home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
BBS Toolkit
/
BBS Toolkit.iso
/
remote
/
brows201.zip
/
BROWSE.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1991-08-31
|
29KB
|
957 lines
######
## ##
## ## ## ### #### ## ## ##### ####
##### ### ## ## ## ## # ## ## ## ##
## ## ## ## ## ## ####### #### ######
## ## ## ## ## ####### ## ##
###### #### #### ## ## ##### ####
*THE*
File Area Browser
for
All Bulletin Board Systems the use the standard Files.Bbs format
and generates a DorinfoX.Def system info file.
Copyright (c) 1990,91 by FenrisUlven Data & Patrik Sjöberg
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Disclaimer and legal stuff
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The BROWSE-Package is subject to the following license terms and
conditions.
* The BROWSE-package is supplied as is. The author disclaims all
warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation,
the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any
purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or
consequential, which may result from the use of the
BROWSE-package.
* The BROWSE-package is a "shareware program" and is provided at
no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share it with
your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part
of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is
to provide personal computer users with quality software without
high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to
continue to develop new products.
* The BROWSE-package, all programs, the documentation and support
files are copyrighted 1991 by Patrik Sjöberg. All rights are
reserved. You may copy this package for backup purposes. You may
also copy and share unmodified copies of the whole package,
providing that the copyright notice is reproduced and included
on all copies.
* You may not sell the product for a fee and/or distribute the
product along with other products without written permission,
nor may you modify or remove the Copyright Notices from the
programs or the documentation files. User clubs, if they are NOT
commercial, are allowed to ask a small amount of money for
distribution and storage when they want to share this package
amongst their members.
* It is forbidden to modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer,
decompile and/or disassemble the software in the BROWSE-package.
Patching the medium at places that carry the software is seen as
a program change and is also forbidden.
* Non-commercial users can get a licence for the usage up to this
release of the BROWSE-package for a small amount of money. Look
into the details in HOWTO.REG. Previous registered users will
receive a big reduction to upgrade to the newer versions. These
users should also look into the details in HOWTO.REG. For
Non-commercial users there is a POSSIBILITY to submit to one of
the special contracts as explained in the same file.
* Commercial usage of BROWSE will cost somewhat more. Also, a so
called 'closed' Bulletin Board System (a system where the user
must pay direct to the SysOp to get full access) has to pay more
than a Non-commercial user. Usage of the Browse-Packge on a BBS
with 3 (three) lines or more is considered as 'closed BBS' usage
also.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 2
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
What is BROWSE ?
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse a File Area Browser for your BBS. It will enhance your
fileareas listing feature to allow your users to actually look
into each one of your files On-Line with a touch of a key.
How many times have you, as a user logging onto other BBS wished
you could see the included files of an archive before you
downloaded it only to find it was not the file you were looking
for. You have now wasted time and possibly long distance charges
to get a file you didn't even need.
Browse will even allow your users to Tag any or all the files that
they wish while On-Line, for downloading at a later time utilizing
Robert W. Van Hoeven's Fantastic FileDoor Program. Your users may
move back and forth between file areas without loosing the
previously tagged files. They can even go back and de-select
previously tagged files.
And that is not all. Browse is a browser as well. That means that
your users will be able to look at Your file areas just as if they
where using any ordinary file viewer. But Browse does it all On-
Line!
What Browse is not is a replacement for Your bbs whole file
handling. Browse is only intended to replace the viewing part of
the Files.Bbs files which contains all information about the files
online.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 3
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Features in Browse
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
These are some of the Features found in BROWSE...
■ Support for any bbs package that can create a DorinfoX.Def
file and that uses standard Files.Bbs files. This includes
most popular BBS systems.
■ Tag files for later downloading if used with FileDoor made by
Robert W. Van Hoeven.
■ View contents of files easily (Supports .Zip .LHA .LZH .PAK
.ZOO .ARC and ordinary ASCII files).
■ Show the resolution of GIF <Tm> images.
■ Supports Avatar codes in the Files.Bbs and translates them to
ANSI if the user does not support Avatar. And strips them if
user has TTY set as terminal emulator.
■ Full CD-Rom support if the BBS can handle the CD rom.
■ Browse will use any memory that You may have. It has full
support for XMS, EMS and virtual memory on disk.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Hardware and software requirements
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BROWSE requires the following software and hardware to function
properly.
* MS/PC-DOS version 3.00 or higher.
* A revision 5 compatible FOSSIL communication driver.
* Any Files.Bbs compatible file.
* An IBM PC compatible machine with at least enough ram or disk
space to hold a complete Files.Bbs file in memory.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 4
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
How to get Started
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1. Unpack the archived file containing the BROWSE files.
