BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/gt_power/gtacs122.zip/GTACCESS.DOC

Text File | 1989-10-07 | 21KB | 454 lines

                 GTAccess! Sysop Automation Tool
       A Complement to GT Power 15.xx by P&M Software Co.

  Version 1.20 with the Super Indexing features of the GT+Plus Suite!

              Copyright (c) 1989: Jason Cory Wright
                                  TRC Development Group

                        October 7, 1989

v1.10+  Be sure that you have consolidated your ANSWERx.BBS file into a
ANSWERx.SAV file, and that no ANSWERx.BBS files exist in your GT directory.
If you have been using v1.05 of GTAccess, you will find that you need to
consolidate your answer files for each questionnaire into a ANSWERx.SAV file
(ANSWER1.BBS becomes ANSWER1.SAV, etc.).  For others, you may not have to
do anything but rename your ANSWER1.BBS to ANSWER1.SAV (and so on for each
questionnaire).

     GTAccess! was created to automate the upgrading,
notification and maintenance of users on the bulletin board
system.  It is intended for use in the GTLOGOFF.BAT file.
GTAccess! offers totally automatic message delivery,
user upgrading, and a comprehensive log file, all of which are
totally sysop definable.

     GTAccess! is compatible with 15.XX version of GT Power.  It
is a complement to the fine Host mode of GT Power Comm and is
meant to be a valuable time saver for sysops.

Just what is "Super Indexing"?
------------------------------
  Super Indexing is a feature unique to the group of programs that I
  have written.  GT Tracker, a free logon utility, is the backbone of
  the system.  GT Tracker can be obtained from almost any GT BBS under
  the name GTRCxxxx.ZIP or GTRACxxx.ZIP.  If you do not wish it to
  output anything, versions higher than 1.14 will have a silencer.
  GT Tracker writes pertinent information into a file, which if present,
  GTAccess! will sense its presence and will speed to the user's record
  and update he/she quite rapidly.  The GTGap (the ultimate in door
  conversions for GT) versions 1.50 and higher also have the Super
  Indexing feature to make everything run up to 300% faster.
  Registration is required for this bonus feature.

How does registering this program help me?
------------------------------------------
  Quite a interesting question indeed.  Would you like to remove the
  little "tag" line at the bottom of the message sent to the user?
  Would you like to be able to personalize your copy?  Would you like to
  remove the delay at the end of the program?  Would you like to use the
  Super Indexing feature of GTAccess?  If you answered yes to any of
  these questions, a registration of $10 is in order.  Sure, GTAccess is
  quite functional without registration.  You would not only be
  gaining much for yourself, but your registration fee will be applied
  to helping more utilities be developed and will express to me your
  thanks.  If you would simply print out the REGISTER.FRM file, or write
  the equivalent information in a letter to me and include $10 in any
  form, I will speed your registration code out to you once I receive
  your letter.


** BEFORE USING THIS VERSION, NAME YOUR ANSWERx.BBS FILES TO ANSWERx.SAV.
** You MUST do this, or you risk losing your ANSWER files.  In other words,
rename ANSWER1.BBS to ANSWER1.SAV, etc.  This is because v1.10 and above keeps
a 'master' questionnaire file called ANSWERx.SAV.  All of your valid
questionnaires will be placed in here.  (See end of this doc for more info)

Files in the GTAccess! Archive
------------------------------
     Included in the archive, no matter what form it was
compressed in, are the follow files necessary for operation:
     GTACCESS.EXE   - The main program
     GTACCESS.DOC   - The documentation you are reading now.
     README  .!!!   - Any last minute additions to the main docs.
     GTACCESS.CNF   - Sample of the Configuration file need for operation
     ACCESS1 .ALL   - Sample "All questions answered" letter
     ACCESS1 .SOM   - Sample "Some questions answered" letter
     ACCESS1 .NON   - Sample "No questions answered" letter
     REGISTER.FRM   - Registration Form
     DROPDTR1.EXE   - Drops user off before GTLOGOFF.BAT is over - COM1
     DROPDTR2.EXE   - Same as above - for use with COM2
All of these files will be explained in detail.


File Descriptions
-----------------
     DROPDTR1.EXE is included to literally drop DTR to disconnect the
caller before the batch file is over.  I use it in mine because my
GTLOGOFF.BAT file is quite lengthy and I would rather them not have to
wait to be disconnected.  Therefore, it is the first command in my
batch file.  It will only work with COM1: and I am including it because
it will benefit those who don't have it already with very little increase
in the size of the archive.  Run it by typing "DROPDTR1". DROPDTR2 is for
use with COM2.

