Adding a Fax Server

To send fax from BI Publisher, you must set up Common Unix Printing Service (CUPS) and the fax4CUPS extension, to enable fax transmissions from BI Publisher.

See the following resources for information about setting up CUPS and the fax4CUPS extension:

To set up fax delivery:

1. From the Administration page, select Fax. Select Add Server.
2. Enter the following required fields:

   • Server Name — Enter a unique name. Example: Localprinter

   • URI — Enter the Uniform Resource Identifier for the printer. Example: ipp://myhost:631/printers/myprinter

3. Enter a Filter (optional).

   A filter enables you to call a conversion utility to convert the PDF generated by BI Publisher to a file format supported by your specific printer type. BI Publisher provides the following filters:

   • PDF to PostScript

     BI Publisher includes a PDF to PostScript filter. This filter converts PDF to PostScript Level 2. Select PDF to PostScript from the list to use BI Publisher's predefined filter.

   • PDF to PCL

     To convert PDF to PCL, select PDF to PCL. This automatically populates the Filter Command field.

     BI Publisher supports the PDF to PCL conversion only for font selection requirements for check printing. For generic printing requirements, use the PDF to PostScript filter.

     You can embed PCL commands into RTF templates to invoke the PCL commands at a specific position on the PCL page; for example, to use a font installed on the printer for routing and account numbers on a check. For more information, see Embedding PCL Commands for Check Printing in Report Designer's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

   You can also call a custom filter using operating system commands.

   About Custom Filters

   To specify a custom filter, pass the native OS command string with the two placeholders for the input and output filename, {infile} and {outfile}.

   This is useful especially if you are trying to call IPP printers directly or IPP printers on Microsoft Internet Information Service (IIS). Unlike CUPS, those print servers do not translate the print file to a format the printer can understand, therefore only limited document formats are supported. With the filter functionality, you can call any of the native OS commands to transform the document to the format that the target printer can understand.

   For example, to transform a PDF document to a PostScript format, enter the following PDF to PS command in the Filter field:

   pdftops {infile} {outfile}

   To call an HP LaserJet printer setup on a Microsoft IIS from Linux, you can set Ghostscript as a filter to transform the PDF document into the format that the HP LaserJet can understand. To do this, enter the following Ghostscript command in the Filter field:

   gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=laserjet -sOutputFile={outfile} {infile}

   For fax servers, you can use the filter to transform the file to Tag Image File Format (TIFF).

4. Optionally enter the following fields if appropriate:

   • Security fields — Username and Password, Authentication Type (None, Basic, Digest) and Encryption Type (None, SSL).

   • Proxy Server fields — Host, Port, User Name, Password, Authentication Type (None, Basic, Digest)