Monster Media 1994 #1/monster.zip/monster/MAXIMUS/MPM1_10A.ZIP/MAXFMPM.TXT

Text File | 1994-04-05 | 51KB | 1,184 lines

MaxFile/PM - Version 1.10

A FILES.BBS Manager for Presentation Manager

Portions of the header files used in compilation are:

  Copyright (C) 1992 by Scott Dudley
  Copyright (C) 1993 by Aki Antman
  Copyright (C) 1994 by Marco Maccaferri

MSGAPI portions of the Announce Files option are:

    Copyright 1991 by Scott J. Dudley.  All rights reserved.
    "Squish" and "Maximus" are trademarks of Scott J. Dudley.

From the Development Team of:

  Craig Morrison - MaxFile/PM Development
    1:201/[e-mail]

  Ronald Van Iwaarden - MaxFile/2 Development
    1:104/[e-mail]

Special Thanks go out to:

 Mark Kimes
  For putting up with my never ending questions and general bull-headedness
  when it comes to programming under OS/2

 Scott Dudley
  For making Maximus the great BBS that it is!

 Marco Maccaferri
  For providing the Lora structures and Lora itself

 Rick Fishman
  His container code was a great source of inspiration

 Steven Crandall
  Who thinks I should be barefoot and coding all the time

 Rick Ford
  Keeping me up to date with the Lora-BBS information

 Eric Chew
  For providing the SuperBBS information and testing

 Steve Lamb
  "Generic" code tester

 J Gitzen
  Maximus code tester

 David Campbell
  Lora-BBS code tester

 Raymond Deroo
  Maximus code tester

 David Roberts
  Maximus code tester

 Jerry McBride
  Maximus code tester

If I missed anyone, well...you know who you are! Thanks!

*** OS/2 Service Pack Information

 NOTICE TO OS/2 SERVICE PACK USERS

  The incompatibility problems experienced with the beta service pack and the
recently released service pack have been addressed. MaxFile/PM should now run
on stock 2.1 GA code along with the beta and GA service packs.

  There have been some incompatibility problems reported with the GA service
pack, your mileage may vary.

*** What's New

-  Added a case and position insensitive search for finding files.

-  Added a new option to the context menu of the FILES.BBS windows; Copy
Description. The description of the first item selected is copied and used as
the description for all the marked files with a 'x of xx' counter appended to
it.

-  You can now use wildcards to specify what file extensions are okay to adopt.

-  Drag and Drop to folders is now working again. Sorry folks, I *really*
didn't break it on purpose.

-  Fixed up the drop code a little bit to handle file clashes better. If a file
that is being dropped on a window exists you will now be asked if you want to
over-write the file that exists with the file that is being dropped.

-  Rewrote the FILES.BBS reader so that it now correctly reads a FILES.BBS
file. This corrects the problems that many have reported that were occuring
with the last entry in a FILES.BBS. Thanks go out to Carl Neal for helping me
think this one through.

-  New option on the FILES.BBS context menu. 'Announce Files...' you may now
announce selected files to any message base that uses either the Squish or
*.MSG message formats.

-  Added a REXX file that will create an object on your desktop for MaxFile/PM
with the proper settings.

-  Orphan files are now added to the end of the file list in each container.
Its kind of slow, but there is nothing stopping you from continuing to work
with the files in the container since the insertion is performed in a separate
thread.

-  Fixed a minor embarassment on my part, headers are now skipped correctly.

-  Added an Outdated file tosser. You can scan for files older than <n> days
and either move them to a specific area or send them off to the bit bucket.

-  Added an All Files Generator. At present all it does is create a
comprehensive list of files. In the future I plan to have it create a new files
list also.

-  Version 1.08 consists of many, many changes that are too numerous to outline
here. Suffice it to say some of the code was completely rewritten and that
quite a few bugs were squashed in the process. Overall MaxFile/PM should be
MUCH more stable and work on a wider variety of systems.

-  Fixed traps when saving FILES.BBS entries.

-  Revamped CloseAllWindows() code, it does what it is supposed to now.

-  Fixed traps in DupeChecker() code.

-  Cleaned up error recovery code in a number of places.

-  Added an automatic window function. You can now have one FILES.BBS window
opened automatically for you when the program starts. Just leave the FILES.BBS
window that you want opened automatically open when you shut down MaxFile/PM.

-  Revved up the Adopt Files code, it now works fast enough for AutoAdopt to be
usable.

-  Got the dupe checker working.

-  Re-enabled the code to open multiple FILES.BBS windows from the File Area
window.

-  Fixed a minor bit of stupidity on my part in the configuration code that
wouldn't bring up the Settings dialog the first time MaxFile/PM was run.

-  Added accelerators (hot-keys) for easier function access.

-  Added ability to skip over headers in FILES.BBS.

-  Added extended description support.

-  Enabled Virus Scanner option.

-  Added ability to extract an archive to a specified directory.

-  Added support for fully qualified filenames in FILES.BBS files.

-  Added a generic file format to support _any_ BBS package that uses the
FILES.BBS format for download directories. Steve Lamb gets credit for this one.

-  Ripped out the old text configuration file code, it was causing way too much
confusion with users who weren't running Maximus.

