Understanding InterFAX outbound fax transmission confirmation formats

When you send faxes through the InterFAX email-to-fax service, you may choose to receive confirmations.  You can select to receive confirmations on success of a transaction, on failure, always, or never. This setting can be viewed and changed by logging into your InterFAX account and clicking Preferences -> Outgoing, and scrolling down to the Authentication & Feedback section.

These confirmations are standard email messages which are returned to the original sender address of the email-to-fax. Different formats of these confirmations are available and will be discussed here.

Confirmation Option: Plain Text

This returns a human-readable message with no HTML formatting. See the field descriptions below for an explanation of fields.

Confirmation Option: HTML - Local Language

This returns a human-readable email with both a text part and an HTML part. HTML-capable email programs will display only the HTML part. The content will be in the default language of the InterFAX partner handling your account.

See the field descriptions below for an explanation of fields.

Confirmation Option: HTML - English

This returns a human-readable email with both a text part and an HTML part. HTML-capable email programs will display only the HTML part. The content will be in the English. See the field descriptions below for an explanation of fields.

Confirmation Option: CSV

This returns a machine-readable email, with details of your transaction as comma-separated values. The content fields are: TransactionID, CSID, PagesSent, Status, OriginalSubject, DestinationFax, Duration, SubmitTime, CompletionTime, Contact. See the field descriptions below for an explanation of fields.

Confirmation Option: XML

This returns a machine-readable email, with details of your transaction as an XML structure. An example structure is given below. See the field descriptions below for an explanation of tags.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

   12345678
   PRODI'S PIZZA
   1
   0
   Online Pizza Order #5696523
   0013447974477
   52
   2005-12-07 13:45:01
   2005-12-07 13:47:41
   John Moore

When submitting a fax broadcast, a slightly more complex structure is returned, with the following format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

 
    TransactionID
    CSID
    PagesSent
    Status
    OriginalSubject
    DestinationFax
    Duration
    CompletionTime
    CompletionTime
    Contact
 
 
    TransactionID
    CSID
    PagesSent
    Status
    OriginalSubject
    DestinationFax
    Duration
    CompletionTime
    CompletionTime
    Contact
 
 
    TransactionID
    CSID
    PagesSent
    Status
    OriginalSubject
    DestinationFax
    Duration
    CompletionTime
    CompletionTime
    Contact
 
...

Field Descriptions

Field/Tag	Description
TransactionID	The transaction ID of the fax in the InterFAX system. This is a unique identifier. Note that individual faxes sent to recipients in a fax broadcast each have a distinct transaction ID.
CSID	Calling Station Identifier. This is the identifier set on the destination fax machine. Every fax machine can be programmed with its own identifier which includes up to 23 letters and digits.
PagesSent	The number of complete pages successfully sent. Partially-sent faxes will display a number smaller than the number of pages originally submitted.
Status	The result of the fax transmission. In human-readable confirmations, this will be spelled out in words. In machine-readable confirmations, see the list of InterFAX Error Codes.
OriginalSubject	The text inserted into the subject line of the outgoing email-to-fax. This is for reference only and is not used by InterFAX. Note that advanced modifiers, such as /b, are removed from the information returned here.
DestinationFax	The destination fax number in international canonical format.
Duration	The duration in seconds of the outgoing fax.
SubmitTime	The date and time at which InterFAX received this fax for transmission. In ISO 8601 date/time format, i.e. yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.
CompletionTime	The date and time at which InterFAX completed handling of this fax, whether succesfully transmitted or not. In ISO 8601 date/time format, i.e. yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.
Contact	This field is populated online when sending a broadcast using InterFAX's online list management system. In such a case, it includes the value of the Contact field of the respective entry.