Telephony in LiveCode

[Timothy Miller]

Hello,

I have to re-think my telephone system for business use. There's only one employee, me, and I usually can't answer the phone, but I want callers to have a convenient user-friendly experience, and to reach me when they need to. Some kind of simple auto-attendant, the ability to transfer a call to another line, plus the ability to play some recordings, then return to the main menu. Google Voice will do some of the things I need, but not others.

Over the years, there have been products that do this sort of thing, working on a dedicated Macintosh. I ran my business phones this way for several years, a long time ago. Apparently, no such product currently exists for the Macintosh.

There may be dozens of such products for Windows, probably mostly bad products. I haven't looked into it yet, and prefer to avoid that option if I can.

Wondering what to do. More and more companies host some kind of virtual PBX, but most are intended for large organizations, too expensive for me, or won't suit my needs.

It occurs to me I could probably make my own Virtual Receptionist application in LiveCode. I think LC can do everything I need, if used in conjunction with a modem. (If I'm not mistaken, simple modem commands and responses can detect key presses, answer calls, hang up, transfer calls and so on.) On the other hand, it's a pretty big job for do-it-yourself, particularly for me, a non-expert.

Has this kind of application has already been attempted in LC? Is a usable version available? Maybe some kind of Virtual Receptionist construction kit? Anybody know?

Thanks in advance,   Tim