We are planning to implement a jBase system and require the ability to
generate faxes. Ideally the faxes should have line drawing, so that we can
lay out a page in a suitable manner.

Can anyone suggest a Windows package that could do this. We're UK based. I
most definitely don't want to employ any service providers, such as e-mail
to fax gateways.

Just a plain simple solution that will perhaps poll a directory and pick up
any ASCII file that our Pick application has deposited there.

Any ideas and rough costs would be really appreciated.

Thanks.

Visage.Faxer will do just this, in pretty much the way you have
outlined. You also need to write a small XML document so we know where
to send it, and you can enhance the plain ascii by writing information
out as HTML, making it a snap to add graphics, line drawings etc,
provided you have a basic understanding of HTML (if you are REALLY
keen, will also work with formats like RTF, but I'd avoid that if you
can)

The Visage.Faxer runs on a service on either a Windows XP or Windows
2003 server machine, and it will also provide inbound fax capabilities
as well (delivered to printer or re-direct to your internal mail server
- no external services providers necessary), and you have a log (and
copies) of all fax traffic in & out

Pricing is just USD$249 (around 142.50 GBP) - works with any fax modem
supported by windows. If you would like more details, please email
sales (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au

[FYI, if you need in/outbound email we also have Visage.Emailer -
and/or you can download a trial version of our opriginal MailLynx
program by following the links on www.stamina.com.au if you need to run
off Win 2000 or even old NT machines]

HTH

Ross Ferris
Stamina Software
Visage > Better by Design

On Thu, 2 Mar 2006, Steve wrote:

We offer the Print Wizard family of products, which, in addition to
printing, can serve as an interface to either WinFax Pro or the "fax32"
engine included in Windows 2000 and XP. Cost is as little as $99.

You can feed Print Wizard three kinds of documents:

1. Plain text, which it will analyze to determine number of rows and
columns, and then auto-fit it to the page.

2. PCL-5, which it will translate.

3. PWML, our HTML-like Print Wizard Markup Language.

It is also possible to combine form overlays with the incoming print data.

More details at the website below.

Regards,
.....Bob Rasmussen, President, Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras (AT) anzio (DOT) com
company e-mail: rsi (AT) anzio (DOT) com
voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
fax: (US) 503-624-0760
web: http://www.anzio.com

Steve,

The more I use Active Fax ( www.actfax.com ) the more impressed I am. We
currently use it for faxing (both directions), email (send only), and as a
printer server. D3, jBase, or whatever you are using thinks Active Fax is a
printer. You simply 'print' your document to Active Fax with some command
strings in the header. It supports document overlays as well. When you email
a document, the document is automatically turned into a PDF attachment. It
doesn't get much easier or cheaper than that.

Can't print to that GDI dumb printer? Load the drivers into Active Fax, set
up a share name, then send your print job to Active Fax with a re-route
command to the share name. It supports all PCL5 and PCL6 command sets.

The Active Fax server software can run on a stand alone server, on your
Windows database server (not Linux), or even on one of your workstations (I
recommend XP pro). There is also client software that allows you to monitor
and maintain the server remotely.

Their supports staff is very accommodating as well.

The only negative I can think of is the overlay designer is not WYSIWYG, so
you have to play around with it a bit until everything lines up right.

My humble 2 cents.


"Steve" <hj2khrk2hrjk32 (AT) njskfhhf943f93 (DOT) com> wrote

I agree. I have been using ActFax for over 5 years. Its a great
product and does everything you will need. Very easy to use and
configure.

Rick Weiser
DesignBais International

Thanks for this Jeffrey

It looks ok, other than the fact that it needs a printer. I was hoping to
simply drop a text file onto a shared directory, but I don't suppose it's
too much of a problem to print to something.

Out of interest, how do you specify the recipient's fax number in a document
that you're printing?

Hi Steve,

yes.. you can do that in Active fax as well. i.e. drop the document in
a share directory, Activefax will pick up the job for you.

you only need to put in the @F commands in the document, everything
will go in the background mode..

Activefax support is great and the cost is very reasonable as well.

Rgds,

Un unusual aside to this might be to use an email to fax service...

This allows you to fax by emailing an attachment to a specific email
address - this might be a txt file or something more complex.

You can write the txt file out easily enough in jBASE and then use a third
party email product such as "blat" to do the job.

I use a service supplied by pumafax - www.pumafax.co.uk . It works really
well. The email body has tags for {to=name} etc.

Might be worth a look.

Regards
Simon
"Steve" <hj2khrk2hrjk32 (AT) njskfhhf943f93 (DOT) com> wrote

For line drawing, you could probably use html...

Regards
Simon

"Simon Verona" <nomail (AT) nomail (DOT) zzz> wrote

When using Actfax as a printer server, you would not use any of the other
Actfax command stings. Just:

@F503 sharename,D,H@

D=delete job from print queue
H=suppress fax header information

Perhaps the sharename can be a file or a printer directed to a file? Never
tried that.

"Steve" <hj2khrk2hrjk32 (AT) njskfhhf943f93 (DOT) com> wrote