home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
BBS Toolkit
/
BBS Toolkit.iso
/
doors_2
/
pchat312.zip
/
PROCHAT.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-09-23
|
25KB
|
551 lines
////// ////// /// //// //// //// // //////
// // // // // // // // // // //// / // /
// // // // // // // // // // // //
///// ///// // // // /////// // // //
// // // // // // // // ////// //
// // // // // // // // // // // //
//// //// // /// //// //// //// // // ////
//// //
// // ///
// //
/// //
// //
// // // //
//// // ////
Documentation for ProChat 3.1 beta 2
INTRODUCTION
------------
Welcome to ProChat! For those of you that do not already know
what ProChat is, you have been missing out! Simply put, ProChat is
a replacement door for PCBoard 14.5's CHAT or NODE function
commands. It allows quite a bit more flexibility with the CB
system, and is currently enjoyed by hundreds of PCBoard systems
internationally!
If you do not run a multi-node PCBoard system, this door is of
no use to you. If you are running a non-PCBoard system, the door
will not work even with the most sophisticated of door conversion
utilities because ProChat takes full advantage of many of PCBoard's
internal data structures (namely the node status data file that is
maintained constantly by PCBoard while other callers are online)
GETTING STARTED
---------------
Getting ProChat up and running is not a difficult task and
should not take any more than about 10 or 15 minutes of your time.
Even if it does take more, it will be well worth it. Should you
decide to customize ProChat to make it seem a part of PCBoard, it
will take you a bit longer. However, care has been taken to mimic
PCBoard as much as possible.
First off, make ProChat it's own directory. Place the
contents of the ProChat .ZIP file into this directory. There is no
need to make multiple configuration files for each node on your
system. There is no node-specific information stored in the main
configuration file.
To create a configuration file (or at least modify the one
that is included with the distribution files), run the setup
program. Type SETUP <config filename>, where <config filename> is
the name of the configuration file you wish to create/modify. A
default one has been supplied for you (PROCHAT.CNF) Even if you
decide to use the default configuration file, you must run setup to
modify the paths and filenames to point to the appropriate
locations on your hard drive. The setup program is outlined in
detail in the next section of the documentation.
Next, create a batch file to run ProChat. Since ProChat is
based on ProKit, you may be familiar with the format for the batch
files to load a ProKit door. An example batch file for ProChat is
below:
@echo off
c:
cd\prochat
prochat prochat.cnf c:\pcb1
cd\pcb1
if exist event.bat event
node1 <-- command to reload your system
Last, but not least, modify your doors.lst file in PCBoard to
reflect the addition of your new door. A common name to give the
batch file is just CB, that way users can just type CB at the main
PCBoard menu and drop right into ProChat. Don't forget to modify
your doors menu file so that your users know that it is there!
To go a step further, you may wish to modify your PCBTEXT
file(s). ProChat allows users to page others in PCBoard. In order
to do this, some changes are needed for your PCBTEXT file to let
users know that they are being paged to go into ProChat and not the
built in CHAT facility inside PCBoard. Below is a list of record
numbers you may wish to modify and what you may to change them to.
If you are running ProChat in /X mode (using USERNET.XXX instead of
USERNET.DAT), you may decide not to modify your PCBTEXT file
because ProChat takes advantage of the new BR command to notify
users of a ProChat chat request.
225: " wants you in ProChat, @FIRST@."
226: "To respond, at the main Command line enter CB."
227: "Node CHAT: (U)navailable, (Enter)=no change?"
228: "Node CHAT: (A)vailable, (Enter)=no change?"
311: "CHATTING in ProChat"
Please also note that you should not raise the security on the
CHAT command in PCBSetup. Doing so will prevent users from paging
others inside of PCBoard from ProChat.
THE SETUP PROGRAM
-----------------
The setup program was included with ProChat for a couple of
reasons. Most importantly being the fact that ProChat stores
configuration information in binary format. It was also included
to make your life a little bit easier in setting up the system.
When you run setup, you can place the name of the
configuration file on the command line. If you do not place the
filename on the command line, you will be prompted for a filename
for the configuration file when setup loads.
The setup program is fairly easy to use and is pretty much
self-explanatory. This section will outline the use of the
program. There are basically four different types of fields that
can be modified. They are strings, numbers, toggles, and lists.
If you press the F2 key at any input field, you will be toggled
between the general setup screen and the security level setup
screen.
When editing strings, the field is automatically formatted to
uppercase, lowercase, mixed, or none for you. Use the right and
left arrow keys to move the cursor around the field, backspace and
delete to remove text, home to go to the beginning of the field,
end to go to the end of the field, and insert to insert text.
