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Text File | 1991-05-07 | 27KB | 588 lines

UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access v2.1f Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May INTRODUCTION This set of programs allows Quickbbs or Remote Access to work with programs that require a Universal Text Interface (UTI), (currently PC Relay and Megamail). It implements version 2.1 of the UTI specifications. This set should include: MKUTI.DOC This documentation file MKUTICFG.EXE Configuration program for the UTI drivers UTIDOOR.EXE Gets user information UTIVER.EXE UTI version program (2.1) UTILIST.EXE Conference (message area) lister UTIHIGH.EXE High message number finder UTILSTRD.EXE Last message read Reader/Writer UTIIMPRT.EXE Imports messages into the bbs from UTI format UTIEXPRT.EXE Exports messages out of the bbs to UTI format UTINET.EXE Creates the UTIINFO.DAT file needed to run the UTI drivers with PC-Relay UTIRFLAG.EXE Flags messages as having been read (Optional, you may want to delete this file to speed up MegaMail operation leaving mail marked as unreceived) LOCAL.BAT Sample batch file to run MegaMail locally (not as a door) MEGA.BAT Sample batch file to run MegaMail as a door LOCALON.BAT Sample batch file to run MegaMail as a door in local mode. DISCLAIMER This set of programs comes with NO warranty NEITHER expressed NOR implied. It is YOUR responsibility to see that these programs meet your needs. The author assumes NO LIABILITY for any damages or results that occur from using or the inability to use these programs. As with all bbs utilities, there is some risk of problems even after testing, so full and regular backups are important! If you do not agree with this disclaimer, you are PROHIBITED from running these programs. Running them confirms your AGREEMENT to these conditions. CHANGES V2.1f 05/08/91 Fixed problem of missing trailing backslashes for the message path in Config.Ra. Added support in network mode for "gating" to Fido technology (contact me for info on how to use this - most networks do NOT allow gating of their conferences). Added UserName to display so you can see who's on. Strip out ^A characters on import in Network mode to prevent hidden lines in the Bbs. Fixed messy overwriting in display in network mode. Replaces $FF characters with spaces to avoid confusing MegaDoor (which fixes the messed up LastRead problem). Added option to config to disable direct screen writes. Added option to config for alternate file locking scheme. Added mutinode support in QuickBbs mode. Added checking for CR in from/ to/subject fields which caused problems, also added checking for these fields being blank. Added support in MegaMail mode for Fido style netmail with full checks on netmail credit and netmail credit pending updating. Fixed message threading on import. Added the optional program UTIRFLAG that MegaMail will optionally use to flag messages as having been received. V2.1e skipped due to a hacked version someone put out under this version number. V2.1d 10/30/90 Fixed bug in file sharing in UTIIMPRT. Made everything RA aware so that file copying is no longer needed. *.BBS & *.RA files are searched for first in the current directory, then in the directory that the RA environment var- iable is set to, and then in the message base subdirectory. This search is done when UTIDOOR.EXE or UTINET.EXE is run. Added true local (Batch file) mode support. Fixed RA default origin line problem. Stopped the addition of Origin lines to local message areas. MegaMail messages addressed to "Sysop" are now imported using the Sysop's name. Improved speed of UTIHIGH.EXE. Now update the users record for messages posted using MegaMail. Changed configuration info to an external file (UTICFG.DAT) to make future upgrades easier. Added update to system log file to reflect messages entered in Non-Network (MegaMail) mode. Fixed bug in handling names of more than 2 words (ie: users using a middle name). Fixed bug in handling private and/or received messages (thanks to Duane Brown for spotting this one). Improved handling of corrupted packets to be imported (including packets with long strings and embedded ^Z's). Reduced memory requirements of UTILSTRD to prevent MegaDoor problems (thanks to Richard Lee for spotting this one). Now strips full * Origin: line in Network mode, even when it wordwraps. V2.1c 08/18/90 Added support for file locking/retries to support multinode systems. Improved word-wrapping code by ignoring the soft CR's that are in the Qbbs/RA message base. In Non-Network (ie MegaMail) mode, added tear & origin lines and put entries into EchoMail.Bbs to support use of MegaMail with FidoNet style echos. Improved on-screen status progress reporting and error messages. Improved handling of messages containing an EOF (^Z). In Network mode (PC-Relay), existing FidoNet style Tear & Origin lines are now stripped when exporting. Support has been added to allow one-word