BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/pc_board/locupl14.zip/LOCUPL.DOC

Text File | 1993-04-21 | 12KB | 237 lines

                      PCBoard LOCal UPLoad Utility v1.4
                          Written by James R. Davis
                   (C) Copyright 1993 - All Rights Reserved

This program was written shortly after I setup my first PCBoard.  I found that
I was wasting alot of time and energy going through the rigorous process of
locally uploading files into my directories, through PCBFiler.  That started
me to combing the BBSes for a program that would upload files locally for me.
I only found two programs; ADD2BBS written by some guy in France, and ADDFILES
written by someone who calls himself Doc Debug.  Neither one of these programs
did what I wanted.  For one thing, if I wanted to upload something to another
directory, I had to go into their CFG files and change the directory
physically.  Since I'm lazy as hell, that soon wore thin on my nerves and I
decided to go ahead and do something about it.  So up spawned LOCUPL...

It's simple to use and easy to understand.  But before I get into it's
operation, you needto have the following files somewhere in your path before
even trying to run this program... yeah I know it's a pain, but most of you
already have these programs (not to mention, if you don't like the archive
format in the first place, you won't ever need to worry about having the
program to begin with):

                    Ext   Program used
                    ---   ------------
                    ZIP   PKUNZIP version 1.10 or above
                    PAK   PAK version 2.51 or above
                    ARJ   ARJ version 2.39a beta or above
                    ARC   ARC version 5.10 or above
                    ZOO   ZOO version 2.1 or above
                    LZH   LHARC version 1.13c or above

Now, if you know you'll never have ZOO files on your system, don't worry about
not having the program in your your path.  No biggy.  Usually, all you'll ever
need is PKUNZIP or ARJ (LHARC in some cases), but I programmed in support for
all the others, so that everyone is happy.

If you wish to use virus scanning on your files before uploading them, the
program will need to have SCAN.EXE by McAfee in your path.

Running the program is simple and easy.  Put LOCUPL somewhere in your path, so
that no matter where you are, you'll be able to use it.  The syntax for
running the program is as follows:

 LOCUPL /PCB=d:\path\[PCBOARD.DAT] [/CFG=d:\path\FILNAME.CFG] [updir] [switch]

The /PCB switch tells the program where to locate the PCBOARD.DAT file.  This
switch can be bypassed by setting the PCBDAT environment variable to the drive
and path of the PCBOARD.DAT file.  The uplddir is optional, this tells the
program from what directory the files are to be uploaded from.  If it is not
used, the current directory is the default.

The /CFG variable will tell the program where to find the .CFG file.  If you
do not want to include this on the command line, you can set the environment
variable LOCUPL to a drive/path and filename of a CFG file explained below,
you can bypass all the questions given after file selection (eg: SET
LOCUPL=C:\UTIL\LOCUPL.CFG).  The sample CFG file included may be used after
modifying it for your system.

The contents of the CFG file should look something like this (without the
comments at the end of end line!):

BBSNAME=The Programmer's Mega-Source! 'The name of your BBS
MOVE=Yes                              'Move files=Yes, Copy files=No
FILDATE=No                            'Use file's actual date?
FILEDESC=Yes                          'Search archive for file desc?
TEXTSEARCH=C:\UTIL\ALLFILES.TXT       'Use this file for text search, or =No
MANUAL=Yes                            'Type in desc if not found?
REPLACE=No                            'Replace files if exist?
GIFSPEC=Yes                           'Insert gif specs in desc?
UPLDBY=Yes                            'Insert "Uploaded by: SYSOP" in desc?
ARCSPEC=Yes                           'Insert "Files: XX  New: XX-XX-XX..."?
SCAN=Yes                              'Virus SCAN files?
BAKUP=No                              'BAKup dir files before replacing files?

So if you don't want to have to type in the /PCB switch all the time, just set
the environment variable in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file upon bootup, or if you
don't want to waste a whole 11 bytes of environment space, use the /PCB
switch.  To each his own.

Use the following command line switches to override anything you have set in
the CFG file.  Using a + indicates you wish to turn that option on and a -
indicates you wish to turn it off.  They are as listed below:

              /N = Use this switch if running on a remote terminal of a
                   network.

       /MOV[+|-] = Move the files or copy them

       /FDT[+|-] = Use the file's actual date yes/no

       /FDS[+|-] = Look in a file for a description yes/no

    /SRH=txtfile = Use a text file to search where txtfile is the
                   drive\path of filename to use, otherwise none used.

       /MAN[+|-] = Manually type in description yes/no

       /REP[+|-] = Replace files in dir file yes/no

       /GIF[+|-] = Insert GIF specs if found yes/no

       /UPL[+|-] = Insert 'Uploaded by: SYSOP' in description yes/no

       /ARC[+|-] = Insert archive specs in description yes/no

       /SCN[+|-] = Scan files for virus' yes/no

       /BAK[+|-] = BAKup dir files during desc replacing yes/no

Example:

  LOCUPL /SCN- /SRH- /MOV-

This will tell the program to turn off virus scanning, not to search through a
text file for file descriptions, and to copy files instead of moving.

