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ACCOUNT.DOC
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1995-03-13
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96 lines
The following information covers the file format used by the account tracking
file (both .DBF and .TXT formats) which PCBoard uses to track user activities
and the debits and credits associated with them.
"Account Tracking File" - This file is used to track the user's activities
on your system and the charges (and reimbursements) that are made. When
you define the name for this file you are also instructing PCBoard as to
how it should create the file. For instance, if you name it TRACKING.DBF
then PCBoard will write to it in DBF format. Any file extension other than
.DBF will be treated as an ASCII text file.
NOTE: The Account Tracking File can be SHARED among all of your nodes by
pointing to the same physical file in all of your node configurations.
PCBoard will properly append each new record to the end of that file.
However, due to the frequency of the updates, you may want to have each node
post to its own file just to make the updates quicker. Either way works
fine, the latter approach, however, may create a little extra work for you
in having to analyze and/or combine the files when billing your customers.
As a dBase file, the following fields are defined:
Field Name Type Len Dec Description
========== ==== === === ===========
Date 'D' 8 Date when the activity occured
Time 'C' 5 Time when the activity occured
Name 'C' 25 The name of the user performing the activity
NodeNumber 'N' 5 0 The node number on which the activity worked
ConfNumber 'N' 5 0 The conference the caller was in at the time
Activity 'C' 15 Text abbreviation of the activity
SubAct 'C' 25 Filenames, etc. See below.
UnitCost 'N' 14 4 Per-Unit cost (per minute, per byte, etc)
Quantity 'N' 9 0 Number of units (minutes, bytes, etc)
Value 'N' 14 4 Total cost or payback (UnitCost * Quantity)
The Activity values, used by PCBoard, are as follows:
Activity Sub-Activity Explanation of Value
============== ==================== ==================================
CMD USAGE Name of the Command Cost for this usage of the command
CMD USAGE MIN Name of the Command Cost for the minutes it was used
DOOR USAGE Name of the DOOR Cost for this usage of the door
DOOR USAGE MIN Name of the DOOR Cost for the minutes it was used
MSG READ Cost to read messages
MSG READ CAP Cost to download captured messages
MSG READ CAP "CREDIT" Credits on an aborted capture D/L
MSG WRITE TO: name Cost to write public message
MSG WRITE PRIV TO: name Cost to write private message
MSG WRITE ECHO TO: name Cost to write echoed message
DNLD FILE File name downloaded Cost to download the file
DNLD BYTES File name downloaded Cost to download the file
UPLD FILE File name uploaded Cost/reward to upload the file
UPLD BYTES File name uploaded Cost/reward to upload the file
UPLD FILE FAIL File name uploaded Backing out charge/reward for upld
UPLD BYTES FAIL File name uploaded Backing out charge/reward for upld
CHAT TIME Cost for min spent in Group Chat
CONF TIME Cost for min spent in conference
TIME ONLINE Cost for minutes spent online
TIME ONLINE PEAK Cost for time spent during peak
LOGON LOCAL or BPS rate Cost for logging onto the system
All values are positive if they are to be subtracted from the balance,
negative if they are to be added into the balance. In other words, if you
reward your callers for uploads, then they will show up as negative values
in the account tracking file.
NOTE: Additional activities, subactivities, and charges may be posted via
programs written in PPL.
The ASCII text version of the account tracking file is identical to the
above as far as content is concerned. The layout is one record per line,
with all fields, except the last one, padded to their full length. The
format, then, looks like this:
Date 8 characters, left justified
1 character - separator
Time 5 characters, left justified
1 character - separator
Name 25 characters, left justified
1 character - separator
NodeNum 5 characters, right justified, padded on left with spaces
1 character - separator
ConfNum 5 characters, right justified, padded on left with spaces
1 character - separator
Activity 15 characters, left justified
1 character - separator
SubAct 25 characters, left justified
1 character - separator
UnitCost 14 characters, right justified with 4 decimal places
1 character - separator
Quantity 9 characters, right justified
1 character - separator
Value 14 characters, right justified, with 4 decimal places
2 characters - CR/LF