Help for SMS-Maker Version 1.0 05/09/2003

7. Tips & Tricks

This sections describes some scenarios how you may want to use SMS-Maker. The most simple way is to use it on your own computer, with a cellphone connected to it. But you can also use it in a more sophisticated way, for example from your Office applications, over a local network or on a web server.


7.1 Using SMS-Maker over a local network [back to top]

The only problem when using SMS-Maker over a network connection is the path to the outgoing message directory. Since the application and the DLL use the same settings from an INI file, you have to take care of the correct path pointing to the location where you want to save all outgoing messages.

You can do this by either creating a new INI file for the DLL or by setting the INI and OutgoingDirectory properties before you save an SMS file from a remote computer.

Example:
If the cellphone is connected to a computer named myMachine, share the program folder on your network, for example as SMS-Maker. This way, you can access it with the name \\myMachine\SMS-Maker from other computers.
Then, copy the DLL to another computer and register it using the file register.bat in the program folder on the 'host' machine. Then, you either create a new INI file for the DLL (same location as the DLL itself) or just copy it from the host machine. If you copy it, you just change the OutDir entry to point to the network directory of the host, in this example it would be \\myMachine\SMS-Maker\Out.
If you don't want to copy any INI file, just set the INI and OutgoingDirectory properties after creating an instance of the object:


SMSMaker.INI="\\myMachine\SMS-Maker\smsmaker.ini"
SMSMaker.OutgoingDirectory="\\myMachine\SMS-Maker\Out"

Then, simply create the message by using the CreateSMS method. All other settings will be taken from the specified INI file.


7.2 Using SMS-Maker with Office and VBA [back to top]

You can also use SMS-Maker from any Office application. You only have to create a userform with some textfields and buttons and write code to use the ActiveX DLL functions. I don't want to describe this in detail here, that's why I included a Word document to show you how to do it. Please open SMS-Maker-VBS-Sample.doc in the program folder.

In this document, there's a small icon in the toolbar that opens a dialog to send SMS messages from within Word. If you want to see how this is done, open the Visual Basic Editor in Word by using the menu or pressing ALT+F11.


7.3 Using SMS-Maker on a web server [back to top]

In order to use SMS-Maker on your web server, install the program and the DLL on it. Then, start the program and make all needed settings for your cellphone and activate sending.

From your ASP page, use the ActiveX component to create SMS files:


Dim SMSMaker, RcpNo, MsgText, tmpStatus, X

' create a class instance:
Set SMSMaker = Server.CreateObject("SMSMaker.SMSFile")

... ' Code for setting the variables (i.e. from form fields or programmatically)

' Save the current activation status temporarily
if SMSMaker.isSending then
	tmpStatus = 1
else
	tmpStatus = 0
end if

' The following two lines are to make sure that
' SMS-Maker will be active for sending the message:
SMSMaker.isSending = 1
SMSMaker.saveChanges

' Now create the message:
X = SMSMaker.CreateSMS(RcpNo, MsgText)

if not X then
	... ' Code for error reporting
end if

' Restore previous Status
SMSMaker.isSending = tmpStatus
SMSMaker.saveChanges

' Destroy SMS-Maker instance
Set SMSMaker = Nothing

Since both the program and the DLL reside on the same computer and use the same INI, you don't need to take care of the settings. The only thing you may want to make sure is to activate SMS-Maker before creating SMS files.
With this, you should be able to create a form as the user-interface and create SMS-files from the user's input.


© Oliver Witte for WAY-X GmbH , 2002-2003. All rights reserved, all wrongs reversed.