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1994-02-18
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18KB
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440 lines
CD Carousel Door
v1.3
by Bill Esposito
The Cereal Port BBS
1:132/152
(603)899-3335
bill.esposito@f152.bytepb.byte.com
Magic name 'CDCAR'
for latest version
**********************************************************************
DISCLAIMER: This software is provided "AS IS" without any warranty of
any kind, either expressed or implied. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.
Copyright 1993 by Bill Esposito. This program is SHAREWARE. Please
read the file SHAREWRE.TXT included in this archive.
**********************************************************************
What this archive contains:
CDCar.doc This file.
CDMenu.cmd The CD Carousel Local menu program.
CDCar.cmd The CD Carousel Door REXX program.
CDCar.cfg The CD Carousel configuration file.
CDMaint.cmd The CD Carousel File/msg maintenance REXX program.
CDConvrt.cmd The CD Carousel Files.bbs conversion REXX program.
* CDUpdate.cmd The CD Carousel File Area Maintenance/Update REXX program.
Rxmsgapi.dll The REXX/SQUISH DLL written by Colin Adams.
CDBull.txt Sample bulletin file.
CDhelp.txt CD Carousel's help file.
Sharewre.txt Registration information.
History.txt Revision information.
Whats.new New features/fixes for this release.
* Registered version only
-----------------------
What is CD Carousel?
CD Carousel is a collection of REXX programs which when used
together provide a fairly simple means for making multiple CD Roms
available on single CDROM drive Maximus/2 BBS's.
Basically CD Carousel provides the user with a listing of all your
data CD's from which he can "request" offline files. The Sysop can
then, once a day, once a week, or whatever, manually run the CDMenu
program which will prompt for the required data CD's, and
automatically copy the requested files to a predefined file area for
download by the user. The CDMenu program will also generate a
message in either squish or *.msg format acknowledging that the
"request" has been successfully fulfilled.
* Registered version only *
Once the user has downloaded his file, CDUpdate.cmd will clean up the file
areas. If a file has more than one request against it, CD Carousel will keep
track of them, finally deleting the file, and it's entry in the files.bbs,
when all requests have been satisfied.
----------------------
CD Carousel is not designed for real time access to your CDROM.
However, you can configure CD Carousel to treat your Online CD as an
Offline CD. Everything will work the same except instead of generating
a request, CD Carousel will copy the files to your request directory for
immediate download. This provides for a very fast search and browse
function.
If you want to have access to your CDROM like a normal Max/2 file area then
you must set up MAX/2 File Areas for your online disk.
Installation.
REXX must be installed. If it is not, use the "Selective Install" function in
your OS/2 "Setup" folder.
***** The CD must already be "BBS Ready" with Files.bbs files contained
*****
***** in each directory. Here's an example:
*****
***** \ Root
***** IBMPC
***** Utilities
***** files.bbs
***** filename.ext
***** etc.
***** Graphics
***** files.bbs
***** filename.ext
***** etc.
***** GIFS
***** files.bbs
***** *.gif
***** etc
*****
***********************************************************************
1. Create a directory for CD Carousel. Since all the file lists of
your CD's will be stored on this disk, make sure you have plenty
of space. Figure on about 1 meg for each CD.
2. Unzip the CDCAR.ZIP archive into this directory.
a. Move the Rxmsgapi.dll to your \OS2\DLL directory.
b. Move the CDUpdate.cmd to your Maximus/2 directory.
****** Don't forget the trailing backslashes in the pathnames *****
3. Edit the variables in CDCar.CFG to suit your needs.
TechTool 1st line - Select a name that will represent
the default disk that will shown to
the user when he enters CD
Carousel. This should match the
name you pick for this disk when
you run CDConvrt.cmd.
0 2nd line - Menu Style. 0 for default and
1 for Maximus/2 style.
j:\cd\ 3rd line - Drive:\path\ where CD Carousel
resides. (cdcar.cmd)
e:\max\ 4th line - Drive:\path\ to LastusXX.bbs file.
i:\max\file99\ 5th line - Drive:\path\ to file area where requested
files are to be placed. CD Carousel does
not delete these files after User download,
The Sysop must perform the house cleaning.
To aid in this, a download counter is
recommended.
99 6th line - File area number (ex. 99)
SQUISH 7th line - Enter the type of message base that is being
^ used to receive msgs from CD Carousel to the
| USER.(ie. The area defined by next parameter)
| SQUISH or .MSG
| SQUISH = Squish format area
|__Must be in UPPER CASE SDM = *.msg format area
SDMECHO = *.msg format echomail
(1.msg as a highwater mark)
E:\max\msg\comments 8th line - Message area where acknowledgments
go. This will either point to a
directory for *.msg bases or a
areaname for SQUISH bases.
