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ROMDOOR v1.00 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CD-ROM Door for Wildcat v3.0x Systems Copyright (C) 1992 by Jeff Bisson TABLE OF CONTENTS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── What is RomDoor .................................. 2 Copyright ........................................ 2 Liability ........................................ 2-3 Files included in the archive .................... 4 Setting up RomDoor with Wildcat 3.x .............. 4-8 Common Asked Questions ........................... 8 Command Line parameters .......................... 9 Registration ..................................... 9 Special Thanks ................................... 9 Problems, comments, and future versions .......... 10 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── [Page 2, RomDoor v1.00] WHAT IS ROMDOOR? ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor is an online program which allows access to CD-ROMs and their vast storage capablities. It offers: ■ The ablity to run from 1-25 CD-ROMs, max of 2 in the non-registered version ■ Up to 1000 file areas ■ Provides a seamless interface with WildCat! ■ No need for 0 byte files ■ It offers all the features of the WC! file section including: ■ Text searchs ■ File viewing (Provided you have an archive viewing program such as DataView) ■ Downloading with internal and external protocols ■ It has an online statistics screen with the total files, bytes and downloads each file area ■ RomDoor keeps it's own database, unlike most CD-Rom doors ■ RomDoor allows the user to make file listings ON-LINE of specific file areas, I.E. list the files to a text file which they can later download ■ RomDoor supports baud rates up to 115,000, as well as non-standard base addresses and IRQs ■ RomDoor does full carrier detection, inactivity checking, ratio checking, and increments the users total downloads, etc. Give RomDoor a try, your users (and you!) will appreciate it! COPYRIGHT ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor (Version 1.0) is distributed under the Shareware concept. You are granted a limited license to use and share it under the following conditions: ■ RomDoor is not distributed in a modified form. ■ No fee is charged for RomDoor itself. ■ All references to the copyright and author are retained. There is a small fee for this program. Please read the registration section. This program is: Copyright (c) 1992, Jeff S. Bisson, All Rights Reserved. LIABILITY ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Normally, software distributed through bulletin boards systems or shared from one user to another does not carry a warranty, mainly because the author does not have control over the product and the program can be modified either intentionally or accidentally without the author's knowledge. [Page 3, RomDoor v1.00] With that in mind RomDoor has a limited warranty if you receive it directly from the author. If the program was not received directly from the author then there is a chance that the the documentation or the program itself of having been modified. In that case there is no warranty, and the author will not be liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special or consequential arising from a failure of this program to operate in the manner desired by the user. The author will not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by use of the program. - What is covered: The RomDoor program will perform substantially as described in this document. In addition, while the program may contain minor bugs or errors, it is warranted to be free of major defects for a period of six months. Diskettes received from the author are guaranteed to be free or defects for a period of six months from date of receipt. - What is not covered: The author will not be liable for incidental and/or consequential damages, including injury to property, interruption of service, loss of business and/or anticipated profits, or other consequential damages that may result from use, malfunction or failure of the RomDoor program, or from errors or omissions in the documentation. