http://www.blkbox.com/~bgfax/ Wednesday 13 August 1997 THIS IS AN BETA VERSION, IT IS ASSUMED YOU ALREADY HAVE DOWNLOADED A COPY OF BGFAX170.ZIP FROM MY WEB SITE OR BBS! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Faxes can be added to the queue database in one of three ways. (a) Using the POLYFAX build database function POLYFAX @phone.lst sendthis.fax This method is used primarily for fax broadcasting (i.e., taking a single fax file and sending it to multiple destinations). The "phone.lst" file is an ASCII file that contains a different telephone number on each line of the file. NOTE THAT USING THE "@" FEATURE TO BUILD YOUR DATABASE WILL DESTROY ANY EXISTING FILES IN THE QUEUE. (b) By "throwing" a specially formatted ASCII file into the POLYFAX.NEW directory. This is described in much more detail later in this documentation. The first line of this file contains the phone number, and the second line is reserved for future use, so it can be blank. Line 3 and beyond contains the actual ASCII text that will be faxed. This "throwing" method is useful only for transmitting ASCII files. (c) By using the ADDTOQ.EXE program Running "ADDTOQ myfile.fax 555-1212" will place the myfile.fax into the queue. The file must already be in fax format. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To use the 'throwing' method of placing files into the queue, you will first need to do some additional setup if you have not already done so. (1st) Be sure that you have your BGFAX environment variable defined. You can add a line to your C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT that says: SET BGFAX=C:\BGFAX (2nd) Create a C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.NEW directory. This can be placed in a directory other than C:\BGFAX, but if you change the location, be sure to also change the BGFAX environment variable. To create the directory, from a DOS command prompt type MD C:\BGFAX\POLFAX.NEW (3rd) Create a zero-byte file called C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.DAT This file is the database used internally by POLYFAX. If you have never used POLYFAX before, you will need to initialize the database (which simply involves zeroing-out the file). To create a zero-byte file, from a DOS command prompt type REM > C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.DAT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When POLYFAX runs for the first time, it will detect your newly created C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.NEW directory, and automatically create four additional directories: C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.QUE\ASCII (created automatically) C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.QUE\FAX (created automatically) C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.SNT (created automatically) C:\BGFAX\POLYFAX.ERR (created automatically) The POLYFAX.QUE directory should be left alone, as POLYFAX maintains that directory itself. Deleting or moving files in that directory by yourself may destroy the queue. If you want to delete a file from the queue, use the new enhanced QCONTROL.EXE program included in this version. e.g.: | QCONTROL 170d for POLYFAX, part of the BGFAX package. | BGFAX is Copyright (C) 1993-1997 B.J. Guillot. All Rights Reserved. | | Listing all UNSENT faxes still in the POLYFAX queue... | | Job# Phone Number Filename | ---- --------------------------- ------------------------------------- | 0 507-9620 /c1 (Queue)T2.TXT | 1 713-507-9620 t.fax | 2 507-9620 /c1 (Queue)T1.TXT | | (Press to quit) Delete job# Notice that some filenames have the word "(Queue)" in front. That simply indicates the file is in the new enhanced queues. If you delete a file from the queue with QCONTROL, the file will be moved to the POLYFAX.ERR directory. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HOW TO INSERT ("THROW") FILES INTO THE QUEUE: Simply copy your ASCII text file to the POLYFAX.NEW directory. The first two lines of the file are special. The first line contains the fax tele- phone number and any OPTIONAL POLYFAX, BGFAX, or MAKEFAX control commands. The second line is unused by POLYFAX, but it allows you to put a full one-line comment. As POLYFAX is running, it will sense the new text file in the POLYFAX.NEW directory, and will move it into the POLYFAX.QUE\ASCII directory. A fax version of the file will be created in the POLYFAX.QUE\FAX directory. Example text file: 713-507-9620 /C1 #MF:5 -SP /TO:John_Doe_Enterprises -HR #MA:50 #LS:7200 Line #2 is simply a comment line, not important Line 1 of your outgoing fax message This is the second line of your outgoing fax message This is the third line of your outgoing fax message The telephone number comes first. Commands beginning with "/" are passed to BGFAX itself. Commands beginning with "-" are passed to MAKEFAX. Commands beginning with "#" are special POLYFAX control commands. Just to refresh your memory, the above control commands would: (1) /C1 force BGFAX to send always using Class 1 mode for this file (2) #MF:5 limit POLYFAX to only five failures before giving up (Recall the POLYFAX default is to NEVER give up) (3) -SP MAKEFAX, when converting TEST.TXT to a fax format will use "short pages" instead of "full length" pages (4) /TO:John_Doe_Enterprises BGFAX, when creating the top-of-page fax headers/banners, will say "To: John Doe Enterprises" instead of "To: 713-507-9620" (just to add a little personality to the fax) (5) -HR MAKEFAX, when converting TEST.TXT to fax format, uses HIGH RES (6) #MA:50 Limits the maximum number of call attempts to 50 (Recall the POLYFAX default is to NEVER give up on trivials) (7) #LS:7200 POLYFAX will sometimes drop the maximum speed down to 4800 bps for certain telephone numbers after so many failures. If you wish to limit the Lowest Speed POLYFAX uses, you can use this #LS:nnnn parameter Any number of commands can be used. Everything is OPTIONAL _except_ for the phone number itself. A new version of MAKEFAX.EXE is provided in this 1.70d package. (The new version of MAKEFAX simply knows NOT to convert the first two control lines in this text file when running from POLYFAX.) When faxes are successfully sent from the enhanced queue, the version from POLYFAX.QUE\FAX directory will be deleted. The version from the POLYFAX.QUE\ASCII directory will be moved to the POLYFAX.SNT directory. If POLYFAX "gives up" trying to send a file, instead of being put in the POLYFAX.SNT directory, it will be moved to the POLYFAX.ERR directory for your review. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOW, HOW DO I MAKE IT START SENDING THE FAXES??? POLYFAX /SEND and POLYFAX /QUEUE Both the /SEND and the /QUEUE switches will start the sending process. The different between these two switches is how they "finish". The /SEND switch will start up POLYFAX, send all faxes, and will terminate when all faxes in the queue have been sent. The /QUEUE switch will start up POLYFAX, send all faxes, and then continue to sit there waiting for more faxes to be added to the queue. It will NOT terminate unless manually terminated by pressing the key. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you are running under Windows 95 or Windows NT, you will want POLYFAX to use BGFAX32.EXE when sending the faxes instead of BGFAX.EXE. Use the #32 switch with POLYFAX to indicate such usage. Example: POLYFAX /QUEUE #32 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To use POLYFAX running on multiple modems, you must use the #PO:nnn switch to indicate which com port POLYFAX must use. On the master POLYFAX, the #PO switch is not needed, but it will be needed on all slave POLYFAX DOS windows. The "nnn" number represents the com port number that the slaves will use. To start up four multiple copies of POLYFAX that use COM1 through COM4 with Windows 95, see the following GO.BAT example: @echo off start polyfax /queue #32 start polyfax /queue #32 #po:2 start polyfax /queue #32 #po:3 start polyfax /queue #32 #po:4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ See the POLYFAX.DOC that came with 1.70 for more information on POLYFAX optional parameters. Regards, ......... voice: 281-893-9320 B.J. Guillot ... fax/bbs: 713-507-9620 ................. e-mail: bgfax@blkbox.com