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¬ƒ¬ƒƒƒƒƒø ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥ √ƒƒƒ¬ƒŸ ⁄¬ƒƒø ¬¬ƒø ⁄¬ƒƒø ⁄¬ƒƒø ⁄¬ƒƒø ⁄¬ƒ¬ƒø ⁄¬ƒ¬ƒø (tm) ≥ ≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥√ƒ¡ø ≥≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ≥≥ ≥ ≥ ¡ƒ¡ ¡ƒƒ ¿¡ƒƒŸ ¡¡ƒƒŸ ¿¡ƒƒŸ ¿¡ƒƒŸ ¿¡ƒƒŸ ¡¡ ¡ ¡ ¡¡ ¡ ¡ ¬ ⁄ø ⁄ƒƒ¬ø The ultimate tool for unattended ¿ƒƒ¥≥ ⁄¬ƒ¡Ÿ BBS communications. ¿Ÿo¿¡ƒƒŸ Copyright (c) 1992, Parsons Consulting All Right Reserved, World Wide ================================ ROBOCOMM 4.2 REGISTRATION FORM ================================ -> Ordering from the U.K.? Please use the UK-ORDER.FRM file! <- Remit to: Parsons Consulting 5020 S. Lake Shore Drive Suite 3301 Chicago, IL 60615-3249 U.S.A. ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Item | Quantity | Price | Total | |-------------------------------|----------|--------|------------| | Robocomm version 4.2 | ________ | $40.00 | __________ | | | | | | | Printed documentation | ________ | $10.00 | __________ | | | | | | | IL residents only - sales tax | | 8% | __________ | | | | | | | Shipping (Outside U.S. only) | ________ | $5.00 | __________ | |---------------------------------------------------|------------| | | | | Total amount enclosed | __________ | ------------------------------------------------------------------ Check desired disk format: ( ) 5.25" OK ( ) 3.5" Required Disk Density: ( ) Low Required ( ) High OK Payment by: ( ) Check or money order (U.S. funds only) ( ) MasterCard ( ) Visa ( ) PO # ______________ Card #: ____________________________________ Exp. Date: _________ Signature of card holder: ____________________________________________ Name: ________________________________________________________ Company: ________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Phone: ________________________________________________________ FLASH: INSTANT GRATIFICATION REGISTRATION ONLINE AT GROUP ONE BBS! Call Group One BBS and register with MasterCard or Visa and receive your personalized ROBOUSR.DEF file immediately! >>>> 312-752-1258 <<<< Robocomm 4.2 User's Guide July 20, 1992 Copyright (c) 1992, Parsons Consulting All Rights Reserved, World Wide ---------------------- DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY ---------------------- THIS SOFTWARE PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION ("ROBOCOMM") IS BEING OFFERED FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANT-ABILITY. BY USING ROBOCOMM, YOU ARE EXPRESSLY RELEASING DAN PARSONS FROM ANY LIABILITY RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING ROBOCOMM. BECAUSE OF THE DIVERSITY OF CONDITIONS, HARDWARE AND OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS UNDER WHICH ROBOCOMM MAY BE USED, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. THE USER IS ADVISED TO TEST AND SUPERVISE ROBOCOMM THOROUGHLY BEFORE RELYING ON IT. LICENSE AGREEMENT 1)Robocomm is being distributed as Shareware. This program is not free. You are granted a limited license to evaluate Robocomm for a period not to exceed 30 days. After 30 days, you must either pay for and register your copy of Robocomm, or immediately discontinue its use and remove it from your computer. 2)You may keep as many backup copies of Robocomm as you wish, but you may not run Robocomm simultaneously on more than one computer. Additionally, you are granted the right to share Robocomm with others, as long as you distribute the Robocomm archive exactly as you received it, with all associated files included. REGISTERED USERS MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE THE SEPARATE FILE ROBOUSR.DEF. 3)Under no circumstances may you charge a fee or receive any other form of consideration for distributing the Robocomm files without express written consent from the copyright holder. ----------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- TECHNICAL SUPPORT........................................1 WHAT IS ROBOCOMM?........................................2 THE ROBOCOMM DISTRIBUTION FILES..........................5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS......................................6 CHECKLIST FOR A TROUBLE-FREE INSTALLATION................6 GETTING STARTED..........................................8 SPECIAL KEYS.............................................8 THE ROBO ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE............................10 COMMUNICATIONS CONFIGURATION.............................13 UTILITY CONFIGURATION....................................19 DATA AND LOG CONFIGURATION...............................22 GENERAL CONFIGURATION OPTIONS............................25 PC-PURSUIT CONFIGURATION.................................27 DIALING MACROS...........................................28 SETTING UP DISPLAY COLORS................................29 FILTER WORDS.............................................30 PREFERENCE WORDS.........................................31 SEARCH DIRECTORIES.......................................31 MANAGING THE SYSTEMS DIRECTORY...........................32 ADDING SYSTEMS...........................................32 EDITING SYSTEMS..........................................33 DELETING SYSTEMS.........................................36 RENAMING SYSTEMS.........................................36 VIEWING SYSTEM STATISTICS................................36 EDITING SYSTEM NOTES.....................................37 MANAGING PROMPT DEFINITIONS..............................37 RESETTING DEFAULT PROMPTS................................37 IMPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES........................37 EXPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES........................37 CREATING AND EDITING AGENDAS.............................38 SETTING ACTION DAYS......................................39 MOVING AGENDA ITEMS......................................39 GET QWK MAIL PACKET......................................39 SEND REPLY REP PACKET....................................39 PCRELAY/MEGAMAIL TRANSFERS...............................40 DOWNLOADING FILES........................................41 POST CALL DOWNLOADED FILE PROCESSING.....................42 UPLOADING FILES..........................................43 BROADCASTING FILES TO MULTIPLE BBS SYSTEMS...............44 SCANNING FOR NEW FILES...................................45 JUMP TO TERMINAL MODE....................................45 CAPTURING COMMAND RESULTS................................46 DOWNLOADING PCBMAIL PACKETS..............................48 RUNNING EXTERNAL PROGRAMS................................48 EXECUTING SCRIPTS........................................49 EDITING SCRIPT PARAMETERS................................49 PREPARING THE BBS FOR YOUR FIRST ROBOCOMM CALL...........50 PCBOARD BBS SETUP PROCEDURE..............................50 WILDCAT! BBS SETUP PROCEDURE.............................51 RUNNING AN AGENDA........................................53 PREAGEN.BAT AND POSTAGEN.BAT PROCESSING..................53 WHILE AN AGENDA IS RUNNING...............................54 PC PURSUIT DIALING.......................................54 USING THE ANSI TERMINAL..................................55 DOORWAY MODE.............................................56 ASCII PROTOCOL UPLOADS...................................57 ii AUTOMATIC ZMODEM DOWNLOADS...............................57 AUTOMATIC HS/LINK DOWNLOADS..............................57 VIEWING & MANAGING THE FILE DIRECTORIES..................57 BULK DELETE..............................................58 DATABASE CLEAN UP........................................58 FINDING FILES............................................59 EDITING FILE DESCRIPTIONS................................59 TAGGING AND..............................................59 JUMPING AROUND...........................................60 DELETING ENTRIES.........................................60 ZAPPING THE DIRECTORY....................................60 MOVING FILES OFFLINE.....................................60 MOVING FILES ON-LINE.....................................60 VIEWING DOWNLOADED FILES.................................61 TESTING DOWNLOADED FILES.................................61 IMPORTING NEW FILES LISTINGS FROM OTHER SOURCES..........62 WRITING TO PCBOARD FORMAT DIR FILES......................63 READING DOWNLOADED MAIL FILES............................63 OPERATING ROBOCOMM FROM THE COMMAND LINE.................63 INTERPRETING AND VIEWING THE LOG.........................65 VIEWING CAPTURE (CAP) FILES..............................66 iii ----------------- TECHNICAL SUPPORT ----------------- If you are having problems operating Robocomm, please review the ROBO-FAQ.TXT file, which is a text file containing the answers to many Frequently Asked Questions. It's quite likely that you'll find your answer there. To contact the author of Robocomm directly, send your comments and questions to Dan Parsons at GROUP ONE BBS, the customer support BBS for Robocomm. Located in Chicago, Illinois, this PCBoard BBS runs 24 hours a day on an USR 16.8 Dual Standard HST/v.32bis modem. GROUP ONE BBS Data Line: (312) 752-1258 For general technical support, look for a ROBOCOMM echo mail support conference on a BBS near you. Currently, Robocomm support conferences are active on: * ILink * PlanoNet * RIME * Smartnet * U'NI Net Make sure your local Sysop knows about the availability of these conferences! Via CompuServe Mail: Via U.S. Mail: 72167,3662 Parsons Consulting 5020 S. Lake Shore Drive, Suite 3301 Chicago, IL 60615 Robocomm User's Guide 1 WHAT IS ROBOCOMM? Robocomm is an integrated communications environment which allows you to create "Agendas" composed of "Things to Do" on an unlimited number of PCBoard and Wildcat BBS systems. Robocomm is a comprehensive software tool, designed exclusively to enhance communications with bulletin board systems. The program contains built-in support for PCBoard and Wildcat! BBS systems. The following is a sample of the things that you can tell Robocomm to do for you: Reliably transfer message and reply packets with support for a wide variety of mail doors for offline message reading and replying. Robocomm will automatically rename and delete message packets to keep between 0 and 9 old mail packets for each system you call. Sysops can reliably transfer mail packets with other systems during their events, and also pick up other files without constantly tinkering with scripts. Scan for "New Files" since any date and in any number of the BBS system's file directories from any conference. Robocomm automatically adds the results of your file scans to its databases for easy point-and-shoot selection of files to download. Upload and Download files to and from any conference. Files to download and upload can be tagged and selected through a "Point and Shoot" interface. Alternately, file transfers can be performed via ProDoor. Multiple files can be uploaded or "Broadcast" to many systems just by entering a single agenda command. You can even automatically download password protected files! Automatically use your favorite scanning utility scan for viruses in files immediately after downloading them and insert customized ZIP comments containing download date, time, file description, and source BBS. Automatically export the file name, size, date and description to a standard format PCBoard and Wildcat! file directory files. Sysops can have Robocomm download files, scan them for viruses, insert customized ZIP comments and write an entry to their new files lists all automatically! Capture the results of BBS commands to a text file for review after logoff. This is useful for reviewing messages from BBS systems which do not run a mail door, as well as capturing bulletins and news files for offline reading. Join any conference before issuing the command results to capture. Download compressed mail captures from PCBoard. Compressed "PCBMail" packets are automatically renamed and numbered as they are received. Run other DOS programs at any time while on-line with a BBS. "Jump to Terminal" - to jump to ANSI terminal mode and sound an alarm to alert you. 2 Robocomm User's Guide Execute Script Files to perform virtually any task imaginable. Robocomm contains an extensive script language which can be used to create generic, customizable agenda items that can accept parameters from users to be evaluated at runtime. You can even create Logon Scripts to automate on-line tasks with BBS systems other than PCBoard and Wildcat. Any number or combination of these "agenda items" can be added for an unlimited number of PCBoard systems - all in the same automated agenda! In addition to these automated features, Robocomm offers: Support for the PC Pursuit communication network with an integrated, ultra-reliable PC Pursuit dialer. Monthly PC Pursuit usage is automatically tracked and totaled for you. Input up to 3 phone numbers for each BBS system. Full support for Microsoft compatible mice. Internal support for Zmodem, Ymodem and Ymodem-G file transfer protocols. 16550 UART support for ultra-reliable file transfers while multi- tasking with programs such as Windows and Desqview. Complete logging of on-line sessions at any of three selectable detail levels. A super fast text file viewer for access to log files and captured BBS output. An internal editor for modifying file descriptions and BBS notes. An ANSI compatible terminal for regular "hands on" calls to BBS systems, including popular features, such as: Logging of incoming text to capture files and the printer. DOORWAY mode for enhanced control of compatible remote systems. Integrated Demon-Dialer Automatic Zmodem and HS/Link download detection. Robocomm includes a timer capability that allows you to set the time and day that it should begin executing an agenda. Robocomm can be run entirely from command line switches. In this way, Robocomm can be used to transfer network mail and also get files during a bulletin board's nightly event. All of the prompts that Robocomm looks for while performing its on- line magic are individually configurable for each BBS. Full compatibility with a wide variety of PCBoard and Wildcat add- in products, such as ProLogon, ProDoor, DDoor, TextView, MegaMail, PCRelay, NetMail, Qmail, RoseMail, TomCat and MarkMail. Automatically detects any combination of ProLogon, Ddoor, PCBoard and ProDoor when logging on to PCBoard style systems and reacts accordingly with no special configuration. Robocomm User's Guide 3 A viewable copy of your "Statistics" for each bulletin board that you call using Robocomm. Keep tabs on the Upload/Download ratio. With Robocomm, It's now easier than ever to keep your file transfer ratios in line. Access to your mail reader program from the Robocomm main menu using Robocomm's virtual memory management. Hot key access to a large DOS shell -- all but 8K of original RAM before starting Robocomm A super-fast internal ASCII file viewing utility, automatically configured to view capture and log files at the touch of a button. Comprehensive, context-sensitive on-line help. The ability to interrupt a running agenda and continue from where you left off later. You can also tell Robocomm to remain on-line after completing its automated functions for hands-on work. A multi-BBS files database. The database size is limited only by your available disk space and can be instantly sorted by date, BBS or file name. Commands for keyword searches of the database are available. Full length file descriptions are supported. A database of all files downloaded or uploaded with Robocomm. From this directory, you can point-and-shoot to call your favorite compressed file viewer to look at a file's contents and even create a temporary directory to scan for viruses and test out files. File descriptions from this database are automatically used when creating "Upload" agenda items. An integrated offline file cataloging system. Move files offline to floppy disks and keep just the descriptions and vital information on hand for future reference. One keystroke brings the files back on-line when the time comes to upload or use the files. Incoming call detection, with the ability to automatically display a configurable warning message to the caller before disconnecting. Support for 8 international date formats. Support for up to 9 distinct phone numbers for each configured BBS. 4 Robocomm User's Guide THE ROBOCOMM DISTRIBUTION FILES The following files should have been in your compressed distribution files. If you pass along Robocomm to others, you MUST use the original, unchanged, files! README.1ST Important supplemental information ROBOCOMM.HST A quick summary of major new features your version of Robocomm ORDER.FRM Order form for registering Robocomm ROBO-FAQ.TXT Frequently Asked Questions (and answers) text file ROBOCOMM.EXE Robocomm program file ROBOCOMM.OVL Robocomm overlay file ROBOCOMM.ICO Windows 3.x icon ROBOCOMM.DOC This documentation file SCRIPT.DOC Technical documentation for Robocomm's script language UPGRADE.DOC Instructions for upgrading from previous versions HELP.* Data files for help screens I_*.DBF Install data file for first time installation HS-AUTO.BAT Batch file to implement auto-HS/Link downloads MAKELIST.BAT Batch file to assist in importing files TESTFILE.BAT Sample batch file for testing downloaded files. ROBOSZ.BAT Sample batch file for DSZ Zmodem send ROBORZ.BAT Sample batch file for DSZ Zmodem receive MEGAIN.BAT MegaMail receive file (Needs editing) MEGAOUT.BAT MegaMail send file (Needs Editing) FIXFILE.BAT Batch file used to insert a custom ZIPfile comment into downloads. COMMENT.FRM Pre-merge form used to create ZIPfile comments. ROBOFONT.VGA Robocomm's customized VGA font file EXITFONT.EXE VGA Font control utility *.?PF Robocomm prompt definition files *.RS Script files After the first time you run ROBOCOMM.EXE the following files will have been created. These files are always created automatically if they are not found when Robocomm starts: *.NTX Index files for the data files listed above ROBOCOMM.MEM Memory file that stores Robocomm's configuration information. To reset your customized Robocomm to the default configuration, just delete this file and restart Robocomm. EXITSTAT.MEM Used by Robocomm to test index file integrity. PCP_TIME.MEM Stores your cumulative PC Pursuit usage. ROBOCOMM.DBV Stores a variety of variable length program data Robocomm User's Guide 5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Robocomm has been thoroughly tested and has been found to run reliably on PCs which are 100% IBM compatible and with modems which conform to the Hayes command set. Robocomm supports communications speeds from 300 to 57600 baud. You will need at least 512K of RAM free to run Robocomm reliably. Optimal execution speed is possible on systems with 560K or more RAM free. A hard disk with sufficient free disk space is required. If expanded memory is available on your system, Robocomm will attempt to use it for virtual memory and when swapping to run outside utilities. EMS is not required, however. See the configuration section for details. Checklist for a Trouble-Free Installation The following checklist is intended to assist people who already know their way around PCBoard and Wildcat BBS systems and know how to use DOS. It will enable you to get set up quickly and without any hassles. Once you have Robocomm up and running, please do read the rest of this documentation. There are several features in Robocomm that you might miss out on if you don't read on! ____ Extract all files from the two distribution files into a separate \ROBO subdirectory. If you are upgrading from a previous version, unzip the files into your existing Robocomm subdirectory. If PKUNZIP prompts you for permission to overwrite any files, go ahead and answer yes. There is an automatic conversion process built into Robocomm. ---- NOTE Automatic upgrades are not possible from Robocomm versions ---- prior to version 3.0. If you are using any prior version, other than Robocomm 3.0 or 3.1, you will need to create a new Robocomm 4.x installation and re-enter your BBS information into it. NOTE: It is not necessary to overwrite the ROBOS?.BAT and ROBOR?.BAT files. If you have modified the file transfer batch files that came with an earlier version of Robocomm, you can use them with Robocomm 4.x. ____ Add your Robocomm subdirectory to your DOS PATH setting. 