Copyright: Copyright © 1995 Magee Enterprises, Inc.


Contents
Help Contents - Rosebud Collection Agent

What is Rosebud?

Collection Agent

Collection Agent screen

•	Time list

•	Activity list

•	Status line

•	Menu bar

•	Toolbar

Collection Agent minimized

Collection Agent in action

Collection Agent message alert screen

Collection Agent requirements

Technical Support


What is Rosebud?

Rosebud is a Windows-based utility that automatically logs on to CompuServe at specified times and retrieves specified information, then lets you look at the retrieved information.

You can currently retrieve information in four topics:

•	Mail

•	News

•	Financial

•	Weather

There are three principal components of Rosebud.

Rosebud Assignment Desk - the part of the program that lets you say when and what to retrieve.

Rosebud Collection Agent - the part of the program that does the retrieving, or collecting.  Typically, you never deal directly with the Collection Agent except to load it each morning.

Rosebud Viewer - the part of the program that lets you look at what's been retrieved, and create e-mail.

The retrieved information is stored in various databases on your computer; it's from these databases that the Viewer gets the information to display.  Third-party applications can also access this information.


Activity list

The lower half of the Collection Agent screen reports on what the Collection Agent does and when.  This information can be helpful in troubleshooting, or when you don't get information that you perhaps expected to get.

If you have the Collection Agent open during an actual logon, information displays in the status line at the bottom of the screen to let you know what's actually going on at the moment; by contrast, the Activity List gives you an overview of what went on after the fact.


Time list

The upper part of the Collection Agent screen lists the next scheduled events for your reporters.  It might look like this:

The first column displays the date and time of the scheduled event.

The second column displays in parentheses the total number of items the reporters for a particular topic are set up to retrieve, followed by the name of the topic (News, Weather, Mail, or Financial).

The third column displays the names of the reporters.

The menu bar and toolbar across the top help you manage your reporters.


Collection Agent

The Collection Agent is the part of Rosebud that actually logs on to CompuServe and collects the information you assigned to reporters in the Assignment Desk.

You ordinarily don't deal directly with the Collection Agent except to make sure it's loaded each time you turn on your computer.  The easiest way to do this is to put the Collection Agent (RBCALL.EXE) in your Startup group.  That way you never have to think about loading the Collection Agent again.

If you don't have a Startup group in your Windows Program Manager, see your Windows manual for how to create one.

Collection Agent screen

Collection Agent in action

Collection Agent minimized

Collection Agent requirements


Status line

The status line at the bottom of the Collection Agent lets you know what's happening during a logon: what's being searched, what's being retrieved, what's being sent, and so on.

By contrast, the lines in the Activity list give you an overview of Collection Agent activity after the fact.


Collection Agent minimized

Typically you will want to run the Collection Agent minimized to an icon at the bottom of the screen.

However, if you want to watch or control the Collection Agent during a retrieve, or see what the Collection Agent has scheduled next, or see what activity took place on its most recent logons, double-click on the minimized icon to see the Collection Agent screen.


Collection Agent screen

When you double-click on the minimized Collection Agent icon, the full Collection Agent screen appears.

It's divided into an upper section called the Time list and a lower section called the Activity list.  There's also a status line at the bottom, and a clock in the lower right corner that displays the time your computer is set to (the time Rosebud goes by).

You can drag the bar dividing the Time list from the Activity list up or down to resize the two portions of the screen.


Collection Agent in action

When you're working in another Windows application and notice a second or two of sluggishness in the way your application is responding, it's your tipoff that the Collection Agent is beginning a retrieve.  Normally, you will continue working in your application; however, if you want to watch the retrieve, double-click on the minimized Collection Agent icon to bring up the Collection Agent screen.

When you're ready to go back to your original application, be sure to minimize (not close) the Collection Agent so that it can be ready for its next retrieval time.

If you find the modem noise associated with the Collection Agent's dial-outs distracting, you can turn your modem's speaker off.

If your modem is being used by another application when the Collection Agent tries to log on, it notes that the COM port is already in use, and goes away.  It will try again in 15 minutes.

