Chapter 4. World Fax Client

Overview

The purpose of the World Fax Client is to let you monitor and manage the jobs that have been created.

Using the Client, you can:

  • Create a New Job (launches the Job Setup Wizard)
  • View the progress of any job
  • Suspend/Resume a job at any time
  • Reschedule a job and change other job parameters
  • Retry a finished job
  • Archive a job
  • Delete a job
  • Print a job report
  • Generating different fax lists from finished jobs


Starting the Client Program:

To Start the Client Program:

  1. Go to the Start Menu
  2. Go to Programs | World Fax 7
  3. Select the World Fax Client icon

You will see the following screen:

 

 

Client Program Screen Elements -- Overview

The upper right corner graphic moves to indicate when the system is "working on something".

This is similar to the way Netscape or Internet Explorer has a moving icon.  It indicates that the connection to the World Fax Server is "alive" and that the program is doing something (e.g. getting updated job information), even if nothing is changing on the screen.  As a nickname, we'll call this the "big R".


The top toolbar has 4 buttons:

  • New - launches World Fax Wizard
  • Refresh - refreshes the current view.  You will see the "big R" moving while the client pulls fresh data from the server.
  • Log off - manually disconnects from the World Fax Server.  You will notice that the circles around "R" stop moving when you disconnect.  You do not have to do this often as operations will timeout after awhile anyway.
  • Auto - refreshes the current view automatically (time interval is specified in View | Preferences).

There are menus:

File

New Job

Launches World Fax Server

Refresh

Refreshes the current view

Log off fom Server

Manually disconnects from World Fax Server

Auto Refresh

Refreshes the current window automatically

Exit

Exits the World Fax Client

Edit

 

Options…   

Displays the Connection, Directories and Parameters.

View

Jobs

Shows  jobs

Templates

Shows Templates

Reports

Shows Reports

Documents

Shows Documents in default derictorie

Fax Lists

Shows Fax List in default derictorie

Servers

Shows Fax Server Managers

Ports

Shows Ports

Preferences

Parameters for Layout and Auto-Update Interval

Tools

 

Crystal Reports

Starts the Reports add on module.

Help

About

Display World Fax version and copyright information.

Edit Menu -- Changing the Connection Parameters

Server Addresss is computer name or IP address of the computer where World Fax Server is installed. If World Fax Client and World Fax Server are installed on the same computer server address should be Local. By default it is Local

User- It should be valid World Fax user name. Users profiles can be edited in World Fax User Manager.

Password- is a valid password for this particular User.

Note for Versions 7.1 and later World Fax:Users do not have anything to do with Windows NT users. World Fax has its own users database. For more information see Server Installation and Configuration Guide.


Edit Menu -- Changing the Directory

This is quite obvious.
By default documetns, cover page templates and fax list files are stored in World Fax Client 7 folder, job templates accordingly in C:\Program Files\World Fax Client 7\Templates, But all these location can easily be changed.View Menu –

Edit Menu – Changing the Parameter
Time Out Interval is the interval World Fax Client waits for World Fax Server response. If you are connecting to World Fax Server over the Internet and the connection is not very good you may get error message “Connection Time Out”.Or actually it is a notification meaning that within that time interval no respond was received form World Fax Server..


View Menu -- Changing Preference

World Fax Client layout and Autoupdate Interval can be changed. It will autoupdate information on Client.


Jobs View

Here's what you can do from the Active Job View

  • Suspend / Resume jobs
  • Delete Jobs
  • Archive Jobs
  • Show Log
  • Edit Job Parameters
  • Create Fax List
  • Apply Filter
  • Update Contact
  • Option
  • Find Job
Jobs View -- Columns of job information


In the Jobs View, you will see several columns of job information:

  • Name: The name for the job (you can have jobs with the same name)
  • Job ID: The automatically generated identification number for the job (unique)
  • Status: One of:  Preparing/ed, Scheduling/ed, Sending, Suspending/ed, Archiving, Finished
  • Total: The total number of recipients in the fax list.
  • Success: A count of successful sends & success rate as a percentage of total recipients)
  • Failed: A count of failed sends & failure rate as a percentage of the total recipients)
  • Pending:
  • User: The user who created the job.
  • Retries: The initial attempt on the fax list is "0", first retry is "1", second retry is "2", etc...
  • Priority: The priority level for the job.  Jobs with equal priority are sent simultaneously (mixing).
  • Send Date: The day when the job was started .


