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PORTALX - THE AMIGA AUTOMATED "FRONT-END" FOR THE PORTAL ONLINE SYSTEM [sm]
NOTE: A description of changes from V1.10 to V1.30 is in the file
"Changes.Txt".
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
- Any Amiga running Operating System 2.04 or greater.
- A minimum of two floppy drives required. A hard disk preferred.
- A valid current account on The Portal Online System [sm]
- A modem and telephone line with which to dial the Portal Online System
LEGAL STUFF:
PortalX, the executable program, and this documentation file
are all Copyright 1992, Steve Tibbett, All Rights Reserved.
You may redistribute this archive file anywhere you please however
you MUST retain ALL the original unmodified pieces within it. If you
redistribute the original archive as you downloaded it from Portal,
do NOT add anything to it and do NOT remove anything from it. Please
respect these distribution requirements. Do not attempt to modify
the PortalX program in any way. Source code is not available.
The archive file from which you extrated this documentation should have
contained the following:
Changes.Txt - ASCII text, listing PortalX changes since V1.00
Friends - A friends list with Harv Laser and Steve Tibbett in it.
PortalX - the executable program itself
PortalX.info - icon for the program (Thanks to Mike Crossmire for the Icon!)
PortalX.Docs - the file you are reading now
PortalX.Docs.info - icon for this text file
Problems.Txt - help with some common problems
Problems.Txt.info - icon for this text file
Pages.Txt - ancillary index file used by PortalX
Sprintnet.script - login script for PortalX for SprintNet callers
Tymnet.script - login script for PortalX for Tymnet callers
Direct.script - login script for Portal direct callers
xprzmodem.library - Amiga system library to be copied into your
SYS:Libs directory, required to use PortalX
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
PortalX V1.30 Documentation
by Steve Tibbett and Harv Laser
INTRODUCTION
The Portal Online System ("Portal") is an excellent service for Amiga
users. It offers more files than any other Amiga service, and at very
low rates. However, the user interface on Portal is less than ideal
- the simple task of entering a message can become complicated on
Portal. While reading messages is easy, setting Portal up to read
messages is not easy.
PortalX makes these operations much easier, and gives you a familiar
interface to use when reading and writing messages. PortalX uses
your favorite text editor to create messages, and complies with as
much of the Amiga Style Guide as it can. Once you have PortalX set
up and working for you, the only reason to manually log onto Portal
with your usual terminal program will be to search for and download
older files, and to participate in the live, nightly chats, or to use
Portal's Internet Services facilities. PortalX does not deal with
live chatting or Portal's Internet Services, and further, PortalX is
a completely free-standing executable program - it does not run
"inside" of or "alongside" your current terminal program.
PortalX requires Kickstart 2.04 or later.
PORTALX IS SHAREWARE
I'm putting this right at the start of the documentation because I
feel this is important. I spent a lot of time working on the original
PortalX, and now realize how much more time I could spend working on
it. I would like to add quite a few things to PortalX and I can't
afford to keep working on it without making any money back from it.
I wanted to keep PortalX as freeware, which the first version was
released as, but when I released the first version, it was with the
intention of being "done" with it, of not working on it anymore, but
response has been so good on Portal that I've spent some time working
on this new version, especially on the problems that plagued early
users, such as the difficulty of setting up Portal.
If better time accounting appeals to you, or perhaps a database of
messages (rather than just the current session's worth), or an easy
way into and out of chat mode - you get the picture - then consider
registering PortalX. If nobody registers, it's not going to get
these features. If people register, it will.
Registering PortalX will give you access to the closed PortalX area
on Portal. I will be posting new versions there more frequently
than the public releases - but the public version if PortalX will
have all it's features enabled. It just might not be as current
as the registered version.
To register PortalX, send a cheque for $30, payable to
Steve Tibbett, to:
PortalX Registration
2710 Saratoga Pl. #1108
Gloucester, ON
K1T 1Z2 Canada
Be sure to mention your Portal ID when registering! (Otherwise I
won't be able to let you into the PortalX area).
