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Copenhagen 16. December 1994 How to make a "Selection menu" in Concord step by step. By Bjarke V. Lindberg Fido 2:235/335 InterNet bjarke@ibm.net.dk One of the strongest features in the new BBS software named Concord, is the possibility to make "Selection menus". It means that the user only has to use the cursor keys to highlight a menu item and then press Enter to select it! At the first look, this may seem a little confusing but when you get used to it, you'll see how logical it is. This is a "step by step" example on making a selection menu in Concord. There are many ways to do this but I find this way to be the easiest. You'll probably find another way to do it when you get familiar with the menu editor in Concord but until then you can do it my way. Beside you now, you should have the Concord documents, the file called MENUTYPE.DOC and the file called MACROS.DOC. I'll not explain you all the macros and ^-codes, you have to read these documents by yourself ;-) Before you start: You'll have to make some thoughts about what the menu should do. For a start you can try to use the sample menus that came with your Concord package. They include some of the most used options in Concord (and other BBS systems as well), but there are tons of options in Concord, and the examples are just the most ordinary items. You'll also have to have an ANSI drawing package. I'm using "The draw", but there are also other packages available. If you're using "The draw" you must accept, that you cannot make "Hidden" menu items, because "The draw" "pack" the ansi file, and in the hidden menu item option, the "["-bracket HAS to be the first character in the line. If you are familiar with ansi-codes, you can use for example "Q-edit". (Pasi, the author of Concord, maked all the example ansi's in this editor!). These programs mentioned here, are all shareware, remember to register your shareware programs, if you keep using them after the evaluation period! When I'm making menus in Concord, I can't do it without a printer, so in this example, I assume that you have a printer attached to your computer. Another good thing to do before you start, is to make some batch files. Currently I have three of them: C.BAT: @ECHO OFF D: CD\CONCORD CONCORD -L -USYSOP;<PASSWORD> This one "emulate" an IEMSI login in local mode, and you don't have to enter your name and password. M.BAT @ECHO OFF D: CD\CONCORD\MENUPATH CSETUP MENU This one change the path to where you have your menu-files, and starts up the menu editor. I assume that you have the concord main directory in your "set path=" statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. (As well as the "SET CONCORD=DRIVE:\PATH") A.BAT @ECHO OFF D: CD\CONCORD\ANSIPATH D:\T\TD\THEDRAW.EXE TESTMENU.ANS This one change the path to where you have your ansi-files, and starts up "The draw" with the ansi file belonging to the menufile you're currenly working on. It's not necessary for your to have these batch files, it just speeds up the way you make the menus. (If you're doing it like I do) From now on when I write C.BAT, it means that you should log in locally. OK! Let's start making a menu: Start M.BAT, and go to the TOP.MNU. Add an menu item called "+". Make it show an ansi file with the "Press ENTER to continue" (General | Show ansi file w/ Enter) It should show the ansi file TESTANSI.ANS * STEP 1 * A.BAT { Start up The Draw in your ANSI dir. } { It'll write "File not found" the first } { time; ignore this. } Draw a menu! The good thing about Concord is, that you can make what you want. Don't be boring, make your menus different than other BBS's. One of the things I don't like when loggin in other BBS's, is that I can see which BBS-software they are using! Concord is so flexible, that you can personalize it as much as you want. There are, for an example, not an hardcoded welcome sequence in Concord... You can personalize it by editing the Welcome.scr. If you're using frames around your menus, you can make a macro name a fixed length by adding a ".XX" after the macro name. E.g. "@PACKER_NAME@.10" will reserve 10 characters for the name of the selected packer, even though the packer name only are 3 characters long