Dial the phone from FileMaker Pro

Apr 26, '02 09:23:23AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

The OS X version of FileMaker Pro does not support the dial function (who knows why). Anyway, it is a real pain for people who want to dial an individual from their database. I finally figured it out and thought it might be worth sharing, because it may be a long time before the dial function is put back into the program.

Read the rest of the article for the how-to...

Creating an dialing function from FileMaker Pro running OS X


  1. Go to Network preference panel. Select Active Network Ports from the Show drop-down menu.

  2. Click on Internal Modem and then click on Duplicate. Rename to Telephone

  3. Click the check box on Telephone to make it an active port

  4. Go to FMP. Select ScriptMaker from Scripts menu. Click on Create

  5. Clear all predefined actions in the script window.

  6. Double click the Copy function from the list on the left. Check the Select Entire Contents box at the bottom of the window and then Check and Click Specify field to select the field with the phone number you want to dial.

  7. Double click the Perform AppleScript function from the list on the left. Click Specify at the bottom of the box and then, when the window opens, click Script Text button and past the following into the window.
    local thenumber
    tell application "Finder"
    activate
    copy (the clipboard) to thenumber
    end tell
    copy "*67,1-" & thenumber to thenumber
    tell application "FileMaker Pro"
    activate
    ignoring application responses
    tell application "Internet Connect" to connect¬
    configuration "Telephone" to telephone number thenumber
    end ignoring
    display dialog thenumber & return & "Dialing in Progress: Disconnect?"¬
    buttons {"Disconnect"} default button 1 giving up after 10
    tell application "Internet Connect" to disconnect configuration "Telephone"
    end tell
    Note: If you want to eliminate or modify the prefix of the number to be dialed that is in the selected field, change the "*67,1-". It is currently set up to block caller ID and add a 1- in front of the number in the data field.

  8. Save the script and try it out.
BTW, I am not an AppleScripter and want to thank Terry Warwick and Matt Neuburg for their help and suggestions.

[Editor's note: I have not tested this script myself.]

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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20020426092323943