Pressing ctrl-end will delete from the cursor to the end of the
field. If you press ctrl-left or ctrl-right, the cursor will move
one word to the left or to the right.
When editing numbers, use the right and left arrow keys to
move around the field, backspace and delete to delete, home to go
to the beginning of the field, and end to go to the end of the
field. Pressing ctrl-end will delete from the cursor to the end of
the field. If you enter a value that is out of range, you will not
be able to move to another field until a valid value is entered.
When editing toggles, pressing the space bar will toggle from
yes to no and vice-versa. If you press 'y', it will switch to yes,
and if you press 'n', it will switch to no.
When editing lists, there are a couple of stages. The first
stage is when you first move onto the field, and the field is high-
lighted. Pressing the space bar or enter will cause a window with
a list in it to pop up. This is stage two. Use the up and down
arrow keys to move through the list and press enter to choose the
item you want to set the field to. If you press ESC while in stage
two, any changes to the field will be aborted. If you pressed
enter to pop up the window, when a selection is made, you will be
moved down to the next field, otherwise you will be back at stage
one on the same field.
When you are editing any one of the four types of fields, you
always have the option of exiting the program (and saving any
changes made) by pressing the ESC key. If you press tab, enter, or
the down arrow, you will be moved on to the next field. If you
press shift-tab or the up arrow, you will be moved back to the
previous field.
SETUP PAGE 1
------------
PCBoard node information file This is the full path and name of
your usernet.dat file (or usernet.xxx file). This file is
maintained by PCBoard to determine who is online and to send chat
requests to other nodes. This must be the same for all nodes.
ProChat node information file This is the full path and name of
the file used by ProChat to determine who is online, what channel
the caller is on, etc. This file is created and maintained by
ProChat itself. No intervention on your part is required. This
must be the same for all nodes.
ProChat chat data file This is the full path and name of the
file used by ProChat to relay messages between the callers in
ProChat. This file is created and maintained by ProChat itself.
You should delete it every so often because it can grow quite large
in size. I recommend that you delete this file while no one is in
ProChat, however you may delete it while callers are in ProChat
without a problem. This must be the same for all nodes.
ProChat channel data file This is the full path and name of the
file used by ProChat to maintain a list of currently active
channels and squelch values. This file is created and maintained
by ProChat itself. No intervention on your part is required. This
must be the same for all nodes.
Bad Handle Trashcan file This is the full path and name of the
file that restrict names that may be used for handles. This file
is a straight ascii file that contains a list of names that you may
not want users to use for a handle (ie Sysop, etc) If you place an
asterisk (*) in the first column on a line followed by some text,
the text will not be allowed in a handle (ie *Sysop would not allow
a caller to use _Sysop_ or anything with the text 'Sysop' in it)
Caller Help Display file This is the full path and name of the
file that is displayed to a caller when the /HE command is executed
in ProChat. Both ascii and ansi versions may be used (ie HELP and
HELPG)
ProChat Entrance display file This is the full path and name of
the file that is displayed to a caller when he/she enters ProChat.
This is an optional file. Both ascii and ansi versions may be
used.
Registered To This field should not be filled in if you have not
registered ProChat. If you have registered ProChat, simply place
the name of your BBS as you have it registered with me in this
field. It is case sensitive. Make sure that there are no leading
or trailing spaces in this field, otherwise ProChat will run as
unregistered.
Registration # This field should not be filled in if you have
not registered ProChat. If you have registered ProChat, simply
place the registration number that I have given you in this field.
Driver Type This list-type field allows you to choose between
BIOS and INTERRUPT for communications. This is the same as the
first line in any ProKit configuration file. Choose interrupt for
starters. If you have problems, try using bios.
PCBoard Version This field is extremely important. In this
field, place either "/Exx", "/U", or "/Xxx" where xx is the number
of nodes. By placing "/U", the system will default to 99 nodes.
If you are running PCBoard with the new usernet.xxx format, you
must place "/Xxx" in this field with xx being the number of nodes
you have online. Should you add an additional node to your system,
you must remember to update this field, otherwise ProChat will not
recognize the new node(s).
Number of channels This is the number of channels available.
ProChat is limited to 65535 channels. However, no more than about
100 should ever be necessary, and in most instances, no more than
about 10 are needed. You must have at least 1 channel set up in
this field.
Default Channel This is the channel that ProChat should place a
caller into when the caller first enters CB. Normally this would
be channel 1. You may configure the system to enter users into
another channel depending upon the conference the user entered
from, etc.
