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Text File | 1991-10-07 | 39KB | 879 lines

CdCom - CD-ROM Support Door Supporting PC-SIG CdRom Disks 10/5/91 - Read the README.1ST file before reading this if you have not done so already! Support BBS's: HIS Board (805) 652-1478 1200/2400/9600 HST 14.4k or (805) 659-4323 12/24 Advanced Electronic Technologies BBS (704) 545-7076 12/24/9600 DS Author frequents His Board. CdCom is a user friendly door that will allow users to have access to and download disks from the PC-SIG cdrom disks. PC-SIG organizes their software by disk number, and this program follows that same logic. It at this time only allows the users to access the files by disk number. With the new disk, all files are zipped. The user can view the disk and extract using an external view program. All protocols used are external and are dynamically configured in setup files you create. Batch transfering is available for protocols that support it (see protocol.doc). Users can read descriptions while online (by disk number) and search for text in the description file. Hits on the search are given by disk number, and they can use the read or browse descriptions functions to see if that is the file they want. They can also list the disks by the categories defined by pc-sig. This door was written to use Wildcats CALLINFO.BBS door user information file, however it can be run with other bbs software by simply creating a callinfo.bbs file using a conversion program. Qkdoor25 creates an adequate callinfo.bbs for most bbs packages door info. See notes at the end of this documentation file for more info on callinfo.bbs and what info CdCom uses out of it. Files in this CDCOMSIG.ZIP are: CDCOM.DEF - Set-up File CDCOM.EXE - Main Program CDCOM.DOC - Documentation CDCOM.BBS - Main Menu Screen CDCOM1.BBS - User Defined Intro Screen CDROP.BAT - Sample Shell to DOS Batch File. MAIN.HLP - Help File Explains Commands. PROTOCOL.BBS - Protocol Display Menu. PROTOCOL.DEF - Protocol Set Up File. PROTOCOL.BAT - Protocol Batch File. PROTOCOL.DOC - Protocol Documentation. REGISTER.DOC - Program Registration Information. Note: For multi-node setups some of these files will have different names. Please refer to multi-node setup instructions below even if you are not going to run multi-node. In addition, CdCom will create or use: CDCOM.HIS - Contains disk file sizes and # of times downloaded CALLINFO.BBS - Wildcats caller door info created when a door is run. CDCOM.LOG - A log file that lists the user's activity. CRITICAL.LOG - Updated when a program error occurs. I'll need the info in here if you call for help with a program crash. CDCOM.TDY - Keeps track of users time for the current day CDCOM.DSK - Allows you to keep disk numbers from being accessed CATEGORY.CAT - Contains the Disks by Category CATEGORY.PTR - Pointer File for Category listings CATEGORY.BBS - Menu for Category Listings 1_####.UPP - Description File 1_####.PTR - Pointer for Description File CDCOM.SEC - Security File (optional) CDCOM.FIX - Allows correction of disks that are wrong on cdrom or adding of new disks The distribution package (unregistered version) has the following features disabled: 1) Color menus/text are not allowed. 2) Cdcom.sec support is not functional. 3) Top 45 download report is not functional. 4) Only 3 files can be batch downloaded at a time. 5) Future versions will have record updating and advanced ratio checking. This will not be enabled in unregistered version. These features are enabled after registration. All other features of the door are functional besides these. There is also a message given to the user when they go to download that the program is unregistered. This will cease after registration. ============================================================================= SET-UP: CdCom will accept the following parameters on the command line: ADD - Adds new description to description file (see below) CAT - Creates category files (.cat, .ptr, .bbs) CPTR - Creates or updates the category pointer file DESC - Converts the description file and creates pointer files DPTR - Creates or updates the description pointer files REGISTER - Registers CdCom RESET - Resets or creates cdcom.his file CALLINFO.BBS - callinfo.bbs or drive:\path\callinfo.bbs are accepted for telling cdcom to use callinfo.bbs There are four major steps to get the door up and running. 1) Convert descriptions (if you want to) using cdcom desc. Explanation below. 2) Convert category listings using cdcom cat. See explanation below. 