What is the best way to send a fax automatically?

rbuser

Hello,
we offer in our application the possibility to send a fax. Once the
faxprinter is assigned and the report contains a preformatted field with the
fax number, it happens automatically. That's fine.
The problem is, that this pre-formatted fax number has to be in a visible
field (Label, Variable, DBText). If it is set to visible, though, you can
see it all the time, which is not good.

I would like to know, if there is a way to get this to work with an
invisible object or another workaround?
I've tried it with the Hyperlink propertie of a ppLabel, which has it's
caption set to '', but it isn't working.
To set the font color to white or something would work, but only if the end
user doesn't change anything and isn't using pagestyle reports (which is
possible in our application).

How could it be achieved?
For the future maybe something similar to EmailSettings or PDFSettings? I.e.
something to store the pre-formatted fax number and then a check, if the
selected printer is a fax printer. In that case an object could be created,
which is visible for the fax printer, but not visible on the document itself
or so. Not sure if that's technically possible, so just an idea.

However: if there are some workarounds, ideas: please let me know.

Kind regards,
Mark

nardmoseley

Perhaps it is possible to send the phone number directly to the printer
driver via an Escape command or other type of call? I do not have experience
with this, so I don't know.

One solution is to add text directly to the report Page output. We do this
for our trial versions. The rbWiki example below 'How to add a watermark to
a page' shows how to do this.

The example uses the OnEndPage event, you will want to use the OnStartPage
event.

http://www.digital-metaphors.com/rbWiki/Delphi_Code/Formatting/How_To...Manually_Add_a_Watermark_to_a_Page



--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Hi Nard,
thanks for your reply.

I'm using the watermark functionality for original purpose and it's a very
nice feature. I thought of it as an possibility, but I think it wouldn't
work either, since the watermark is visible as well and I didn't see
anything to "hide" it somehow.

nardmoseley

My idea was that you would only add the DrawCommand to the Page when
generating the output to the Fax.


--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Ah, I see.
Missunderstood you a bit

That would be an option, sure, though the fax number would still be visible
on the document itself, which I would like to avoid.
But in generall that would work, thanks.

If you come accross of some other ideas / solutions to handle such a case a
bit more comfortable, that would be a great addition to RB.

Regards,
Mark

nardmoseley

As stated in my first post perhaps it is possible to send the phone number
directly to the printer
driver via an Escape command or other type of call. You might try
researching whether there is any documentation or contact the manufacturer.
Faxing is non-standard. It is not part of the Windows API, though it
probably should be.

--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com