1:132/152.0 9th line - To Node complete address including
point (1:132/152.0)
1:132/152.0 10th line - From Node complete address
including point (1:132/152.0).
Normally the same as the TO node.
Bill Esposito 11th line - Sysops Name
SQUISH 12th line - Enter the type of message base that is
^ being used to receive msgs from CD Carousel
| to the SYSOP. (ie. The area defined next)
| SQUISH or .MSG
| SQUISH = Squish format area
|__Must be in UPPER CASE SDM = *.msg format area
SDMECHO = *.msg format echomail
(1.msg as a highwater mark)
E:\max\msg\comments 13th line - Message area where the SYSOP will receive
messages from CD Carousel. This will either
point to a directory for *.msg bases or a
areaname for SQUISH bases.
1 14th line - Public or Private message to users.
Enter either "1" for Private or "0" for
Public. (private recommended)
* This is new to v1.1
Simtel20 15th line - Name of the CD normally installed in CDROM
If you do not want CD Carousel to copy files
from your Online CD, delete the entire 15th
line of the .cfg file.
* New to v1.2
4. Now run CDMenu.cmd.
a. Select the option S)et-up a new cd.
b. CDConvrt.cmd will be executed and will prompt you for a name
to be given to the data CD. This name should be descriptive,
and be no more than 8 characters long. (mark the cd with the
name for future use)
Example: Simtel20
c. You will also be asked for the CDrom drive letter. For the
example below, "L" would be entered.
Simtel20 CD
L:\msdos\4DOS
L:\msdos\ABC
L:\msdos\ADA
L:\msdos\AI
L:\msdos\AIJOURNL
etc...
If configured properly, it will read the files.bbs off your CDROM,
add size and date info, and copy the new file into a subdirectory
corresponding to the name you entered for this disk.
Example: Given the paths listed in 4 above, CDConvrt will read
the CD in L:. It will scan all the file areas and copy each
files.bbs, with the new size/date info into a subdirectory under
j:\cd\ named after the disk, Simtel20.
creates: j:\cd\simtel20
4DOS.BBS
contains the ABC.BBS
files.bbs's ADA.BBS
AI.BBS
AIJOURNL.BBS
In order to provide for compatibility with many different CD
directory layouts, CDConvrt must search your CD for directories
which contain Files.BBS. This process is time consuming (unless
you have one of those new triple speed drives!), so be patient.
CDConvrt must search the disk twice, once to find all the
directories, and the second pass to convert all the Files.BBS's
into the new format.
The CDConvrt.cmd utility converts standard Max-type files.bbs
files like this:
AR15.ZIP Run a program from an ARC file
ARCINDX2.ZIP Create a catalog of archived data
ARCRUNER.ZIP Run COM and EXE files in archives
Into this format with size and date info added, and the
description truncated to result in a line length of 79 characters:
AR15.ZIP 39323 11/10/88 Run a program from an ARC file
ARCINDX2.ZIP 42633 7/23/88 Create a catalog of archived data
ARCRUNER.ZIP 8096 8/29/88 Run COM and EXE files in archives
You may manually edit non-standard files.bbs or index lists to
conform to the above if you don't have the standard type which is
needed for CDConvrt.cmd to work.
If your disk contains files.bbs which already have date/size info, then
answer 'Y' to the prompt "Do the files.bbs already contain date/size
information? (y,n)"
You will also be asked if you want to sort the directories. This may be
helpful with disks that contain multiple subdirectories with the same
name. (ex. Hobbes)
Speaking of multiple subdirectories with the same name, CD Carousel will
prompt you for a new name when this occurs. Lets say for the sake of
argument that there are three subdir's with the same name:
l:\os2\comm
l:\os2\1x\comm
l:\os2\2x\comm
You will be prompted at the second and third occurrence of the subdir "comm"
for a new name. Keep track of the new name so you know what you've used when
the third occurrence rolls around. CD Carousel will not let you enter the
same name twice.
5. If everything ran right, a file called DISK.LST was created in
your homedir. This file contains the names of the disks, as you
entered them in CDConvrt. You may OPTIONALLY add CD disk descriptions
If you ever delete a disk, you will have to edit this file. If you want
to add a disk, this file is automatically updated. Also created was a
directory with the same name as you gave the CD, and it will contain all
the *.BBS files as well as a list of area names (name.lst).
6. One other file was created and placed in the same directory as
the files.bbs. The file, NAMES.LST, contains the CD file area names
and also the full drive:\path of all the CD directories. You may
OPTIONALLY add File Area descriptions to this file.
example: Here's the first 3 lines of the NAMES.LST as it was
generated by S)etup (CDConvrt.cmd).