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation may not apply to you. Any attempt to modify the RomDoor program will void this warranty in its entirety. - If there is a problem: Within 60 days of notification that a major defect exists, the author, at his discretion, will either fix the program and forward the replacement at no cost to the registered user, or will refund the registration fee. Defective diskettes will be replaced within 60 days at no cost to the purchaser. - How to get service: Send a written letter to the author detailing the type of problem and symptoms experienced. Include your name, address, voice phone number and registration number and any additional information that you believe may be useful, such as any TSRs and disk cache programs in use. The author may contact you by voice or written letter for more information to help in tracking down the problem. When trying new software, always backup any and all important files on your system. [Page 4, RomDoor v1.00] FILES INCLUDED IN THE ARCHIVE ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ ROMDOOR.DOC │ RomDoor documentation, you are reading it! │ ROMDOOR.EXE │ RomDoor program and configuration. │ SAMPLE.BAT │ Sample door batch file for WildCat 3.0x systems. │ ROMDOOR.HLP │ Help file for MakeRom, DirToDat, and WC2Rom. │ ONLINE.HLP │ Online help file for RomDoor. │ REGISTER.DOC │ Registration Information and form for RomDoor v1.00. │ DIRTODAT.EXE │ Imports text files into your RomDoor database. │ MAKEROM.EXE │ Configuration program for RomDoor. │ WC2ROM.EXE │ Moves file areas from WC! to RomDoor's file database. │ Press F1 in program for info on it's use. SETTING UP ROMDOOR WITH WILDCAT 3.x ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor is quite easy to set up, although it can take some time to do everything correctly. The process is not hard, but it is quite repetitive. Over all it is worth the trouble. 1) Take a deep breath. 2) Extract the RomDoor archive somewhere on your hard drive. For ease of setting it up, put it in it's own subdirectory to keep the files out of your way. Print out these instructions because you will most likely be installing another CD-Rom into RomDoor in the future and you will need to know what to do. KEEP THIS FILE AS A REFERENCE! 3) With your CD-ROM came some text files listing the files that are on the CD-ROM. Put those somewhere where you will remember, you will need them later. Before you start importing the textfiles into the RomDoor database you have to tell RomDoor the format of the textfile i.e. location of the filename, date, and description. To do this I have included DIRTODAT to make it as easy as possible. To configure DIRTODAT you may type DIRTODAT CONFIG at the command line or press ALT-D inside MAKEROM. (* NOTE * EVERY textfile that you are going to import cannot have ANY blank lines or multiple line descriptions UNLESS a "|" character denotes the beginning of the description) [Page 5, RomDoor v1.00] Once inside DIRTODAT press: ■ INS to add a new record ■ Type in the name of one of the textfiles ■ You will then be prompted with a question asking you what name you want to identify the record with, for ease of remembering type in the CD-ROM's name. ■ Now you will be presented with a line (in the middle window) that comes from the text file. If the line is blank or doesn't have the correct information, read the NOTE above. ■ Follow the directions in the bottom window and press F10. ■ Exit DIRTODAT 4) If you are not already in MAKEROM, load it up. Press ALT-C to edit the CD-ROMs, enter the name of the CD-ROM then press TAB to enter the drive letter. Press F10 to save changes. 5) Next you have to enter the file area descriptions, area paths, and CD-ROM numbers in each file area. If you have DesqView then you are in luck, this process will be a lot easier. * Note about the paths: Since the CD-ROM's drive letter has already been designated, you do not need to include the drive letter when you type in the path. i.e. \GIF\NATURE instead of I:\GIF\NATURE. Hopefully your CD-ROM disk came with a textfile that lists the area name and path, you will be using this to enter the correct information in the file areas. If you don't have DesqView then you have to manually go through the file areas entering the name, paths and CD-ROM number in every file area. If you do have DesqView then what you should do is mark the text from the textfile i.e. the file area names and paths. Transfer this information into MakeRom; this makes the process close to automatic. If you need some help on the process read on, if you can figure it out move on to step 6. ■ Have MAKEROM and DOS loaded in two different windows. Use any text file viewer, LIST.COM will do, to view the text file that lists the file areas and paths. ■ Switch to the window which contains your text file. Then Mark the text in the textfile. Press: ■ The DV key to get to the DV menu. ■ M for mark and move the cursor to where the file area name begins. ■ B to begin marking and move the cursor so that all the file area names are marked. (*NOTE* DV will only allow you to do one screen at a time) ■ ENTER to mark the text. ■ Switch to MakeRom. ■ Move to the file area that you want to start with and press ENTER. ■ Start at the file area name field and press the DV Key. ■ T for transfer, and T once more to transfer the first line. [Page 6, RomDoor v1.00] ■ Now you need to tell DV the keys to execute between each line you transfer. ■ F10 to save the record. ■ The Right arrow to move to the next area. ■ ENTER to edit that area. ■ Now you are ready to tell DV to transfer the rest of the data. ■ The DV Key, T for transfer and R for the Rest of the data. Once you have the file area names in the correct fields continue with the rest of the data. It may seem like a complicated process but it really isn't that hard, just read carefully. (*NOTE* Don't forget about the CD-Rom number, you have to set that for EACH area that you are planning to import) Before going onto the next step make sure that: The file areas have names, correct paths, and have been assigned to a CD-ROM, via CD-ROM Number. 