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Gateway to ProDoor for GT Power systems Version 1.1 DISCLAIMER: ---------- This package, in it's entirety, MUST be distributed together in some way, shape or form (dare I say the A-word?). None of the contents may be altered in ANY way, except for personal use, and no compensation may be charged for it's use or distribution. CONTENTS: -------- As it came from me, this file was named GTRPRD10.ZIP and contained the files needed for a GT Sysop to set up ProDoor 2.9 as a door on his or her BBS. Much of the configuration of ProDoor may be done using supplied utilities with that package. This 'gateway' package is meant only to help supply certain files needed for the initial installation of ProDoor. From there, you're on your own. This file SHOULD contain the following files: GTRPROD.DOC - If you can't figure THIS one out, you're in REAL trouble! D&B-EDIT.EXE, D&B-EDIT.DOC - A program to edit the DIR.LST and BLT.LST files, with docs. MAKE_LOG.EXE, MAKE_LOG.DOC - This will make the CALLER log file look better by entering the 'logon' and 'logoff' entries in it. MAKE_NET.EXE, MAKE_NET.DOC - A little do-nothing program to create and update the USERNET.DAT file which is used in the NODE command to tell the user what the other nodes are doing on a multi-node system. Since this serves no real purpose on a GT board, it's mainly for 'show'. ProDoor 2.9 doesn't support any inter-nodal activities. Docs included. PCBOARD.DAT - Sample PCBOARD.DAT file for PCBoard 14.0. CNAMES - Used by PCBoard to define the file/directory names and certain configuration parameters for message bases, bulletin files, directory files & areas, doors, script files and upload areas. In this file are the definitions for the "Main Board" area and may be additional sections for conference areas. CNFN, CNFNG - The Conference Menu, both ASCII and ANSI versions. NEWS, NEWSG - A news bulletin that you may put up. May have both ASCII and ANSI versions. DOORS, DOORSG - The Doors Menus, both ASCII and ANSI versions. DOORS.LST - The doors control file list. DOOR1, DOOR2 - Sample door batch files. BLT, BLTG - The Bulletin Menus, both ASCII and ANSI versions. BLT.LST - The bulletin control file list. BLT1, BLT1G - Sample bulletin files. DIR, DIRG - The File Section Menus, both ASCII and ANSI versions. DIR.LST - The file section control file list. DLPATH.LST - Sample directory path search list. DIR1, DIR1G - Sample file description listings. FSEC, UPSEC - File Security control file lists for downloading and uploading files. GTDOOR1.BAT - A sample batch file to install in GT's door batch files section to control ProDoor. PRODOOR - This is the main ProDoor controlling batch file. Notice the lack of an extension. It is done this way because of the way PCBoard works. It should be copied over to the 'system' directory (the path on ProDoor's command line, and where the .SYS and .DAT files are kept) under the name DOOR.BAT. This may be called recursively by the various batch-related functions of ProDoor. BOARD.BAT - This is used on PCBoard systems to return to the board. with GT, it serves no purpose except to act as a 'dummy' batch file for ProDoor to exit to. You may include certain routines in here to tidy up after running the door. PURPOSE: ------- For those of us who run GT Power BBSes, unless we also frequent many PCBoard systems, we wouldn't normally know much about ProDoor, because it isn't your 'every day' type of door that you use a little GT-to-PCB conversion on to run. This one goes a little beyond that. This is not a game...this is a utility program, and a very NICE one, at that! ProDoor is written by Sam Smith, Sysop of the Tool Shop BBS at (602) 264-3969, and it's designed to provide a very user-friendly interface to viewing/testing/repacking ZIP files, extracting text files within them to the screen, even extracting files within them into a 'scratch' file (for download within the door) in case a user wants to download only the documentation to a program, and not the whole file. Not only does it interface to ZIP file management, it can also be used to read messages, write messages (using a full- screen editor, in desired), include 'quotes' from previous messages, scanning for mail in all the conferences the user is registered in and packing new messages into a ZIP file. But that's not all! It can also scan for new files, for specific files or text strings in the listings, upload/download files (using external protocol drivers, like DSZ), and provide a security system for files coming and going, to make sure no files of a specific nature are accidentally sent or received. ProDoor can also use a CD-ROM library disk, if one is available. It can access the bulletins, file listings, NEWS file, conference menu, and a whole lot more. So, you see, it is a VERY nice utility to have around...on a