6 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE You must start Robocomm from within it's own subdirectory. ---- You are adding Robocomm to the PATH because Robocomm may change directories during operation and DOS may need to find some of the batch files contained in the Robocomm directory. ____ Make sure that your CONFIG.SYS contains a setting which enables a FILES setting of 39 or more. (Odd numbers are recommended, because of a bug in some older versions of DOS) ____ If you changed your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT, you should re- boot your computer now, so that the changes will take effect. ____ Make sure PKUNZIP.EXE is installed on your system. If you decide not to place it in your Robocomm directory, then it must be available in your DOS PATH statement. ____ If you have expanded memory to spare and would like to speed up Robocomm's operations even further, add a ROBO environment variable to specify the amount of EMS to use. By default, Robocomm will allocate and use 512K of EMS at startup. However, you can speed operations up even more by instructing Robocomm to allocate more. For example, typing the following at the DOS prompt before starting Robo will instruct Robocomm to use 1 Megabyte of expanded memory for virtual memory and buffering its index files. SET ROBO=E1024 The range of acceptable values for this environment variable is 0 to 8192. If you have EMS memory, you are strongly encouraged to allow Robocomm to use at least some of it. Robocomm's virtual memory operations are much quicker when using EMS, as opposed to hard disk space. ---- NOTE Robocomm will also use EMS or XMS memory to swap itself out ---- when shelling to DOS or running outside utility programs. Any memory specified for allocation in the ROBO environment variable will be unavailable for swapping. ____ Type ROBOCOMM to start up Robocomm for the first time. There will be a slight delay while Robocomm creates some needed files. If you are upgrading, Robocomm will convert your old data files. ____ Go to the four CONFIGURATION screens and enter in the required configuration information. These options are covered in detail Robocomm User's Guide 7 later in this user's guide if you have questions. Remember to use [F1] for on-line help if you need assistance. ---- NOTE If you are upgrading, it is essential that you visit the ---- General Options Configuration screen. Once there, you need to answer a couple of questions that Wildcat! systems may ask of Robocomm during log on. ____ Go to the Directory-BBS screen and set up entries for the BBS systems you intend to call with Robocomm. If the BBS you add is running PCBoard 14.5 and you will be using the Qmail 4.0 door, then the default PCBoard prompt definitions will work. If not, you will need to "import" an alternative prompt set. See the "Managing the Systems Directory" section of this manual for further details. ____ Make sure to read the section that deals with "Setting the BBS up for your first Robocomm call." It will help you get off on the right foot. ____ Follow along with the CREATING AN AGENDA section of this User's Guide to make your first agenda. 8 Robocomm User's Guide GETTING STARTED To start Robocomm, enter the \ROBO subdirectory and type "ROBOCOMM" at the DOS prompt. The program will load and display its opening screen. There may be a slight delay the first time you start Robocomm since the program will need to create several files on your disk. NAVIGATING THE MENUS - First a word about Robocomm's user interface. Most everything is done with Bounce Bar menus. The arrow keys will move the highlight bar. When the option you want is highlighted, press [Enter]. Alternatively, you can press the highlighted letter in any menu option to execute it. GIVE ME A HINT - The bottom line of all screens is devoted to the display of "Hint" lines. If you find your self feeling confused or you want a quick summary of active keys, look at the bottom line of the screen! SPECIAL KEYS - Several keys have special functions in Robocomm. [F1] Context sensitive on-line help can be accessed at any point during the operation of Robocomm. Simply go to the place you want help and press [F1] to access the help system. Help text is presented in pages The information in the help window can be scrolled with the arrow keys and [PgUp] & [PgDn]. [Home] will take you to the first line of the help screen and [End] will take you to the last line. You can move the help window to a different location on the screen by pressing holding down either [Shift] key and pressing an arrow key. The location you leave the screen in will be memorized by Robocomm and the help window for will be opened in that spot the next time you press [F1]. To close the help window, press [Enter], [Esc] or [F1]. [F2] At the main menu, pressing [F2] will toggle on and off a status display. The display contains information concerning your swap drive status, currently set agenda, memory usage and your cumulative PC Pursuit usage. [F5] From the BBS-Directory or either of the File Directories, pressing [F5] will call the external batch file, ANALYZE.BAT, which can be used to run a program designed to report on the data in the Robocomm's TRANSFER.LOG file. [F7] To shell to DOS at any time during the operation of Robocomm (except while agendas are running) press [F7]. Robocomm will swap itself to disk or expanded memory and call a copy of your command processor as defined by your COMSPEC environment variable. [F8] Pressing [F8] at any point during Robocomm execution will allow you to view your configured file browsing utility to view your most recent Robocomm agenda LOG file. [F9] Pressing [F9] at any point during Robocomm execution will present you with a pop-up list of capture files in the current directory Robocomm User's Guide 9 (capture files have a .CAP extension) When you select a file from this list, Robocomm will run your configured file browsing utility to view the capture file. [F10] If Robocomm is asking you for some information, such as an agenda name, BBS ID or file name, you can always pop up a window to browse through possible responses by pressing [F10]. [Esc] At any point during Robocomm operations, pressing [Esc] will back you up one menu level. FIELD EDITING KEYS - Whenever Robocomm asks you to type in information into an on screen data entry field, the following keys are active: [Ctrl-Y] Delete all characters from the cursor position forward. [Ctrl-Left Arrow] Jump to the previous word. [Ctrl-Right Arrow] Jump to the next word. [Ins] Toggle insert mode. [Del] Delete the character on the cursor [Home] Jump to the first character [End] Jump to the last Character SCROLLING KEYS - Whenever Robocomm is presenting you with a list of items in a scrolling window the following keys are active: Up & Down Arrows Scroll to the previous/next item [PgUp] Move a full screen of items backwards [PgDn] Move a full screen of items forward [Ctrl-PgUp] Move to the first item in the list [Ctrl-PgDn] Move to the last item in the list. 10 Robocomm User's Guide THE ROBO ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE ---- NOTE The following discussion of the ROBO environment is fairly ---- technical in nature. None of it is required to get Robocomm running in a normal installation. If you are uncomfortable with the material in this section, just skip ahead to the next section. Many aspects of Robocomm's runtime behavior can be controlled via the ROBO environment variable. To set this variable, add a line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the following format: SET ROBO=<command>;<command>;<command> The following commands are available: NOMOUSE Disables mouse usage. NO16550 Disables 16550 UART usage. Ennn Allocates a fixed amount of Expanded memory to be used by Robocomm. Expanded memory is used for database buffering and virtual memory storage space. The default value is 512K. You may set this value from 0 to 16 megabytes. Robocomm really shines when sufficient EMS memory is made available to it. ---- NOTE The E command does not control swapping to EMS to ---- run outside programs, If EMS is available to Robocomm and has not previously been allocated via the E command it will be used for swapping, unless the NOEMSSWAP command is included in the ROBO environment variable. /OP1 Enables the use of the EMS page frame to hold overlay data. Setting this option is a good idea if you have an expanded memory manager installed. However, it is possible that this option will not be compatible with your particular EMS environment. If Robocomm hangs during operation or other erratic behavior is observed, please remove the /OP1 option from your ROBO environment variable. Do not attempt to use this option when QEMM's "Stealth" feature is active. Robocomm User's Guide 11 /OU1 Enables the use of upper memory blocks (UMBs) for overlay data. To use this option, your system must be configured with a UMB provider driver, such as HIMEM.SYS or QEMM.SYS and you must have a contiguous area of upper memory available which is at least as large as the configured overlay opsize. (See the /OO command below) /OOnn Sets the amount of memory, in kilobytes, that will be used to hold overlay data This value may be set from 30 to 90. The default value is 50. Modifying this value is not recommended unless you are asked to do so by a Robocomm technical support representative /CXnn Sets the amount of XMS memory to be used for caching of the ROBOCOMM.OVL overlay file. If you have available XMS, you can significantly increase Robocomm's execution speed by using this command. The amount of XMS memory to use can be specified as a percentage by including a % character after the number or as a actual number of kilobytes. Regardless of the method you use, the maximum amount of XMS that will be used is approximately 200K. Please note that if you are specifying this command via a SET command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or some other batch file you will need to specify any "%" characters twice, as in: SET ROBO=/CX100%% /CEnn Sets the amount of EMS memory to be used of overlay caching. See the description of the /CX variable above for details. If both the /CX and the /CE command are specified, XMS memory will be used. SWAPPATH: This command sets the location for Robocomm's virtual memory management (VMM) swap file. Robocomm always creates this file, but will not actually use it unless insufficient EMS memory is available for current operations. To use this option, simply enclose the desired path within quotes. For example, SWAPPATH:"C:\TEMP" instructs Robocomm to create its temporary VMM files in the \TEMP subdirectory of your hard disk. If you have a large RAM disk, you might want to use this for your swap files. NOEMSSWAP Disables swapping to EMS memory during DOS shell operations. NOXMSSWAP Disables swapping to XMS memory during DOS shell operations. Examples: SET ROBO=E1024;/OP1;/CE100%;SWAPPATH:"C:\TEMP" 12 Robocomm User's Guide This environment variable tells Robocomm to use 1 megabyte of memory for index buffering and virtual memory,, to use the EMS page frame for its overlay area (thereby freeing up 50K of "conventional" memory) and to place any VMM swap files created in the \TEMP directory. (It's very unlikely that a VMM swap file would be created with 1 megabyte of EMS available). SET ROBO=E0;/OU1;/CX200;NOEMSSWAP;NOMOUSE;SWAPPATH:"D:\" This environment variable disables all expanded memory usage and places the overlay area into an upper memory block. A 200K block of XMS is reserved for overlay caching. The mouse is disabled and any VMM swap files would be written to the D:\ directory. (This is probably not a good environment for Robocomm. You should always strive to make EMS available to Robocomm is possible.) Robocomm User's Guide 13 COMMUNICATIONS CONFIGURATION <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> From the main menu, select the Configure option, followed by Communications. You will be presented with a screen allowing you to set the following options: DEFAULT BAUD RATE - Normally, this setting should be set to the highest baud rate your modem supports. Pressing [Enter] will toggle the available baud rates from 300-57600 baud. The baud rate you specify will be used when Robocomm initializes your modem before running an agenda or when entering the interactive terminal mode from the main menu. MODEM INITIALIZATION STRING - These are the characters that will be sent to your modem to tell it how to communicate with Robocomm. To send a carriage return, use an "!". To cause Robocomm to pause for half a second, use the "~" character. In order to work with Robocomm, your modem must be configured in the following way: COMMAND ECHO STATUS - The "E1" in the default initialization string instructs the modem to echo commands entered back to Robocomm. This "command echoing" will be needed if you send commands directly to the modem using the ANSI terminal. VERBAL RESPONSE CODES - The "V1" in the default initialization string tells your modem to respond to the commands Robocomm send it with verbal messages. For example, the modem will respond with "CONNECT" when it has established communications with another modem or "BUSY" when it senses a busy signal. QUIET MODE OFF - The "Q0" ensures that response codes will be sent from your modem. RESPONSE CODE LEVEL - The "X4" in the initialization string sets the level of response codes that your modem will return. In most instances, you should set this value to the highest level supported by your modem. Robocomm will respond to the following response codes: 14 Robocomm User's Guide CONNECT The third option on the Communications Configuration screen allows you to specify your modem's connect string. The default, "CONNECT" will work with all Hayes compatible modems. Do not specify a baud rate in the connect code, as in "CONNECT 2400". Robocomm assumes that it has connected to the BBS at the baud rate you have specified for the system. BUSY Robocomm will attempt to redial this system or the next system in the queue, depending on your configuration. NO DIALTONE Robocomm will hang up and attempt to dial again, incrementing the dial counter by one. NO CARRIER Robocomm will attempt to redial this system or the next system in the queue, depending on your configuration. Receiving this response code also increments the FAILED CALL counter. See details later in this section. VOICE If your modem supports this response code, Robocomm will hang up, remove the number from the dialing queue and make a notation indicating a voice answer in the log file. ERROR Robocomm will reset the modem, re-send the initialization string and attempt to dial again. If three consecutive ERROR results are received, Robocomm will abort the current agenda and make a notation in the log file MONITOR SPEAKER CONTROL - The "M0" in the default initialization string instructs your modem to run in silent mode. If you would like to hear the results of Robocomm's dial attempts, change the "M0" to "M1". DATA-CARRIER-DETECT (CD) - Because Robocomm is designed for unattended operation, it really needs to be sure that it knows EXACTLY what the status of your modem is at all times. To do this, make sure that your modem is set up to correctly follow the status of the "carrier detect." Most modems come from the factory with this feature disabled. In other words, CD is forced "True" at all times. Usually, you can cause the modem to correctly track CD with a DIP switch setting or a modem command. If Robocomm gives you an error message when attempting to hang up your phone, check your modem manual to see what must be done to get CD operating properly. In the case of modems which support Robocomm User's Guide 15 the Hayes "&" extended command set, adding the command "&C1" to the initialization string will solve the problem. DATA-TERMINAL-READY (DTR) - Make sure that your modem is set up to respond to changes in the DTR status by dropping carrier and returning to the command state. When Robocomm attempts to hang up your phone, it will first try to "Drop DTR." This is the fastest and most reliable way of hanging up. If your modem supports the Hayes "&" extended command set, adding "&D2" to your initialization string will solve the problem. HAYES 2400 COMPATIBLE SUGGESTED INITIALIZATION STRING - To solve CD and DTR problems, the following initialization string is recommended for all modems which are compatible with the Hayes 2400: ATZ!~~~~AT E1 V1 Q0 X4 M0 &C1 &D2! HAYES 1200 COMPATIBLE SUGGESTED INITIALIZATION STRING - In the case of most 1200 baud modems, proper reporting of CD & DTR requires the setting of a DIP switch. For the Hayes 1200 external, switch 6 must be in the "Up" position (The switches are located behind the face plate on Hayes 1200 modems). Note that "Up" is not the factory setting for switch 6. For the Hayes 1200 internal, switch 3 is used to control the status of CD & DTR settings. If, after you try Robocomm the first time it wasn't able to hang up, throw switch 3 in the other direction and try again. The recommended initialization string for Hayes 1200 compatible modems is also the Robocomm default initialization string: ATZ!~~~~AT E1 V1 Q0 X4 M0! CONNECT STRING - Enter the text that Robocomm should look for to determine that your modem has established a connection with a BBS. Do not enter any numbers in this field, as Robocomm needs this string to be "Generic." The default string, CONNECT, should be correct in nearly all instances. MODEM DIAL COMMAND - Enter the command which needs to be sent to your modem to initiate a dial. The default ATDT is the Hayes standard command and will work in the vast majority of instances. If your phone connection does not support touch tone dialing, specify ATDP in this setting to use pulse dialing. PBX users who require access to an outside line before dialing may want to add the number to access the outside line followed by one or more commas. Each comma causes a pause of the number of seconds specified in your modem's "S8" register. Set it with a ATS8=XX command, where XX is the number of seconds you want to pause per comma. For example, "ATDT9,," would cause Robocomm to dial "9" and wait 1 second before sending the BBS phone number. 