If you're talking on the same phone line that your modem uses, the Collection Agent behaves the same way; additionally, you may hear your phone conversation over your modem's speaker for a few seconds as the Collection Agent tries to access the COM port.

When you have mail


Collection Agent requirements

There are some obvious requirements that have to be met in order for the Collection Agent to work.  When the Collection Agent doesn't appear to be working, here's a checklist to go through before you call Tech Support.

•	You have to be in Windows.

•	The Collection Agent has to be loaded.

•	Your modem (if it's an external one) has to be turned on.

•	The modem's phone line has to be plugged in.

•	Another application can't be using the modem's COM port (like, maybe, your fax modem software set to autoreceive).

•	You have to have a CompuServe account.


Menu bar

The Collection Agent menu bar has two options.

Click on the options to learn more.


File (menu option)

The Collection Agent File menu offers 7 options.  Click on the options in the graphic below to learn more.


Help

There are several ways to get to on-line help in Rosebud, all typical of any Windows application.

•	Help via the menu bar

The Help option on the Collection Agent menu bar gives you a drop-down menu of Help options.

•	Help via the F1 key

Pressing F1 brings up a help screen dealing specifically with where you are in the program.  From there you can browse through other help topics, or use the Search button to find help on a specific topic.

•	Help via the Help button

Most Rosebud screens have their own Help button.  Clicking on it brings up a help screen dealing specifically with where you are in the program.  Some screens have a button labeled with a question mark; that brings up help as well.

If you'd like additional guidance in using Windows on-line help, check out your Windows manual or one of the many third-party books available.  Or click on Help on the Windows Program Manager menu bar and select How to use Help.


File: Hold Retrievals

When you select Hold Retrievals from the File menu (or press Ctrl-H or click the Hold tool), Rosebud suspends all retrievals until you tell it to resume.  The Collection Agent title bar changes to reflect the hold.

See Perform Selected for how to do a manual retrieve.


File: Abort Retrievals

When you select Abort Retrievals from the File menu (or press Ctrl-A or click the Abort tool), Rosebud stops the current retrieval.


File: Performed Rescheduled

When you select Perform Rescheduled from the File menu (or click the Perform Rescheduled tool), Rosebud performs any retrievals scheduled within 20 minutes.


File: Perform Selected

When you select Perform Selected from the File menu (or click the Perform Selected tool), Rosebud immediately performs the retrieval you've highlighted on the Collection Agent time list.  This lets you "force" a retrieval even when it's not time for it to happen.

This feature also lets you do what you might call a "manual" retrieve; that is, a non-automatic retrieve that takes place only when you want it to.  Here's how:

1.	In the Collection Agent, click the red hand at the left end of the toolbar to hold all retrievals.  (If you want this manual-only retrieve arrangement to be more permanent, add /H to the command line that starts the Collection Agent.  Click here to learn more.)

2.	In the time list at the top of the Collection Agent screen, click on the line containing the reporters you want.  To click more than one, hold down the Ctrl key as you click.

3.	Click the Perform Selected tool.  The Collection Agent will immediately perform the selected reporters.

You'll note that a single line in the time list can contain a number of reporters, because Rosebud groups all the reporters scheduled to collect at the same time on the same line.  To get around this, you'll need to adjust the scheduling of your reporters (on each reporter's When tab in the Assignment Desk) so that they don't collect at the same time.


File: Perform All Items

When you select Perform All Items from the File menu (or click the Perform All tool), Rosebud immediately logs on to CompuServe and does all the retrievals listed in the time list.  This lets you "force" a retrieval even though it's not time for it to happen.

See Manual retrieves for how to set up the Collection Agent command line to perform all and then close.


File: Skip Operation

When you select Skip Operation from the File menu (or click the Skip tool), Rosebud skips the current operation.


File: Log Options

When you select Log Options from the File menu (or click the Set Log tool), Rosebud displays the following dialog box.  Click on the four options to learn more about each one.


File: Exit

When you select Exit from the File menu (or click the Exit tool), the Rosebud Collection Agent closes.