     You will be creating and/or modifying the following files
with a standard ASCII text editor.  An example of each has been
included in the archive file, but you will definitely want to
change these and make your own as you set up GTAccess!


GTACCESS.CNF -   This is a text file with 8 lines and must
                 exist in your GTPATH.
   Line 1:  The name of your BBS.
            (Once you register, you will put the name as I give
            it to you here on line 1)
   Line 2:  Your registration number.  If you are
            unregistered, then place a 0 here.
   Line 3:  Public Message Base Path (for public annoucements made with opt 3.)
   Line 4:  Private Msg Base Path (for private user letters)
   Line 5:  Sysop Message Base Path (for msgs to sysops)
   Line 6:  LAN or NOLAN - meaning "I have a LAN" or "I don't" respectively
   Line 7:  Your Lan path or "NOPATH".  If you are not using a LAN, then be
            sure you put NOPATH here.  Otherwise, please put your LAN path here.
   Line 8:  Sysop's name

-> Be sure to include all 8 lines in your CNF file.  Otherwise GTAccess may not
   work like it should!  Lines 3-5 were placed there by request.  If you are
   using one message base for everything, you will still need to put in the
   same path 3 times.  You don't need to put trailing backslashes on the
   message base paths.  Just put them into the GTACCESS.CNF file just
   like they are in your GTMDIR.BBS file.  See the example GTACCESS.CNF file
   enclosed with the ZIP file. <-


ACCESSx.ALL -  (x denotes the # of the questionnaire.  e.g.
Questionnaire 2 would need ACCESS2.ALL.)
This is a sysop-definable text file that serves as the letter
that will be sent to the user if he answers the required number
of questions to questionnaire 'x'.

ACCESSx.SOM - This is a sysop-definable text file that functions
as the letter sent if the user answered some, but not all, of the
required number of questions to questionnaire 'x'.

ACCESSx.NON - This is a sysop-definable text file that serves as
the letter sent to the user when he has not answered
questionnaire 'x' at all.

Each questionnaire can have a set of those ACCESSx files.
Questionnaire 1 might have ACCESS1.ALL, ACCESS1.SOM, and
ACCESS1.NON or a combonation of any/all 3 according to how you want to
set up your message delivery.

** The first two lines of the ACCESSx files have special meanings
Line 1 is used to show who the message is from and is put in the
"From" area of the message.
Line 2 is the subject of the letter and will be placed in the
"Subject" field of the message.

If you leave the first two lines blank, default values will be
placed in the message - the sysop's name and "Questionnaire 'x'"
respectively.
** BE SURE that you don't start your actual letter until line 3!!


The Story behind GTAccess!
--------------------------
     In order for you to be able to get a clear picture of how
you want to set up GTAccess!, I am going to give you a
description, as best I can, of how GTAccess! works.  Examples
will follow at the end of the this file.

     GTAccess! first looks for the GTPATH environment variable
and then goes to work verifying that the files are there, and
then reading them for information.  It looks at GTACCESS.CNF to find
out if you are running on a Local Area Network, and to find the
location of your Sysop message base, and the default User message
base.  It also reads GTUSER.BBS and parses information.  It looks in
the USER.CTL file to find the user's account.  From there, it
compares the access level of the user to the access level you
started GTAccess! with (more on this later).  If the accesses are
found to be identical, the following decisions are made.

     1) The user didn't answer any of the questionnaire
     2) The user answered only some of the needed questions
     3) The user answered all of the questions

  PLEASE NOTE: Messages are sent only if you specify it on the
               command line AND if the messages exist.

     If the user did not answer any of the questionnaire, then,
IF it EXISTS, ACCESSx.NON will be sent to the user, the sysop
will receive a message informing him of the occurrence and the
log file will be updated.  No access levels will be changed

     If the user only answered some of the questionnaire, then,
IF it EXISTS, ACCESSx.SOM will be sent to the user, the sysop
will receive a message informing him of the occurrence and the
log file will be updated.  No access levels will be changed.

     If the user answered all of the required questions to the
questionnaire, then, IF it EXISTS, ACCESSx.ALL will be sent to
the user, his access level will be upgraded, you will be sent a
message informing you of the changes, and, if specified, a
broadcast message to ALL will be sent informing the other members
of the BBS that a new user has logged on.