16 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE You can create customized dialing commands on a BBS by BBS ---- basis through the use of Robocomm's "Dialing Macros" feature. See the section on setting up dialing macros later in this configuration section. HANG UP STRING - Enter the string which Robocomm will send to the modem to attempt to hang up in the event "Dropping DTR" doesn't work. Use "~" for a half second pause and "!" to send a carriage return. The default hang-up string is: ~~~+++~~~ATH0! USE MODEM ON COM PORT # - Enter a number between 1 and 4 to indicate the COM port that Robocomm should use for communications. If you enter a number above 2, Robocomm will require you to define the start address and IRQ line to use when communicating with this port. START ADDRESS - Enter the address, in hexadecimal, of the COM port. IRQ - Enter the number of the IRQ line to use for this communications port. USE RTS/CTS FLOW CONTROL - Also know as "hardware" flow control, the use of this option allows Robocomm to inform the modem when it's internal communications buffer is about to overflow. This enables both modems to stop sending information so your computer can catch up. If you are using Robocomm with a high speed modem, the use of RTS/CTS flow control is essential to guard against the potential loss of data if Robocomm's internal buffers fill up. NOTE: XON/XOFF flow control is automatically enabled at communications rates below 2400. MAXIMUM DIAL ATTEMPTS PER SYSTEM - Enter a number indicating the maximum number of dial attempts Robocomm should make for each BBS when attempting to connect. This option applies only to dialing controlled by an agenda. The Demon Dialer in terminal mode does not honor this setting. Robocomm User's Guide 17 ---- NOTE This option can be overridden for the current session only ---- with the /Ln command line switch, where n is the number of redial attempts that should be made per system in the agenda, DIAL ATTEMPTS BEFORE CYCLING - Enter the number of dial attempts that Robocomm should make to connect with a system before cycling to the next BBS in the redial queue. When Robocomm reaches the end of the queue, it will return to the first number in the queue and begin dialing the systems again, until a connection is made or the maximum redial attempts number is reached. SECONDS BETWEEN DIAL ATTEMPTS - Enter the maximum number of seconds that should elapse between the start of two consecutive dialing attempts. Unless a message indicating a connection is received from the modem, Robocomm will ensure that the number of seconds you specify here elapses before initiating the next dial attempt. Fill in this option by completing the statement: "During agenda processing, I want Robocomm to dial a phone number every _____ seconds. " Entering a zero in this field will cause Robocomm to redial as rapidly as possible by initiating a new dial as soon as any message is received back from the modem. Entering a zero in this field is strongly recommended. ---- NOTE Your modem most likely supports a command similar to ---- Robocomm's dialing delay with its S7 register. If you find that your modem is returning "NO CARRIER" to Robocomm before the number of seconds you specify here has elapsed, add a "S7=n" command to your initialization string, where n is the number of seconds you specify in the Robocomm configuration option. Consult your modem manual for more details. DELAY AFTER MODEM RESPONSE - Some modems send more than one line of information when they are unable to connect. Some others require a little rest period after a failed dialing attempt before re-dialing. If your modem fits either of these categories, you should enter a number in this field. If you do, Robocomm will wait the number of seconds you specify after a modem response is received, discarding any characters received during that time period. BREAK BEFORE INITIALIZING - If your modem or network setup requires a BREAK signal to "wake up" the modem before sending the initialization string, set this option to YES. The default for this option is NO. 18 Robocomm User's Guide IGNORE MODEM CD STATUS - If you get an error message from Robocomm whenever it attempts to hang up the phone and you are unable to get your modem to properly report CD (Carrier Detect) status, set this option to "YES" and Robocomm will bypass all attempts to determine if your modem is on or off hook. ---- NOTE With this option set to "YES" Robocomm will be unable to ---- sense if the connection between it and the BBS is unexpectedly interrupted. This may result in delays in processing. So, make sure you've included &C1&D2 in your initialization string, and try a new modem cable before giving up and setting up Robocomm to ignore CD status. INACTIVITY TIMEOUT (SECONDS) - If the BBS system you are calling hangs, or excessive line noise causes Robocomm to be confused, Robocomm will wait the number of seconds you specify here for a line of text from the BBS. If a complete line of text, ending with a carriage return, is not received within the number of seconds specified here, Robocomm will hang up immediately and continue with the next BBS on the agenda. The number of seconds since the last received line of text is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen while Robocomm is on-line. AGENDA ITEM TIMEOUT (MINUTES) - Enter the maximum number of minutes that any one agenda item should take to complete. This is a safety hatch against a runaway "looping" situation which might occur if your prompt definitions don't properly match those sent by the BBS or if a script file is designed improperly. Set this option to a value that makes you feel comfortable, but be careful not to set it too low. Some file and mail scan operations can take quite a while to complete. ---- NOTE File transfers stop the clock on this timeout watch. You ---- don't need to worry about Robocomm disconnecting during a file transfer because this timeout value has been reached. NUMBER OF FAILED CALLS TO ALLOW - Set this option by answering the question: "I only want Robocomm to dial a system ____ times if the system is not responding properly." This option allows you to avoid long dialing periods when BBS systems go "down" unexpectedly. Whenever Robocomm dials a phone number and no response or NO CARRIER is received back from the modem within the number of seconds specified in your Seconds Between Dialing Attempts option, an internal count of "Failed Calls." for that system is incremented. If the cumulative number of failed calls encountered for a BBS during a single agenda Robocomm User's Guide 19 run equals the number you input for this option, Robocomm will automatically remove the BBS from the dialing queue. Failed call detection is also designed to minimize the danger of dialing long distances in unattended mode. If the modem on the other end of a Robocomm call is malfunctioning and answers the phone but no connection is established, Robocomm has no way of knowing that and could redial the system up to the number of times specified in the Dial Attempts Per System option. This option minimizes the ill effects of such a situation. You should set it at whatever level makes you most comfortable. KEEP BBS FILE'S TIME STAMP - If you are downloading with Robocomm's internal Zmodem protocol, and would like the time and date of downloaded files to be the same as those on the BBS system, set this option to YES. If you would prefer Robocomm to set the time and date stamps to the current time and date at the end of the download, set this option to NO. ---- NOTE System operators downloading files for their BBS will almost ---- certainly want to set this option to NO. Doing so will ensure that Robocomm downloaded files show up properly during their caller's new file scans. ALLOW CONNECTS AT LOWER SPEED - If you have a high speed modem and would prefer not to accidentally connect with systems operating at 2400 baud or below, set this option to NO. If you do this, Robocomm will immediately hang up the line, remove the BBS from the agenda dialing queue and make a note in the log if it dials out at 9600 bps or above and connects at below 9600 bps. This option is designed to keep phone bills down if you plan a to move a significant number of bytes and don't want Robocomm to do it if the modem (for whatever reason) accidentally establishes a connection at a lower rate than expected. INCOMING CALL WARNING FILE - This option will be appreciated by Sysops who may have Robocomm configured to dial out during their BBS "event." When a BBS is attempting to dial out, the situation is often complicated by callers attempting to dial in to the system. This can be particularly frustrating if the caller is continually re-dialing. To provide some relief in this situation, Robocomm allows you to specify the name of a file that will be shown to incoming callers before disconnecting them. If you supply a valid file name in this option and Robocomm detects an incoming call while attempting to dial out (a NO DIALTONE message is sent back by the modem after a dial attempt) then Robocomm will instruct the modem to answer the call, pause two seconds and then display the outgoing call warning file to the caller. After the file has been displayed, Robocomm hangs up on the caller and continues its scheduled agenda. 20 Robocomm User's Guide UTILITY CONFIGURATION To specify the utility programs that Robocomm will use while operating, select Configure from the main menu, followed by Utilities. You will be presented with the following screen: <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> FILE LIST/BROWSE COMMAND - Robocomm allows you to view its log and capture files with its internal file viewing utility if you specify the word INTERNAL here. While the internal view is quite fast and easy to use, it lacks the ability to do text searches. You might prefer to use Vernon D. Buerg's excellent LIST.COM utility for file browsing. However, you may also want to use SemWare's QEdit to browse your log and capture files, as this super-fast editor will allow you to also edit and print the file as you browse. Whichever you choose, just enter the name of the command needed to run the utility here. Robocomm will supply the appropriate file name as a parameter at run- time. .ZIP & ALTERNATE EXTRACTION COMMANDS - Those of you who are already familiar with bulletin boards are undoubtedly also accustomed to using file compression & decompression utilities. Robocomm requires access to a decompression utility to extract the NEWFILES.DAT file from the mail packets that it downloads from QWK format mail doors. Robocomm will automatically detect if your .QWK packet was created with ZIP format, and call the appropriate extraction utility. If the mail packet was not created with the ZIP format, Robocomm will run the alternative extraction utility that you specify in the Alternate Extraction Command field. In either case, the extraction utility will be called with 2 parameters, as follows: <Decompression utility name> <Mail packet name> NEWFILES.DAT VIEW COMPRESSED FILE COMMAND - The command you specify here will be executed whenever you execute the View command in the directory of downloaded files or when you select a compressed PCBMail packet for reading. Robocomm defaults to SHEZ, the excellent Shareware "Compression Companion" by Jim Derr. SHEZ will allow you to quickly view, extract, test, convert or alter the contents of virtually any compressed file you may have downloaded. VIEW GIF IMAGE FILE COMMAND - If the highlighted file name is a GIF image file, Robocomm will call the utility you enter in this field to Robocomm User's Guide 21 view the file. The file name will be passed as the sole command line parameter to the utility. DEFAULT FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS - Each system definition in Robocomm's BBS directory includes fields to set the transfer protocol for four different file transfer situations: Mail Upload Mail Download File Upload File Download The four corresponding options on the Utility Configuration screen allow you to set the default values that Robocomm will insert in any new BBS system definition you create. Robocomm includes 3 internal protocols, which can be specified with the following key words: ZMODEM - The standard protocol for high speed, reliable file transfers. Most BBS systems offer Zmodem as a file transfer protocol. You should use this protocol if it is available. YMODEM - This older, batch protocol is offered on all PCBoard BBS systems. If all else fails, you should always be able to use this protocol. ---- NOTE Robocomm 4's implementation differs from that used in ---- Robocomm 2.0. If you were using Robocomm 2.0 for YMODEM transfers, you should make sure that you select Ymodem as your transfer protocol on the BBS, not Xmodem-1K, as was required by Robocomm 2.0. YMODEM-G - An ultra-fast transfer protocol that relies on the built in error correcting capabilities of modems with MNP capability. If you have a high speed modem with a fast computer and a 16550 UART installed, you might want to use this protocol instead of Zmodem. Using External Protocols - The Robocomm distribution files contain several ROBOS?.BAT (Send) and ROBOR?.BAT (Receive) sample batch files which implement protocol transfers with two popular external protocol engines, DSZ and HS/Link. To use one of these batch files, make sure the appropriate transfer engine utility is available in your DOS PATH setting, and specify the appropriate batch file name in the spaces provided. For example, to use Zmodem-MobyTurbo for your file transfers, specify ROBORZ (For Robo receive Zmodem) and ROBOSZ for (Robo send Zmodem) and make sure that DSZ.COM or DSZ.EXE is in your current DOS search PATH. 22 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE Robocomm uses the DOS ERRORLEVEL returned from the file ---- transfer program to detect unsuccessful file transfers. If you decide to use a file transfer utility other than DSZ or HS/Link, make sure it returns an ERRORLEVEL of 1 or greater in the event of an unsuccessful file transfer. CREATING OR MODIFYING YOUR OWN FILE TRANSFER BATCH FILES - Advanced users may want to modify the default external protocol batch files or even create their own. To do so, just specify the name of the appropriate batch file to call in each of the 4 file transfer situations. When Robocomm calls one of these batch files to start a transfer, it will pass up to four parameters: Parameter Uploads (Send) Downloads (Receive) %1 Comm port in use Comm port in use %2 Current communications Current rate communications rate %3 Full path and name of File being file being sent received (not used by most batch transfer protocols) %4 N/A Directory to receive downloaded files For example, the ROBOSZ.BAT file contains just one line, calling DSZ to start the transfer as follows: DSZ port %1 speed %2 sz -m %3 When DSZ is called, parameter %1 is replaced by the current comm port, parameter %2 is replaced by the current speed of the connection between the computer and the modem (not necessarily the same as the connection speed between the two modems), and parameter %3 is replaced by the FULL PATH and FILE NAME of the file being transferred. The ROBORH.BAT (HS/Link receive) uses the fourth parameter (sent only on downloads) which contains the target directory for received files: HSLINK -P%1 -B%2 -! -HS -U%4 EXTERNAL PROTOCOL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES - Whenever Robocomm passes control to DOS to execute an external protocol, it places the Robocomm User's Guide 23 following environment variables into a transient copy of the environment that existed before Robocomm was started: BBS The ID of the currently connected BBS BAUD The current host-modem connection speed DOW The day of week, i.e. MONDAY, TUESDAY, etc. MAILUP Your REP Directory MAILDOWN Your QWK Directory FILEUP Your File Uploads Directory FILEDOWN Your File Downloads directory ROBODIR The Robocomm home directory COMMAND TO INVOKE MAIL READER - Robocomm allows you to run your mail reader from its main menu. To do so, just enter the command that Robocomm should use to start your mail reader in this field. With most mail readers, you can set an environment variable to tell the reader program where to find its support files. In other instances, you will want to create a short batch file that switches to the appropriate subdirectory before calling your mail reader. A simpler alternative may be to install your mail reader into your Robocomm subdirectory, or to copy your reader's configuration file into the Robocomm subdirectory. If you do this, you can specify your reader directly, without the need for a batch file. Robocomm automatically restores the proper working directory once you quit your mail reader. RAM FOR FILE TRANSFER AND EXTRACT - Enter the kilobytes of memory required by your file transfer and file extraction utilities. Robocomm allows you to specify this value so that it will not have to swap all of itself out of memory every time it downloads or extracts a file. This saves time if your are low on EMS or XMS memory and Robocomm is forced to swap to disk. If you are using an alternative command processor, such as NDOS or 4DOS and receive error messages when Robocomm attempts to run outside utilities, you should increase this configuration option. RAM NEEDED FOR READER AND DOS - Enter the amount of memory that Robocomm should free up whenever it shells to DOS or runs your mail reader. By default, Robocomm sets this value to zero, which means it will attempt to free up as much RAM as possible. If you specify a number here which is greater than the amount of RAM it is possible to free up, Robocomm will free as much as possible. Remember that your mail reader may also need to shell out to DOS to run file extraction and compression programs, so make sure to allow enough RAM for that process as well. DATA AND LOG CONFIGURATION To access the configuration screen controlling the location and names of files used by Robocomm, select Configure from the main menu, followed by Data & Logs. You will be presented with the following screen: 24 Robocomm User's Guide <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> PATH FOR MAIL PACKETS (*.QWK, *.PCB) - Enter the drive and directory where you want Robocomm to place incoming mail packets. This should normally be the same directory that you specify in your mail reader configuration. PATH FOR REPLY PACKETS (*.REP) - Enter the drive and directory that Robocomm should look in to find reply packets that are waiting to be sent. This should be the same directory that you specify in your mail reader's configuration. NUMBER OF OLD .QWK FILES TO ARCHIVE- Robocomm will rename and keep up to 9 old QWK and PCB mail packets on hand for you. Depending on your configuration, Robocomm will add the numbers 1 through 9 to the beginning or end of the file name. 1 is the newest "old" packet and 9 would be the oldest. You can specify the maximum number of old packets to keep for each BBS by changing this number. Enter 0 to keep no old packets. NUMBER OF OLD .REP FILES TO ARCHIVE - This option works exactly like the QWK archiving described above. Enter the number of REP packets that you would like Robocomm to keep on hand for you. FILE RENUMBERING STYLE - Robocomm can place the number indicating the age of an archived file at the beginning or end of the file name. Use this option to toggle between the two options, ????????.??