3) Run CDCOM RESET to create the cdcom.his file. 3) Create CDCOM#.DEF files (# depending on whether or not you are running multi-node or not, see explanation below). 4) Edit PROTOCOL.DEF and PROTOCOL.BAT to reflect what protocols you intend to support. See protocol.doc for explantion. These steps are the minimum to get the door up and running. Other steps would be to edit the menu files to your liking, create a cdcom.sec, cdcom.dsk, etc to customize the program to work the way you want it to. ============================================================================= DESCRIPTIONS and CATEGORY LISTINGS: CdCom allows the users to search the large description file on the cdrom disk in the \DOD directory that has the .UPP extention on it. For versions up to the 10th edition, this file was always called 1_1000.UPP. With the 10th they named it 1_2804.UPP. This file can either be run off the cdrom disk or on the hard disk. Obviously it will be much faster off the hard disk to search, etc but if you just don't have the room then run it off the cdrom disk. If you decide to run it off the hard disk, then copy it off the cdrom disk to the current directory and run CDCOM DESC this will strip off the extraneous spaces on the description lines and knock the size down about 1.5 megs or so, depending on which disk you have. It will then create the pointer files .PTR and .QRF. It will prompt you for the path and filename to the description file. If the description file is in the current directory, you can just enter the filename. It will check to see if 1_1000.UPP is there first, and if so it will not prompt you for the description filename but go to the next question. Next it will ask you how many disk numbers are supported by the disk. For the 10th this would be 2804, the 9th 2485, etc. If you want to run the description file off the cdrom disk then run CDCOM DPTR this will create the .PTR and .QRF pointer files. To create the category files (.bbs, .ptr, .cat) simply run cdcom cat it will ask you for the cdrom drive letter, then read the these 15 files out of the \INFO directory on the pc-sig disk. ACT.TXT, COM.TXT, DBS.TXT, GAM.TXT, GRP.TXT, HOM.TXT, KID.TXT, PRD.TXT PRO.TXT, REF.TXT, SAP.TXT, SCI.TXT, SPR.TXT, UTL.TXT, WDP.TXT, merging them all into the category.cat main listing. The apr88 disk I believe does not have an \info directory with these files in it, although I am not sure. The .bbs file is simply a text file, you can edit it to your liking if you wish. You can also create a .scr version for ansi menus, however it will not be accessed in the unregistered version of this door. The category files will be created in the current directory. Note: Not all the disks are categorized by pc-sig. If you find ones that are not, and wish to add them to the category.cat file, then load it up into a text editor (I use Qedit 2.1) and add the approriate line under the category heading. When you are all finished, run CDCOM CPTR this will update the category.ptr file and then it will work correctly. You can also edit the category.cat file to your liking if you don't like the format of it. All text is fair game for editing except the Category: line. This must stay a separate line by itself. The number before it is the category # is used for reference only, however do not remove it. You cannot at this time change the number of categories (next version of door will allow this). When you are done editing run cdcom cptr to update the pointer file. sample mandatory category line cat #, Category: category description 1, Category: Accounting, Billing You can change the category description, but leave the Category: and the category # as they are, or else cdcom will not be able to locate it. All other text can be editing/moved/etc to your liking. ============================================================================= See next section below if you are running a multi-node setup. CDCOM.DEF: This is the main setup file to tell cdcom information about your system and internal cdcom controls. Its format is as follows 1> h: ; Drive Letter of Cd-Rom Drive. 2> f: ; Temporary Drive:\path for files. 3> g:\cdcom ; Where CdCom will be located at. 4> on ; Sysop page tone. (ON/OFF) 5> 1000 ; Lowest Security Level that can shell to dos. 6> gate1 ; Device to re-direct output to when compressing a disk. 7> g:\1_2485.UPP ; Drive:\path\filename.ext to the description file. 8> g:\cdcom ; Path to write log file to. 9> 50 ; Minimum Security Allowed to download a disk. 10> N ; Send files from cdrom? 