Printer Question

[zxcdf5je]

Hi all ,
I wanted to see if this is possible in ASP.
I am developing an application where the agent selects a person from the list and hits submit and the fax is sent through our fax servers here.
I was thinking if i could set the printer fax as default and when all the faxing is done,set the default printer back to original name.
Is this possible in ASP?

Also any ideas other than this about how i can send a fax through my ASP page ?

 

[damber]

a) you could write a component / DLL to do that for you and call it from ASP
b) you could try some command line shenanigans to fiddle with the fax printer
c) you could buy some proper Fax Mgmt software that has an API you can connect to
d) you could email to a service provide who would convert to fax for you.

(c) and (d) may not be an option because of cost - but would probably be the most effective method.

(a) and (b) require interaction outside of ASP, here's an article on the command line options for printer config/settings etc... you may also be able to call the DLL directly from ASP and work with it there (preferred).

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/index.html

Personally I would recommend that you disconnect the Fax sending process from your webpage load, and simply output your files to a 'queue' that is periodically read (or event driven via OS event triggers) by an external component (written by you).. this will decouple the processes and mean the user doesn't have to wait for the page to finish sending the fax before they get a response. It will also likely help your server performance wise, and de-risk the process. Handling command line and some DLLs from a scripting language can get you into hot water when many users start to use the system etc.



A smile is worth a thousand kind words. So smile, it's easy!

 

[zxcdf5je]

Thanks a lot for wonderfully putting forth all the points.We have a Winfaxpro software which works as a fax server.I was trying to send the fax through the fax server in this way:
<%
Dim MyFax, MyDocuments, MyFile
Set MyFax = Server.CreateObject("FaxServer.Faxserver.1")
MyFax.Connect("Cheryl")

MyFile = Server.MapPath("i.txt")
Set MyDocuments = MyFax.CreateDocument(MyFile)
MyDocuments.FaxNumber = "13307218793"
MyDocuments.Send
MyFax.DisConnect
Set MyDocuments = Nothing
Set MyFax = Nothing
Response.write "Fax is successfully sent!"

%>

But it is giving me error on MyDocuments.Send line.
Please advise if this is the right way of doing it and if you know why i would get this error,that wil be great!
Error Type:
(0x8007000D