How much work goes into future versions of PortalX will depend
entirely on how many users register. A program worth using is a
program worth registering, and I hope you appreciate the opportunity
to see how the full, uncrippled program performs without having to
send in your money first. Thank you.
HOW PORTAL WORKS
Before you can really understand what PortalX is doing, and how to
make it do what you want without getting it confused, you have to
understand how Portal arranges messages and files. You don't need to
know this stuff unless you start writing messages or uploading files,
but it is a good idea to understand this information.
CONFERENCE -> COLLECTION -> ARTICLE 1
-> ARTICLE 2
-> ARTICLE 3
COLLECTION -> ARTICLE 1
-> ARTICLE 2.. and etc.
A conference is a list of collections. Collections hold articles.
This is a simplistic view of how Portal works, since they can set
these things up however they want, but for the AmigaZone on Portal,
this is how things are set up. For example:
FILES -> NEW_FILES -> NewFileOne.LZH
-> NewFileTwo.LZH
ETC_FILES -> AnotherFile.LZH
-> YouGuessedIt.LZH
This is how the file area is set up on Portal. So when PortalX
speaks of wanting the name of a "Collection", it wants what you would
normally call a message or file area. When getting a file catalog of
a lot of areas at once, you tell PortalX that the page number you
have given it is a Conference, and it knows that that page contains
Collections, not Articles.
I mentioned Page Numbers there. Everything on Portal has a page
number or "go" number, and this is normally right at the top of your
terminal screen if you use Portal in its "screen" mode or at each
page break if you use Portal in its "line" mode.
To get to any page number on Portal, from any prompt, you can type
"Go 123.45" where 123.45 is the page number you want to go to. Page
numbers for an article will change when the article is moved, but
otherwise they are constant. Every collection, every message, every
file on Portal has its own unique "go" number.
The page numbers themselves say something about the content of that
page. A page number ending in ".1" is a root menu, ".3" is a
conference, ".3.nnn" is a collection, and ".3.nnn.nnn" is an article.
In the AmigaZone, "4842.3" is the file library, "4842.3.32" is the
new files area, and a file in the new files area might be called
"4842.3.32.104".
The message area in the AmigaZone is a little different, in that each
message area is a conference, and then each message topic is a
collection with articles within that. Whereas "4842.3" is all the
AmigaZone file areas, "16046.3" is one message conferece - the
programming message section. Within this area, ie, "16046.3.111" you
might find a collection of messages on a particular topic, and then
the messages in that topic will be "16046.3.111.1" and on up.
THE PAGE LIST
PortalX has a list of page numbers, kept in a text file called
"Pages.Txt", that you can view and edit from within PortalX. When
you want to enter a message, or upload a file (for example), you have
to pick the page number you want the article to be posted to,
otherwise PortalX has no idea where to put it! You do this by
selecting the "< pick" gadget and then choosing an appropriate page
from the page list.
It is important that you choose an appropriate page: If PortalX
wants a Conference, and you select a Collection, (or make any other
similar mistake), PortalX will likely tell you of your mistake, but
if PortalX misses it, then when it tries to send your article (or
however it tries to access that page) it will get lost. (Getting
lost is covered later)
INSTALLATION OF PORTALX ONTO YOUR AMIGA
There are a number of simple steps involved in installing PortalX.
First is the physical installation - copying PortalX into it's home
directory.
Make a directory for PortalX, or format a floppy disk for it if you
are running off floppies, and place PortalX either in the directory
you have made, or on this floppy disk. This will be PortalX's home,
and you should always change to this directory before starting
PortalX if you are using the CLI. Example: you make a directory on
your hard drive partition DH1: called "Portal". To change to this
directory from a CLI/Shell prompt you would type "cd dh1:portal" and
hit <return>.
From Workbench, this happens automatically. (Installation from
Workbench is even easier. Create a new drawer for PortalX, and drop
it's icon into this drawer). Copy the Pages.Txt as well, to wherever
you put PortalX.
PortalX uses the XPR external protocol method of doing file transfers,
which means you will need to have an "xprzmodem.library" installed
in your libs: directory. Copy xprzmodem.library to sys:libs from
a CLI/Shell or use your favoriate "dirutil" program to copy it.
