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I'm trying to send faxes through RightFax in an efficient manner.

My users need to fax PDFs and even though the application is working fine, it is very slow for bulk sending (> 20 recipients, taking abt 40 seconds per fax).

// Fax created
fax.Attachments.Add(@"C:\\Test Attachments\\Products.pdf", BoolType.False);
fax.Send();

RightFax has this concept of *Library Documents, so what I thought we could do was to store a PDF document as a Library Document on the server and then reuse it, so there is no need to upload this PDF for n users.

I can create Library Documents without problems (I can retrieve them, etc.), but how do I add a PDF to this? (I have rights on the server.)

LibraryDocument doc2 = server.LibraryDocuments.Create;
doc2.Description = "Test Doc 1";
doc2.ID = "568"; // tried ints everything!
doc2.IsPublishedForWeb = BoolType.True;
doc2.PageCount = 2;
doc2.Save();

Also, once I created a fax, the API gives you an option to "StoreAsNewLibraryDocument", which is throwing an exception when run. System.ArgumentException: Value does not fall within the expected range

fax.StoreAsNewLibraryDocument("PRODUCTS","the products");

What matters for us is how to send say 500 faxes in the most efficient way possible using the API through RFCOMAPILib. I think that if we can reuse the PDF attached, it would greatly improve perfomance. Clearly, sending a fax in 40 seconds is unacceptable when you have hundreds of recipients.

How do we send faxes with attachments in the most efficient mode through the API?

Peter Mortensen
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Intrigue
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  • This is a very basic technological limitations. Fax machines operate over a phone line, signaling speed is 14.4 kbps at best. Supplanted as the spam method of choice by email, you can get that going at Internet speeds of 10 Mbps or better. – Hans Passant Jan 05 '13 at 16:37

1 Answers1

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StoreAsNewLibraryDocument() is the only practical way to store LibraryDocuments using the RightFax COM API, but assuming you're not using a pre-existing LibraryDocument, you have to call the function immediately after sending the first fax, which will have a regular file (not LibraryDoc) attachment.

(Don't create a LibraryDoc object on the server yourself, as you do above - you'd only do that if you have an existing file on the server that isn't a LibraryDocument, and you want to make it into one. You'll probably never encounter such a scenario.)

The new LibraryDocument is then referenced (in subsequent fax attachments) by the ID string you specify as the first argument of StoreAsNewLibraryDocument(). If that ID isn't unique to the RightFax Server's LibraryDocuments collection, you'll get an error. (You could use StoreAsLibraryDocumentUpdate() instead, if you want to actually replace the file on the server.) Also, remember to always specify the AttachmentType.

In theory, this should be all you really have to do:

' First fax:

fax.Attachments.Add(@"C:\\Test Attachments\\Products.pdf", BoolType.False);
fax.Attachments.Item(1).AttachmentType = AttachmentType.aFile;
fax.Send();
fax.StoreAsNewLibraryDocument("PRODUCTS", "The Products");
server.LibraryDocuments("PRODUCTS").IsPublishedForWeb = BoolType.True;

' And for all subsequent faxes:

fax.Attachments.Add(server.LibraryDocuments("PRODUCTS"));
fax.Attachments.Item(1).AttachmentType = AttachmentType.aLibraryDocument;
fax.Send();

The reason I say "in theory" is because this doesn't always work. Sometimes when you call StoreAsNewLibraryDocument() you end up with a LibraryDoc with a PageCount of zero. This happens seemingly at random, and is probably due to a bug in RightFax, or possibly a server misconfiguration. So it's a very good idea to check for...

server.LibraryDocuments("PRODUCTS").PageCount = 0

...before you send any of the subsequent faxes, and if necessary retry until it works, or (if it won't) store the LibraryDoc some other way and give up on StoreAsNewLibraryDocument().

Whereas, if you don't have that problem, you can usually send a mass-fax in about a 1/10th of the time it takes when you attach (and upload) the local file each time.

If someone from OpenText/RightFax reads this and can explain why StoreAsNewLibraryDocument() sometimes results in zero-page faxes, an additional answer about that would be appreciated quite a bit!

John H.
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