Clickatel WhatsApp Integration Unable to Send Images

Question

I am unable to send media files especially images(jpeg) using the Clickatel One API.

However, text messages are being delivered.

Below is my code snippet for sending the file: (PHP)

$header = [
    'Authorization: ' . $clickatel_api_key,
    'Content-Type: image/jpeg'
];

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $header);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://platform.clickatell.com/v1/media?fileName=' . $name . '&to=254712345678');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $file);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_ENCODING, '');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 10);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 0);

$result = curl_exec($ch);
if (curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Error:' . curl_error($ch);
}
curl_close($ch);

return $result;

Below is the response from the request:

{"error":null,"fileId":"2eee5d0eee4fc4f42943e47c06f12345fdss2ddd.jpg","accepted":true}

The media file is not delivered.

Answer 1

I think the API call you do in your example uploads a file and returns a file ID. Next you must send a message (another HTTP POST) using that file ID, example:

{
  "messages": [
    {
      "channel": "whatsapp",
      "to": "2799900001",
      "media": {
        "fileId": "USE YOUR FILE ID HERE",
        "caption": "First Image File"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Uploaded media file will be available for message sending for 30 days after uploading

The alternative is to do one HTTP request that contains the file data inline:

{
  "messages": [
    {
      "channel": "whatsapp",
      "to": "2799900001",
      "content": "/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQEASABIAAD/2w...SDayT2Nha/OIUS3FhlyHzB8ic6ctekf/9k=",
      "media": {
        "contentType": "image/png",
        "caption": "First Image File"
      }
    }
  ]
}

The examples in the Clickatell documentation that I refer to are called:

• Whatsapp: By reference media: One message
• Whatsapp: Inline media: One message

If you use the method to send by reference (involving two HTTP requests), it would be beneficial to reuse your curl object ($ch) between all HTTP requests (even for other messages) so that you reuse your HTTP connection for lower latency and reduced CPU usage on your side.