PortalX will create subdirectories in it's home directory as needed.
Mail, MailSend, and Subs are the three directories for storing
incoming mail, outgoing mail and requests, and subscriptions, in that
order. You don't need to worry about these directories, in general,
unless something goes wrong. The items in the Mail Send directory
are documented later.
CONFIGURATION
Once you have installed PortalX, run it. You will see a screen with
a single window full of buttons. Click on the Configure button. Here
you will see buttons for summoning various other windows, and some
string gadgets.
"Login Script:" is where you will put the name of the login script
that PortalX will use to log into Portal. Typically this will be
"Login.script" but if you have multiple ways of getting to Portal,
you may need to switch scripts. Login scripts are discussed later.
"Download Path:" is where binary files that you download will be
placed. This defaults to "RAM:" but most people have a place where
they put new downloads, and that is what you should put here.
"Log File:" is where you choose a name for the PortalX log file. You
can also choose to leave this empty. If this is a valid filename,
then PortalX will write the text from the Report window into this
file, so that you will have a permanent summary of what you have done
in PortalX.
"Pop to front when done?" tells PortalX whether or not to pop it's
screen to the front of all other screens every time it finishes an
online session.
"Skip Message of the Day?" tells PortalX to ignore the daily login
message. PortalX will normally open a window with the contents of
the message of the day, and you can close this window any time during
the session. Picking this box will cause PortalX to never open this
window.
In "Set Editor..." you are asked for the name of a text editor. This
must be the COMPLETE PATH to your text editor - not just it's name.
Even if the editor is in C:, you must say "C:Editor" or PortalX will
not find it. PortalX will use this editor whenever it wants you to
write text. The Commodore "C:Ed" editor is not good for this, since
it runs on the Workbench screen. You will want to put the name of an
editor here that runs on it's own screen, or one that runs on a named
public screen. The name of the file to be edited is appended to this
string, and then that string is passed to AmigaDOS to be executed.
When AmigaDOS returns, the file is looked at, and if it is unchanged,
then the edited file is not used.
Some text editors "detach" themselves from the shell window when run,
meaning that the prompt comes back at the shell before you have even
begun editing. You must tell your editor not to do this, to work
with PortalX. For example, in TurboText, there is a WAIT option to
ask it to wait until the editing is done before returning, and there
is a -STICKY option in CygnusEd to do the same thing. The EMACS
editor that comes with Workbench is a good editor to use here, if you
don't have any other text editor.
If your text editor supports opening its window on a public screen,
and you can set this on the command line, then do this here. For
example, with TurboText, you would say "TURBOTEXT:TTX WAIT SCREEN
PORTALX". PortalX's public screen is called "PORTALX", all upper
case.
In "Set Signature..." you supply the names of files containing
"Signatures" that you want to use, when writing either Mail messages,
or normal public messages. A signature is your usual signoff at the
end of a message. You can use no signature if you like, or you can
use the same filename for both signatures. The signature is added to
the file before your text editor is called, so you will see the
signature while writing the message. Clicking on the "< Edit" gadget
next to the signature names will load your text editor (assuming you
have configured it already) for editing the Signatures.
In "Set Serial..." you tell PortalX where to find your modem. The
built-in serial port is called "serial.device" unit 0, but if you
have any other serial port or internal modem, you will have to change
this. The name of the device, and the unit number, should be
included in the documentation for your device. The baud rate when
logging in will be set to the number you choose here - all
communications with your modem will happen at this rate.
You also tell PortalX how to hang up. PortalX needs to hang up the
phone (your modem) at the end of each session, and there are many
ways to do this. The two most common, depending on your modem
settings, are to either just drop the DTR line, or to send the modem
a "+++", then an "ATH" with a one second delay surrounding the "+++".
PortalX will use one of these methods depending on what you tell it
here.
"Set Screen Mode..." is only available if you are running Workbench
2.1 or later. Picking this option will bring up a screen mode
requester, where you can choose a new screen type to run PortalX on.
If you do not have Workbench 2.1, you can use the "i" and "n"
characters to tell PortalX, when started from the CLI, which screen
mode to use: Interlace and Non-Interlace respectively. If you save
the configuration after running it this way, then that will be your
screen mode for future sessions.
