INFO: Zetafax printer not supported on an application server

ZTN1020

ID: ZTN1020

This Zetafax technical note applies to:

• Zetafax 5.5 and later

Summary

Zetafax users generally have two printers available to them for printing from applications - "Zetafax Printer" and "Zetafax FaxMerge Printer".In many respects the printers can be used interchangeably, though there are some differences, and some features that are only supported by the Zetafax Printer.

The Zetafax Printer can only be used by one application at a time.Because of this it is not supported on application servers such as Citrix WinFrame and Microsoft Terminal Server - these users instead use the Zetafax FaxMerge printer, which is fully supported on these platforms.

However, this means that features that require the Zetafax Printer are not supported from application server sessions.This document details these features, and gives alternative ways of achieving the same functionality.

NOTE: The Zetafax client shipped in SP1 and earlier Zetafax 7 releases did not support 'Print to Fax' from an application in a Windows 2000 terminal services environment.This issue is resolved by applying the Zetafax client update 7.00.3.43 (ZFW2KTS_700343.exe). This is available on the Equisys web site www.equisys.com/updatesas a separate download for Zetafax 7 users, and introduced support for the Zetafax printer in a Windows 2000 terminal services environment.

More information

The following features require the Zetafax Printer, and are not supported on application server sessions:

Embedded addressing

This is an advanced feature that allows you to include the recipient details (name, organisation and fax number) in the document being printed.These are passed to the Zetafax client that will submit the fax automatically.

NOTE: The Zetafax printer in a Windows 2000 terminal services environment does not support embedded addressing.

Another way of achieving the same result in application server sessions is to use DDE commands.These are commands passed directly from the application to the Zetafax client - most applications which support macro or command languages (e.g. Microsoft Office) also support this, and a macro can be written to extract the information from the document and pass it to Zetafax directly.

Alternatively the embedded addressing document can be sent by printing from an application running in the 'rich' client rather than in the terminal session - often a few key people rather than all users do this sort of automated sending.

Automatic start up of Zetafax client

The Zetafax Printer is aware of the Zetafax client, and will start it if it is not already running.The FaxMerge printer uses a different technology called the "Universal Printer Driver" which does not support this - although the fax can be printed without the Zetafax client running, the addressing dialog is only displayed once the client is started.

Application server users should be told that they must start the Zetafax client to send a fax - this is intuitive, and most users guess that this is required.You may choose to add the Zetafax client to the Start-up group or login script for your users.

Creating attachment files and letterheads

Attachment files are documents that are stored on the Zetafax server, and can be added to a fax you send simply by selecting them from a list.They are often standard documents sent to more than one person - e.g. product documents, terms of business or an office map.

The standard way of creating these is to use the Zetafax Printer that produces a file in the correct format for saving directly.However the FaxMerge printer can also be used to create attachments by using the Zetafax server to convert them into the correct graphics format.This is done using the Forward command (File menu) to forward the file to your Zetafax IN window, from where it can then be saved as normal.

This is detailed in the references.

References

For additional information on Zetafax in an application server environment, please see the following Zetafax technical notes:

ZTN1002-HOWTO Creating letterheads and attachments with application servers.

ZTN1024-HOWTO Configuring Zetafax (pre 6.01) with Citrix WinFrame.

ZTN1041-HOWTO Configuring Zetafax (pre 6.01) with MS Terminal server.

ZTN1053-HOWTO Configuring Zetafax 6.01 on an application server.

ZTN1131-HOWTO Configure Zetafax 7 with Windows 2000 terminal services.

ZTN1132-HOWTO Configure Zetafax 7 with Windows 2000 terminal services (mixed mode).

Last updated: 27 April 2001 (GC/DH)