2. Put BROWSE in any directory. Put the help file (BROWSE.HLP)
file there as well (The help file is an ascii file and can be
what you want. It also supports Avatar colour codes)
3. Read all the documentation files contained in the Archive.
If You execute BROWSE without any commandline parameters it will
show You a short info screen that contains all valid commandline
parameters.
Legal Command line Parameters:
/B: <Path and filename for the 'files.bbs' file>
( Optional CD-support)
/F: <Path where the FILES and FILES.BBS is located>
/N: <Node running the program>
/D: <Path and name of dorinfoX.def file> (optional)
/T (Enable FileDoor Tag compatibility)
/W: <Spaces to indent when wrapping description>
/L:<Where to place the tagfile>
/S:- Set snoop mode OFF. Can be toggled with space as well.
/A (No question if User wish to tag some more files or stop)
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 5
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The commandline parameters explained.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
/B: <Path and filename for the 'files.bbs' file>
This parameter tells BROWSE where to look for the Files.Bbs file.
If not supplied, BROWSE will look in the directory where the files
reside. But if You have a CD-Rom You might wish to put the
Files.Bbs file elsewhere. Note that the files.bbs file does not
have to be named files.bbs.
/F: <Path where the FILES and FILES.BBS is located>
This parameter tells BROWSE where the files are located. If the /B
parameter is not supplied BROWSE will also look for the Files.Bbs
file in this directory.
/N: <Node running the program>
This is an important parameter if You run a multiline system. It
will see to that BROWSE does not interfere with other copies of
BROWSE running simultaneously. If two nodes run BROWSE at the same
time with the same node number both copies of BROWSE will try to
use the same memory for the Files.Bbs file. And that is not that
good.
/D: <Path and name of dorinfoX.def file> (optional)
Another optional parameter is the one that points BROWSE in the
right direction when the DorinfoX.def file can not be found in the
current directory. The DorinfoX.def file is a text file created by
Your BBS system that contains information on what communication
port the user is using and so on. It is essential for the
operation of BROWSE.
/T (Enable FileDoor Tag compatibility)
Browse has the ability to interface to FileDoor which is an
external file transfer program. FileDoor can read a file with
information about what files the user wish to download and BROWSE
has the ability to create this file. The function is called
tagging since it will allow the user to simply tag a file
/L:<Where to place the tagfile>
This parameter tells BROWSE where to put the generated FileDoor
tagfile. It should be the same directory as the one You have
specified in the setup of FileDoor. If Not supplied, BROWSE puts
the tagfile in the current directory.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 6
/W: <Spaces to indent when wrapping description>
BROWSE supports description lines up to 255 characters and will
wrap them so that they fit on a 80 character screen. This
parameter tells BROWSE how many spaces to indent the wrapped line.
It is nice if for instance have Download counters and wish the
second line of the description to start to the right of the
counter. Default is value is 32.
/A (No question if User wish to tag some more files or stop)
When a user has tagged some files before and enters a new area
BROWSE will ask him if he wish to tag some more files or start all
over again. This switch removes this question since most of the
time users do not want to delete previously tagged files from the
tag file.
/S:- Set snoop mode OFF. Can be toggled with space as well.
If You do not wish to see what the user is doing online set the
snoop mode to off. BROWSE will still display its statusline and
You can toggle snoop mode ON/OFF with the space key at any time
during a session with BROWSE.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 7
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
How to install Browse in a BBS.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The following is an example of a BROWSE installation in a Remote
Access BBS. It may not be what You are looking for but might help
you out.
I recomend that You install BROWSE as a menu type 7 command.
Put the following on the commandline field in RAMENU.
C:\RA\BROWSE.EXE <Parameters>
NOTE: Remember to add the *M after BROWSE.EXE if swapping is
desired while running as a Menu type 7
Sample Command Line for a Menu Type 7 using templates in RA and
and activating the FileDoor interface.
C:\RA\BROWSE.EXE *M /F:*0 /N:1 /T /W:37 /L:e:\tagfiles
After setting up your menu option for the user, make sure you log
on locally to ensure that you have all the command line parameters
set as required.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 8
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Running the Browser.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
When you depress the Menu Option key (Selected by you) to start
Browse you should see the something to the effect of the following
sample screens:
------------------------------------------------------------------
A BAT2FD10.ZIP 58411 11-03-90 (34) Batch files for multi Node
B FD199C.ZIP 517193 03-08-90 (73) FrontDoor Mailer ver. 1.99c
C FD201.ARJ 569914 08-14-91 (24) FrontDoor Mailer ver. 2.01
D FDANLZ.ZIP 38922 04-22-91 (17) FrontDoor Usage Log Analyzer
E FDLOG120.ZIP 49045 12-02-90 (16) FrontDoor Logging Utility
F FMS110.ZIP 38974 02-09-91 (54) FrontDoor Manager Utility
(List one page long) (V) View (?) Help (T) Tag Escape to Quit
┌──────────────┬──────┬───┬─────┬────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ Paul Williams│175:56│N:1│382Kb│19:28:06│<Space>-Toggle Snoop │
└──────────────┴──────┴───┴─────┴────────┴───────────────────────┘
------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE : All these sample screens have been somewhat compressed to
fit on a single line!
