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PINBOARD.DOC
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1993-01-02
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PinBoard Designer V1.11
(c) 1992 by Oliver Weindl
Programmer's Inn 2:246/45 / 2:246/145
+49-8781-3418 / +49-8781-3442 both nodes with HST/DS
1) What's a Pinboard
A pinboard is an area, where your users can deposit messages to
the other users. There are quite a lot of other so called logoff-
note doors, but i know none, which can handle more than one
logoff-note. This caused the problem, that one user entered a
logoff-note, in which he asked for help on a special problem,
and the next user just overwrote his question with an actual
advertisment. With PinBoard your users can manage a News-file like
the BBS-like news-files. Every note is put on the top of the pinboard,
and the other notes are placed to the end. the last note in the pinboard
will be erased (depends on how much notes you allow maximally).
PinBoard is shareware ! you may use this program as often as you like!
If you register , you will receive a key-file which strips off the
[unregisterd]-message and the pause after ending PinBoard.
About registration look at the end of the text.
2) What is needed
For PinBoard operation you need a BBS-Software, which can handle the
DORINFO?.DEF files (almost every software can do this !).
Also you have to change the settings in the PINBOARD.CTL file for
your own purposes. PinBoard is multiline-aware, but you need one special
CTL-file for every line (more about this later).
PinBoard generates two file snamed PINBOARD.ASC and PINBOARD.ANS.
You can display this files via your bbs software (in SBBS it'for example
the menutype 45). Most BBS-Software products can display a textfile
automatically, SBBS uses the CTRL-A key for this problem.
How to display the PINBOARD.A?? file in SuperBBS:
You have to build a menu which will be started only at the login of
an user. Let's call this menu AUTOMENU. Just start your menueditor
for SBBS (io hope you use SEDIT ;-) and create a new menu with
the name AUTOMENU. Insert one new entry, and edit this entry.
Now change the Key of this entry to CTRL-A, and in the data-line of
the entry write "PINBOARD" . Also set the security level for this entry
to the lowest of your system, possibly zero.
After that enter the CONFIG.EXE of SuperBBS and change the name of the
first menu to AUTOMENU.MNU, so this menu will be called before your
TOP.MNU.
3) The CTL-File
The order of the keywords in the CTL-file is not important. Following
there is a short description of the almost selfexplaining keywords.
Note! there i are more statements in the CTL file than explained here
in the doc ! All of the statements are selfexplaining, so there is no
need to explain them twice !
The configuration files have to placed in the PinBoard subdirectory.
Please Note : You may not place all pinboard files in the BBS-homedirectory,
use an extra directory for pinboard (it's faster and looks better ;-)
DORINFOPATH J:\SBBS\LINE1\
defines the path to the directory, where the DORINFO?.DEF files are
placed. In multiline there are different paths for every line, so pay
attention here !
LINE 2
this keyword defines the number of the line you're running. If you're
only running one line, you have to specify LINE 1, cause this statement
defines the number of the DORINF?.DEF file !
Don't erase this statement !
EXITINFOPATH J:\SBBS\LINE1\
with this option you can use some SBBS certain features. Also a few
datas which are extracted from the DORINFO?.DEF file will be overwritten
by the infos in EXITINFO.BBS. The main advantage of this feature is, that
the time, spent in the door will be exactly given back to SBBS.
MAXNOTES 3
how many notes should be managed ? define up to 99. The notes are
managed in a ring-buffer, so if the number of notes exceed the statement
here, the oldest one will be erased.
TEXTPATH J:\SBBS\TEXT
defines the path to your BBS-textfiles. The output files of PinBoard
(PINBOARD.ANS & PINBOARD.ASC) will be placed in this path.
SAYSTRING $ says on % at & following
the SAYSTRING statement defines the context in the headerline above
each note. there are some macros which will expand at runtime.
$ expands to the full username
% expands to current date
& expands to current time
CONTINUE Please press <ENTER> to continue...
defines the text, which will be displayed at the end of the pinboard-
notes. the CTRL-A key (means the "wait-for-enter"-semaphore in the
BBS-softwares) will be added automatically.
INACTIVITY 300
After how many seconds user should be logged off by inactivity (default 300)
LOGFILE J:\SBBS\LINE1\SYSTEM.LOG
Path and name of your logfile. If no logfile is defined, logging
is disabled.
4) Multiline/Singleline operation
In multilinemode PinBoard shares the pinboard messages, and also the
PIMBOARD.A?? files. Special semaphores prevent the other line to interfere
in the actions of an other line.
PinBoard has several commandlineswitches which are explained below.
/G? (? is 1 or 0) ansi/ascii switch
/C<filename> <filename> name (without path) of an alternate
configuration file (important for multiline)
if nothing is defined, PINBOARD.CTL is used.
/DEBUG run's PinBoard in Debugmode (only for testing!)
When you install PinBoard in your BBS-Software you should
use following statement:
(sorry, i only can tell you how to do in SuperBBS, cause i use it ;-)
Place a menutype 7 (shell under board an run program) in one of
your menus.
the command line for single-line is quite simple:
in SuperBBS use:
J:\SBBS\PINBOARD\PINBOARD.EXE /G*G *E
*E = read exitinfo after return to BBS
*G = Ansi-macro of SuperBBS (*G expands to 0 or 1 !)
