SMS-ing meaningful messages from SCOM 2007

I tried to set up SMS notification in SCOM 2007 R2 with minimum data necessary for the message to have some value, including:

1. Resolution state
2. Device name or IP address
3. Basic description

This should do the job:

$Data/Context/DataItem/ResolutionStateName$ Issue: $Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityPath$\$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityDisplayName$ - $Data/Context/DataItem/AlertName$

Unfortunately, the limit for default encoding is 160 and for Unicode only 80 characters, so it didn't work.

Eventually, a colleague of mine came up with an elegant solution:

Create 2 SMS channels and set the following text messages (hard-coded resolution state + source + alert name (basic description)):

1. New - $Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityPath$\$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityDisplayName$ $Data/Context/DataItem/AlertName$

 2. Closed - $Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityPath$\$Data/Context/DataItem/ManagedEntityDisplayName$ $Data/Context/DataItem/AlertName$

Then create 2 SMS subscriptions:

1. Under subscription criteria, select your standard filtering and in addition to that select "with specific resolution state" and set the state to New and use the 1st channel.

2. Under subscription criteria, select your standard filtering and in addition to that select "with specific resolution state" and set the state to Closed and use the 2nd channel.