Some new telephony devices are internet enabled and allow you to dial the phone by sending a command to the device through a custom interface accessed by the phone’s IP address. This interface can be reached by sending a specially configured URL directly to the phone. (Cisco IP Phones have a separate Dial Method defined by JPT. See the “Dialing through a Cisco IP Phone” help section for more information.)

Select “URL” in the “Dial Method” drop down menu for the various call types in the Dialing Rules and those calls dialed by JPT will be sent to the URL specified in the “Dialing Through URL” section of the preferences. You will also need to adjust your Dialing Rules so that the final number as transformed by JPT is compatible with numbers as required by your telephone device. For the URL, simply enter the URL with the specific IP address, domain name, or URL protocol of your device and use the placeholder of “%#” where your would like JPT to swap the number to be dialed when it sends the URL to your phone. If your phone supports it, you can also use the “%n” placeholder in your URL which JPT will swap for the name of the contact you are dialing (if it is available).

For example, IP-based phones from Snom can be dialed by sending a dial command to the phone at its IP address using the URL:

http://<ip of phone>/dialnumber_en.htm?<number to dial>

So, if your phone’s IP address is 192.168.0.100, then the URL you would enter into the URL field in JPT would be:

http://192.168.0.100/dialnumber_en.htm?%#

Some users have reported using an alternate URL for Snom phones:

http://<ip of phone>/index.htm?number=<number to dial>

Again, assuming the phone’s IP address is 192.168.0.100, then the URL you would enter into the URL field in JPT would be:

http://192.168.0.100/index.htm?number=%#

IP-based phones from other vendors may also support dialing via an URL. You should consult the documentation that came with your phone for more information.

Some other softphones support custom URL protocols which can also be dialed through the URL Dial Method. For instance, the ohphoneX H.323 softphone supports the “callto:” URL protocol. So, to dial using the ohphoneX softphone, set the appropriate Dial Methods in the Dialing Rules to dial through URL and then, in the “Dial Through URL” section of “Dial Method Settings”, enter:

callto://%#

When your call is dialed, the number will then be sent to ohphoneX to connect. Note: other applications also support the “callto:” URL protocol, most notably, Skype. If you use the “callto:” URL protocol and another application handles the URL, you can use the excellent freeware preference pane RCDefaultApp to configure which application to use for any supported URL protocol.

Similar to ohphoneX, the Gizmo Project softphone also supports a custom URL protocol: “gizmoproject:”. So, to dial using the Gizmo Project softphone, as mentioned above, set the appropriate Dial Methods in the Dialing Rules to dial through URL and then, in the “Dial Through URL” section of “Dial Method Settings”, enter:

gizmoproject:call?id=%#

Please note that some third-party VoIP services require additional fees and JPT does not allow you to use these services for free or at a discount (though for most services, in-network calls are free).

The other options in the URL configuration pane are for using other types of URLs such as an URL for sending the number (and optionally the name of the contact) to a webpage or other type of resource. For example, if you enter the URL:

http://www.google.com/search?sa=X&oi=fwp&pb=f&q=%#

and set the option to open this URL using your default browser, when you dial a number, JPT will search for that number using the phonebook service at Google.com. If the URL that you use requires the URL to be encoded, you can use the encoding option as well.

For websites or phones that require a graphical interface, you should use the option to send the URL through your default browser. If you don’t need a graphical, interactive interface (most IP phones can be dialed without a graphical interface), then the “Silent” option can be used. When dialing “silently”, and the URL scheme is HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP, then JPT uses the CURL command line tool. Other URL protocol schemes will be handled by third-party applications as described above.

As with other internet connections, your system may require the connection to the specified URL to be routed through a proxy server. When dialing through the default system browser, your proxy settings will be respected. If you dial silently and need to use a proxy server, JPT will read the proxy information from your Network preferences. However, if a username and password is required for your setup, you will need to enter it in JPT each time you launch the application. You can do this by clicking the “Proxy Settings...” button. For more information, see the “Proxies” help section.

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