Fax
VoiceGuide v7 can send and receive faxes. All current Dialogic cards support fax send and receive functionality.
Sending Fax
A Play module can be used to send a fax. Just specify a PDF or TIFF or JPEG file as the file to be "played" by a Play module. The Play module will begin fax transmission immediately if a .tif/.tiff/.pdf/.jpg source file is specified.
Once fax sending is complete the success path will be taken and the script can continue. Please note that the remote end will usually hangup after receiving the fax, so any post fax sending updates etc. should be performed in the "After Hangup" script.
Its simplest if TIFF files are used for the outgoing fax. The TIFF file must be in "Fax Group 3" format and have a horizontal resolution of 1728 pixels across the page. Vertical pixel count will depends on length of fax page, but a standard page is 2200 pixels long. The DPI resolution of the TIFF file should be 200. Some sample TIFF files are provided in the directories of the sample VoiceGuide scripts that perform fax sending.
Any PDF file can be used as input as well. If faxing PDF files you must aggregate Ghostscript with VoiceGuide by placing Ghostscript's gswin32c.exe and gsdll32.dll file into VoiceGuide's \gs\ subdirectory. Ghostscript can be downloaded from http://www.ghostscript.com
Receiving Fax
A Record module can be used to receive a fax. To make the Record module receive a fax just specify the filename to end in .pdf suffix or end in .tif suffix. The Record module will begin fax reception immediately if a .pdf target file or a .tif target file is specified.
The received fax is automatically saved both in in the PDF and in the TIFF file formats.
After receiving the fax VoiceGuide will create a PDF version of the received fax, and will also perform OCR on the fax and scan the fax for any barcodes. The OCR text and text from decoded barcodes is then stored as Result Variables. During OCR VoiceGuide will also try to identify the "To:" and "From:" fields and make the text that follows them available through Result Variables as well. VoiceGuide will also save the fax header line as a separate Result Variable.
The following Result Variables are created when a fax is received:
| $RV[ModuleTitle_fax] | Filename of the sent or received fax. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_fax_pdf] | Filename of the PDF file create after TIF->PDF conversion. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_fax_tif] | Filename of the TIF file used as a source for PDF conversion. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_ocr] | Full OCR of the received fax. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_ocr_header] | Fax Header line which usually contains the Date/Time, CSID (Call Subscriber ID), fax number, and page number. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_ocr_to_1] | First word after the "To:" |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_ocr_to_2] | First two words after the "To:" |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_ocr_from_1] | First word after the "From:" |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_ocr_from_2] | First two words after the "From:" |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_barcode_1] | Contents of the first barcode encountered on the fax page. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_barcode_2] | Contents of the second barcode encountered on the fax page. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_barcode_count] | Number of barcodes found on the fax. |
| $RV[ModuleTitle_barcode_all] | Contents of all the barcodes encountered on the fax page, delimited by "|". |
To have VoiceGuide save the PDF filed in 'searchable PDF' format please contact sales@voiceguide.com
To install the barcode recognition add-on please contact sales@voiceguide.com
Fax Routing
The OCR and barcode decoding allow advanced automated fax routing to be done, automatically forwarding the received document by:
- Printing to selected printer
- Ftp
- Re-faxing to another number (optionally with additional pages added to original fax)
- any other processing called from command line or VBScript
Note that as the call is usually ended immediately after the fax is received, the fax routing should be done from the "After Hangup" script. The "After Hangup" script can look at the OCR $RVs as well as the $RVs containing the CallerID or the DNIS (number dialed by caller) and decide how to forward the fax, and then perform the email or printing or loading of a new outbound call etc. This allows fax routing to be done based on any combination of:
- CallerID
- DNIS
- CSID (Call Subscriber ID) of the machine sending the fax
- To: or From: fields in the received fax
- Any other text in the received fax
- Barcodes in the received fax
- Time/Day etc