Note : PINBOARD.CTL in J:\SBBS\PINBOARD\ is used !
the commandline for mutliline operation is quite longer.
in SuperBBS use:
J:\SBBS\PINBOARD\PINBOARD.EXE /G*G /CPINBRD*N.CTL *E
*E = read exitinfo after return to BBS
*G = Ansi-macro of SuperBBS (*G expands to 0 or 1 !)
*N = Number of actual line in SuperBBS
the parameter /CPINBRD*N.CTL will expand to
/CPINBRD1.CTL on line 1
/CPINBRD2.CTL on line 2 and so on.
You have to place a PINBRD?.CTL for every line in the PinBoard-directory !
For Remote Abszess (sorry) Access use following lines:
(Thanx to Klaus-Dieter Klein 2:246/126 for the text)
Installing in a RemoteAccess Environment:
Place a menutype 7 (shell under board an run program) in one of
your menus.
the command line for single-line is quite simple:
in RemoteAccess use:
C:\COMMAND.COM /C J:\RA\PINBOARD\PINBOARD.EXE -G1 *M
C:\COMMAND.COM /C = a second Command-Interpreter will be loaded
during run of PINBOARD.EXE (speeding up!)
*G = Ansi-macro of SuperBBS (*G expands to 0 or 1 !)
*M = Swapping of RA into Extended Memory during
run of PINBOARD.EXE
Note : PINBOARD.CTL in J:\RA\PINBOARD\ is used !
the commandline for mutliline operation is quite longer.
in RA use:
C:\COMMAND.COM /C J:\RA\PINBOARD\PINBOARD.EXE -G1 /CPINBRD*N.CTL *M
C:\COMMAND.COM /C = a second Command-Interpreter will be loaded
during run of PINBOARD.EXE (speeding up!)
*G = Ansi-macro of SuperBBS (*G expands to 0 or 1 !)
*N = Number of actual line in RA
the parameter /CPINBRD*N.CTL will expand to
/CPINBRD1.CTL on line 1
/CPINBRD2.CTL on line 2 and so on.
5) Global features of PinBoard
There exists one file in the PinBoard-package which is called PINBOARD.HLP.
This file is a plain vanilla ASCII-File which contains a short help for
your users. Simply edit this file with an ASCII-Editor for your individual
help-screen.
In SysOp-mode (already known as god-mode ;-) you see some information
on the last to lines of your screen (don't worry, 43 lines and 50 lines
screens are supported ;-).
There is one status-statement which is not very common in use, the
"Countdown"-statement. It describes the seconds until an inactivity
logout is processed.
With the Cursor up/down keys you can increase/decrease users time left
If you use EXITINFO.BBS, this time will be retruned to your BBS Software.
6) Requirements
PinBoard requires a fossil-device which should be loaded and already
configured.
Normaly you don't need to swap your BBS-software to disk or EMS, PinBoard
won't use so much memory.
PinBoard also requires a BBS-software which produces a DORINFO1.DEF (and
in multiline a DORINFO?.DEF) file. Without this file no operation is
possible !
An Ansi-device is not necessary, cause PinBoard translates the Ansi-commands
to direct screen-writes.
7) Registration
The fee for PinBoard is (for Version 1.11) 15 US $ or 15 German Marks.
There are two way's of registration:
per email : send a letter with cash/eurocheque to the registration
adress below. Add 5 US$ or 5 German Marks if i should
send you the key crash to your BBS ! Otherwise the key
will be put on hold for your system.( Point-Systems !
please add 5$/German Marks, so that i can send the
key to your boss, cause i cannot put it on hold for
points !)
per snailamil: Transfer the money like above. Add a already adressed
envelope (don't forget the stamp !) with a formatted
disk in the letter. You will recieve the lates version
of PinBoard and a valid key per snailmail.
If you transfer money by bank-transfer, please inform me about this per
email (or a local mail in my bbs ) !!!
!!! Important !!!
If the package is not complete, e.g. you forget the stamp, or insert no
disk etc.. i WILL NOT do anything ! 15$ (German Marks) are not the world,
so please understand this !
******
For key-generation i need the full name of your mailbox (case sensitiv !).
******
SnailMail-Adress : Oliver Weindl
Sudetenstr.3
Germany 8303 Rottenburg/L
EMail : Oliver Weindl 2:246/45@Fidonet.org
Bank-Transfer : Sparkasse Rottenburg
BLZ 743 500 50
Ktnr. 701 493 7
8) Future releases
All future releases can be frequested at 2:246/45 and 2:246/145 with
the magic PINBOARD. For those who aren't in Fido call this board
with your terminal, phone: +49-8781-3418 & +49-8781-3442, line one
with HST/DS. Line 2 now with ZyXEL + !!
Improvements will regard on the reactions i receive on this program.
Please write your opinion about this program to : Oliver Weindl 2:246/45
Oliver Weindl
2:246/45
6.September 1992