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DoorMan Stats Grapher v3.00
Documentation
┌───────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ !! DESQView Users !!! │
│ │
│ This program uses direct screen │
│ writes! Make sure to tell DV │
│ when you set up a window for it. │
│ Under DV 2.41, the program will │
│ run fine in a 256k window. │
│ │
│ If you're running Wildcat, DO │
│ NOT attempt to shell from Wildcat │
│ to this program! It WILL cause │
│ problems. Simply open another │
│ window for it. │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────┘
OVERVIEW
DoorStat is a companion program to DoorMan. It is a utility to
read the DOORMAN.DAT file created by DoorMan and create Bar
Graphs based on the door usage data contained in it. Graphs can
be created and viewed in three different ways. First, users can
choose Graphs from within the door. This will allow them to
define and view as many graphs they want. Second, from the
Config Editor, which is built into the program, you can create
and view graphs. Lastly, the program can be run during nightly
maintenance to create/update up to 10 pre-defined graphs by
calling it with the config file. The program will create graphs
in ANSI, ASCII, and WildCat! 3.0 formats.
REQUIREMENTS
The program requires that it be placed in the same directory as
DoorMan so it may access the DoorMan data files.
It also requires that a DOORMAN.DAT file be present. This file
is created by DoorMan once a door is used. You, or a user, must
go into a door through DoorMan and stay there for AT LEAST one
minute before the file will be created. If you log on locally as
yourself, you must also make sure that you have the door your
going into set up to record Sysop Stats in DoorEdit.
SETUP
The first time you run DoorStat, you will be prompted for three
defaults. The program will only ask for these once, but you may
always change them from the Config File Editor. These defaults
are as follows:
Directory: This is the full path to your bulletins
directory. If the program is run with the
config file, this is where it is going to put
the graphs it creates.
Default ANSI Extension: The default extension to put on
ANSI bulletins.
Default ASCII Extension: The default extension to put on
ASCII bulletins.
Note: If you are running a WildCat! 3.0 system and choose
to create WildCat! 3.0 bulletins, then the last two
defaults don't mean anything. Anytime the program is
instructed to create a WildCat! 3.0 bulletin, it uses
.BBS as the extension.
Once you have defined these defaults, you will be given the
Config File Edit Menu.
CONFIG FILE EDIT MENU OPTIONS
The Config File Editor serves two purposes. First and foremost,
it is where you define the "pre-defined" bulletins to be created
during maintenance each night. However, by using the preview
option, it can also be used to experiment and to look at
statistics you may not want to use in your bulletins. No matter
which purpose you want to use it for, the same menu options
apply. Following are there descriptions.
VIEW CURRENT CONFIG
This option is pretty self-explanatory. When you choose it, you
are given the defaults you have defined in a box, and the list of
bulletins you have defined in the config file.
CHANGE DEFAULTS
Again, this one is pretty self-explanatory
ADD BULLETIN
This is the option you will undoubtedly use the most. This is
where you define the bulletins you want to preview and select the
ones you want to add to the config file. When you select this
option, the first thing you have to do is select a subject for
the bulletin. Below are your choices and an explanation of each:
Category: This will allow you to graph the activity of one
category over time, or, to create a graph
comparing the activity of ALL categories. When
you choose this option, you will be asked whether
you want One category or All. If you choose one,
then you will asked to choose which category
from a list.
Door: This will allow you to graph the activity of one door
over time, or, to compare the activity of ALL doors
in one category. When you choose this option, the
first thing you will be asked to do is to choose the
category the door(s) you want is/are in. Once you
have chosen a category from the list, you will be
prompted whether to use One door or All. If you
choose one, you will be shown the list of doors in
that category and asked to choose one.
Summary: This option allows you to graph the activity of
ALL doors over time.
Once you have chosen a subject for the graph, you must then
decide on what basis you want to compare/list the data. Your
choices are as follows:
Times Used: This will graph the activity of the subject
based on the number of times it was used.
