RE: flexfax: Design for a portable Java hylafax clients: i want your opinions, please!

["Bernd Proissl" <news@proissl.de>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ulrich.Eckhardt@transcom.de [mailto:Ulrich.Eckhardt@transcom.de]
> Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 2:54 PM
> To: news@proissl.de
> Cc: flexfax@sgi.com
> Subject: Re: flexfax: Design for a portable Java hylafax clients: i want
> your opinions, please!
>
>
> Bernd Proissl wrote:
> >
> > Hello to all hylafax users.
> >
> > I am currently developing a java hylfax client, there are some topics i
> > am thinking about, maybe you can give me your opinions:
> >
> > 1. is java 2 widely availabe on your (client) platforms?
> >    or is it supposed to become availbe in the near future?
>
> Hi,
>
> i think if it's worth then everyone will install java 2
if nobody has created a java 2 VM then you will not be able to install it
:-(


> > 2. What is your prefered procedure for sending a fax?
> >
> >    a1. redmon: capture the printout of an application on the client side
> >        and let the hylafax client process it: e.g. ask user for fax.nr.
> >        and the hand it to the hylafax server directly.
>
> you should handle this so, that it runs on every platform. So
> redmon will work only on Windows.
yes.
of course there must be a redmon replacement on other platforms.
> Probably create a java
> application which reads files from the commandline and create
> OS-specific wrapper scripts.
yes.
i think about a sendfax.java with or without GUI


> >        advantage: faster than a2
> >        disadvantage: - firewall must be opened for ports use by hfaxd
> >                      - if you want access for remote users you must open
> > hfaxd ports
> >                        to the public.
>
> It's not that bad, if you don't forget to implement passive connections.
> HylaFAX supports it (and WHFC somewhere in the future).
currently i am not sure how to do this in java.
can you give me a pointer on how to configure it in hylafax?

currently i have problems accessing hfaxd over subnets (see your FAQ!)
AFAIK the rounting on the server is not setup correctly to handle this.
did not have time to dig into this.

what are the advantages of active ftp  (is it called active?, is it
necessary for
masquerading?)

>
> > Currently it is usual that a client transfers a PS file to the
> server for
> > sending.
> > Receiving faxes are stored in TIFF.
> > -> viewers for 2 different formats are needed on the client.
> >
> > Does anybody know a free printer driver which can produce TIFF
> files from
> > the printout
> > of an application?
>
> Probably here we should do it on the HylaFAX side, so that HylaFAX
> stores all as tiff. This would help on other Clients like WHFC too.
yes, good idea.
but i do not know how and if this can be done!
Dmitry, please, can you give me a hint?
I am pretty shure you know this :-)))

> > Can hylafax convert an arbitrary TIFF file to a TIFF file
> suitable for fax
> > transmission?
>
> According to the tiffcp man page yes (see tiffcp -c)
>
> Also have a look on the phonebook. Probably a phonebook
> which can be extended by plugins, so that it will later
> be possible to use JDBC, LDAP and some sort of text
> phonebooks.
yes, true.
i think exactly about this, java supports dynamic class loading
(seee JDBC Manager, JNDI, ...)
also XML as a text file phonebook looks very interesting.


> You should also think about localization, so that it's
> easy possible to translate your programm in a lot of
> languages.
that's in mind but not in code yet. :-(


> Regards
> Uli
> --
> Ulrich Eckhardt                         Tr@nscom
> http://www.uli-eckhardt.de              http://www.transcom.de
>                                         Lagerstraße 11-15 A8
>                                         64807 Dieburg Germany
Thanks!


Bernd