-  Dropped the _tmalloc() code and went back to the API memory allocation
functions.

-  Added a new option to the Adopt Options dialog, DL Counters.

-  Changed memory allocation code to use the library _tmalloc() function for
compatibility with the PM's 16-bit code. Hopefully this will squash the random
SYS3175 access violations that some have been experiencing.

-  Added first run of the SuperBBS code. I don't know much about SBBS folks, so
you are pretty much on your own. For what I do know, please keep reading this
document.

-  Fixed a bug where if more than 4 files were tagged for dragging an error
would occur when dropping the files on a window.

-  Previous code wasn't setting the changes flag when a FILE_ID.DIZ was
imported from an archive. It is now. (Thanks Jim!)

-  Fixed a bug where if only a filename was present in the FILES.BBS it would
move the filename of the next file into its description.

-  Added external program macros to the FILES.BBS windows.

-  Added Lora compatibility.

-  Fixed bug that made it so only D:\MAX\AREA.DAT could be read as a valid area
file.

*** Forward

 MaxFile/PM is a FILES.BBS manager that runs under Presentation Manager. While
it was written with the Maximus-CBCS in mind, any BBS software package that
uses the standard FILES.BBS format is supported.

A quick list of the features are:

    1. Drag and Drop between file areas

    2. Adopting orphan files

    3. FILE_ID.DIZ import

    4. Rearchiving files

    5. Sorting by:

      Name
      Date
      Size
      Description

    6. In-place editing of file descriptions

    7. Renaming files

 As the program grows, support for more convenient features will be added to
make MaxFile/PM the perfect tool for managing your downloadable files from your
desktop.

*** Registration

  I'm going to keep this short, sweet and to the point. What you are seeing in
MaxFile/PM is the result of drinking a lot of coffee and smoking way too many
packs of cigarettes since December of '93. Please take the time to print out
the REGISTER.FRM file that is in the distribution archive and consider
registration. MaxFile/PM is in a class by itself for managing FILES.BBS files
on your desktop and $25 is a small fee for something that will make the chore
of keeping your file areas neat and tidy a lot easier. The only sort of
"crippling" you will find in MaxFile/PM is that you can not run the All Files
Generator in batch mode. Registering the program stops the initial Program
Information dialog, thus also allowing for unattended operation.

  Registration also provides me with the incentive to keep working on the
program, it's all up to you folks that use the program.

 'Nuff said...

 One last comment here... Please share MaxFile/PM with other sysops in your
area who are running OS/2. Your support for the program is needed if you want
it to grow and get better than it already is!

*** Support

 If you need to contact me about the program I can be reached in a number of
places. NetMail will get you the fastest response, but I read the OS2PRODSUP,
OS2BBS and MUFFIN conferences everyday and intend on answering any questions
posted there. There is also a local conference on my BBS called MFILEPMSUP that
you are more than welcome to poll for. I *will* support MaxFile/PM, all you
need to do is ask.

 I will respond to you in the same manner you contact me, with certain
exceptions.. If you are in Zone 1 and you crash netmail to me, I will return
netmail to you in the same fashion. Routed netmail will get a routed response.
To those of you in other Zones, I am sorry but the cost of international calls
is very prohibitive. If one of you would like to volunteer to hub the support
echo in your Zone, I would really appreciate it and it will get you a
registered copy of MaxFile/PM.

 If your BBS package is not supported by MaxFile/PM and you would like me to
add it, I need a few things from you or the author of your BBS software. First
I need the structure definitions or layouts for the file that holds your file
area information. Second, I need a copy of the file that holds the file area
information so that I can test the code before I ship it out to anyone.

*** Before You Start

 The default installation of OS/2 defines Mouse Button 1 as the left button and
Mouse Button 2 as the right button. Please keep this in mind as you read
through this document if you have redefined your mouse buttons.

 A word to the wise here..

 BACKUP *BEFORE* USING MAXFILE/PM !

 Here comes the standard disclaimer...I don't promise that MaxFile/PM will do
anything for you except take up space on your hard drive. While I am fairly
certain I have got all the nasties out of it, there is a chance that I may have
missed something. So please be safe and backup prior to using the program.
Suffice it to say, you have been warned.. :->

*** Configuring MaxFile/PM

 To configure MaxFile/PM for use, simply start MaxFile/PM by typing MAXFMPM and
pressing ENTER at an OS/2 Command Prompt. The MaxFile/PM Settings dialog box
will be presented for you, so that you can enter the vital information about
your system and BBS setup. There are four dialog boxes in total that you will
need to enter information into so that MaxFile/PM will be able to do everything
it does. The Main Settings, Adopt Options, External Programs and Macro Setting
dialogs.

*** The Main Settings Dialog

 The Main Settings dialog box is the first dialog that gets presented. Here you
will need to enter the basics about your BBS setup. These items are;
Registration Key, BBS Package, BBS Directory, the path and filename of the file
that contains your file area information, Temp Directory, File Database Utility
path and filename, when to run your File Database Utility, whether or not to
display the date and size of your files, and whether you want to be prompted to
save the FILES.BBS window information when you close a window or to save it
automatically.