Default Squelch This is the squelch that ProChat should place a
caller into when the caller first enters CB. Normally this would
be blank for public chat. Any string up to 12 characters in length
may be placed in this field. It is not case sensitive.
Time Warning Frequency Due to a bug in ProKit, I implemented
this to notify users every so often of how much time is remaining.
You may disable this completely by entering 0. Any other value
will cause a message to be displayed to the user every xx minutes
telling the caller how much time he or she has remaining for the
call. xx is the number you place in this field.
Allow use of handles If you do not wish to allow handles to be
used in chat, the caller's first name will be used instead. If
this field is set to no, the /HA command will not be allowed
regardless of the security level you have placed on it. If this
flag is set to yes, upon entering ProChat, the caller will be asked
for a handle to use with their first name being the default.
Handles are limited to 12 characters in length.
Allow duplicate handles If this field is set to yes, ProChat
will allow users to use the same handle as someone on another node.
For instance, if the caller on node 1 was using the handle "The
Doctor", a caller on node 2 could also use the handle "The Doctor".
If this field is set to no, ProChat will not allow users to use the
same handle as someone else.
Use fast message check method ProChat checks it's data files for
incoming messages once every 5 seconds. If this field is set to
yes, ProChat will still check every 5 seconds, only if the user has
nothing typed on his/her input line. If this field is set to no,
ProChat will check every 5 seconds, whether or not the user has
anything typed on his/her input line. Setting this field to yes
will speed the system up, however slow typists may fall behind in
receiving incoming messages.
Allow paging in PCBoard If this field is set to no, ProChat will
not allow users to page another user that is in PCBoard. If this
field is set to yes, ProChat will send a chat request to a user in
PCBoard if the caller requests it to be sent.
Allow paging in ProChat If this field is set to no, ProChat will
not allow users to page other users that are also in ProChat. This
was added as a prevention for "death paging" where one user could
send countless page requests to another user in ProChat. If this
field is set to yes, ProChat will allow users to page others in
ProChat.
Show private messages to sysop If this field is set to yes, the
Sysop (if in ProChat) will receive the private messages from all
users. If this field is set to no, only the addressee will receive
the private message sent from someone.
Display city in node scan This is the same option as found in
PCBSetup. The reason it is here too is because ProKit does not
provide a link to this option in PCBoard (and I was just plain too
lazy to reread the pcboard.dat file)
SETUP PAGE 2
------------
The second page in setup is nothing more than a list of all of
the commands available to users in ProChat and a security level
attached to each. To switch back to page 1, press the F2 key.
PROCHAT COMMANDS
----------------
/AC - Perform action command This command allows users to show
emotion to other users. The messages come across to other nodes
without the tradition incoming message header ("(channel, handle)
message"). Instead the come across in the format of "handle
message". Incoming action messages are also displayed in a
different color (in ansi mode) from normal incoming messages.
/AD - Adjust time left This command should be available to
Sysops only. With this command, you may adjust the time left of a
caller on another node in ProChat. By selecting a negative adjust
value, time will be reduced, and a positive adjust value will
increase time remaining. The caller to be adjusted must be in
ProChat. You cannot adjust your own time limit.
/AN - Ansi mode toggle This command is exactly like the PCBoard
main board command M (display mode change). It toggles between
ansi and non-ansi modes.
/AV - Page availability toggle This command allows users to
toggle whether or not they want to receive ProChat page requests.
ProChat never displays a page request from PCBoard (since PCBoard
will not send a page request to a caller with a Group chat status).
If the user selects unavailable, other callers will be notified
when they attempt to page the user. The default availability
setting is to available.
/CH - Change active channel Allows users to switch among
channels within the limit you have set up in ProChat. When
changing the channel, other users will be notified that the user
has switched out, and the users chatting on the new channel will be
notified that the user has switched in.
/FR - Frequency node scan Displays to the user a list of other
users that are chatting on the same channel with the same squelch
value of the user.
/GO - Goodbye Logs the user off of the system. Other users will
be notified that the user has been disconnected.
/HA - Change handle Allows the user to change his or her handle
as shown to other users with incoming messages. If you have chosen
to not allow handles in setup, this command will not execute.
/IG - Set Ignore handle Allows users to create and maintain a
list of handles that they do not want to receive incoming messages
from. If a message comes through from a handle the user has chosen
to ignore, it is ignored and no action is taken. If the user
chooses a handle that is already being ignored, ignore status will
be removed from that handle. If the handle being ignored changes,
incoming messages will once again come through since ProChat only
looks at the handle text that it is coming from. Users may create
a list of up to 20 handles to ignore. Once the user exits ProChat,
the list is destroyed.
