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Monster Media 1996 #15
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Monster Media Number 15 (Monster Media)(July 1996).ISO
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ramsv131.zip
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WHATSNEW.TXT
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1996-06-08
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*****************************************************************
What's new in RemoteAccess Automated Message System v1.31
*****************************************************************
If you are using v1.2x please run the UPDATE.EXE file BEFORE attempting
to use Rams or RamsCfg. Failure to do so WILL result in runtime errors!
If you are using an earlier version of Rams than v1.2x you will have to
manually reconfigure it by first DELETING your RAMS.CFG and RAMS.DAT
files, then running the NEW RamsCfg and resetting everything to suit
your system. Please refer to the documents for more info.
PLEASE NOTE:
You DO NOT have to run the Update.Exe program if you are already using
v1.30 of Rams!
Fixed a bug in RamsCfg that would not allow a user to enter high ascii
characters in subject lines etc. Not much good for those countries such
as Sweden, France, Russia etc etc that use them as part of their normal
character set! :-( Reported by Lars Wigrell.
Fixed a bug that would cause Rams to abort with a runtime error 102 if
there were no users in the RA logfile. Rams will now correctly continue
and do any daily events etc as necessary. Reported by Lars Wigrell.
Changed some of the logging routines to make it a little clearer why
Rams has not posted a message in the event of a user not meeting a
condition that was assigned to the message.
*****************************************************************
What's new in RemoteAccess Automated Message System v1.30
*****************************************************************
If you are using v1.2x please run the UPDATE.EXE file BEFORE attempting
to use Rams or RamsCfg. Failure to do so WILL result in runtime errors!
If you are using an earlier version of Rams than v1.2x you will have to
manually reconfigure it by first DELETING your RAMS.CFG and RAMS.DAT
files, then running the NEW RamsCfg and resetting everything to suit
your system. Please refer to the documents for more info.
Fixed a bug with the Co-Sysop messages. Rams wasn't translating the
%SYSOPNAME% and %SYSOPFIRST% metastrings correctly, it was still
inserting the 'Sysops' name instead of the 'Co-Sysops' name when
sending 'Co-Sysop' reports etc.
Started to optimise the midnight procedures so they run quicker... In
general Rams should now run it's midnight procedures in HALF the time
taken by v1.2x
Added a new metastring, %USERLAST% which will be translated into the
users LAST name, ie his/her surname.
Added new metastring %LINE#% which can be used in any message, and will
be translated into the Line/Node that the user was on. Obviously this
will ALWAYS be 1 for a single line system.
Fixed a bug in the 'Watchdog' messages. If the user left the Sysop a
message before RA terminated the call after the number of password
attempts was exceeded, Rams would incorrectly read the previous callers
log entries as RA doesn't put a log entry saying that the call had
terminated.
Fixed the bug in RamsCfg that would cause it to overwrite the reports
it created.
Fixed a bug that would cause Rams to continually post 'Regular' msgs
EVERY day on some systems, even though the msg was not setup to be
posted every day. It will now correctly post them every X days.
Added File Attach support for 'Local' and 'Netmail' messages. Rams will
NOT allow a file attach to an 'Echo' message. For Netmail messages,
Rams will simply attach the file you specify to the message it generates.
But for Local messages, Rams will create a UNIQUE directory off your RA
'File Attach' directory and copy the file for EVERY message it sends so
BE CAREFUL if you are using the @ALL macro to post 'File Attach'
messages as it WILL take a lot of time and WILL quickly fill up your
hard drive as EVERY message needs a seperate copy of the file because
of the way RA handles things.
Please note: Local file attaches will ONLY work properly if your copy
of RA is REGISTERED, as this is a REGISTERED ONLY feature in RA. Even
on an UNREG copy of RA, Rams will still generate all the file attaches,
but your users will be unable to download the files as RA will not
allow them to do so.
Added the ability for Rams to run external programs in it's midnight
event. These can be 'Regular' (every X days), 'Monthly' (once per month),
or 'Yearly' (Once per year). You should specify the FULL path AND
program name to run. If the program requires Command.Com to be loaded
(ie a batch file), you MUST ensure that you have set the 'COMSPEC'
environment variable. Please refer to your Dos manuals for more info on
'COMSPEC'. Attempting to run a batch file without defining the COMSPEC
environment variable MAY cause an error as Rams will NOT be able to
call Command.Com to process the batch commands. If you specify a program
WITHOUT an extension Rams will search for .Com, .Exe, and .Bat in that
order. Because Rams is a DOS based program it does NOT support .Cmd
files as used in OS/2 etc. If you try to run a .Cmd file you are asking
for trouble! You have been warned!