Main Settings Controls:

   o Registration Key
   o BBS Package
   o BBS Directory
   o Temporary Directory
   o File Area Data
   o File Database Utility
   o Run FD Utility
   o Display
   o AutoSave
   o Header Size
   o ED Marker

 The Adopt Options and External Programs buttons get you to the Adopt Options
and External Programs dialog boxes.

*** Registration Key

 If you don't have a registration key, set this field to 0, otherwise type your
key number into the Registration Key Field.

*** BBS Package

 The BBS Package field has four options, Maximus, Lora, SBBS and Generic.
Select which ever is appropriate for your system. The default is Maximus.

 For 'Generic' please see the section entitled Generic File Area Definitions
later in this document.

*** BBS Directory

 The BBS Directory field should be filled in with the root path that your BBS
files reside in. For example mine is D:\MAX. An entry in this field is
required.

*** Temporary Directory

 The Temporary Directory field is where you want MaxFile/PM to place its work
files and any files it needs to create when rearchiving, testing or viewing
archives.  NOTE: THIS DIRECTORY SHOULD NOT BE ONE THAT IS USED FOR ANYTHING
ELSE!  MaxFile/PM  will delete _EVERYTHING_ in this directory, including any
sub-directories during the normal course of its operations. This is a required
entry and you will need to create this directory for MaxFile/PM.

*** File Area Data

 The File Area Data field should be filled in with the full path and filename
to the file that contains the information relating to your file areas. For
Maximus this would be AREA.DAT by default. On my system I have this set to
D:\MAX\AREA.DAT. For Lora-BBS users, this is the path and filename to
SYSFILE.DAT. For SBBS users, this is the path and filename to your FLSEARCH.BBS
file. This field is also a required entry.

*** File Database Utility

 The next field is for the filename of your File Database Utility. For Maximus
this will be either FB.EXE or FBP.EXE. On my system I have this set to FBP,
since the utility is in my path. For Lora-BBS users, this will be FILEIDX.EXE.
Please see the "Known Problems" section at the end of this document for more
information about FILEIDX.EXE. For SBBS users, I don't have a clue. If someone
would fill me in on this one I'd really appreciate it! This entry is only
required if you want MaxFile/PM to run the utility for you.

*** Run FD Utility

 The options for Run FD Utility determine when and if the File Database utility
will get run. There are three; Always, Prompt and Never. Always will run your
file database utility everytime you exit MaxFile/PM. If no changes have been
made, it will prompt you before running it. Prompt will ask you if you wish to
run it. Do I need to explain Never? :-}

*** Display

 The Display options control whether or not the file size and date information
gets displayed for your files in the FILES.BBS windows. Simply check or uncheck
the check boxes to set your preferences.

*** AutoSave

 AutoSave controls whether you are prompted to save FILES.BBS information or if
it should be written automatically each time you close a window that has
FILES.BBS information in it. When the checkbox for this item has a check in it,
MaxFile/PM will automatically save, if not, you will be prompted to save the
information.

*** Header Size

 Header Size controls how many lines at the beginning of the FILES.BBS are
skipped when the FILES.BBS is read to populate the FILES.BBS window. It also
tells MaxFile/PM how many lines to copy from the old FILES.BBS to the new
FILES.BBS when it saves changes.

 This will solve quite a few of the problems with DownSort headers while still
preserving the headers in your FILES.BBS files.

*** ED Marker

 For those BBS packages that support extended descriptions this option will
come in handy. Here you tell MaxFile/PM what character is associated with
extended descriptions for your BBS Package. This character can not be a space
or a dash.

 Defining this character causes a few changes in the way MaxFile/PM handles
your file descriptions. When this option is used, file descriptions are allowed
to be up to 1024 characters in length and nothing is stripped from FILE_ID.DIZ
descriptions read in from archives. MaxFile/PM does not insert this character
in multiple line descriptions for you, you need to do this.

 If this character is not defined, file descriptions are limited to 255
characters, also, any CR/LF pairs and high-bit ASCII characters are stripped
from FILE_ID.DIZ descriptions.

*** The Adopt Options Dialog Box

 The Adopt Options dialog box is where you enter the information that tells
MaxFile/PM what files are okay to adopt. You do this by entering the extensions
of the files that you want to be added to your FILES.BBS when you do an Adopt
Files. You also may enter a Default Description here that gets used for adopted
files that either aren't archives or are archives that don't have a FILE_ID.DIZ
file in them.

Adopt Options Controls:

   o Add/Remove Extensions To Adopt
   o AutoAdopt
   o Download Counters
   o Default Description

*** Add/Remove Extensions To Adopt

 You may enter upto 15 extensions for MaxFile/PM to recognize. Entering them in
is accomplished by typing them into the edit field just above the Add button
and then clicking on the Add button. You may also remove extensions by
hilighting them in the listbox and clicking on the Remove button. NOTE: what
you are entering here is JUST the file extension, I.E. ZIP, not a file
specification mask.

*** AutoAdopt

 The little checkbox to the right of the adopt list listbox labeled AutoAdopt
tells MaxFile/PM whether or not to automatically adopt files each time a file
area is opened. Check it if you want this behaviour. I will have to admit that
at this time adopting is a rather slow process, so you might not want to have
AutoAdopt set to on.

