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OBank 2.00
Time Banking for Opus 1.7x
Copyright(c) 1991, Erik Likvarn, All Rights Reserved.
Direct all comments/suggestions to Erik Likvarn
Wombat BBS! +61-2-550-4336
3:712/316 FidoNet.Org
Documentation Adopted & Rewritten by Michael T. MacLeod
Doc's Place 615-282-9468
1:3642/701 FidoNet.Org
INTRODUCTION
OBank is a time bank utility for Opus 1.7x. It allows the user to
store unused time for later. This makes the Opus `Upload Refund'
option even more useful than it currently is, as now the user may
store `credits' for use at a more opportune time.
You the SysOp do still have control, as you can use the
configuration file to specify how many minutes a user may deposit or
withdraw per day based upon his/her privilege level.
OBank was written entirely in Borland Turbo Pascal 5.5, using the
Borland Turbo Access Database Toolbox 4.0. There is no `practical'
limit to how many users may use OBank, as the database can maintain
over 2 billion records and automatically re-uses erased records.
OBank is very easy to install: all you need is to edit the
configuration file, set the environment variable, change your
BBS.CTL file to include OBank on your menu, and ensure Opus re-reads
LASTUSER.DAT on return from `Outside'.
LICENSE
OBank is FREE, but I retain copyright on this software. You are
granted a limited license to use OBank as you see fit.
However:
(1) You may not distribute OBank other than with the contents of
its original archive unchanged. You may, however, change the
archive format according to your needs, provided all the
original files are kept intact and together.
(2) You may not charge any money for OBank. This prohibition
includes copying fees, but it does not cover the initial
cost of the supply floppy disk.
NO WARRANTY
There is no warranty attached to this software. It is guaranteed to
do nothing except occupy space on your hard drive, in most instances
this is not guaranteed either.
Quick Install: Warning! for Grizzled Opus Veterans only.
STEP 1
------
OK! Here goes for all of the impatient people, who absolutely
refuse to read the DOC's first. [Grin] Unpack OBank to a directory
of your choosing. Edit the OBANK.INI file to reflect the settings of
your system, ie. ( C:\OPUS\SYSTEM\LASTUS01.DAT ).
STEP 2
------
Next, Edit your BBS.PRM file menu section(s) you wish OBank to be
accessed from by using the _OUTSIDE "OBank!" =RUN ?:\????\OBank.EXE
method, ( make sure SECURE is set to 3 ), and reSALT your parm file
with NACL.
STEP 3
------
Last, but not least logon to Opus and See if you got it right the
first time (HeHe Probably not), If you made a mistake all you have to
do is start at step 1, ( Of course there is always the DOC's ) [Grin].
Dont forget to put a SET OBANK=?:\????\OBANK.INI in your Autoexec.bat!
HOW IT WORKS!
COMMAND LINE
OBank should be run from the Opus menu. There are only two command
line parameters:
-k....Use local mode. (This is usually not necessary as OBank
will detect local mode from
LASTUSER.DAT.)
-txx..Task Number. (This parameter is not necessary if you
have only one task running.)
Both of the above parameters are passed automatically by Opus when
using the _OUTSIDE RUN option.
These Doc's have been formatted for the DOS 5.0 {PRINT} command, so
at any time you wish to read the Doc's just turn on that Gadget with
the DUST all over it (you know the plastic box next to your computer)
<Grin> and print them out.
Narrator over and out!
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE
OBank requires that you set an environment variable pointing to
where its configuration file is kept. Insert the following line into
your AUTOEXEC.Bat or NERF.BAT files:
SET OBANK=C:\OPUS\BIN\OBANK.INI
(Obviously you should specify the correct path,
not the one in the example.)
You are able to specify non task specific information in OBANK.INI,
so you can use the same config file for all tasks.
OPUS
You need to tell Opus to re-read the LASTUSER.DAT file after
returning from `Outside'. Simply edit your BBS.CTL file to reflect
this by changing the SECURE parameter setting to 3.
You need also to include OBank on your menu. Decide which menu
you'd like to add it to, and edit its entry in BBS.CTL. Insert the
following line.
_OUTSIDE Normal "OBank" = RUN c:\opus\bin\obank.exe
(You should specify the actual path you are using,
not the one in the example.)
Opus will provide all the necessary parameters if it is run in this
way.
After making these changes you will need to re-compile your BBS.CTL
using NACL.EXE. Check the Opus Technical Reference for more
information on editing Opus menus.
CONFIGURATION FILE
In the configuration file, you must specify:
1). How many minutes a user may deposit or withdraw in a single day.
2). Where the OBank data files should be kept.
3). Where LASTUSER.DAT is kept.
4). Where it should write its log.
5). How many languages are installed in your setup
and what sets of prompts to use for each language.
The configuration file now uses a format quite similar to that used
by Windows. It has a series of "sections" denoted by square
brackets enclosing the section name. e.g. [Section]. These are
followed by the section's settings directly beneath. There are at
least five sections in OBANK.INI, they are:
[Paths], [MaxDeposit], [MaxWithdraw], [Language], [English].
There could be more, however, if you specify more languages.
The Paths section has three settings:
LogFile=Fully qualified drive:\path\filename.ext of the log file
LastUserPath=Fully qualified drive:\path\ to LASTUSER.DAT
NOTE: You may use #'s to substitute task numbers in path and
filenames for LastUserPath and LogFile if you like.
e.g.
if task is set to 1 then
c:\opus\logs\opus##.log = c:\opus\logs\opus01.log
c:\opus\logs\opus#.log = c:\opus\logs\opus1.log
OBankData=Fully qualified drive:\path\ to OBank.DAT/IDX
NOTE: Don't forget to use a trailing backslash '\' on the ends
of paths, or OBank will say nasty things about you! <G>
OBank uses the same type of log format as Opus, so it won't look
untidy if you let it share.
