Re: fax solution

On Thu, Mar 28, 2002 at 12:33:05PM -0700, James Rich wrote:

> I thought of this:
> 1.  Start lp5250d outputting to postscript (or text or pdf since hylafax
> will automatically convert those to postscript).
> 2.  Use a hylafax client to send the generated file.

I made a similiar solution, but with lpr (lprng in this case) and
mgetty+sendfax. I do not use scs2ps or scs2pdf yet, because the old
versions had a number of bugs and I didn't have the time to update
the fax setup with your great new scs2pdf.

BTW: I just started working on scs2ps to make it work like scs2pdf.

> The only problem with this is that it is two steps.  The way it works with
> Fax Support only takes one step (except sometimes it never works so it
> takes lots of steps).  I would like to be able to set up an out queue that
> will automatically fax things sent to it.

I made a AS/400 program with a screen similiar to that of WRKSPLF
command. The user can select a spooled file with options 5=View and
3=Mail/Fax. With Option 3 the user is asked for an E-Mail address or a
fax number. He can even select numbers from a little address book
application.

The spooled file is then copied to a temporary physical file with
CTLCHAR(*FCFC). The program then calls a command "sndsplfax" or
"sndsplmail" on my Linux box via RUNRMTCMD with the fax number or
destination mail-address as command line argument.

These programs get data from the temp file with ftp, process the *FCFC
control codes to make correct line and page breaks. Then it uses
enscript to convert text to postscript and include our company logo. The
result is queued for fax output with faxspool from package
mgetty+sendfax or converted to PDF with ps2pdf and mailed as attachment
with mutt.

Sounds complicated? Yes, it took quiet a lot of time to put all peaces
together. The code is not packaged nicely, and there is no
documentation (use the source, luke ;-)). I can mail all the RPG, CL, C,
shell and even Tcl sources to You. If other people are interested too, I
can also make it available on our web server.

> I could set up a cron job that could check a directory for files and
> automatically fax whatever file it finds.  But then how do I know what
> phone number to send it to, or who is sending it so that hylafax can send
> email letting the sender know of the status?

AS/400 command SNDTCPSPLF can include some additional, user definable,
parameters in the lpr control file. A print filter can retrieve this
information. The user id is even transferred by default. I used this in
an older version of my fax setup.

In addition to feedback via mail, I put an excerpt of the log
file of mgetty+sendfax to a physical file of the AS/400 via ftp and cron
job. So even people with only plain old terminals and without E-Mail
software can see the status of there fax requests.

--
Esda Feinstrumpffabrik GmbH
Frank Richter, Leiter EDV
Hauptstr. 76, D-09392 Auerbach
E-Mail: frichter@esda.com