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Text File | 1993-01-06 | 25KB | 549 lines

┌──────────────────────────────┐ │ Online Archive Master - v5.0 │ │ (C) 1992, William J. Dykstra │ └──────────────────────────────┘ ─────────────────────────────────── version 5.0 is designed Exclusively for Remote Access BBSes ─────────────────────────────────── What is it? ────────── Online Archive Master is a program that allows a user on a BBS to view the contents of archive files while online. Many archives are very large, and may take upwards of 30 minutes to download. By using this program, a person can read the documentation included with a file to help determine if they would like to spend that much time downloading it. This program will display the contents of (files within) the archive to the user. The user may then choose to read a file or files within the archive, or to extract individual files to download separately. This feature is handy if someone already has a program, but lost or corrupted a file, or if someone just wants to download the document- ation, they can extract it and download just the part they want. There are several programs similar to this one available, however most only support one archive method (namely, ZIP). Online Archive Master supports ZIP, ARJ, LZH, LHA, ARC and PAK formats. Any files that are extracted are stored in ZIP format. Versions of Online Archive Master up to and including version 3.8 should run on any BBS that supports DORINFO1.DEF. Version 4.0 is EXCLUSIVELY for Remote Access BBSes, and will not run on any other BBS (as far as I know). X00 FOSSIL DRIVER IS RECOMMENDED, AS BNU tends to lockup with some versions. If you load BNU.SYS instead of BNU.COM, then you may be able to run Online Archive Master. Disclaimer (and some other blab...) ─────────────────────────────────── This is where I say I will not be held responsible for any damages incurred by the use of this program, etc etc etc. I'll skip all that legal blab... What I'm saying is, USE THIS PROGRAM AT YOUR OWN RISK. If it chews your harddrive, fries your RAM, sizzles your video card, or in any other way makes you hate me and/or my program, IT IS YOUR PROBLEM AND NOT MINE. I made it for MY use on MY BBS, but a few local sysops liked it and wanted it released. Since then there have been several enhancements, etc, and it works absolutely PERFECTLY on my system. It should do the same on yours. If it doesn't work properly, please let me know, and I'll see what I can do to fix it. I think your users will love having this program online, as it can save them a LOT of time in wasted downloads if they check out the file BEFORE they download it. With this program they can do just that... they'll love you. What will it cost you for this extra step to sysop of the year? NOTHING! That's right, this is FREEWARE! I hope your users get a lot of use out of this program. Some of the users on my BBS check out just about every file thoroughly (read the docs, etc) before downloading them. A few people even paged to ask where the door was when I was working on some enhancements. I know this isn't the only door of its kind floating around, but this is the only one that I know of that is FREE while having all the features that this one has. (and for you Canadians out there, its a CANADIAN MADE PROGRAM, EH!?) Thanks for using the Online Archive Master! --Bill Oh, by the way... I HATE reading documentation, but I REALLY hate writing the stuff. I'm also not that great a technical writer, so I hope I've kept things as brief and as clear as possible. If you have trouble figuring things out, please let me know, and I'll try to get the problem solved. New in version 5.0 ────────────────── Version 5.0 has been modified to work with Remote Access BBSes. The program will now read your CONFIG.RA and FILES.RA setup files to determine what file areas are currently available, what their security levels are, and if you are using the Alternate Files Path (for systems using CD-ROMs, this is very helpful). The program will check both the security level and the flags that are set for each file area. Both the LIST and DOWNLOAD security levels are checked. If a user has the required access level to list files in an area, then Online Archive Master will allow them to view and read files from those areas. If they have download access to the area, they will also be allowed to extract files from the area. Why the jump from v3.8 to v5.0? First, this Remote Access upgrade required some major changes to the program. Second, I was already running Online Archive Master 4.3 (Custom version) on my BBS, so I did not want to go from v3.8 to v.4.0. This version replaces both the public v3.8 AND my custom v4.3. New in version 3.8 ────────────────── Version 3.8 has added support for PKunzip 1.93 and ARJ 2.30. Previous version would only work with PKunzip 1.10 and ARJ 2.10. You may also supply PKzip with extra command line switches, such as the -Z switch (for adding comments to the zip). Please read the section regarding the configuration file in detail, as it has changed from previous versions. BTW: Version 3.8 is the Christmas version! (Modified and compiled on Dec 25/92. Merry Christmas!) New in