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Interaction Designer Help
Introduction to Fax Tools
The Fax tools are for building handlers that send and receive faxes automatically. (The Interaction Fax viewer is for sending faxes manually.) The documents you fax can be in either Interaction Fax format (.I3F files) or one of the Supported Bitmap File Formats. If you have a collection of documents that have been converted into a collection of Interaction Fax format documents, you can build a handler that creates faxes containing a specific collection of those documents. The following steps describe of how the fax tools should be used as the basis for building fax-back functionality via handlers.
Typically, the fax tools are used in the following order within a handler, as illustrated by this diagram, entitled The order in which Fax tools should be used. Use this multi-step process as guide when creating fax functionality within a handler.
Step One: Create the Fax Page List
A fax page list defines what will be faxed. The first step in any handler that sends a fax is the Create Fax Page list tool. This tool specifies the Interaction Fax file or bitmap, and the pages within that file, to send.
Step Two: Append Pages to the Fax Page List (optional)
An optional second step, use one or more Append Pages steps to add more pages to the fax. Append Pages lets you create a fax from more than one file. This is useful if you want users to be able to request multiple documents in a single phone call.
Step Three: Create the Fax Object
Once you have compiled the fax page list, use a Create Fax tool to convert the list to a fax object that can processed by Fax Services.
Step Four: Create an Envelope, Print the Fax, or Email the Fax
Once you have a fax object, you either create a fax envelope, print the fax, or email the fax. Creating a fax envelope is simply specifying information about how the fax should be sent, such as the recipient's phone number, information that should go on the cover page, the time to send the fax, and an email address to notify if the fax is sent or if the fax send fails. Fax envelopes are created using the Create Envelope tool. You can also print the fax to a local or network printer using the Print Fax tool. Finally, if you want to send the fax as an attachment to an email, you can use the Send Fax Mail tool. You don't need to create an envelope if you are printing or emailing the fax object.
Step Five: Queue the Fax for Sending
If you want to send the fax via Fax Services, and you have created the fax envelope described in step four, you can queue the fax for sending with the Queue Fax For Send tool. This tells Fax Services to send the fax using the information specified in the fax envelope. Once a fax has been sent, Fax Services generates an Export Fax File event. This event starts the Fax Send Completed initiator.
Fax tools:
Convert PRN to I3F (The Convert PRN to I3F tool was deprecated in CIC 4.0)