PCBoard BBS! Many of these files are FROM the PCBoard system files, so setting this up on a GT board is not going to be easy, unless you have something to get you started. One of the things I like about ProDoor (and also PCBoard) is that you can define certain bulletins, directories, message bases, etc. to be specific to a conference. With this in mind, one could set up a conference with file areas accessible ONLY to that conference. You would need to be IN there to look at them. This could find many uses, but I won't go into them here. SETTING UP: ---------- Setting up ProDoor for anything other than a PCBoard BBS is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but I managed to do it on my board, so I'm putting together this 'gateway' package for others to use in setting it up. Included in this file should be the necessary files that are needed by the installation program in the ProDoor package. You will need several other packages in order to make the complete setup. Here is a list of what you'll need, at the very least: GTRPRD11 - Obviously, if you don't have this file, you wouldn't be reading this document. You'll need this package to get you going on setting up ProDoor. GTRPCB14 - This is another of my packages which will create the PCBOARD.SYS, PCBOARD.DAT and USERS files for PCBoard door programs to use. PRODOR29 (or later) - This is the main ProDoor package that includes ProDoor and associated data files, along with a few utility programs. ZIPTV15 (or later) - This is another of his programs for viewing ZIP files and extracting text files within them to the screen. DSZ, WXFER, PCKERMIT - These are all independent program files found on many BBSes that contain the external protocol drivers used by ProDoor for uploading and downloading files. Optional files that you may need to keep things running smoothly might be: PROPCK25 (or later) - Packs the message base files to save time and space. PROEDT29 (or later) - A message editor with a 'merge' function. RECYCLE - Allows you to run doors from this door, and return to it. When you have all the necessary files together, you'll need to do some editing of the included files in this package to customize the system to your needs. There are several files in this package that will be used by ProDoor on a regular basis. You should be able to edit these with a standard text editor. On a few, you'll need the supplied D&B-EDIT.EXE utility to edit them. Before anything else, you should use MAKE_DAT to edit a PCBoard ver. 14.0 PCBOARD.DAT file. In it, set things up the way you'd like them and especially configure the path/filename settings to what you will be using on your system. Read the documentation included with that program on how to use it. Most of the stuff should point to the ProDoor directory, even though some of it won't be used. Now, there are several text files - menus, control files, bulletins, etc. - that you will need to edit with your word processor and/or ANSI screen maker utility. Below is the list of those files: CNFN(G), NEWS(G), DOORS(G), DOORS.LST, BLT(G), DIR(G), FSEC, UPSEC, GTDOOR1.BAT, PRODOOR, BOARD.BAT You will notice many of those names have no extension and also have a "(G)" after the name. These files can have both an ASCII text and an ANSI graphics version to them, and the name will show a 'G' on the end for the ANSI version of it. They have no filename extensions. Now to go into detail what each is used for... First is the file CNFN. This is the Conference Menu file. Make up a list of conferences you plan on using in this door and list them in here for your users to pick out what they want. This file must include ALL the conferences you are supporting as per the settings you make with the setup program PROSM. Remember..."Main" is considered conference '0', and the rest go up from there. Users must have their 'registration' settings set if they are to use a 'private' conference (not designated as 'public' in PROSM). As is, they should only be able to access "Main" and any other public conferences. PROSM should allow you to do edit these settings. See the documentation included with ProDoor for using that program. The NEWS file is a bulletin-like file that is displayed to the user if they want to see the news. You can put whatever you want in here, or leave it out altogether. The DOORS file is the door menu screen. It lists ALL the doors that ProDoor is set up to run. There's also a control file for this function called DOORS.LST. It lists the door names, a password (if any) needed to run that door (for security reasons), and the security level needed to access that door. These entries go one per line and are comma-delimited, like "EXAMPLE,PASSWORD,10" (only without the quotes). Another might be "DOOR2,,30". The first example shows the filename of the door batch file (yes, it's only the first part...no ".BAT"), the