Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

No news yet... but I do want to thank you for the reminder. It did inspire me to do some more work on the program. I hope to release a new version with some of the requested updates this weekend.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Thanks for Grandcentral Dialer, z2n! I see that brontide conceptualized wget's role in March, thanks!

I couldn't wait to try it on my 770, so instead of installing microb I used my desktop to browse to http://www.grandcentral.com/mobile/messages to have it set the Firefox cookie. wget docs say Netscape and Mozilla cookies are wget compatible too. Then I placed the resulting cookies.txt file on my 770...

/home/user/.mozilla/microb/cookies.txt

The cookie will last about 10 months. Grandcentral Dialer performed!

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Ok, so a few things I'm a bit confused about. Will you only be able to use this in a wifi hotspot or if you have internet access? and another thing, I can't seem to make an account with grandcentral.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Currently, you can't get a Grandcentral account. It's in closed beta. You have to get an invite.

Anyone got an invite they could toss my way? :cool:

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

They took away our invites. If you want a GC account you gotta request one from the main website.

Also yes, you can only use this when you have internet access.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

If I can only use this with internet access, then what makes this better than simply using skype for calls? Or would this allow incoming calls as well. I'm sorry, I'm new to this whole thing. I don't even have a tablet yet =P I'm hoping to get one within the next week though.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Grandcentral, paired with gizmo, allows for completely free incoming and outgoing calls with your tablet if you have wifi. Skype requires you to pay for calls to/from landlines/mobiles. However, this application just makes it easier to make outgoing calls using grandcentral.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

I am noticing (for the first time today) that when I use the dialer to place a call and I answer on the tablet, I don't hear the ringing unless the volume is adjusted almost to the max. One level lower and for some reason the ringing does not work, anyone else notice this?

I should probably add that using grandcentral's website doesn't create this problem for me. Also, and I believe this is already noted earlier, the DTMF options don't work if a call is initiated by the gc dialer. Again, that's no problem if done through the grandcentral.com page.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

I have noticed the same.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

What I observed is that no audio is present unless you adjust the volume once. Doesn't matter which way, it just needs to be adjusted. Haven't tested a call made through the grandcentral website, but this happens for me for calls initiated from gc dialer, and from incoming calls to my grandcentral number.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application (version 0.4 now available)
 

It's not as exciting as the annual release of beaujolais nouveau, but a new version of the Grandcentral Dialer is now available!

This release has many of the interface changes that were requested. It also adds history of recently dialled numbers (actually, it maintains a history of all numbers that were dialled, but shows the most recent 10). This version also attempts to do some error checking--detecting whether the wget command itself succeeded, and whether Grandcentral attempted to dial the supplied number.

You can download the package from the Maemo Garage site for Grandcentral Dialer.

I'd appreciate feedback on any critical bugs before I release the package via the maemo-extras repository in a few days.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

It looks great, thanks! :) I gave it a try, called my mobile and left voicemail..... everything seemed to work perfect.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application (version 0.4 now available)
 

Now that we have call history...
the <CLEAR> button is best used to clear the history. Actually it's a MUST HAVE feature -- preferably on a per-call basis.

The <BACK> button can be used to clear the current number.

Keep up the great work. This update is a great improvement.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application (version 0.4 now available)
 

I'm sure it was just an oversight, but you really did mean to start your reply with some kind of "thank you", right? :)
I feel that the <CLEAR> button is "best used" for exactly what it does now.

The package is open-source, and an easy-to-edit python script. If you are of the opinion that something is a "must-have", then make the change. Personally, I don't want to clear numbers from the history list (and that's actually more difficult than it seems). The history list is stored in a file: /home/user/.gcdialerhist, which lists the number called and a timestamp. "Clearing" a number would mean re-writing that file, rather than just appending each successively called number.

One alternative that just came to mind would be to enable a new button that only appears after a successful call. That button would allow the user to append the current number to the history list. Frankly, I really don't like that as much as the current model, but I'd consider it.

As far as the <BACK> button, that's a "backspace" key. Without that, pressing the wrong key at the end of entering a 10 digit phone number would require starting over....

Feel free to play with the GUI (built with glade-3) and the python script. If you really want the ability to remove numbers from the history list, I'd suggest dedicating another button (or a menu item) to that function. I'd be happy to accept code submissions with any modifications.