The new 'External' menu in RamsCfg will allow you to configure Rams to
run the programs you want. Rams will attempt to intelligently report
any problems if they occur with the external programs execution ie.File
not found, Not enough memory etc etc. Don't forget Rams is still active
in memory, so there are limits to what it can handle.
Fixed a bug in the Config program that would cause some garbage to be
written to the report files it created.
Added the ability to specify who to post user messages FROM... By
default Rams will post all messages to users FROM the Sysop, but you can
now alter that from the 'Co-Sysop' feature in each message type. If you
want to have the user messages posted by one of your Co-Sysops you MUST
tell Rams which one to use... You can specify a different Co-Sysop for
EVERY message Rams can post to your users, or as explained above, Rams
will default to using the Sysops name if you don't tell it otherwise.
Fixed a bug that caused Rams to post 'report' messages to the Co-Sysops
even if the Report messages were disabled.
Tidied up some of the menu entries in the config program, and moved the
'Report' menu to the end of the main menu bar. Also added the 'External'
programs to the reports generated by RamsCfg.
Fixed a minor bug that would cause Rams to say a message had been saved
even when it had not been unable to open the message base correctly. It
will now report an error in it's log instead.
Fixed a minor bug with the 'Subs' messages that would cause RAMS to only
post the Sysop message (and not send the user message) in certain
circumstances.
Fixed a bug that caused Rams not to execute it's midnight procedures if
no users were found in RA's logfile.
*****************************************************************
What's new in RemoteAccess Automated Message System v1.21
*****************************************************************
Since v1.20 is only a very minor bugfix.. Please read the rest of
this document to see all the changes made since version 1.0
Fixed a minor bug that would sometimes cause RamsCfg to give a
runtime error when exporting a configuration report under some
conditions.
*****************************************************************
What's new in RemoteAccess Automated Message System v1.20
*****************************************************************
If you are upgrading from a previous version of Rams, PLEASE read
the section of the docs on upgrading. If this is a first time
install, please read the section of the docs on configuring and
setting up Rams.
Now, what's new in this the third release of Rams?
Added a new metastring %MSGSPOSTED% which will be translated to the
TOTAL number of messages posted by the user on your system. This is
read from the users record so *may* not contain messages posted using
a mail door as *some* of them do not update the users messages posted
counter :-(.
Fixed a minor bug that would cause Rams to generate a runtime error
002 if no logfile was specified in the config program. Rams will now
by default create a logfile called RAMS.LOG in the directory it was
run from if nothing is setup in the config program.
Changed the 'Welcome', 'Upload', 'Watchdog', and 'Birthday' messages
to multi-style msgs.
Added Netmail support to the 'Regular', 'Monthly', and 'Yearly' msgs.
This is ONLY available for the USERS messages, and can be used to send
any regular Netmail messages you may need to post. Things such as
Areafix msgs etc etc. The Netmail ONLY supports Hudson and JAM netmail
areas, it does NOT support the *.MSG format.
Changed the screen output so it now shows which user record Rams is
reading. That should satisfy those using slower machines that Rams is
actually doing something, particularly in it's midnight event. Don't
forget the more users you have in your userbase, the longer Rams will
take to run... That's a good enough reason to purge your userbase
files once in a while!
Added code to handle Co-Sysop messages. Rams can now post to upto 3
Co-Sysops as well as the normal Sysop msg. The Sysop msg MUST be
active for Rams to post the messages to your Co-Sysops, and you MUST
activate the 'Co-Sysop Feature' in RamsCfg and enter the names of the
users you wish to post to. Rams will then duplicate the Sysops message
and post it to the users you have specified in the config program.
Added the ability to reset upload/download counters when sending a
subscription message. You can toggle wether Rams should alter them in
the 'Actions' menu for the subs msgs. If active, RAMS will reset the
users D/Load counters to zero, and reset the U/Load counters to the
'New user' defaults specified in RAConfig.
Corrected a bug in the 'Regular' messages that caused Rams NOT to
post the message because the counters weren't being correctly reset.
Added the ability to create Ascii textfile reports from within the
config prog.
*****************************************************************
What's new in RemoteAccess Automated Message System v1.11
*****************************************************************
Now onto the new bits/bug fixes since the first release:
Since v1.11 is only a very minor bugfix.. Please read the rest of
this document to see all the changes made since version 1.0
Fixed a minor bug that would sometimes cause RamsCfg not to save
any changes made in the config file.
All registrations are now being handled by Minerva Online, with
the exception of upgrades from Mom. All details are included in
the REGISTER.NFO and MOMUPGRD.REG files. So now you have the
choice of paying by cheque, postal order, cash, credit card or
whatever... There is no excuse for not registering anymore! :-)
*****************************************************************
What's new in RemoteAccess Automated Message System v1.10
*****************************************************************
Added the Rams version number to the Rams log when it is created.
