SDK & APIs

Biscom offers programmers a range of APIs for developing applications that interface with the FAXCOM Server. With these easy-to-use APIs, many of our customers and partners have successfully created custom fax communications applications, and also integrated fax communications with existing applications and processes.

Many of Biscom’s APIs interface to a FAXCOM Queue Service such as FAXCOM Suite for Windows, FAXCOM for Domino or FAXCOM for NDS. Using these APIs, developers submit faxes to be sent, and retrieve completion status messages and received faxes. The FAXCOM Queue Service queues fax jobs for delivery to the FAXCOM Server, retrieves fax job status messages and received faxes from the FAXCOM Server, and manages retries. With these APIs, your custom application does not need to incorporate these functions – it is all done for you.

APIs that interface to our FAXCOM Queue Services include:

• .NET & Web Services
• COM
• Java
• SMTP
• MAPI
• Envelope Specification

FAXCOM Command Language, also called FCL, offers a powerful API that interfaces directly to the FAXCOM Server. Because of this direct interface, FCL is platform independent, and offers powerful imaging capabilities.

DocFlow provides yet another way to deliver application or business process output to the FAXCOM Server without user intervention. Data to be faxed or emailed is outputted from an application to DocFlow. DocFlow interprets the data – retrieving details such as the fax recipient name and fax phone number - and submits the fax to the FAXCOM Queue Service, which in turn sends it to the FAXCOM Server for delivery.

While some of our customers use our software developers kit (SDK) – which includes documentation and sample code for each API – other customers engage Biscom Consulting Services (BCS) to facilitate custom requests. Biscom’s BCS group will assess your requirements, propose a solution, and deliver a custom solution for your specific needs.

Do you need more details on APIs, or would you like Biscom to
contact you about your application? If so, please contact us.

.NET & Web Services

The .NET API includes a .NET library that can be accessed by any programming language that supports Visual Studio Common Language Runtime. The API includes Web Services sample code for connecting to a FAXCOM Queue to send a fax and then retrieve a transmission status on the sent fax, and also C# sample code for accessing message status collection, the pending queue, and received faxes.

COM API

The COM API provides an easy interface to the fax queue service from Visual Basic, C/C++ or any other programming or scripting language that supports COM objects. Because the COM API supports programming to standardized Windows programming environments, developers have an easy-to-use API with which to write their own applications or simple macros.

JAVA API

The Java API enables developers to interface their Java applications to the fax queue service. Biscom's Java API works with any Java Virtual Machine (JVM) running on any platform.

ENVELOPE SPECIFICATION

The Envelope Specification is a "file-drop" API, whereby an application locates the file or files to be faxed, as well as the fax destination details, in a specific directory within the fax queue service. The fax queue service retrieves the Envelope, or file containing the fax destination details, and the attachments, or files to be faxed, and packages these together for delivery to the FAXCOM Server.

SMTP

Biscom's SMTP fax gateway which is a component of FAXCOM Suite for Windows, allows users and applications to send faxes generated via SMTP mail. Mail messages are addressed using the T.37 standard for fax delivery via SMTP, for example: FAX=1-978-250-4449@faxserver.biscom.com. The body of the email message, and any attachments, are converted to TIFF and delivered via fax. A completion status message is returned via email.

MAPI

Simple MAPI (from Microsoft) includes functions for developers to make applications mail-aware and to facilitate building custom applications. Simple MAPI contains functionality for sending, addressing, receiving and saving messages. A MAPI program (or client) can be created using either Microsoft C or Microsoft Visual Basic. The MAPI 1.0 specification can be obtained by mailing mapi@microsoft.com.