6) Next press ALT-O, you will be presented with a menu that shows you five different fields: Network: If you are running off of a network then change this to either SHARE or NOVELL, this should be the same as in MAKEWILD. Default NONET. Flow Control: Here are some guidelines on choosing flow control: If you are running a high speed modem, or an error correcting modem, then choose "Hardware Flow Control, (CTS/RTS)". If you have a standard 2400 or an (ouch) 1200 bps modem, then choose "No Flow Control". Other options are available, such as "Software Flow Control, (Xon/Xoff)" as well as "Both Hardware and Software flow control", but they are rarely used. DataBase Path: The directory that contains ROM.DAT and ROM.IX, if left blank RomDoor will default to the current directory. Default Extension: This is the default file extension that will be used when a download is requested, provided a file without an extension is not located. External Protocols: This reads in the external protocols that you have specified in MakeWild and allows you to select which ones will be offered from RomDoor. Don't put any two-way protocols i.e. BiModem or HsLink since RomDoor will not check for uploaded files and it may create problems. BBS ID: This is for the naming of the area listings that the user creates when they make a list. Enter the most significant letters of your boards name. I.E. Illusions enter in ILLUSION NOTE This feature is only available in the registered version of RomDoor. [Page 7, RomDoor v1.00] 7) The next step is to configure the security levels. To do this press ALT-S in MakeRom, you will be presented a list of the security levels that you have defined in MakeWild. Press ENTER on the security level to configure, you will see a list of the CD-ROMs that you have in RomDoor. Press the SPACE BAR to toggle whether that security level has access to that specific CD-ROM. You can also change the access to the certain file areas by pressing the TAB key. You will now be presented a list of all the RomDoor file areas. Just press the SPACE BAR to toggle the access. Press F10 to save changes. 8) Now you are ready to start importing. Go to the file area you are going to import into and press ALT-I. You will be asked for a file name; enter the name of the textfile that contains the file information for that area. You will then be asked for the Directory Setup Number, which is the number of the text file information that you entered in DIRTODAT. If you are unsure of the number press F2 to get a picklist and select the correct setup number. Press "Y"es if the information in the box is correct. Now MakeRom should be importing the files into the RomDoor database. Repeat this step for all of the file areas on this disk. If you make a mistake you can press ALT-R to remove the area that you are on. 9) Repeat steps 3-8 for every CD-ROM that you are importing into RomDoor. *** IMPORTANT *** Back up the RomDoor database (ROM.DAT, ROM.IX & ROMAREAS.DAT) after each CD-ROM just in case... 10) Next, exit the configuration program and setup your door batch file. An example is included in the file SAMPLE.BAT. This batch file should change to the directory that RomDoor is located in, and then execute RomDoor with no command line parameters. It should look something like this: SET CDSONLINE = 1 CD\ROMDOOR ROMDOOR Its that simple! You may be wondering "what is SET CDSONLINE = 1"? This tells RomDoor which CDs are currently online. This allows you to have multiple CDs for only one CD-ROM drive. Valid settings for CDSONLINE are: # i.e. 1 or 2 #, # i.e. 1, 2, 3 or 1, 3, 5 #-# i.e. 1-3 or 1-4 or 5-25 Or any such combinations. If you are getting an error when you call this batch file from WC! such as "Out of Environment Space" put a SET CDSONLINE= line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, the problem is that DOS won't allocate any memory for environmental variables from a shell. You can still change the CDSONLINE enviromental variable from the DOOR# batch file, but you can't make a new environmental variable in a shell. [Page 8, RomDoor v1.00] 11) Don't forget to configure WildCat! for the new door. You will need to load MakeWild and make sure there is a door number available. Lets say this is door #3. The sample batch file that you made in step #6 would be called DOOR3.BAT and would be located in your home directory (i.e. C:\WC30). RomDoor will also run from a DOS HOOK from any of the menus, i.e. from the file menu the batch file would be FILE1.BAT or FILE2.BAT. 12) You may now exhale, you are done! Give RomDoor a test drive to make sure everything is working correctly. COMMON ASKED QUESTIONS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Question: I have imported the files into the database and setup the files areas. But when I go into RomDoor I can't see the file areas. Answer: There are a two possible reasons why you are have this problem. 