*** Download Counters

 Next comes the DL Counters checkbox, if you have this option checked, when
ever an Adopt is performed a download counter will be added to the beginning of
the file description. Currently this is hard coded as '[   ]'.

*** Default Description

 The last item in this dialog box is the Default Description. You may enter
upto 80 characters for a default description. This text will get used any time
you Insert, Adopt or drop files from an outside source into a window in
MaxFile/PM and those files meet the following criteria: 1, they are not an
archive or 2, they are an archive and the archive does not contain a
FILE_ID.DIZ description inside of it.

*** The External Programs Dialog Box

 The External Programs dialog box is where you enter all the information about
your archivers and viewers. There are four entries for each archiver type that
MaxFile/PM supports (ZIP, ARJ, LZH and ARC.) Which are; Extract, Add, List and
Test. You'll need to look up the proper switches in the documentation for each
of the archivers you have. If you deal with archivers that can handle
directories inside of them, make sure that you specify those switches here.

See also: MaxFile/PM and External Programs

 The final control in this dialog is a button labeled Macros, it will bring up
the Macro Settings Dialog.

*** The Macro Settings Dialog Box

 Here you can enter the definitions for 5 macros that will get called when you
press one of the keys, Shift-F6 - Shift-F10. They aren't macros persay, but
they behave in a very similar manner.

See also: MaxFile/PM and External Programs

*** MaxFile/PM and External Programs

 If you have REXX installed you can use REXX command files for any of the
external program options. You may also call OS/2 command files.

 Just remember to save the directory that your command file gets called from
and restore it just before your command file gets done.

 During certain operations MaxFile/PM expects to find a result file in the
directory it calls these programs from. The Test and View functions are those
times. MaxFile/PM expects to find the file ARC.TXT in the temporary directory
these programs are called from, if it doesn't find that file it will not
display anything about the files that are being tested or viewed.

 I had originally stated the MaxFile/PM could directly run DOS applications,
well it can but in certain circumstances it takes a little work. For the
Archiver Test and Viewer functions, if you use a DOS based archiver you will
need to write a small batch file that runs the archiver and directs the output
from the archiver to a file called ARC.TXT. As stated above this is the file
that MaxFile/PM displays to you for those functions.

 Please note that what directory the programs start out in WILL vary over the
course of a MaxFile/PM session, so don't hard code any references into your
command files.

*** Generic File Area Definitions

 To provide support for any BBS system that uses the standard FILES.BBS format
for their file listings I have come up with a very simple text file format that
will allow you to tell MaxFile/PM how your file areas are defined.

 The file is made up of a verb that tells MaxFile/PM how many areas it can
expect to find in the text file. Each successive line after that verb defines
the file areas themselves. A sample file is shown below:

----------------------------- AREAS.CFG sample --------------------------------
AreaCount 5
0 d:\max\file\uncheck    d:\max\file\uncheck\files.bbs    Unchecked Uploads
1 d:\max\file\max        d:\max\file\max\files.bbs        BBS Stuff
2 d:\max\file\dos\games  d:\max\file\dos\games\files.bbs  Dos Games
3 d:\max\file\os2\util   d:\max\file\os2\util\files.bbs   OS/2 Utilities
4 d:\max\file\os2\apps   d:\max\file\os2\apps\files.bbs   OS/2 Applications
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The 'AreaCount' keyword tells MaxFile/PM how many area definitions it can
expect to find in the file. The AreaCount keyword must come BEFORE the area
definition lines.

The format for each area definition line is:

  <area tag> <file path> <list name> <area description>

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 <area tag>           Is a short name to identify the file area.

 <file path>          Is the path to the files.

 <list name>          Is the full drive:\path and filename of the
                      FILES.BBS for the area.

 <area description>   Is a short description of the area.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 You can name this file what ever you wish, just make sure you specify the name
of this file for the File Area Data option in the Main Settings Dialog and make
sure the BBS Package is set to 'Generic'.

*** Using MaxFile/PM

 When MaxFile/PM first comes up a window will be displayed that contains all of
your file areas. I will be referring to this window by the term 'File Area
Window' throughout the rest of this document.

 When you open up a file area, a window that is very similar in appearance to
the File Area window will appear. This window will contain all the files listed
in the FILES.BBS for that area. These windows will be referred to as 'FILES.BBS
Windows' from here on out.

*** File Area Window

 The File Area window serves two basic purposes. First, it allows you to open
FILES.BBS Windows and second, it also serves as a dropping point for files so
that you can quickly move files to another file area without having to open the
file area.

The File Area Window Context Menu:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Open                      Opens the highlighted file area.

 Check for Duplicates      Scan all file areas for duplicate files.

 Search...                 Search selected files areas for a given
                           string.

 View                      Change the way items are displayed.

 Area Sort                 Change sort order of file area display.

 Settings...               Configure MaxFile/PM for use.

 Product Information...    Displays some information about
                           MaxFile/PM.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

 To bring up the context menu for the File Area window, press mouse button 2
anywhere inside the confines of the window.

*** File Area Menu/Open

 This menu item allows you to open the highlighted file area.