View Menu Option:
If you were to select the (V)iew option you would be asked to
select the file you wish to view. At this point you would select
your file by giving the letter to the left of the file you wish to
view. In this sample we will use the letter F and you should be
presented with the following screen:
------------------------------------------------------------------
File to Show: FMS110.ZIP
Name Length Size Date Time Path
------------- ------- ----- -------- ------ ------------
FMS.EXE 52393 31371 02-09-91 19:27
FMS.DOC 18032 5006 02-09-91 23:39
FMS.CTL 1463 546 02-09-91 23:34
BETA.DOC 1087 584 02-09-91 20:09
WHATSNEW.DOC 609 374 02-09-91 19:52
------------- ------- ----- -------- ------ ------------
Total : 73584 37881
Press any key to continue:
┌──────────────┬──────┬───┬─────┬────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ Paul Williams│175:56│N:1│382Kb│19:28:06│<Space>-Toggle Snoop │
└──────────────┴──────┴───┴─────┴────────┴───────────────────────┘
------------------------------------------------------------------
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 9
If the file would have been a GIF image BROWSE would have
displayed the resolution of that image instead.
If BROWSE does not find the file You wish to view to be a valid
archive file (ae Unknown archive format for BROWSE) then BROWSE
will ask the user if she/he wishes to view the file anyway. After
all it could be a textfile.
Help Menu Option:
If you select the Help Option - (?) Help YOUR help screen will be
displayed to the user. This could Contain any additional help you
feel that your users may need for running the program. The help
file is called BROWSE.HLP and should be located at the same place
as the BROWSE.EXE file. The help file can use the same avatar
codes as the Files.Bbs so if You wish to enhance it with some nice
colours use the Avatar codes.
Tag Menu Option:
The tag menu option is only displayed if the /T parameter was
given on the commandline. If You have installed FileDoor then this
function will let Your users easily tag files for later download.
All they have to do is press (T) and then enter the character
displayed first on each line with a filename. If the user wishes
he can de-tag the file by repeating the procedure even if he has
left the area and later returns.
Remember the /A command line parameter mentioned earlier?
It is an optional parameter, however, If you omit the /A switch,
Browse will present a very nice reminder to your users that they
have already tagged files for download should they forget.
Browse WILL NOT bring up the reminder message if the /A command
line switch is used.
The following is what the Reminder message Screen looks like:
Hi Paul,
You have already tagged some files for download.
Do you wish to tag some more files or start all over scratch?
T)ag some more files.
S)tart from scratch.
E)xit the browser.
Your Choice (T/s/e):
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 10
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The Statusline
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
What does the status line tell me?
The statusline is updated every second and consists of some vital
information about the user online. Below You'll se a sample
statusline.
The status line consists of the following information.
┌──────────────┬──────┬───┬─────┬────────┬───────────────────────┐
│ Paul Williams│175:56│N:1│382Kb│19:28:06│<Space>-Toggle Snoop │
└──────────────┴──────┴───┴─────┴────────┴───────────────────────┘
Name ────┘ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
Time Left ───────┘ │ │ │
│ │ │
Node running browse ────┘ │ │
│ │
Conventional memory left ─────┘ │
│
Current time in 24H format ──────────┘
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 11
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BROWSE, DesqView and Share
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BROWSE is DesqView- and ShareAware. That means that BROWSE will
when opening files try to allow others to access the files at the
same time. All files, except textfiles, are opened in Deny-Write-
mode. That is, other programs are allowed to read but not write to
files opened by BROWSE while BROWSE is reading them. BROWSE will
never have a file open longer than necessary to get the needed
information from it.
The Screen writes in Febbs is also aware about DesqView and asks
DesqView (DV) for an alternative video buffer. Thereby you can set
the Direct screenwrites option in DV to NO.
How much memory you give to BROWSE is all up to you but when
deciding keep an eye on the status row how much memory is left
when you decide how much to give to Febbs. BROWSE can handle most
types of memory when allocating memory to hold the information in
the Files.Bbs file. Ordinary RAM memory, XMS, EMS or virtual
memory on the disk can be used.