names. Other minor clean-ups to slightly improve speed of operation. V2.1b 05/29/90 Fixed bug in Network paramter that caused problems with PC-Relay. Improved the speed of UTIHIGH (the high msg lister). Changed copyright display to minimize disruptions of calling programs screens. V2.1a 04/01/90 Fixed bug in Utiexprt that would sometimes cause messages to be missed or end with an errorlevel 6. This change should also substantially improve export speed. V2.1 03/28/90 First Release UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May SET-UP FOR MEGAMAIL Add a choice to one of your menus for MegaMail as a type 15 for Quickbbs or either a type 7 or 15 for Remote Access, with a command line something like: *C /C C:\Mega.Bat *P *M *! Copy the Mega.Bat file and all *.EXE files from this archive to a directory that is on your path. MegaDoor must also exist on your path or in the current directory or you will have to modify the batch file to prefix it with the path to find it. Follow the instructions that come in the MegaMail archive to set up MegaDoor and its REQUIRED configuration files. You must have extended last read pointers enabled in order to use this with Quickbbs (RA doesn't give you any choice on it). For use with RA, this utility expects that it will be executed from the directory that contains your exitinfo.bbs file (ie the node directory). If it doesn't find it in the current directory, it will search for it in the system directory, which should work in non-multi-node environments. The configuration file UTICFG.DAT must also exist in the current directory (this is to allow multinode systems to have different configurations for each node). The LOCAL.BAT file is intended to be run as a stand alone batch file. You should NOT set it up as a door from Quickbbs/RA. If you wish to have a local door from Qbbs/RA for MegaMail (even though the batch file is more convenient), you should use the LocalOn.Bat file. SET-UP FOR PC-RELAY In your PC-Relay directory, you will need to run MKUTICFG to create a UTICFG.DAT configuration file. You will also need to run UTINET to create a UTIINFO.DAT file. These 2 files contain the configuation and path information that the UTI drivers need in order to work efficiently with your message base. The UTI drivers themselves (the Uti*.Exe files) can reside in any directory that is on your path. See the documentation that came with PC-Relay for more information on setting up PC-Relay itself. DELAYS On errors reading/writing bbs files (such as file locking conflicts) there will be a DELAY before the program gives up. This is to allow time for the other program (node) to finish and allow access to the files. This delay is currently set to retry for about 3 minutes. During this time the program may appear hung, but be patient and it will either suceed or display an appropriate error message. CONFERENCE IDENTIFIERS Conference Identifiers used are the Message base NUMBERS (1 to 200). The message base name is used for both the name (shortened to 15 characters) and the description (full size). You should be careful to make sure that none of your message base descriptions are identical when shortened to 15 characters to prevent problems with MegaMail. UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May NETWORK (PC-RELAY) To use the UTI drivers with PC-RELAY you must set the conference up as an ECHOMAIL conference in QCONFIG. You must also configure PC-Relay (in its Config.Exe program) to use level 2 UTI drivers as the interface to the Bbs. When working in Network mode (the way PC-Relay automatically calls the UTI driver) the UTIExprt program will automatically strip out the --- and * Origin: lines to make the messages look more like a normal RIME or other network messages. After configuring the UTI drivers (with MKUTICFG.EXE) and placing them in a directory on your path, the UTI drivers will not need any additionaly set-up. The remaining set-up to PC-Relay should be done according to the documentation that comes with it. *** IMPORTANT *** NON-NETWORK (MEGAMAIL) Because MegaMail expects that messages will be numbered sequentially in each conference instead of in sequence globally, you will need to be careful in setting the limit on messages to extract per conference. If you have a message area that contains a few messages with high numbers (say msgs 9000 thru 9010) and more with low message numbers (say 6000 thru 6050) and you set the limit at 1000 messages, MegaMail will see that the highest message is at 9010 and with a limit of 1000 will begin extracting at 8010 (9010 minus 1000) thus only extracting 11 messages even with the limit set at 1000. The only work around to this problem is to set this limit EXTREMELY HIGH. (I suggest setting it at 8000 or so). This warning also applies to the maximum messages per packet setting. I have included sample batch files to use with MegaMail. For more information on MegaMail see the documentation that comes with it. READ / WRITE SECURITY (Applies to non-network - ie Megamail only) Quickbbs / Remote access allow you to set security levels and flags that allow separate Read / Write access to message bases. The UTI specifications do not currently allow this flexibility, so a work around had to be used. The assumption made was that no one would have write-only access to an area, although some may have read-only access. In cases where they have read only access, a note is included in the message to remind the user that they do not have write access to that area. If they do reply / enter a message in that area, UTIIMPRT will change the message area to the default that you specify in the configuration program. UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May CONFIGURATION The configuration program (MKUTICFG) MUST be run before running the UTI drivers. All of the UTI*.EXE files must be in the default directory when MKUTICFG is run. It will ask for a few default parameters. After filling in these parameters, you should press <Esc> to exit and update the configuration information. To exit without updating the parameters press Alt X. Configuration details: Bbs Path : This should be filled in with the drive and path where your message base files are located. Such as C:\BBS\. If you do not provide the trailing backslash, the config program will add one for you. For Remote Access this should be the message base sub-directory. Board Type: This is used to indicate whether you are running Quickbbs or Remote Access. Enter a "Q" for Quickbbs or an "R" for Remote Access. Default Board: This is the message base number that will be used for uploaded messages, when the user does not have security for the message base he has specified. (This will usually only be important if you give some users READ ONLY access to an area). Locked Baud Rate: If you are running with a locked baud rate to your modem. Fill in the baud rate used in this field. If you do not have a locked baud rate, leave this set to ZERO. Direct Screen Writes: Normally Yes to improve speed. Alternate Locking: Unless you are running multinode make sure this is set to NO. If you are multinode and running RA v1.01 or Qbbs 2.75 gamma 1 set it to YES. If you are running RA version 1.00 or less or Qbbs 2.75 after gamma 1 set it to NO. I'm not sure which scheme SuperBbs is using. You must have share loaded to use alternate locking. Various cost fields: Used if a Fido-style netmail message is entered in non-network(ie MegaMail) mode. This value is used to check against the users netmail credit and is the cost assigned to the message. Normal Cost: Cost of normal netmail messages. Crash Cost: Cost of messages that are CRASH or IMM. Zone Cost: Cost of messages to a different zone. MyNet Cost: Cost of messages to another node in your local net. The address (or AKA) set for the specific netmail area is the one used for determining zone or mynet messages. No attempt is made to check other possible AKA's. The full set of .EXE files from this archive may be placed in any directory that is on your DOS PATH. I have included sample batch files for use with MegaMail. For use with PC-Relay set the PC-Relay configuration to use level 2 UTI drivers and the rest should be fairly automatic (see the PC-Relay documentation for info on configuring PC-Relay). UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May ERROR LEVELS As specified in the UTI specifications, the UTI drivers will exit with a non-zero error level, whenever they encounter an unexpected problem. To help you in identifying the problems the error levels I have used are listed here. The most common problem will probably be that the named file doesn't exist in the directory that you set up in the configuration file, this is very possible with Remote Access, when you have set a message base path different than you main bbs directory. Error Level Meaning ----------- ---------------------------------------------------- 0 Success - No problems 1 Not configured - Run MKUTICFG and try again 2 Unable to write to specified UTI file - make sure that you are not out of disk space and that a read-only file by the same name does not exist. 3 Unable to read exitinfo.bbs file - make sure you have run the program via a door exit, so that exitinfo.bbs has been created 4 Unable to read/write msginfo.bbs file 5 Unable to read/write msgtxt.bbs file 6 Unable to read/write msghdr.bbs file 7 Unable to read/write msgtoidx.bbs file 8 Corrupt file - numeric conversion failed 9 Security error - non-network may extract mail for the username in Exitinfo.bbs only (ie - the current user) 10 Invalid command line - should not normally occur 11 Unable to read dorinfo1.def file - make sure that you have run this via a door exit, so that the dorinfo1.def file has been created 12 Unable to read config.bbs file 13 Unable to read messages.ra file 14 Unable to read/write lastread.bbs file 15 Unable to read/write msgidx.bbs file 16 Unable to read Config.Ra file 17 Unable to read Users.Bbs file 96 Error in paths - Check Ra system path and RaConfig Message Base path 97 Error retrieving RA environment variable Use Set RA=Drive:\BbsPath\ to set your RA environment 98 Error reading/writing UtiInfo.Dat (Temp file) Created by UtiDoor.Exe, must be in the current directory for the other Uti driver programs 99 Error reading/writing UtiCfg.Dat Created by MkUtiCfg.Exe, must be in the current directory. 