Hi, It has always been clear that a HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server would add considerably to the value of the FAX facilities in Asterisk and Freeswitch, but somehow it hasn't happened until now. I recently found that in 2005 someone produced something fairly basic for Asterisk in Perl, but it doesn't seem to have been well publicised, and it looks like development stalled long ago. I now have the skeleton of HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server, in C, working. It accepts FAX submissions from sendfax and a couple of the windows HylaFAX clients, though it needs a lot more polishing. Now I need to look at the best thing to do on the Freeswitch side. I aim to make the server maintain its own database of FAX jobs. It will attach to Freeswitch, by ESL; push the jobs through FS; deal with scheduling, retries, etc; and report the final result to the user, just as HylaFAX does. The thing I am rather unsure about is the best way to handle the accounts used to accept FAX jobs? Should I maintain a separate database of FAX accounts, or hook into an existing database? I would welcome suggestions for what would be the most useful approach. Steve
This is a common cross-roads. I think your choices are: 1) Try and be agnostic like we have done in FreeSWITCH or to just choose a particular database and make it a dependency. There is a fair argument to either side. I personally chose the agnostic approach because I did not want to limit the possibilities of how developers chose to integrate FreeSWITCH into their existing infrastructure. It allows you to use it standalone or connect to any existing db with ODBC and create its own tables. 2) Use a specific DB. You have a fairly specific application with a fairly specific task so it would not be a bad decision to just choose a db with a well-developed client API like postgres, sqlite etc. There are some disadvantages to ODBC if the implementation of the connector of choice is poorly done or has memory leaks or artificial limitations. Also you must then conform to ANSI sql with ODBC. Native db API would give you any specific extension etc to that db. I may have just re-iterated your question with more specific details but maybe that can help you decide. I guess it would be based on your intentions and how flexible you want to make it at the cost of extra abstraction. On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Steve Underwood <steveu@coppice.org> wrote:
Hi,
It has always been clear that a HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server would add considerably to the value of the FAX facilities in Asterisk and Freeswitch, but somehow it hasn't happened until now. I recently found that in 2005 someone produced something fairly basic for Asterisk in Perl, but it doesn't seem to have been well publicised, and it looks like development stalled long ago.
I now have the skeleton of HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server, in C, working. It accepts FAX submissions from sendfax and a couple of the windows HylaFAX clients, though it needs a lot more polishing. Now I need to look at the best thing to do on the Freeswitch side. I aim to make the server maintain its own database of FAX jobs. It will attach to Freeswitch, by ESL; push the jobs through FS; deal with scheduling, retries, etc; and report the final result to the user, just as HylaFAX does. The thing I am rather unsure about is the best way to handle the accounts used to accept FAX jobs? Should I maintain a separate database of FAX accounts, or hook into an existing database? I would welcome suggestions for what would be the most useful approach.
Steve
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Steve, Very cool (and I'm very interested). What about using the existing user directory (perhaps with additional params) for the accounts and the FreeSWITCH core DB (whether SQLite or ODBC) for the jobs, etc? On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Steve Underwood <steveu@coppice.org> wrote:
Hi,
It has always been clear that a HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server would add considerably to the value of the FAX facilities in Asterisk and Freeswitch, but somehow it hasn't happened until now. I recently found that in 2005 someone produced something fairly basic for Asterisk in Perl, but it doesn't seem to have been well publicised, and it looks like development stalled long ago.
I now have the skeleton of HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server, in C, working. It accepts FAX submissions from sendfax and a couple of the windows HylaFAX clients, though it needs a lot more polishing. Now I need to look at the best thing to do on the Freeswitch side. I aim to make the server maintain its own database of FAX jobs. It will attach to Freeswitch, by ESL; push the jobs through FS; deal with scheduling, retries, etc; and report the final result to the user, just as HylaFAX does. The thing I am rather unsure about is the best way to handle the accounts used to accept FAX jobs? Should I maintain a separate database of FAX accounts, or hook into an existing database? I would welcome suggestions for what would be the most useful approach.