1) Check to make sure that you have given your security level access to those file areas. NOTE to give a security level access to a CD-ROM make sure that the correct CD-ROM Number is in the filearea records. Then press ALT-S, and select the security level to change by pressing ENTER. Move to the CD-ROM in question and press the SPACE BAR to tag it. Just in case, press TAB and check to make sure that the fileareas on that CD-ROM were tagged. 2) The environmental variable CDSONLINE needs to be changed. Check what the environmental variable is set by loading up RomDoor and pressing F9, look at the bottom of the info screen on the left and it should say what it is set at. If the CD-ROM in question is not included then that is the problem. Question: Users are having problems downloading, they keep getting CRC errors. Answer: If you have a high speed modem (9600+) then you need to set the flow control to CTS/RTS. Question: I changed a security level in MakeWild! but RomDoor doesn't seem to know that I changed it. Answer: Whenever you changed a security level in WC! you need to make sure you load up MakeRom and update the security file. To do this press ALT-S, and then ALT-U for update. [Page 9, RomDoor v1.00] COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor has two command line parameters: LOCAL and NOLOG Using LOCAL will tell RomDoor that you are running it from the command line and not to look for the DOOR.SYS and USERINFO.DAT files. RomDoor will get the sysop's name from MAKEWILD.DAT, will get your security level from the ALLUSERS.DAT, and it will give you 5 hours. Using NOLOG will tell RomDoor that you do not want it to create a log file. Normally RomDoor creates a file called RDOOR##.LOG in the directory that you execute RomDoor from, using this parameter nullifys this action. Here are examples: ROMDOOR LOCAL ; Run RomDoor in local mode. ROMDOOR NOLOG ; Run RomDoor with out making a RDOOR##.LOG file. REGISTRATION ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Why should you register? First of all you should register if you like RomDoor and plan to keep it on your system. You must register if you use RomDoor for more then the 30 day trial period. Registration allows you free upgrades to most future versions, major upgrades that involve substantial changes may require a nominal fee. All future version will be available on the boards listed on the next page. With registration you will also get additional programs such as ROMEDIT, ROMCHK, and FIXROM (Descriptions are located in REGISTER.DOC). You will also have the ability to create your own menus for use with RomDoor using ANSI. For the larger boards, you will be able to offer up to 25 CD-ROMs. Unregistered versions are limited to two. You will also give the user the ability to create textfile listings ON-LINE. SPECIAL THANKS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── First of all I would like to thank Ralph Maya who helped me test out RomDoor through all of it's problems. It was not an easy task. He has given me so many suggestions to make the program better, and a lot of the program's design and function wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Ralph. Second I would like to thank John Choi of Infinite Data Source for suggesting RomDoor as a program to write and for giving me suggestions along the way. Lastly I want to thank Jim Metzler for his help in making the documentation better and easier to read. [Page 10, RomDoor v1.00] PROBLEMS, COMMENTS & FUTURE VERSIONS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you have any problems with RomDoor, you can contact me on: Illusions BBS, SysOp Ralph Maya Node 1: (703) 641-0173 Dual Standard 14.4K HST, v.32 9600 Node 2: (703) 641-9218 2400 Data Connection BBS, SysOp Ryan Cramer Node 1: (703) 506-8598 v.32 9600 Infinate Data Source, SysOp John Choi (703) 642-8704 2400/9600 CompuCom (703) 642-9882 9600 v.32 (703) 642-9884 Dual Standard 14.4K HST, 14.4K v.32bis You may also reach me voice. (703) 821-3776 Or you can send me a message in the WC! conference on RIME. If all else fails. Try this: Jeff Bisson 8210 Hunting Hill Lane McLean, VA 22102 The current version of RomDoor will always be on BBS's listed above as well as WildCat! HQ.