version 3.5 ────────────────── Version 3.5 now supports wildcards * and ? when entering the filename to be viewed. Each match will be displayed along with the area name of the area it was found in, and the user can choose if they want to view that file or continue searching. File flagging has been inhanced, allowing a user to flag several files in a row. It used to let them flag a file, then it redrew everything, displaying the newly flagged file as flagged. Now it will allow them to enter several flag numbers, and then it will redisplay everything. A log file was added, to track the activity of users. You specify the filename of the log file in your configuration file. No bugs were found in version 3.0, but a few extra checks were added to help ensure that no problems arise in the future. What's New from Version 2? ───────────────────────── Online Archive Master 3.0 had been completely rewritten. The speed of the program was VASTLY improved, as it no longer copies the file that the user is viewing, and it does not actually unarchive the entire archive file before allowing the user to view the files. The program will unarchive individual files when a READ or EXTRACT request is made, but that is much quicker than unarchiving the entire file. New features of the program include an enhanced user interface, with better menus and a new file selection system. With the new file selection system, the file(s) that a user wants to extract or read are selected by file number, rather than by file name. This saves the user a lot of time typing in filenames. File flagging is also available. With file flagging, a user can flag several files, and can then extract or read the flagged files. When reading flagged files, they will be read in order, and the user is asked if they want to read each file as it comes up. When extracting flagged files, all the flagged files are extracted together. Enhanced Read Functions: The file reader is also improved. It now allows for text searching. It also tries to detect if a file is an ASCII file or not. If it appears to be a non-ascii (binary) file, it will not allow the user to read it. ANSI files are also displayed properly, in most cases. The file listing function will display a listing of file areas to a user. Only the file areas that the user's security level allows them to access will be shown. After selecting a file area, the user can view the contents of FILES.BBS for that area. NOTE that file sizes and dates are not shown. ONLY the contents of the FILES.BBS file are displayed (which is the file names and descriptions, in most cases). One exception to this is if the file is listed in FILES.BBS, but it is not in the directory. In this case, the word [OFFLINE] will appear after the filename. All file areas that a user has access to are searched when they select the file to be viewed. If you have more than one file with the same filename, the first one found will be used. INSTALLING Online Archive Master ──────────────────────────────── Installation of Online Archive Master is not simple, but should not be too difficult for you to figure out, if you know the basics of DOS. To setup the program, follow these steps. First, you will need to create a directory that you will copy the Online Archive Master program files into. The program will be run from this directory. Create the directory, and copy the files into it. Now you must create a WORKING directory. This is the directory into which the program will unarchive any files it needs to. Once you have done the above steps, be sure that the directory you just created for the program files is the CURRENT directory. Once it is, you need to modify the AM-CONF.DAT file. This is the configuration file. This configuration file has 13 lines. Line 1 is the registration code. (leave a bunch of zeros if unreg'd) Line 2 is your BBS name. Line 3 is your Sysop name. Line 4 is the path to and filename of the log file to be used. Line 5 is the path to your Remote Access SYSTEM FILES *. Line 6 is the path to your WORKING directory (where temp files will be unarchived.) Line 7 is the path to your EXTRACT file directory. This is the directory where any file that a user extracts will be stored. Note that this should be one of your file area directories. I have chosen to place mine in my requested files directory. Line 8 is the file name of the extract file. Normally just use EXTRACT.ZIP for the file name. Line 9 is the description of the file area where EXTRACT.ZIP can be found and downloaded from. Line 10 is for optional extra command line switches for PKzip. These are used when a user extracts a file, and PKzip builds the extract file. For example, to add a comment to the ZIP file, this line in the config file might be: -Z < D:\RA\COMMENT.TXT where COMMENT.TXT would contain your ZIP comment. *** Leave a blank line if you don't want to use any extra switches. Line 11 is the version of PKunzip you are using. If you use PKunzip version 1.10, then the line should be 110. If you use version 1.93, the line should be 193. Line 12 is the version of ARJ you are using. This should be 210 if you use ARJ 2.10, and it should be 230 if you use ARJ 2.30. Line 13 is for locking the modem's baud rate. If