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WHATSNEW.ENG
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1995-03-15
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Readme for OffTag 1.1 Beta/6
New Features of Beta/6 (compared to Beta/5) are marked with Beta/6:
OffTag 1.1 Beta/6 is a complete version. You don't need OffTag 1.0.
Upgrade from 1.0:
================================
1. Backup Old version
First save your old 1.0 Tagger.exe and tagger.cfg somewhere, so you can step
back in case of a severe error in this beta.
2. Copy Executables
Then put the new exe's in your tagger directory and put the new EMX.DLL (and
the RXANSI.DLL) where you typically store your DLL's. Be sure to erase
(or replace) all older EMX.DLL on your drives.
(Credits go to S.Mullarkey for his RXANSI.DLL)
3. Adjust Tagger.cfg
If you have a customized color setting, you can use config.cmd to complete the
the new tokens.
CONFIG.CMD is new (still limited to some sections) and allows to
define tagger.cfg interactive with some little help. It will be completed
in the release version.
4. Update language files
If you customized your language files you may compare it to the new english.lng
for the new tokens used. If you used the original one then simply copy it
over.
5. Start Tagger.exe
If you start Tagger.exe it should begin rescanning your filebase (if you
enabled the filebase-feature).
6. Continue.
I hope it all runs now ;-). Now you can (if you want) take a look at the new
features of OffTag 1.1 (beta/6) below.
Upgrade from beta/5:
====================
1. Copy tagger.exe, tagserve.exe and update emx.dll (it is now version
0.9a fix02).
2. Copy tagger.hlp, tagger.hlf, english.lng, deutsch.lng.
(you need to update the language files because there's the new menu-
option "Global Find" in the area-menu)
3. Copyfile.cmd, viewit.cmd and getid.cmd now read a file (filepath.cfg)
which holds common path info.
Bugs fixed:
===========
Tagger trapped when the "Pick up new Files" function was used on ".." in the
Allfiles or Newfiles List.
An %TAG ALIAS definition at the end of the last include-file of the
filearea.ctl let the Tagger wait forever on RESCAN.
The Carrier Detect didn't work in beta/5rev3 (this was TAGFIX06).
Tagger hung on exit or logged a 3171 in SYSPOPUP.LOG when run under Warp
(in beta/5 previous to beta/5rev2).
The Access-Level "Hidden" was not recognized.
"Goto" aborted OffTag when used in an unsorted all- and newfiles lists.
The include statment did not work multiple times in one file.
/t /b or /tb will be recognized and treated right now.
The "Hidden" Access-Level is now recognized.
Downloadcounters holding '-' instead of spaces or zeroes are recognized now.
The Area (of beta/4) grouping had bugs. Groups with no Fileareas in them had
not been shown. And OffTag crashed if the area description was longer than
about 100 chars.
OffTag 1.0 did not show the files when entering areas when running in
Warp Beta II, it could not open for some reason the files.bbs files.
This is fixed, but i don't know why ;-), perhaps because i used a newer
compiler version.
New Feature 1: External Functions:
----------------------------------
Now users of Offtag can issue an external function when in the filemenu
(typically an archive viewer).
If you use a language File you have to add a letter (e.g. "V") to the
filemenu string in this file.
Add those Lines to your tagger.cfg.
External
VIEWIT.CMD
End
This will spawn VIEWIT.CMD if the user issues the extern-command (e.g. when
pressing "V". The VIEWIT.CMD i provided will list zip,arj and lzh contents and
dump any other file to the user.
YOU HAVE TO ADJUST THE PATHS TO THE ARCHIVERS IN VIEWIT.CMD ;-)
New Feature 2: File-Manager:
----------------------------
When passing the Parameter "FILEMANAGER" to the tagger it gets into File-
Manager Mode. There you can Move/Copy/Kill Files in different Areas.
Also included is a Dupe-Listing mode (just like New-Files, but it checks for
dupes in your file-base).
As this is a beta, be careful. The Kill command actually deletes Files.
Also backup your files.bbs files. I tried to stay on the safe side and
the tagger creates a *.bak of the files.bbs if it changes it.
Warning:
Be sure to enable the start with the "FILEMANAGER" parameter only to people
with sysop status because this mode allows sight and action (including
Kill) on ALL defined file-areas.
The Dupelister:
Lists Files which appear more than one time in either the whole filebase
or in one group of areas (if you entered one). This is done either by
matching the filename only or filename+extension.
beta/6:
The Dupelister always lists the area-title even when the list is sorted.