 The other ways of opening a file area are: Highlighting the area you want to
open and pressing enter or double-clicking mouse button 1 on a file area.

 If the file area is already open it will be brought into view, even if it is
minimized to the Minimized Window Viewer folder.

*** File Area Menu/Check for Duplicates

  To check your file areas for duplicate files choose this menu item after
selecting the area(s) you want MaxFile/PM to check against all of your file
areas. Please note that the scan performed when checking for duplicates does
not involve the FILES.BBS files for the areas scanned, it looks at the contents
of the download directory for each area. So all duplicates will be found
regardless of whether there is a FILES.BBS entry for them or not. However, the
files searched for come directly from the FILES.BBS files of the areas selected
in the File Area window. So make sure if you have a FILES.BBS window open for
one of the areas you will be checking for duplicates from, that you have saved
any changes made in that window.

  The File Area window will be locked open until you close the DupeCheck
Results dialog box. This dialog will appear as soon as the file scanning is
complete. Inside it you will see two list boxes, the list box on the left
contains all the files that MaxFile/PM scanned for, the list box on the right
contains a list of area tags for the areas that the selected file on the left
resides in. Double-clicking mouse button 1 on an area tag opens the FILES.BBS
window that is associated with that file area.

*** File Area Menu/Search...

  This function is very similar to the Dupe Checker option, with the exception
that instead of checking for duplicate files you can enter a string of text
that MaxFile/PM will search for in each of the FILES.BBS files for each of the
selected areas.

  First select the areas that you want to search, then bring up the context
menu and select 'Search...' A dialog box will come up asking you what to
search for. You may enter up to 80 characters. Click ok to begin the search.

  The search is not case nor position sensitive. Both the filename and
description are searched for the text, if the text appears in of these two
places a 'hit' will occur. The dialog box that comes up after the search is
complete works exactly the same as the dialog box showing the results of the
Dupe Checker option.

*** File Area Menu/All Files List

 Probably the most requested feature had to be the ability to generate a list
of available files from the FILES.BBS listings. MaxFile/PM will now generate an
all files list. It's highly customizable and can be run automagically from a
batch file once configured correctly (NOTE: you must register MaxFile/PM to
stop the Product Information dialog from appearing.)

 To use the all files generator interactively, simply start MaxFile/PM and then
select the areas from the File Area window that you want included in the
listing. Then bring up the context menu and select "All Files List". MaxFile/PM
will then process each FILES.BBS and produce a listing under the filename
ALLFILES.LST in the directory that MaxFile/PM resides in.

 Each time you run the all files generator from the context menu, a file called
ALLFILES.CFG will be written that contains a list of the area tags for each of
the areas in the listing. Do NOT modify this file. The purpose behind this file
is to tell MaxFile/PM what areas to include when you run the all files
generator in batch mode. If you add or delete file areas, you MUST run the all
files generator from the context menu in interactive mode at least once to keep
the ALLFILES.CFG in sync with your file areas. I'll put it this way... IF YOU
WANT TO RUN IN BATCH MODE YOU MUST KEEP allfiles.cfg IN SYNC WITH YOUR FILE
AREAS.

 To customize the all files generator to suit your tastes, you can create three
text files which will be written to your file listing at the appropriate times.

  The names for the files are:

      ALLFILES.HDR
      ALLFILES.FTR
      ALLFILES.CUS

 ALLFILES.HDR and ALLFILES.FTR are written verbatim to the file listing at the
beginning and ending of the listing, respectively. ALLFILES.CUS is a little
more complex. It allows you to insert text into the headers that are written to
the listing for each file area. The format of the file is:

    <AreaTag> <Header text......>

 <AreaTag> is the area tag of the file area header the text that follows it
should be inserted into. You may place as many lines as you need to for each
area as long as they all follow this format. <AreaTag> is checked against the
area tag for each area in such a manner that if the tag for the area begins
with the tag specified in this file the text will get inserted. A sample .CUS
and .HDR file are included in the distribution archive. An example might be of
some help here..

  You have the following areas:

     CICA001
     CICA002
     CICB001
     001
     002

  In your ALLFILES.CUS file you have:

     CICA Files in this area are NOT freq'able.
     CIC These files are on my CD-ROM.
     00 These files are freq'able anytime but ZMH.

 CICA would match CICA001 and CICA002. CIC would match CICA001, CICA002 and
CICB002. 00 would match 001 and 002. Get the idea? Its rather simple once you
get used it.

 To run the all files generator in batch mode from the command line, specify
the -A switch on MaxFile/PM's command line. MaxFile/PM will do its thing and
then return to the command prompt when it is done. -a, -A, /a and /A are all
recognized as valid switches for this mode of operation. If you have not
registered MaxFile/PM please note that the Product Information dialog that
appears when you first start the program will severely hinder your ability to
use batch mode effectively.

*** File Area Menu/OutDated Files...

  This option will allow you to either remove or move to a file area those
files that are older than a certain number of days.

  The process of taking care of your outdated files begins by selecting the
areas that you wish to scan from the File Area window. Now, bring up the
context menu and select 'OutDated Files...', you will be presented with a
dialog box, this is where you tell MaxFile/PM how to manage the old files.