/MO - Set channel monitors Allows users to monitor incoming
messages from channels other than the one he/she is chatting on.
Users may also choose squelch values for the channels chatting on.
A list of up to 10 different monitors (channel and squelch
combinations) may be maintained.
/NO - ProChat node scan Displays to the user a list of users
that are in ProChat. It tells the user what channel the user is
chatting on, what their handle and real name is, and what speed the
user is connected at (ie 2400bps)
/PA - Page user for chat Allows the user to send a chat request
to another user. There are three different methods that ProChat
may use to page the caller. If the caller is in ProChat, ProChat
will send a page request notifying the caller of the channel and
squelch value that the paging user is chatting with. If the caller
is in PCBoard and the new usernet.xxx format is being used, the
caller in PCBoard will receive a broadcast message telling the user
that he or she is wanted in ProChat. If the caller is in PCBoard,
but the old usernet.dat format is being used, the caller in PCBoard
will be paged in the traditional PCBoard style. In which case, the
PCBTEXT lines mentioned earlier in the document would have to be
modified for the caller to know to go into ProChat.
/PC - PCBoard node scan Displays to the caller a list of all
callers on the system and their current activity status. It is
equivalent to the PCBoard WH and 11 commands.
/RE - Log user off system This command should be available to
Sysop level users only. This operates in a similar fashion to the
PCBoard 12 command. The only difference being the user must be in
ProChat for it to work.
/SE - Send private message Allows the user to send a message to
another user in ProChat no matter what channel or squelch value
either is using. Only the addressee will receive the message. If
the Sysop is in ProChat and has chosen to receive private messages,
the Sysop will also see the message being sent. When received, the
addressee will receive a beep and be notified that it is a private
message.
/SQ - Change squelch value Allows the user to change his or her
squelch value. A squelch value is used to establish private
communication with one or more users on other nodes. If the user
has his/her squelch set to blank, he or she is considered to be in
public chat mode.
/TI - Time statistics Displays to the caller the number of
minutes used and number of minutes remaining for him/her for this
call.
/WH - Who else is chatting Displays a list of callers that are
chatting with the same channel and squelch settings as the user.
This command is different from the /FR command because it displays
in sentence format the handles that the user is chatting with (ie
"You are chatting with no one." or "You are chatting with Sysop,
Mary, John.")
TROUBLE SHOOTING
----------------
Problem: Users are not receiving any form of messages from other
users.
Solution: Make sure that all of the data files labels in the setup
section as "Must be the same for all nodes" are the same
for all nodes.
Problem: Users are receiving "Nobody is listening on this channel"
messages when there are other users with the same chat
settings (channel, squelch).
Solution: Delete your channels.dat file and start ProChat up again.
REGISTRATION
------------
ProChat is not crippled in any way. The only difference
between the registered and unregistered versions of ProChat is that
the unregistered version displays unregistered messages to the
caller. When registered, ProChat will proudly display the name of
your bulletin board as it is registered to.
Registration for ProChat is cheap and simple. When I receive
your registration request in the mail, I will call your system and
leave a message with your registration information in it. The
registration fee for prochat is a base of $25. If you run a system
larger than 5 nodes, please add (to the $25) $5 for each additional
node (ie 8 nodes would be $25 + ($5 * 3) = $40) Please send check
or money order only. If you are registering from outside the US
(ie Canada, or some other foreign country), please add an
additional $5 for processing. Thank you!
SUPPORT
-------
At present, I am away at college and am not running a
bulletin board. The best way to reach me would be on Springboard
BBS (401-232-0088) or Eagles Nest Communications (401-732-5292).
On Springboard, please address messages to "Fistandantilus". Thank
you!
I can be reached at the following address:
Bryant College
Student PO Box 2144
Smithfield, RI
02917
-- OR --
ProChat registration
c/o Matt Messier
3 Loring Drive
Lincoln, RI
02865
REGISTRATION FORM
-----------------
Your name ___________________________________________
BBS name (as to appear for "Registered To" field - max 40)
_______________________________________________________
BBS location _______________________________________
BBS Phone # ________________________________________
Account name to log on as (for me to give you your
registration information
_______________________________________________________
Account password ___________________________________
Your home phone # __________________________________
Street address _____________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Number of nodes online _____________________________
Quantity Amount
_____ $25 base fee __________
_____ (#) additional nodes (over 5) __________
_____ Foreign processing fee __________
Total enclosed __________
Signature ____________________________________________
Date _______________