Supported AlphaFAX Commands
Reviewed July 2020
This first set of commands consists of those that are also supported by AlphaFAX. The first of these, @@TELNO, is the only mandatory command. All the others are optional and mostly serve to provide additional information in the fax log which is kept by the Fax Service (see W2000 Event Viewer, Application Messages.)
@@TELNO=<target fax number>
@@ID=<identifier for log file>
@@NOTIFY=<email address to send delivery report to>
The @@NOTIFY command in AlphaFAX took a jobname as its parameter and caused a screen message to be sent to that job’s terminal when the fax had been sent or aborted. In the A-Shell/FAX version, the Fax Service is requested to send an email delivery (or non-delivery) report to the specified address. However, in order for this to work, the Fax Server must have an email interface configured. This command can also be called @@MAILDR.
Warning: Due to a bug in some versions of the Windows Fax Server, specifying the @@NOTIFY command may result in no output at all (no fax, no notification).
@@PREVIEW
The @@PREVIEW command causes all of the other @@ commands to be ignored and instead of sending it to the fax printer, it is sent to the printer. If you don’t specify any printer, then the A-Shell default printer is used. Otherwise, you can specify a printer using the following syntax:
@@PREVIEW=<printer name>
For example:
@@PREVIEW=laser
As long as the printer specified is capable of raster graphics, the output should look essentially identically to what the fax would look like. Note that the only statement that is processed from the printer INI for the specified printer is the DEVICE statement. All the other printing parameters of the preview printer’s INI are ignored, and those of the original fax printer INI are used instead. (The idea here is to make the output on the preview printer match that on the fax printer.)
Although this is not specific to faxing, you may find it handy to have a printer called PROMPT whose INI specifies DEVICE = PROMPT: in which case @@PREVIEW=PROMPT would cause A-Shell to prompt you for the preview printer name.
If you want to send the fax AND print it (for example, to keep a hardcopy for yourself) then you can use the following command:
@@PRINTFAX=<printer name>
This is identical in concept to @@PREVIEW except the fax is also sent.
@@PRINTFAX is not part of the AlphaFAX command set.