f.ex. "ARJ", Concord will expand it to "ARJ ". When your're finished drawing your menu, save it AS A BLOCK! Name it TESTANSI.ANS * STEP 2 * C.BAT (log in locally) Press "+" in the top menu, to be sure Concord write your ansi as you imagined. If you used frames, see how many spaces you should add/delete to make it look allright. repeat step 1 - 2 until you're satisfied. * STEP 3 * A.BAT Save the ansi as the real ansi name. (Remember use a block!) Press the <prt Sc> (Print screen), and wait untill the printer is finished. Take your printed menu, get a pencil - move the cursor to the starting character where the highligted box should show up. Write down the cursor position on the paper. It should look like this on the paper: ──────────────────────── Block this and print it out ─────────────────── ┌────────────────────────── │ 8 <─┬── Written by you with the pencil.. │ | <─┘ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐ │ 3── │Menu Item 1 │ │ 4── │Menu Item 2 : @SysOp@.04 │ │ 5── │Menu Item 3 : @ADDRESS1@.25│ │ └─────────────────────────── ──────────┘ │ | │ 22 │ │ ├──────────────────┘ │ Written by you with the pencil ───────────────────────── We'll use it later on ───────────────────────── As you can see at the example above, the first menu item starts at position 8,4 - the second at position 8,5 - The @SYSOP@ macro starts at 22,4 - and so on.... We have to do it this way, until Pasi adds an ruler in the Menu editors <F2> menu, but belive me - he has enough to do!! * STEP 4 * M.BAT Add a new menu. (Press "N") Name it TESTMENU.ANS Add an item with the "Aut" in the first colomn. (KEY) It is per default. The next colomn (INPUT) should contain a "#". In the MENUTYPE colomn (column 3), set in the "Show ANSI w/ hotkeys" It's located in the "General | Show ANSI w/ hotkeys". In the DATAFIELD colomn (column 4) write the name of your ansi file. NB! without path and extension!! Remember you have told Concord once where to find it's ansi's - in the language file setup.. What we're doing above, is to tell Concord that it automaticly should show our newly created ansi file, when it loads this menu. All in all it should look like this: ┌────┬──────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┬─── │KEY │ INPUT │ MENUTYPE │ DATAFIELD │ SEC ├────┼──────────┼───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼─── │Aut │ # │ Show ANSI w/ hotkeys │ MENUFILE.ANS │ 0 These were the easy steps... Next we'll make the selections... * STEP 5 * Before we make the selections, I'll try to explain the way Concord handles the selection menus. One selection item consists of three lines in the menu editor. The 1st line tells Concord what to do when the user press Enter on it. The 2nd line tells Concord what the line should look like, when it is highlighted. The 3rd line tells Concord what the line should look like, when it has been highlighted once and is not anymore. In a other way: How should it look like when the user leaves that field. (This should look like it did when you drawed it the first time) The two most used ^-codes in the selections is ^C, ^G and ^L. ^C means what color concord should draw/write (Just like in the .lng files.) Syntax: ^Cforeground,background;Text Example: ^C4,0;Hello World This writes "Hello World" with red foreground color and black background color. Color codes: ┌───────┬──────┬─────┬──────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┬───────┐ Foreground/ │ 0 │ 1 │ 2 │ 3 │ 4 │ 5 │ 6 │ 7 │ Background │ Black │ Blue │Green│ Cyan │ Red │ Magenta │Brown │ Light │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ gray │ └───────┴──────┴─────┴──────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┴───────┘ ┌───────┬──────┬─────┬──────┬──────┬─────────┬──────┬───────┐ │ 8 │ 9 │ 10 │ 11 │ 12 │ 13 │ 14 │ 15 │ Only │ Dark │Light │Light│ Light│ Light│ Light │Yellow│ White │ Foreground │ gray │blue │green│ Cyan │ red │ Magenta │ │ │ └───────┴──────┴─────┴──────┴──────┴─────────┴──────┴───────┘ ^G means where the cursor should goto and start write. (I always remember this by saying to myself: ^Goto) Syntax: ^GX,Y;Text Example: ^G12,10;Hello world This will write "Hello World" starting 12 characters to the right, and 10 characters down from the upper-left corner of the screen. A screen is 80 characters wide and 25 characters high. ^L means the length of an enter field. Syntax: ^LXX; Example: ^L10; This sets the length of an enter field to 10. The user can enter up till 10 characters in the field. You can combine the ^-codes, but remember every ^-code ends with a ";". Example: ^C4,0;^G12,10;Hello World This combine the first two examples above. Or : ^C15,1;^G12,10;Enter your first name :^C14,1;^L10; This gives the user a field of 10 characters to enter his name. There are three ways an user can make a selection. 