# and #???????.???. ---- NOTE Some mail readers will mistakenly attempt to re-process a ---- REP packet that has been archived renamed with the ????????.??9 style. If that's the case with your reader, you should choose the alternate style, with the archive number at the beginning of the file. FILE DOWNLOAD PATH - Robocomm will place all files (not mail packets) that it downloads in the directory you specify here. Robocomm User's Guide 25 FILE UPLOAD PATH - Robocomm will use this directory as the default when prompting for files to upload while creating an agenda. You can, however, upload files form any drive and directory on your system. This is only a default value. ---- NOTE When creating agenda items, Robocomm will search any number ---- of specified directories for files to be upload. See the discussion of Search Directories, later in the configuration section, for details. NAME AND PATH FOR LOG FILE - Robocomm can keep a comprehensive log file of all of its on-line activity. The log file will be created according to the file name and path you enter here. If you do not wish to create a log file, leave this field blank. LOG FILE CREATION MODE - Pressing [Enter] with this field highlighted toggles the log file between APPEND and OVERWRITE modes. In append mode, the log file is appended to each time you run an agenda. In overwrite mode, the log file contains only the results of the most recently run agenda. LOG FILE TYPE - Robocomm create three different types of log files. By highlighting this option and pressing [Enter] you can toggle this setting between the following options: BRIEF The smallest type of log file possible - just connect/disconnect messages and 1 entry to report the result of each agenda item. STANDARD The log will be updated with useful information and status messages throughout the agenda. VERBOSE The on-screen log will contain the same information as the standard log, but the disk file log will also contain a capture of all text which was sent to or received from the BBS system. This type of log is useful when you need to be absolutely certain that the agenda went as intended, or when diagnosing problems relating to customized prompts. LOG FILE WINDOW SIZE -While Robocomm is on-line, the main screen is divided into two windows. The top displays the on-line activity while the bottom lists all notations that are being made in the log file. This configuration item sets the number of screen rows that will be 26 Robocomm User's Guide dedicated to displaying log data. DOS SWAP TEMPORARY FILE DIRECTORY - Whenever Robocomm needs to run an outside utility program or when you decide to shell to DOS, there is a chance that a temporary file will need to be made on your disk. This file contains an image of the memory currently in use by Robocomm and will be created if there is insufficient EMS or XMS memory available. Input the full drive and path to tell Robocomm where you would like it to place these files. To be safe, you should make sure that there is always at least 640K of free disk space available on the drive you specify here before you start Robocomm. The F2 pop-up status window on the main menu screen always shows the amount of available temporary file space. The display will flash if Robocomm detects that disk space is running low. Even if you plan to use memory for swapping, Robocomm still requires that you specify a valid swap drive path here. When the time comes to swap part of Robocomm out of main RAM, Robocomm will automatically use EMS or XMS if it is available. If sufficient free EMS is NOT available, Robocomm will revert to using your specified swap disk drive. ---- NOTE This setting is different than the SWAPPATH option in the ---- ROBO environment variable. That option controls the location of Robocomm's VM (Virtual memory) swap files. If you have a choice between two drives, you should make sure that the SWAPPATH option points to the faster of the two drives. OFFLINE FILES DRIVE - Use this option to specify the disk drive that Robocomm will move files to and from when you execute the "O"ffline/"O"nline command from the Downloaded Files directory. PCBOARD FILE LISTING TO UPDATE - Robocomm has the ability to write the file name, size, date and description of all the files it downloads to a standard PCBoard format file directory listing. The listing will look just like the "New File" listings you see when scanning for new files on PCBoard. Sysops can use this feature to automatically post files downloaded by Robocomm during their nightly event to their Uploads file directory DIR file! Don't forget that with Robocomm's FIXFILE.BAT file, downloaded files can be prepared for posting in any way you like -- scan for viruses, insert custom ZIP comments, etc. WILDCAT FILE LISTING TO UPDATE - This option specifies the name of a text file to update for use in inserting files downloaded with Robocomm into Wildcat's data files. The format of the file is: One line per file, terminated with a carriage return+line-feed pair. Each line contains the filename, padded to 12 spaces, followed by to blank spaces, followed by the file description. Robocomm User's Guide 27 GENERAL CONFIGURATION OPTIONS Odds and ends that really didn't make sense on the other configuration screens are grouped together under the General banner. To access the screen, select General from the Configure menu. <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> DEFAULT DATE FORMAT - Press [Enter] to select the default date format that will be used to display dates throughout the program. This date format will also be assigned as the BBS default whenever you add a new system on the Directory-BBS screen. YOUR BIRTH DATE - When logging on to Wildcat systems, Robocomm may be asked for your birth date. Enter the date here. Make sure that all the Wildcat systems you call have the same birth date for you, since Robocomm only supports this one spot for you to specify your birth date. YOUR PHONE NUMBER - Your phone number: Wildcat may also ask for your phone number when you are logging on. Enter the number you input when setting up your user account on Wildcat systems. SPEAKER SOUND STYLE - Toggle this option between PUSHY, which turns all program sounds on, to SUBTLE which subdues the siren sounded on entering the terminal mode to SILENT which completely disables all sounds. EXPLODING WINDOWS - Toggle this option OFF and ON to control the way pop-up windows are displayed on screen. This option also controls the "sliding screen" effect that is used when Robocomm runs outside programs. AVAILABLE FILES DATE SORT - Use this option to set the sort key used when the Available Files Directory is sorted by Date. Some users prefer the list sorted by the file date that was displayed on the BBS, while others prefer the list sorted by the date of the file scan. This option also gives you the option to specify the secondary and tertiary sort keys. AVERAGE DOWNLOAD CPS - Enter the average characters per second your system achieves on a typical file download. Robocomm will use this figure to make estimates about the download time of the entries in your Available Files directory.. FTS INDEX DETAIL LEVEL - Enter a number between 1 and 3 to select the 28 Robocomm User's Guide level of detail you want in your FTS Index files. Robocomm uses the FTS files to quickly search the contents of its available and downloaded files directories. Internally, Robocomm uses this option to determine the number of bytes-per-record that it can use for it FTS index files: Level Bytes Notes 1 16 Provides the slowest searches, but consumes the least amount of disk space. If you are running in a low memory situation and have to set the Memory for FTS Buffers option to a value below 8K, you should use this option. 2 32 Provides a good compromise value. This is the default value. 3 64 Consumes the most disk space but also gives extremely fast searches when combined with a relatively large setting in the Memory For FTS Index Buffers option. MEMORY FOR FTS INDEX BUFFERS - Use this option to specify the amount of conventional memory in kilobytes (A kilobyte is 1024 bytes) that Robocomm will reserve for use by the high speed search routines. If you find that you rarely use the Find option on either of the file directory menus or if the amount of Free Memory displayed in the F2 pop-up status window is below 40K, then you should set this option down to a low value, such as 6. The minimum allowable setting is 2. The key thing to keep in mind when setting this option is that any memory you specify for the FTS buffers will not be used by Robocomm for any other purpose. If you are running low on memory, it's best to leave this option as low as possible and let Robocomm make better use of the precious conventional memory. LOAD ROBOCOMM'S VGA FONT - Robocomm comes supplied with a customized VGA font that it can load to enhance the effect of its screen displays. If your system is equipped with a VGA monitor and you'd like to use this font, set this option to YES. If you use a multi- tasking environment and Robocomm's VGA font adversely effects the on screen appearance of other running tasks, or if the VGA font doesn't appear to be working and some of Robocomm's screen displays appear garbled, set this option OFF. If you normally have a different VGA font loaded and you want Robocomm to re-load this font whenever it exits to DOS, follow the following procedure: 1.Make sure that your screen is set in standard 80x25 mode. 2.Load your customized VGA font and make sure it is active. 3.Change into the Robocomm subdirectory. 4.Type EXITFONT at the DOS prompt. Robocomm User's Guide 29 This procedure will create an EXITFONT.VGA file in your Robocomm directory that contains an image of your preferred VGA font. Robocomm will look for this file and use it to reset the character set whenever it exits to DOS. PC-PURSUIT CONFIGURATION If you are a PC Pursuit user and plan to use Robocomm's built-in PC Pursuit dialing capabilities, you will need to fill in the information that appears on the PC Pursuit Configuration Settings screen: To access this screen, Select PC Pursuit from the Configure menu. <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> PC PURSUIT USER ID - Enter your PC Pursuit User ID in this field. PC PURSUIT PASSWORD - Enter your PC Pursuit password in this field. The password will be displayed as a series of asterisks when you view the screen, and the password will not be displayed during dialing operations. 1200 & 2400 BAUD INDIAL NUMBERS - Use the two fields provided to enter the phone number of the PC Pursuit indials which are closest to you. Robocomm will use the 1200 or 2400 baud indial number depending upon the baud rate that you have set for the BBS on the Directory-BBS screen. You can edit your configured dialing macros at any time while entering a phone number. Just press F10 to access the pop-up Dialing Macros window. X.3 PAD PARAMETERS - This optional setting is intended for expert users who seek to maximize their throughput on PC Pursuit. It is not needed for normal Robocomm operations. Telenet has published a specification of settings which it considers optimal for Zmodem throughput on the network. IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU DO NOT USE THE "1" PARAMETER WITH ROBOCOMM. This parameter prohibits Robo from using the "@<CR>" sequence to escape from the outdial modem. If you are feeling experimental, you might want to try placing "4:10,5:1,7:8,12:1" in this field. Keep in mind though that if PC Pursuit file transfers are working fine for you, it's probably best not to tinker with it. USE PURSUIT DURING PRIME TIME - By default, Robocomm will not dial into PC Pursuit during it's "Prime Time" billing hours. If your 30 Robocomm User's Guide pocketbook permits, you can override this default with this setting. Use the "Begin dialing after" and "Do Not Dial After" options to define PC Pursuit's Prime Time hours. Be sure to allow enough time for your agendas to finish before Prime Time starts. CURRENT MONTH'S CUMULATIVE USAGE - Robocomm keeps track of the amount of time it spends on PC Pursuit so you can keep an eye on the 30 hour usage limit. Whenever Robocomm spends more than 119 consecutive seconds in an outdial city, it will increment the amount of time in it's internal counter. If you use Pursuit from another comm program or though Robocomm's terminal mode, you will need to increment this number manually to keep it updated. ---- NOTE Robocomm does not zero out the counter automatically when a ---- new month rolls around. You will need to do this yourself by editing the field to 0. DIALING MACROS You may place the letters A-J anywhere within a phone number and Robocomm will replace the character with the corresponding string that you set up on the dialing macro table. The dialing macro table can be viewed and edited by pressing F10 while editing any phone number or by selecting Dialing Macros from the Configuration menu. <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> For example, to disable call waiting, you might define dialing macro "C" as "*70" and input your phone numbers as: C1-312-752-1258 CUSTOMIZED DIALING COMMANDS are made possible by prefixing any defined macro letter with a (backwards tick mark) character. Doing so causes the contents of the macro letter to be used to dial the number instead of the default dialing command specified on the Communications Configuration screen. This enables you to send customized commands to the modem on a BBS by BBS basis. For example, to turn on the modem speaker ON when dialing Group One BBS, you could input this as the Robocomm User's Guide 31 phone number: `E1-312-752-1258 Then you would set up the "E" dialing macro as: ATM1DT The most common use for this feature will probably be to turn off MNP negotiation if you are calling a system with a non-MNP modem from a MNP capable modem. Doing this keeps the first prompt sent by the BBS from being eaten by your modem's attempts to negotiate an MNP connect. To do this, you might set up a dialing macro letter as AT&M0DT and then include the macro letter, along with a preceding ` character in the phone number. ---- NOTE To send a break signal to the modem before every dial ---- attempt, set up a dialing macro as the word BREAK and then include the letter in the phone number to be dialed. SETTING UP DISPLAY COLORS To set the colors that are used on-screen while Robocomm is running, select Display Colors from the Configure menu. Robocomm will present you with a screen listing all of the colors currently in use by the system. Use this screen to control the colors Robocomm uses while in operation. To do this, use the + and - keys to select the color that you would like to change indicated between the and characters on the screen and use the arrow keys to move the small box so that it surrounds the color that you would like to set. When the desired color is selected, press [Enter] to confirm the color selection. On color systems, you can toggle between blinking foreground and high intensity backgrounds by pressing [Alt-B]. The effect of this is to give you 128 additional color selections. [Alt-D] will set the colors back to Robocomm's defaults for your monitor type, and [Alt-S] will save your color selections so they will be loaded each time you start Robocomm. FILTER WORDS While importing file lists into your Available Files directory Robocomm will compare each potential new file entry against the contents of your Filter Words list to see if any of your Filter Words occur within the file name, BBS name and description. If a match is found the file will be ignored and NOT added to your Available Files directory. You can edit this list by selecting Filter Words from the Configure menu or by pressing [Alt-F] while in either the Available Files or Downloaded Files directory. For example, if you have no interest in graphics files, you might 32 Robocomm User's Guide include the following words: .GIF GRAPHICS IMAGE .PCX .BMP CLIP ART CLIPART Notice that the final word filter word, CLIP ART is listed twice. This is done because Robocomm does a literal comparison of the file information against its defined filter words, one at a time. BBS users are just as likely to use CLIPART (one word) in a description as they are to enter CLIP ART (two words). If you want to be absolutely certain to remove all instances of a file type you need to think in terms of the different ways the word might be included in file lists. WILDCARD FILE NAMES MAY NOT BE INCLUDED IN THE FILTER LIST! For example, including *.GIF will not eliminate files with a GIF extension from the file list. However, entering .GIF (excluding the asterisk, but including the leading period) will remove all GIF files, since that text is guaranteed to exist within any GIF file name. Finally, you should keep in mind the fact that Filter Words take precedence over Preference Words (described in the next section). A file description that contains both a Filter Word and a Preference Word will not appear in your Available Files directory. ---- NOTE You can define up to 4095 filter words, but keep in mind ---- that Robocomm has to check the entire BBS name, file name and file description against each defined filter word individually. Try to strike a balance between the number of filter words you define and the speed of execution when importing files. As a practical matter, the faster your machine is, the more filter words you can define. PREFERENCE WORDS Defining preference words works similarly to defining filter words but they have the opposite effect on your Available Files directory. After a file has passed the filter word test, Robocomm proceeds to check if this is a file that you are particularly interested in. You tell Robocomm your interests by selecting Preference Words from the Configure menu, or by pressing [Alt-P] while in either the Available Files or Downloaded Files directory. Any new file entry that contains one or more of your defined preference words in its file name or description will be automatically Robocomm User's Guide 33 marked with KEEP status as it is added to the Available Files directory. This means that the file cannot be removed from the list until you physically remove the KEEP flag. For a discussion of how Robocomm parses the items in the Preference Words list, see the preceding Filter Words section. Although the effect is quite different, the text comparison methodology is exactly the same. SEARCH DIRECTORIES Whenever you use the Delete, View or Test commands in the Downloaded Files directory or select a file for upload, Robocomm will search all of the directories listed in the search directories window for the file. This capability is particularly useful for System Operators or anyone else who may move files between a variety of directories and would like to have easy access to them from within Robocomm. As long as every directory that a downloaded file might be moved into is listed in the Search Directories list, Robocomm will never loose track of a file, even if another utility moves it without informing Robocomm. To access the list, select the Search Directories option from the ---- NOTE When Robocomm attempts to upload a file, it expects to find ---- the file in the same location as was specified when the agenda item was created. The directories listed in your Search Directories window will not be searched while an agenda is in progress. <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> 34 Robocomm User's Guide MANAGING THE SYSTEMS DIRECTORY By selecting Directory followed by BBS Systems from the main Robocomm menu, you will placed in the Systems-Directory screen. This is where you edit or view all the information specific to the bulletin board systems you plan to call with Robocomm. <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> The number of systems you can enter here is limited only by your available disk space. The directory is automatically sorted by the BBS ID each time you add or edit a system. The BBS Systems-Directory screen uses a dual light bar menu system. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the BBS system that you are interested in, then use left and right arrow keys or any of the highlighted speed keys to select the option to perform from the menu at the top of the screen. ADDING SYSTEMS To add a new bulletin board system definition to Robocomm's database, choose Add from the top menu. Robocomm will then prompt you to enter a unique "ID" for the system to add. If the system you are adding supports a mail door, it is ESSENTIAL that the ID you enter here matches the BBS's mail ID exactly. For instance, if you pick up a QWK mail packet JOEBLOW.QWK from "Joe Blow's Amazing BBS" you would enter "JOEBLOW" (no quotes!) at Robocomm's "System ID:" prompt. Following System ID assignment, Robocomm will prompt you to indicate the type of system being added and will display a message indicating the default prompt set that is being assigned. If you are adding a PCBoard system, it is quite likely that the "Default" prompt set will not be correct. This is because there are many QWK format mail doors available for PCBoard systems. Robocomm 4's default PCBoard prompt definitions are set up for PCBoard 14.5 Robocomm User's Guide 35 systems running the Qmail 4.0 door, from Sparkware. If the BBS you are adding does not use the Qmail 4.0 door you MUST assign the proper prompt definitions by editing the prompts manually or importing a pre- defined prompt definition file. Robocomm supports the most popular QWK format doors with the following prompt definition files: Mail Door Prompt File Qmail 4.0 DEFAULT.PPF CAM-Mail (all versions) CAMMAIL.PPF MarkMail 2.0 MARKMAIL.PPF RoseMail (all versions) ROSEMAIL.PPF Setting Up ProDoor Systems - If you are setting up a system that is running the ProDoor Door and you would like to use the ProDoor for file scans and file transfers, you will need to import the PRODOOR.PPF prompt set. If you are setting up a system that is ProDoor only, using ProLogon for access, you will need to import the ALLPRO.PPF file. To import the appropriate prompt file for the system you are adding, select Prompts from the Directory-BBS menu, followed by Import. Then, press F10 to get a list of the available prompt files. After the prompts are imported, Robocomm will display any special instructions relevant to the particular BBS setup. Please read them carefully! EDITING SYSTEMS After entering a new system ID, or by highlighting the system to edit and selecting "Edit" from the Systems-Directory menu, you will be able to use the up and down arrow keys or the indicated speed key letters to select the specific information to change. Press [Enter] when you have highlighted the field to change. SYSTEM NAME - Enter the full name of this BBS system. This name will appear on Robocomm's screens and in log files. SYSTEM TYPE - Pressing [Enter] with this option highlighted will toggle between the following: possible options: PCBoard 14.2 PCBoard 14.5 Wildcat! 