Steve
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-- Kristian Kielhofner
Hi Steve, I'm not sure if the following will work. Let's say that you have a SIP trunk service configured in a FS box for interconnection with the PSTN. To avoid individual analog fax machines (reduce hardware costs and attached maintenance costs) and take advantage of fax server capabilities, a solution would be install HylaFAX with t38modem built with OPAL support (this enables routing modems to SIP URIs) sending/receiving calls to/from FS via SIP (configure your dialplan for enabling t38 at FS side). That way you get the best from HylaFAX (jub submission, scheduling, retrying, reporting and other facilities) and FS (dealing with SIP trunk service providers, cdr, call routing) at the same time. End users can interact with HylaFAX using compatible windows clients, email interface or web interface. A very good idea would be link HylaFAX accounts to FS directory (connect HylaFAX to FS db may be?). My two cents... On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Kristian Kielhofner <kris@kriskinc.com>wrote:
Steve,
Very cool (and I'm very interested).
What about using the existing user directory (perhaps with additional params) for the accounts and the FreeSWITCH core DB (whether SQLite or ODBC) for the jobs, etc?
On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Steve Underwood <steveu@coppice.org> wrote:
Hi,
It has always been clear that a HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server would add considerably to the value of the FAX facilities in Asterisk and Freeswitch, but somehow it hasn't happened until now. I recently found that in 2005 someone produced something fairly basic for Asterisk in Perl, but it doesn't seem to have been well publicised, and it looks like development stalled long ago.
I now have the skeleton of HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server, in C, working. It accepts FAX submissions from sendfax and a couple of the windows HylaFAX clients, though it needs a lot more polishing. Now I need to look at the best thing to do on the Freeswitch side. I aim to make the server maintain its own database of FAX jobs. It will attach to Freeswitch, by ESL; push the jobs through FS; deal with scheduling, retries, etc; and report the final result to the user, just as HylaFAX does. The thing I am rather unsure about is the best way to handle the accounts used to accept FAX jobs? Should I maintain a separate database of FAX accounts, or hook into an existing database? I would welcome suggestions for what would be the most useful approach.
Steve
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-- Kristian Kielhofner
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Wow. That's one of the most bizarre solutions I've seen in a long time. :-\ Steve On 04/06/2011 01:58 PM, Pablo Hernan Saro wrote:
Hi Steve,
I'm not sure if the following will work. Let's say that you have a SIP trunk service configured in a FS box for interconnection with the PSTN. To avoid individual analog fax machines (reduce hardware costs and attached maintenance costs) and take advantage of fax server capabilities, a solution would be install HylaFAX with t38modem built with OPAL support (this enables routing modems to SIP URIs) sending/receiving calls to/from FS via SIP (configure your dialplan for enabling t38 at FS side). That way you get the best from HylaFAX (jub submission, scheduling, retrying, reporting and other facilities) and FS (dealing with SIP trunk service providers, cdr, call routing) at the same time. End users can interact with HylaFAX using compatible windows clients, email interface or web interface. A very good idea would be link HylaFAX accounts to FS directory (connect HylaFAX to FS db may be?). My two cents...
On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Kristian Kielhofner <kris@kriskinc.com <mailto:kris@kriskinc.com>> wrote:
Steve,
Very cool (and I'm very interested).
What about using the existing user directory (perhaps with additional params) for the accounts and the FreeSWITCH core DB (whether SQLite or ODBC) for the jobs, etc?
On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Steve Underwood <steveu@coppice.org <mailto:steveu@coppice.org>> wrote: > Hi, > > It has always been clear that a HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission > server would add considerably to the value of the FAX facilities in > Asterisk and Freeswitch, but somehow it hasn't happened until now. I > recently found that in 2005 someone produced something fairly basic for > Asterisk in Perl, but it doesn't seem to have been well publicised, and > it looks like development stalled long ago. > > I now have the skeleton of HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server, > in C, working. It accepts FAX submissions from sendfax and a couple of > the windows HylaFAX clients, though it needs a lot more polishing. Now I > need to look at the best thing to do on the Freeswitch side. I aim to > make the server maintain its own database of FAX jobs. It will attach to > Freeswitch, by ESL; push the jobs through FS; deal with scheduling, > retries, etc; and report the final result to the user, just as HylaFAX > does. The thing I am rather unsure about is the best way to handle the > accounts used to accept FAX jobs? Should I maintain a separate database > of FAX accounts, or hook into an existing database? I would welcome > suggestions for what would be the most useful approach. > > Steve >
I don't proclaim myself the best telephony engineer in the world, so I'm free to go wrong and open to learn. You can consider my contribution the most bizarre solution you've seen in a long time, we're all free to think and speak whatever we want (this is beyond discussion). IMHO, it is a simple way to integrate HylaFAX and FS without programming a line of code. SIP and t38 is out there to be used, in fact AFAIK all SIP trunk service providers offer fax support this way. Why you believe it's the most bizarre solution? PS: I do not want to challenge you, just want to feed my knowledge. Pablo On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 9:27 AM, Steve Underwood <steveu@coppice.org> wrote:
Wow. That's one of the most bizarre solutions I've seen in a long time. :-\
Steve
On 04/06/2011 01:58 PM, Pablo Hernan Saro wrote:
Hi Steve,
I'm not sure if the following will work. Let's say that you have a SIP trunk service configured in a FS box for interconnection with the PSTN. To avoid individual analog fax machines (reduce hardware costs and attached maintenance costs) and take advantage of fax server capabilities, a solution would be install HylaFAX with t38modem built with OPAL support (this enables routing modems to SIP URIs) sending/receiving calls to/from FS via SIP (configure your dialplan for enabling t38 at FS side). That way you get the best from HylaFAX (jub submission, scheduling, retrying, reporting and other facilities) and FS (dealing with SIP trunk service providers, cdr, call routing) at the same time. End users can interact with HylaFAX using compatible windows clients, email interface or web interface. A very good idea would be link HylaFAX accounts to FS directory (connect HylaFAX to FS db may be?). My two cents...