So some area titles may appear multiple times.
File-Manager actions:
The File-Manager acts only on the files of one area. If the Display-Mode
includes multiple areas the tagger takes the area of the currently
highlighted file. This may be irritating on sorted lists when files
of different areas follow directly.
Also the actions ONLY work if a file is highlighted (not on '..' and
not on Area-Headlines) except for the PickUp option.
If some files in this area are tagged the actions will work on the
tagged files of the area (not on tagged files in any other area).
If no file is tagged in the area they work on the highlighted file.
Move:
Moves the file(s) to another filearea which can be selected. This is
actually done by first Copying the File to the destination area and
then Killing the File in the source-area.
Copy:
This is a Dupe-Producer, it has been requested so i implemented it.
Same as Move without deleting the Source.
Kill:
Will erase the selected file(s) out of the files.bbs and from the disk.
You will be prompted for Yes/No before the files are killed.
Edit:
Edit the file description.
Additionally you can now Replace the description by the contents of a
description file (e.g. File_Id.Diz). See the Tagger.Cfg part for more info.
PickUp:
Adopts new files (present in the areas downloadpath) in the filelist.
See the Tagger.Cfg part on information how to exclude specific files
from adopting.
Drop:
Deletes a file out of the files.bbs. But it stays physically on the disk.
Rename:
In work.
DriveInfo:
Lists the Size and Free Space of all Drives stated in the tagger.cfg
The Tagger filebase is updated on leaving the tagger.
Tagger also creates a file called "areascan.log" which holds the changed
areas. This can be used with utilities (like fbp.exe).
Known Error: The filebase is not updated (yet) when Tagger exits via
Timeout or Carrier loss.
Get Description:
While Adopting New Files or Editing existing Files you can get the File-
Description out of the Archive. The provided cmd-file GETID.CMD does this.
More about this in the TAGGER.CFG news, below.
Limited Filemanager Rights:
You can restrict each Filemanager function to a specified Userlevel.
More about this in the TAGGER.CFG section.
New Feature 3: Shared Memory Server:
------------------------------------
Especially for BBS's with many files, the start up of OffTag took quite a
while. I re-engineered the internal structures and memory-management to offer
maxmimum performance for big filebases. But i added also the "Shared Memory
Server" which significantly speeds up loading and which let's the Tagger
hog less memory on Multi-Node systems.
It works like this:
You start TAGSERVE.EXE which will stay running in background all the time.
TAGSERVE loads the Filebase into Memory and will offer it to all Tagger
Sessions which are started on the same computer.
Each Tagger session itself mirrors some essential information (which is
stored in the filebase.dat) from the shared memory pool and accesses the
Data (these are the contents filebase.dmp) of the shared memory whenever
needed. So the loading time will reduce to some memory transfer and perhaps
some time for swapping in (if needed parts of the memory pool had been
swapped out).
TAGSERVE itself will remark when the filebase has been changed by UPDATE,
RESCAN or the filemanager and reload the filebase.
If you do not use the default name "FILEBASE" or you use another path
for the filebase than the default (current) path you can pass the name
with the parameter "FILEBASE=<Name>" to TAGSERVE.
Example:
TAGSERVE FILEBASE=c:\base\mybase
New Parameters:
---------------
FILEMANAGER starts the Tagger in the Filemanager Mode
! All File-Areas can then be seen, altered
STARTALLFILES starts the Tagger immediately in the allfiles-list
STARTNEWFILES starts the Tagger immediately in the newfiles-list
WRAPATCR Ideal for Graphical FILE_ID.DIZ in multi-line descriptions.
This wraps the description display (in WRAP mode) like in
the files.bbs. (needs a rescan to work)
CLEANUPDESC This will eliminate all Non-Ascii chars (<32 and >127) in the
file-description and also multiple spaces. This can help
speed up tagger loading and reduce memory utilization when
many file_id.diz's are in the files.bbs.
UPDATE=<Area1>,<Area2>,....
Partial Rescan only for the stated areas. Faster than a
usual Rescan. Be sure not to include any spaces in this
expression.
Example: UPDATE=UPLOADS,F100,AC-FILES
SHOWPROGRESS Shows litte dots, as the tagger loads :)
WAITTRANSMIT This new feature lets the tagger react more directly on user
keystrokes. It checks OS/2's send-buffer and will wait on
transmitting data until the send-buffer is nearly empty.
Especially for low-speed modem users this provides a
substantial increase in performance. I recommend to
enable this feature immediately :) (put it in the parameter
section of tagger.cfg).