100 File locking problem Make sure Share is loaded if you are using Alternate file locking. UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May FUNCTIONS Although the UTI level 2 specifications are Proprietary (see Kip Compton - author of Pc-Relay & MegaMail for more infomation). I will give a brief overview of the command line and function of the programs included in the UTI driver set. The information given here is the most that I can give out without violating the Proprietary nature of the Level 2 UTI specifications. To use the UTI drivers with either PC-Relay or MegaMail, you will not usually need to know any of the following. It is informational only to help if you do have problems. UTIDOOR.EXE Gets user information and places it in the specified filename in ascii format. UTIDOOR Path\Filename.Ext UTIVER.EXE UTI version program (2.1) writes the UTI version supported to an ascii text file UTIVER Path\Filename.Ext UTILIST.EXE Conference (message area) lister will make a list of all message areas and board numbers for all areas that are defined in your config.bbs or messages.ra file UTILIST Path\Filename.Ext UTIHIGH.EXE High message number finder. Make a list of the highest message number in the bbs for the specified conference (message board) area UTIHIGH Conference# Path\Filename.Ext UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990 by Mark May UTILSTRD.EXE Last message read Reader/Writer will either read the LastRead message pointers from the bbs to a text file or write them to the bbs from a text file. UTILSTRD {READ/WRITE} Path\Filename.Ext FirstName LastName UTIIMPRT.EXE Imports messages into the bbs from a UTI format text file. In non-network mode it also adds the tear & origin lines and updates EchoMail.Bbs to allow the messages to be echoed to a FidoNet style conference. The difference file name optionally lists the changes made to message numbers. UTIIMPRT Conference# Path\Filename [Difference.Txt] [/NETWORK] UTIEXPRT.EXE Exports messages out of the bbs to a UTI format text file starting after the specified starting message number. It will strip the tear and origin lines so that the messages will look like normal messages on non-Fido networks. UTIEXPRT Conference# Start# Path\Filename [/NETWORK] UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May MkUti v2.1f REGISTRATION A registration fee is not required for these programs. I initially wrote the interface so that I could use MegaMail and PC-Relay on my Bbs (always like to have source for what I run when I can (grin) ), and want to make the UTI drivers freely available for anyone else to use. I would appreciate it if you would fill in the form below and return it to me so that I can keep track of who has found this interface useful. Registration Information: Name: ____________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ City, ST Zip ____________________________________________ Bbs Name: ____________________________________________ Bbs Type (Quickbbs or Remote Access) _____________________ Bbs Phone Number ( ) - Any suggestions or comments ______________________________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________ Registrations should be mailed to: Mark May Mythical Kingdom Software P.O. Box 24808 Huber Heights, OH 45424 You may leave questions or get the latest version by calling: Mythical Kingdom Tech Bbs Phone (513) 237-7737 9600 baud HST/V32 FidoNet 1:110/290 RIME (RelayNet) ->MYTHKING UTI drivers for Quickbbs / Remote Access Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Mark May Other Mythical Kingdom Software Bbs utilities include: MKTODAY.LZH - a configurable today's callers screen generator. With this your Today's callers screen won't have to look like everyone elses. (RA/Qbbs/Sbbs). Also generates yesterday's callers and summary history screens. MKWAM10A.LZH - a Qbbs/Ra interface to WAM format messages for use with HyperMail style networks. MKNEW110.LZH - a FAST new files lister for Qbbs. (NOTE - has problems with some systems due to use of direct COMM support the next version will use the fossil driver and will also even further substantially increase speed). MKXRS*.LZH - an XRS message/reply tosser that improves security over the normal method of using an echomail tosser and provides the sysop with several options. Messages are quickly tossed while the caller is still online. MkNet **Coming Soon** - a QWK mail network interface for Remote Access (preforms the function that Qnet or Rnet perform for PCB for RA, so that RA Bbs's can participate in QWK networks).