On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 4:20 PM, Kristian Kielhofner <kris@kriskinc.com <mailto:kris@kriskinc.com>> wrote:
Steve,
Very cool (and I'm very interested).
What about using the existing user directory (perhaps with additional params) for the accounts and the FreeSWITCH core DB (whether SQLite or ODBC) for the jobs, etc?
On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Steve Underwood <steveu@coppice.org <mailto:steveu@coppice.org>> wrote: > Hi, > > It has always been clear that a HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission > server would add considerably to the value of the FAX facilities in > Asterisk and Freeswitch, but somehow it hasn't happened until now. I > recently found that in 2005 someone produced something fairly basic for > Asterisk in Perl, but it doesn't seem to have been well publicised, and > it looks like development stalled long ago. > > I now have the skeleton of HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server, > in C, working. It accepts FAX submissions from sendfax and a couple of > the windows HylaFAX clients, though it needs a lot more polishing. Now I > need to look at the best thing to do on the Freeswitch side. I aim to > make the server maintain its own database of FAX jobs. It will attach to > Freeswitch, by ESL; push the jobs through FS; deal with scheduling, > retries, etc; and report the final result to the user, just as HylaFAX > does. The thing I am rather unsure about is the best way to handle the > accounts used to accept FAX jobs? Should I maintain a separate database > of FAX accounts, or hook into an existing database? I would welcome > suggestions for what would be the most useful approach. > > Steve >
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I would also love this approach. That way it may be easy to link an outgoing fax number and local station/header info to an extension. Best regards Peter Kristian Kielhofner schrieb:
Steve,
Very cool (and I'm very interested).
What about using the existing user directory (perhaps with additional params) for the accounts and the FreeSWITCH core DB (whether SQLite or ODBC) for the jobs, etc?
On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Steve Underwood <steveu@coppice.org> wrote:
Hi,
It has always been clear that a HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server would add considerably to the value of the FAX facilities in Asterisk and Freeswitch, but somehow it hasn't happened until now. I recently found that in 2005 someone produced something fairly basic for Asterisk in Perl, but it doesn't seem to have been well publicised, and it looks like development stalled long ago.
I now have the skeleton of HylaFAX compatible FAX job submission server, in C, working. It accepts FAX submissions from sendfax and a couple of the windows HylaFAX clients, though it needs a lot more polishing. Now I need to look at the best thing to do on the Freeswitch side. I aim to make the server maintain its own database of FAX jobs. It will attach to Freeswitch, by ESL; push the jobs through FS; deal with scheduling, retries, etc; and report the final result to the user, just as HylaFAX does. The thing I am rather unsure about is the best way to handle the accounts used to accept FAX jobs? Should I maintain a separate database of FAX accounts, or hook into an existing database? I would welcome suggestions for what would be the most useful approach.
Steve
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-- With kind regards Peter Steinbach Telefaks Services GmbH mailto:lists (att) telefaks.de Internet: www.telefaks.de
participants (5)
-
Anthony Minessale
-
Kristian Kielhofner
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Pablo Hernan Saro
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Peter Steinbach
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Steve Underwood