DESCID= Descid already existed, but now Descid can optionally
be defined as multiple chars. E.g. DESCID=" |"
COMMENTID= This is really new. This statement allows to include
comments of your FILES.BBS in the Tagger Filelist (only
in unsorted view).
Example: COMMENTID="- "
A RESCAN is needed to include the comments.
DEBUGRESCAN This comment shows some info when the tagger does a rescan
perhaps useful, perhaps not ;-).
GRAPHICS=[1/0] OffTag offers now a charset for Non-Ibm Users, this is
usually read of the lastusxx.bbs, but can be overridden here.
GRAPHICS=0 sets the Non-Ibm Charset.
(Note: In local mode you will always see graphics chars,
no matter what graphics parameter is set)
VIDEO=[0,1,2] This Overrides the Users Video-Setting. OffTag will use
Ansi for 0 and 1 [TTY and ANSI] and AVATAR for Value 2.
beta/6:
NOSHAREDMEM If this Parameter is specified, OffTag won't use the
Shared-Memory Filebase, even if Tagserve is running.
New in tagger.cfg:
------------------
Miscellaneous Section
---------------------
desclimit <n>
e.g. desclimit 80
This statement limits the maximum length per file description which is
stored in OffTag. This can reduce (like cleanupdesc) the filebase and
thus speed up loading and reduce memory use of tagger at the cost of
information. The internal limit of OffTag is 1000 chars.
usecreationdate
Forces the tagger to use the Creation Date of a file instead of the
Last Write Date. If the Creation Date is zero however (e.g. on
FAT-Partitions) the Last Write Date is taken.
nodownloadmenu
Tagger starts immediatly when Download is selected. It uses the first
Protocol-Definition in the Protocols section.
bbsdesclimit
Limits each line edited in filemanagermode to this length.
(beta/6)
Protocols Section
-----------------
A new Keyword which has to be stated to be first (see tagger.doc for details)
when used.
Local/Extern: Specifies if Menu-Option is for local or external use.
If not specified the option is displayed in both cases.
Color Section
-------------
Colors can be defined now with color tokens. Look in the provided example
tagger.cfg. The easiest Way to define Colors is to use CONFIG.CMD.
FileManager Section
-------------------
ACCESS <Action> <Userlevel>
This allows to restrict certain Filemanager actions to different User-
levels (Sysop is Default). Anyway all Functions only work when the
FILEMANAGER Parameter ist passed to the Tagger.
The Actions are :
DELETE COPY MOVE EDIT ADOPT DROP UPDATE RENAME DRIVES
Example:
Access Move AsstSysop
(Allows Users with level AsstSysop to move files)
NOTADOPT <Filemask> <Filemask> ......
Specifies which files not to List when you use the Adopt/Pickup command.
Multiple NOTADTOP lines will be recognized.
Example:
NotAdopt *.cmd *.bak FILES.BBS FILES.IDX FILES.DMP FILES.DAT
DRIVEINFO <DriveLetter> <DriveLetter> ....
Lets you specify the drive letters of the drives to be listed in the
free space info.
Example:
DriveInfo C D E F M N
FILEIDSPAWN
The CMD-File/Program to be started if you want to get a file-description
out of an archive.
FILEID
The Name of the textfile holding the file-id (if found) when returning to
OffTag.
DEFAULTDESCRIPTION
The Standard Description which will be preset on newly adopted files.
Read-Only Areas:
----------------
"Fileoverride Download <Priv-Level>[/<Lock>]"
If you use this statement in an area-definition of the filearea.ctl the
tagger will allow download in this area only for the defined priv-level
and above. But the area will be displayed to everyone which has a priv-level
sufficcient for the "FileAccess" statement.
You have type the entire Word "Download" a single "D" is NOT recognized by
OffTag.
Area-Grouping:
--------------
This is a powerful feature for sysops which have very many Fileareas.
The Tagger now allows to group fileareas in groups and sub-groups like
directories. The definition of groups is done (as comment) in the
filearea.ctl (and included files). The statements listed below have to
follow directly after the %.
Just a note: Be sure to RESCAN your Filebase after changing any group-
statements. Only then the changes will be recognized.
These commands are supported:
%TAG GROUP <GroupName> <Description>
---------------------------------------
Defines a group. If the group is a subgroup of another group the
groupname has to start with the upper-groupname then "\" then the
groupname itsself (like a directory path to a subdirectory).
All groups have to start with a "\".