No real reason for this except that it will help us to see what
version of Rams is being used if we get any logs sent by users who
have a problem.
Added support for the users 'Sex' as a message condition.. So you
can now setup Rams so it will post to 'Both', 'Male' only,
or 'Female' only... The default is for Rams to post to BOTH sexes.
Added support for the users 'Language' as a condition.. So you can
now setup Rams so it will post to any valid language in the range
0-255.. If it is set to langauge 'ALL' (the default setting) it
will post to ALL users irrespective of which language they have
chosen.
Added support for the users 'Group' as a condition AND action. By
default Rams will post to 'ALL' groups, and will have the action
set as 'N/C' (No Change). You can enter any valid group as a
condition or action (0-255) and Rams will ONLY post the message if
the user is in the group you have defined. Rams can optionally
change the users group if you specify an action... Leaving it at
'N/C' means Rams will 'Not Change' the users group.
Added support for checking the user Flags as a 'Condition'. you
can select a flag Condition of 'X', 'O', or '-'. 'X' means that
the selected users flag MUST be ON, 'O' means that the users flag
MUST be OFF, and '-' means that Rams will IGNORE that particular
user flag. The default is for ALL flags to be set to '-' so that
Rams will IGNORE ALL the user flags and send the message to ALL
users provided they also match any other conditions you may have
specified.
Added the code to set the user Flags. You can now specify an 'Action'
for all messages which will tell Rams to alter the user flags when
it posts a message to your users. You have the following options:
T = Toggle userflag ie. if it's ON turn it OFF, or if OFF turn it ON
O = Clear userflag. ie. turn it OFF
X = Set userflag. ie. turn it ON
- = Leave flag setting alone. ie. Don't change it
Added a built in message template editor into the config program.
this can be called up in any message menu by pressing F5. If you
are in the Sysop part of the menu, the editor will automatically
load the Sysop message template, if you are in the User part of
the menu it will load the User message template. Not only will it
allow you to edit the message, it will also allow you to select
metastrings from a list.. You choose the one you want, and the
editor will automatically insert it at the current cursor position
in the message template.
Added some more error checking into the config program. Now you
MUST setup the System menu BEFORE you can activate ANY of the
messages. If you have not setup the system menu, RamsCfg will
display an onscreen message asking you to configure the various
paths first.
Changed the order that some of the messages are posted in so that
'Keyword', 'Times On', and 'Nth Call' will now be posted AFTER a
'Welcome' message. If the user is a NEW user, and you have Welcome
msgs active it will ALWAYS be the FIRST message posted to the user.
You can now hit F3 from anywhere in each menu and RamsCfg will pop
up the users 'Conditions/Actions' menu so you can setup any
conditions or actions for that particular message. You no longer
have to have the option highlighted before you can use the F3 key.
Fixed a bug with Weekly messages and the msg counters it uses. If
Daily messages were disabled, but weekly msgs were active, Rams
would show zero for ALL msg counters.
Fixed a problem with the midnight messages that would cause a
runtime error 102 or 105 under certain conditions.
Fixed a bug with the subscription messages in Rams... This meant
Rams would NOT post any 'Subs' messages.
Fixed a bug with the subscription messages that caused Rams to
attempt to post them to the last user that had been online before
midnight, even if they were not supposed to be sent a subs message.
Fixed a bug that caused Unregistered versions of Rams to show the
'Registered' tear line at the bottom of any messages that were
created.
Fixed a bug that caused Rams NOT to post *some* user messages if
the accompanying Sysop reports were disabled. The messages
concerned were:
Welcome, Watchdog, Upload, and carrier Drop. The USER messages
would NOT be posted IF the Sysop reports were inactive.
Fixed a bug that caused Sysop subscription reports to show the name
of the last user online when translating the %USERNAME% metastring
instead of the name of the Subscriber that was posted a message.
Fixed a minor problem with user D.O.B. if the users Birthdate was
blank in the users record Rams would display '--19' OR '--' as the
users DOB in messages when it translated the metastrings. Either
'??-??-19?? <Birthdate Unknown>' OR '??-??-?? <Birthdate Unknown>'
will now be shown.
Fixed a bug in the subscription messages that caused the Sysop
'Report' message to be posted even when the user was outside the
conditions specified for the message. The user message wasn't sent,
but the Sysop report was...
Fixed a bug in the birthday messages that would cause Rams to alter
the wrong user record if any 'Actions' were defined for the message.
If the user was at record 505 for example, Rams would alter record
504... This ONLY affected birthday messages.
Fixed a bug that caused the %WHOTO% metastring not to be translated
correctly.