Of course, you can always edit (or remove) the history file itself.

You're welcome.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

When I use the updated app I get a busy signal most of the time even though the phone dialed is right next to me and can be dialed from cell.

honestly right now app that was previously working is not.

cleared cookies and I get dialing attempt unsucessful

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

If you're getting a busy signal, that means that the Grandcentral Dialer is working...it accepted a number, used the wget command to connect to www.grandcentral.com, and attempted to make grandcentral.com place the call. Beyond that, the dialer program has no control.

Please check the history file (/home/user/.gcdialerhist) to make sure that the number is correct.


If you've cleared the cookies, then the Grandcentral Dialer application will no longer be able to login to grandcentral.com in order to place a call. The good news is that you've successfully tested part of the error checking that's now part of Grandcentral Dialer.

In order to make it work for you again, you must have the appropriate cookie. From the web browser on your tablet, go to http://www.grandcentral.com/mobile/messages and login.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Thanks for this new release, works fine for me :)

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

works great, thx for taking time and making efforts for doing this.

just a req. if you think its appropriate and quick.

sometime when I dial I get busy tone, keep trying and couldn't find out. then I close dialer, browser and Internet call application. then launch the browser, launch the internet call and then launch the dialer and it worked.

so I was wondering that if dialer can't find cookie just show some kind of status somehwere on the interface says that cookie missing.

Something to let the user know that the current cookie is not good and he need to re-launch his browser.

thanks once again.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

In response to ShyBoy:

Or a way to get the cookie, aka login to Grandcentral From within the app.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Thanks a lot.
It works perfectly well on my 770.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Thanks for your hard work, I have been using the Dialer for awhile now and have sold a N800 due to it. People ask me “is that a cellphone” and I say “it is a wifi phone”, now they want to know more! :D

But I am now having a problem making connections, keep getting busy tones, and yes I know how to set the cookies for grandcentral mobile.

What about changing the call log so it only show a phone number once, as it is now ever time a number is call it is added to the list. I know how to clear the list but maybe others (non techies) do not know how or the steps put them off.

Thanks for your time.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

I think I found a bug in the Dialer. On my N800 the Dialer will work for one phone call the next call will give me a busy tone. If I close the Dialer then restart it I can now make one call the next call will be busy. Can someone try this to see what they get.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Yes, same thing happens to me. The old version would automatically close by itself. This version will stay open, but you can't make the second call unless you close it and open again.

You are right about the last version closing after making a call, I had forgotten that.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

You're welcome.
<SNIP!>
Hmmm....I can certainly change the error message to indicate that the cookie might be part of the problem. However, the Grandcentral Dialer program doesn't check for the cookie itself...the python script is really just a fancy way of entering the phone number--the web connection to grandcentral.com and the cookie access are handled by the wget program. The python script can determine 3 things:

1. if the wget connection to grandcentral.com failed
2. if the connection succeeded but grandcentral.com was unable to dial the number
3. if the web connection and dialling were successful (but not whether the call was successful--a busy signal still counts as "success" as far as dialling)

In the case of #1, the tablet is probably off-line, or there's a firewall or something else that's blocking the http connection to grandcentral.com. I'll try to clarify that in the error message.

In the case of #2, it's most likely that the cookie is missing, and I can do a test on the output from grandcentral.com to make a better guess about that. I can improve this error message too.

In the case of #3, there's no way to distinguish dialing a number and connecting vrs. getting a busy signal.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Hmmm....I'll need to test this more.

The application now stays open because several people requested that, but I can't think of any reason why that would interfere with dialling the 2nd (and successive) calls.

Are you certain that you have "hung up" (closed the connection) in your VOIP program (such as Gizmo)? Remember, Grandcentral Dialer does nothing to establish the VOIP connection, it's merely a convenient way of submitting a phone number for grandcentral.com
to dial. I don't know how long it takes grandcentral.com to "hang up" and allow you to make another call.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

You're welcome.
I'll look into that, but I suspect that it is not directly caused by Grandcentral Dialer.
Hmmm....I guess this brings up the question of what the drop-down menu is really showing...is the menu a list of the last N calls (as it is now, possibly including duplicates), or is it a unique list of the last N calls?

