Table of Contents
i-fax.com Architecture
The i-fax.com Plug-In is split into two parts:
-
The Barcode Generator
The Barcode Generator takes any value generated by your application that you want to use to uniquely identify a document (such as a transaction key or a record number) and generates a barcode that can be inserted into a web page or document generated by your application.
i-fax.com also provides utilities for merging barcodes with existing PDF documents and for creating sheets of barcoded laser address labels for barcoding existing paper documents. Please visit http://www.i-fax.com/plugin.html for a full list of our plug-ins.
-
Your Website
When an end user sends a barcoded document to the i-fax.com server (by fax or scanner), the barcode is interpreted by i-fax.com's server. The i-fax.com server renames the document with the encoded identifier found in the barcode and sends the document to you by FTP file transfer or as an email.
Visual Basic GIF Version of the i-fax.com Plug-In
Description of the Visual Basic GIF Version of the i-fax.com Plug-In
The i-fax.com Visual Basic plug-in contains "com.Ifax.Barcode.Gif64.dll" which creates i-fax.com barcodes as a gif images, allowing you to quickly and simply add the i-fax.com barcode to your web documents. The i-fax.com class encodes numbers as big as 64 bits in length (not greater than 18,446,744,073,709,551,615) and is compatible with the HTML and PDF versions of the i-fax.com Plug-In.
Installing the Visual Basic GIF Version of the i-fax.com Plug-In onto your Website
-
Place the com.Ifax.Barcode.Gif64.dll file in a location where your application can find it, normally the same directory your application resides in. For an Visual Basic application, this would be the bin directory of the application. Make sure that the dll file has the correct ownership and permissions to be accessible by your application.
- Put the example files
ifaxgif64wrapper.vb and ifaxgif64example.vb in a testing directory of your web server.
Choosing a Value to Encode
Prior to creating a Barcode, your application must create a unique identifier and encode it for inclusion in the Barcode. A unique identifier can be any number that your application will find meaningful; a transaction ID, a sequence number, an account number, or a form number.
When an end user returns a document encoded with an i-fax.com Barcode, you will use this unique identifier number to link the document image to the data on your website or in your database.
You do not need to encode large amounts of data in the i-fax.com Barcode. You can use a record identifier that will link the Barcoded document or HTML page to data that was captured while a user was on-line.
|
Warning:
This unique identifier value is leaving your site and your control.
It is important that you use the least amount of information necessary. For example, it is not recommended that you use a person's account number when you can use a transaction identifier for a specific transaction.
|
Using com.Ifax.Barcode.Gif64.dll
The i-fax.com barcode is available for many platforms and formats. In the GIF version, your encoded unique identifier is converted into a gif image of an i-fax.com Barcode that can be inserted into any web page. Since the Barcode will be in gif format, the end user's Browser will not require a Browser Side Plug-In to view and print Barcoded documents.
For information on using i-fax.com barcodes with other document formats (Microsoft Word, Adobe PDF, HTML, GIF, SVG and BMP), please visit http://www.i-fax.com/plugin.html.
com.Ifax.Barcode.Gif64.dll contains a method called getGif that takes two parameters, a Stream output and an unsigned long ID.
The Stream output is a Stream to which the merged PDF file is copied -- use a FileStream if you want to merge the pdf to a new file, the Console.Out stream if you want to send it to the console, or to the Response.OutputStream of an Visual Basic page. - The unsigned long ID, the value of a number up to 64 bits in length (between 0 and 18,446,744,073,709,551,615).
void getGif (Stream output, ulong id)
Placing the GIF Barcode
The gif image produced by getGif should be inserted in your web page carefully.
Placement of the GIF Barcode must follow these rules:
- The GIF Barcode must be at the top of the page, with a margin of empty space on three sides (approximately ¾ inch above, right and left).
- The GIF Barcode should appear right after the <body> tag if possible.
- There should not be any graphics, such as logos etc., above the GIF Barcode.
- Avoid using techniques like Dynamic HTML or Layers in the page with the barcode. Due to browser incompatibilities, these techniques can cause part of the barcode to print on another part of the page.
- Avoid using absolute measurements (in pixels) for setting the width of tables on the barcoded page, use percentage of page widths instead. This will make the printed output more uniform across your end user's various browsers and screen resolutions.
Warning
Failure to place the GIF Barcode in the correct area of a web page may cause the Barcode to be rejected by i-fax.com's Server. |
Your Website
When an end user sends a barcoded document to the i-fax.com server (by fax or scanner), the barcode is interpreted by i-fax.com's server. The i-fax.com server renames the document with the encoded identifier found in the barcode and sends the document to your website by FTP file transfer or as an email.