11> Y ; Reboot system if cdrom timeout 12> N ; Allow auto-logoff? 13> g:\cdcom\fix ; Path to cdcom.fix correction files. See cdcom.fix section 14> Y ; add ----- to log file 15> 1,36,40 ; normal text color 16> 1,37,40 ; high lighted text 17> y ; 10th edition Y, all others N 18> 2804 ; # of disk numbers on disk On all drive:\path designations DO NOT put a trailing backslash "\". 1> Drive letter of the cd-rom. Make sure to put the ":" after the drive letter. 2> Temporary storage area for file transfers and compressed disks from the cd-rom. Make sure that this is a separate area of its own because after transfer it will kill all files in this directory. A ramdisk is perfect for this. If the program is crashing often though try switching this to the hard disk and see if the problem dissapears. Some ramdisk programs are flaky and can cause problems. Dos's vdisk.sys works fine for this function. Files to be viewed by AviewCom are also copied here, and this directory is passed to aviewcom as being its work directory. 3> Drive and path where Cdcom will be run from. This is where it will look for all menus and other work files (except for the description file). 4> Turn SYSOP page tone on or off. Its a "red alert" type tone, will definitely get your attention. 5> Lowest security user that will be allowed to shell into dos from the program. It shells to CDROP.BAT, that will let you turn on watchdog, CTTY AUX1, etc. See example batch file. The shell command is not displayed in the menu, it is the "^". If you don't want to use this feature then make it a number larger than a security level you need, like 10000. 6> Where to redirect output when zipping files. On versions prior to the 9th edition the disks are not compressed and they must be compressed. Cdcom uses pkzip ver 1.1 or greater for this purpose. By using the redirect command ( > ) the user can watch the compression take place, since normally this text is only output to the console. Users have been known to drop carrier if the compression process takes too long, so the decision is up to you whether or not to use this. The best bet is to install gateway so that both the con and com port can see what is going on, then place gate# on this line where # is the com port number. If you don't want to use gateway then the best bet is to make this the com port, so that the user can see what is going on, since they will be the ones using it the most. It has been tested with gateway2.zip which is included in this zip file. To install this for COM1 put in your CONFIG.SYS file DEVICE=GATEWAY2.SYS -D -1 for COM2 put DEVICE=GATEWAY2.SYS -D -2 So if you install it for COM1 put GATE1 on this line, for COM2 put GATE2. If you decide not to install gateway at least be put COM1 or COM2 there so they can see what is going on and then they won't hang up on it when it takes a long time to compress the disk. Note this will add a new device to your system, so rather than doing a CTTY COM1 you can use CTTY GATE1, or CTTY GATE2 instead of CTTY COM2. This will allow simultaneous COM and CON operation and makes for more interesting interaction with your remote sysops while in DOS. You can alt-d (for wildcat) while they are online, do a ctty gate1 and you both can operate in dos. Insure you ctty con before you exit (type exit) back to the bbs. See the gateway2.doc file for more info on gateway. Remember however that the 9th and 10th editions do not use this line, so you can leave a blank line here. 7> Drive:\path\filename.ext to the descriptions. If you want to allow the users to read the descriptions online then enter the path here. This file can be shared between all nodes, so you only need one copy of it, and just change the drive and path for each node. 8> Path for the log file. This way you can have it written to your BBS system files area or wherever so you can use the [R]ead a text file command from remote and read the log file, else in wildcat's case you would have to add the path to CdCom in the configuration. 9> Minimum security allowed for downloading. This allows you to open the program up so all users can access it, read/search descriptions but not be able to download until they register. Any number is valid, so if you enter a 0 then all securities can download from the program. 10> The disks can either be sent from the cdrom or from the temp directory (line 2). If you specify N it will copy the files from the cdrom to that directory, and send them from there. A Y means that it will send the files right off the cdrom. A N is practically a must for 9600 systems or the cdrom will bog down fast xfer times. 