The history file also includes a date/time stamp, which I think is really valuable, but that's not shown now in the Grandcentral Dialer program. I'm reluctant to give that up, but I do think there's a fairly simple way to make the list of number in the drop-down menu unique.

I'll work on that for the next release.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application (version 0.4 now available)
 

Just being politely creative... :)

When I 1)manually delete /.gcdialerhist, and 2)restart Grandcentral Dialer, the history is cleared, so...
would I simply code the <CLEAR> button to automatically delete .gcdialerhist?

Thanks for your hard work...

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Yes, I did. What I can think of is if you don't close the program, the second number will be appended to the first number and will cause the program to dial a number that doesn't exist. Just like if the first number is 619-331-4554. The second time if I dial the same number again it will become 619-331-4554-619-331-4554. I have tried to dial the long time as a first call and it became busy. Any time if you dial a number that doesn't exist, you get a busy signal. What do you think?
p.s. 619-331-4554 is not my phone number, I just use it as an example. So try your own number :)

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

just want to send my appreciation for your effort on this. the new UI is much better.

i also had some peculiar behavior w/ the new release, but didn't figure out any rhyme or reason to them.

by the way, i'm kind of curious to peak at thhe code for this project. i have zero experience with python, but i'm just curious to see what the code would look like for a project like this. is there a way to read the source?

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application (version 0.4 now available)
 

Yes.
You're welcome.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Do you have any evidence of that behavior? Earlier in this thread, I asked someone to check the contents of the file That file keeps the history of numbers that were dialed.

I am very interested if the application is really concatenating numbers together, but I don't think that's possible, knowing how the code works.
I think that behavior is coming from Grandcentral.com.

Please remember that the Grandcentral Dailer program actually does very little...it gives you a friendly way to enter a phone number, then submits it to grandcentral.com to place the call. It's up to grandcentral.com and your VOIP provider (such as gizmo) and your VOIP software on the tablet to handle all the other details, such as dialling, volume, etc.

If you are hearing a busy signal, then grandcentral.com has placed a call to a number that is busy.

I am very interested in diagnosing any errors in the number that Grandcentral Dialer is submitting to grandcentral.com, but anything beyond that point is out of my control.
Actually, if you're having a consistent, reproducible problem, having the real phone number will help me with the diagnosis. Feel free to send me the details and a copy of history file (/home/user/.gcdialerhist) via e-mail if you don't want to post them publically. I will honor your privacy.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

You're welcome.
Details, please.

Um, the program is distributed as source code...there is no compiled program. Look at:
for the program and the GUI interface definition.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

If people are thinking that this is a concatenation problem they should also check their call log on GC to see if there is any evidence of that.

It could just be a matter of GC bugs or possibly clamping down ( ha, that would require some effort on their part ).

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

the app works like a champ on my n810- thanks for one of my most used apps

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Yes, it's a bug and I can prove it. Looking at the /tmp/gc_dialer.output it's clearly concatenating the two numbers. In this case 5184421111 was the first number I dialed and 5184422222 was the second.

The bug is not immediatly obvious, took me a minute to see what was going on. You append the phone number to the wget command, but then you KEEP appending to that command ( line 195 /usr/local/bin/gc_dialer.py ).

Here is the fix

You see I removed the one line and modified the popen3 command. This should keep the wgetcmd string clean. I have tested this chage and it works.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Ah, this is why I love open source! Thanks for investigating, Brontide, and thanks again to z2n for the app.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Neat, it's possible to change the callback number on the fly. I have to integrate this into the code. This way if you are at a random phone and don't want to use gizmo you can just punch in the phone number and use the dialer to initiate callback.

It shouldn't be too hard to implement the login without invoking the browser either.

Maybe "visual voicemail" can be next ;-)

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Yep, me too! Thanks for debugging this.

I've applied that fix, and made some other changes (including removing repeated numbers from the drop-down history list). The new version is only on the garage SVN (scm) site as the "gc_dialer.py" file--I haven't tested this on my tablet or built a new deb package yet. Give it a couple of days...

I'm glad to see so much interested in the package, and welcome suggestions...even more, I welcome patches and people who want to work on the code itself.

Re: Grandcentral Dialer Application
 

Please hurry up with that deb package, I love this stuff. Not a code person (not yet) but willing to give it a thorough test run. Thanks to all. :)