Re: Communicating with COM objects from iSeries via Java?

On 12/13/05, JK <johnking@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks for the replies.
>
> Tom: we hope to bid a new customer and the quantity of faxes is unknown
> right now, although I expect it could be as many as several hundred (US
> domestic) per week - lots of Mom-and-Pop stores. They have locations in
> Canada and Mexico but we're not sure whether we'll bid on those or not. We
> will undoubtedly go with an email-to-fax service for startup because it will
> work with no changes to our existing distribution system. I need to research
> costs, how accurately these services render .pdf and .xls attachments, how
> the increased load will affect the existing WinFax, etc. etc. Thanks for the
> suggestion for FastFax - I'll look into that one.

Test with the service you choose, but you can be certain that as long
as your excel or PDF files aren't outrageously complex they will
render properly, although pagination should be checked.  Be aware that
frequently the printing will end up shrinking the page by 10% or so to
insure that it all fits on the recipient.  Don't use weird fonts,
small print, or fine graphics.  This is true of any fax solution.

We are happy with FastFax, particularly for this type of application. 
I like the "appliance" nature of the device, it is essentially plug
and play.  We bought outbound only initially, and upgraded later to
include inbound.

I think Quadrant monitors the list, so you have probably already heard
from them.  If not, contact me privately and I will pass along the
contact person I have.

> James: I recall reading your posts while you were developing the Hylafax
> solution - glad it worked so well for you - it was what triggered me to
> think of the WinFax possibility in the first place. Our shop hasn't ventured
> into linux-land yet and it may be a hard sell to get approval.

This might be a good "skunk works" project because of the cost, which
is essentially zero.    All you really need is an PC, which doesn't
have to be new, a fax modem and a phone line.

> The Hylafax
> link below specifically mentions an AS/400 client - was that your project?
> Question: how did you handle the fax log, i.e.: confirming fax receipts? Our
> management is obsessive about receipt confirmations...
> http://www.hylafax.org/howto/faxing.html#ss5.7

Confirmations may be more of an issue with the service.  With any
solution, good administrative practice is to have someone check a
couple of times a day to resolve errors, particularly if timeliness is
an issue.  You may be able to sell this as sufficient.

Confirmations will come back via email for virtually all of the
solutions; you will want to do something with them.  If you are
ambitious, you can setup a program to monitor the email box, parse the
messages, and do something with them.  This has been discussed here
before (Scott K?) and I don't recall it being all that difficult.

Good luck.

--
Tom Jedrzejewicz
tomjedrz@xxxxxxxxx