Facade has a new use...A Homescreen Photo Dialer

[Guest nickcornaglia]

- I asked the question on SBSH.net forums if a PhotoDialer could be added to the functionality of Facade.

- TSAYLOR (Facade Developer) thought it could be done but wasnt sure of the internal command to dial a number.

- I asked Nedge2K via IM (who is ALWAYS up late) if he remembered the function format. After about thirty seconds...HE FOUND THE TEXT! "TEL:5551212"

- After a few more minutes of simultaneously bouncing ideas off of Mike Temporale of SmartphoneThoughts.com via IM, we figured out how to add it.

- I forgot my sync cable at work...so I quickly modified a homescreen and emailed it to my phone (had troubles with my laptop's Bluetooth) AND IT WORKED!!!

- TSAYLOR was on his site at the same time confirming that it works!

QUICK HOW TO: (Requires some homescreen xml skills and familiarity with the code required to customize the launcher bar/tab for SBSH.net's FACADE Homescreen Plugin

1) Create a contact photo (I used a size of 40px x 40px but your needs will vary)

2) Place the photo on the phone or SD CARD. (I created a phonepics folder under \Application Data\Home

3) Modify your Launcher Shortcuts to mimic the following:

<!-- Facade Plugin Control: This is the launcher bar -->

<plugin clsid="{C49CEC80-D445-407C-AA72-C263EDBBAC96}" name="FacadeLauncher" type="Launcher">

	<Buttons>

		<Button image="\Storage\Application Data\Home\Photo Contacts\melissa.jpg" action="Run" command="tel:5551212"/>


		<Button image="\Storage\Application Data\Home\Photo Contacts\joey.jpg" action="Run" command="tel:5551212"/>

	</Buttons>

</plugin>

(add more photos and more button shortcuts!)

You can add contact images to your existing Launcher Shortcut list, add a dedicated Photo Contacts tab, or add a seperate Launcher instance. More function for an already GREAT application!

This was a cool find, and I thought it was even cooler to collaborate ideas and tips across multiple Smartphone Communities. Goes to show, we're all one big happy Microsoft Smartphone family! (Cue hand holding and singing of Kumbya!)

Enjoy! :)

Here is a quickie screenshot. Just a proof of concept, where I just added one contact.

[Guest roma0803]

Cool!! Sweat!! Nice!!

Thanks for this one :)

[Guest MoRFLeZ]

Excellent .. .just as you thought Facade couldn't get any cooler =)!

[Guest w411y]

Is 551212 the phone number? Bit confused as its the same on both buttons?

And a very good find indeed. I take my hat off to thee :)

Edited July 20, 2006 by w411y

[Guest nickcornaglia]

Yes. That just a phone number example. Didnt want to put real numbers in.

[Guest nausea]

Thats a cool find!

[Guest drblow]

Wow!!! :)

[Guest Pondrew]

Bravo to Encece and co. I doth my cap to thee :)

[Guest w411y]

What are you going to uncover next encece?... your on a roll :)

[Guest Pondrew]

What are you going to uncover next encece?... your on a roll :(

Corruption in the Whitehouse? The lost treasure of the Aztecs? Or maybe just the truth behind who shot JFK... ;)

Or maybe Paul [MVP]s true identity!?! :)

No, I don't mean that identity, the other one! :D

[Guest leoiden]

i cannot seem to get the pics right any suggestions guys ? it only shows half of the pics maybe its not suppose to be to big ??

[Guest Pondrew]

Well, Encece said he was using 40px x 40px so that'd be a guide of the size proven to work...

[Guest w411y]

I think you have to set the button size in the defaults of Facade in the XML to large or small or something similar

.. and whos being giving Pondrew glue ? :)

[Guest Pondrew]

hehe :)

[Guest dafab]

Excellent, thank you for sharing :)

[Guest yoos]

WOW!!! That's AWESOME!

[Guest nedge2k]

- I asked Nedge2K via IM (who is ALWAYS up late) if he remembered the function format. After about thirty seconds...HE FOUND THE TEXT! "TEL:5551212"

hehe...i'm full of useless/useful info :) ...and never sleeping always helps too ;)

[Guest chrisvanbrunschot]

Hi, this looks great, but..

I've got some pictures now on my homescreen by copying the xml-code from above, but when I click the picture nothing happens.

[Guest youngie]

Sweet as dude!

Excellent find. Just one thing though, how do I alter the width on Juni's Clarity/Chromium Facade homescreens? The Launcher icons are much smaller than those on Vista-ish II and it's difficult to see the pictures withouth making the space larger.

Once again nice one!

:)

[Guest nickcornaglia]

From what I can tell, there is plenty of room. If his homescreen uses small icons, check the plugin defaults to use larger icons. See the Facade XML reference on the SBSH.net facade forums.

[Guest nickcornaglia]

Oh, I see....his homescreen includes the MRU plugin (Most Recently used) which uses the small icons. The Photo icons here would fall under the LAUNCHER tab of the facade plugin. No extra space is needed there.

[Guest chrisvanbrunschot]

Finally got it working(probably made a stupid mistake!)

Does anybody know if it is possible to make it working like the MRU, so that the latest contacts are displayed like in the call-history?

[Guest tdmoreno]

has anyone figured out how to increase the size on the screen allocated for each icon.....

I cant get any image on there that is larger than 40X40 to display correctly...... It would be nice to just increase the size devoted to each button and then scroll to the next icon off the screen.... suggestions?

[Guest marekaq]

Very usefull, I've seen V2R Photo Dialer, but it is only for WM2005. Now with my mpx200 & mpx220 I can use this plugin. Thanks

[Guest pcguru000]

any way to stop it from asking that confirmation message... i mean i programmed the dang phone number into the xml im pretty sure i know what number i want to call LOL