you do NOT lock the baud rate on your system, leave this value set to 0. If you do lock it, put the locked baud rate (NO commas!) here. Sample configuration file: 00000000000000000 <- reg code Your BBS name <- bbs name Your Sysop Name <- sysop name D:\RA\AM.LOG <- Log filename D:\RA\ <- path to RA system files * D:\RA\AM5\WORK\ <- path to working directory ** D:\RA\FILE\REQUEST\ <- path to extract file EXTRACT.ZIP <- filename of extract file -Z < D:\RA\COMMENT.TXT <- Extra PKZip switches The File Request Area <- file area description 110 <- PKunzip version (110 or 193) 230 <- ARJ version (210 or 230) 38400 <- locked baud rate of 38,400 * the Remote Access system files that the program will look for are: EXITINFO.BBS, DORINFO1.DEF, CONFIG.RA, and FILES.RA. ** MAKE SURE that the working directory you specify above is EMPTY! ** Online Archive Master will erase all files in the working directory when it exits. Please be sure you don't have any files you need in the working directory you specify. Once you have correctly modified this file, save it (as an ASCII file). If you do not have a registration code, leave it set to zeros. Any incorrect value will simply be ignored. UPGRADING FROM a previous version of Online Archive Master? ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you are upgrading from a previous release of Online Archive Master, you may as well delete EVERYTHING except your configuration file (AM-CONF.DAT). This new Remote Access version does not require the AM-DIR.DAT (available directories) config file, so that may be deleted. The old version EXE file may also be killed. Keep your config file though, and just make sure it matches the new config file format. If you ran Online Archive Master 3.8, you should NOT have to modify your configuration file at all. No other setup for this program is required! It will take care of itself for the most part. Remember that the program must be run from the directory you created for it, so be sure your batch file makes it the current directory before running the program. Also be sure the program will be able to find DORINFO1.DEF in the path you supplied. To run the program, just run the AM_50.EXE file. No parameters are required. Set this up as a TYPE 7 program in your RACONFIG menu selection. NOTE: some systems have reported that they must run the program with the swapping option, or they don't have enough memory. If you experience problems, try using the *M parameter in RACONFIG to enable swapping. On my system I do not use *M, however, and it works fine, even in Desqview. The following programs MUST be available to the program at all times. Be sure these programs can be found in a directory that is in your PATH statement: PKZIP.EXE (any version) (for ZIPing extract file) PKUNZIP.EXE (ver 1.10 or 1.93) (for UNpacking ZIP files) ARJ.EXE (ver 2.10 or 2.30) (for UNpacking ARJ files) PKUNPAK.EXE (ver 3.61) (for UNpacking PAK files) PKXARC.EXE (ver 3.4) (for UNpacking ARC files) LHA.EXE (ver 2.11) (for unpacking LZH and LHA files) If the program cannot find these files, then it will NOT work. If you don't have ANY .LZH or .LHA files, you can do without the LHA.EXE program. If you don't have ANY .ARJ files, you don't need ARJ.EXE. If you don't have ANY .ARC files, you don't need PKXARC.EXE. If you don't have ANY .PAK files, you don't need PKUNPAK.EXE. If you don't have ANY .ZIP files (ya right!) then you won't need PKUNZIP.EXE. UPDATE: PKUNZIP v2.04c. If you are using PkUNZIP 2.04c, please set the configuration file for version 1.93. This will work. If you set Online Archive Master for version 1.10, it will probably not work with 2.04c. File Listings: ───────────── One of the options available to the user is to view the file listings for any of the available file areas. This will simply display the contents of the appropriate FILES.BBS to the user. It does NOT display the size or time/date of the file, but it will display the word [OFFLINE] by the filename if the file is not found in the directory. Alternate Files Path: Remote Access offers the option of using an Alternate Files Path if you have your FILES.BBS files located in one directory (as FILES.xxx), rather than having FILES.BBS in each directory with the actual files. This is a great feature for people (like myself) who run CD-ROM drives. Online Archive Master reads CONFIG.RA, and will AUTOMATICALLY look for the chosen file area in the alternate files directory if one was specified. If it cannot find the appropriate FILES.xxx file in that directory, it will then look for FILES.BBS in the directory where the files are located. If it still cannot find a file listing it will simply inform the user that the specified file listing could not be found. Please note that even though there may be no file listing (FILES.BBS) for a file area, Online Archive Master will still search that area when looking for filename matches (when a user specifies the name of the file to view). The only time a file area is NOT searched is when the user does not have the required access level to list files in that area. NOTICE: File areas that are not being used (blank file area name) are set to security level 65535, to prevent anyone from accessing them. SUGGESTIONS: ─────────── I recommend that you delete all files from the WORKING directory and delete the EXTRACT file (EXTRACT.ZIP unless you changed it) when each user logs off. The program will NORMALLY delete all files within the working directory, but you can also make your batch file do it, to be safe. The program will NOT delete the extract file! (obviously, as the user will want to be able to download it!) You should delete after the user logs off, or it will be left there and may confuse other users when they log on and use the program. (they will get a chance to delete it, though). My batch file has something like this: REM after_max is run after the user logs off the BBS :AFTER_MAX ECHO Y | DEL D:\MAX\AM5\WORK\*.