11> Previously an undocumented "feature", you can now toggle whether or not you want cdcom to cold boot your system if the cdrom drive times out. I found in the past that doing this would "wake-up" my cdrom drive if it was giving me timeout errors, however for some setups this is not acceptable. 12> Allow or disallow users to auto-logoff from the program after file transfers. If allowing auto-logoff, cdcom will drop dtr to log the user off, then exit the program. 13> This is the path to tell cdcom where to look for the disks that are listed in cdcom.fix. See also CDCOM.FIX section in this doc files for an explanation of how it works. 14> a Y here will add a ----- divider between user "logons" in the cdcom.log file for easier reading. Some callers log programs barf on this however, so a N here will keep cdcom from placing it in the log. 15> this is the normal text color that will be used when outputting text to the screen, if ansi is selected. See ms-dos 5.00 manual pg 595 for an explanation of these commands. DO NOT however separate these with a ;, it will not work. Cdcom will add that itself. Be sure to use a comma to separate them. Note that color text is a registered version only feature and will not work in the unregistered versions. 16> hi-lighted text color. Certain text will be highlighted in the program, you can select it here. This follows the same rules as above. 17> pc-sig 10th edition toggle. The disk path structure changed with this version, so you must tell cdcom this or it will not work. All previous versions put a N here. 18> number of disks supported on the cdrom disk. The sep91 10th has 2804, dec90 9th has 2485, etc. Note you could in fact add newer disks by using the cdcom.fix option, add the file to the category listing, and appending the description to the description file, and changing this value. This will be covered further down in this doc file. ========================================================================== MULTI-NODE SETUP: The following files are altered for multi-node setup. CDCOM.DEF CDCOM.LOG CDCOM.SEC CDROP.BAT The change will be in that cdcom will add the node number to the filename, so for node 1 you would have: CDCOM1.DEF CDCOM1.LOG CDCOM1.SEC CDROP1.BAT Cdcom will read line 35 of callinfo.bbs for the node number. Even if you are not running mutli-node, if wildcat or your conversion program is writing a number here you must take this into account and modify these filenames as so. If you are running an earlier version of wildcat, or your conversion program writes nothing here then cdcom will use the non-altered filenames (cdcom.def, cdcom.sec, etc). In cdcom#.def, insure that line 2 the temp directory is a SEPARATE directory from all the other nodes. This is VERY important! So a good setup would be as so: C:\CDCOM \NODE1 \NODE2 \NODE3 Line 2 for CDCOM1.DEF would be C:\CDCOM\NODE1 Line 2 for CDCOM2.DEF would be C:\CDCOM\NODE2 All files are opened in share mode, so you can share the description file, category file, menus, etc. Just don't share the temp directory. Note that most LAN's require that all .EXE, .COM and .BAT files are read-only. You can also read-only the cdcom work files if you wish, except for CDCOM.HIS, CDCOM#.LOG, CRITICAL.LOG and CDCOM.TDY. If you register the program then insure that CDCOM.EXE is not read-only, and if you are upgrading then insure that neither CDCOM.EXE or CDCOM.DAT are read-only. You can change them back after the registration process. ========================================================================== PROTOCOLS: Protocols are dynamic in CdCom. They are controlled by PROTOCOL.DEF. PROTOCOL.BBS/SCR is simply a display file to let the user know what protocols you support. It in no way reflects what you have active. CdCom shells to PROTOCOL.BAT for sending files. Read PROTOCOL.DOC for more info on this. ========================================================================== MENU and TEXT Files: The following files are either dumped as ansi or text depending on the users selection (callinfo line 6). Text versions are supplied in the program. The menu selection codes are hardcoded into the program however and cannot be changed at this time. cdcom.bbs - main menu cdcom1.bbs - intro dump file protocol.bbs - protocol selection menu category.bbs - category selection menu Color screens should have a .SCR extension, ascii files a .BBS