The World of Computer Software/The World of Computer Software.iso/msgcnt20.zip/MSGCOUNT.DOC

Text File | 1992-09-30 | 5KB | 137 lines

MSGCount.EXE  - Message Counter for Maximus 2.01wb and under.
Version 2.00

Files:   MSGCount.EXE  -  Executable Program
         MSGCount.CFG  -  Configuration File
         MSGCount.DOC  -  This Documentaion
          NoCount.LST  -  Optional Msg Area Skip List.

This program will read your MsgArea.Ctl and Max.Log to gather information
to display how many times a message area was read and how many times
a message area was written to. You can run the program to see the current
activity or you can use the save data option to save and add each weeks
activity for a running count if you delete your log often.

This is useful to see what kind of traffic you have in a paticular
message area before removing it.

MSGCount gets all of the read and write informatin from your Max.Log. So
if you have a small log or you erase your log everyday, you might want to
use the save data option to keep running totals of each area.

To Install MSGCount:

First you need to copy all the files into the same directory. Doesn't have
to be the Max directory. MSGCount.EXE and MSGCount.CFG must both reside in
the same directory. MSGCount must be ran from the directory it in.

Second you need to Edit MSGCount.CFG with your favorite Text Editor.

There is only four lines in the Config file. The first line is the full path
to your MSGAREA.CTL and the second line is the full path to your MAX.LOG.
The third line is a save data option. Default is NO. If you put a YES there,
MSGCount will save your activity results to a file called MSGCount.DAT and
keep a running total each time you run MSGCount. The fourth line is a keyword
that lets MSGCount know to use an Ascii file or a Maximus .BBS file when saving
activities to a file. Default is ASCII. If you replace ASCII with MAX, you will
get a Maximus .BBS file for those of you who wish to display the results to
your users.

Sample MSGCount.CFG:

e:\Max\MsgArea.Ctl     Message Area Control file
e:\Max\Max.Log         Maximus Log file
YES                    Save data option.
ASCII                  Save data as ASCII

When your done editing, save and your almost done.

You can also have MSGCount skip message areas when it scans for activity.
If MSGCount finds a file called NOCOUNT.LST in the same diretory as
MSGCount.EXE, it will exclude the areas listed in NOCOUNT.LST.

NOCOUNT.LST is a straight text file with an area number or name on each line.
Here is an example of what my NoCount.Lst looks like.

Sample NOCount.Lst:

Netmail
5
12
13

These area numbers or names MUST be exactly the same as what you have next
to your Area keyword in MSGArea.Ctl.

Example:       Area Netmail           or           Area  5

The areas listed here will be skipped in the search and display.

Ok now your ready...


Type MSCount and Press ENTER.

This will display all the Message Areas and the number of Read and Written
Messages.

If you would like to save this into a text file, you can supply
a filename after MSGCount and the data will be saved in the supplied file.
This file may be a .BBS file depending on what you have set in your MSGCount.CFG

Syntax:  MSGCount Filename.Ext

Example:      MSGCount Traffic.TXT

This will save all the information into Traffic.TXT.

WARNING...

MSGCount does not put markers or anything in max.log to keep of what it has
read or what it hasn't read.  If you delete your log each week or day, you
should only run MSGCount once before you delete you log. Running it more than
once on the same log will duplicate the results. If you not using the save
data option, this doesn't apply.

Also, If you change the order of your message areas, add an area, delete an
area, or change the entries in NOCount.Lst, you'll need to delete MSGCount.DAT
(If your using save data option).
Otherwise the areas won't match up and msgcount will abort.

Thats it!

Hope it's useful to someone!

Bill Spicer
The Hook and Slice Club BBS
202 Warrington Ave.
Danville, IL  USA
[phone]
FidoNet 1:233/6

History:

        1.02 - Start of Msgcount.
        1.03 - Released for Beta testing.
        1.04 - Cleaned up Display. Added error checking.
        1.05 - MSGCount now filters out special character codes that
               some text editors leave when editing MsgArea.Ctl.
               This was not allowing MSGCount to find message area names.
        1.06 - Now handles up to 500 message areas. 1.05 bombed after 100.
        1.07 - Added a Save Data option to keep running totals for users
               that erase logs each week. Now handles 1000 msg areas.
               Added error checking routines to check for files used by
               MSGCount.
        1.08 - Added a new routine to extract area names and log entries.
               Now display's the left most 8 characters if the path name
               is more than 8 characters in msgarea.ctl.
               Optimized some code to make it faster.
        1.09 - Added an option to create Maximus .BBS display file.
               Added an Skip Msg Area option.
        2.00 - Fixed a Major bug in 1.09. If you didn't have a NOCOUNT.LST,
               Msgcount wouldn't count the activities.
               Fixed a screen pause problem. Added more error checking
               routines.