* IF EXIST D:\MAX\FILE\REQUEST\EXTRACT.ZIP DEL D:\MAX\FILE\REQUEST\EXTRACT.ZIP . . . etc.. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING THE "echo Y | del" command! This will delete all files in that directory! The directory specified here should be YOUR path to the working directory (where it unarchives files). The second path is the path and filename of the extract file. This ensures that the file is deleted after a user logs off. Other stuff: Pressing ALT-C will enable chat mode if the user is on the main menu or at the menu that is displayed while a user is viewing the contents of a file. ESC will exit chat mode. This chat mode is a little buggy at times (colours mess up now and then) but it works... If you have a registered copy of Online Archive Master from previous versions, you will need a new registration code. Sorry, but I had to change the code routines. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Registration: ──────────── Yep, its that time again! Time to read about registration... Well, don't worry! Registering this program is FREE! I *DO* want you to register it though, so I know if more development of the program is worth my time. I know its a pain to have to fill out a form and drop it in the mail, but it will only take you 5 minutes MAX. It took me a lot longer than that to write this program! You may fill in the following form, OR you may call my BBS and register online. Mail-In Registration Form: ----------------------------[cut here]---------------------------------------- Online Archive Master 5.0 R E G I S T R A T I O N F O R M (c) 1992, William J. Dykstra Name:____________________________________ Address:____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ City: _______________________________ Province / State: ____________________ Country: ____________________ Postal / Zip code: ___________________ Voice phone: ______________________________ BBS Information: * BBS Name: _________________________________ Phone: ___________________________ * Sysop Name: _______________________________ *these must be shown EXACTLY as they will be entered in your AM-CONF.DAT configuration file. The registration code is based on these names. Number of users:_____ Number of lines:_____ Max Baud Rate:_______ Check applicable boxes: v.32 [ ] v.32bis [ ] v.42 [ ] v.42bis [ ] HST [ ] Hayes [ ] Where did you get this program? (if a BBS, please give me the name and number if you remember!): _________________________________________________________ IF YOU PLAN TO PICKUP YOUR REGISTRATION CODE FROM THE BBS, FILL OUT THE FOLLOWING: Logon name: _________________________________ Logon Password: _____________________________ ANSI: (yes/no):____________ I will create an account for you with the above name and password, and I will leave you private E-mail with your registration code. If your account does not exist when you call, then your registration form didn't arrive yet. You may continue to logon if you wish, using the same account name, and page me. If I'm around I'll get your code for you right away. If I am not around, just upload the form to me and I'll respond as soon as I read the mail. Notes/Comments: _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ ------------------------------------[cut here]------------------------------ Mail to: The BillBoard BBS c/o Bill Dykstra 189 Bristol Road Newmarket, Ontario. Canada. L3Y 7X9 OR call my BBS: The BillBoard BBS (416) 898-2443 1200-14,400baud v.32bis v.42bis : 8,N,1 Send email to Bill Dykstra or Sysop Nanet 41-62-37 FidoNET coming ASAP. You may skip the call back verify door. You will still have access to the email (with file attaches) and paging. I may also be reached for comments and suggetions (but not for registration) on Canada Remote Systems (CRS). If you include a self-addressed stamped envelope, then I will mail your registration code to you. If you do NOT include this, then I assume you will call the BBS in a few days to get your registration code online. Thank you for registering Online Archive Master! Bill Dykstra Special thanks to Dan for his suggestions (the PKzip command line switch options, and ARJ 2.30 support). With your help this program will continue to get better! Now you see what happens when you take the time to register... I *AM* willing to make modifications for you! Online Archive Master 5.0 is compiled with Borland Pascal 7.0. Version 3.8 was also compiled with Borland Pascal 7.0. All previous versions are compiled with Turbo Pascal 6.0.