Technical information

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Using XML-F

Note

With VSI-FAX 5.0, API development has moved to C/C++. This change will not affect your current SDK

development. Java, Visual Basic, XML-F, C and C++ continue to be supported in version 5.1 and on.

The C/C++ Client API Reference in c_api.pdf in the \docs folder of the VSI-FAX CD-ROM.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) comprises various Data Type Definitions (DTDs). Each DTD is a set of tags for

describing a particular collection of data. In XML, one DTD is created for each collection of data that requires

description. For example, to create an XML language for Accounts Payable, one DTD would be required to describe

the venders, one to describe the purchase orders, and another to describe invoices, etc.

A collection of data is generally accompanied by its DTD whenever it is stored or transferred from one place to

another, creating "documents that know themselves." The inclusion of the DTD means that the content or meaning of

the data is embedded in the document in a way that is human-legible and easily interpreted by any XML enabled

software.

Esker has gone one step further and has proposed a set of DTDs for network fax transactions called XML-F. This

interface is a simple, powerful way to pass fax transactions to and from fax servers. It is based on four simple

structures that allow any conforming application to:

Send a fax

Get the status of a sent fax

Cancel a fax

Get fax resources

XML-F uses eight XML document types to implement these four features: four requests and four responses. Each

feature has a corresponding request and response document.

For clarity, the examples in the remainder of this section uses simplified XML-F document types.