Many customers and third-party document management Independent Software Vendors (ISV's), particularly those in the document management arena, have requested the functionality to copy inbound fax files from the \facsys\queue folder to a network share archive folder. FACSys 4.91 introduces the ability to route inbound faxes to an 'archive' location either on a network share or on an ftp site.
This accomplishes the following:
| • | It reduces the number of files in the FACSys queue thereby facilitating peak performance. |
| • | It permits users with varying document management systems to hook into the network share and manage the images and associated metadata. |
| • | It facilitates third-party programmers to access the FACSys data without the possibility of corrupting the FACSys queue folder. |
| • | It allows a central repository for ALL inbound faxes coming into multiple FACSys servers to be gathered in one location for further processing. |
| • | It permits FACSys to optionally segregate inbound faxes into logical groups based upon inbound routing criteria (User Name/Alias in the case of a fax that is manually routed to a user or group or DID/DNIS/DTMF in the case of a fax that is automatically routed to a user or group). |
The Archiving function can be set to:
Global:
| • | all users, all faxes from one server archived to one location. |
| • | Real World Example: for Compliance purposes a firm may wish to archive ALL inbound faxes. By invoking this feature of FACSys all fax documents for all users on a server can be routed to one location for further processing by a third-party application. |
By Server:
| • | all users, all faxes from multiple FACSys servers archived to one OR multiple locations. |
| • | Real World Example: An organization has FACSys Servers in 5 different cities and wants to archive all the faxes into a third-party document management system and KNOW which faxes came from which system. By invoking this feature of FACSys one simply has to sort the files on the network share or FTP location based on the filename to see all the archived files by server since the server name is in the filename. |
By user definition that overrides the global location:
| • | Which permits |
| • | All faxes to multiple locations to be pre-sorted and grouped into an archive based on 'topical' DID numbers. |
| • | Real World Example: An insurance company has faxservers in three cities. Each FACSys server has a separate DID number for the following types of inbound faxes: |
| • | Auto |
| • | Commercial Property |
| • | Residential Property |
These inbound fax 'TYPES' are routed by DID to FACSys users:
| • | AutoClaims |
| • | CommercialClaims |
| • | ResidentialClaims |
The Routing target folders are named similarly so that the correct type of document appears in the correct target archive folder.
To invoke this functionality do the following:
From the FACSys Properties page click on the 'Inbound Archiving' tab.
Enabling archiving for either a Network Share or an FTP location
You must first click on the checkbox "Enable archiving of Inbound faxes on this Server" in order to do ANY type of archive routing.
If you leave this option unchecked, then the USER specific routing options will not be selectable (they will be grayed out).
We will show the FTP location method first.
| • | The FTP target folder must pre-exist. |
| • | The Account login and password can only be entered if it is an FTP transfer type. |
| • | The fields Account and Password are not active for a Network Share Archive process. |
| • | You can enable archive for ALL users (not done in the sample below), or one user and different users to different shares or FTP locations (managed from the User Profile). |
Or for just specified users, as shown below. The location of the FTP or the Network Share can be global (Set on the Server properties page) or different for each user.
| • | If the option for Metadata is on, then upon receiving a fax four files are created in the x:\facsys\FxArchive folder: |
| • | The zero byte control file is for programmers to use to monitor the folder. |
| • | The dat file contains the metadata. |
| • | The info file is used by FACSys as a temporary internal control file. |
| • | The TIF file is the image. |
| • | Every 20 seconds the files in this folder are transferred to the ftp site or the Network Share |
| • | There will be three resulting files on the target FTP site. |
| • | PMEVO; 20041005113024; 6.dat |
| • | PMEVO; 20041005113024; 6.dat |
| • | PMEVO; 20041005113024; 6.dat |
| • | Notice the 'info' file is not there as it was a temporary control file for FACSys to use. |
File Naming Convention = Transaction ID
| • | The Transaction ID for a fax can be displayed in the FACSys Desktop Client by choosing View, Columns and adding Transaction ID to the FACSys Desktop Client display. |
| • | The purpose of a Transaction ID is to provide a UNIQUE identifier for every fax. |
Section one of the file name:
| • | PMEVO = the name of the FACSys server from which the file originated. |
| • | There is an optional registry key available, ServerID, that can be used for a 'short' name to identify, for example 1 of 10 or more inbound servers. In the Desktop screenshot above, ServerID was set to PM1 to demonstrate the effect. |
ServerID Key
| • | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FaxServer\System |
| • | The ServerID string shown below would replace PMEVO in the filename with PM1 |
Section two of the file name:
| • | The second section of the FileName/Transaction ID is the date-time stamp of the inbound fax and labeled as 'Start' in the DAT file. |
The DAT File contains the following content.
start=10/05/2004 11:30:24
source=fax
originalpagecount=1
RemoteId=Peter Mittler
RoutingInfo=Peter
Section three of the file name:
| • | This is the Message ID from the FACSys queue and matches the files from the FACSys queue folder: |
Archive inbound faxes to a Network Share
| • | A Network Share target requires a connection over a LAN or WAN (such as VPN connection). The FACSys Server Service needs to be able to login to the Network Share and write files. With this in place you do not need to specify a separate login Account or Password as you would for an FTP transfer, but the connection must be live and valid none-the-less. |
The transfer to the FxArchive Folder occurred so fast it could not be captured in a screen shot.
The files now on the Network Share:
Result:
FACSys can now be used to pre sort inbound faxes into folders with logical groupings on an FTP Site or a Network Share, ready for further processing by a third-party application.
