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ROMDOOR v1.10 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CD-ROM Door for Wildcat v3.x and PcBoard 14.5 Systems Copyright (C) 1992 by Jeff Bisson TABLE OF CONTENTS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Setting up RomDoor ............................... 2-8 Extra notes about use with Wildcat 3.5x .......... 8 Extra notes about use with PcBoard 14.5 .......... 8 Adding comments to Zips .......................... 8 Setting up groups ................................ 8-9 Common Asked Questions ........................... 9 Command Line parameters .......................... 9-10 Registration ..................................... 10 Special Thanks ................................... 10 Problems, comments, and future versions .......... 11 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── [Page 2, RomDoor v1.10] SETTING UP ROMDOOR ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 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. STEP #1 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Take a deep breath. STEP #2 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Make a NEW directory for Romdoor ■ Extract the RomDoor archive into this new directory. ■ At this time you might want to Print out these instructions for future reference. STEP #3 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Go to the Romdoor directory and type MAKEROM ■ MAKEROM will ask for the max fileareas (CDROM file areas) ■ A good number to start with is 150, you can always increase it later by pressing ALT-M. ■ Now press ALT-O... you are presented with a menu that shows the following Romdoor options: BBS Type: Defaults to Wildcat! Press the Space Bar if you are running PcBoard. Network: Defaults to NONET - If you are running multinode - change this to either SHARE or NOVELL, this should be the same as in MAKEWILD. 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. [Page 3, RomDoor v1.10] BBS Home Dir: Path to the main directory for your BBS program. For example (C:\WC30 for WildCat! systems) and (C:\PCB for PcBoard systems) 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 set any two-way protocols (BiModem or HsLink since RomDoor will not check for uploaded files and it may create problems. Note for PcBoard systems, Zmodem is filtered out because it is offered as an internal protocol in RomDoor. BBS ID: Enter the eight (or less) most significant letters of your boards name. I.E. For Illusions you would enter in ILLUSION. This is for the naming of the area listings that the user creates when they make a list to download from withing Romdoor. (* NOTE *) This feature is only available in the registered version of RomDoor, and is disabled if you leave this field blank. Copy Files To HD: If this is set to yes then when a user starts a download of a file, RomDoor will copy the file to the Node Work Dir and download the file from there, after the download it will delete the file. This is extremely useful for high traffic systems. Note: RomDoor is smart and will not attemt to copy the file if there is not enough disk space. If this happens, Romdoor will continue to allow downloads directly off the CD-ROM as if this field was set to "NO". Use Group Names: Set to "YES" if you want to group your file areas together I.E. Games, GIFs, Adult. This is extremely useful for the user if you have a multi-CD-ROM-drive system, because users don't have to wade through all the file areas each time the want to look for a specific type of file. Read "Setting up Groups" for more information on groups. [Page 4, RomDoor v1.10] Write to WC! Logs: Set this to "YES" if you want RomDoor to "log" to the Wildcat! activity logs. If this option is set to "NO", Romdoor will maintain its own activity logs in the Romdoor directory. PcBoard sysops should set this to "NO" since it will look for ACTIVITY.XXX. Later versions will support the PcBoard activity logs. Link with BBS: Set this to "NO" if you want to keep the security level information separate from your BBS's. For example if you want the user to have a 1:1 download ratio in RomDoor, but a 2:1 download ratio in your BBS, you would have to set this to "NO". If this is set to "YES" the file ratio and daily limit information is matched with your BBS settings when your press ALT-U from the Security Level Menu (ALT-S in MakeRom). ■ !!!! Now hit F10 to save your options !!!! STEP #4 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Now you are ready to start setting up your first CD-ROM. ■ Find the textfiles which listed the files that are on your CD-ROM and place those somewhere on your hard drive. You will need them later so remember where you put them. ■ 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 the DIRTODAT program to make it as easy as possible. ■ To run DIRTODAT you may type DIRTODAT CONFIG at the DOS command line or press ALT-D from inside MAKEROM. So, if you are still in MAKEROM, enter ALT-D. Once inside DIRTODAT press: ■ INS to add a new record. ■ Type in the name of one of the textfiles which came with the CD-ROM. ■ 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. ■ You will be presented with the first 6 lines from that textfile, you may move up and down in the textfile by using the up and down arrow keys. ■ You will notice the file name arrow which spans columns 1 to 12, if the location is incorrect move it using your arrow keys. [Page 5, RomDoor v1.10] ■ If the textfile has a file size field in it, then press INS and select "Size", a new arrow will appear which you may move. Place it directly under the file size field in the textfile. If there is a date field then press INS again and move the date arrow to the date field. Similarly do this with the "Description" arrow. Make sure the "Description" arrow starts at the beginning of the description field and ends at the end of the field Note you may move the arrows to 80 columns maximum. If you have a RBBS-IN-A-BOX style file listing there should be