extension. By inserting a ascii 1 (ctrl-a) you can make the screen pause with a <C>ontinue, <S>top, <N>onstop prompt, and a ascii 2 will make it pause with a Press [Enter] To Continue prompt. It will occur immediately upon reading one of these characters, so watch where you place it in the file. You can also call up user information out of callinfo.bbs by putting a ctrl-c (alt 03) ##, where ## is the line number in callinfo.bbs you want to call up. The ## value must be a two digit number, so for numbers less than 10 use a leading 0. ex:05 will display the users time left in the door ex:20 will display the users default download protocol Note that cdcom1.bbs/.scr is not a mutli-node file, so you don't need cdcom2.bbs/.scr etc. I just called it that for lack of imagination. ========================================================================= RUNNING CDCOM: You must pass the full path and filename to cdcom for callinfo.bbs on the command line. For multi-node setup it is very-bad-idea to copy callinfo.bbs to the cdcom work directory, then run it as: cdcom callinfo.bbs Although this will work, the next user who goes in overwrites the previous callinfo.bbs there. A worst case scenario would of course be a simultaneous entrance into the door of you and your worst user, and he gets logged on as you. Plus the fact that aviewcom will delete callinfo.bbs when it is all done makes this not-the-best-idea. A better idea is to use: cdcom c:\wildcat\node1\callinfo.bbs passing cdcom the entire path to callinfo.bbs from the node they came from. This way there are no collisions, no overwrites and hopefully no problems. Simply running cdcom with no command line will put it into a "local" local mode, it will not require a callinfo.bbs at all. It will prompt you for the info it needs (with default values in brackets [ ] ) then run the program as it would in local mode via callinfo.bbs, except for downloads. When you go to download it will copy the files to a destination you can specify or use the default (default is temp dir line 2 of cdcom.def). It will also check for free space on disk, handy for copying off to floppy. It will ask you for the node number also, if you hit enter here it will assume no node number and operate as so. If you are on one of your nodes then enter that number. Sample Batch File for Running CdCom with Wildcat: ctty con c: cd \cdcom set dszlog=c:\cdcom\cdcom.log cdcom c:\wildcat\callinfo.bbs set dszlog= c: cd\wildcat cat The SET DSZLOG will tell DSZ to write the file transfer results to a log file. You can tell it to use the cdcom.log file so you can see how the transfer went. If you are running the program on a non-Wildcat system insure that there is sufficient memory for CdCom to run. It is advised to use a shell that removes the BBS software from memory giving CdCom maximum room. CdCom uses approximately 180k, and you must still leave room for DSZ and Aviewcom to run. Aviewcom uses pkunzip to extract text from a zip, and pkunzip uses 220k of memory so you need about 400k free when you exit your bbs software. An error 7 will be generated by cdcom if there is insufficient memory for it to shell to any of these two programs (although the program that is being shelled to may still bomb with insufficient memory). On LAN systems it will probably be necessary to use a program that will allow you to load the LAN drivers into high memory to free up enough memory to run these programs. I do not run these programs so please don't call me and ask me about it, cause I really don't know. =========================================================================== VIEWING DISKS: CdCom supports AViewCom thru the protocol.bat file. All parameters passed are listed in protocol.bat. You can use the -w to have it use callinfo.bbs, but this is not recommended. The example in protocol.bat should work fine for all systems. Note that aviewcom is not a true mutli-node support program so copying callinfo.bbs to the cdcom work directory is the only way get it to read callinfo.bbs. Aviewcom is available from His Board as AVIEW54A.ZIP. This was also the version cdcom was tested with. AviewCom's support BBS is (619) 457-2665, HST. Any problems with AviewCom should be reported here. It is recommended that you create a separate directory for Aviewcom on your hard disk and path it. Aviewcom knows where it is located (dos passes it the full path) so it can find all its work files no matter where you run it from. This way you can quickly update it as new versions