BROWSE will also, when idle waiting for a keystroke, slice away
CPU time to other tasks running under DesqView. This has the
advantage that BROWSE allows other tasks to execute faster and
smother while BROWSE is not doing anything in particular.
If access is denied to a Files.Bbs then BROWSE simply abort and
return the user to the BBS. This is the best way to handle it
since the user might not be willing to spend his time online to
wait for another task to release the file.
Access denied can occur on multiline systems when several tasks
try to access the same files in a non sharing manner. For this to
work you must have loaded the DOS utility SHARE.EXE before you
start. Please note once again that BROWSE opens all files in a
sharing manner. Other programs will have no problem reading files
opened by BROWSE.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 12
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Avatar codes supported by BROWSE.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BROWSE is aware of some Avatar codes. Avatar stand for Advanced
Video Attribute Terminal Assembler and Recreator and is a <TM> of
George A. Stanislav. I will not go in to deep here on the Avatar
codes but if you wish to examine them closer i suggest you get
hold of the following FidoNet technical Standards documentations :
FSC-0025
FSC-0037
They should be available on most Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) but
if you can't find them contact me and i will supply you with them.
The Following codes are supported by Febbs.
^Y<Char><Repeat> - Repeat Character.
^V^B - Turn Blink on.
^V^A<Colour> - Change Colour.
Where ^ stands for Control(Ctrl). Press down Ctrl and then Press
the Character after ^ to create the Control character.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
BROWSE - In the future.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
New functions are being looked at for implementation as soon as I
have the time and get some good idea that's worth implementing.
What would you like to see in BROWSE?
It is only my imagination that holds me back, and of course spare
time. I am not doing this for a living. If i would have done that
i would have starved to death by now.
So Please try to be realistic.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 13
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The last Request ...
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Any comments of what you think of BROWSE and suggestions of future
enhancements you would like to see can be sent via E-Mail or
Ordinary mail to the development team. Or log on to the support
BBS, where you'll find a local support conference for Browse.
Somehow there has never been a need for a echomail support
conference. Perhaps because it is a program that is very easy as
it to use...
The Telephone number to the BBS :
+46-26-62 80 57
E-Mail address : 2:205/208@FidoNet
USR DS v42Bis/v32 Speed and 24Hr open.
My address is as follows :
FenrisUlven Data
Attn : Patrik Sjöberg
Sörbygatan 69B
S-802 55 GEFLE
SWEDEN
USA Support/Registration Site :
Paul Williams
701 Laurel Drive
Aiken, South Carolina 29801-3391
E-Mail address : 1:3624/1@FidoNet
USR DS 14.4/v32 23 Hours a Day
And if you use Browse, Please Register.
If you don't then this piece of SoftWare will come to a halt in
development. No one likes to put Hours, Days, Months, Years of
work into something and not getting something in return.
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 14
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Copyrights, Trademarks
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
PKPAK, PKUNPAK, PKZIP and PKUNZIP are trademarks of PKWare Inc.
PAK is a trademark of NoGate Consulting.
ARC is a trademark of SEA inc.
LZH and LHarc are trademarks of Yoshi;
LZS and LARC are trademarks of K.Miki H.Okumura and K.Masuyama
ARJ is a trademark of Robert K. Jung
HYPER is a trademark of P.Sawatzki and Klaus P.Nischke
AR is a trademark of Haruhiko Okumura
ZOO is a trademark of Rahul Dhesi.
QuickBBS is a trademark of the QuickBBS group Inc.
Remote Access is a trademark of Continental Software
FrontDoor is a trademark of Joaquim H. Homrighausen
TubFile is a trademark of Jörgen Olsson
Opus is a trademark of Wynn Wagner III
Maximus is a trademark of Scott Dudley
Desqview is a trademark of Quarterdeck Systems
Qemm is a trademark of Quarterdeck Systems
386Max is a trademark of Qualitas
MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft corporation
FileDoor is a trademark of Rob Van.Hoeven
GIF is a trademark of CompuServe Inc.
Avatar is a trademark of George A. Stanislav
The BROWSE-Package is written in Turbo Pascal 6.0 and Turbo
Assembler 2.01, with help of the Turbo Debugger 2.01 and makes use
of Object professional 1.11 and PSCF v0.06. Also included are
some routines of Anders Brink's fine tools called ABUnit which is
Public Domain.
Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International
Turbo Debugger is a trademark of Borland International
ABUnit is a trademark of Anders Brink
Object Professional is a trademark of TurboPower Inc.
PSCF is a trademark of Patrik Sjöberg
Browse Documentation is the combined work of:
Patrik Sjoberg 2:205/208
Paul Williams 1:3624/1
< End of Document >
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Browse - The Files.Bbs browser Page 15