SuperDialer - from BoxSoft Development

by Tom Hebenstreit, Review Editor

Published 1999-01-01    Printer-friendly version

If you write applications that involve phone numbers, a common request is for your program to be able to dial those numbers. I'm not talking about modem to modem type communications here, just auto dialing for the user so that they can speak with another person. Once the modem has dialed, the user simply picks up the handset and waits for a connection. This not only saves wear and tear on the fingers, but helps to eliminate dialing errors - a real boon when used in contact manager or customer support programs.

Super Dialer, from BoxSoft Development, is a set of templates designed to do exactly that - add modem voice dialing to Clarion Applications.

Both 16 and 32 bit modes are supported (more on that later).

Installation

I downloaded Super Dialer as a single file installation executable, so all that was needed was to run it. Installation proceeded smoothly, though the installer did not automatically find my Clarion directories (it defaulted to C drive, mine is on E). After entering the required password, the program finished the installation and displayed the Help file (nice).

Even better, the install also offered to modify my RED file (the Clarion environment redirection file) to include the Super templates directories. This requirement has long been the biggest potential trip up for new Super template users, and it is great to see BoxSoft address that.

As usual, the templates must be registered before you can use them.

Implementation

As with most products, the first you thing must do is add a global extension template to your application.

Extension Options)

Only the first two prompts on the Global Extension are used if you are compiling 32 bit, since in that case all of the other information is already available to Windows via its own modem setup routines. Note that you can use variables for information such as the port and dialing delay time in 16 bit, thus allowing the user to provide the specifics for their own hardware setup.

Once the Global Extension has been added, you can add the ability to dial to any window, browse or form using either a control template or a code template. For the control template, you get a button labeled 'Dial'. For both, all you need to do is drop on the template and fill in the prompts shown below in figure 2.

Template options)

As you can see, adding dialing required no hand written code at all.

I did find one minor problem in testing the various Super Dialer templates: When using the code template, I got a generate error of "Unknown variable: %TrapRetVal". The error can be safely ignored, though, and doesn't affect Super Dialer's performance. I would also anticipate the problem being corrected by BoxSoft in their usual speedy manner.

Performance

How Super Dialer works depends on how your program has been compiled - 16 bit or 32 bit. In both cases, the initial steps are the same; your user presses the dial button you provided (via the templates) and chooses which number to dial as shown below in figure 3. If you have the global 'Preview before dialing' option set, the user will then get the opportunity to verify and/or modify the number before it is actually dialed.

number dialog)

If you are not offering a choice of numbers, they go directly to the preview or dialing process. Once you have selected and/or confirmed a number to dial, the 16 and 32 bit versions diverge.

16 bit Super Dialer

In this mode, Super Dialer communicates directly with your modem.

In action, you see a simple progress dialog, which keeps you, informed as Super Dialer dials the number. It counts down the time (which you specified) before it automatically hangs up and, if you haven't picked up the phone by the time it reaches zero, hangs up the line. If you did pick it up, it switches from the modem to the handset so that you can speak to the party you dialed.

progress dialog)

As you can see, there is also a cancel button that simply hangs up the modem as soon as it is pressed.

All in all, pretty simple to use, but it does require that the user tell the program which COM port their modem is connected to (not something everybody knows off the top of their head). If you pass the dialer an invalid port, or a port that isn't a modem, the dialer just displays an error message. Those messages could be a bit friendlier, though.

For example, if you give it a non-modem Comm port you get the message 'Hardware not present'. I'd rather see something more helpful to the end user (and to you, when providing support), such as 'No modem found on this port'. One other nit: The dialer progress window defaults to a 10-second count down time when first displayed. If you chose a different amount, you will see it begin at 10 and then switch to your number as it begins to decrement. Like I said, a small thing, but it might confuse a user a bit.

32 bit Super Dialer

In 32-bit, Super Dialer uses a built in Windows Telephony API (TAPI) function to initiate dialing. This has a couple of implications, the first being that the TAPI32 DLL must be installed on the user's machine. BoxSoft provides a Windows 95 version of it along with Super Dialer, but you should be careful about installing it under Windows 98 and NT. Windows 98, for example, has a newer (and larger) version of TAPI32.DLL.

What happens next also depends on how your machine is set up. The TAPI function used by Super Dialer does not actually do the dialing - it just hands off your request to what is known as a 'call manager application', and that application is the one that interacts with the modem. On most machines, the default call manager application is Microsoft's Windows Dialer (dialer.exe), so that is what pops up to handle the call.

On the plus side, using the Windows Dialer adds more functionality to Super Dialer without you having to do a thing. It can detect busy signals, keep a simple phone log, and it automatically uses whatever modem setup the machine has. On the minus side, the dialer application actually pops up over your application and so may not seem quite as integrated. Also, if no call manager application is installed (i.e., dialer.exe), the TAPI function (and thus Super Dialer) will not work.

By the way, if you are curious about dialer.exe, it can be found in Win 9x using: Start|Programs|Accessories|Communications|Phone Dialer. (Don't you just love how Microsoft makes things easy to find?)

Bottom line, though, is that Super Dialer does work fine under 32 bit.

For future reference, BoxSoft states in the documentation that they are looking into implementing Super Dialer 32 bit without using the TAPI functions that require the call manager (getting closer to the metal, so to speak).

Documentation

BoxSoft products have always had good documentation, and Super Dialer is no exception. Both online help and a printable PDF file are provided, so you get the best of both worlds. If you wish to use either of the two Super Dialer functions without using the control or code templates, the documentation also explains how to call them directly.

One demo application is provided, which shows how to use the various features of Super Dialer.

Technical Support

Email support is provided both by BoxSoft's distributor (Mitten Software) and by BoxSoft directly. Mitten also provides voice and fax support.

For myself, I tend to go to the source (BoxSoft) and have never had support that rated anything less than excellent. Mike Hanson, the author of the Super template line also actively monitors the CompuServe and TopSpeed third party forums for questions concerning his products.

Summary

Despite a few small rough spots, Super Dialer is an inexpensive and easy way to add modem dialing capabilities to any application. In my test applications, for example, it took under five minutes total to add Super Dialer and implement dialing on multiple windows. Only the generate error for the code template kept the Ease of Use score from being higher, and, as I said, I would expect that to be fixed in short order.

All in all, another very useful product from BoxSoft.

Category	Product Score
Ability to do the task	Very Good
Ease of use	Good
Ease of Installation	Very Good
Documentation	Excellent
Technical Support	Excellent
Modifies Shipping Templates	No
Black-Box DLLs/LIBs	No

BoxSoft Super Dialer is available for $59 US from Mitten Software (1-800-825-5461). More information and ordering details are also available at the Mitten web site at: http://www.mittensoftware.com

Two versions are available, a 4.x version for ABC templates (C4 and C5) and a 2.5x version for the Clarion legacy templates (CW2.x, C4 and C5). Both versions have the same functionality for now, though BoxSoft has stated that future improvements will most likely only be made to the ABC version.

Vendor comments from Mike Hanson of BoxSoft:

As usual, Tom is a thorough and fair reviewer. There will be a new version of SuperDialer released during the first week of January to fix the "%TrapRetVal", "countdown starting with 10", and "Hardware not found" problems. We are also working on removing the need for the 32-bit dialer applet, but we won't promise that it will be included in this upcoming version.

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Clarion Magazine ISSN 1718-9942