AWebNews documentation

AWebNews

The online News Reader for AWeb.
By William H. M. Parker bill@amitrix.com

Index

Requirements
Installation
Configuration
- Posting Configuration
Using AWebNews

Requirements

AWebNews is an online News Reader. It requires AWeb by Yvon Rozijn and a valid 'TCP:' device. The programs 'RequestChoice' and 'RequestFile' should be in the C: directory. Articles may be batched to a RNEWS compatible file for offline reading by external programs.

Installation

Awebnews should have its own directory 'plugins/awebnews/' where it builds and maintains its working files (newsgroups and newsconfig). Confignews.awebrx and AWebNews_doc.html should be in the same directory. The news.awebrx script may be called directly from the Arexx menu or as a NEWS: plugin.

ARexx Menu:

title AWebNews macro AWeb-II:plugins/awebnews/news.awebrx

Plugin usage:

command sys:rexxc/rx arguments AWeb-II:plugins/awebnews/news.awebrx %a

If you don't use an AWeb-II: assign you must use

arguments FullPath/news.awebrx %a macro Fullpath/news.awebrx

Note: ARexx limits file name length so the use of the assign is preferred.

Configuration

The first time AWebNews is run it looks for its configuration file. If it is not found AWebNews alerts the user, you can use the link on the error page to run confignews.awebrx.

The only information AWebNews requires is the name of you news host. This is usually news.provider. Set your news host and select store configuration and you are ready to read news articles. You can now use the Read News link at the top of the configuration page.

Several other setting are available to allow you to customize AWebNews for your increased enjoyment. 8-D

This value tells AWebNews how many articles to retrieve when you read several articles at a time. This can be controlled in the main program as well.

You can set default values for the filter and display control's. Try the default settings above.

If you wish you may select the colors used on the AWebNews HTML pages. Color information is usually in the form #rrggbb but color names are supported as well. Background images must be turned on in the AWeb-II menu for this to work.

This is the default path AWebNews uses for saving articles to disk. It is not used when reading articles, only when you select the save function. A file requester allows the user to override this setting for each save.

This is file name to use when articles are 'Batched' for offline use by GRN or similar programs. The file is created in standard RNEWS compatible format. It is not used when reading articles.

Posting Configuration

This is the only setting required to post news. It should probably contain your Email address and/or name. Some News Hosts may require special formats such as <emailaddress> .

The size of the text area for entering your post is controllable. You probably want to keep this small and use AWebs ability to exchange text with your favorite text editor.

You may define these header lines to be included in each of your posts. Reply to: should be an email address and should probably be used. Distribution is o.k. to be left off. It is used to limit the propagation of your posts.

If a signature is used, it is placed at the end of each post . Where else ?

Turn this on to include extra headers in your posts. AWebNews will automatically set required headers, use this file for optional headers only. Look at a other peoples post's to what headers you might like to include.

These settings tell AWebNews which parts of a post to quote when doing a follow up (Posting a response to a post).

Using AWebNews

AWebNews is intended for reading articles online. This is done through a series of forms in the AWeb window. The forms are described below.

Note that all 'Batch' functions simply save articles to disk for external use. AWebNews itself does not use the batch file.

Select Newsgroup Form

The user is presented with a list of newsgroups previously accessed and a string gadget to enter new newsgroup names. Enter or select a newsgroup name and then select...

- to get information about a newsgroup and select it as current. This must be done before you start to read articles.
- to post an article to a newsgroup.
- to go to the form for batching articles.

Current Newsgroup Form

This is the form that is used to retrieve articles from the News Host. It contains information about the articles available in the current newsgroup. You can control the filter and display settings.

The next unread article number can be set but AWebNews usually does this for you by remembering the last news session.

- to read a single article.
- to read the previous article.
- to read several articles.
- to read all unread articles.
- to stop the retrieval of articles. AWebNews aborts after it processes the article currently being retrieved.
- to retrieve several subject lines.
- to retrieve all subject lines from unread article's.

Subjects will be displayed in the Subject Form.
- you may post an article to a newsgroup by selecting post.

The filter and display control's are also available on this form.

Articles may be stored in the batch file.
The filter may be used as the articles are batched.

- batch several articles.
- batch all unread articles in this group.
- go to the Batch newsgroups form

Article Text and Index List form

This form contains the article texts that have been retrieved. It may also contain a index list and error log. The article texts and index list work similarly. The ' read ' and ' index ' links allow you to move back and forth between the two lists.

   next
- go to the next article.

   previous
- go to the previous article.

   top
- go to the first article.

   more
- go to the current newsgroup form to retrieve more articles.

   save
- save the article to disk. The entire article is saved with no added formatting. The default file name is 'newsgroup.number'.

   follow up
- post a follow up to this article.

Error log

The error log shows any errors that occur when AWebNews requests articles from your news host. It also show any files that are rejected by the filter process.

Subject Form

Articles can be selected from a list of subject lines. The selected articles can be read, or the selected articles can be eliminated and then the remaining articles read. The filter may be used as the articles are collected.
- to read the selected articles.
- to read all articles in the subject list.
- to stop the retrieval of articles.
- to remove the selected articles from the subject list.
- to remove all articles from the subject list leaving it empty.

The filter and display control's are also available on this form.

Display control

- Display an index list for retrieved articles.

- Display a short header at the beginning of each article text.

- Display the full header at the beginning of each article text.

You may select long or short, both, or no header at all.

Filter control

- Make the filter active during batching and article retrieval. The filter can also be used when retrieving subject lines.
- Make upper case and lower case equivalent during the filter process.

Filter Syntax
Each filter command must start with - + ~ or |. Note that spaces are significant inside filter text and commas are not allowed . The characters - + ~ | CAN be used in filter text.

-filtertext
do not pass any articles containing 'filtertext'.

+filter text
pass only articles containing 'filter text'.

|
Reset the filter and try a new set of filter checks. Any text after | is ignored.

~
Reverse the filter decision. Any text after ~ is ignored.

Filter commands must be separated by comas when they are combined.
A comma can not be used inside filter text at any time.

+amiga,+HTML
- pass only articles including both 'amiga' and 'HTML'.

+happiness,-money
- pass only articles including 'happiness' and not 'money'.

+amiga,+HTML,|,+happiness,-money
- pass articles including both 'amiga' and 'HTML'. Also pass articles including 'happiness' and not 'money'.

+ARexx,+wparker,~
- do not pass articles that including both 'ARexx' and 'wparker'.

Posting Form

A basic article is built from the users configuration settings and placed in a textarea. The user can type his article text in directly or use an external editor. The editor is linked to the small button on the bottom right hand corner of the text area.
The first blank line defines the end of the header so place the article text below the '--'. Many news host's require that the subject header be filled in before allowing an article to be posted.

- attempts to post the article. After posting is completed AWebNews will respond with a conformation or error report.

Batch newsgroups form

A list of all visited news groups is produced. All unread articles from all selected newsgroups are retrieved. The filter may be used as the articles are collected. When this is completed a log of the session with your news host is shown. AWebNews will remember which news groups you like to batch. 8-D
- After you have selected the news groups you wish to batch.

- to stop the retrieval of articles.

The filter control's are also available on this form.

Delete newsgroup form

This form is actually at the end of the configuration page, but can be reached by links on the main forms. A list of all visited news groups is produced. This function can not be undone.
- After you have selected the news groups you wish to delete from the list.

Distribution:	use
Reply-To:	use