  To remove files, select the Kill radio button. To move files to a selected
file area, select the Move radio button and then enter the Area Tag of the file
area you want the files to go into. The Area Tag you type in MUST exactly match
one of the area tags listed in the first column of the File Area window, upper
and lower case letters are important here.

  Now you need to tell MaxFile/PM the number of days old a file has to be
before it will be moved or deleted. Either type in the number of days or use
the spin button to adjust the number of days to your liking. To give you some
indication of the date range you will be working with, the date below the spin
button will tell you what the date on the oldest file can be.

  After entering the above, click OK and sit back and let MaxFile/PM do its
thing. If a file area you have selected is open, it will be skipped. Also, if
you are moving files, the file area that will receive the dated files will be
skipped.

*** File Area Menu/View

 Here you can change the way that the window displays your file areas. There
are three different options:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Detail          Sets the display to the "detail" view.

 Icon            Sets the display to the "Icon" view.

 Text            Sets the display to the "Text" view.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

*** File Area Menu/Area Sort

 The default order for your file areas is the order they are defined in. Here
you may change the order in which they are displayed. You can sort your file
areas in the following ways:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Tag             Sorts file area display by Area Tags.

 Description     Sorts file area display by Area Description.

 Files Dir       Sorts file area display by Area Download Path.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

*** File Area Menu/Settings

 This option brings up the Main Settings configuration dialog.

 See Also: Main Settings Dialog

*** File Area Menu/Product Information

 This menu item displays the Product Information dialog box for MaxFile/PM.

*** FILES.BBS Window

 FILES.BBS windows are the heart and soul of MaxFile/PM, these windows are
where you will be spending most of your time. A FILES.BBS window is very
similar to the File Area window in appearance. What you will see when you open
one of these windows is the contents of the FILES.BBS that is associated with
the file area this window belongs to.

The FILES.BBS Window Context Menu:

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Sort                      Sort Options

 View                      Displays file(s) based on their type.

 Test Archive              Run archive tests on selected arhcives.

 Virus Scanner             Run virus scannner utility on selected
                           files.

 ReArchive                 ReArchive Options

 Extract to Directory      Extract files to a specified directory.

 Adopt Files               Adopt orphan files.

 Announce Files...         Annouce selected files.

 Touch Files               Updates Time and Date stamp of selected
                           files.

 Edit Description          Edit description of FIRST selected item.

 Get FILE_ID.DIZ           Extract FILE_ID.DIZ from selected
                           Archives.

 Insert                    Insert Files or Comments

 Remove Items              Removes highlighted items (doesn't
                           delete files.)

 Select All                Selects all items in FILES.BBS window.

 Deselect All              Deselects all items.

 Area Statistics           Display number of files, space used,
                           etc...
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

*** Sort

 With this option you can sort the entries in this FILES.BBS window in one of
four ways; Name, Date, Size or Description. Pay attention here, this is the
part that confuses some people. If there are any items selected ONLY those
items get sorted. To sort the entire window, make sure NONE of the items in
that window are selected. We'll talk about this a bit later.

*** View

 The View option works in conjunction with the external program options. For
archives it will fire up the proper archiver to create a list of files
contained in the archive and display a dialog containing that list. For
pictures and text files the appropriate viewer will be started. View is also
the action that is associated with double-clicking mouse button 1 on an entry
in the window.

*** Test Archive

 This option only works with archives. It simply invokes the appropriate
archiver for each selected item in the window. The output from the archiver
will be displayed in a dialog box after the testing is completed is completed
for each archive.

*** Virus Scanner

 This option runs the virus scanner you have set up on each file selected in
the current FILES.BBS window. The window that the virus scanner is run in is
not closed when the scan is complete so that you may view the results.

*** ReArchive

 This option allows you to convert archives to your preferred archive format.
Should one of your archivers not have an Add option defined for it, its menu
option will be grayed out.

*** Extract to Directory

 Here you can extract a selected archive to a directory that you specify. Note
that the directory you specify must exist.

 Once you select this option a dialog box will appear asking you to specify the
directory you want to extract the files to, it also displays the current
directory. Type in the directory name and select Ok, or select Cancel to abort
the operation.

*** Adopt Files

 Adopt Files allows you to add any orphan files in a particular file area to
the FILES.BBS for that area. Adopting is performed in a seperate thread so that
you may continue to work in the window for the file area while the adopt is
going on. The window will be locked open while the Adopt is being performed.

*** Announce Files...

  This option will allow you to write a customized message announcing selected
files directly to any Squish, *.MSG or *.MSG ECHO message base. You may also
specify a mail processor so that you can scan for the message to send it out of
your system.

  The whole process gets started by selecting the files you wish to annouce
from a FILES.BBS window. Next you bring up the context menu and select
'Announce Files...' You will be presented with a configuration dialog you must
fill out to tell MaxFile/PM the particulars about the message you want to send.
As it stands right now, you have to fill out the dialog for each different
window. The configuration for each window will be saved separately and will be
used each subsequent time you announce files from each particular window.

  There are a few things MaxFile/PM needs to know to be able to send the
message correctly and they are as follows:

Message Base Path   -The full path and base filename of the message area put
the message in. For *.MSG areas this will be the full path to the directory
that contains the *.MSG files. For Squish areas this will be the path and base
filename of the Squish files related to the message area. This is a required
entry.