How to invoke GTAccess!
-----------------------
     GTAccess! is started in the following form:

          GTACCESS a b c d
     OR-> GTACCESS a b c d e

You have to pass either four or five parameters to GTAccess!

  a - The number of the questionnaire file to use

  b - If the last caller had this access level, then
      questionnaire 'a' will be searched.

  c - This is the access level that the user will be upgraded to
      if they have filled out all of questionnaire 'a'.

ONE NOTE ABOUT Parameters 'b' and 'c':
     QuickBASIC was used to compile this program.  It
automatically changes everything on the command line to
uppercase.  Therefore, if you have an access level that is in
lowercase, you will need to put an exclamation mark before it.

For example:
  GTACCESS 1 !c t 3   or GTACCESS 1 !c T 3
will look for the last user on to have had a 'c' access.  It will
look at questionnaire 1, and upgrade them to level T if
everything was answered, plus do everything that option 3
designates.

     Therefore  GTACCESS 1 v s 3
is the SAME as: GTACCESS 1 V S 3

Again, if you wish to have GTAccess! look for lowercase levels,
then you need to precede them with an exclamation point (!).


  d - This is a number that defines how you wish to send messages


      0 - No messages will be sent.

      1 - Only a sysop message will be sent.

      2 - Both a private message to the user and a message to the
          sysop will be sent.

      3 - A private message to the user, a message to the sysop,
          and a message to ALL welcoming the new user will be sent.

      4 - A message will be sent to the sysop and the user ONLY
          if the ACCESSx.* file exists.  I found it necessary to include
          this option for this reason:

   I have a standard user access level (S) and a visiting sysop
access level (O).  I run GTAccess! twice in the GTLOGOFF.BAT
file.  Once to check for upgrading from V (Visitor-new user) to
S, and another time for checking from S to O.  The only problem
was that, since most all people are level S, and since the
visiting sysops answer both questionnaires, I was getting a
message EVERY time a standard user logged off without answering
questionnaire 2.  Therefore, I use option 4 and do not have a
ANSWER2.NON file present.  So, when GTAccess detects that a level
S user logged off without answering questionnaire 2, it can't
find the ACCESS2.NON file, so, using option 4, it doesn't send a
message at all.

     5 - ONLY the sysop will get a message ONLY if ALL the
         questions were answered.  (ACCESSx.ALL need not be present)

     6 - Only the user will get a private message, ONLY if the
         appropriate message file exists (ACCESSx.*).  This means there
         is no sysop notification via messages.  GTACCESS.LOG will still
         contain the results of the upgrade.


e -  This parameter is optional.  Without this entry, GTAccess!
     expects ALL of the specified questionnaire to have been
     answered before it will upgrade their access.  This
     parameter allows you to specify the required number of
     responses to have been answered starting from the first
     entry.  Therefore, if you put a 7 here, it will only look
     for the first 7 answers to have been completed.  REMEMBER:
     If you use this option, be sure that if you are using the
     Time/Date stamp [%DT] that you include that as a response if
     necessary.

     If the access levels are the same on the command line, then
the user's level will not be upgraded.  Option 3 is also
disabled when the access levels are the same.   I suggest using
this option when you want to keep tabs on questionnaire activity.

I also suggest that you use Option 4 with this one and do not
have an ACCESSx.NON file.  This way, you will never know if a
user doesn't answer it, but if he does, and you have the
ACCESSx.SOM or ACCESSx.ALL file(s) present, then both you and him
will know.  Option 5 can also be used to send just you a message
and not him -- it works the same as Option 4, but with no user
notification.


Tricks and Tips
---------------
     Lots of things can be accomplished with this program.
Specifically the fact that, if a message is not present, it will
not be sent to the user, but you will be notified (unless you are
using option 4).  So, you might want to leave out ACCESSx.ALL and
just have ACCESSx.NON, so that you'll know what the person is
doing all the time, but he only knows when he HASN'T answered the
questionnaire.  This allows for lots of possibilities.

Examples
--------
     GTACCESS 1 !f Z 3    would upgrade the user from level 'f'
to level 'Z' if they answered all of the questionnaire.  If
ANSWER1.ALL existed, it would be sent to the user, along with a
message to everyone announcing that the user is new to the BBS
and for everyone to say hello.  If the user only answered part or
none of the questionnaire, then ACCESS1.SOM, or ACCESS1.NON
(respectively), would be sent to the user.  In any case, you
would be informed of what happened.