If you "Save" your configuration, it will be the same the next time
you load PortalX. "Use" will make the changes for this session only
- quitting PortalX will cause it to use the last saved settings the
next time you run it. The PortalX config file is called
"S:PortalX.Config". When you save your configuration, some other
things are saved as well, that are not set in the Config window.
These are: The path for saved messages, and the size of the message
and mail read window, and the settings in the Session Options window.
The "Check In" button is discussed later on.
The "PortalX Support" button is a button you can push to get PortalX
help (assuming you've already gotten PortalX working). This button
automatically directs a message from you into the PortalX message area
in the AmigaZone on Portal.
THE LOGIN SCRIPT
PortalX has to log into Portal for you. To do this it uses a script
file, whose name you can set in the Configuration section in the
program.
Login Script Commands:
@ Set maximum wait time in Seconds
< Wait for the text after the <
> Send the text after the > (Using ^ for ctrl)
# Wait this number of fiftieths of a second
* Same as > but shows "Sending Password" in the
status window.
The login script is parsed right from the start, and cannot include
comments or other text. If the maximum wait time is exceeded, then
PortalX will abort the login.
Sample PortalX login scripts are included with PortalX for some of
the various ways of getting to Portal. "Tymnet.script" works for
tymnet nodes, and "Sprintnet.script" works for Sprintnet. You will
have to change the phone number after the ATDT to your local Tymnet
or Sprintnet phone number, and of course change the Username and
Password to your own.
If you have a PCPursuit account and wish to use it for your
Portal hours, change the entry which reads "c portal^m" to "c
portal,PCP-ID,PCP-PASSWORD^m" using your own PCPursuit account's
information. If you don't have nor use a PCPursuit account, then
just leave that line alone.
If you have trouble logging in, then one of many things may be
happening. The most common is that takes a very long time to log in,
or the Login script complains of a timeout. This is because
sometimes Portal takes a long time before it will ask you for your
name, and sometimes it will take a long time between asking for the
password and actually letting you online. There is nothing you can
do here other than be patient.
Another common problem is that Portal refuses to acknowledge your
password the first time you enter it. Your only recourse in this
case is to call back. This will normally happen more often for folks
who use Sprintnet or Tymnet V.32 9600 nodes than for those who use
1200 or 2400 baud nodes.
PORTAL SETUP: CONFIGURATION
*Note: With PortalX 1.10 and later, the Portal configuration discussed
in this section can be performed automatically by PortalX. If you
select the "Configure Portal?" box in the Session Options window,
then the next time you call Portal, PortalX will make all of these
settings for you. It is a good idea to do this the first time you
call Portal with PortalX! I am leaving this section in the manual just
in case the automatic configuration doesn't work for some reason.
PortalX has to talk to Portal like no other program does. It parses
the ANSI sequences that Portal sends, and keeps its own internal map
of what the screen looks like, and instead of dealing with
information as it is sent from Portal, it waits for the end of each
"Page" and then looks at it's internal image of the page and gets
information from there.
This method has advantages and disadvantages. One big advantage is
that for pages that are small changes from the previous page, very
little information needs to be sent for an entire new page. But the
big disadvantage is that one byte of line noise can corrupt an entire
page. In practice, it's not so bad, especially if you use an
error-free connection such as MNP or V.42.
However, another disadvantage is that the information that PortalX
expects has to be sent, and has to be exactly where it is expected to
be. If you haven't changed your Portal configuration much from the
defaults, then this shouldn't be a problem for you.
However, if you have changed the default separator, the command
prompt, or how the menus are laid out, then it may cause problems.
The best way to proceed is to try PortalX with your configuration as
it is, and if that fails, then set things back to the defaults. You
will need to have the help_type set to none, otherwise every page
will have multiple lines of useless help information on it and
PortalX will fail.