password needed to get in it, and it's rated for a security level of 10 or higher. The second door entry is for a batch file named "DOOR2", has no password requirement, and is available for users of level 30 and up. ProDoor copies these files to a file called DOOR.BAT, in the 'system' directory (the pathname listed as the second parameter to ProDoor's command line). There it is run, and unless you use RECYCLE to recycle the door back to ProDoor, you'll likely end up back in GT! ProDoor uses a temporary batch file "$DOOR.BAT" to do it's external work for it, like the doors and file transfers. For the bulletins, there's a menu file called BLT. This is a listing of all the bulletins available via the <B>ulletin command. It uses a control file called BLT.LST which holds the path and filenames of the bulletin files. To edit this file, you'll need to use my little editing utility D&B-EDIT.EXE. This file doesn't have a standard text format that a word processor can edit. Then there's the DIR files. These are the listings (menus) of the file directories that you want your users to have access to when downloading files. This section uses a control file called DIR.LST, and is a list of the directories, their associated hard drive directory, and a little description of the area that's shown when ProDoor does a file or text search. This is also a non- standard text format that you'll need D&B-EDIT.EXE to edit with. Another associated file is the DLPATH.LST file, which is simply a listing of directories (all followed by the '\' character) where ProDoor looks for the files. Directories not listed here are not searched for files. With PCBoard (and thus ProDoor), you can protect files with passwords and/or security levels, both for uploading and downloading. The files that control this are FSEC (for downloading) and UPSEC (for uploading). These file formats are identical, so I'll just explain the general format and let it go with that. The format for an entry, which by the way is a standard text entry that you can edit with your editor, and goes one per line, is a pathname to the directory where the file(s) is/are you want to protect, the filename (including wildcards) of the file(s) being protected, the security level to allow access to them, and a password (if any) needed to transfer the file. All fields are comma-delimited. A sample might be: D:\FILES1\,SPECIAL.TXT,50,PROTECT Where the path of the directory is D:\FILES1\ (notice the trailing backslash), the filename is SPECIAL.TXT, the file's access is limited to users with level 50 and above, and only using the password PROTECT. The path and password may be omitted, but the space must exist for them, as such: D:\FILES\,*.*,10, ,*.EXE,75, As you can see, wildcards in the filenames are permitted, and the filename & security level must be present. You can use this to control who has access to special files, and password-protect them if the need arises. If you have to special files, you may use a blank path, a filename wildcard "*.*", a low security level and no password. Included should be sample batch files, of which the general layout should be kept, with only minor editing for the pathnames you'll be using on your system, and anything else you use regularly in doors. Such things as Gateway and Doorway should NOT be used in this door! It will most certainly cause problems and conflicts with which program gets to use the comm port. A watchdog-like monitor should also NOT be used, as ProDoor monitors the carrier itself and returns to the board if carrier is lost. Also, the 'G' command, for Goodbye, inside ProDoor DOES hang up the modem while returning to the board. To return to the board without logging off, the 'QUIT' command should be used. You may want to set the access security for the 'G' command to a high level so users can't use it. You will probably want to rename the sample GTDOOR1.BAT depending on the number of the door you are installing this as. It should set up the USERS file, the PCBOARD.SYS and .DAT files and anything else that needs to be done before running ProDoor, like path settings, environment variables, etc. The file PRODOOR is what actually runs ProDoor, and should be copied into the 'system' directory as DOOR.BAT. The 'system' directory is the same as the path given to ProDoor on it's command line for parameter #2. It should also have the .SYS and .DAT files in it. Make sure this directory is NOT the GT directory! Remember that little program called DOOR.EXE that came with GT 14.03?? It's quite likely IT will run instead, so you'd best take the GT directory out of the PATH to make sure you don't have conflicts with DOS running the wrong program! I found this out the hard way since it happened here once, and locked up my computer tighter than a drum! And lastly is a file called BOARD.BAT, which is used on PCBoard systems to return to the