     GTACCESS 3 !a 2 4 8   would upgrade the user from level 'a'
to level '2' if he answered the first 8 questions to
questionnaire 3.  It would send the sysop and the user a message
ONLY if ACCESS3.ALL existed.  If he was to only answer part or
none of questionnaire 3, then ACCESS3.SOM, or ACCESS3.NON
(respectively), would be sent to the user and a message would be
sent to the sysop, IF the file existed.

     I could go on and on, but you will realize what you can do
with it the more you practice.  If you need any help, please
contact me at my BBS or netmail me at GTNetNode 070/002.


GTAccess also will save all of the users that have valid questionnaires
into a file named ACCESSx.SAV.  This will be your master questionnaire file.
Therefore, ANSWERx.BBS will not exist in your GT directory when using GTAccess.
This was added to prevent duplicating of names when updating the ANSWER file.

All errors will be recorded into GTACCESS.ERR.  Please report this to me
at netnode 070/002 immediately or call.  Thanks!

Benefits of Registration
------------------------
     Of course, as stated above, registration is highly recommended if you
find GTAccess! to be of use to you.  The registration fee is only
$10 (USA) and should be sent if you continue to use GTAccess! for
over 3 weeks (21 days).

     Registration DOES have its benefits  You will be
able to personalize your copy of GTAccess!.  Not only will it
show up as "Registered to xxxxx BBS" on the screen, but at the
bottom of the messages, there will no longer be a tagline.
It will also bypass the 4 second delay at the end of the program.

** Registration REMOVES the tag line on all of the messages sent to
   users and inserts your name instead of 'GTAccess!'.  In addition, it
   will allow the Super Indexing feature to be used.


Credits
-------
     The inspiration for me to write this utility for GT 15.xx
was from the utility for GT 14.xx called ALLOW by Tony Lenox of
Pontiac, Michigan.  In fact, I used his documentation for a
guideline to writing my program. You will find GTAccess! much the same at
times, but GTAccess! has some different options designed to be
quite flexible.  Many thanks to those who've gone before!


                           DISCLAIMER

This software package is provided 'as is' without warranty,
either expressed or implied.  The entire risk, as to the quality
and performance of the software is with you, the user.

     In no way will I, Jason Cory Wright, or any other party
involved with the creation, production, distribution, or delivery
of this software be liable for any direct, indirect,
consequential, or incidental damages which may arise from the
use or inability to use this software.  Furthermore, neither I
nor any of the aforementioned parties will be held responsible
for any damages to your computer or the loss of information
stored in any form on your computer either from direct, or
indirect use of this software.

     TRC Development Group, just as Jason Cory Wright, will be
bound and protected by the same disclaimers made for Jason Cory Wright.

     The user of this software is granted a license to use, copy
and distribute the program under the following conditions:

     1)   Jason Cory Wright reserves the Copyright and the sole
          right to distribute this software for profit.

     2)   No part of this program or documentation may be altered
          without the expressed written consent of Jason Cory
          Wright.

     3)   Use of this software is contingent upon the user
          accepting the terms of this license and disclaimer
          as described herein.

     4)   After a trial period of 3 weeks, you are required to
          register the program with its author.  Registration is
          $10 (USA) and must be sent to the author, Jason Cory
          Wright, at the address below.

     5)   Jason Cory Wright reserves the right to make
          corrections and additions to this documentation with no
          prior notice and will not be held accountable for any
          false or unclear information in this documentation that
          would cause you to use the software in such a way that
          was not intended.



And Finally...
--------------
     I am glad you have taken the time to look at GTAccess!  I
have 3 other programs out there at the present.

     The GTGap! - A program that allows GT to run GAP, PCBoard
12, PCBoard 14, Wildcat!, Doorway, and QuickBBS/RBBS doors with
one file converter!

     GTNews! is a professional Bulletin maker (GTBULLET.BBS) that
creates great color and normal bulletins.  It also ranks them
from newest to oldest.

     GT Tracker is a program that runs in the GTLOGON.BAT file that
announces vital board statistics (caller #, who was last on, etc) to
the caller.  It is designed to be a fast all-purpose logon utility

No BRUNxx's are required for the operation of any of the programs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Please direct all your comments, suggestions, and registrations to:

Cory Wright                        The Rising Connection
8726 Farmington Drive              [phone] - Hayes 9600V
Knoxville, Tennessee  37923-1633   GTNet/Node:  070/002

I am looking forward to your feedback on this program!!!
If you like it at all, netmail me and LET ME KNOW!



A word about this program and LAN's
-----------------------------------
v1.20 should work fairly well in the LAN environment.  Anyone willing to beta
test is encouraged to contact me via netmail at 070/002.