You must also make sure Portal is set to use Zmodem for file
transfers. If you are starting with the default settings, then
getting PortalX to work would involve setting these things:
set form/screen/header/help_type=none
set transfer/general/protocol=zmodem
set transfer/general/end_line=lf
set transfer/general/batch_files=no
To make these changes, log into Portal with your usual term program,
and then type those lines, exactly as you see them, at the main menu
command: prompt. If you have made changes that you think will make
PortalX incompatible with your setup, then go to the various pages you
have changed and type Default. This will reset the settings to the
defaults - and then you can make sure they are set properly by using
the commands above. Make sure you leave each Portal Settings menu
with an "ok" command in order to save the changes.
PORTAL SETUP: SUBSCRIPTIONS
** THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT SO READ THIS PART CAREFULLY! **
PortalX's main function is the daily collection of "Subscriptions",
and the interface it gives you for reading them and responding to
them. But first, you need to know what Subscriptions are.
On most bulletin boards and online systems, when you want to read
messages from a specific area, you have to go there and read them.
This would be like having to go to a different store to pick up every
magazine you wanted. On Portal, you can subscribe to the areas you
are interested in, and then these are delivered to your subscriptions
box as they are created. When you read Subs, you are reading all the
NEW messages that have been entered in any area that you have
subscribed to SINCE you subscribed to that area. You only need to
subscribe to any area on Portal ONCE. If you try to subscribe to an
area that you are already subscribed to, Portal will tell you. If you
subscribe to an area to which you are NOT already subscribed, Portal
will simply reply with an "OK" meaning, okay, this area is now added
to your subs.
Think of subs as your own private "clipping service" which keeps
track of all new notices and files posted to your favorite areas.
It's your job to first tell Portal WHAT those favorite areas are.
Subscribing to an area on Portal is easy - you just go there and type
"Subscribe". "Go there" means you can wander around Portal manually
using its menu system, or you can use shortcut "go" numbers if you
know where you want to go. KEEP IN MIND THAT PORTAL GATHERS YOUR
SUBSCRIPTIONS IN THE SAME ORDER THAT YOU SUBSCRIBED TO EACH AREA! So
before you start collecting Subs with PortalX, you will have to log
onto Portal, go to all the collections you are interested in, and
Subscribe to them.
Alternatively, if you want to subscribe to ALL the message areas or
ALL the file areas, then go to the conference that holds them, and
type Subscribe there. This will subscribe you to every collection in
that conference. Then if you don't want some specific collections,
you can unsubscribe to those. Subscribe and unsubscribe can be
abbreviated "sub" and "unsub". They are toggles. You either turn a
Portal area on or off for your subscriptions. When you first joined
Portal, all areas are, by default, turned off, except for the Portal
News area.
The file area in the AmigaZone is a special case. New files show up
in collection #0, and after a week are moved into the other
collections. To avoid having every file show up both as new and when
it is moved, you should subscribe to only collection #0, the new
files collection.
So to set up subscriptions to read all new messages in the AmigaZone,
and all new files, you would do this (Don't type in the text from the
asterisk on, it's just comments):
Go 4842.3.32 * Go to the New Files page
Subscribe * Subscribe to it
Go Amiga;0;2 * Go to the AmigaZone Messages
Subscribe * Subscribe to them
Also, I recommend that you subscribe to the PortalX message area,
at least initially. If you do not, then the "PortalX Support"
button in the Config window will post any questions you ask, but
since you aren't subscribed to that area, you won't see the
answers! To subscribe to this area:
Go PortalX;0 * Go to the PortalX public area
Subscribe * Subscribe to it
SESSION OPTIONS
The Session Options button brings up the Session Options window. Here
you can change what PortalX is going to do next time it connects with
Portal. "Retrieve Mail" asks PortalX to download all your mail
messages so you can read them offline. "Kill Mail" asks PortalX to
kill the mail after it has read it, so that it is not there the next
time you log in. "Get Subs" asks it to pick up all your
subscriptions, with one exception: UUEncoded files will not be
gotten, rather just the first page will be. (You can ask PortalX to
download the entire uuencoded contents while reading subs).
The options you select in this window are saved when you save the
configuration from the Configuration window.
"Do Requests" asks PortalX to go through the Send directory and do
everything you have asked it to do. This incldues posting mail
messages, public messages, downloading files, uploading files, and
getting file catalogs.
