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////// ////// /// //// //// //// // ////// // // // // // // // // // // //// / // / // // // // // // // // // // // // ///// ///// // // // /////// // // // // // // // // // // // ////// // // // // // // // // // // // // // //// //// // /// //// //// //// // // //// by Matt Messier //// //// 401-726-3859 (Data) // // // // // // // for use with PCBoard 14.5 /// // // with support for /Xnnn // // // versions of PCBoard! // // // // // //// // //// INTRODUCTION ------------ Welcome to ProChat! ProChat is a door program for use with PCBoard 14.5 systems that enhances that chat facility between nodes. ProChat allows any number of users to chat amongst themselves in any size groups either public or private with any number of different public or private groups. Sound confusing? Don't worry about it, if you think that the PCBoard CHAT/NODE command is bad, this program is for you. It is very similar to the CompuServe type CB, however scaled down a bit for smaller systems. If you do not run a multi-node system, you have no use for this program. If you run a 2 or 3 line system, ProChat will work, but will have no real advantage over the built in CHAT in PCBoard. If you have a large system with about 5 or more nodes, you will find that ProChat will be a favorite amongst your CB'ers ... GETTING STARTED --------------- Setting up Prochat is not difficult. I hope I didn't scare you off with my opening statement about the program! You should be able to have ProChat up and running in a matter of 10 or 15 minutes. Should you wish to customize your system to make ProChat fit in a bit more smoothly, it may take a little longer than that. First, make ProChat it's own little directory. You'll find that it's easiest to do it this way. All of your nodes can share the files (including the configuration files), so there is no need to make multiple files for each node on your system. Place all of the files in the distribution ZIP file into this directory. The next thing you'll want to do is run the setup program. The setup program is outlined in greater detail later in this document. For now, let's just say run the program and configure everything. Ok, great. Everything is configured and we're ready to make batch files. Make your batch file to run ProChat. ProChat uses the standard ProKit command line parameters and batch file. For those of you unfamiliar with ProKit based doors, here is an example of what your batch file should look like: @echo off cd\prochat prochat prochat.cnf c:\pcb1 cd\pcb1 if exist event.bat event node1 <- command to reload your board Last, but not least, modify your doors.lst file to reflect the addition of your new door. You'll probably want to set it up to SHELL (in which case you would not put the last two lines of the above example in your batch file) to make everything run smoothly. I call my batch file CB so my callers can just type CB at the main menu and drop right into ProChat. Don't forget to add the new door to your doors menu and let your users know it's there! To go a step further, you may wish to modify your PCBTEXT file(s). ProChat allows users to page others in PCBoard. In order to do this, some changes are needed for your PCBTEXT file to let users know they are being paged to go into ProChat and not the built in CHAT facility inside PCBoard. Below is a list of record numbers you may wish to modify and what you may want to change them to. 225: " wants you in ProChat, @FIRST@." 226: "To respond, at the main Command line enter CB." 227: "Node CHAT: (U)navailable, (Enter)=no change?" 228: "Node CHAT: (A)vailable, (Enter)=no change?" 311: "CHATTING in ProChat" There are other records relating to Node CHAT as well, but those are the ones that'll make the most difference. THE SETUP PROGRAM ----------------- The setup program is fairly easy to use and is pretty much self- explanitory. This section will outline the use of the program to the point where if you have any questions you have had too much to drink. <BIG GRIN> There are basically four different types of fields that can be modified. They are strings, numbers, toggles, and lists. When editing strings, the field is automatically formatted to uppercase, lowercase, mixed, or none for you. Use the right and left arrow keys to move around the field, backspace and delete to remove text, home to go to the beginning of the field, and end to go to the end. Pressing ctrl-end will delete from the cursor to the end of the field. If you press ctrl-left or ctrl-right, the cursor will move one word to the left or to the right. When editing numbers, use the right and left arrow keys to move around the field, backspace and delete to delete, home to go to the beginning of the field, and end to go to the end. Pressing ctrl-end will delete from the cursor to the end of the field. If you enter a value that is out of range, you will not be able to move to another field until a valid value is entered. When editing toggles, pressing the space bar will toggle from yes to no