1. The user selects the item, and Concord do something. (E.g Goto Menu, Run a script, Select Language, etc.) Yeah... I know "Select Language" is a combination of "Edit user info" and the datafield "Language". I'll get back to this later. 2. The user selects the item, and Concord TOGGLES a setting. (E.g. "Edit user info" | "FILECHK") 3. The user selects the item, and Concord should read in some information from the user. (E.g "Edit user info" | "ADDRESS1") * STEP 6 * Remembering our first example with the three menu items and the pencil, we'll try to make a selection of this. Menu Item 1 The item should load the "Setup menu". Goto your new menu, it still looks like this: KEY │ INPUT │ MENUTYPE │ DATAFIELD │ SEC Aut │ # │ Show ANSI w/ hotkeys │ TESTMENU.ANS │ 0 Now we have to define, what Concord shall do; it shall goto the setup menu, when the user press the enter. Ok, let's tell Concord that. Add a line in the menu editor. (Press <INS>) KEY │ INPUT │ MENUTYPE │ DATAFIELD │ SEC Aut │ # │ Show ANSI w/ hotkeys │ TESTMENU.ANS │ 0 Sel │ $ │ Gosub menu │ SETUP │ 0 │ │ │ │ │ └───────────┐ └───────────────┐ └──────────┐ ┌─┴────────────┐ ┌─┴───────────────┐ ┌─┴────────────────┐ ┌┴──────────────┐ │Press ALT-M │ │Press ALT Gr-"4" │ │ General | Gosub │ │ Name of the │ │in this field.│ │ │ │ menu │ │ menu to goto │ │This means │ └─────────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ └───────────────┘ │Concord will │ │react on an │ │press on enter│ └──────────────┘ Next we have to tell Concord WHERE the cursor have to be when it shall react on the press on the Enter: KEY │ INPUT │ MENUTYPE │ DATAFIELD │ SEC Aut │ # │ Show ANSI w/ hotkeys │ TESTMENU.ANS │ 0 Sel │ $ │ Gosub menu │ SETUP │ 0 │ £ │ Quit │ ^G8,3;^C15,1;Menu Item 1^C│ 0 │ │ │ │ │ └───────────┐ └───────────────┐ └──────────┐ ┌─┴────────────┐ ┌─┴───────────────┐ ┌─┴────────────────┐ │ │Press ALT-C │ │ Press ALT Gr-"3"│ │ Don't change this│ │ │here. It tells│ └─────────────────┘ └──────────────────┘ │ │Concord that │┌─────────────────────────────────────────┬┘ │it's a cursor ││ ^G8,3;^C15,1;Menu Item 1^CN,N;^GN,N; │ │selection. │└─────────────────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────┘ The data field is the problem here, but if you only know how to read it, it's no problem at all. I'll explain it here, but afterwards you'll have to "uncode"it yourself :-) ^G8,3; -> Goto position 8,3. It's here our menu items starts. (As we wrote on the paper) ^C15,1; -> Set the color to white foreground and blue background. (It's highlighted) Menu Item 1 -> Exactly the same text as we wrote in our menu. (It will overwrite the menu text, but with the new colors) ^CN,N; -> Set the fore- and background color back to default. ^GN,N; -> Set the cursor to its default location. Now we have highlighted the item. Next we have to "un-highlight" it, so it looks like the same text we drawed in our menu, when the user press the cursor key to highlight the next item. The easiest way to do this, is to press the nummeric "+" key. It will copy the line, we just wrote, to a buffer. Then press the nummeric "*" key, and we will copy the line in the buffer to a new line in the menu editor. The only thing we have to do then, is to edit the color codes to fit the ones the original menu item had. KEY │ INPUT │ MENUTYPE │ DATAFIELD │ SEC Aut │ # │ Show ANSI w/ hotkeys │ TESTMENU.ANS │ 0 Sel │ $ │ Gosub menu │ SETUP │ 0 │ £ │ Quit │ ^G8,3;^C15,1;Menu Item 1^C│ 0 │ £ │ Quit │ ^G8,3;^C9,0;Menu Item 1^CN│ 0 │ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ └─ ^G8,3;^C9,0;Menu Item 1^CN,N;^GN,N; You've just maked your first selection! * STEP 7 * Exit the TESTMENU.ANS, and load in the TOP.ANS in