"Configure Portal" asks PortalX to change the Portal settings to
those that PortalX requires. You should do this the first time you
use PortalX to call Portal, and if PortalX for some reason stops
working for you (it gets lost when trying to log in), you can try
"Configure Portal" again.
CALLING PORTAL
The Big Button. When you select Call Portal, PortalX will start
processing the login script, and when it is done, take over and do
what you have asked it to do in the Session Options window. You can
abort the online session by clicking the close gadget in the Online
Status window. The Report window can be closed only when the session
is complete.
Portal's Message-Of-The-Day will be displayed inside of PortalX in its
own window which will pop up every time you log in. You can close this
window as soon as it appears, or disable it with a button in the Config
window. Please consider reading the MOTD window.. it contains useful
and important information about what's going on, on Portal today.
It is important to keep in mind that PortalX never appends to
existing data. If you have previously downloaded 20 mail messages, and
you ask PortalX to go get mail, it will delete your existing 20 mail
messages from your disk drive. Same for Subs. PortalX has the
capabilities to let you save to another file any mail or subs
articles while you are reading them.
When your PortalX session is complete, if PortalX picked up mail or
subs, then the "Read Subs" or "Read Mail" buttons may have a hilight
around them. This means that there is material here that you have not
yet read. Once you have read all the subs, and all the mail, these
buttons will no longer be hilited. Also, if you write mail, write a
message, upload a file, or ask PortalX to do anything else online,
PortalX will hilite the "Call Portal" button so you know there is
something for it to do online.
If you want your PortalX sessions to happen unattended, for example
during the early morning, then put a "c" on the command line:
"PortalX c" will cause PortalX to act as if you had pressed the Call
button as soon as you ran the program. However, be warned that there
is no guarantee that every PortalX session will go smoothly. You may
come home to find that PortalX has been online the whole time, thanks
to some miscommunication between PortalX and Portal. In general,
however, this is an excellent method of having your subscriptions
picked up during the early morning, ready for you the next time you
check in with your computer. The AmigaDOS WAIT command is an
excellent and simple way to accomplish this. If you type into a
shell window:
Wait Until 6:00
PortalX c
The WAIT command will wait until 6AM, and then let PortalX proceed,
calling Portal.
READING MAIL
Pick "Read Mail" to start reading mail. You will be shown each mail
message, in a window with a few buttons at the bottom, the Read
Window. The Read Window has a few keyboard shortcuts that you should
know about: The up and down arrows will move you through the current
article, and the left and right arrow keys will move you through all
the articles you have downloaded. Shift-up and Shift-down will page
through the article.
When you click Reply, you will be asked who the article is to,
with the default being the person who sent you the letter. If you
select Include Original, then the original message text will be
prefaced by '>' and included with your signature in the text file
that you will be editing as the message to send.
The read window position is saved into the config file. To have the
read window come up in a specific position, after you have gotten it
to look the way you want it, go into the Config window and pick Save.
There are some menus available while reading mail messages. On the
message menu are options for saving the message to a file, or
appending the message to an existing file (creating it if it does not
already exist). The Print option will send the text to the printer,
and the Copy to Clipboard option will copy the entire text to the
clipboard from which you could paste it into a text editor, etc.
The Keep button in the Read window will take the text you are reading
and append it to the file you last appended data to using the "Append
to File..." menu option.
READING SUBSCRIPTIONS
This works the same as reading Mail messages, except that you can
also choose a menu option to have PortalX download the body of the
article you are looking at next time you log in. While this may not
be of use for normal messages, it is a handy way of downloading files
that appear in the AmigaZone New Files directory while you are
reading subs, or binary files that appear in any other Portal SIG to
which you are subscribed.
While reading subscriptions, there are three extra menu options:
Next Topic, Next Conference, and Goto Article. Next Topic and Next
Conference will skip articles in either the current topic or the
current conference. Goto Article will ask you for an article number,
and will then take you there.
If the last two lines of an article indicate that the article is a
binary article which cannot be read, only transferred, then PortalX
has sent the describe command to get the description that you see (if
indeed you see a description). To download the body of the article,
use the Download menu option. PortalX will download the file for you
the next time you use it go log in to Portal.