Let's say you have the set the replace files to no, the scanning on, and the
rest default to the sample CFG file settings.  Here's what happens:

When the program is first envoked, it will read in all the directories found
that are different (including all conference file directories) and find the
ones that are different.  So, if you have so 500 conferences, but only 5 of
those conferences have file directories, only those 5 will be shown to be
selected from.

Next, when you choose the conference to upload to, you will be asked which
directory you wish to upload to (right now if you've got more directories then
can fit on the screen, they will scroll, that will be fixed later).  Choose
the directory you wish to upload the files to.

After you've made that tremendous and difficult decision, you will be given a
list of all the files that were found in the directory you specified on the
command line (right now, only 105 files can be displayed, I didn't think that
many of you would have THAT many files downloaded, but if demand is greater,
it will be fixed later).  Tag the files you wish to upload with the SPACE BAR,
and press RETURN to continue (you can also use T to tag or untag all the
entries, or press ESC to abort the program completely.)

After you've made your file selection, you will be asked if you wish to move
or copy the files, moving the files is the default.  Next, you will be asked
if you wish to insert any desc files that are in the archives if they are
found, into the description file (the two files this program supports at this
time are FILE_ID.DIZ and DESC.SDI).  If you answer yes to this question, which
happens to be the default, you will be asked if you want to type in a
description of the file if a desc file is not found.  This can be handy.  If
you answer no, a simple "No description given at this time." will be placed as
the file's description.

Now, comes the fun part.  After you've completed the simple questions, what
will occur is this; first the files you want to upload will be checked against
the files that already appear in the dir file.  If there is a match, then the
file is removed from the tagged file list.  Next, the file will be scanned for
a virus before anything else takes place.  If a virus is found, it is skipped
to the next file (NOTE: the file is not deleted, just in case another tpye of
error occured like uncompleted download or the like).  Next what happens is
this, the file is checked for a desc file, if one is found, it is placed in
the dir file's description, if not, the program will ask you if you wish to
see the contents of the file before typing a description (mind you, you've
answered yes to the two questions in the previous paragraph).  Then you can
add the description you want to the files description (the number of lines
allowed is read from PCBOARD.DAT ahead of time, so don't worry about the file
description getting out of control! <G>)


FUTURE REVISIONS
----------------

I would appreciate any suggestions you may have to make this program more user
friendly or whatever you may find you want added. Making everything windowed
(suggested by Max Bernard), and a few other ideas that I've been thinking
about, but for now, here's what I've got.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
----------------
I would like to thank Max Bernard for his help and suggestions while writing
this program.  Tom Southard for his in-depth bug reports while beta testing
and his suggestions.  Erik Olsen for coming up with a few routines on the spur
of the moment that made the program do what needed to be done.  Dave Navarro,
Jr. for the inspiration and introduction to PowerBASIC.  And finally you for
using this program.  THANKS to everyone that helped make this program
possible.


REGISTRATION
------------
This program is ShareWARE meaning that it is not FREE.  If you use this
program for more than 30 days you are required by law to either register it
with the author, or delete it from your system.  The registration fee for this
program is $25.00 and with that you will be able to unlock the ability to
search through a text file for a file description (which comes in handy!)
Read the instructions and rules for ordering this program in the file
ORDER.FRM that comes with this program for further rules and regulations.


I hope you find this program to be of use to you as it has been to me in my
daily sysoping activities.  If you have any problems you can reach my board to
leave me any comments about this program at [phone].  Have fun
everyone!

                       -=> James "The Garf!" Davis! <=-

History:

  1.4  - Final release version.  Fixed an error 9 that occured because of no
         command line options.  Ready for the big time!

  1.3  - Final version before release.  Added virus scanning and dir file
         bakup.  Added ability to set all the CFG file settings on the command
         line through command line switches.

  1.2b - Fixed problem of adding a blank line to end of file description.
         Took out revision directory... stupid oversight.

  1.2a - Fixed a looping problem that placed one line in the DIR file over and
         over when you manually type in the description.

  1.2  - Fixed a few minor bugs, added CFG file to bypass questions.

  1.1k - Added a bunch of new features, Inserting GIF specs, "Uploaded by:
         SYSOP" line, Archive specs, ability to make a config file so you
         don't have to keep typing in all the choices (since they've grown
         from a mere 4 questions to about 9) every time you run the program.
         faster file loading, being able to detect bad archives, still
         thinking about scanning, it may have to wait.  Added registration
         code for shareware version... I think we're close to completion this
         time out!  Any more suggestions?

  1.1j - Finally fixed the file picking routines.  Should be able to handle
         up to 32k of files with scrolling activated.  Fixed problem with
         not being able to type in descriptions if you choose not to load in
         desc files or text file searching.

  1.1h - Fixed some minor bugs.  First alpha release.

  1.0  - Initial test release.