File Types
i-fax.com will deliver files to your server by FTP or Email. Every file sent from the i-fax.com server will follow this naming convention:
|
i-fax.com File Naming Convention
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa_bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb_999.TTT
|
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa |
The unique identifier found in the i-fax.com Barcode (created by the i-fax.com barcode generator by your application).
|
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb |
A transaction key assigned by i-fax.com.
|
999 |
The page number (000 is reserved for the thumbnail) for JPEG files only.
|
TTT |
The file extension of different output formats, e.g. pdf, tif, jpg, udt.
|
| Unique Identifier |
The unique identifier is the value that your application assigned at the time the i-fax.com Barcode was created using the i-fax.com barcode generator.
|
| Transaction Key |
i-fax.com assigns a unique transaction key to every transaction that is processed by a server. This transaction key ensures that each file that your web server receives is unique and is not overwritten in the event that a user sends the same document twice.
|
| Page Number |
The JPEG standard does not support multi-page documents. As a result, i-fax.com will deliver a separate JPEG file for each page in the document. These files will be numbered from 001 ... 999. Please note that number 000 is reserved for a JPEG thumbnail page that is explained below.
|
File Formats
The following file types are produced by the i-fax.com server:
-
The first page of the document is provided in a miniature version in JPEG format (240 x 345 pixels). The "thumbnail" allows your application to display a small version of the document (e.g. as a search result).
-
When you sign-up for the i-fax.com service you will be given the option of selecting one or more image formats for your documents. i-fax.com supports 3 image formats. The format you choose will depend on your application:
-
-
Adobe PDF
The i-fax.com server can produce a multi-page PDF file containing the document. The document is compressed in Group IV format to conserve storage space.
-
TIFF
The i-fax.com server can produce a multi-page Group IV TIFF file containing the document.
-
JPEG
The i-fax.com server will produce a series of JPEG file, each containing a page of the document.
-
If you have elected to receive files from i-fax.com using FTP (File Transfer Protocol), i-fax.com will send a file with a .udt extension to indicate that your document has been sent. This file will not appear on your server until the JPEG thumbnail and the document images in PDF, TIFF and/or JPEG have been delivered. Note: Your application should not start processing an FTP transfer until the .udt file is detected on your server.
The .udt file contains information about the files received by i-fax.com.
| Field Name |
Description |
| CallerID |
The caller id of the fax machine that the document was faxed from. If the document was not faxed or there was no caller id then the field is set to "Unknown". |
| TransID |
The unique identifier encoded in the barcode on the document. This is the same unique id used in the returned file names. |
| Pages |
The count of pages processed for the document. |
| Orientation |
"0" if the document was scanned or faxed with the barcode right side up, or "1" if the barcode was upside down. When a document is faxed or scanned in upside down, the i-fax.com server rotates them before sending them on for ease of handling. |
| To |
If the document was efiled instead of faxed, the "To:" line of the email is put here |
| From |
If the document was efiled instead of faxed, the "From:" line of the email is put here |
| Subject |
If the document was efiled instead of faxed, the "Subject:" line of the email is put here |
| Senddate |
If the document was efiled instead of faxed, the "Date:" line of the email header is put here |
A two-page document encoded with a "unique identifier" of 639787744 that is faxed upside down would have the following in the .udt file:
CallerID=Unknown
TransID=63978744
Pages=2
Orientation=1
Note:
You will find examples of the Adobe PDF, TIFF, JPEG and .udt files with the files you receive when you Download the Plug-In.
File Transfer Options
i-fax.com can deliver files to your server in one of two formats:
-
FTP
i-fax.com will transfer a group of files to the FTP server you specify when you sign-up for the i-fax.com service. You will be asked to provide a directory on your site that is accessible to an FTP transfer.
It is recommended that you design your application to poll this directory looking for files with the .udt extension. i-fax.com always sends a .udt file when a transaction has been fully transferred.
A number of strategies can be used to initiate the polling process. The strategy you chose will depend on the tools available to you on the web server you are using for your website:
-
- On Unix or Linux servers, you can schedule a job in the crontab that will capture transactions in your FTP directory and incorporate them with your web database. (This will not be possible in most hosted web environments.)
-
On a Windows NT®/2000 server, you can schedule a task in the Task Scheduler that will capture transactions in your FTP directory and incorporate them with your web database. (This will not be possible in most hosted web environments.)
- You can imbed a CGI script in a web page that is executed when the page is accessed. The CGI script can be designed to detect the arrival of a .udt file in the FTP directory and process the incoming document. The CGI script can be placed within a page that runs when users wish to access a document or in a page that is run frequently.
-
Email
i-fax.com will email a group of files to the email address you specify when you sign-up for the i-fax.com service.
Each email sent by the i-fax.com server will contain all of the files pertaining to a specific document. In the event that an end user sends multiple documents in one fax or scan (each document having a unique i-fax.com Barcode), the i-fax.com server will transmit each document and its associated files in a separate email.
Emails sent by the i-fax.com server will contain the relevant files for a given document as attachments. Each email will contain the following entry in the "subject" line:
Document for transaction #{unique identifier from i-fax.com Barcode}
A number of strategies can be used to incorporate documents that have arrived by email. These include programs such as Procmail (for Unix and Linux environments) and Microsoft Exchange (for Windows NT®/2000).
|
