Technical information

INTEGRATION FUNDAMENTALS
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If you will be including tag or batch files in the body of your email message, see Using vfx Tags
.
Print-to-fax
Print-to-fax is versatile way to either deliver a fax envelope to the fax server or prepare a fax envelope so that it can
be delivered by another means. While this integration technique is hard to fully automate, it can be used to fax-enable
virtually any application with printing capabilities.
Advantages
Can be used to fax-enable virtually any application on any platform as long as it can print to file.
If one of the VSI-FAX print drivers is used, users will be prompted to enter send information (e.g., fax number,
recipient name) and the fax envelope will be delivered to the fax server.
You can direct your application's output to any PostScript, PCL or ASCII print driver - you are not restricted to using
one of the VSI-FAX print drivers.
Disadvantages
Difficult to fully automate.
If you do not use one of the VSI-FAX print drivers, you must get the PostScript, PCL or ASCII file to the fax server -
you do not have an integrated delivery mechanism. In most cases, you will need to pass these files to the fax server
using vfx commands (See The vfx command line
).
Ways to create fax envelopes
Tags If you do not specify send information via embedded commands, you must do so when you deliver the
output file to the fax server. In these cases, you must at least supply a fax number using the fnm tag.
Template
files
You can also use template files in place of tag files or embedded commands to create the fax envelope.
This is especially useful for group faxing.
See also
Using vfx Tags
Print-to-fax
xmlf commands
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is emerging as the preferred technique for sharing data among applications. This
is especially true for applications that collect and transport data via the Internet.
Advantages
Any XML-aware application can be configured to send and receive XML documents.
XML is inherently platform and transport independent. This is especially useful for integrating existing business
applications running on platforms not supported by VSI-FAX (e.g., VMS).
Disadvantages
Fax envelopes must be created using the XML-F Fax Submit documents.
If your application cannot issue external commands, you must provide scripting to issue xmlf commands or place
the send document in the autosend directory See autosend directory
.
Ways to create fax envelopes
XML-F documents are the only way to create fax envelopes for use with the xmlf delivery mechanism. The
application sends a fax by writing an XML Fax Submit documents and passing it to the fax server via the xmlf
command See The xmlf command
.