The CopiaFacts optional Document Converter feature can convert a number of document formats to fax format prior to transmission. It allows documents such as Microsoft Word files to be specified directly as outbound fax or e-mail items (or selected as fax-on-demand documents).
Historically, CopiaFacts has defaulted to the use of a specialist print driver to create faxable TIF files by automating 'printing' by the selected application (for example Word or Acrobat). From CopiaFacts 8.3 onwards this had become an option, and the default is to convert the principal formats (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) using a built-in converter. For all new installations the built-in converter will be selected, and for existing users upgrading, the $convert_options commands may need to be changed if you wish to continue using the Document Converter printer drivers.
Selecting Conversion Method
There are three ways in which document conversion can be integrated into the outbound fax workflow:
| AT SEND TIME | Small documents can be converted immediately prior to transmission, in the COPIAFACTS fax server engine, and using the built-in converters. Because this occupies an engine thread it cannot be used for large documents without reducing fax throughput. In addition, since Microsoft do not support the use of Office in service mode, Copia does not support conversion in this way of documents which require processing in Office, so this method cannot be used when COPIAFACTS runs as a service. |
| PDF conversions to TIF, and Office document conversions via PDF, can only be run one-at-a-time because PDF conversion may not be thread-safe. This could further reduce thoughput if large documents were specified for 'at send-time conversion and other fax channels had to await completion of a very large document. |
| BUILT-IN (DocConv) | The built-in converters are implemented in CF9IMAGE.DLL and can be used either at send time or in the Document Converter (FFEXTERN/CVSINGLE). When a fax transaction's documents are to be converted in the Document Converter, its FS file is moved to a PREPROC queue folder which is scanned for work by FFEXTERN. Sites with multiple CopiaFacts nodes sending faxes may also require multiple Document Converter instances in separate machines; each such DC node runs single-threaded. DC nodes also take steps to allow the safe use in service mode of Office programs needed to convert Office documents. For broadcast jobs, the Document Converter can convert its document(s) once, and on completion can then invoke Job Administration to launch the broadcast. |
| The $convert_types configuration command specifies the document types (by file extension) which are to be sent for conversion in the Document Converter. It is used by both COPIAFACTS and FFEXTERN to decide which of them will perform the conversion. This decision can not be overridden for specific tasks only. |
| PRINT DRIVERS | The Document Converter can also automate supported applications such as Office or Acrobat to load, and then print, a document to a special "printer driver" which creates a faxable TIF file instead of writing it to a printer. CopiaFacts includes these drivers for some but not all, of the operating systems supported by CopiaFacts. Using these drivers is no longer the default. or the recommended method of document conversion. The built-in drivers are more flexible, more configurable, and can be optimized for the conversion of selected document types. |
| The $convert_options command specifes |
Document Converter printer drivers are not available on all Operating System versions supported by CopiaFacts. See Printer Driver Support for a current list
Any FS files referencing supported formats for conversion are placed by CopiaFacts into the CALLBACK\PREPROC directory, where they are processed by one or more instances of FFEXTERN using the FXCVRT operation. Each copy of FFEXTERN must run on a different machine, on which must also reside the application(s) required to process the documents (e.g Microsoft Word or LibreOffice). You can set up different instances of FFEXTERN to process different document types, but each must be capable of processing all the document types which can appear together in a single FS file. So if you set up one instance to process Microsoft Office conversions on one machine, and another instance to process PDFs on another machine, you will not be able to process successfully an FS file which contains both Office and PDF files on different $fax_filename commands. To do this you would need to support both types of document in each of one or more machines running FFEXTERN.
To cater for a large number of supported file types, operating systems and applications, a number of conversion options are available. These are specified by means of the $convert_options command in either a user profile or an individual FS file. Note that applications which correspond to a selected option must actually be installed; if not, the conversion will usually fail. Additional notes for specific applications appear below.
PDF, supported image and HTML documents can now be treated as 'faxable' and you can choose to not pass these through the document converter and instead have the COPIAFACTS engine convert them to faxable TIF format as the fax transmission is being prepared. To select this method of operation you should omit the PDF JPG, GIF, PNG and HTM keywords, as required, from the $convert_types command. The $convert_types topic has more information about this option. Do not select this option if your system needs to process large files. It can strain the resources of the COPIAFACTS process and it will also reduce throughput by tying up fax channels which could be used for sending faxes. This slow-down effect can be seen even with documents as small as half-a-dozen pages.
Individual conversion operations can be carried out using CVSINGLE either directly or in a command file. No USR or FS file is involved in these conversions, but command-line options are available which correspond to most of the above convert options. CVSINGLE is also required to perform conversions done in FFEXTERN, where it is necessary to perform the conversion in a standalone executable.
FFEXTERN can also pre-download documents from the Internet, using FTP or HTTP transfer. This allows a document's name to be specified as a standard URL.
Details of the Document Converter feature appear in the following sections:
Document Converter Checklist
Supported Document Formats
Supported Document Sizes
Installing the Printer Drivers
Setting up FFEXTERN for Conversion
Specifying Documents for Conversion,
Using Microsoft Office
Using Acrobat
Image Rendering Options
Using the Built-in PDF Converter
Converting Images via the Built-in Converter
Converting HTML via the Built-in Converter
Using Ghostscript
Using LibreOffice
Variable-expansion in HTML files.
There is also a set of topics describing Document Converter Internals for users who need to be fully aware of all the processing steps.