View -- Suspending a Job

Using the World Fax Client, you can suspend a job at any point.  Once all of the job's items in the queue have been attempted, then the status of the job becomes "Suspended".

If the job is suspended, you can change the priority level of the job or the scheduled times.  You can also rename the job.

However, you cannot change other job settings such as retries, phonebook, or documents to send.

To Suspend a Job

  1. Click on a Job's name to highlight it.
  2. Click the Suspend button.
  3. The Status changes to "Suspending" and World Fax stops submitting new faxes to the CAS 2.0 Server
  4. However, whatever faxes are already in the CAS 2.0 Server queues must finish off before the status changes to "Suspended".  Depending on the number of fax ports and the number of scheduled faxes per port (default is 10), it can take several minutes before the job shows the status as "Suspended".

Notes:
When the job becomes "Suspended", you can change certain properties of the job and then Resume it again.

View -- Resuming a job

To Resume a Suspended Job

  1. Click on the Job's name to highlight it.
  2. Click the "Resume" button.
  3. The Status should change to "Sending".


View -- Deleting a job. (Jobs can only be deleted by World Fax Administrators)

Jobs can be deleted at almost any time from either the Active Tab or the History Tab of the World Fax Administrator.

To Delete a Job

  • Click on the Job's name to highlight it
  • Click the "Recycle bin" button. 
  • The job will temporarily show a "deleting" status and then should disappear on the next screen refresh.


View -- Archiving Job

If a job has been Suspended at a partially completed stage and won't be resumed, you can manually archive it.  This will change the status to finished and allow you to create your retry fax lists and get a complete report.

To Archive a Job

  • Click on the Job's name to highlight it
  • Click the "Archive" button. 
  • The job will temporarily show a "Archiving" status and then the status should change to "Finished".

View -- Show Log

This button will show you a detailed list of the results from your job.

To Show the Log

  1. Click the desired job's name to highlight it.
  2. Click the "Show Log" button.
  3. The log shows the fax number, recipient name, duration of the fax, result (success or failed), etc…
  4. The last page of the log shows a summary.

View -- Edit Job Parameters

You can change nearly all the parameters for the job. If you want to modify the parameters, you should first suspend the job. After the job is suspended, you can edit the Properties for the job and resume the job afterwards.

To Change the Parameters of a Job

  1. Double-Click on the job.
  2. The Job Parameters Window will appear.

Job Parameters -- Priority

When you have more than one active job, you can use the priority setting to adjust the relative importance of the jobs.

The default priority is 5 and the highest priority is 1.

Jobs with higher priority will be sent completely before a lower priority job is sent.

Jobs with the same priority will be mixed (i.e. sent concurrently).  Within a priority level, jobs will be sent in equal ratios.

If you have 2 jobs with the same priority, each will be sending 50% of the time.

Note:  World Fax does not allow you to dedicate a specific group of ports for a job. All ports are treated as a common pool, with sending time divided up between equal priority jobs.


To Change the Priority of a Job

  1. From the Job Properties window, use the Up/Down Arrows to change the priority
  2. Click OK to apply the new priority to the job.


Job Parameters -- Schedule

World Fax allows you to schedule up to two sending periods per day.  This lets you send the job at the most advantageous time(s) of the day.

For example, you can use this feature to get better rates on long distance faxes or to avoid busy periods during office hours.

To Change the Schedule for a Job.

  1. From the Job Parameters window, click on the Schedule tab.
  2. You can then change the schedule as desired. Remember to use the 24-hour clock style of indicating the times.
  3. To resume the suspended job, press the Resume button.