THE FRIENDS LIST
The file "Friends" in the same directory as PortalX is read into
memory when PortalX is loaded. This file is a list of names, Portal
ID's, and comments, for people you exchange mail with. When you write
a mail message or reply to one, you can click on "< Pick" next to
the string gadget for the name, and pick the user's name from the list.
You edit this list in PortalX by selecting "Edit Friends List" from the
main window. To add a new friend, click on the New button and then
type in the name, ID, and any comments you have. The name is actually
added to the list when you hit return in the comments field, so make
sure you do this.
WRITING MAIL
To compose a mail message, pick Write Mail message. You will be
asked who the message is to, what it is about, and then dropped into
your text editor. The message will be sent next time you log in with
the 'Do Requests' button selected. You can send mail to more than
one person by separating their names with commas in the To: field,
such as "SteveX,Harv,Elvis" to send mail to Steve Tibbett, Harv
Laser, and Elvis Presley. Unfortunately, PortalX doesn't deal with
bad usernames - if the username is incorrect, PortalX will tell you that
the name is bad and ask you if you want to edit the request file that
has the bad name in it, or just delete the message. Make sure you
know the current, correct, and complete address for anyone to whom you
wish to send email.
WRITING A MESSAGE
Writing a public message is more involved than writing a mail
message, because of the many different types of messages involved.
Specifically, you can post into a local Portal area, or you can
be posting to a Usenet newsgroup. You could also be trying to post
to a Usenet newsgroup where posts are not allowed. Usenet postings
are called "articles." The person who posts an article to Usenet
is called the "poster."
You are asked for a page number to post the article into, and for a
subject. The page number must be that of a collection - not of an
article you want to reply to. Since 'Do Requests' happens before
'Get Subs', if you post a message to a local Portal message area, you
will see it as a new subs article in the same session, unless you are
posting to a Usenet group, in which case the article will show up
sometime in the near future.
As usual, if you ask PortalX to do something that Portal will refuse
to do, PortalX will get lost.
UPLOADING A FILE
Uploading a file to Portal is much like entering a message, except
that the body of the message is binary, and there is a description.
PortalX wants a filename for the file to upload, and also wants a
disk filename that contains the description of the file.
If you don't have a file description already written for the file,
you can use the "Create Description" to create a temporary file and
write a description into it.
The actual subject line of the posted file will be the filename,
converted to upper case, with " - " appended to it, and then the
summary field you supply here appended to that. So if you are
uploading "fred.txt", and your summary is "A new text file.", then
the actual subject line on Portal would be "FRED.TXT - A new text
file."
Please do NOT upload new files to the Amiga Zone without also including
a good description of the file. Other Portal SIGs may have different
rules about descriptions for their files. When in doubt, send email
to the SIG moderator and ask.
PortalX wants a page number to upload a file into. This page has to
be one that contains a list of files - a collection - otherwise
PortalX will get lost. (File collections have 3 numbers, for example,
the AmigaZone new files area is "4842.3.32").
GET CATALOG
This function will pick up a file catalog from Portal. PortalX will
look for the page number it should fetch the catalog from, and where it
should put it. PortalX will figure out if you are asking for a
catalog of a single area, or of an entire tree, by the page number.
Feeding it "12117.3" would ask PortalX to go and build a catalog of
all 700+ fish disks, which PortalX would happily do over the next few
hours. So don't ask for a Fish catalog unless you really mean to.
More explanation of this function is in order, since it can really do
more than it claims to. What this function does is go into a
collection and read the titles of all the articles there. It can
also go through an entire list of collections. Because of Portal's
setup, messages look just like files - so you could give this
function a page number that contained, for example, the "Rumours"
AmigaZone message area, and PortalX would get a ilst of all the
messages in that message area.
Asking this function to pick up a catalog of "4842.3" would give you
a file similar to what Harv creates every week and posts as the
AllFiles list in the Amiga Zone New Uploads library. Thus you can
now make your own AllFiles list anytime you wish!