and vice-versa. If you press 'y', it will switch to yes, and if you press 'n', it will switch to no. When editing lists, there are a couple of stages. The first stage is when you first move to the field. Pressing the space bar or enter will cause a window with a list in it to pop up. This is stage two. Use the up and down arrow keys to move through the list and press enter to choose the item you want to set the field to. If you press ESC here, any changes to this field will be aborted. If you pressed enter to pop up the window, when a selection is made, you will be moved onto the next field, otherwise you will be back at stage one. When you are editing any one of the four types of fields, you always have the option of exiting the programming (and saving any changes made) by pressing the ESC key. If you press tab, enter, or the down arrow, you will be moved on to the next field. If you press shift-tab or the up arrow, you will be moved back to the previous field. SETUP: FILE INFORMATION ----------------------- PCBoard node information file: This is the path and name of your usernet.dat data file. Without this information, Prochat could not display node scans or page users within chat. ProChat node information file: This is the path and name of your prochat.dat data file. This file contains information for the users currently in prochat including their name, handle, channel, squelch value, etc. This file is automatically created and maintained by ProChat. Chat data file: This is the path and name of your chat.dat data file. This file is used for exchanging messages back and forth between the various nodes on the system. If node 1 sends a message out it is written to this file and read in by the other nodes. This file is created and maintained by ProChat. The only time you should have to intervene is if the file starts getting too big (which it will, trust me!) When you delete it, try to make sure there is no one inside ProChat at the time. Should you delete it while users are in ProChat, the program should recover so it's not a big problem. ProChat channel data file: This is the path and name of your channels.dat data file. This file is used to keep track of how many users are chatting on each channel, squelch value, and whatnot. This file is also created and maintained by ProChat. Bad Handle Trashcan file: This is the path and name of your trashcan data file. If there are certain names or words that you do not want users to use in their handles, this is where you should put them. Whenever a user selects a handle, it is checked against this file to make sure that it is valid. In this file, there are two types of entries that you can have. The first is just a line with the name you do not want used. The second has an asterisk in the first column of the line. This will cause ProChat to not allow users to use a certain word in any part of their handle. For instance, if you put "*SYSOP" in your trashcan, users would not be able to be tricky and use " SYSOP" as their handle an impersonate you. Caller Help Display file: This is the path and name of the text file to display to callers when they ask for help. Two defaults are supplied with ProChat. One is a rather lengthy text file explaining each command individually and what it does. The other is a brief list of all of the commands available. ProChat Entrance display file: This is the path and name of the text file to display to callers when they first enter ProChat. This is the same thing as PCBoard's GCTOPIC file. SETUP: REGISTRATION INFORMATION ------------------------------- If you have not registered ProChat yet, there is no need to modify anything in this section. When you register ProChat, you give me the name of your system as you would like it to appear and I give you a number. You put both of those items in this section and you'll be ready to roll. SETUP: MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION -------------------------------- Driver Type: This is the only item require by the ProKit interface itself. It is the type of async driver you wish to use. You may use with INTERRUPT or BIOS. INTERRUPT is the preferred method, but if it doesn't work on your system, try BIOS. If BIOS doesn't work then give me a call and I'll see what I can do. Use fast message check method: When this is enabled, ProChat will only check for incoming messages when the input line is blank and when the enter key is pressed. If this is disabled, ProChat will constantly check for incoming messages every 5 seconds. This is intended for those slower systems where the typing becomes slow and choppy. PCBoard version: Here is where you put the version of PCBoard you are running. This doesn't mean "14.5a/E9", it just means the "/E9" part. So in other words, if you were running the /E25 version of the code, you would be "/E25" in this field. There is one special exception to this field. If you are running the /U version of PCBoard, you should place "/U99" in this field. This field is required to determine how many nodes are online, and also