Time in Door: This will graph the activity of the subject
based on the minutes of BBS time used.
OK, now that we have a subject and know what data to use, the
next step is to decide how much data to use. In other words,
define the scope of the bulletin. Your choices:
Day: Graphs the activity of the subject over one day broken
down hour. This is handy for finding out when the
best/worst time to call the BBS is if you want to play
a game. Once you have chosen this option, you will be
asked which day to display. You may choose any single
day during the month, -1 for yesterday's activity, 0
for today's activity, or A for ALL days activity. No
Month: Graphs the activity of the subject for a given month
broken down by day. Once you choose this option,
you will be prompted for the month. Simply enter
the 3 letter abbreviation, or Cur for this month.
On my system, this graph revealed a weekly cycle in
door usage. It may help your users better decide
what day to call during the week.
Total: Graphs the activity of the subject over the total
history available broken down by day. This is
limited to 60 days due to the size of the screen.
If there are more than 60 days of data present, the
program will get the data for the most recent 60
days. In other words, the graph will always
start with yesterday and go backwards up to 60 days.
Next, you will be prompted for a node number. This will allow
you to look at door usage on individual nodes, or All nodes.
Lastly, you will be prompted for the Security Level to use when
creating the graph. When a user creates a graph within the door,
their security level is used. However, when you create a graph
to be used for a bulletin, DoorStat has no way of knowing what
users will be viewing it. Therefore, you tell it what to do
here. The result will be the same as a user with this security
level creating a graph within the door. Then, you can decide
which users to show the bulletin to.
OK, now we have all the data needed to create the graph. At this
point, the program will as you if you want to preview the graph.
Say yes, and the program will go gather the data, create the
graph, and then show it to you. Once you're finished looking at
it, the program will ask you whether or not to add the bulletin
to the config file.
If you say Yes, then you will be prompted for the following Info:
FileName: This is the filename the program will use when
creating the bulletin. There is no need to put a
path or an extension since these are defined in
the defaults. The filename can be any valid DOS
filename.
Type: This can be ANSI, ASCII, Both, or WildCat! 3.0. Which
type you choose decides what type file(s) are created
when the program runs during maintenance.
REMOVE BULLETIN
Self explanatory. However, there is a "Hidden" feature. While
experimenting/testing/playing with the program, I found that I
kept adding a bunch of bulletins to the config file. I would end
up adding 10 bulletins, hitting the max, and not being able to
play anymore. So, I added a command to remove ALL the bulletins
in the file. When you are prompted which bulletin to remove,
simply enter A (not a) and Poof! all of them are gone!
QUIT
Hmmm? Wonder what that does?
Well, that about covers what the program does when run without a
config file. Now, for what it does with one. After you've
created one, you can call the program with it on the command line
like so:
DMGRAPH DMGRAPH.CFG
This will cause the program to automatically create the bulletins
you have defined. This is what you would do if you want to use
the program in nightly maintenance. What use is that if users
can create their own bulletins, you ask? Well, even though users
have that option, I have found that there are still some people
out there who will go to the bulletins menu and look at the
graphs but won't go into Graphs from the door. This option is
for those people. Also, it comes in handy for people who don't
play games at all but are interested in how the BBS is being
used.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
DMGraph is provided as an optional program with the DoorMan
package. No since making you pay a higher price for the package
if you don't want to make graphs. For this reason, it has its
own key and registration fee. Also, by doing it this way, you
can come back at some future date and register the utility. The
price of the utility alone is $20. However, if you register both
programs at once, you get the utility for $10. This only applies
if both programs are registered at the SAME time! If you
register DoorMan, then come back a day later and want to register
DMGraph, it will cost $20! Once you register, you will get a
non-expiring key which will be good for this and all future
versions of the program.
SUGGESTIONS?
As with all my programs, I feel that the end user should have the
final say in how a program operates. Therefore, if you don't
like something in the program or would like to see something
added, feel free to send me a suggestion! I will attempt to
implement any suggestion I get!