Usually you define all groups at the begin of the filearea.ctl, anyway
the groups have at least to be defined before they are used in the
PATH and ALIAS commands.
Example:
%TAG GROUP \OS/2 all about OS/2
%TAG GROUP \OS/2\INTERN local os/2 areas
%TAG GROUP \OS/2\AC-NET os/2 areas of the ac-network
%TAG PATH <Groupname>
-----------------------
The Path command defines the group that will be used for the following
Fileareadeclarations. It can be stated multiple times for the same group
if areas of one group are not listed sequentially in your filearea.ctl.
Example:
%TAG PATH \OS/2\INTERN
%TAG ALIAS <Groupname>
------------------------
The Alias command allows to let one filearea appear in different groups.
It has to be placed BEHIND the area-declaration.
You can use multiple ALIAS commands per group.
Example of a filearea.ctl which is formatted for Tagger grouping.
%Now for the Groupdeclarations
%TAG GROUP \OFFLINE Our filelists, new uploads, sysop portrait ...
%TAG GROUP \MUSIC Doobeedo
%TAG GROUP \GRAPHICS Pictures
%TAG PATH \OFFLINE
area 0
filelist files\0.bbs
fileaccess Twit
fileinfo Filelists, infos
download e:\prog\emx\samples\files
upload c:\upload
end area
%TAG ALIAS \MUSIC
%TAG ALIAS \GRAPHICS
area 1
filelist files\1.bbs
fileaccess disgrace/1
%
% this area is readonly until level Worthy (included)
%
fileoverride download Privil
fileinfo New Uploads
download c:\upload
upload c:\upload
end area
%TAG PATH \MUSIC
area 400
filelist files\400.bbs
fileaccess disgrace/4
fileinfo SB / Adlib Tools
download d:\4\400
upload c:\upload
end area
%TAG PATH \GRAPHICS
area 500
filelist files\500.bbs
fileaccess disgrace/5
fileinfo GIFs
download d:\5\500
upload c:\upload
end area
area 508
filelist files\508.bbs
fileaccess disgrace/5
fileinfo Offline User Portraits
download d:\5\508
upload d:\5\508
end area
%TAG ALIAS \OFFLINE
Area-Dependent Commands:
------------------------
The commands WRAPATCR,CLEANUPDESC,DESCLIMIT and MULTILINEDESC can be applied
to particular areas. Simply put them before the area-definition(s) in the
filearea.ctl. And put them after the areas again (with a '-' added) to switch
them off again.
Example:
%TAG CLEANUPDESC
area 1
....
end
%TAG DESCLIMIT 40
area 2
...
end
%TAG CLEANUPDESC-
%TAG DESCLIMIT 1000
If WRAPATCR,CLEANUPDESC or MULTILINEDESC have already passed as Parameter this
has no effect as the Parameters apply globally. In the case of desclimit
the smaller value (of tagger.cfg or declared in .ctl) is taken.
You need to do a rescan after having changed the filearea.ctl.
New Language-File tokens (just as reference):
---------------------------------------------
filehelpline2 the second menu-line for the file-tagging menu
areahelpline2 the second menu-line for the area/group-selction menu
externtitle headline of the "spawning external-function" menu
externmsg message line of that extern-window :)
notallowed The message displayed here will be displayed to users
which try to tag a file which are they not allowed to
download
fm_filehelpline File-Manager equivalents to the Tagger-Menulines
fm_filehelpline2 simply use your current language file or none
fm_filemenu Tagger will then default on english menues in File-
fm_areahelpline Manager mode.
fm_areahelpline2
fm_areamenu
Some little other Features:
---------------------------
beta/6:
A new Command in the AreaMenu now allows direct Global Search without
having to select Allfiles first.
In Local Mode OffTag now automagically adjusts to the screensize currently
set.
In Warp you can set many different screensizes for OS/2
Windows. Try out a Mode co120,40 (in a window) ;-).
It's faster, did you remark it ?
The Parameter NOFILESDAT should be redundant now. If the tagger does not
find a files.dat for a file area he will automatically try to add size and
date from the file-system.
AVATAR is now supported. The support is quite basic, yet.
The com-port treatment has been changed it should do a better job now on high
speed connects (like the german 64kbit ISDN) now. (i hope at least it does :)
In the language-files the Space-Character can now be used to disable
Menu Keys.
This all is preliminary. If you encounter problems and/or errors with OffTag
please mail me:
Fido: Internet:
Michael Mrosowski 2:240/5022.1 lagaffe@offline.sh.sub.de