[Asterisk-Users] Re: *HOWTO* : using mime-construct with outlook - send fax to email recipient

[Jesse Guardiani]

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 11:50:07 -0400, Brian Dingman wrote:

> Can anybody maybe help me a little here. I made the changes below...
> but I don't think I did them exactly correct. When I get a fax now, it
> is named:
> _var_spool_asterisk_fax_1114530379.5.tif.pdf
> 
> I think the problem is with the second line.
> $p .= cont "Content-Type: $type;\n name=" .
>  token_quote($arg) . "\n"

Why don't you just use the metamail package instead? Here's how
I did it:

[macro-faxreceive]
exten => s,1,SetVar(FAXFILE=/var/spool/asterisk/fax/${UNIQUEID}.tif)
exten => s,2,DBGet(EMAILADDR=extensionemail/${MACRO_EXTEN})
exten => s,3,rxfax(${FAXFILE})
exten => s,103,SetVar(EMAILADDR=jesse at wingnet.net)
exten => s,104,Goto(3)

[fax]
exten => 2201,1,Macro(faxreceive)
exten => 2202,1,Macro(faxreceive)
exten => 2203,1,Macro(faxreceive)

exten => h,1,system(/usr/local/sbin/mailfax ${FAXFILE} ${EMAILADDR} "${CALLERIDNUM} ${CALLERIDNAME}")


NOTE: asterisk automatically jumps to the [fax] context if you are using
faxdetect in your zapata.conf

NOTE2: mailfax is a custom script I wrote. This is what it looks like:

---------------------- START mailfax script ------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

FAXFILE=$1
RECIPIENT=$2
FAXSENDER=$3
FAXID=`date +%j%H%M%S`
tempfoo="fax"
TMPFILE=`mktemp /tmp/${tempfoo}XXXXXX`
TMPFILE_A=`mktemp /tmp/${tempfoo}XXXXXX`.pdf


/usr/bin/tiff2pdf -p letter "${FAXFILE}" > "${TMPFILE_A}"
metasend -b -t "$RECIPIENT" -s "Fax from $FAXSENDER" \
  -f "${TMPFILE}" -m 'text/plain' -n \
  -m 'application/pdf;name="fax'${FAXID}'.pdf"' -f "${TMPFILE_A}" \
  -D 'PDF Fax Document'

rm "${TMPFILE}"
rm "${TMPFILE_A}"
---------------------- END mailfax script ------------------------------

I based this config on the excellent information found at the following
website:
    http://scottstuff.net/scott/archives/000152.html

But note that I heavily modified the mailfax script from the original
version. Why?
    1.) The original used the Perl mime-construct script, which has a lot
        of annoying Perl dependencies.
    2.) The original didn't send usable MIME attachments to me. Neither
        KMail or Evolution could successfully decode the attachment
        because the email contained no text/plain part.
My script uses metasend from the metamail package, instead of
mime-construct, and it adds an empty text/plain section at the beginning
of the email so that KMail and Evolution and probably other mail clients
can decode the attachment properly. The trade off is that it has to use
temporary files. Uck. :)

Also, you'll probably have to change some of the paths for things like
tiff2pdf and metasend.

HTH!





> Thanks
> 
> On 2/7/05, Asterisk <asterisk at dotr.com> wrote:
>> We've managed to setup spandsp to receive faxes and email them to the
>> appropriate person.
>> 
>> We did all of our testing using Thunderbird, and the attached pdf files
>> worked very well. However, when we went "live", some people complained
>> that the attachments in outlook were named <<subject>>.dat instead (for
>> example) of 123456.pdf
>> 
>> Having looked into the mime-construct script, we noticed a subtle
>> difference between working Outlook attachments and Thunderbird. The
>> differences are shown below in case anyone is interested.
>> 
>> left is the original mime-construct, right is our modified version
>> 
>> 332c332
>> <           $part_header .= "Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="
>> ---
>>  >           $part_header .= "Content-Disposition: inline; filename="
>> 405c405
>> <               $p .= cont "Content-Type: $type\n"
>> ---
>>  >               $p .= cont "Content-Type: $type;\n name=" .
>> token_quote($arg) . "\n"
>> 
>> Outlook now names the attachment correctly, and Thunderbird also seems
>> to work just as well with the changes.
>> 
>> Hope someone finds this useful.
>> 
>> Julian.
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Asterisk-Users mailing list
>> Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
>> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users at lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
http://www.wingnet.net