The MaxDeposit and MaxWithdraw sections allow you to specify the
maximum amount of time that may be transacted in a single day, based
on privilege level. Simply alter the setting next to each
privilege level to reflect the maximum number of minutes allowed.
The Language section is where you specify which languages are
installed on your system. You may specify up to 12 languages.
The settings are in the form Lang01=English.
This says to OBank that language number 1 is called English.
The language numbers must correspond to the language numbers you
have set in your BBS.CTL file. If you have said to Opus that
language 5 is Swahili then in the language section of OBANK.INI you
should set Lang05=Swahili.
Each language then has its own section. The English section is
already defined (You gotta have one, so it may as well be mine :-))
For each language added you need to specify a few things. There are
24 settings for each language specified. If you have specified a
language on Opus, then you MUST specify a set of identifiers for
each of them here. There are NO defaults. If you don't set it up,
there will be crap all over the screen :-)
There are six field identifiers, five menu items, four prompts, four
help descriptions, three error messages and two status messages. You
have to set ALL of them for each language, there are NO defaults.
The Field Identifiers are:
FieldName= How ever you want to say "User Name"
FieldRemain= How ever you want to say "Remaining Online Time"
FieldDeposit= How ever you want to say "Today's Deposits"
FieldWithdraw= How ever you want to say "Today's Withdrawals"
FieldBalance= How ever you want to say "OBank Balance"
FieldMinutes= How ever you want to say "minutes"
The Menu items are:
MenuDeposit= How ever you want to say "Deposit"
MenuWithdraw= How ever you want to say "Withdraw"
MenuExit= How ever you want to say "Exit"
MenuHelp= How ever you want to say "?Help"
The MenuExit prompt is more interesting for asthetic reasons. If
you run OBank from the Main Menu of Opus you can change it to say
Main Menu instead of Exit. Or, of course, whatever menu you run it
from. It sort of makes OBank more a part of Opus than a mere
hanger on :-).
Remember! On HiTech menus, only the first word is used if a space
follows it, so make sure its something meaningful. Of course all the
menu prompts must have a unique first letter.
The Prompts are:
PromptSelect= How ever you want to say "Select:"
PromptPressEnter= How ever you want to say
"Press Enter to Continue ..."
PromptDeposit= How ever you want to say
"Deposit how much (max 10 mins) ?"
PromptWithdraw= How ever you want to say
"Withdraw how much (max 10 mins) ?"
The Help Descriptions are:
HelpWithdraw= A one line description of the withdraw function.
HelpDeposit= A one line description of the deposit function.
HelpExit= A one line description of the exit function.
HelpHelp= A one line description of the help function.
The Error Message area:
ErrorBadNumber= The message that should appear when the user
does not type a number, when requested to
specify an amount of minutes.
ErrorExceedLimit= The message that should appear if the user
is trying to deposit or withdraw more than
the specified daily limit for his privilege
level.
ErrorNoTime= The message that should appear when the user
wishes to withdraw more time than is stored,
or deposit more time than is remaining.
The Status Messages are:
StatusDeposit= A message confirming to the user that he has
deposited an amount of time into his
account.
StatusWithdraw= A message confirming to the user that he has
withdrawn an amount of time from his
account.
For both of the above status messages, you may insert a %m where
the amount in minutes should appear)
Simple eh? Yeah sure it is! So is configuring a multiline syetem!
That's OBank up and running, now a bit about it's companion
utilities.
OBEDIT
OBEdit is an OBank utility. It allows you to browse and edit the
time database. Its operation also relies upon the environment
variable and configuration file. You can browse through the
database, or search for a user record but currently only for an
exact match on user name. You can change the amount of time stored
in an account or you can erase accounts altogether.
OBEdit re-indexes the time database each time it is started up.
Any records which you have deleted will be permanently purged.
OBEdit's operation is quite simple and fairly self explanatory. I
think you'll see what I mean when you run it.
OBPURGE
OBPurge is a utility to allow you to automatically erase unused
account, based upon the time since they where last used. It also
requires that the environment variable be set and has its own
section in OBANK.INI with two settings. They are:
DaysInactive= The number of days of inactivity before
OBPurge will erase the account.
LogFile= A log file for It to report what it's doing.
Unlike OBank's log setting, it does not
automatically insert task numbers into this
line. You must specify a real path and
filename.
You can run OBPurge as a daily/weekly event, and it will just keep
the size of the database down, and help speed up on-line searches.
PROPOSED ENHANCEMENTS
OBank currently does not make allowance for system events: it will
allow a user to withdraw enough time to over-run an event,
unfortunately Opus will still not allow them to do this if it has
already limited their time.
Erik plans to implement checking to stop this from happening.
Erik also plans to investigate a new feature He saw recently on a
GT-Power BBS where users were granted a minute at a time for each
message they read. He is always looking for new ways to encourage
users to read instead of download. This feature may be a toughy but
He'd like to do something along these lines.
FINALLY
We hope you all like OBank, if you'd like to show your appreciation,
don't send money - send a post card to:
E. Likvarn.
P.O. Box 190,
Westgate. N.S.W. 2048.
AUSTRALIA.
I'm SURE Erik would LOVE to here from you!
That's about it from me,
Any suggestions for correcting TYPO'S or mistakes in the DOC'S should be
submitted to Michael T. MacLeod via NetMail.
1:3642/701 @FidoNet.Org