3.0 or 3.01 Wildcat! 3.02 Wildcat! 3.5 Login Script Only 36 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE It is extremely important that you specify the correct ---- version of PCBoard or Wildcat. There are subtle differences in the required responses to the BBS's prompts depending upon the version of the software being run. Both PCBoard and Wildcat BBS systems display the software version number immediately after connecting, before you even begin to log on. PHONE NUMBERS - Enter up to three phone numbers for the BBS in the spaces provided. Enter the numbers in order of connect preference. Field #1 should contain the phone number you'd most like to connect with and #3 should be your last choice. You may include one or more Dialing Macros in the phone numbers as well. See the discussion of Dialing Macros in the configuration section for further details. ---- NOTE You may temporarily disable Robocomm's usage of an ---- individual phone number by placing a "/" character at the beginning of the phone number field. SPECIFYING AN EXTENDED PHONE NUMBER LIST - If three phone numbers are not enough for a BBS, you can specify up to nine numbers by creating an external extended phone number list for the BBS. To do this, place a file name, preceded by an "@" symbol in the "Phone number 1" field. Then, press F5 to edit the list. You will be placed into Robocomm's internal editor, where you can list up to nine phone numbers for the BBS. Each phone number should be by itself on a line, and there should be no blank lines anywhere in the file. You may use dialing macros or the "/" character to disable a number in the extended phone list. LOGIN ID NAME - Enter your full name. Robocomm will use this name when it logs on to the BBS. Robocomm properly applies 3 part login IDs into BBS System's "First Name" and "Last Name" prompts. Simply enter all 3 parts of your name in this field, separated by spaces, and Robocomm will do the rest. PASSWORD - Enter the password that Robocomm should use when logging on. BAUD RATE - Pressing [Enter] when this field is highlighted will toggle between the available baud rates for communications between Robocomm and your modem. Robocomm will set communications to this baud rate before attempting to dial this system. Robocomm always Robocomm User's Guide 37 uses 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit when communicating with PCBoard systems. The Default Baud Rate configuration option on the General configuration screen sets the baud rate which is used to initialize your modem at the start of an agenda. ---- NOTE If you experience communications difficulties with the baud ---- rate set at or above 38400 baud, please select 19200 baud. You should only use 38400 or 57600 baud if you have a 16550 UART and are certain that your system will be able to handle that level of throughput reliably. MAIL DOOR MENU - (Wildcat Systems Only) - Select the menu that Robocomm must navigate to before issuing the command to open the mail door. MAIL DOOR COMMAND - (Wildcat Systems Only) - Enter the command that Robocomm must issue to open the mail door. Use the pipe symbol "|" to represent carriage returns. FILE UPLOAD AREA - (Wildcat Systems Only) - Enter the BBS file area that Robocomm should upload files to. If you enter a number here, Robocomm will always send files to this area, without asking you to enter a value when you are creating the upload agenda items. If you enter the letter X, Robocomm will assume that the BBS does not ask you to assign an file area before the upload, and will not ask you to supply one. If you leave this field blank, or enter the letter A, Robocomm will always ask for the upload area when creating upload agenda items for this BBS. PRODOOR NUMBER - (PCBoard Systems Only) - If the BBS has a ProDoor and you would like to have Robocomm use the ProDoor for file transfers and new file scans, enter the ProDoor door number in this field. If Robocomm will have to join a conference before opening ProDoor, enter the conference number in the space provided. Use "0" if ProDoor is available from the main board. MAIL DOOR - (PCBoard Systems Only) - If this BBS system has a QWK format mail door, enter the number or name of the door to open in this field. If Robocomm will need to join a conference before opening the mail door, specify the conference number or name in the space provided. ANSI GRAPHICS - (PCBoard Systems Only) - If you would like to see colors and/or ANSI graphics and animation on screen during agenda processing, set this option to YES. This option also controls whether or not the QWK mail door will include colorized files in your mail packet. FILE CONFERENCE - Enter the name (PCBoard systems only) or number for the default "file" conference that you would like to send and receive files from on the BBS. 38 Robocomm User's Guide This conference will appear as the default when you create an "Upload File" agenda item. This conference will appear as the default when you type in the name of a file to download without selecting it from the available files list. This conference is used to fill in the Conference field when manually importing unmarked file lists into Robocomm's Available Files Directory. If you use Robocomm's "Broadcast" mode to tag multiple BBS systems to upload to, Robocomm will make sure it is in this conference before sending the upload command to the BBS. PC PURSUIT CITY - If you want Robocomm to use PC Pursuit to connect with this BBS, enter the PC Pursuit outdial city for this BBS in this space. If you use this option, make sure to remove the area code from the BBS phone numbers unless they are specifically required by the outdial modem Also, make sure that you have properly filled out the PC Pursuit configuration screen. FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS - Robocomm allows you to individually specify different protocols to be used for file and mail transfers during agenda operations. For each of the options, enter ZMODEM, YMODEM, YMODEM-G, or the name of an external protocol batch file. For detailed information on Robocomm's internal protocols and on setting up external protocols, see the Transfer Protocols topic in the Utilities Configuration section of this manual. LANGUAGE TO USE - Many PCBoard systems now offer the "Standard" prompts as a language option at logon. This is a great benefit to Robocomm users because it saves you from having to create a customized prompt definition for the BBS. To specify the language containing standard prompts at logon, simply enter the number of the language that Robocomm should select here. ---- NOTE If you are trying to call a BBS where the Sysop has decided ---- to customize the system's prompt files, consider asking him/her to offer the "CDC Standard" prompts as a language option. It's a simple thing for Sysops to set this up, and if you explain that being "Robocomm friendly" will help more users access the BBS in less time, they may be inclined to help you out! DATE FORMAT - Date Format: Select the date format to use when communicating with this BBS. For proper functioning of file scans, it is essential that the date format you specify here exactly matches that which is used on the BBS. Robocomm User's Guide 39 DELETING SYSTEMS To permanently remove a system from Robocomm's data files: 1. Highlight the desired system ID in the scrolling list on the left side of the screen 2. Select Delete from the menu, or press D. 3. After deleting systems, you may want to go to the Available files directories and Bulk Erase any files which are marked as being available from the deleted BBS. RENAMING SYSTEMS To change a system's assign ID: 1. Highlight the desired system ID in the scrolling list on the left side of the screen 2. Select Rename from the menu, or press R. 3. Robocomm will prompt you for permission to change the system ID throughout the system. If you confirm this, all your file and agenda entries which reference the old BBS ID will be updated to the new ID. VIEWING SYSTEM STATISTICS Once you have run your first agenda on a PCBoard system, you will notice that Robocomm issues a "V" command as its first action when it reaches the PCBoard menu prompt. This displays your system statistics, such as your expiration date, your upload and download statistics, and also your conference selections. Robocomm saves this data every time you log on, and you can view it at the Systems- Directory screen by highlighting a system ID and selecting the "STATISTICS" menu option. EDITING SYSTEM NOTES Each BBS Directory System Definition includes an integrated notepad that you can use to store notes about the system setup or any other specific information you desire. To access the notes highlight the desired BBS ID in the scrolling pick list, and then choose Notes from the top menu. Press F1 while in the editor for help on specific notepad commands. Press Ctrl+Enter when you've finish editing the notes and would like to save them to disk. MANAGING PROMPT DEFINITIONS By highlighting a BBS ID and selecting "Prompts" from the top menu, you will be placed in a screen which details Robocomm's definitions 40 Robocomm User's Guide for the prompt strings it will look for when connected with the currently highlighted BBS. To change any of the definitions, use the up and down arrow keys to select the prompt text you would like to change. Then press [Enter] to begin editing the prompt. RESETTING DEFAULT PROMPTS - To revert back to Robocomm's "Default" prompt definitions for the current BBS, select "Default" from the top menu. After a confirmation, the prompts will be reset and you will be show the help text for the prompt set. IMPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES - Robocomm has the ability to import prompt definitions from files called "Prompt Definition" files. For PCBoard systems, these files have a PPF (PCBoard Prompt File) extension. Similarly, the file name for Wildcat! prompt files is WPF. To import a prompt definition file select "Import" from the prompt screen menu. Then, input the file name to import in the space provided, or press F10 for a list of the available prompt files in the Robocomm current directory. Once you have told Robocomm what prompt file to import, the screen will clear and special notes regarding system setup with these prompt files will be displayed. Make sure to read these notes carefully and follow any additional instructions they may provide. EXPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES - If you have developed a set of prompt definitions that works well for a particular BBS, you can export the definitions from the Robocomm BBS directory to a Robocomm Prompt Definition file. Just select "Export" from the prompts menu and then type in an 8 character name for the file. Robocomm will append a the appropriate extension to the file. Before completing the export, Robocomm will enter a word processing mode where you can input notes about this prompt set. Press Ctrl+Enter to save the notes and create the prompt definition file. You can then upload the customized prompt set to the BBS for others to download and use. Robocomm User's Guide 41 CREATING AND EDITING AGENDAS By setting up "Agendas" of "things to do," you tell Robocomm what it's objectives should be when it goes on-line. Agendas are very flexible. In fact, their potential size is unlimited. If you had the time, resources and inclination, you could set up an agenda to call literally thousands of PCBoard and Wildcat! BBS systems automatically. CREATING A NEW AGENDA - To create a new agenda, select Agenda, followed by Create from the main menu. Robocomm will ask you to enter a unique name, up to ten characters long, for the new agenda. Immediately after you enter the name, you will be taken to the agenda modification screen to create your new agenda. The following screen shows a typical agenda modification session: <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> TEMPORARY, PERMANENT & DONE AGENDA ITEMS - All items that you add to your agenda are classified as either "Temporary" or "Permanent" as you add them. Temporary agenda items, indicated by a diamond character (standard mode) or an inverse video T (VGA font loaded) , are removed from the agenda after they are successfully completed by Robocomm. Permanent agenda items, indicated by a half block (standard mode) or inverse video P, remain on the agenda even after they are completed, so that they may be used again. You can toggle the temporary/permanent status of any agenda item by highlighting it and pressing the "-" (minus sign or dash) key. When a permanent agenda item is completed by Robocomm, its bullet character on the agenda is replaced by a check mark. Completed agenda items will not be attempted again until the agenda is "reset" (more on this later) or until their "Done" status is toggled to "To Do" status by highlighting the agenda item and pressing either "+" (plus sign or equal sign) key on your keyboard. To toggle the status of all agenda items for a BBS, highlight the "Call <BBS>" agenda item and press the 42 Robocomm User's Guide "+" key. DELETING AGENDA ITEMS - To delete an agenda item, simply use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the agenda item to delete and press the [Del] key. To delete all agenda items for a BBS, simply highlight the "Call <BBS Name>" agenda item and press [Del]. SETTING ACTION DAYS - You can specify that an agenda item only run on certain days of the week by highlighting an agenda item and pressing [Alt-D]. A window will pop-up with a list of the days of the week. Select the days you want the item to execute and press enter. You can also highlight an agenda item and press [Alt-E] to set the item to execute every day or [Alt-N] to set the item to never execute. MOVING AGENDA ITEMS - In Robocomm's agendas you can place items for an individual BBS in any order. To do so, use the [Tab] and [Shift-Tab] keys. The [Tab] key will move the highlighted agenda item down the list and the [Shift-Tab] key will move an item up the list. DOS 5.0 users with enhanced keyboards can also use [Ctrl+Up] and [Ctrl+Down] to move agenda items. By default, the agenda items are placed at the end of the list as you add them. Also, you can quickly move the cursor to the next or previous BBS in the agenda by pressing the [Enter] and [Backspace] keys respectively. ---- NOTE Consider the order of the items on your agenda carefully. ---- Try and group all items that use a similar door together. Place your mail send and receive commands next to each other. Try to group all commands that use the same BBS resources consecutively. That way Robocomm won't be bouncing all over the board to get things done. USING THE AGENDA MODIFICATION MENUS - The menu on the bottom of the screen lists all of the pre-defined actions that Robocomm can perform while on-line. You build the agenda of "Things to Do" by pressing any of the keys listed in the agenda commands window and answering the prompts which appear. The following is a summary of all of the commands which are available. G GET QWK MAIL PACKET - Robocomm will prompt you for the ID of the system to get the QWK packets from. You can press [F10] at this prompt to select from a pop-up list of all the systems in you systems database if you wish. This agenda item defaults to permanent status. Robocomm is compatible with most mail doors which support the QWK packet standard, such as Qmail 4.0, MarkMail (all versions) and RoseMail. . Robocomm User's Guide 43 ---- NOTE For safety reasons while on-line in unattended mode, ---- Robocomm does not support the "Automatic Re-Scan" feature of many mail doors, which will automatically scan and send a new packet if the first mail scan didn't include all waiting messages. If you want to receive multiple mail packets in a single session, you can schedule as many individual "Get Packet" agenda items as you like S SEND REPLY REP PACKET - Robocomm will prompt you for the ID of the system to send replies to. If there is a .REP reply packet waiting to be sent to this BBS, then the agenda item will be followed by a "Packet Waiting" message in the agenda window. This agenda item defaults to permanent status. If the only agenda item for a particular system is "Send Replies Packet" and no reply packet is waiting to be sent to that system when the agenda is run, Robocomm will not dial that BBS. This allows you to create a "REPLY" agenda which contains only "Send Qmail Replies" agenda items for several systems. When the agenda is run, Robocomm will dial only the systems which have replies to be sent and deliver your replies. You can reuse such an agenda over and over again to deliver your replies without downloading other messages or calling systems unnecessarily. M PCRELAY/MEGAMAIL TRANSFERS - Robocomm has the ability to transfer mail with both PCRelay and MegaMail mail doors. The PCRelay door is for Sysops who are transferring network mail, and the MegaMail door is a general purpose offline mail door for BBS users. The operating principals off both doors is identical. Upon opening the door, Robocomm will look for the word "RECEIVE" or the two asterisks in a Zmodem transfer header. At this time Robo will drop to DOS and execute the OUT batch file you specify with the following parameters: %1 The current communications port %2 The current baud rate %3 The ID of the BBS being called After the Upload has been completed, Robocomm will look for the word "SEND" or the same DSZ header and drop to DOS to execute the IN batch file you specify with the same parameters as above. When the download is finished the doors return you to PCBoard. That's all there is to it! PCRelay Configuration - Set your "Comm Directory" option in the CONFIG.EXE program to your Robocomm subdirectory. Then create two batch files to send and receive your mail. The examples below are in use on Group One BBS. You will need to alter the batch file to indicate your system ID, as shown with the underlined items: 44 Robocomm User's Guide RELAYOUT.BAT dsz port %1 speed %2 ha both sz GROUPONE.rly RELAYIN.BAT dsz port %1 speed %2 ha both rz IN.rly MegaMail - MegaMail is implemented similarly to the network mail door, but requires slightly more complicated batch files that you will have to edit for your system. Here are the sample batch files included with Robocomm: MEGAOUT.BAT DSZ port %1 speed %2 ha both pB4096 sz \mega\up\%3.ul IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO END COPY \mega\up\%3.ul \mega\up\%3.old del \mega\up\%3.ul :END MEGAIN.BAT IF EXIST \MEGA\DOWN\%3.DL DEL \MEGA\DOWN\%3.DL > nul DSZ port %1 speed %2 ha both pB4096 rz \mega\down\%3.dl To edit these files for your system, just replace all instances of "\MEGA\DOWN" with the location of your MegaMail receive directory and "\MEGA\UP" with the location of your MegaMail send directory. D DOWNLOAD A FILE - Use this agenda item to download from any of your defined BBS systems. Robocomm will prompt you for the name of the file to download. Press [F10] at this prompt if you would like to choose one or more files from Robocomm's own Available Files directory. While you are in the directory, you can select one file and press [Enter], or use the space bar to "Tag" multiple files for downloading. While in the file directory, you can see a summary of your tagged files, by pressing [Alt-T]. If you select multiple files, Robocomm will ask your permission to automatically create download agenda items for all the files that you have tagged. All of the automatically created download items will default to temporary status. If you selected only one file from the new files list or you are entering a file name manually, Robocomm may also ask for the name or number of the conference to join before attempting the download. After indicating the conference, Robocomm will prompt you for a password for downloading the file. If a password will be necessary, enter it here. Finally, Robocomm will ask you to choose temporary or permanent status for this agenda item. Enter "T" or "P" respectively. If you are downloading from a PCBoard BBS and have specified a ProDoor number on the Directory-BBS screen for this system, Robocomm will open ProDoor before downloading the file. Robocomm User's Guide 45 ---- NOTE When Robocomm is processing your agenda while on-line, it ---- will not attempt to download a file if it already exists in your specified download directory. That way, you can tell Robocomm to download the same file from multiple BBS systems and when it gets the file, it will not attempt to download it from other systems on the agenda which have yet to be called. If you've absolutely, positively have to have that file overnight, Robocomm can do it all for you while you sleep! AUTOMATIC .GIF IMAGE FILE VIEWING - If you would like to use one of the popular utilities that enables you to view a GIF image file while it is being downloaded, Robocomm will accommodate you by automatically shelling out to the run the batch file GIFDOWN.BAT if it exists in the Robocomm directory whenever a .GIF file download request is being processed. For example, to view downloads using the popular Shareware utilities SHOWGIF and DSZ, you should create the following GIFDOWN.BAT file in your Robocomm directory: showgif /f:%1 /r dsz port %1 speed %2 ha cts rz -m %3 showgif /u Overriding the defined transfer protocol with a call to GIFDOWN.BAT allows you to use one of Robocomm's internal protocols for normal file downloading, only calling the GIF viewing routines when necessary. POST CALL DOWNLOADED FILE PROCESSING - After a call to a BBS has been completed, Robocomm will check to see if the file FIXFILE.BAT exists in your Robocomm subdirectory, If it does, Robocomm will automatically run it on all files that it downloaded via the "Download File" agenda items. Robocomm supplies two parameters to the batch file: %1 The name of the file %2 The file extension of the file In addition to these parameters, the standard Robocomm environment variables are created during the shell out to the batch file. Among these is ROBODIR, which contains the full drive and path to the Robocomm home directory. Robocomm is shipped with a default FIXFILE.BAT file which contains the following commands: @echo off REM - Here we handle the comment insertion... 