Mail Processor      -This is an optional entry to allow you to scan for the
message that was just written by a mail tosser/scanner. Please see the
documentation for your tosser/scanner for more information.

Message Type        -This is the message base type, *.MSG and Squish are fairly
self-explanatory. *.MSG Echo, refers to a Fidonet style *.MSG echo mail area
that stores the high-water mark in 1.MSG.

Message Flags       -These are the attribute flags for the message you will be
creating. They are mutually exclusive. I will be adding Direct to the available
flags when I get the time to research the flags more.

To:                 -This is the name of the recipient of the message. If you
leave it blank, MaxFile/PM will automatically default to 'All.'

To Addr:            -This is the address of the recipient of the message. If
left blank, the From Address will be used. (Please see the From Address
discussion for more information on entering Fidonet addresses.)

From:               -This is a required entry. This is the name of the sender
of the message.

From Addr:          -This is a required entry. This is the address of the
sender of the message. Most likely this will be your fidonet address if you
have one. If not it doesn't matter what you enter here, as it won't get used by
your message bases.

  The format for entering Fidonet addresses into MaxFile/PM is:

       zone:net/node.point

  All four elements are required. To use my address as an example, the field
would have 1:201/60.0 entered into it.

Header              -This is an optional entry that you can use to place a
customer banner at the top of the message just before the files that are being
announced in the message. It is pretty much free-form, but you will be much
better off if you leave the formatting up to MaxFile/PM. You may enter up to
1024 characters in this field.

Footer              -This entry is basically the same as the Header field,
except it comes after the announced files. You may enter up to 1024 characters
in this field.

The 'Subject' line of the message is 'File Announcement' it is currently hard
coded. If I get enough requests, I will add it as an option but as you can see,
the message dialog is quite full as it is. The same holds true with the Tear
and Origin lines, they are not configurable. The Tear line will always read
'--- MaxFile/PM......' and the Origin line will always just be a standard
origin line with your Fidonet address in it. These two I will probably be
adding macros for so that you can place them into either the header or footer
of the message. It all depends on user feedback.

*** Touch Files

 "Touching" is the process of updating the Time and Date stamps of files to the
current time and date. This option allows you to do that for the selected files
in the current window.

*** Edit Description

 Many of you asked for this one. Edit Description allows you to edit the
description of a selected item by first selecting it, then choosing this option
from the context menu. It works the same way as ALT+clicking mouse button 1 on
an item's description.

*** Get FILE_ID.DIZ

 This option goes through the selected items in the window and attempts to
extract the FILE_ID.DIZ from them. Comments and files that aren't archives are
skipped over by this function. If a FILE_ID.DIZ is present in the archives
selected, the first 255 characters will be read from it and placed in the
description field. CR/LF pairs and high-bit ASCII characters are stripped from
the text read in from the FILE_ID.DIZ.

*** Insert

 To Insert a comment into the current FILES.BBS window, first select the item
in the window that you want the comment to go in FRONT of. Then bring up the
context menu and select Insert->Comment. A blank comment will then be inserted
in the FILES.BBS window.

 To allow you to adopt a single file from either the current directory or
another drive/directory, you can use Insert/File. It works much the same way as
Insert/Comment, first select the item in the window that you want the file to
go in front of, then select Insert->File from the context menu. A file dialog
will be displayed so that you can find the file you want to insert. Once you
have found the file, select the Insert button in the dialog box. The file will
then be inserted into the current window. Selecting the Cancel button inside
the file dialog box aborts the insert operation.

*** Remove Items

 This item removes or deletes items from the FILES.BBS window. When you select
it from the context menu, a dialog box will appear allowing you two options.
'Entries' just removes the entry from the FILES.BBS window, 'Entries and Files'
causes the entries to be removed and the associated with the entries to be
deleted. Click Ok to remove the items, or Cancel to abort the operation.

*** Select/Deselect All

 These two options do exactly what they say. Select All, selects every item in
the window and Deselect All, deselects all items in the window.

*** Area Statistics

 This option displays an information message box containing how many files are
in the current area, how much space they take up and how much free space
remains on the volume.

*** Selecting Items

 Perhaps the most confusing part of working in a FILES.BBS window is selecting
or deselecting items. I wrote the program and I still have to think about it.
Basically it works like this; Clicking mouse button 1 on an item selects it and
clears the selection from any other items in the window. To select multiple
items in the window, press mouse button 1 on the first item you want selected
and hold it down while you drag the mouse cursor. This allows you to select a
contiguous range of items. If you want to select multiple items and they aren't
adjacent to each other, hold down the CTRL key while you click mouse button 1
on each item. If the item is not selected it will become selected, if the item
is already selected the selection is cleared for that item.

 If you need to select or deselect all the items in a window, your best bet is
to use the Select All/Deselect All options from the context menu.

*** Drag and Drop

 A drag operation is started by pressing mouse button 2 down and dragging the
mouse cursor. The operation is considered complete when you release mouse
button 2. Should you wish to abort the drag, press the ESC key on your
keyboard.

