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As well as providing you with a
freely distributable fax client that can be installed on any
Windows PC on your network, NetCFax also provided a little known
but nevertheless extremely useful utility program that we call the
"Command Line Processor"
This is is a rather clever little
program that can let you send a fax directly from the DOS command
processor, or the Start - Run system, or indeed from any other
program that can create and execute a program (typically using
ShellExecute or Run or any similar internal function)
It even provides a neat little
popup window (if required) that lets you create all the relevant
addressing information, add cover page notes, and even attach a
single faxable (black and white) TIF file, or a single standard
ASCII text file.
As you can see from the diagram
above, this provides many of the features of the normal fax
client, such as cover page type and fax resolution. You can
even use a text file to fill out the text in the cover page notes
field by using the button provided to select that file.
Once you have filled out the
form, you just click send and the data is sent to the NetCFax
server for you, which of course, first verifies it, and if all is
well, it then creates and sends the fax for you as soon as
possible.
You do not have to use the
interface window shown above, as FAXCMD supports various different
methods of use, including a direct DOS command line syntax, and it
can also be given a text file as an argument that contains all of
the relevant commands and data. This makes FAXCMD a very
powerful and flexible system to allow you to create and send faxes
from almost any other application.
The Command Line program is
called FAXCMD.EXE and can be found in a sub folder FaxCmd\program
in the fax servers installation folder tree. You will also
find a useful information file in there showing you all the
command line options that are accepted. You do not have to
use the interface shown above, as it can also be used directly
from the DOS command line processor, and it can even read in a
pre-completed file of fax details, allowing other programs such a
databases to create the fax data and then send it to the NetCFax
server quickly and easily to have a fax created and sent from that
data.
You can copy this program to any
PC at all, and by simply running it anyone can create and send a
"quick fax" via NetCFax.
The Command Line utility only
requires some very simple setup to be performed, which is
basically to provide it with the full (qualified) path to the
NetCFax server folder. When first run on any PC, it will
automatically ask you for this information. A browse button
is provided to let you navigate across your network easily to find
the location of the fax server. Because this system does not
use TCP to communicate, but rather normal Windows networking, the
only other thing that is required is to ensure that on the fax
server machine, the sub folder named \FAXCMD that can be
found in the Fax Server's main installation sub tree allows both read
and write access to all machines on the network that wish to use
the command line system, as this is of
course necessary to allow them send the fax data to the fax
server. (In fact, this just copies it across the network to the
\faxcmd folder on the server and then deletes it locally)
CREATING
VALID TIF FILES TO BE SENT WITH THE COMMAND LINE PROCESSOR
One of the problems many people
may encounter when wanting to use the Command line processor
system is in creating valid TIF files that are acceptable to
NetCFax, and that the fax server will be able to send out as a
fax. For those with a technical interest, this is simply
because a faxable TIF file must be in CCITT3 format and be a Class
F TIF image.
NB - You cannot attach any other
type of file at all, these must be black and white
TIF files in the format as described above. If you pass a
PDF or other image file, or even a TIF that is NOT A BLACK &
WHITE CCITT3 Class F file, the fax will NOT BE SENT.
So, to make creating such files about as trivial
as possible we also
provide what is called a "NetCFax Remote Fax Printer"
driver. This can be installed on any PC that runs an NT
based version of Windows (not W98 or ME), and you do not have to
install a NetCFax Server or Client on the same machine.
This printer driver is just like
any other Windows Printer, except you configure it with the folder
and basic (root) file name it is to use to save the faxable files
into. It creates a faxable file from any application that
prints to it, and saves it in the specified folder. The file names
all have a 4 digit number appended to them.
This allows you to create TIF
files that will definitely be compatible with the TIF format used
by NetCFax, without any prompts or need for NetCFax to be
installed on that machine. More information is available on
the Printing - Install printers sub menu of both the Fax
Server and the Fax Clients.
If you prefer, you can use any
other suitable image conversion program providing they can
generate the correct format of TIF file. One such program is
called Ghostscript, but there are many others.
For most people that want to use
the command line system, the control script is the most typical
way that FAXCMD is used, so we will show you the data that is
required in those script files
THE BASIC SYNTAX of the script is shown
below for those that like to know how it works. Each entry
shown MUST be on a separate line, and those that
have quotes around them MUST always have QUOTES around them.
"recipient fax #"
"recipient name"
"recipient Company"
"subject"
"sender's fax #"
"sender's name"
"sender's Company"
"Resolution required"
"COVER PAGE TO USE"
[/C cover page comments file name (ascii text file)]
[/T TIF fax file] or [/F ascii text file to be converted]
[/U NetCfax login name]
The first "quote enclosed" 8 lines
MUST be present, the rest can be omitted, but some or almost all
these may be empty strings - "". The only line
that MUST BE COMPLETED is the very first one, which is the fax #
it is to be sent to.
The "Cover page to
use", if that line is included, must be one of the following
:
"NONE"
"NORMAL"
"URGENT"
"CONFIDENTIAL"
"INFORMATION"
The final 3 lines (without the []
around them) allow you to :
1 - /C Lets you specify a file
that contains text to be rasterized on to the fax cover page. If
this is included, you must of course also specify the cover page
type to be used.
2 - /T is the path to a
faxable TIF file ready to be faxed, or /F is the path to an ASCII text file that
NetCFax will create faxable data pages from. (CANNOT BE in HTML
FORMAT)
3 - /U designates the NetCFax
login name that this fax will be assigned to as being the owner of
the fax. This can be omitted totally if you wish.
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NETCFAX -
Networked fax system