flexfax: Hylafax Improvements?

["Adam Flinton" <adam@softfab.com>]

Dear All,

I have set up & am running Hylafax together with both the windows & java
clients.

Some thoughts / RFI's (requests for improvements).

If anyone knows how to do any of the below already then please let me know.

Background:

I reckon that PMFAX from keller group (www.kellergroup.com) is the best fax
program going as it is simple in that while it does voice / fax & internat
mail faxing it does so simply i.e:

Fax'es saved as tiff's, voice messages as .wav's & Inetnet faxing via a
simple set of user exits.

i.e it keeps everything simple. To whit the log is a std ascii CSV.

We have been examining Hylafax as a client wishes to steadily move towards
Linux (already moving from DB2 on NT to Db2 on Linux) from NT due to the
cost of CAL's & the fact that Linux is solid enough for him.

Mail is obviously sorted as is http & as is DB however faxing is a big thing
with that comp.

RFI'es:

1) A simple log (ascii file) as with PMFAX showing BOTH received & sent
faxes &:

ID, Date, Time, Pages, Status, Time Elapsed, To / From (using std fax header
/ machine ID info from remote machine),user, the coverpage fields (e.g. the
text & other info put into the cover page) & possibly a notes field.

1 LOG for sent, received & pending (client s/w can scan for keywords to give
a sent, received & pending views).

2) The sent faxes must also be saved & accessible (for archiving / reuse
reasons).

3) Better "all in one" set up for voice messaging.Voice messages stored as
wav'es for use with as many possible clients as possible.

4) Some system for mailboxes (i.e a extension number / recording of user who
sent fax).

5) Some sort of admin gui (e.g. for running faxaddmodem etc).

6) Possibly some sort of SQL link for storing faxes etc in an SQL db.

7) The ability to simply print to hylafax such that doc images could be
stored (log status = "printed") such that I could open the tiff file later
with an editor & make changes (preferably leading to a new file (log
status='edit') or having a read only status such that in order to save I
would have to print again).

It strikes me that the vast bulk of the above could be done via Perl
scripts.

So the simple matters first:

Intercepting:

What happens when I print to Hylafax? ie is there anyway to capture at the
server (e.g. via the faxsend) the relevant info (inc the tiff file) & to put
it into a log & Dir? If need be the received faxes can be in one dir & the
sent in another as long as there is a link available (like whfc's SAMBA
link) to each. Equally when a fax is received can info be captured at that
moment (e.g. the sending machine's ID).

It strikes me that this log file could then easily be used via a CGI script
to deliver the client w/o the sending part (i.e the file ref becomes a URL)
thus allowing for user logon based viewing / mailboxes (inc over the web).

Is there any facility for simply printing to hylafax w/o any to: info so as
to get a "printed" item?

i.e I reckon that Hylafax needs some sort of central control & logging
module such that settings such as the voice part, dir's for sent, received &
spooled faxes can be put into one place.

Any comments gladly received.


Adam