come out, and the files won't get mixed up with CdCom files. I am working with the author of AViewCom to make sure the two programs run well together. =========================================================================== SECURITY FILE: (optional) CDCOM.SEC CDCOM.SEC allows you to assign users a certain amount of time total allowed in the door by security level for the day. This also allows you to lock any security levels out of the program. A users download to upload ratio can also be controlled here. This feature is not enabled in unregistered versions of the program. The format goes as follows: number of security levels security,time (in minutes), dl/ul ratio 8 5,0,1 10,15,2 15,25,5 20,45,10 50,60,25 100,90,50 1000,500,100 5000,10000,0 So here you have 8 security levels, 5 thru 5000. To lock a security level out simply put a 0 for time allowed. So in this example security level 5 is locked out, 10 gets 15 minutes, 15 gets 25 minutes, etc. This value is the maximum amount of time they will get for the day. It will compare this time to the time left that is in callinfo.bbs. If the time left reported by callinfo.bbs is greater than the allowed time, they will get the allowed time. If the time left reported by callinfo.bbs is less than the allowed time they will get the time left that is reported by callinfo.bbs. ex: callinfo.bbs reports 90 minutes left, users security is 10 so they get 15 min. ex: callinfo.bbs reports 25 minutes left, users security is 1000, they get 25 min. If you do not have the CDCOM.SEC file installed, then CdCom will let all securities in, and give them the time left in callinfo. However if you use this file then INSURE that EVERY security level your system uses is accounted for. The program will abort if it encounters a security level not listed in cdcom.sec. Note this is a multi-node file, so you can make it different for each node if you wish. Node 1 is cdcom1.sec, node 2 is cdcom2.sec, etc. The format and rules are the same however. The time listed in cdcom.sec is the maximum amount of time for the user in the door for the day. Even if they raid the timebank (if you run one), this is all the time they will get total for the day in the door. Once the user exits the door their time remaining is written to a file called CDCOM.TDY. The value that is written here is the value in cdcom.sec minus how long they were in the door. So if they are security level 50 (60 minutes total in door for day), and are in the door for 10 minutes, a value of 50 minutes will be written to cdcom.tdy. This once again is the maximum value they will have for the rest of the day. If they raid the timebank and take out 90 minutes, the door will only give them 50 minutes in the door. Once the user has entered the door once during the same day, the value in cdcom.sec is ignored till the next day, and only the value in cdcom.tdy is used. If there is an error in operation in the door or if you had something configured incorrectly then there is a chance that the time for that user will get set to 1 minute in this file. CdCom reads this file on start-up and will use the time out of here if the date matches up. To get around this (the 1 minute problem) just delete this file and start over. Its not that big of a deal its only really used for the current day, not for longtime use. CDCOM.SEC controls the total time for the day, and cdcom.tdy keeps track of how much of this time they have used for the current day. The dl/ul ratio level will be checked against this number here everytime they enter a filename to download. It is a straight division, the number of downloads divided by number of uploads. So if you put 2 here, a user can still download at 10 downloads/5 uploads, but at 11 downloads/5 uploads they will be locked. A zero value here (security 5000 in example) means no ratio check will take place, this user can download freely until they run out of time. I will add DL kilobyte checks later. If the user has 0 uploads, then a subtraction is performed (# downloads - # uploads) and if this result is greater than this number they will be locked. So a 2 here will let 2-0 pass, but 3-0 will get locked. =========================================================================== KEEPING WITH PC-SIG's RULES: PC-SIG has some strict rules for running their cdrom disk on a bbs. They require you send in additional $$$ for running it online, and expect you to follow certain guidelines also. These are covered in text files on the cdrom disk, I believe in the