a area field, insert and move the "Area" arrow to the correct position. ■ Press F10 to save what you have done. ■ Exit DIRTODAT STEP #5 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ 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. (* NOTE *) If you want RomDoor to check volume labels then type in the volume label as the CD-ROM name, if the CD doesn't have a volume label then you will have to use the CDSONLINE environmental variable to tell RomDoor which CD-ROM drives are online. STEP #6 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Now you have to enter the file area descriptions, area paths, and CD-ROM numbers in each file area. * 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 use that to enter the correct information in the file areas. You have to manually go through the file areas entering the name, paths, CD-ROM number, & Group number in every file area. ■ 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 the CD-ROM Number field. [Page 6, RomDoor v1.10] STEP #7 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ 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, or for PcBoard sysops in PCBSETUP. ■ 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. STEP #8 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Now you are ready to start importing filenames and descriptions into the RomDoor documentation. ■ Go to the file area you are going to import into and press ALT-I. ■ In MakeRom move your cursor to the first area that you want to import. If the textfile that you are importing has multiple areas then DIRTODAT will increment the area number once it encounters a blank line. ■ 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 textfile information that you entered in DIRTODAT. At this point press F2 and select the corrent setup number. ■ Press "Y"es if you are importing a multi-area textfile. ■ Press "Y"es if the information in the box is correct. ■ Now MakeRom should be importing the files into the RomDoor database. If the description is longer than 40 characters it will word wrap it and add it to the next line. Up to 10 lines of description are imported per file. 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. [Page 7, RomDoor v1.10] STEP #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 importing each CD-ROM just in case you run into a problem. STEP #10 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Exit the configuration program and setup your door batch file. ■ An example is included in the file SAMPLE.BAT. ■ It should look something like this: SET CDSONLINE = 1 C:\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. SET CDSONLINE = 1 #, # : i.e. SET CDSONLINE = 1, 2, 3 or SET CDSONLINE = 1, 3, 5 #-# : i.e. SET CDSONLINE = 1-3 or SET CDSONLINE = 5-25 Or any such combinations. ■ If you are getting an error when you call this batch file from your BBS program (WildCat! or PcBoard) 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. STEP #11 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Configure WildCat! or PcBoard for the new door. ■ You will need to load MakeWild or PCBSETUP make sure there is a door number available. ■ (* NOTE TO WILDCAT SYSOPS *) 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. [Page 8, RomDoor v1.10] STEP #12 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── You may now exhale, you are done! Give RomDoor a test drive to make sure everything is working correctly. This can be done by logging on locally to your BBS or executing RomDoor from the command line by typing ROMDOOR LOCAL. EXTRA NOTES ABOUT USE WITH WILDCAT 3.5x ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor v1.10 works perfectly with WC! 3.5x. And requires no extra configuration. EXTRA NOTES ABOUT USE WITH PCBOARD 14.5 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor v1.10 works great with PcBoard 14.5. Inside PCBSETUP make sure that you have said that RomDoor uses the DOOR.SYS, other than that it requires no extra configuration with PcBoard. ADDING COMMENTS TO ZIPS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── To add a comment to a ZIP file, such as an ad for your BBS. Create a textfile named ROMDOOR.CMT in your RomDoor directory. This file should be a textfile, and the first two lines should be blank for it to look right when the user unzips it. For this function to work you need to have the option COPY FILES TO HD set in MakeRom. This is done by entering MakeRom and hitting ALT-O, moving to that field and setting it to "Yes". SETTING UP GROUPS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── New to version 1.10, groups allow you (the sysop) to catagorize your file areas so that the user doesn't have to wade through hundreds of file areas to find something that he/she needs. To configure groups: ■ Load up MakeRom and press ALT-G. ■ This will pop up a screen where you can enter the group names'. Notice you may have up to 32 groups. ■ Type in a name for your first group. For example MUSIC or GRAPHICS. ■ Press F2 and select any fileareas that would fall under that catagory. [Page 9, RomDoor v1.10] ■ You may assign a filearea to multiple groups. ■ Once you have configured the names press F10 to save your changes. ■ Make sure that "Use Group Names" is set to "YES" in the Other Options Menu (ALT-O in MakeRom). 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. 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, and will get your security level from the ALLUSERS.DAT, and it will give you 5 hours. [Page 10, RomDoor v1.10] 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! Most importantly you will have access to download premade databases so that when you add a new CD-ROM disk to your board, you don't have to spend hours adding to the database!!! 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. Inaddition I would like to thank all my beta testers for helping me along the way, exspecially Ryan Cramer, and Peter Grillone. [Page 11, RomDoor v1.10] 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.