DOWNLOADING A FILE
To download a file, you need to know the location of the file. You
can either specify it as a complete page number, or you can give the
page number of the area the file is in, and then the file number you
want to get with a semicolon between them as in "4842.3.32;3" to get
file #3 in 4842.3.32. This method is less reliable than having a
full page number since when files are moved, all the files after them
in the list get a new number. A file's page number is never changed.
If you ask PortalX to get a catalog, see a file you want in the catalog,
and the file is not in the new files area, then you can be fairly
certain that if you ask PortalX to download it, it will still be in
the same place. If you want a month, it might not be.
GETTING LOST
If PortalX encounters a situation it cannot deal with, it will
typically sit waiting for some result from Portal, that Portal has no
intention of ever sending. In this case, PortalX will wait up to
five minutes, and will then abort the session.
However, if PortalX and Portal get into a situation where PortalX is
sending data and Portal is responding in some way that makes PortalX
think things are proceeding properly, they may get into a mode where
they could be online forever. There are some checks in PortalX for
this situation - such as repeated sending of the same page. These
situations are usually caused by line noise, so if an error-free
connection is possible, then try and use it. If you typically get
noisy connections, you are advised against using PortalX at all
unless/until you get the line noise problem straightened out, with
your modem, your modem cable, and/or your telephone company.
WARNING
PortalX's job is processing your mail and messages. If PortalX
doesn't do it's job properly, then it is possible that you could lose
mail messages, subscriptions, your mail may not be posted properly,
you get the picture. PortalX could decide to stay online much longer
than it should have, for no good reason. While this doesn't normally
happen in real life, it could. I cannot be held responsible for
anything this program does - use it at your own risk.
CHECKING IN
I had fun writing PortalX, and have a lot of things I'd like to do to
it. I'd like to know how many people are using the program - and the
only way I can know this is if people tell me. Rather than having
everybody write me a mail message just saying "I used PortalX", I
put in the "Check In" button. Press this button once, and then the
next time you call Portal, PortalX will send me a short message telling
me that you are using Portal, and what version. Please press this
button, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
SUMMARY
That about covers it. PortalX will let you keep up with what's going
on in the message areas on Portal, download new files, post public
messages, and generally get a lot more out of your Portal account. I
look forward to seeing you use it!
TECHNICAL: THE SEND DIRECTORY
The "Send" directory in PortalX's home directory contains files that
tell PortalX what to do next time it is online. There is nothing
special about these files - you can create them yourself if you like.
This entire directory is searched for every online session with the
"Do Requests" box checked. Every .Data file is processed.
Some of the event types require extra information, such as the actual
message to post, and this is stored in the "MailSend-%d.Txt" file -
so if you manipulate the .Data files, you should manipulate the .Txt
files as well.
The types of files, and what they are expected to contain:
Upload Upload
[Page to upload to]
[Filename]
[Subject line]
[Description filename]
GetCatalog GetCatatalog
[Filename to hold catalog]
[Page number]
GetAllFiles GetAllFiles
[Filename to hold catalog]
[Page number]
* Post Mail Mail
[Who the message is To]
[Message Subject]
* Public Message Message
[Page Number]
[Subject]
Download Download
[Page Number]
[Destination Directory]
* Public Reply [Page Number]
[Subject]
Items marked with a '*' are items that require an associated .Txt
file, containing the message text to be sent.
WHERE TO GET MORE HELP WITH PORTALX
A new Amiga Zone message base named "PortalX questions and answers" has
been created in the Amiga Zone. You should ONLY post questions or offer
assistance to other users in this new message base. Be sure to
subscribe to it! Please do not burden the email boxes of the Amiga
Zone moderators with PortalX questions. Ask your questions in public
so that everyone can see them and have an equal opportunity to learn
from the replies.
Please do *NOT* phone Portal Communications to ask for help with
PortalX. They are not Amiga users and will just refer you to the
Amiga Zone for help. PortalX is *NOT* sold by, nor distributed by,
nor supported by Portal Communications at this time.
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Amiga is a registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga Inc. and/or
Commodore Business Machines and/or Commodore International Ltd.
"The Portal Online System" is a registered service mark of
Portal Communications Inc.
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