46 Robocomm User's Guide IF %2 == ZIP pkzip -z %1 <comment.txt IF %2 == ARJ arj c -zcomment.txt %1 REM - Now, we try to send any description files to the Robocomm directory... IF %2 == ZIP pkunzip %1 %ROBODIR% file_id.diz desc.sdi IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR IF %2 == LZH lha e %1 %ROBODIR% file_id.diz desc.sdi IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR IF %2 == ARJ arj e %1 %ROBODIR% file_id.diz desc.sdi IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR GOTO END :ERROR CLS ECHO No FILE_ID.DIZ or DESC.SDI file was found. :END This FIXFILE.BAT routine updates the ZIPfile comment, and also uses another of Robocomm's post download features, which is the ability to create customized merged comments for all downloaded archive files.. Before Robocomm executes FIXFILE.BAT, it looks for a file called COMMENT.FRM, which it will merge with information specific to the downloaded file to create COMMENT.TXT. The default COMMENT.FRM that comes with Robocomm looks like this: =============== Robocomm Download Information ============== Downloaded By: {USER} Downloaded from: {ID} - {BBS} File name on BBS: {FILE} Download date: {DATE} ------------------------------------------------------------ (DESCRIPTION} ============================================================ If you like, you can modify the file to create your own customized ZIPfile comments in all the files downloaded by Robocomm. Robocomm merges the text in COMMENT.FRM by looking for key fields, contained in curly braces. The fields you can include in the comment form are: {USER} The name used to log on to the BBS {ID} The mail ID of the system {BBS} The name of the BBS {FILE} The name of the file {DATE} The date of the download {DESCRIPTION} The multi-line description of the file. IMBEDDED FILE DESCRIPTION PROCESSING - The FIXFILE.BAT shown above also checks for the existence of imbedded file descriptions in the archive being processed. These descriptions may be found in either the FILE_ID.DIZ file or the DESC.SDI files. If either Robocomm User's Guide 47 of these description files exists in the archive that's being processed, then the FIXFILE batch file places them in the Robocomm home directory through the use of the %ROBODIR% environment variable macro. When Robocomm regains control from the FIXFILE shell, it immediately checks for either of the imbedded description files in its home directory. If either is found, then that description is imported into Robocomm's Available Files directory. ---- NOTE Robocomm's post-call file processing behavior will differ ---- depending upon whether or not the COMMENT.FRM file exists. If it does, then Robocomm will swap out to FIXFILE.BAT one time for each file downloaded during the session. This is because it must re-merge COMMENT.TXT between each file and also check for the existence of an imbedded description file. If you elect to forego automatic zip comment creation, Robocomm will shell out one time, running a batch file which CALLs FIXFILE.BAT repeatedly. U UPLOAD A FILE - Use this agenda item to Upload a file to a BBS. Robocomm starts off by asking you to supply a filename. The field already contains the drive and path specifications of your default upload directory, but you can backspace over this to enter any valid path and filename. If you would like to select from a pop-up directory listing, simply press [Shift-F10]. Robocomm will search the path and file specification you enter for matches. You can enter any valid wildcard filename and path. If you omit the file specification, Robocomm will default to "*.*". Alternatively, you can press [F10] to select from Robocomm Downloaded Files directory, which contains entries for all the files you have previously downloaded or uploaded with Robocomm. Use the space bar to tag multiple files to be uploaded or highlight a single file and press [Enter] to create the upload agenda item(s). While you're in the directory you might want to use the E command to edit the description of the file to get it just right. If the file had previously been moved to a diskette with Robocomm's Offline command, Robocomm will prompt you to insert the diskette with the file so it can be copied to the computer's hard disk again. After returning to the agenda screen, Robocomm may ask you to supply a description of this file for use during the upload. Finally, specify the BBS to call, conference to join and the temporary/permanent status of this agenda item, as described previously. If you are uploading to a PCBoard BBS with a ProDoor specified, Robo will open ProDoor before uploading the file. If you are uploading to a Wildcat system and you have set the File Upload Area option on the Directory-BBS screen to A or left 48 Robocomm User's Guide it blank, Robocomm will pop-up a box asking you to assign an area number to the file. You must assign an area number. If the BBS requests one and Robocomm does not have one to supply, the agenda item will be aborted. HINT For Wildcat systems that require the user to select the appropriate upload area, you might find it helpful to go on- line manually and use CAPTURE FILE feature of Robocomm's terminal to make a .CAP file containing the file upload areas that are available. Then, you can press F9 at the upload area prompt, and Robocomm will show you the capture file to refresh your memory. ---- NOTE Robocomm will send the entire description of the file if you ---- are uploading to ProDoor or PCBoard version 14.5 or above. Wildcat BBS systems receive only the first displayed description line as their "primary" description, and Robocomm will send the entire description as an "Extended" description. PCBoard 14.2 systems can only accept single line file descriptions. You should take this into account when composing your upload descriptions. To make them as flexible as possible, the first line should be able to stand on its own, with extra lines offering supporting information. BROADCASTING FILES TO MULTIPLE BBS SYSTEMS - Robocomm has the ability to upload a file to multiple Bulletin Boards without requiring you to compose a separate agenda item for each system. To do this, press [F10] when Robocomm asks for the ID of the system to upload to. While the pop-up listing is displayed, you can use the space bar to Tag/Untag the systems that you want to upload the file to. When you have selected all the systems you want, press [Enter] and Robocomm will automatically create upload agenda items for each system you tagged. If you combine this feature with the tagging of multiple files to upload, Robocomm will create agenda items for each file on each BBS, all automatically! Robocomm User's Guide 49 ---- NOTE When using the Broadcast mode, Robocomm will use the ---- conference stored in the File Conference option on the Directory-BBS screen for each BBS tagged and all upload agenda items will be assigned temporary status. AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD DIRECTORY ENTRIES - Whenever you enter a file to upload in Robocomm and there is no matching entry in your "Downloads" directory, Robocomm creates an entry for you automatically. This entry is used to hold the extended description, and will enable you to simply pick from the list and the file description will be supplied automatically the next time you upload this file. N SCAN FOR NEW FILES - You can add to Robocomm's "New Files" database by scanning for new files on the BBS systems that you call. When you specify this agenda item, Robocomm will ask you to supply the ID of BBS to call. Type in the ID of the system, or press [F10] to select from a list. Next, enter the date to scan forward from -- use an "S" for "since last logon" or type in a date in the format MMDDYY, where MM is the month from 1 to 12, DD is the day from 0 to 31, and YY is the last two digits of the year (i.e. "89" for 1989). As an example, you would enter "021089" to scan for all files since February 10, 1989. Next, Robocomm will ask you to specify the directories to search. Wildcat systems default to "A" for All Directories. For PCBoard systems, the default is "U" for the BBS's "Recent Uploads" directory. You can change this to "A" to search "All" available file directories, or you can specify the directories to search individually, by specifying their numbers, separated by semi- colons. Make sure that the string you enter contains valid directory numbers for the BBS and also that it doesn't contain any imbedded spaces. For example: A All Directories U Upload Directory (PCBoard Only) 3 Directory 3 2;3;5;7;9;11 Directories 2,3,5,7,9 and 11 ---- NOTE On some BBS systems, the "Uploads" directory is private, so ---- the Sysop can screen files before posting them on the BBS. If this is the case, you will not be able to scan recent uploads by specifying "U" for the New files Scan. To scan the uploads on these systems, simply specify the number of the system's alternate "Upload" directory explicitly. 50 Robocomm User's Guide J JUMP TO TERMINAL MODE - When Robocomm prompts you for the ID of the systems you want to enter terminal mode on, you can either enter an ID, or press F10 to select one or more BBS systems. When the agenda is running, this agenda item will cause Robocomm to go into ANSI terminal mode and sound an alarm to alert you. The type of sound used is controlled by the Speaker Sound Style option on the General Configuration screen. As a safety feature, if Robocomm jumps to terminal during an agenda and doesn't get the attention it desires from a live person with 1 minute, it will return to automated agenda processing automatically and put a disgruntled notation to that effect in the status log. ---- NOTE Since, Robocomm's terminal mode Demon Dialer doesn't allow ---- you to specify PC Pursuit systems, you can create an agenda which contains "Jump to Terminal" agenda items for PC Pursuit systems to create the same effect. This will allow you to dial systems repeatedly , through the PC Pursuit network. C CAPTURE COMMAND RESULT - This is Robocomm's most flexible agenda item. With it, you can send a command or capture the results of almost any PCBoard or Wildcat command to a capture file for browsing after you log off. The first question Robocomm asks when you press "C" at the agenda creation and modification screen is the command to capture. If you need to send a carriage return during the capture command, include the pipe character "|" in the appropriate place in the capture command. For example, on PCBoard systems, you could enter any one of the following: T;# Where # is the letter of the protocol that you want PCBoard and/or ProDoor to use for file transfers. Make sure that your file transfer batch files for this system (on the Directory-BBS screen) match this new protocol letter and that this item comes BEFORE any upload or download agenda items! B A listing of the Bulletins available on the system. B;# Capture an individual bulletin by number, where # is the number of the bulletin to capture. F A listing of the file directories available on the system -- also very valuable when creating agendas. F;# A listing of a specific file directory. For example, to view all the files in directories 3 and 5, you would specify: Robocomm User's Guide 51 F;3;5 I The initial Logon screen, which usually contains information on the Sysop, and the BBS phone numbers. J A listing of all conferences available on the BBS, and their numbers. This information is very useful when creating agendas. L Locate a file by wildcard filename. The full command you specify will be made up of three parts, separated by semicolons. For example: L;ROBO*.*;A would search through all file directories on the BBS for any file starting with ROBO. To search specific directories, simply specify the directories to search, separated by semicolons. For example to search in only directories 1, 3 & 7 you would specify: L;ROBO*.*;1;3;7 ---- NOTE You can add the results of this search to your ---- available files database by using the "E" agenda command to execute the MAKELIST.BAT file supplied with Robocomm immediately after the capture command. Or, by using the Import command on the Available Files screen. NEWS Enter this command to capture the BBS news file. S A list of script questionnaires available. R Read messages. Many variations on this command are possible. Note that a simple "R" won't accomplish anything. For example: R;S All messages posted since last read. Y;S;A Read messages posted for you since your last log on. R;100+ Read messages with number > 100. R;100- Read messages with number < 100. R;F;S Messages you have posted since last read. The "conference" option on the capture command agenda item will allow you to read messages in any PCBoard conference that you have access to. Z Scan for text in the directory listings. This command 52 Robocomm User's Guide works the same as the "L" command described above, except that you specify text to search for instead of a filespec. For example, to find all occurrences of FORMAT in all file directories you could enter: Z;FORMAT;A Because of the way PCBoard 14 parses commands, the text you search for must be 1 word, with no spaces. ---- NOTE You can add the results of this search to your ---- available files database by using the "E" agenda command to execute the MAKELIST.BAT file supplied with Robocomm immediately after the capture command. Or, by using the Import command on the Available Files screen. After you have specified the command that you would to issue, Robocomm will ask you if you want to capture the results to a CAP file. If you answer yes, Robocomm will ask if it should append to or overwrite any existing CAP file for this BBS. Finally, Robocomm will ask you to specify the system to call, the conference to join before issuing the command to capture and the permanent/temporary status of this agenda item. P DOWNLOAD PCBMail PACKET - Robocomm has the ability to download compressed capture files of messages from PCBoard 14.5 systems by issuing a R;A;Z command at the PCBoard Main Board command prompt and downloading the resulting compressed capture file. It will be given the same name as the BBS ID with a .PCB extension. As they are received, the packets are automatically renumbered, just like QWK packets and are placed in your defined QWK directory. ---- NOTE To select the conferences that will be scanned by this ---- command issue the SELECT command at the PCBoard Main Board command prompt. R RUN PROGRAM - During an agenda, you can shell to DOS and execute an external process with this agenda item. Robocomm will ask you for the command to execute while in DOS. "Why would I want to do that," you ask? One example is to add the results of "Z" or "L" capture commands to Robocomm's new file list. The SAMPLE agenda shipped with Robocomm demonstrates this. Immediately after executing a capture of a Z;ROBO;A command, the agenda shells to a Robocomm User's Guide 53 batch file called MAKELIST.BAT which appends the current contents of the BBS's capture file to a file called NEWLIST.DAT. The batch file contains the following lines: @ECHO OFF ECHO Appending %BBS%.CAP to NEWLIST.DAT now... TYPE %BBS%.CAP >> NEWLIST.DAT ERASE %BBS%.CAP In this example, DOS expands the %BBS% variable to the BBS ID of the system as configured by Robocomm. This works because at the end of each call with a BBS, Robocomm looks for a file called NEWLIST.DAT. If it exists, Robocomm will scan it into the New Files list indicating that the file is available on the BBS that it just disconnected from. Whenever Robocomm passes control to DOS via the "Run Program" agenda item, it places the following environment variables into a transient copy of the environment that existed before Robocomm was started: BBS The ID of the currently connected BBS BAUD The current host-modem connection speed DOW The day of week, i.e. MONDAY, TUESDAY, etc. MAILUP Your REP Directory MAILDOWN Your QWK Directory FILEUP Your File Uploads Directory FILEDOWN Your File Downloads directory ROBODIR The Robocomm home directory ---- NOTE The program you run from within an agenda MUST return ---- control to DOS when it completes so Robocomm can continue on with its agenda. Remember -Robocomm is still connected with the BBS when executing this agenda item. If you execute a process that hangs or that requires a key press at some point it will be up to the BBS to hang up on you. Robocomm is not in control of the process and can't hang up for you! E EXECUTE SCRIPT - Robocomm includes a full-featured script language that you can use to automate tasks other than those provided for in Robocomm's "hard coded" agenda items. When you create this agenda item, Robocomm will pop-up a box asking you for the name of the script you want to execute. If you know the name of the script file you want to execute, type it in. To select from a list, press [F10]. Robocomm will pop-up a window listing all files in the Robocomm directory with a .RS extension. Use the up and down arrows to select the script you want to execute. 