4DOS L:\MSDOS\4DOS
ABC L:\MSDOS\ABC
ADA L:\MSDOS\ADA
If you want to add File Area Descriptions, use an ASCII
editor to make it look like this:
4DOS L:\MSDOS\4DOS Great Command Processor
ABC L:\MSDOS\ABC Strange Programming Language
ADA L:\MSDOS\ADA ADA Programming Language
7. Repeat steps 4, and 5 for each CD you wish to install.
8. To make CD Carousel available to your users, add a line to your
menus.ctl like this:
Xtern_run maxpipe_%P_j:\cd\cdcar.cmd_j:\cd\_%g_0_%n normal "+CD Carousel"
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Full Path & filename of CDCAR.CMD| | | | |
Path to CDCAR.CFG _____| | | |
Graphics Mode ___________| | |
Place holder _____________| |
User Name ________________|
9. Edit your filearea.ctl to add a file area for the requested files.
10 * Registered version only *
Edit your SpawnBBS.cmd file (ie. the batch file used to start Max/2) to
include these two lines:
cd\max ;Change to your BBS directory
cdupdate e:\max\ e:\max\max.log i:\max\file99\
^ ^ ^
full path to BBS_| | |
full path\filename of Max.log_| |
full path to file request area_____________|
** Dont forget the Trailing Backslashes on all pathnames **
11. Edit the BULLETIN.TXT file to your liking. Use an ASCII editor and
keep the line length to 79 or fewer characters per line.
OPERATION
The BBS User will be presented with the following options:
C)hange Disk
F)ile Area
S)earch by Filename/Text
B)ulletins
?)Help
Q)uit Back to BBS
"Change Disk" will present the User with all available CD's from which he can
choose.
"File Area" will present the User with a list of all the file areas available
on the selected disk.
"Search by Filename/Test" is a string search of all the filenames and
descriptions for the selected CD. If you set up CD Carousel to work with your
ONLINE CD by entering it's name as line 15 in Cdcar.cfg, your Users will have a
very fast file lookup available to them, much faster than from the Max/2 file
menu.
"Bulletins" displays the file CDbull.txt, in which you can put anything you want.
"?Help" displays the file CDhelp.txt.
"Quit back to BBS" sends the user back to your BBS. If you set up your ONLINE
CD by entering it's name as parameter line 15 in CDcar.cfg, then those files
will be copied to your file request directory for immediate download.
---------------------------
At the end of the day, or at whatever frequency you want, you must
manually run CDMenu.cmd. You will be notified by CD Carousel in the msg
area defined by config parameter 13 when there is at least one (1) pending
request. When you receive this message, run CDMenu.cmd. When the menu comes
up, select F)ill file requests. This will run CDMaint.cmd. When run, it will
prompt you for each disk that has an outstanding request against it. It will
also ask you if you want to set the file(s) for a free download by offering you
the options of adding either /t, /b, or /tb to the files.bbs. After copying
the files, it will send a message to the user telling him/her that their request
has been fulfilled. If for some reason an error while copying occurs, the
error will be entered in a file called 'errors.log'. This file can be reviewed
and/or deleted by selecting R)eview error log at the main menu.
a. To run the CD Carousel door in the local mode select L)ocal CD
Carousel from the CDMenu menu.
b. You can also run the door from the command line by typing:
cdcar default_dir graphics 0 first last
which works out to
cdcar j:\cdcar\ 1 0 Bill Esposito
c. You can run CDMaint.cmd from the command line by typing
"cdmaint".
d. You can run CDConvrt.cmd from the command line by typing
"cdconvrt".
10. Review of CDMenu.cmd.
S)et-up a new cd - Runs CDConvrt.cmd. Creates new .BBS files on
your hard disk.
F)ill file requests - Runs CDMaint.cmd. Copies files from your CD
to a Max/2 file area.
L)ocal CD Carousel - Runs the door, CDCar.cmd, in the local mode.
R)eview error log - Displays the error log containing a list of
requests that were not filled because of some
file copying error.
**********************************************************************
Maximus/2 2.01wb CDROM BUG
If you already have a working Max/2 CDROM setup, then don't bother
reading this, you've already applied the patch.
You MUST patch Max/2 v2.01wb in order for your CDROM to be found by
both Max/2 and Siltp. The error manifests itself you producing Siltp
errors trying to create the file areas on you CDROM, and then Max/2
cant locate the CD. Here's the patch.
Patch Maxp and Siltp at the following locations:
MAXP.EXE: at offset 299430 (0x491a6), change 06 to 00
SILTP.EXE: at offset 31859 (0x7c73), change 06 to 00
You can use Patch.EXE located in your OS/2 directory.
Bug Reports
Please send all bug reports to Bill Esposito at:
FidoNet 1:132/152
Internet bill.esposito@f152.bytepb.byte.com
UUCP bytepb.byte.com!f152!bill_esposito
End.