Fax To EMail System
Technical specification
Hardware: Intel Dialogic JCT/600 2E1
Software: CT ADE 8.3
CT ADE Software is connected to remote database PostgreSQL thru
ODBC driver.
CT ADE Software is responsible for:
- Answer the incoming call and check the DNIS number.
- Making connections to remote database thru ODBC driver and checking
the incoming DNIS.
- Accepting the incoming fax and saving it as file on the disc
- Storing information in the remote database and placing the fax in the
queue for processing.
- Disconnecting the call.
FAX2EMAIL Application is responsible for:
- Working resident mode and checks on specified queue time the from the
remote database
- Sending e-mails with the attached fax file saved from CT ADE
- Writing to remote database, the changes and status in the queue
System description
The idea of fax2email system is to give a people opportunity to
receive faxes to their e-mail addresses. This service is very useful for people
or companies that have offices outside United Kingdom, but would like to
have a fax number for their company in the UK. Being able to send faxes to local
number inside the UK, instead of faxing to international phone number, makes
this program very commodious to the company's client base. Clients using the
fax2email service can select a phone number and configure their e-mail thru a
web interface. From the web site they can select available phone numbers and
then associate it with the e-mail of their choice. All these changes are stored
in PostgreSQL (MySQL) database on the web server.
On incoming fax call, CT ADE is answers the call and checks the
DNIS, makes private connection to the remote database PostgreSQL (MySQL)
and checks what e-mail address is associated for this DNIS. The remote
database keeps information if the service is live for this DNIS. If the
service is not live, then the fax will be not processed. After the fax is
received the CT ADE writes the new fax as a TIF file in a specific
directory, and updates the remote database by writing a record in the queue
table.
On the same machine, a program, "send mail", is also running, which checks
the queue table on a specified interval of time. If there are new records in
this queue table, then the program will make a connection to the remote database
and will check to see which e-mail it should be sending the received fax to.
CT ADE and send mail program operate separate one of another. In this
case CT ADE is responsible for affirming the fax, and send mail program
is responsible to direct the fax to the specified e-mail address. Each fax file
is saved on the hard disc as TIF image and, to prevent duplicate file
names, we use current date, time and the process ID (PID) of the current process
for each name. In doing this, we are able to save simultaneously as many
resources as we have files.
The next step in this project is voice to e-mail service, where the customer
will be prompted to save the message and then the system will send the voice
file to the specified e-mail address.
For the development process we used RLL library for connecting to the remote
database. The send mail application is written on visual basic.
The reason we selected Intel Dialogic JCT 600 2E1 is based on
the idea that we would like to have fax channels and also voice channels. We are
using the fax channels for fax2email and the voice channels for
voice2email. This board is the perfect choice for combining functionality
and price.
I am able to say, with great certainty, that with the degree of differentia
of this program's infrastructure, it will be the "next big thing" in
mobility…. It is going to change the way we communicate with our clients and
other companies, by breaking the communication barrier, and putting the term "functionality"
soaring to a whole new level.
Development Team:
IVR development: Dipl.-Ing. Ivo Petrov
Supporting software development: P. Johnson