the menu editor. Add a "Goto Menu" item, and make it call TESTMENU.MNU. Exit the menu editor. * STEP 8 * C.BAT Enter the TESTMENU.MNU. Now the "Menu Item 1" should be highlighted. Try to press Enter, and Concord will load the SETUP.MNU That's it 'n' that's that ;-) * STEP 9 * Menu Item 2. Here the user can toggle, if he's a SysOp or Not. (Not very realistic but..... );-) M.BAT Open the TESTMENU.MNU Start by adding a line in the buttom. Make it an selectable by pressing ALT-M in the KEY column. Enter "$" in the INPUT column. (ALT Gr-"4") In the MENUTYPE column select "Other | Edit user info". In DATA column write SYSOP (The setting we are going to toggle) Add a new line. The KEY column should be empty (ALT-C - remember??) The INPUT column should contain a "£" (ALT Gr-"3") There should be noting in the MENUTYPE column (Quit) In the data field we have to tell Concord what to write. But the fact that it's an toggle menu, and the @SYSOP@ macro can be changed, we have to make it write the current status of this macro too. It should look like this: ^G8,4;^C15,1;Menu Item 2^C9,0;^G22,4;@SYSOP@.04^CN,N;^GN,N; Try to look at it, the difference is not that big compared to the first example, the only new thing is that we tell Concord to write the @SYSOP@ macro too (whith the original colors), because this can change while we're in the menu. Copy the line to the buffer ("+"), and copy it to a new line ("*"). Change the colors to the originals: ^G8,4;^C9,0;Menu Item 2^C9,0; : @SYSOP@.04^CN,N;^GN,N; Repeat STEP 8 That's it 'n' that's that ;-) * STEP 10 * Menu Item 3 ; This is the different one.. Here the user should enter the first line in his/her address. M.BAT Open the TESTMENU.MNU Start by adding a line in the button. Make it an selectable by pressing ALT-M in the KEY column. Enter "$" in the INPUT column. (ALT Gr-"4") In the MENUTYPE column select "Other | Edit user info". Here I need to explain what the datafield should contain, 'cause it may sound a little confusing. ADDRESS1 -> The setting we're going to change. ^G22,5; -> Where shall the input field show up? ^C15,1; -> The color of the input field ^L25; -> The lenght of the input field This is the first half of the data field. You have to know, that Concord will pause and wait for an input after the ^L-code. This means, that until now, we've defined where the input field shall show up, what color it has and the length of it. Concord is now waiting for the user to enter the information and press the Enter key. The next half is were we define what Concord shall do when the user has pressed the Enter key. ^G22,5; -> Go back to we're the macro starts ^C9,0; -> Change the color to normal @ADDRESS1@.25 -> Write the new entered information The data line should look like this when it's done: ADDRESS1 ^G22,5;^C14,1;^L25;^G22,5;^C9,0;@ADDRESS1@.25^CN,N;^GN,N; It may sound a little confusing, but as i wrote before, when you know what to do, it very easy. Add a new line. The KEY column should be empty (ALT-C - remember??) The INPUT column should contain a "£" (ALT Gr-"3") There should be noting in the MENUTYPE column (Quit) In the data field we have to tell Concord what to write. But the fact that it's a item that can be changed while the user is in the menu, we have to make it write the current status of this macro too. Like this: ^G8,5;^C14,1;Menu Item 3^C9,0; :^G22,5;@ADDRESS1@.25^CN,N;^GN,N; Copy the line to the buffer ("+"), and copy it to a new line ("*"). Change the colors to the originals: ^G8,5;^C9,0;Menu Item 3^C9,0; :^G22,5;@ADDRESS1@.25^CN,N;^GN,N; Repeat STEP 8 That's it 'n' that's that ;-) * STEP 11 * You've now maked a selection menu. It wasn't hard or what?? I'll say, that it's the two first menus you make that will take the longest time. When you're in it, you can do it without thinking at all. And off course your BBS looks much better with the selection menus :-) I hope you'll enjoy using Concord. I do! In my opinion it's the best and most flexible BBS software I've ever seen. If you have any questions, just write your local support site. All of them would be glad to help you. If you have any comments to this document, please write me a E-mail. Kind regards, Bjarke V. Lindberg Fido : 2:235/335 Internet : bjarke@ibm.net.dk <EOF>