token ID and Token Secret. The secret is only shown once.

Edit traccar.xml

Open traccar.xml in your Traccar conf folder and add these entries, using your own token details:

<entry key='notificator.types'>web,mail,sms</entry>
<entry key='sms.http.url'>https://api.bulksms.com/v1/messages</entry>
<entry key='sms.http.user'>YOUR_TOKEN_ID</entry>
<entry key='sms.http.password'>YOUR_TOKEN_SECRET</entry>
<entry key='sms.http.template'>
    { "to": "{phone}", "body": "{message}" }
</entry>

To send from a registered Sender ID, add "from": "YourSenderID" to the template.

Save the file and restart Traccar.

Turn on SMS notifications

In the Traccar web app, add your mobile number (in international format) to your user's phone field.

Under Settings > Notifications, add a notification for the events you want, and choose SMS as a channel.

Use the test notification option to check the SMS arrives.

Troubleshooting

No SMS arrives: check the Traccar server log for the response from BulkSMS. A 401 means the token details are wrong; a 403 usually means no credits.

Check the phone number is in international format, and look for the message under Sent Messages in BulkSMS.

All setup and ready to go!

If you have any questions, please contact our support team. Include your account name and put Traccar in the subject line, and we'll be happy to help.

For more detail, see Traccar's HTTP SMS API page.