OSMOSiS eFax
OSMOSiS eFax is a Windows application that is totally independent of any MultiValue platform - or any other platform for that matter! It is used to send data output from any application as an email, fax or SMS. eFax is constantly monitoring a user-specified “inbox” directory for documents to send. The time between monitoring cycles can be adjusted. This can enable fax and email consolidation to be incorporated. This could have a significant cost saving implication for some businesses.
How does eFax work?
The data to be sent is
stored in a pure ASCII text file e.g.
100001.txt, so any application can be designed
or modified to send data via eFax. Within the directory, each
document must have a corresponding property
file, for example a document name ‘100001.txt’,
must have properties in a file ‘100001_prop’. The properties file
contains the information required to direct the
document to the following devices; email, fax or
SMS. This ASCII file has to be a specific
format. Once the document has been
received into the eFax system, a history of
items is available for viewing. The status of
all methods includes; Sending, Sent and Failed
items. OSMOSiS eFax consolidates
items of the same “address” into one
transmission. If a document fails to send
it can be re-sent a number of times. The number
of retries is user-defined.
The sent documents are also
filed in a “Recipient” outbox. Each recipient
is given their own box making it easy to view
their sent documents without having to go
through the whole “sent box”. The document is
only stored once so there is a reference in the
sent box and the same reference in the
recipient’s box.
Templates
Templates in OSMOSiS eFax are used to send a
complete document with logos and any other
graphics. If, for example, it is required to
send an invoice via this method, the user would
scan in a blank invoice template which is then
allocated to a specific output by defining its
stored path in the properties file of any
invoice document. This will “overprint” the text
onto the scanned “picture” document and send the
resulting image.
There are routines to help with alignment, sizing, rotation etc. between the template and “test” document.
Reporting
Reporting facilities include, daily, weekly,
monthly and annual reports which show sent,
failed and the number of retries amongst other
data.