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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 2 BBS
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1998-09-12
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BDBull
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v 1.00
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Bulletin Generator for Maximus BBS's.
What It Does:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Creates MECCA and (optionally) HTML files containing any news items that
you want your users to see.
Legal Stuff:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This program shouldn't do much more than take up room on your hard drive,
but if it does, it wasn't my fault, honest :>
Installation:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just unzip everything into it's own directory, and edit the config file to
suit your needs. It should be pretty self-explanatory.
Usage:
~~~~~~
Edit the BDBULL.TXT file with all the bulletins you want. (There is no
theoretical limit to the number of bulletins you can have, only as many as
MECCA(p) will allow :> ). Keep in mind that there is a limit of 255
charachters per line in effect.
The format of BDBULL.TXT is as follows;
date
topic
bulletin text
/***/
The date can be one of two formats: MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY (see the config
file for more info). Note that you *MUST* use a 4 digit year! If you don't,
your bulletins will look ugly, and you will be laughed at by all your peers!
Neener neener! (None of that Y2K nonsense for ME!).
The topic can be whatever you want, with a maximum of length of 50
charachters.
The bulletin text can be about as long as you want, you can write one line
bulletins or stories, it doesn't matter.
The next line is the important one, it's a seperator. As long as you have that
line after every bulletin in the file (including the last one!) you shouldn't
experience any problems. Remember that if you have that line anywhere within
your bulletin text, things will all go haywire, and I'm pretty sure the
results won't be pleasant! :>
When you've edited BDBULL.TXT to suit your needs, just run BDBULL(2).EXE to
create the MECCA/HTML file. After that, you'll have to run MECCA(p) to compile
the mecca to a BBS file for use on your BBS.
I've included sample BAT and CMD files that automates this whole ugly
process. :>
Tokens:
~~~~~~~
You can use tokens in your BDBULL.TXT file in order to customize the
output more to suit your needs. If you place the token "[%M]" at the
beginning of a line, the rest of that line will be added only to the
generated MECCA file. If you place the token "[%H]" at the beginning of
a line, the rest of the line will be added only to the generated HTML
file.
Trouble Shooting:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Problem: I get a run-time error -206 when BDBULL2 runs, and nothing gets
created!
Cause: This is usually caused by trying to create a file with a long file
name (LFN) on a FAT partition, or by attempting to create a file
with a filename longer then permitted.
Solution: Either change the config file to only create non-LFN files, or
move BDBULL to an HPFS partition.
Problem: I get an "Invalid date format detected on line xxx"
Cause: Just like it says. The date on the line number given isn't in the
format you specified in the config file.
Solution: Re-edit BDBULL.TXT and change the date to the proper format.
Problem: My dates don't look right! Instead of July 1st, it says January 7th!
Cause: Same as above. You've likely transversed the digits in the date.
Solution: Edit BDBULL.TXT and change the date to the proper format.
Problem: The bulletins generated are UGLY!
Cause: I'm not at all artistic, so sue me! *I* think the colors are very
nice, thank-you!
Solution: Check the config file. You can change all of the colors yourself.
Or, if you're really creative, you could always edit the generated
MECCA (or HTML) file to suit your needs.
Contacting Me:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to contact me for whatever reason, I can be found on the web
at http://tinys.oix.com/blackdeath, or via E-Mail at s_honsberger@usa.net.
I've included my PGP public key if you wish to encrypt your message to me.