File: Log Options: Nothing

Click the Log Nothing radio button on the Log Options dialog box if you don't want Rosebud to keep a log file of activities.


File: Log Options: All

Click the Log All radio button on the Log Options dialog box if you want Rosebud to keep a log file of all its activities.  This log can be helpful in troubleshooting, when you call Technical Support for help with a problem.


File: Log Options: Important

Click the Important Msgs radio button on the Log Options dialog box to tell Rosebud to keep a log file only of certain significant activities.  For example, it will make a note if it discovers during the Collection Agent’s weekly scan of the news structure that a news source has been added or removed.  It notes when it can’t retrieve an article specified to be manually retrieved, or when the Collection Agent starts and ends cleaning up files.  The log also records some minor CompuServe error messages.


File: Log Options: Errors

Click the Only Errors radio button on the Log Options dialog box if you want Rosebud to keep a log file of error messages only.


Technical Support

If you need help with Rosebud:

•	Voice (9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time):  770-662-5387

•	Big Peach BBS (24 hours):  770-446-6650

•	CompuServe:  76004,1541 or GO ROSEBUD

•	MHS:  Support@Magee

•	Internet:  support @magee.com


Toolbar

Tools on the Collection Agent toolbar mimic the commands available through the File menu.  On the Collection Agent screen, move the mouse over a tool and leave it there briefly to see fly-over help that identifies the tool.

Click the tools (or the underlined text) below to learn more.

•	Hold retrievals

•	Exit

•	Set log options

•	Skip operation

•	Abort retrieval

•	Perform all reporters

•	Perform selected reporters

•	Perform rescheduled

•	Help


File: Help

When you select Help from the File menu (or click the Help tool), the Rosebud Collection Agent Help Contents screen displays.


Collection Agent message alert screen

When the Collection Agent finds e-mail for you on CompuServe, it retrieves it, puts it in the In Box in the Mail section of the Viewer, and puts a message up on your screen to let you know you have mail waiting.

The message alert screen offers you some menu options for customizing the message alert screen itself.  You can change the colors of the message displays, for example.

If you have a sound card, you can also attach sounds—in the form of .WAV files—to several Collection Agent events (connect, disconnect, and the like). See Rosebud sound for more.

Note that if you selected Executive News Service (ENS) as a source when you set up a news reporter in the Assignment Desk, Rosebud displays an agreement notice on the message alert screen the first time it tries to retrieve an ENS item; you have to click Proceed before any ENS material can be collected. That agreement notice only appears once.


Manual retrieves

Although it's not the way Rosebud was intended to operate, you can have Rosebud do retrieves only when you want it to (rather than automatically).  Think of these as "manual" retrieves.  For one or two manual retrieves, the Hold Retrievals and Perform Selected commands are what you want.

But if this is the way you want to run Rosebud all the time, you can set things up so that when the Collection Agent loads, it automatically holds all retrievals.  Here's how.  (If you already have a Collection Agent icon in your Startup group, skip to Step 5.)

1.	Open Windows File Manager so that Program Manager and the Magee program group are visible.

2.	In File Manager's directory list on the left, highlight the Rosebud directory.

3.	In the file list on the right, highlight the file named RBCALL.EXE.

4.	Drag the file to the Magee program group.  An icon appears there, labeled Rbcall (the root of the file name).

5.	Click just once on the Collection Agent icon, so that its label is highlighted.

6.	Click File on the Program Manager menu bar and select Properties.  The Program Item Properties dialog box appears.

7.	Click in the Command Line text box, press the End key to move to the end of the command line, and type a space, a forward slash (/), and the letter H.  The command line now looks like this:

C:\ROSEBUD\RBCALL.EXE /H

8.	Click OK.  When you load the Collection Agent now, it will hold all retrievals until you select a reporter and click the Perform Scheduled tool.

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You can use the /A command line switch to have the Collection Agent automatically perform all retrievals (instead of none):

C:\ROSEBUD\RBCALL.EXE /A

Add /1 if you want the Collection Agent to close after the retrieval:

C:\ROSEBUD\RBCALL.EXE /A /1