My client has a repairs database in Access 97. What they would like the 

database to do is that when the repairs have been made they would like to 

hit a button in the database that would send a simple text message to the 

customer saying the their bike is ready for collection.



Is it possible to send text messages from Access 97, 2k or XP to mobile 

phones?



Regards



Brendan

Brendan



There's a few options. Some would seem to work over an internet 

connection, others need a modem \ terminal adapter. If you do some 

internet searching, I'm sure you'll find more examples.





Look for an activex control that you can use from Access (example here) 

http://www.zdnetindia.com/downloads/info/67920.html



Try programming the communication port directly (some info here, though 

it's for VB so may not work)

http://mail.anywhereyougo.com/pipermail/wap-dev/2001-October/020019.html



Buy a commercial package that can be integrated with Access. I can't 

remember the company I came across whilst investigating this, but I can 

dig it out if you're interested.



-Brian



P.S. I haven't used any of these yet, so cannot guarantee anything, but 

presumably one of them should work!

 

> My client has a repairs database in Access 97. What they would like the 

> database to do is that when the repairs have been made they would like 

to 

> hit a button in the database that would send a simple text message to 

the 

> customer saying the their bike is ready for collection.

> 

> Is it possible to send text messages from Access 97, 2k or XP to mobile 

> phones?

> 

> Regards

> 

> Brendan

Brendan,



I looked into a similar problem for a client, unfortunately they went into 

receivership befoire it could be implemented at any stage.



One idea that got chucked in the court was to use a third party 

Organiser/MobilePhone/Pocket PC typoe device, the sort of thing that runs 

Windows CE or whatever.  This provides the output for SMS via a controller 

O/S.  Quite if how you would link the PocketPhonePC device to a PC I am 

not sure although you it could work along the lines of using the link 

cable to export records from the main Access DB to the PocketPhonePC and 

then get its software to import the records and SMS them to the 

recipient.  I don't have much experience of Pocket devices so I am not to 

sure on the capabilities and limitations of their software (or if they 

even cope with VBA) 



Secondly from a source at Siemens I found out that the way the big boys do 

it is tho use a modem to dial up the Mobile Provider and directly upload 

the SMS from the PC via a modem (or whatever) -  Ideally you could run it 

from Access through some fancy code or ActiveX component to the modem and 

out to the provider.  I guess this is cost restrictive from the cost of 

the software (which probably will not run on Access) and hardware required 

as it will be quite specialist currently and also the cost of accessing 

the Mobile Providers network.



Thirdly and the least automated solution is to buy a "mobile message pad" -

 a bit gimmicky but they remove the difficult of multiple characters on 

one key that using a mobile has and give the user a full keypad but then 

the there is a definite area for error that full Access automation would 

remove.



Regards



Paul McLaren