54 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE Numerous script files are supplied with Robocomm, and the ---- list is growing each day. To see what scripts are available, press [F10] at the "Script to Execute" agenda item creation prompt to see a list of the available scripts, along with a brief description of their purpose. From within the list, you can press "E" to edit the script and see a detailed description in the script comments. Check the Group One support BBS for new scripts you can use to automate other communications related tasks. Editing Scripts - If the script you are selecting will require editing prior to being run, or if you need to view it for further explanation of its usage, press the E key while the script name is highlighted. An editor will pop-up with the script file loaded. When you are done viewing/editing the script, press [Esc] to return to the script selection window. Editing Script Parameters - After you select a script file, Robocomm may require additional information, which will be used to customize the script's behavior. These bits of information are called Script Parameters and they are linked to each individual Execute Script agenda item. If the script requires parameters to run, Robocomm will pop-up a window containing a series of questions. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the question to answer, and press [Enter] to edit your answer. When all of the questions have been answered, press [Esc] and Robocomm will return you to the agenda editing screen. You can view the parameters linked to every Execute Script agenda item by highlighting the agenda item and pressing [Alt-P]. Robocomm will pop-up the parameter editing window and allow you to make whatever changes you wish. ---- NOTE For complete documentation on creating custom scripts ---- Robocomm's script language, see the file SCRIPT.DOC, which is included with the Robocomm distribution files. SAVING AN AGENDA- The displayed agenda is saved automatically each time you exit the Agenda Creation and Modification screen. To exit the screen, just press "Q" or [Esc]. EDITING AN AGENDA - To edit or review an existing agenda, just select the agenda to edit by selecting "Agenda" followed by "Set" at the main menu. You can then type in the name of the agenda to make current or press [F10] to select from a pop-up list. If the agenda you specify Robocomm User's Guide 55 was not completed the last time it was run, Robocomm will ask you if you would like to reset all agenda items to "To Do" status, or continue from where you left off. PRINTING AN AGENDA - To print all items in an agenda, press [Ctrl-P] while the agenda editing screen is displayed. PREPARING THE BBS FOR YOUR FIRST ROBOCOMM CALL Before you can use Robocomm to access a BBS, you must follow a few special steps to make sure that the BBS is set up the way Robocomm expects it. There are different requirements for PCBoard and Wildcat systems. Please make sure that you familiarize yourself with these requirements so that setting up BBS systems will be quick and simple. To start the setup process, go into Robocomm's interactive terminal mode and use the Dial command [Alt-D] to connect with the BBS. Be prepared to make a few notes that you can refer back to after you log off. PCBOARD BBS SETUP PROCEDURE 1.Language Selection - Take a look at the first prompt you receive from the BBS. Is it asking you to select a language number? If so, take a look at the displayed language menu and see if anything like "Standard Prompts" or "Scripting Prompts" is listed. If it is, make a note of the language number indicated. You should make sure to fill in that language number on Robocomm's Directory-BBS screen for this BBS. 2.File Transfer Protocols - Use the "T" command from the PCBoard main menu to select the file transfer protocol that you intend to use to transfer files. Make a note of the protocol you select, and make sure it matches the protocol indicated in the File Upload and File Download fields on the Directory-BBS screen for this BBS. 3.Mail Door Selection - Type the word DOOR from the BBS's Main Menu or Conference Command prompt. Take a look at the available mail doors. If Qmail 4.0, MarkMail, RoseMail or CAM-Mail is listed, you will be able to use one of Robocomm's supplied prompt definition files to transfer QWK format mail with the BBS. (Other QWK format doors can be used by customizing Robocomm's pre-defined prompt definitions.) Make a note of the Door number and make sure it is filled in on the Directory-BBS screen. NOTE: If the mail door you decide to use is not Qmail 4.0, you will need to import a prompt definition file. See the Importing Prompts section of this manual for details. 56 Robocomm User's Guide 4.Mail Door Setup - Enter the number of the mail door you plan to access and the BBS will load the door for you. Follow the menus presented in the mail door to make sure you have set the following options: Transfer protocol (usually Zmodem) Archiving method (usually ZIP) Conferences to scan High message pointers ---- NOTE If you want Robocomm to pull available files from the QWK ---- packet, make sure that the file scan option is also set ON. Be careful when getting new file lists from the mail doors, however. Often they will list files which are not available from the main board. When importing new file lists from QWK packets, the configured mail door conference will be assigned to all imported files. If the files listed in the QWK come from other conferences, it's probably better to just turn the file scanning OFF in the door and create individual New File Scan agenda items for each conference containing files you want to see. 5.QWK Packet Name - By using the download or upload options in the mail door, determine the name of the QWK packet that you will receive from the BBS. The BBS ID you set up in Robocomm MUST match this BBS ID exactly. If it doesn't use the Rename command on the Directory-BBS screen so the Robocomm ID matches the BBS's QWK mail ID exactly. 6.Expert Mode - Before leaving the mail door, you should set Expert Mode ON. In most mail doors, this will suppress the display of menus in future settings. Once expert mode is set, quit back to the PCBoard Main Board prompt and use the X command to set Expert Mode ON in PCBoard as well. That's all there is to it! The PCBoard BBS is now set up for Robocomm access. Before running an agenda, you should check your notes against your Directory-BBS screen to make sure all the BBS settings agree with those in Robocomm. WILDCAT! BBS SETUP PROCEDURE To set up a Wildcat BBS, log in and go to the MAIN Menu prompt. Next, issue the command required to access the Your Settings screen. Usually, this is the letter Y. Once the screen is displayed, you will need to set or verify the following options: 1.Birth Date and Phone Number - Make sure that the birth date and phone number displayed match those that you entered on Robocomm's General Configuration Screen. Robocomm User's Guide 57 2. Screen Length - Make sure this option is set for "0 (always non- stop)." 3.Hot Keys - This setting must be set to NO. Robocomm sends a carriage return after all data sent to the BBS. If the BBS reacts before Robocomm sends the carriage return, automated processing will not work. 4.File list format - Set this option to DOUBLE. 5.Color Menus - Setting this option to NO is not required, but it's a really good idea. With color menus on, Wildcat sends a great deal of "ANSI codes" to Robocomm that are not required for automated processing. The speed of your Wildcat agendas will be significantly increased if you set color menus off on all the Wildcat systems you call. 6.File Transfer Protocol - Select Zmodem, Ymodem or Ymodem-G as your default transfer protocol. Make sure that your selection matches the File Upload Protocol you defined on the Directory-BBS screen for this system. 7.Help Level - It is essential that this option be set to Expert. This is the briefest menu format allowed by Wildcat. It will speed your automated processing and reduce the chance of having a customized BBS prompt effect Robocomm's operations.. 8.Mail Door - There are a variety of ways to open mail doors on Wildcat systems. Not all will be available on every system you call. The most common way is through a menu option on the MESSAGE menu. Check this menu for an option to "T"ransfer Mail or "D"ownload mail. If no command is available from the message menu, try the main menu. Sometimes, the mail door is only listed on the DOOR sub-menu of the main menu. Once you've entered the mail door, make a note of how you got there, then use the mail door menus to make sure that the following options are set: Transfer protocol (usually Zmodem) Archiving method (usually ZIP) Conferences to scan High message pointers 58 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE If you want Robocomm to pull available files from the QWK ---- packet, make sure that the file scan option is also set ON, and that your configured file list format is set to "Double." Be careful when getting new file lists from the mail doors, however. Often they will list files which are not available from the main board. When importing new file lists from QWK packets, the configured mail door conference will be assigned to all imported files. If the files listed in the QWK come from other conferences, it's probably better to just turn the file scanning OFF in the door and create individual New File Scan agenda items for each conference containing files you want to see. 9.QWK Packet Name - By using the download or upload options in the mail door, determine the name of the QWK packet that you will receive from the BBS. The BBS ID you set up in Robocomm MUST match this BBS ID exactly. If it doesn't, use the Rename command on the Directory-BBS screen so the Robocomm ID matches the BBS's QWK mail ID exactly. Once you've determined the QWK packet ID and have verified the settings on all of the options listed above, log off the BBS and compare your notes with the information stored on the Directory-BBS screen. Once everything matches up, you're ready to run an agenda commanding access to this BBS. RUNNING AGENDAS To run an agenda, you must select an agenda to make current by selecting the Set command from the Agenda menu. Once you have done that, select Go from the main menu, followed by Run Agenda Now or Run Agenda Later. To begin execution of your agenda immediately, select "Now." If you select "Later," Robocomm will ask you to specify the time and date that you would like the agenda to begin. Enter a time in the format HH:MM in military time and a date in MM/DD/YY format. For example, 02:00 is 2AM and 14:00 is 2PM. If the time and date you enter has already passed, Robocomm will start immediately. That's all there is to it. Now, just relax and let Robo do the rest! PREAGEN.BAT and POSTAGEN.BAT Processing Before starting an agenda, Robocomm will look for the existence of a PREAGEN.BAT file in its directory. If it finds the file, it will run it before every agenda. Similarly, Robocomm will look for the existence of a POSTAGEN.BAT file, which, if it is found, will be run at the conclusion of all agendas. Robocomm User's Guide 59 These batch files are useful for a variety of purposes, but perhaps the most important is to disable and re-enable delayed or staged writes on disk caches. If you see "checksum error" on the screen during file transfers and you are using a disk cache with delayed or staged writes, you should consider using the PREAGEN.BAT file to disable the delayed writes at the start of an agenda. WHILE AN AGENDA IS RUNNING While the agenda is running, several special keys are active. Whenever the redial window is displayed on the screen, you can press any of the following keys: [Esc] Stop dialing and interrupt the agenda. Remember, that later you can resume this agenda from where you left off by simply starting the agenda again. [Space] By pressing the space bar, you can cause Robocomm to skip over the currently displayed BBS. Robocomm will attempt to re-dial this BBS the next time it comes up in the agenda dialing queue. [Del] To remove the currently displayed BBS from the dialing queue, press the delete key while the BBS is displayed in the redial window. If you restart this agenda again later, Robocomm will attempt to dial the previously removed BBS. PC PURSUIT DIALING - If your agenda includes some systems that will be called direct and some systems that will be called through PC Pursuit, Robocomm will group each set of systems together for dialing. When the agenda begins, Robocomm will dial only the non-pursuit systems. Once all non-pursuit systems have been connected with or otherwise removed from the dialing queue, Robocomm will dial the appropriate PC Pursuit indial and begin processing the "pursuitable" systems. Whenever Robocomm is in PC Pursuit dialing mode, you can press [Esc] to bypass the currently selected BBS. Robocomm will ask you if the BBS should be removed from the agenda for this pass. Answer NO if you want Robocomm to try and dial this number again the next time it comes up in the dialing queue. When Robocomm is on-line with a BBS, the following keys are active: [F1] Pressing [F1] while Robocomm is on-line with a BBS will cause you to "jump" temporarily to Robocomm's ANSI terminal. This is often useful for doing things like resetting your message pointers inside the mail door or doing a quick ad- hoc search for and download of a file. See the ANSI Terminal section of this manual for more information on the features of the terminal. When you have finished in the ANSI terminal, just press [Alt-X] and you will be returned to unattended communications. 60 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE As Robocomm returns from the ANSI terminal, it sends a ---- carriage return to the BBS. To ensure that your agenda picks up properly from where it left off, make sure to leave the Terminal at the same prompt Robocomm was at or approaching before you pressed [F1] to enter ANSI terminal mode. [F3] If you press the [F3] function key while Robocomm is on-line with a BBS, Robocomm will immediately hang up on the BBS and return to the main menu. Remember, you can pick up again right from where you left off by restarting the agenda with a "Go" command, even if you've quit Robocomm and restarted it again. However, you might want to review the agenda on- screen first because the agenda item that was executing when you pressed F3 will have been marked as an error and will not be re-attempted until it has been reset. [F10] Pressing [F10] while on-line with a BBS toggles the "Remain On-line" status of that BBS. When the words "Remaining On- line" are flashing on the agenda status title bar, Robocomm will automatically jump to terminal mode after it has completed all the scheduled items on its agenda. If you see something that requires your attention while an agenda is in process but don't want to interrupt the agenda while it's in process press [F10] at any time before Robo finishes its work. ---- NOTE Since Robocomm places only one call to the PC Pursuit ---- indial to connect with multiple BBS systems, it is crucial that Robocomm controls the entire interface with PC Pursuit. When connecting with systems through PC Pursuit, you should always allow Robocomm to log off the BBS by itself. Robocomm needs to see the "DISCONNECTED" message from PC Pursuit to know that it is OK to move on to the next BBS. If you are in terminal mode, don't issue a "G"oodbye command to the BBS. When you press Alt-X to return to unattended processing Robo will be looking for messages from PC Pursuit that may have already scrolled off the screen while you were in terminal mode. This will cause Robocomm to time out, hang up and redial. Robocomm User's Guide 61 USING THE ANSI TERMINAL To enter Robocomm's ANSI terminal, select Terminal from the Go menu or press [F1] or [F10] while Robocomm is on-line during an agenda. If you are entering the terminal from the main menu, the modem will be initialized and communications to your modem will be established at the Default Baud Rate that you specified on the Communications Configuration screen. To call up a help screen of terminal options, press the [F1] key at any time while in the terminal. The following options are available: [Alt-H] Hang Up - To immediately end communications between the BBS and Robocomm, select "Hang Up" from the terminal menu. Robocomm will first attempt to temporarily drop carrier. If this unsuccessful in breaking the connection, Robocomm will send the "Hang Up String" you specified on the "Configure- General" menu. [Alt-D] Dial - To activate Robocomm's Demon Dialer feature, press [Alt-D] while in the terminal mode. A window will open up listing all your configured BBS systems that are not accessed via PC Pursuit. Highlight the systems you would like to dial and press the space bar. When all of the systems you want to dial are tagged, press [Enter] to start dialing. [Alt-B] Set Baud - Select "Baud" to change the current baud rate of the terminal. Robocomm operates only at "no parity", "eight data bits" and "1 stop bit". [Alt-C] Clear the Screen [Alt-L] Printer Logging - To send terminal text to the printer as well as the screen, press [Alt-L]. When printer logging is active, pressing [Alt-L] again will disable it. [Alt-C] Capture File - To send terminal text to a capture file that you specify, press [Alt-C]. Once capturing is active, you can disable it by pressing [Alt-C] again. [Alt-P] Send Password - Press [Alt-P] to send your password for the current BBS. [Alt-R] Send Break - Used to send a one second BREAK signal to the modem. [Alt =] DOORWAY Mode is used by some BBS systems to allow the remote machine to send most all of the keys on its keyboard to the host (BBS) computer. To enable this mode in Robocomm's terminal, hold down the [Alt] key and press. You should use this feature whenever you are using the "visual" editor on the BBS. It will allow all of your standard arrow and editing keys to function as you would expect. 