View -- Create Fax List

To create an Error Fax List:

  • Check that there is at least one failed fax for the job (otherwise command will be grayed out).
  • Click on the job to highlight it
  • Click the Create Fax List button
  • The following screen appears:
Note:

Prefix followed by underscore will be added to the original fax list name. It makes it easier later to understand what kind of numbers this file contains.

By default, World Fax gives fax lists a file extension of ".fax" so as to distinguish them from other files.

Also by default, the Error Fax List is saved in the "C:\Program Files\World Fax Client 7" folder.

View -- Retrying a Finished Job

To retry a job, you have to create fax list. You can create fax list of Failed, Retriable, Successful and Unsent messages. A suffix automatically will be appended to the original fax list names:

Error_, Rerror_, Success_, Notsent_ accordingly.

To Retry a Job

  • Go through the steps to Create Fax List listed previously
  • Make sure the "Resubmit Job with Created Fax List" box is checked
  • Click OK.

Note:
If you see a Warning message … this means that the job was not created from this local workstation.  Therefore, the original job settings are not available.  You can still create a new job, but you will have to specify the other job information again.

  • After you click OK, the Job Setup Wizard will appear, with all of your previous job information filled in.  The only difference will be the fax list for the job -- it will be the error faxlist instead of the original. Then finish the job as usually.

Template View

This view lists the templates available to you. This list is also shown in the first screen of the World Fax Wizard.

A job template stores all of the job information such as documents, fax list, priority, schedule, etc..., so that you can reuse these setting for future jobs.

To start a new job based on a template
  1. Simply double-click the desired template name.
  2. The Job Setup Wizard will open and all of the information from the old job will be there. Modify it as necessary (e.g. change the document) and send the job.
  3. By default, World Fax gives the new job the same name as the template. It is useful to rename the job to avoid confusion later (i.e. so that the job is easier to track with the Client).


Reports View

  • Open Web Browser


Documents View

By default, this view shows all of the *.TIF files in the" C:\Program Files\World Fax Client" folder. You can change this default folder by going to Edit | Options … and then going to the Directories tab.

  • New Document
  • View Document (selected)
  • Delete Document
  • Refresh List of Documents


Fax Lists View

By default, this view shows all of the *.FAX files in the" C:\Program Files\World Fax Client" folder. You can change this default folder by going to Edit | Options … and then going to the Directories tab.

  • Create New Fax List
  • View Fax List
  • Delete Fax List
  • Refresh List of Fax Lists

Server Managers View

List of each server in the system with Name, Type, Computer Name, Active flag

  • Add New Server
  • Delete Server
  • Server Properties
  • Activate Server
  • Deactivate Server


Servers View -- Configuring Server Properties

This allows you to modify selected parameters of the Server Manager.

Ports View

The Ports View lists of all of the ports in the system (i.e. including all servers) and the settings for each.

Note:
Before you can configure the ports, you have to run the World Fax Server at least once.  This will recognize the available fax ports and add them to the World Fax database. 

Columns of Port Information

  • server - which server the port belongs to
  • name - the name of the port
  • max - the maximum number of scheduled items for that port (at any one time)
  • prefix - a dialing prefix that applies to that particular port
  • send/receive - whether the board is set to send and/or receive (this is a "logical" setting as opposed to the "physical" setting in the CAS 2.0 parameters)
  • for local - this port can send local faxes
  • for long distance - this port can send long distance faxes.

The buttons allow you to:

  • configure port properties
  • enable port for sending
  • enable port for receiving
  • show ports log - this one gives you a "snapshot" of activity on the ports. For example, it shows you the length of time since the "last success" and since the "last error".   This is a quick way to detect any problems with a particular port.


Ports View -- Configuring Port Properties

Disable / Enable for Sending / Receiving

You can enable/disable specific fax channels for sending and receiving. 

Max Scheduled

You can control the number of faxes that get scheduled for each port using the Max Scheduled parameter. The default is 10 faxes scheduled per port, but you may want to reduce this so that the queue is more responsive.