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1994-06-20
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The Polling Place
Version 1.10
A Voting Booth Program
for
Remote Access 1.11 and 2.0X
Copyright 1994 Chris Hartung, HartSoft Productions
All Rights Reserved
+_____ Introduction __________________________________________________________+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This is HartSoft's Voting Booth program for Remote Access 1.11 and 2.0X.
It is the result of many hours of programming and testing, and is the author's
first venture into Shareware programming. With your support the author can
continue to develop this program, and other programs.
Shareware Version
-----------------
- Works with Remote Access V1.1x and V2.0x.
- Detects and Gives Up Time Slices with DESQView.
- Safe for use with Multi-Line BBS's using file sharing and record locking.
- Mandatory mode to force users to vote on questions chose by Sysop.
- Up to 30 questions, with 30 answers for each question.
- Configurable path for data files, can have as many question sets as
desired.
- Users are allowed to add their own answer to question.
- Easy setup, with on-line help for each step of configuration.
- Many functions available locally to Sysop, including: Chat Mode, Dos Shell,
and user time editing.
- Nightly mainentance program which
- Deletes user records not found in RA's user file.
- Removes questions after a configurable number of days, and
posts them as messages in either Hudson, JAM, or *.MSG format.
- Sets flags in RA's Users.bbs, so that users who have not voted for
a mandatory question are forced to vote for it. (See installation)
Registered Version
------------------
- Removes 5 second pauses and displays Sysop Name and BBS Name.
- Sysop function to choose whether the User can add a new answer to a
question.
- Ability to give Co-Sysop access to sysop functions.
The Polling Place has been tested and run on many computers, from a 80286 to
a 486 DX-2 66. It runs well under Netware Lite, and Lantastic 5.0. It has also
been tested under Desqview 2.61, 2.62,and 2.63, and has been run under
MS-DOS 5.0 and 6.0.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+_____ Licensing Information _________________________________________________+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
HartSoft programs are marketed under the "Shareware" concept. You are
allowed to install this program on Your system and evaluate it before deciding
whether to purchase a license to continue using it. This program is not public
domain or freeware. If you use this program for more than 30 days after
successful installation, you are legally required to register it or remove all
working copies from your system.
The User Supported or Shareware concept works only if the users of the
program support it. If you find this program useful, you can register it for
only $10.00 in U.S. funds. This will help offset the development costs, and
encourage us to write other programs that might be useful to you. After all, no
one likes to work for free! A Registration Form is included in the distribution
archive.
The Polling Place is Copyright 1993,94 by HartSoft Productions, ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED. You may copy this program and documentation for backup purposes. You
also are encouraged to share UNMODIFIED copies of the original program archive.
The copyright notice must remain attached to all copies.
You may not sell HartSoft products for a fee, or distribute them along
with other products without written permission of HartSoft productions, nor
may you modify or remove the Copyright Notice from the program or the
documentation. BBS operators who charge for access to their systems are exempt
from this provision as long as no additional payment is required for access to
HartSoft products beyond basic file access.
All HartSoft products are extensively tested before being publicly
released, but as with any software, bugs may still occur. HartSoft products are
provided as is, and neither HartSoft Productions nor any BBS operator
distributing this software is responsible for any damage incurred during the
operation of the program. You are advised to test all HartSoft products
thoroughly on a backup copy of your BBS before putting them on-line.
The Author reserves the right to stop development of new versions at any
time, and no future releases are guaranteed.
Comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome. If you have any, you
may call the support BBS listed in the SUPPORT.TXT file found in the
distribution archive, or address Netmail to Chris Hartung at the Final Frontier
FidoNet Node 1:282/4027. I can also be reached on the Doorware Echo and the
Remote Access Utilities Echo.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+_____ Setup _________________________________________________________________+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Set Up and Configuration
----------
First unzip the archive into a directory; if running multi-node I
reccomend making the .exe files read only. Next, run POLLCFG.EXE. After the
program name, type in the name for the configuration file you want to
create (EX: POLLCFG POLL.CFG). If running multinode, make a config file for
each node, and call them POLL1.CFG, POLL2.CFG, ... etc.
The first menu in POLLCFG is BBS Software. Set this depending on whether
you are running RA 1.11 or 2.0x.
Next, access the PATHS menu choice. Under this there are various
paths that need to be defined.
MAIN BBS DIRECTORY --This is the path to your main BBS directory. If you
are running single line, then this is the directory from which the BBS
info will be read.
LINE DIRECTORY--If you are running Multi-Node, then this is the directory
from which the exit info will be read. If you are running single
node, then leave this field blank.
DATA FILE PATH--This is the path where the data files will be stored. If left
blank, then the data files will be stored in the executable directory.