INFO directory. One of them is to display to the user that they are accessing pc-sig files. This can be done thru CDCOM1.BBS/SCR which is dumped to the user when they enter the door. An additional rule is that certain disk numbers cannot be accessed. This can be done by creating a file called CDCOM.DSK in the cdcom root dir, and in it place the disk numbers they (or you) want to lock out, each one on its own line, starting with the number of disks you want to lock out. ex: 2 1240 1311 Locks out 2 disks, disks 1240 and 1311. Cdcom will check this listing before allowing the user to download the file. See the file(s) on the pc-sig disk to see which disk numbers they want locked out. This should be sufficient to comply with their rules. ========================================================================== CDCOM.FIX: Some of the disks on the cdrom are either incorrect or there may be problems with the zip. Supposedly you can call pc-sig and get a floppy with the corrected zip file on it for free if you tell them you have the cdrom disk. This file will let you tell cdcom to look in a alternate directory (line 13 of cdcom.def) for the disk zip file. Just tell cdcom how many disks are in this list, and then list the disk numbers. It will check this file when they either download or view the disk. 2 516 2339 Tells it there are two disk numbers, 516 and 2339, that will be found in the path specified on line 13 of cdcom.def. Note that the filename needs to follow the DISK####.ZIP format, where number is the disk number (with padded 0's) or it will not be able to find the file. ex: DISK0001.ZIP, DISK0069.ZIP, DISK0516.ZIP, DISK2339.ZIP. note: disk 516 is messed up, there are two files in this directory with the same name, one is the correct zip of the file, the other is a zip of this zip. To be safe you could copy the right one off (check it afterwards to make sure its the right one, I believe it toggles back and forth between the two on the reads) into the directory and list it in cdcom.fix. The other disk number is 2339, which is a incorrect disk. Call pc-sig to get the right one then add it to this file (hopefully they will send it for free. Haven't tried it yet as per release of this program). ========================================================================== ADDING NEW DISKS There are always new pc-sig titles coming out. If you recieve them, and would like the door to access them, here is how you can do it. Please note that this is a very primitive way to do it, and it requires that the disks be sequentially numbered. So if you have the 10th edition, and you got disk2810.zip, in order for this to properly work you also need disks 2805, 2806, 2807, 2808 and 2809. Perhaps in the future a more sophisticated way of adding disks can be figured out, but it hasn't struck me yet so this is all I have to offer for now. If you want to add a new disk, there are three steps to doing this: 1) Update the description file with the new disk description. 2) Update category.cat, placing the new disk in the proper category 3) Tell cdcom where to find the disk####.zip file using cdcom.fix Steps 1 and 2 are optional, they are only done to let your users have access to the description and to see the file when they list categories. Either 1 or 2 could be skipped or they could both be skipped. Step 3 is mandatory however if you want cdcom to be able to find the file so the user can view or download the file. In order to update the description file, you need a description for the disk. Inside the disk####.zip file is a file called file####.txt. This file lists the files under this disk number (and in the zip). For example here is file2804.txt from the 10th edition disk. Disk No: 2804 Disk Title: Grin Graphics (PCX) 2 of 2 (#2803 also) PC-SIG Version: S1.0 Program Title: Grin Graphics (PCX) Author Version: 10/90 Author Registration: $15.00 Special Requirements: Desktop publisher and hard drive. Over 150 humorous graphics drawn by a professional cartoonist in PCX format, compatible with desktop publishing programs such as Ventura Publisher, PageMaker, and First Publisher versions 2 and 3. Other formats available from the author include EPS (by special request), TIF, WPG, ART, IMG, LBM, GIF, and BMP. Customized work is also offered. In order to get it into a format that cdcom will like you must first put disk numbers in front of it. The disk number is a four digit number. Leave a space between it and where the description starts. You must also put a disk number