if you are using the extended USERNET.DAT version or the old version. Only the "/Xnnn" versions of PCBoard use the extended USERNET.DAT file for the time being. Allow paging in PCBoard: If you do not want users to bother other users in PCBoard, set this flag to no. If you would like users to be able to receive chat requests while in PCBoard, set it to yes. Number of channels: This setting determines the size of your channels.dat file. It also places a restriction on how many channels users have to choose from on the system. For most systems, a value of 10 is reasonable, but you may have up to 1000 channels, in which case you would need 2000 nodes to have 2 people chatting on each channel. Allow paging in ProChat: If you do not want users to be able to page other users in ProChat, set this flag to no. If you would like users to be able to receive chat requests in proChat, set it to yes. Default channel: When a user enters ProChat you may wish to place the user in some channel other than channel 1. You may place the user in any channel you want, just be careful not to put the user in a channel about the limit on the number of channels you set above. Show private messages to sysop: If you want to be able to see the private /SE messages going back and forth between users while you are in ProChat, set this flag to yes. If you don't want to be bothered with them, set it to no. Even if this flag is set to no, users will still be able to send private messages back and forth. Default squelch: Much like default channel, you may place users in any squelch setting you like when they first enter chat. Leaving this blank will place users in public chat. Display city in node scan: When a node scan command is issued, you may wish to exclude user's calling locations from the list. If you do, set this flag to no, otherwise set it to yes. Time Warning Frequency: When this is set to a non-zero value, ProChat will notify the user of how much time is left every x minutes, where x is the value set in this field. Setting this to zero (0) will disable this feature. Allow use of handles: If you don't want users to use handles while in chat, set this to no. When handles are not allowed, the user's first name is used in place of a handle. If set to yes, the user will be asked for a handle when he first enters ProChat with his first name as the default handle. Allow duplicate handles: Allowing duplicate handles can become confusing. For instance, if two users were chatting, both with the handle "Matt", it would be impossible to tell which Matt was saying what. But, for those of you that like adventure, you may set this to yes and allow users to use the same handles. DATA FILES ---------- ProChat creates and maintains three data files. They are the node information data file, chat data file, and channel data file. When the chat data file becomes too big, it may be deleted and it will start over again with no problems. I do not recommend deleting this file while users are in ProChat, but it shouldn't cause any major problems. The other two files should require no intervention. The only time you should mess around with them is in the event of a power failure while people are in ProChat or whatever. If this should happen and a user is stuck in the file when they really aren't in ProChat, just delete both the channels.dat and the prochat.dat files. Do not delete either file if there is someone in ProChat. REGISTRATION ------------ ProChat is not free software. It is distributed under the policy of shareware - try before you buy sort of thing. If you like ProChat and you use it on a continuous basis, please register it. Many long hours of time and effort have gone into the development of this program. It wasn't as easy as it may seem. Should you make the wise decision to register prochat, there is a $25 base registration fee. If you run 6 nodes or more, add $5 for each node. So in other words, if you run 10 nodes, your registration fee would be $25 + 5 * $5, or $50. If you are registering from Canada, please add an extra $5 for bank processing fees (I really hate those, they get me for $5 every time). Please make all checks or money orders payable to Matt Messier. When you send your registration fee in, make sure you give me the following information: 1) Your name 2) Your BBS name as you would like it to appear in ProChat 3) Your voice telephone number 4) Your BBS telephone number(s) After I receive your registration information, I will be calling your system to give you your registration information. Send your bundle o' joy to the following address: ProChat Registration c/o Matt Messier 3 Loring Drive Lincoln, RI 02865-1623 Thank you for your support! SUPPORT ------- I run a 2-node 24 hour bulletin board. I only have one incoming line at the moment which is 401-726-3859. There is a ProChat Support conference set up for questions, suggestions, comments, and whatever niceties you can think of. The latest version of ProChat can always be found in file directories 5, 12, and 16 as a free/no time download.