Tone dialling using a modem

One of the nice features of DataPower is its ability to dial phone numbers from within the database when you press Ctrl-D with the cursor in the field with the phone number.

The Windows version of DataPower uses Microsoft's TAPI interface to dial phone numbers using the computer's modem (providing the modem driver is TAPI-compliant), whereas the Acorn version is set up by default to dial phone numbers using the computer's internal speaker.

However, many Acorn users with a modem would prefer that DataPower dialled the numbers using the modem itself, as this obviates the need to hold the phone up to the computer speaker.

Thanks to Colin Foster, this is now possible, as he has developed the !Phone application to interface between DataPower and the SerialDev drivers developed by Hugo Fiennes to communicate with the modem.

Click to download the phone.arc Spark archive containing !Phone, SerialDev and an example database which shows how to dial numbers via the modem by clicking on a button.

You can copy the button and its associated script into your own database by simply editing the layouts of both and dragging the button across, then selecting the button in your own database layout, pressing Ctrl-T and altering the field name reference to match the name of the field where the desired phone number is to be taken from. Note that you could have more than one button in a given layout, each dialling a phone number from a particular field, and it would also be possible to use a pictorial phone icon on the button rather than the word "Dial" (just drag a sprite or drawfile onto the button while in edit layout mode).

If you have any questions or feedback concerning the !Phone application, please email Colin Foster on colin@cjfoster.demon.co.uk.