Subject: From: Date:

Re: RE: [ECS] New upgrade experiences Scott Danks Mon, 11 Sep 2000 10:22:31 -0500

---

 Mon, 11 Sep 2000 10:22:31 -0500
I can attach the home.mdb.  I did some work on the events this weekend, and got the
system to open the "|" delimited file and parse it.  I had to make changes to the phone
event. It now changes the number of rings to answer on, depending on the entry in the
database.  And I have it changing the wav file to play for that caller.  My family complained
about having the system play a ringing wav file over the load speakers, because it still
rings one more time after the phone is answered.  I may have to make other changes to
get this to work.  I was planning on turning off all the phone ringers in the house
and use the "Caller rings through" setting to play the ringing wav file or not. I am
still working on it.  I also had to change a couple of variable types in the database.
 Let me get the newest one from home tonight. . . . 

>>> "Joseph & Jessica Colson III" <JColson@CajunNet.com> 09/09 7:03 AM >>>
I'm also interested in knowing more on the database and how
it all works.  Any chance of getting a copy of your cfg file?

Thanks,

Joe Colson

PS Thanks to everyone who responded to my on the ocelot question,
Looks like that next on my wish list!


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Danks [mailto:sdanks@ci.tulsa.ok.us] 
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 9:52 AM
To: ecs-list@netbloc.com 
Subject: Re: [ECS] New upgrade experiences


Well I spent 6 hours last night upgrading to 4.4.006 from 4.4.004.  I found
that if I wait too long I REALLY have a lot of updating to do.  Anyway I
have a few questions (mostly to spawn discussion)  But, I have questions,
you have answers. . . .

I found that if I have a mistake and duplicate a group it seems to "IGNORE"
the second one.  Does this happen with items and events too?  I am trying to
find a way to keep from having to update the .cfg files each time I want to
use Mark's new whizbang code.  Usually I just keep the ecs.cfg and dump the
example.cfg, but there are some really good enhancements in this one.

I fought the type: download-status for several hours last night trying to
figure out why it would not find that type and this morning it dawned on me
that it was probably a "Custom Item type".  I guess the installer does not
write over the itpcst.def file?  I installed over the old program to retain
all my wav files etc.

Now for the update I am going to do this weekend.  I made an Access Database
called "Home.mdb" and when run, it opens to a form that asks for several
bits of info about a caller.  Like callerid number, and name and wav file
name to play and if they can call afterhours etc.  I will share it if you
all are interested.  Then when you exit the file, it writes all the info to
"t.csv" (telephone.csv)  The file has info like
"2|1002|Jan|Adams|918|1234567|4|0|0|1|1|adams.wav".  I will write a routine
this weekend to parse through this file and look for the callerid number.
Then use the data to set the rings count, answer count, and what file to
play when this caller calls (adams.wav)"  This way, I can have hundreds of
people in my database, and it's easy for my wife to enter the caller
information on the ACCESS97 form and then the next time this person calls
the system will handle it correctly.  I had to use a macro and events that
trigger the macro when the database is closed, to write the data to the "|"
delimited fields.  I just hope the computer is fast enough to run throught
the database and find the match in between phone rings.    Would anyone be
interested in this?  When I get it working I would be willing to share the
code.  The numbers above represent, Record 2, id number 1002, firstname,
lastname, area code, phone number, ring to answer on, email the recording,
ring phones at all, call afterhours, send text page after caller leaves
message, name of wav file to play to caller.   comments?

I'm also thinking of using an mp3 format to record a lot of things like a
greeting to be played at my front door when someone rings the doorbell.
Didnt someone use winamp?  I wa trying to figure out how to use command line
switches to play the files, but I cant find any command line switches.
Didnt AJ use something like this? my memory clouds the older I get. (37).

planning a great weekend....
Scott Danks

---