Click2Fax

Overview

Click2Fax is an App written in PHP that allows anyone to send faxes using the UnifiedAPI. It uses the Fax resource exposed by Unified API and the following request:

•  Create Faxes - Send fax to any number without need of approval

Installation

In order to be able to use the Click2Fax App, your system must be compliant with the requirement below:

• Your system needs to have PHP 5.3 installed or higher
• Your VoipNow server must be at least version 3.0.0
• The extension should be able to send faxes

Setup

STEP 1: Switch to the directory that can be accessed over web (e.g /var/www/html) and download the files.

You also need to give proper permissions and ownership right for the files of the plugin - the plugin needs to be owned by the web server user and group. For example, if we use httpd as a webserver:

chmod -R 755 <PATH_TO_Click2Fax>

chown -R httpd:httpd <PATH_TO_Click2Fax>

In order to use the App, you must configure it. To do so, open the file config.php in the <PATH_TO_Click2FAX>/config/config.php and change the following settings:

STEP 4: Setup the system.

You also need to make sure the VoipNow system is set to receive faxes.

Behavior

User interface

As soon as the setup process is complete, you can access the interface at https://<IP>/<PATH_TO_CLICK2FAX>/.

The page displays a single button for sending faxes. Click this button and a form similar to the one below will be displayed. 

To send the fax, you must fill in the form following the explanations below.

Once you have filled in the form correctly, press the Send fax button.

Internal flow

As soon as the Send fax button is pressed, the scripts sends a Create Faxes request to the VoipNow server throughUnifiedAPI. It uses the extension defined in the global variable VN_EXTENSION as the source of the fax call.

First it sets the HTTP headers and the Request body accordingly:

 $token = generateToken();
 if (!$token) {
    return false;
 }

 $faxRequest = new FaxRequest();
 $faxRequest->initHeaders(array(
     'Authorization: ' . $token
 ));
				
$params = array(
    'recipients' => array($_POST['to'])
);


//Set fax information (ex. recipients list)
$this->_payload['request'] = json_encode($params);

// Set uploaded files to send them by fax
foreach ($files as $fileAlias => $fileInfo) {
    $this->_payload[$fileAlias] = new CURLFile($fileInfo['location'], $fileInfo['type'], $fileInfo['name']);
}


$response = $faxRequest->execute();

The HTTP Request made by the App looks like this:

POST /uapi/faxes/@me/0003*210 HTTP/1.1
HOST x.x.x.x
Authorization: <OAUTH_ACCESS_TOKEN>
Content-Length:469
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=------------325343636
------------325343636-------- 
Content-Disposition:form-data; name="files"; filename="/path/to/file/file.ext"
Content-Type;application/octet-stream
  
This is my fax
------------325343636
Content-Disposition:form-data; name="request";
{
  "recipients":[<FAX_EXTENSION_TO>]
}
------------325343636

Then sets the files which have been uploaded through the browser:

$files = array();

$numberOfFiles = count($_FILES['attachments']['name']);
for ($i = 0; $i < $numberOfFiles; $i++) {
    if ($_FILES['attachments']['error'][$i] > 0) {
        continue;
    }

    $files[$_FILES['attachments']['name'][$i]] = array(
        'location' => $_FILES['attachments']['tmp_name'][$i],
        'type' => $_FILES['attachments']['type'][$i],
        'name' => $_FILES['attachments']['name'][$i]
    );
}

Any errors will be displayed on the browser.

curl_setopt($httpRequest, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER, false);
// this should be added before curl_exec($httpRequest);