This allows you to have as many different sets of questions as you do
disk space. You can have one for adult users, and one for other users,
and a general set for everyone. This is one feature you won't find in
other voting booth programs.
USER FILES PATH--This is the path where RA's USERS.BBS and USERSIDX.BBS can
be found. This is required both for POLL.EXE and for PMU.EXE.
HUDSON MESSAGE BASE PATH-- THis is the path in which the Hudson message base
files can be found.
LOG FILE Path-- This is the path in which to store the log file. If left blank,
the log file will be created in the directory from which POLL.EXE is
executed. If desired, you can use the same log as RA uses.
PMU LOG PATH-- This is the path and NAME of the logfile that PMU will write
to.
The other area that needs to be configured is the DEFAULTS area.
SYSOP NAME-- The name of the sysop, which must be exactly the same as the
name used when registering.
BBS NAME-- The name of the BBS, must be exactly the same as the name used
when registering.
CO-SYSOP NAME-- This will give the user entered here access to the sysop
maintenance functions (+ Registered Only).
NODE NUMBER-- This is the node number for which this configuration file
will be used.
INACTIVITY TIMEOUT-- This is the amount of time to wait for user activity
before hanging up on the user.
NEW QUESTION SECURITY LEVEL -- This is the security level which a user is
required to have to add new questions.
SET MANDATORY FLAGS-- This Sub-menu brings up a window showing the RA flags.
When PMU is run, any question which has mandatory status set will cause
PMU to set the flags as configured here for each user that has not voted
for the specific question.
DAYS TO RUN QUESTIONS-- This is the number of days to run questions before
removing them from the question data file. The next menu choice allows
you to do several things with removed questions.
OLD QUESTION SAVE FORMAT-- This is a sub-menu with four choices of how PMU
handles questions that were deleted after running the configured number
of days. The choices are :
NONE : Delete the question, do nothing with it.
HUDSON : Writes question and results to HMB, require HMB board #.
JAM : Writes question to JAM message area, requires path and name
of JAM area. (No Extensions).
FIDO *.MSG : Write question in FIDO *.MSG format, requires path to
write to.
Lastly add The Polling Place to your menu in the BBS. If you are using
Remote Access, then you can add it as Type 7 exit, and use a batch file
(included in distribution archive). If necessary, use the *m command to have
Remote Access swap out of memory, although the polling place does not use much
memory. For example:
*c /c c:\bbs\ra\poll.bat *N *m
The *c /c calls up command.com, and the *m swaps Remote Access out of memory. If
The *N sends the node number to the batch file, which then chooses the
appropriate config file to use.
Running POLL.EXE - Command Line Parameters
------------------------------------
Example: POLL.EXE POLL1.CFG /Mand
There are only two command line parameters that The Polling Place
understands. The first is the path and name of the configuration file. This
must be the first parameter, and the door will not run without it. The other
option is Mandatory Mode. Currently, the only way that mandatory mode may be
forced is through the command line parameter. A good place to run mandatory mode
would be in the Remote Access TOP menu as an automatic execution. Use PMU to
set the flags on all user who have not voted for a question. Then, have a menu
in RA's top menu with those flags enabled, with /MAND as a command line
parameter. This will start the Polling Place in mandatory mode, and cycle
through all mandatory questions for which the user has not voted.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+_____ The Polling Place______________________________________________________+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
The Polling Place currently supports up to 30 questions, and up to 30
answers are allowed for each question. Users are given 4 menu choices. They can
vote on a question, add new questions, and see the results of questions they
have voted on. When voting on a question, users are given the option to add an
answer if there is room, and if it has not been disabled by the sysop
<+ Disable New Answer is a Registered Only Function>. Available to the Sysop
and Co-Sysop are the ability to delete questions, change the mandatory status
of questions, and configure whether the user is allowed to add new answers.
The Polling Place can also be run in mandatory mode, which will read the
questions, and will force the user to vote on all mandatory questions that the
user has not already voted for. If there are none, then nothing will be
displayed to the screen.
There are several different Status-Bars available. F1 displays User
Information, F2 is BBS info, F3 is other information, F4 lists the Sysop keys,
F10 will shut off the status bar. There are also several Sysop keys available,
including chat mode, dos shell, and time adjusting.
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+_____ Poll Maintenance Utility (PMU)_________________________________________+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
PMU is a program which can be run either nightly or weekly. It will do
the following:
-Delete users from its data file who can not be found in the RA user file.
-Set Flags for Users who have not voted for mandatory questions.
-Remove questions after a certain number of days, and if desired write
them to either Hudson, JAM, or *.MSG message areas.
-Packs the Polling Place data files.
A special thanks to all those who have helped me to program this, and also to
the users on The Final Frontier who helped test the first alpha version and
sometimes entered the same question in many times.
--Chris Hartung
--HartSoft Productions