62 Robocomm User's Guide ---- NOTE Once DOORWAY mode has been activated, the only way to ---- exit the terminal or issue any other terminal command is to toggle the mode off with [Alt =]. [Alt-X] Exit Terminal Mode [F7] Shell to DOS - To temporarily exit to DOS from the Robocomm terminal, select "DOS Shell" from the terminal menu. When you do this, Robocomm will attempt to free up the amount of RAM you have specified in your "RAM for Mail Reader" option of the utility configuration menu. If insufficient disk space is available, Robocomm will free up as much RAM as possible and place you at a DOS prompt. When you have finished, type EXIT at any DOS prompt and you will be returned to the ANSI terminal. PgUp Upload - To Upload a file using Robocomm's internal ZMODEM, YMODEM, YMODEM-G or ROBORZ.BAT file, select this option. You will be prompted for the file name to send. Pressing [F10] at the prompt will pop-up a pick list of files matching the file specification in the field. PgDn Download - To download a file using Robocomm's internal ZMODEM, YMODEM or YMODEM-G, use this option. The file(s) received will be placed in your configured "Download Directory." ASCII PROTOCOL UPLOADS - To send the contents of a text file out the communications port, one line at a time, press [PgUp] and select "ASCII (Text Only)" as the transfer protocol. This option is useful for uploading messages to the BBS when on-line manually. AUTOMATIC ZMODEM DOWNLOADS - Robocomm can automatically detect the sequence of characters used by Zmodem to indicate the start of a file download. By default, Robocomm uses it's own internal Zmodem for auto-downloads. If you would prefer to use DSZ or some other external Zmodem protocol engine, you will need to create a Z-AUTO.BAT file in your Robocomm directory. If Z-AUTO.BAT exists in the Robocomm directory when the time comes to initiate an automatic download, Robocomm will change directories to your configured download directory and then shell to DOS, calling the Z-AUTO.BAT file. For this reason it is essential that your Robocomm directory be included in your path statement. If it isn't, DOS will report a "Bad command" message because it can't locate Z-AUTO.BAT. The following batch file implements a Zmodem auto-download using DSZ: DSZ port %1 speed %2 rz -m AUTOMATIC HS/LINK DOWNLOADS - HS/Link auto-downloads work differently than Zmodem auto-downloads in that Robocomm looks for a HS-AUTO.BAT file and Robocomm sends the path for downloaded files as the %4 Robocomm User's Guide 63 parameter. Thus, the default HS-AUTO.BAT file that is shipped with Robocomm is: HSLINK -P%1 -B%2 -R -O -HS -! -U%4 VIEWING & MANAGING THE FILE DIRECTORIES Robocomm automatically creates entries in two files directories for you. The "Downloaded Files" directory holds information on the files you have downloaded or uploaded using Robocomm. The "Available Files" directory holds information on files available for download on the BBS systems that you call. Entries are added to the New Files directory when you do "New File Scans" as part of an agenda, or if you set up a mail door to scan new files for you. If a file listing received in a new files scan is already part of your list (from the same BBS) or if the file is found in your Downloaded Files directory (from any BBS) then Robocomm will not add a record to your New Files directory for that file. You can view the Available Files directory in one of two ways. From the main menu, select Directory followed by Available Files. Alternatively, you can view the files directory while creating a download file agenda item by pressing [F10] at the "File Name:" prompt. Similarly, you can view the Downloaded Files directory by selecting Directory followed by Downloaded Files from the main menu. Or, you can press [F10] at the "Upload File" prompt on the agenda editing screen. Here, we see a New Files directory stocked full of goodies to download: <screen shot not available in text-based documentation> When the Available Files Directory is shown on the screen, the following keys are active: 64 Robocomm User's Guide BULK DELETE - Press B from either file directory screen to bring up the Bulk Delete window. This command allows you to mark file entries from specific systems and/or before a specific date for deletion. File entries marked for deletion will appear in dark text (on color systems only) and the word DEL will appear to the right of the file name. To permanently remove these files from the list use the Clean Up command or select the Pack option when quitting Robocomm. If you mark a file as deleted and want to return it to normal status, highlight it and press Del . ---- NOTE The Bulk Delete command does not touch any files that have ---- been tagged with "Keep" status. DATABASE CLEAN UP - You can permanently delete all files marked for deletion by pressing C in either the Available Files or Downloaded Files directories. After confirmation, the clean up process will begin and a bar graph will display Robocomm's progress. The Clean-Up operation cannot be interrupted. WARNING Do not re-boot or shut off your computer while Robocomm is cleaning up its data files. If you do, you will most likely loose a portion of your file list data. In the event of a power loss during PACK or CLEAN UP operations, you should immediately re-start Robocomm with the /P switch. FINDING FILES - Press [F] to search for keywords within either files directory. Input as many keywords as you like, separated by spaces, into the input field and press [Enter] to begin the search. Robocomm will rapidly scan the file name, BBS ID and description associated with the files in the current directory and display only those records in which all your specified keywords were found. Once the matching records are displayed, you may scroll through and tag them as normal. To return to a display of all files, press [S] and pick a new sort criteria. You can mark all files which match the search criteria for deletion by pressing [Alt-D] whenever the directory is sorted by search results. When the sort method is other than "Search Text", you can quickly jump to the previous and next search matches by holding down [Ctrl] and pressing the up and down arrow keys or [Ctrl-P] and [Ctrl-N] . Robocomm User's Guide 65 ---- NOTE The number of seconds required for the search is displayed ---- on the top of the screen after each search. This is to assist you in optimizing the search speed on your system. The speed of your keyword search can vary significantly depending upon your FTS (Fast Text Search) Index file and EMS (Expanded Memory) allocation configuration settings. See the FTS Index Notes for hints on optimizing your setup. EDITING FILE DESCRIPTIONS - To edit any file's description, simply highlight the file and press [E]. Robocomm will pop-up a small editor for your use. When you are satisfied with the description, press [Ctrl-Enter] to save it to disk. TAGGING AND "KEEPING" FILES - All files in Robocomm's file listings can have a combination of two file tags. Pressing the space bar will tag/untag a file for group operations, such as uploading and downloading. Pressing the [K] key will tag/untag a file's "Keep" status. File entries with "Keep" status are never removed from the file directory. They remain until explicitly marked for deletion with the DEL key or, in the case of downloads, when the file is downloaded. The "Keep" status is ideal for files that you think you will want to download at a later time. Once these type of files are tagged with the "K" key you are free to use the bulk erase and zap commands to remove large quantities of unwanted files from the list. The files with keep status will remain long after the transient files are removed from the list. The [+] and [-] keys can be used to apply or remove both types of tags to a file. If you see a file you want to download and you anticipate that you will be cleaning out the file directory between the time you create a download agenda item and the time the file is downloaded, then you will need to tag it for downloading and also give it keep status. The [+] key automates this process to one keystroke. Conversely, the [-] key removes all tags from an individual file listing. Several keys are available for quick manipulation of the standard tags on many files at once. [Ctrl-T] will tag all files in the list automatically, [Ctrl-U] will untag all file listings and [Ctrl-I] will invert the tags. ---- NOTE Robocomm assumes you want to Keep all file listings in your ---- Downloads directory. References in this section to the "Keep" flag apply only to the New Files directory. 66 Robocomm User's Guide JUMPING AROUND - To jump to the first file beginning with a specific letter, put the listing into file name order with the "S" key, then press [Alt-J] (for "jump") followed by the letter you wish to jump to. To move to the first file in the directory, press [Ctrl-PgUp]. To move to the last file, press [Ctrl-PgDn]. DELETING ENTRIES - To delete a listing from either file directory, highlight the file name and press the [Del] key. The word "DEL" will appear on the listing. To "un-delete" an entry simply highlight the DELeted file and press [Del] again. If you are in the Downloads directory, Robocomm will ask you if you also want to permanently delete the downloaded file from disk. DELeted files are not actually removed from the directory until you issue a "C" command to clean up the database or until you exit Robocomm and select "Pack" before exit. ZAPPING THE DIRECTORY - To mark as DELeted all files that have not been given "Keep" status, simply press the [Z] key. MOVING FILES OFFLINE - Robocomm includes a functional floppy disk cataloging system that will allow you to archive your downloaded files offline and easily recall them for use or for uploading to a system. This function is activated with the "O" key while in the Downloads Directory. It will move the highlighted file to a diskette in the drive you specified in the "Offline Files Drive" option on the "Data & Logs" configuration screen. THE DISKETTE MUST ALREADY HAVE BEEN FORMATTED! Don't forget that you can press [F7] if you need to drop to DOS to format a disk. If the diskette doesn't already have a Volume label, Robocomm will prompt you for one. Once the file is on the diskette, the status display for that file will indicate "Offline" and the location display will indicate the diskette that the file is located on. MOVING FILES ON-LINE - To move a file off a diskette and back into your "Downloads" directory, highlight a file that is displayed as being "Offline", insert the appropriate diskette in your offline files drive and press the "O" key. Robocomm will copy the file back onto your hard disk. This step really isn't necessary however, because Robocomm will automatically prompt you to insert the appropriate disk if you attempt to upload a file that has been moved offline. In this instance, the file status will be marked as "Pending Upload." VIEWING DOWNLOADED FILES - To view a compressed or GIF image file that has been downloaded, simply highlight it in the Downloads directory and press [V]. Robocomm will swap itself to disk or expanded memory and call the program that you specified on the Utility Configuration screen to view the file. When you are finished with the file view, simply quit the program and you will be returned to Robocomm. TESTING DOWNLOADED FILES - Robocomm also allows you to test and scan a downloaded compressed file directly from the Download Directory. To do this, highlight the file name and press the [T] key. Robocomm will swap itself to disk or expanded memory and call up a batch file called TESTFILE.BAT. Robocomm sends the following parameters to the batch file: Robocomm User's Guide 67 %1 The full path and name of the file to test %2 The extension of the file type (Common types are: ZIP, ARC, ARJ, GIF and LZH) A sample TESTFILE.BAT is supplied with Robocomm. It switches to a temporary directory, decompresses the file, runs McAfee's SCAN.EXE program, pauses, calls a transient copy of your %COMSPEC% and allows you to test the extracted files. When you're done with the file, a quick DEL *.* followed by EXIT will whisk you back to Robocomm, where you may be inclined to OFFLINE, DELete, UPLOAD or simply ignore the file. Similar to FIXFILE, the TESTFILE process also checks for an imbedded description file in the archive, and if one is found, it is moved into the Robocomm directory using the %ROBODIR% macro. If Robocomm sees an imbedded description file in its home directory after returning from TESTFILE, then it will ask for permission to import that description in to its available files entry. Here is the default testing file that is included with Robocomm: @ECHO OFF CLS REM TESTFILE.BAT - Robocomm file testing batch file REM %1 = Filename (Including Path) REM %2 = Type of file (The file's extension) rd ROBOTEMP md ROBOTEMP>nul cd ROBOTEMP IF EXIST FILE_ID.DIZ DEL FILE_ID.DIZ IF EXIST DESC.SDI DEL DESC.SDI IF %2 == ZIP GOTO UNZIP IF %2 == LZH GOTO UNLZH IF %2 == ARC GOTO UNARC IF %2 == ARJ GOTO UNARJ GOTO ERROR :UNZIP PKUNZIP %1 GOTO DONE :UNARC PKUNPAK %1 GOTO DONE :UNLZH LHA x %1 GOTO DONE :UNARJ ARJ e %1 GOTO DONE :ERROR CLS ECHO %1 IS AN UNKNOWN FILE TYPE ECHO (You may want to edit your TESTFILE.BAT file) ECHO Parameter 1 was [%1] ECHO Parameter 2 was [%2] 68 Robocomm User's Guide pause GOTO END :DONE REM Use McAfee's viral scan to test the file for critters CLS SCAN *.* /A /nomem if errorlevel 1 pause if exist file_id.diz copy file_id.diz %robodir% >nul if exist desc.sdi copy desc.sdi %robodir% >nul %COMSPEC% if exist file_id.diz del file_id.diz if exist desc.sdi del desc.sdi :END IMPORTING NEW FILES LISTINGS FROM OTHER SOURCES - Robocomm can import any text file which contains a files listing in the standard PCBoard or Wildcat Double line format. Many BBS systems make a file available for download which contains a compressed listing of all files available on the BBS. You can download such a file, then go to the New Files directory and press "I" to start the import operation. Robocomm will prompt you for the filename to import and also the name of the BBS that has these files. Robocomm will then check the list for files that aren't already listed in your Downloads directory or your New Files listing and add them. Remember, Robocomm's file listings can grow to any size, and are only limited by your available disk space! You'll still get lighting quick sorts and file access, so feel free to import as many listings as you want. Assigning Conferences in Imported Text Files - If you would like conference numbers/names to appear in file listings you "I"mport into the available files directory, you need to edit the files to include the following marker: CONF> The > character is created by holding down the [Alt] key and typing 16 on the numeric keyboard. For example, to edit a file listing to show that all subsequently listed files can be found in the WINDOWS conference, you would include the following label in the text file, starting in column 1: CONF>WINDOWS A directory listing may include any number of these markers. All files found subsequent to a marker will have the indicated conference included in their conference field, which is automatically supplied when the file is selected for downloading. The conference name may be up to 13 characters in length. Robocomm User's Guide 69 ---- NOTE Be careful that you do not attempt to import a PCBoard file ---- listing from a Wildcat system and vice-versa. Robocomm assumes that the file list you specify is in the native format of the BBS system you specify. WRITING TO PCBOARD FORMAT DIR FILES - Use the "W" command in either directory to append standard format PCBoard DIR file entries to a specified text file. If there are files tagged when you press [W], Robocomm will write out descriptions for all tagged files. If not, then just the currently highlighted file will be written. You will be given the option of using today's date or the file date when you create append to the DIR files. READING DOWNLOADED MAIL FILES Robocomm allows you to run your mail packet reader programs by selecting "Read" from the main menu. Don't forget that your mail reader itself will need to shell out to DOS to run a file compression and decompression utility, so you may need a full 512K (the default) of RAM to run the program. Specify the amount of memory to free up on the Utility Configuration screen. QWK Messages - A command is executed as specified on the Configure-Utility Screen under the "Command to invoke mail reader" option. Captured Mail - Robocomm will scan your configured "Path for *.QWK packets" for packets with a "PCB" extension and present you with a menu of matching packets. When you select a packet from the menu, the operation will differ, depending upon whether a file called READPCB.BAT exists in your Robocomm directory. If READPCB.BAT doesn't exists, then Robocomm will call your configured ZIP file viewing utility to view the file. OPERATING ROBOCOMM FROM THE COMMAND LINE Robocomm can execute agendas based on command line parameters. This feature will be particularly valuable for system operators who want to use Robocomm for network mail runs, as part of their BBS's timed event. The syntax for Robocomm's command line switches is: ROBOCOMM /A<agenda> /T<time> /D<date> /R /Lnnnn [Other Switches] 70 Robocomm User's Guide The AGENDA switches are: /A (Optional) This parameter must be first if it is included in the command line. /A followed immediately by an agenda name (non-case sensitive) tells Robocomm which agenda to execute. After Robocomm has executed the agenda, it immediately exits back to DOS. /T (Optional) /T followed immediately by the time (In 24 hour format) to start the agenda specified by the /A parameter. Don't use the /T parameter if you haven't specified an agenda with /A. If /A is specified and /T is omitted, then the Agenda will be execute immediately. /D The date that the agenda should begin operating. Enter it in the following format: MM-DD-YY where MM is the month, DD is the year and YY is the year. /R (Optional) Tells Robocomm to "reset" the agenda so that all items marked as "done" become "things to do." /Ln Overrides the Redial Attempts Per System configuration option and forces all systems in the current agenda run to be dialed nnn times. The OTHER switches are: /M Force monochrome mode. Do not use if the /C command is being used. /C Force color mode. Do not use if the /M command is being used. /P Pack the data files at the conclusion of processing before returning to DOS. /IP Imports a file containing PCBoard format file listings into Robocomm's Downloads directory. This feature is helpful for Sysops who would like the contents of their PCBoard upload directory to be available for uploading from Robocomm's Downloads list. For example, on Group One BBS, the nightly event runs Robocomm as follows, to import the BBS's new files list into Robocomm: ROBOCOMM /IPJ:\PCB\MAIN\DIR0 /IW Imports a Wildcat double line format file listing into Robocomm's Downloaded Files directory. Uses the same syntax as the /IP switch. /O Causes Robocomm to place the modem off-hook before quitting to DOS. This causes callers to get a busy signal. /! (Optional) This switch allows you to re-set any items in an agenda that are marked with an exclamation point (which indicates that they were attempted but not completed). To use it, you specify the agenda name immediately after the Robocomm User's Guide 71 "!" character. This switch should be used all by itself, not in conjunction with other switches. Examples: ROBOCOMM /!FOO Re-sets all incomplete permanent agenda items in the FOO agenda to To-Do status and deleted any temporary items marked as incomplete. ROBOCOMM /AQMAIL /T5:00 /R Starts Robocomm and executes an agenda called "QMAIL" at 5:00 AM. In addition, Robocomm is instructed to reset any "Done" items to "To do" status. Meanwhile, I sleep... ROBOCOMM /AREPLY /R /M /P Starts the agenda "REPLY" immediately, resets all "done" items to "To Do" status and forces monochrome mode. The data files will be cleaned up after the agenda runs. ROBOCOMM /C Forces color mode ROBOCOMM /AEAST /T22:00 Starts the agenda "EAST" at 10 PM. Only those items marked as "To Do" will be attempted since no /R switch was used to reset the agenda. ROBOCOMM /Afoo /R /L10 Executes the agenda FOO immediately, resetting all done items to ToDo status. A maximum of 10 dial attempts per system is specified. DOS ERRORLEVEL RETURN VALUES - Robocomm will exit with the DOS errorlevel set to 1 if it is started from a command line and the specified agenda contains any attempted but incomplete agenda items. (When viewing these items on the agenda editing screen, they would be marked with an exclamation point). Robocomm will exit with an errorlevel 2 if it is started via a command line switch and any specified agenda items remain unattempted at the conclusion of processing. This could result from a failure to connect with the BBS or a unexpected disconnection during normal automated processing. INTERPRETING AND VIEWING THE LOG All of the messages that you see printed in the log window during an on-line session are echoed to a log file if you have one specified in your Robocomm configuration. Whenever an agenda item is about to be attempted, the name of the agenda item is indicated with the symbol indicating its temporary or permanent status. The notations that follow indicate the steps that Robocomm took in order to complete the agenda item. When Robocomm finishes an agenda item, a notation is marked with a check mark if the item was completed successfully and an exclamation mark if there was an error condition. You can view the Robocomm log file at any time with the [F8] hot key. 72 Robocomm User's Guide Just press this key and Robocomm will call your file browsing utility to view the log. Alternatively, you can select Read followed by LOG File from the main menu. VIEWING CAPTURE (CAP) FILES Robocomm also includes a hot key for viewing files captured with the Capture Command agenda item. By pressing [F9] you will be presented with a list of all text files with a .CAP extension in the Robocomm directory. Use the arrow keys to select the file to view. Alternatively, you can select Read followed by LOG File from the main menu. ---- NOTE If you would like to have the Robocomm documentation ---- available for browsing while using Robocomm, just rename this file, Robocomm.doc, to Robocomm.cap and place it in the Robocomm subdirectory. PLEASE SEE SCRIPT.DOC FOR INFORMATION ON WRITING YOUR OWN SCRIPTS USING ROBOCOMM'S SCRIPT LANGUAGE Robocomm User's Guide 73