Question

Fax a report through a Windows 2003 server

Asked by: dialdnet

Is there  a way to send a report as a fax from Access 97?  This application is running on Windows 2000 Professional workstations connected to a Windows 2003 domain.  I have an external fax modem connected to a 2003 server.  We would like to fax customer statements out of Access 97 database automatically, just like printing. This has to be an Access 97 solution as the accounting software runs on Access 97 and cannot be upgraded beyond this version.  We have the customer fax numbers in a the database, and we have the report we'd like to fax.  But instead of just printing the batch of statements, we'd like to fax it as well.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Thank you in advance.

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Asked On
2007-01-17 at 16:31:30ID22126749
Tags

fax

,

2003

Topic

Microsoft Access Database

Participating Experts
4
Points
500
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: 1WilliamPosted on 2007-01-18 at 02:56:20ID: 18339577

I suspect you will want to do Print Dev code to change your default printer to the FAX program. take a look here:
http://www.mvps.org/access/reports/rpt0011.htm
This is not for the faint of heart. Basically, it reads from the PC, all installed printers, stores the existing default printer, changes the default printer to be the FAX printer.
The report should be set to use the default printer. In code, your do a docmd to print the report. You will also have to access the API for the FAX printer to be able to send the telephone number and associated data.

Bottom line, is this can be fairly tricky to do and way above what can be answered here. I do something like this to create PDF reports and email them in batches.

 

by: atherhPosted on 2007-01-18 at 03:19:39ID: 18339718

Check this put
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/01/08/FaxServ/

Sub SendDocByFax()
   
    Dim FaxServer As Object
    Dim FaxDoc As Object

    'Create FaxServer object...
    Set FaxServer = CreateObject("FaxServer.FaxServer")
    '...and connect to it - no empty name allowed
    FaxServer.Connect ("mycomputer")
    'Create document
    Set FaxDoc = FaxServer.CreateDocument("d:\documents\mydoc.doc")
   
    FaxDoc.FaxNumber = "+99 (99) 999999"
    FaxDoc.RecipientName = "John Doe"
    FaxDoc.Send
       
    Set FaxDoc = Nothing
   
    FaxServer.Disconnect
   
    Set FaxServer = Nothing
End Sub

 

by: 1WilliamPosted on 2007-01-18 at 03:34:12ID: 18339782

Nice tip, atherh! Just saved it to my favorites in case I ever have to do it.

dialdnet still has to create a document to send, however. You cannot assume all recipients will have a snapshot viewer. There are two methods to do this.
Easy:
Create the report if possible as a Excel file.
Difficult
Create the report as a PDF. Which brings us back to the Print Dev Mode stuff.

 

by: atherhPosted on 2007-01-18 at 04:59:14ID: 18340356

1William : DONT Worry It is Saved :) .Yeah i agree for pdf and tiff ( using COM for Microsoft Office Document Image Writer ) files but he should not save it as Excel .
dialdnet : have you installed  Windows 2003 server share fax service.
FaxServer.Connect ("mycomputer") 'you need to give shared Fax Server Name .

It should work .

 

by: dialdnetPosted on 2007-01-23 at 16:01:58ID: 18381077

Yes I have installed windows 2003 server fax service... but i am not running exchange...
Does that matter?  What do I need to have installed on the Windows 2000 client pc's in order for this to work?

 

by: rkoster6Posted on 2007-03-21 at 10:26:52ID: 18765705

I'm working on the same problem using the same code example provided by Microsoft. Their code works if you let it connect to the local fax server

FaxServer.Connect ("") 'passing empty string defaults to local fax service

or the local computer name

FaxServer.Connect ("NOTEBOOK01") 'my bogus local PC name

However, when I pass the name of the server running the shared fax service (W2K3 Small Business Server Premium) it doesn't throw an error until FaxDoc.Send or if you comment out the FaxDoc.Send it fails on the FaxServer.Disconnect.

When stepping it through debug using my local machine name I can see a change in the FaxServer object in the watch window. When I do the same using the name of my W2K3 server (or any invalid name for that matter) NOTHING CHANGES in the FaxServer object. This is true when passing invalid names too. I think the connection failed, but the function doesn't report a failure or anything for that matter. Even the Err object returns 0 when queried.

On Error Step Next
FaxServer.Connect ("\\SHAREDFAXSERVER")
Debug.Print Err

0 shows in the immediate window. As far as the system knows nothing went wrong.

I've also tried variations on the server name dropping the "\\" or using the fully qualified server name. It doesn't seem to make a difference. I have the say the problem is with connecting to the server over the network, but FaxServer.Connect refuses to give a clue to the problem. I've even tried to trap a return code in a variant, but all it returns is an "Empty" to the variable regardless of whether it succeeds [locally] or fails.

Any insight into why the shared service can't be reached programatically would be appreciated by me and I'm sure dialdnet.

BTW - Using the shared fax service from any application interface works fine whether printing to the shared fax device or emailing.

 

by: rkoster6Posted on 2007-03-26 at 09:27:33ID: 18793981

I finally have it working. I modified some of Microsoft's example with code from C# example with some VB in it. Here is the link to Microsoft's article:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms693391.aspx

It's titled "Fax Extended COM Visual C++ Programming".

My environment is:
-Client: WinXP SP2 Tablet Edition
-Server: Win2K3 w/fax service installed
Client app: Access 2003 w/VBA

Here is an example of my modified code. I don't know yet whether it's all necessary, but I'm still learning the Fax Extended COM object. (Please pardon the hardcoding. It's a test.)

Sub SendFax()
  Dim FaxServer As New FAXCOMEXLib.FaxServer
  Dim FaxDoc As New FAXCOMEXLib.FaxDocument
  Dim iRet As Variant
  Dim strComputerName As String
 
  strComputerName = "FAXSERVER"
 
  'Connect to remote fax server - no empty name allowed
  FaxServer.Connect strComputerName  'needed?
   
  'Create document
  FaxDoc.Body = "C:\SomeWordDoc.doc"
  With FaxDoc
    .DocumentName = "Testing"
    .Recipients.Add ("18005551212")
    iRet = .Submit(strComputerName)  'Computer name must be included for remote fax
  End With
 
 
  Set FaxDoc = Nothing
 
  FaxServer.Disconnect
 
  Set FaxServer = Nothing
End Sub

The names and numbers have been changed to protect the innocent, but substitue your own and it should work.

 

by: Computer101Posted on 2008-03-11 at 15:45:59ID: 21101250

Forced accept.

Computer101
EE Admin

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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