Dear Novell Network Supervisor, As I'm sure you are aware, the menu system that comes with Novell has a few limitations. If these limitations are a problem for you and you are considering moving up to to a better menu system, here's why you might want to look at MarxMenu. MarxMenu has a Novell menu translator that can convert the users current menus to MarxMenu. The converted menu script is commented MarxMenu source code with instructions embedded in the file. Thus it has a very short learning curve. Many users report that they learned MarxMenu and converted their menus in one afternoon. The translator is run by typing: MARXMENU NOVTRANS This produces a NAME.TMP file which is MarxMenu source and a NAME.MRX file which is the compiled file. The user can then run the menu by typing MARX NAME rather than MENU NAME> Here's a list of some situations where MarxMenu is the right solution. Common Questions: ============================================================= Q. I upgraded to 3.11 (2.2) and my applications says I don't have enough memory. What do I do? A. The novell menus take about 93k of ram. MarxMenu takes 0k or NO RAM. This gives the customer a menory gain over the previous menu rather than a memory loss. Q. The !LOGOUT command doesn't work. A. In MarxMenu it works. The supervisor can control logoff by creating a batch file in the \LOGIN directory called OFF.BAT. MarxMenu runs this file when logging off. MarxMenu can also log a user off after several minutes of inactivity when in the menu system. Q. I want one menu to call another menu. How do I do that. A. MarxMenu allows for unlimited nesting of menus and is still 0k. Q. I want to lock my users into the menu and prevent them from escaping out of it. Can I do that? A. MarxMenu can prevent exiting from the menu. It can also allow users to exit conditionally so those in certian groups or with console operator rights can exit the menu. Q. I'm having a problem with the menu creating a trail of GO and RESTART files all over my server. I also have to give the user more access rights to run applications from the menu than from the command line. How do I avoid this? A. MarxMenu creates temporary batch files in a specific directory where all users have full access rights. This is set with an environment variable SET TEMP=DIRECTORY which is the same way that DOS 5 and Windows sets a directory for temporary files. Thus MarxMenu allows you to restrict access to the same level as the command line. Q. When I load a TSR under the menu, the menu crashes. How do I deal with TSR's. A. MarxMenu is a 0K menu. Thus you can LOAD and UNLOAD TSR's under menu control. And without creating "memory holes". Thus, you can unload your GateWay software to run a big Clipper application and then load the GateWay back up and come back to the menu. Q. I can't load Windows or Windows applications under the menu. What do I do? A. MarxMenu can start Windows and Windows applications with no problem. Q. I want a menu with a screen blanker. What do you have? A. MarxMenu has a screen blanker. It has an optional security feature to require the user type in their novell password to unblank the screen. Q. Speaking of passwords, how can I put a password on a menu selection. A. MarxMenu can password anything any way you want. Q. Instead of having 90 menus, I want one menu that shows the user choices based on what group they are in. How can I do that. A. MarxMenu allows menu choices to be shown conditionally based on Group or other conditions. Thus, a single network menu can serve all the users on the network. Besides Group membership, MarxMenu can test for station address, type of video (HERC, VGA, ect.), DayOfWeek, UserName, TimeOf Day, and hundreds of other conditions. Q. I want a menu that will automatically start my tape backup at 3:00am. How do I do that. A. MarxMenu allows you to automatically execute programs at certian times of the day or days of the week. The number of events are unlimited. Q. Security is an issue. I don't want users to be able to read the menu files. How do I prevent this. A. MarxMenu menu files are compiled and encrypted. Thus, a user with a hex editor can't look inside the compiled to find passwords or other information. Q. What about speed. I have a big menu and it's just too slow on my XT machines. A. MarxMenu is a compiled menu system employing overlay technology. Even on 4.77mhz computers running big menus on a heavilly loaded network you're still looking at only a few seconds to load. Here's a typical Novell Menu: ============================================================= %Main Menu,0,0,3 1. Session Management Session 2. File Management Filer 3. Volume Information VolInfo 4. System Configuration SysCon 5. File Server Monitoring FConsole 6. Print Queue Management PConsole 7. Print Job Configurations PrintCon 8. Printer Definitions PrintDef 9. Logout !Logout Here's what it looks like after using the MarxMenu Translator. The comments shown here are automatically added by the translator. Comment ========================================================== This File was converted from Novell Menu: MAIN.MNU It should behave in a similar way to the original menu but not necessarilly exactly the same. It will be close enough for you to fine tune it the way you want. To add a choice to a menu simply use the AddChoice command then add the appropiate Onkey statement. The menu will make the size adjustments accordinaly. Example: AddChoice("Print Console",10) ... ... OnKey Task(10) PConsole ... If you want to change the menu's center, pass the XY coordinates to menu's CenterStretchBox procedure. Example: CenterStretchBox("Menu Header",10,10) This will cause the menu to center at Col 10, Row 10 Once you are satisfied with the translation you can copy the TMP file over the old Novell MNU file and just work with the MarxMenu version. To control custom features, edit CUSTOM.INC and other INCLUDE Files. ========================================================= EndComment ;----- Create Variables var %NovVar1 %NovVar2 %NovVar3 %NovVar4 %NovVar5 %NovVar6 %NovVar7 %NovVar8 %NovVar9 %NovVar10 KeepUsersInMenu ;----- Here is where you add you own menu title and status line message MenuTitle = "Joe Blow's Master Menu" StatusLineText = "*-<< Acme Manufacturing Company >>-*" ;----- Load Novell look and feel routines Include "CUSTOM.INC" KeepUsersInMenu Off Comment ================================= In order to add menu choices conditionally you would append the choices to the end of the array after all the default choices are set. For Example: if NovInGroup("ACCOUNTING") AddChoice("Payroll Menu",10) endif Here is where menus are created. ================================= EndComment ;----- Translating: Main Menu AddChoice("Session Management",1) AddChoice("File Management",2) AddChoice("Volume Information",3) AddChoice("System Configuration",4) AddChoice("File Server Monitoring",5) AddChoice("Print Queue Management",6) AddChoice("Print Job Configurations",7) AddChoice("Printer Definitions",8) AddChoice("Logout",9) CenterStretchBox("Main Menu",0,0) OnKey Task(1) Session OnKey Task(2) Filer OnKey Task(3) VolInfo OnKey Task(4) SysCon OnKey Task(5) FConsole OnKey Task(6) PConsole OnKey Task(7) PrintCon OnKey Task(8) PrintDef OnKey Task(9) |Logoff OnKey ESC |if not KeepUsersInMenu or NovConsoleOperator | LeaveMenu |endif ;----- End of Menu ============================================================= MarxMenu can be downloaded from CIS NOVA LIB 14. MXMENU.ZIP Or it can be downloaded from the Computer Tyme BBS at 417-866-1665. You can call us at 1-800-548-5353 (1-417-866-1222) and we can mail you an EVAL disk with the complete Network Survival Kit. The single server price for the NSK is $495/Server. Computer Tyme 411 North Sherman, Suite 300 Springfield Mo. 65802