Title:  FTP Site List to Database Conversion
Author: Mark R. Rinfret (mrr@mrsoft.network23.com)
Date:   12/23/94
History:
12/23/94,MRR: Added URL attribute.
11/29/94,MRR: Program creation.
**********************************************************************

Description:

Perry Rovers (Perry.Rovers@kub.nl) maintains and distributes an extensive
list of international FTP sites. The list is distributed as a series of
tagged ASCII text files. While the content is invaluable, the format is
somewhat difficult to navigate.

I have created a simple C program which will convert Perry's list into a
text file of records (1 line = one record) containing quote-delimited,
comma-separated values. The resulting file is suitable for importing into
any of a number of database products, including Microsoft Access 2.0,
my choice.

To prepare the raw input file for conversion, all of the list segments
(Usenet articles) must be concatenated into one large file. Be sure to
save the articles without mail headers or delete all mail headers before
processing the list. The list will contain a fair amount of introductory
text explaining the list format. This can be left in. Just before the first
actual site definition, insert the following string, left-justified:

BEGIN_FTP_LIST

Thus, the first part of the prepared (raw) list will look like this:

BEGIN_FTP_LIST
Site   : 161.105.2.22
Country: France
GMT    : +1
Date   : 31-Jul-94
Source : Yves.Dehery@ccett.fr
Alias  : etocs
Admin  :
Organ  : Centre Commun d'Etude de Telecommunication et de Telediffusion
	 (joint France Telecom and TDF research center, CCETT), Rennes
Server :
System : Unix
Comment: MPEG compression - MPEG bit-streams - MPEG software; THIS IS A
	 TEMPORARY ENTRY [this site must get a name soon]
Files  : MPEG: audio (decod, parser, sound), video (ccett)

Site   : a.cs.uiuc.edu
Country: USA
GMT    : -6
Date   : 11-Mar-94
Source : old ftp-list
Alias  :
Admin  :
Organ  : University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign, Urbana, Illinois,
	 CS dept.
Server :
System : Unix
Comment: max. 60 users; Problem: Failed to get host information
Files  : achien; AutoClassII; FWF; locally developed software: ACSL, CHARM,
	 Choices, edebug, edels, epoch-files, era, perts, RT, SME, treemacs;
	 networking; PDC; PEXpapers; QPE; Qual; ROLOG; sattrack; sbprolog;
	 Sun3; Sun4; tech-reports; timex; UNO; vi; womcs

(End of example)

Save this file as "ftp.raw". Next, run the program PACKFTP.EXE from the DOS
command line prompt to create the database import file, "ftp.imp":

	packftp ftp.raw ftp.imp

What you do next depends upon what you intend to do with the data. I chose to
import it into a Microsoft Access 2.0 database. You might want to use some 
other database product, spreadsheet, etc.

If you choose to use my included Access database, open the included database,
named "FTPSITE.MDB". The database is preloaded with a recent copy of the FTP
Site List data. Go ahead and play with it a bit. Select the Form view in the
Database window, then double-click on the FTPSites form entry. A form will
open displaying the first record in the database. The default query underlying
this form is one which yields all sites in site name order.

When you are ready to import the converted data, select the Macro view in the
Database window, then double-click on the ImportData macro name. All records
in the database are first deleted and then the new data is imported.

Feel free to alter the database to suit your needs. Its minimal capabilities
were enough to serve my purposes. If you don't have Microsoft Access 2.0 but
you're curious, I've included a bitmap file, ACCESS.BMP, which you can view
in Windows Paintbrush.

This distribution also includes the source and project definition file for the
PACKFTP program. I used Borland C++ 4.0 to build the program, but it's plain
vanilla and should compile with just about anything.

Enjoy!

	Mark Rinfret