mData is an SMS query tool. There are two basic query types, location and non-location types. For each of these types you can either simply add a csv or rows to build out your content or access a web-service.

1)   Location-based: Users text in to find the nearest clinic or polling place, based on their address

2)   Non-Location-based: Users text in a search term and the paired information is pulled & returned from your rows or web-service.  

The Basics

How Will Users Interact With Your Service?

• Just text a keyword: Users text in a keyword and get the response that corresponds to that keyword on your spreadsheet.
• Text a keyword, get a random response: Users text in a keyword and get a random response from your spreadsheet. For example, you could have a spreadsheet database of jokes, and people would text in a keyword to receive one of your jokes randomly.
• Text a keyword, get a unique response (one per phone): Users text in a keyword to get one unique response from your spreadsheet. Every time that same user texts in from the same phone, he or she will receive that same response. For example, if you are using unique coupon codes, each code will only be used once, and will be sent to the user over and over again. This helps avoid the problem of people hoarding multiple coupon codes.
• Text a keyword, get a random response (one per phone): Users text in a keyword and get one random response from your spreadsheet. Each time that phone texts in, it will receive back that same response over and over again. For example, if you are using coupon codes but do not care if multiple people get the same coupon code, each random code will be sent to the user over and over again. This helps avoid the problem of people hoarding multiple coupon codes, but multiple users could end up with the same random coupon code.
• (default) Text a keyword and search term (e.g. “weather new york”): This is the default setting for mDatas. This means that users can text in a keyword and a search term like “weather [key word] new york [search term]” to look for the weather in New York. You could also use this setting to allow users to text in a keyword, then receive a response asking for a search term. For example, if a user texts in “weather,” he or she will receive an automatic response that says, “What city would you like the weather for?” When the user responds “New York,” the mData will return the weather for New York.
• Usually you want to leave the Send all future replies to this mData, even without a keyword box marked true, but you have the option to uncheck it if you’d like. Leaving this box checked means that if someone texts in to find their nearest clinic, they can keep texting back different locations to find different clinics, without always having to text in a keyword first. This creates the best user experience.

You can leave the default autoresponder as “You must provide a search term,” or you can customize the default response for your mData. You can also set a customized "No Results Found" message for your users. 

Build a New Location-Based mData 

Creating a non-location based mData

1. On the right hand side menu, under “mData Actions”, click New mData.
   
   
   
2. Give your mData a name (for internal use only)
   

   

3. Click the Radio button for Upload a Spreadsheet.

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   Scroll past the Use a Web Service section (see below for details on this).
5. Usually you want to leave the Send all future replies to this mData, even without a keyword box marked true. You have the option to uncheck it if you’d like. Leaving this box checked means that subscribers can continue texting in valid inputs without texting in a keyword first to use the mData multiple times in a row for 72 hours. Similar to conversation holds across the Mobile Commons platform selecting this box will keep a subscriber "in conversation" with your mData for 72 hours unless they text one of your company's keywords or they receive another broadcast or message outside of your mData responses from the same shortcode. 
6. Decide How Will Users Interact With Your Service?
   • Text a keyword, get a random response: Users text in a keyword and get a random response from your spreadsheet. For example, you could have a spreadsheet database of jokes, and people would text in a keyword to receive one of your jokes randomly.
   • Text a keyword, get a unique response (one per phone): Users text in a keyword to get one unique response from your spreadsheet. Every time that same user texts in from the same phone, he or she will receive that same response. For example, if you are using unique coupon codes, each code will only be used once, and will be sent to the user over and over again. This helps avoid the problem of people hoarding multiple coupon codes.
   • Text a keyword, get a random response (one per phone): Users text in a keyword and get one random response from your spreadsheet. Each time that phone texts in, it will receive back that same response over and over again. For example, if you are using coupon codes but do not care if multiple people get the same coupon code, each random code will be sent to the user over and over again. This helps avoid the problem of people hoarding multiple coupon codes, but multiple users could end up with the same random coupon code.
   • (default) Text a keyword and search term (e.g. “weather new york”): This is the default setting for mDatas. This means that users can text in a keyword and a search term like “weather [key word] new york [search term]” to look for the weather in New York. You could also use this setting to allow users to text in a keyword, then receive a response asking for a search term. For example, if a user texts in “weather,” he or she will receive an automatic response that says, “What city would you like the weather for?” When the user responds “New York,” the mData will return the weather for New York.
   • Text a keyword, and use it as a search term: This mData type is a simple input-output based mData. This matches one keyword (the input) to one message row (the output). You will need to save your keywords to the mData first before adding them to your csv template. You can access the csv template on this page's attachments.
7. Write a customized message in the “Customized ‘No Results Found’ Message” and "Default/Error Response" bubbles. This is the text message users will receive when no matching results can be found (e.g. there are no states that match the user’s spelling). You may want to provide website and/or phone number information. 
   

   

8. Click Create.

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   On the next screen, click Upload Database.
   
10. You can get a sample csv template from the mData tab.
11. Fill information into your spreadsheet.
    • For random response, unique and search term types: Enter any possible search terms that you would like to use in the “input” column of the CSV. The “output” column should be the content of the text message the users receives if they match the corresponding “input” column. Messages over 160 characters will automatically be broken up into 2 text messages by our system.
    • For Keyword as a search type: your input column should be the keywords you've added under the mData keywords section. For this type of mData, you should add your keywords first, then upload your database. You'll see in the below two examples our Keywords we've created are the values in our input column
      

      

      
      

      

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    After you’ve filled in the spreadsheet with all of the relevant information and saved it on your computer, click Choose File and choose the CSV.

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    Click Preview Entries.
14. Preview the entries on the next screen, and if everything looks correct, click Create mData.
15. On the next screen, click Keywords to add the keyword(s) that users will use to query this mData.
    • You MUST add your keywords here if you are using a Keyword as a search term type of mData. You should do this step prior to csv upload for any Keyword as a search term type of mData.
      
      

      

16. You can now text in the keyword and respond with your search term (in this example a state name) and make sure you get the correct response!
17. If you choose not to add a keyword, you can trigger this mData in a conversation.