BBS software. PCBoard relies on batch files to carry it though the steps when running doors, and BOARD.BAT is the main one. On a GT system, it has no use except to act as a 'dummy' file for DOOR.BAT to pass on to. You might find a use for it, though, if you intend to do any tidying up after running the door, like deleting work files, etc. INSTALLATION: ------------ Now I'll try to describe the procedure of installing this baby. First, as I mentioned before, you should use an editor and the supplied D&B-EDIT program to edit the files. The D&B-EDIT program is only a very simple little editor to edit the DIR.LST and BLT.LST files, since those have a special format, so don't expect a lot of glamour in it. ProDoor has it's own installation system, so mine is only a preliminary setup routine to get things ready for ProDoor's setup system. It needs to have certain files handy, and those files are what I'm providing here. The trick is to make ProDoor THINK it's being installed on a PCBoard BBS, when in actuality, it's not. If we're successful, it should install and configure itself, right??? Well...we'll see... You should create a directory for the ProDoor files, and probably these as well, and copy these files into it. Many of these files actually go into a directory called 'GEN' (under the 'PCB' directory), on a PCBoard system, so if you want, you can create a 'GEN' directory under the ProDoor directory and put these into it, along with the DIRn and BLTn files. Next, extract the ProDoor files into a temporary directory and run the INSTALL batch file. The ProDoor files will be 'installed' into the ProDoor directory as per your answers to ProDoor's installation system. You will probably NOT want to have it install it's entries in the DOORS menu, the DOORS.LST control file or the PCBPROT.DAT, as the PCBPROT.DAT file isn't used in ProDoor (it holds a list of protocols and their parameters and is only used inside PCBoard), and I doubt you'll be running ProDoor from WITHIN ProDoor. It only does this to help you install it for PCBoard's use. I won't go into detail on the installation of ProDoor, since you can see how THAT works by reading ProDoor's docs. But some of the files needed are made by ProDoor if it finds them missing when it runs. So after running the install program, get a copy of MAKE_USR and MAKE_SYS out (from my GTRPCB package) and create a USERS and PCBOARD.SYS file. Then run ProDoor, giving it the name of it's configuration file (usually PROD.CNF) and the pathname of the 'system directory' where the .SYS and .DAT files are. It should load up and run, creating it's work directories, the CONFINFO and EXTUSER files. Don't try doing anything else at this point. Log out of ProDoor and load up PROSM to edit things. Then edit the settings, pathnames, filenames, etc. for the conferences, the directory names of ProDoor's special work directories, any user settings (conference registrations, if you want them to have access to specific ones that they couldn't get into otherwise because they're marked as 'private'), and so on. One of the important things you need to do is initialize the message base files. This is done automatically if you exit a conference definition screen and it can't find those files. You may also want to have it create a PACKALL.BAT, which is used with ProPack to pack the message base files. This could be set up as an event, if you like. There are some other things you can do inside PROSM, but those can come later, once you get the rest of the stuff going. At this point, you SHOULD have a more-or-less usable door. You will not need the CNAMES file any more. Because in the installation, the info in there was put into the CONFINFO file. FREEWARE: -------- Hopefully, in all this mass confusion, I got everything in here that needs to be covered for installing ProDoor on your GT board. Like I said first off, this isn't an easy one to get going. If you have any problems, send me a message via the various means below. I'm not asking for any Shareware fees be sent to me if you like and use this 'kit'. Since much of it is sort of 'borrowed' from sources relating to PCBoard and ProDoor, and since only the two included (and VERY minor) programs are my own, there's not a lot that I think I can get away with by asking for a registration fee. So I'm making it Freeware. If I understand this one correctly, you can make copies, etc., and give them to friends, romans and countrymen, so long as you don't alter anything in it. AND, you can't be making any money off of it, either. So there! But you can send me mail on whether or not you like it and if you have any problems with installing it. Scott Swaine, Sysop Console Command Headquarters Node 1: (805) 968-5094 Node 2: (805) 968-9411 Node 3: (805) 968-0734 24 hours/day 300/1200/2400/9600 baud, 8-N-1 GT Network net/node 054/000 CompuServe ID: 72057,1542