on blank lines. ex: 2804 Disk No: 2804 2804 Disk Title: Grin Graphics (PCX) 2 of 2 (#2803 also) 2804 PC-SIG Version: S1.0 2804 2804 Program Title: Grin Graphics (PCX) the next thing to insure is that there is a line called DISK-TITLE: with the disk title after the :, on the same line. So in this example you would only have to add the - between disk and title, and capitalize the work disk title. ex: 2804 DISK-TITLE: Grin Graphics (PCX) 2 of 2 (#2803 also) name this description file cdcom.add, and then type CDCOM ADD and cdcom will append the new description onto the end of the description file. If you have multiple disks to add, then follow these same steps until they are all done. Then run cdcom dtpr to update the .ptr and .qrf files with the new descriptions. Next load the category.cat file into your favorite editor (qedit works great for this) and follow the same format for the other disks to add the new disk in. Best bet for description is to use the title that is found on the DISK-TITLE: line. After you add all the new disks to category.cat, run cdcom cptr to update category.ptr. After this add the disk number to cdcom.fix and make sure the file is in the directory pointed to via the cdcom.def file. ========================================================================== OTHER IMPORTANT INFO: Although this program has been extensively tested bugs may still exist. The author assumes no responsibility for any damages to hardware or data that may be incurred from running this program. This program now requires a registration fee. This will enable the color screens, ratio checking, and other features mentioned above. See REGISTER.DOC for registration info. Bug fixes and future upgrades are always available on the support BBS's. Look for the CDCOMSIG.ZIP file when you logon. View it and see if the CDCOM.EXE file has a later file date then the one you have, if it does then download it. You must re-register the cdcom.exe update so don't lose your registration number (you can always contact me if you do). If a version is not available for your disk then feel free to contact me and we can work something out. My address is: Eric Schonning 5281 Creekside Rd. Camarillo, CA. 93012 Voice # (805) 987-2110 =========================================================================== Sample Wildcat CALLINFO.BBS * = Used By CdCom, ? = Used but not required Callinfo.bbs file Line Number) Description ----------------- ------------------------ Eric Schonning * 1) User Full Name 3 * 2) Connect Baud Rate (0=2400,1=300,2=1200,3=9600 4=19200, 5=LOCAL). This is the modem connect rate. Camarillo, CA 3) Calling From 1000 * 4) Security 177 * 5) Logon Time Left MONO ? 6) COLOR or MONO (for Ansi) Password 7) Password 4 8) User Record Number 4 9) Minutes On System Before Shell 15:00 10) Time Entered Shell 14:56 11) BBS Logon Time ABCDEFHGYZ 12) Conferences Joined 0 13) Daily Downloaded Files Total 9999 14) Max Daily Download Limit 0 15) Daily Download K Total 9766 16) Max Download K Limit 805-652-1478 17) Phone Number 12/03/88 14:56 18) Time/Date Last Call NOVICE 19) NOVICE or EXPERT Menu mode All 20) Default File Xfer Protocol 12/03/88 21) Last New File Search 58 22) Total Times On 23 23) Lines Per Page 71 24) Last Message Read 9 25) Total Uploads 1 26) Total Downloads 8 { Databits } 27) 7 or 8 Databits REMOTE * 28) Either LOCAL or REMOTE COM1 * 29) Com Port Being Used 11/16/62 30) Date of Birth 38400 ? 31) Port rate (text). If port is locked this will be the locked speed. AlreadyConnected 32) Not sure exactly what this is Normal Connection 33) Either MNP/ARQ Connection or Normal Connection 12/04/88 19:45 34) Current Date Time 1 ? 35) Node Number 4 36) Door Number Earlier versions of wildcat don't have lines 34 - 36. Cdcom will use the node number for true multi-node support but it is not needed to run the program. You do not need to have information on the unused lines. I have just included them for indentification purposes. Some of the other info may be used in future versions. If you don't include them insure that there is at least a blank line there. There is a Phoenix R.C.S. to Wildcat! conversion available. You must be running at least version 1.3 or greater of Phoenix to use this program. Qkdoor25 does not produce a sufficient callinfo.bbs for Phoenix bbs systems. Conversions from other BBS software to Wildcat! will be made available on His Board as they are located. Qkdoor25.zip creates an acceptable callinfo.bbs if you are looking for a conversion program.