 You can drag files from anywhere on your system and drop them either on a
FILES.BBS window or onto the File Area window. When dropping on an open
FILES.BBS window, the files are inserted into the FILES.BBS at the point at
which they were dropped. When dropping on the File Area window, the files are
inserted at the end of the FILES.BBS for the area they are dropped on.

 You can also rearrange the items in a window by selecting them, then dragging
them and dropping them where you want them to be.

 Many of you have asked about this one...To delete one or more items from a
FILES.BBS window; highlight the items you want deleted, then drag them to the
shredder object and delete them.

*** Renaming Files

 To rename a file, press and hold the ALT key and click mouse button 1 on the
file that you want to rename. Then enter the new filename and click button 1
anywhere outside the edit box or press the ESC key to end the edit.

*** Editing File Descriptions

 Editing descriptions works in the much the same manner as renaming files,
ALT+click mouse button 1 on the description you want to edit. To save the
description, click outside the edit box or press the ESC key.

*** Program Macros

 FILES.BBS windows are the only place that the Shift-F(x) macros will operate.
When pressing one of these key combinations MaxFile/PM will search through the
container in the window and pass the fully qualified filename of the FIRST (and
ONLY the first) selected item in the container to your macro. If a comment is
selected, or no items are selected, your macro will get called with no
arguments passed to it. Don't make any assumptions about what directory the
macro will start out in, that will be determined by the default OS/2 shell.

*** FILE_ID.DIZ Notes

 MaxFile/PM will attempt to extract FILE_ID.DIZ from archives and use the
description inside the file any time you adopt orphans, drop files from an
external source on the File Area or FILES.BBS windows or 'Insert' files.

*** Known Problems

 In a system as configurable as OS/2 there are always going to be problems,
this section is devoted to those problems and in some cases work-arounds. If
you are having trouble with MaxFile/PM this is the first place to look to see
if you can find some help.

Problem List:

   o CONFIGURATION
   o SYS3175 - Access Violations
   o DOWNSORT
   o FEELX
   o FILEIDX.EXE
   o RENAMING FILES
   o SPLAT DIRECTORIES

*** CONFIGURATION

 I changed the BBS package I use, why do I have to restart MaxFile/PM?

 Sometime in the near future this is likely to change, but for now anytime you
change the 'BBS Package' and 'File Area Data' options in the Main Settings
Dialog you will have to shut MaxFile/PM down and restart it for the changes to
take effect. It has to do with the way the configuration is read in, which I am
not going to go into here.

*** SYS3175 - Access Violations

 On ocassion when dragging file(s) outside of MaxFile/PM's windows an access
violation will occur and shut MaxFile/PM down. I have not been able to reliably
duplicate this (its only happened to me once), thus I haven't been able to
track down its cause.

*** DOWNSORT

 Single Carriage Returns in Comment Lines

 DownSort headers have been a major source of anguish.. ;-} Some versions of
DownSort will insert ASCII 0x0D carriage returns in comment lines in order to
cover up the dash that tells Maximus to use white text instead of the default
cyan. In an effort to keep the PM Container control and DownSort users both
happy I had to resort to a kludge. When the FILES.BBS is read in, MaxFile/PM
will replace any single occurances of CR's with a sentinel (ASCII 0x01). This
tells MaxFile/PM when it writes the FILES.BBS back out to insert a single CR at
that position. This sentinel character shows up as a little smiley '
' in the
comment text on the right side of the container control. If you delete this
little guy, the CR will NOT get replaced. So make sure you actually do want to
get rid of it.   Another alternative is to use the Header Size configuration
option to force MaxFile/PM to skip the headers in your FILES.BBS files.

*** FEELX

 Video corruption when fast scrolling in the Archive Statistics Dialog.

 It has been brought to my attention that some video corruption has occured
when FEELX is being used. MaxFile/PM is not causing the problems here. I am
using standard controls with none of their behaviour modified. I'm sorry if
this causes some inconvenience to FEELX users, but I can't fix something in my
program that isn't broken.

*** FILEIDX.EXE

 Lora-BBS File index maintenance utility

 Make sure that you specify the files IDX file that you want rebuilt in the
Main Settings dialog box. For example:

                           ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
   File Database Utility   │ E:\LORA\FILEIDX E:\LORA\FILES.IDX  │
                           └────────────────────────────────────┘

 MaxFile/PM will take care of the rest. (The "AREA .. .. .." part.)

*** RENAMING FILES

 I haven't fully tested all the different ramifications of renaming files now
that full path specs are supported, please be careful when renaming files in a
FILES.BBS window. And report anything out of the ordinary.

*** SPLAT DIRECTORIES

 Left over directories in the Temp Directory

 If MaxFile/PM suffers from an Abnormal Termination, it is quite possible that
the proper cleanup of the Temporary Directory did not get performed. It is safe
to remove the files from these temporary directories and remove the extra
directories. Please do this when MaxFile/PM is NOT running.

*** CONTAINER DISPLAY CORRUPTION

 Moving vertical separator bar messes up highlighting

 The Service Pack for OS/2 2.1 screwed up the way the highlighting is handled
when the vertical separator bar is moved. I didn't it break folks, IBM did.