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Text File | 1992-12-02 | 21KB | 544 lines

T . A . G T o B l u e W a v e D o o r I n t e r f a c e U t i l i t i e s V e r s i o n 2 . 0 Acknowledgements ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TAG is copyrighted by Victor Capton and Robert Numerick None of this interface package would be possible without the support the TAG team has give to third party utilities authors in terms of structures and functional programming aid. Special thanks go to Victor Capton, Paul Williams and Randy Goebel.. the current main force behind the TAG BBS systems. Blue Wave is copyrighted by Cutting Edge Computing. The author is George Hatchew. Thanks go to George as well for providing insight into how the door interfaces with the QBBS V7.5 BBS system thus eliminating a couple of major brain busters. XTRA special thanks go to the people who did the beta testing for this utility package: John Nash 1:374/10 Jason Brothers 1:101/352 David Beiger 1:374/5 Jonathan Blair 1:2605/630 Steven Sheeley 1:374/302 Cliff Morrison 1:163/412 Chris Howes 1:374/69 Justin Gould 1:231/272 Todd Punderson 1:321/309 Vince Worthington 1:3629/405 Guarantees/Warranties ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Simply Put, There are no guarantees that this software will do anything but take up disk space. The author assumes no liability for any damages caused by running the related programs.. This disclaimer includes, but is not limited to loss of data, or destruction of files. Blue Wave Files Needed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BW101_QB.ZIP QBBS V2.75 Blue Wave Mail Door BWAVE211.ZIP Latest Blue Wave Reader Both Files are FREQable from Here (1:236/16) Purpose ~~~~~~~ This utility set is designed to ease the interface of the Blue Wave mail door and TAG BBS systems. The included programs create a QBBS V7.5 system for use by the Blue Wave mail Door.. and any other QBBS V7.5 type door or utilities that need the resulting files. -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 1 ]=- Main operation/use outline Use ~~~ The use of these utilities is two step: 1. Unzip the file TAG2QBBS into the Blue Wave Directory and execute. Upon execution you will be prompted for two directories. The first is the path to your Status.Dat File.. the second the path to the HMS base you are setting up. Bear in mind the STATUS.DAT path you enter will be based upon the node you are setting up. (see the recommended Multi-node setup later in the docs) -=[ NOTE ]=- To run as a nightly event and keep the message areas, files areas, and List files up to date enter the two paths on the command line as follows. TAG2QBBS C:\BBS C:\HMSPATH It is recommended you perform this maintenance for each node every night or after adding or deleting message or file areas. This program also creates standard QBBS V2.75 FILES.BBS files in each of your download directories.. if the directory is a CDROM drive then the list file is generated in the same directory as the *.DIR file and is named based on the following convention: F[File Area Number].BBS So if a CDROM area is area #321 and the .DIR file was located in the multi-node directory the list file name would be: C:\MULTI\F321.BBS These list files are essential to Blue Wave's ability to allow users to request files via the door and should not be disturbed. This program will create: QUICKCFG.DAT QBBS system file similar to STATUS.DAT MSGCFG .DAT Message Base Configuration/Definition FILECFG .DAT File Base Configuration/Definition LIMITS .CTL Download/Upload Ratio and Time Control FILES .BBS List File For User File Requests. F[DIR#] .BBS CDROM List File(s) Now you can run the Blue Wave setup Program BWUTILS.EXE and toggle the board specific options. (Multi Node Setup Is Later In Documentation so read EVERYTHING before starting!) -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 2 ]=- Setting Up The Blue Wave Door.... General Information: Set packet name, Max Messages to download, Max Files for FREQ, and the various display files. Overrides Any areas you wish to force or exclude. You can force exclusion from users even if they normally have access and can setup default areas which the users will use depending upon their normal access, or change the access requirements to be different than those on the BBS. You will only see the message area listing when you choose to insert a new area.. rest assured ALL of your HMS areas are known to Blue Wave. Directories and paths Check these but they should all be correct except the local download, upload paths. The swap path should default to the path you have setup for TAG or none.. For multi-Node setups make sure your System Path points to the specific QBBS path for that Node Directory beneath Blue Wave. Security level and flags This simply setups up default flags and flag override access for netmail. It defaults to the QBBS sysop security level of 32000 and you will need to make the appropriate changes. If you wish to toggle flag access just remember the TAG A/R flags are toggled as the first 27 flags so a use that had flags of @A--DEF would translate to XX--XXX in Blue Wave. (ALL Users have the @ flag) That should do it for initial setup.. Oh yeah.. If you wish to have a HMS netmail base within TAG just setup your desired message base as a RA/QBBS type echo base and once completed go back and change the base type to NetMail and it will remain as a fully functional HMS netmail base. The One limitation is TAG will allow you to set the various netmail attributes but will only display the "Local" attribute. In my own experience everything *should* toss correctly (at least it does under D'Bridge's HMS tosser). -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 3 ]=- Interfacing TAG to the Blue Wave Door 2. Edit the included BW.BAT file and place it in your TAG BBS directory then place the TAG2BW.EXE file in your Blue Wave directory. Add a menu option of Pkey < Pdata BW(??).BAT (You will need a separate Menu and Batch file for each HMS directory. The "??" referres to NODE/HMSBASE Numbers) The files created by TAG2BW.EXE are: EXITINFO.BBS User information file that can be changed by door ALIAS .BBS Alias file for users USERS .BBS All user information (like USER.LST) DORINFO?.DEF Door drop file That should be about all I need tell you at this time other than read the Blue Wave Docs and you should easily see how to use these programs for setting up Multiple Nodes and HMS bases. You will also note that Blue Wave will respect your user's handles and will Force Handles to be used on any area you force handles and will not allow handles in any area you have handles disabled... There is no such thing as anonymous on QBBS boards so these areas have handles forced. A Word about local File Requests: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As stated earlier, it is crucial that a correctly formatted FILES.BBS or alternate list file exists for the file request options to work. Any files that are downloaded will applied toward the user's File download count and Download-K statistics. If the user is out of balance Blue Wave will not allow the user to download. If you are using another program to create your BBS's FILES.BBS please remember that it probably won't be placing the alternate list files in the correct place for the CDROMs and may well inhibit the user downloading ability. If there is a specific area you do NOT wish users to access via Blue Wave, regardless of their BBS access rights simply include a command in your maintenance batch file to delete that file area's FILES.BBS or alternate list file (F(are#).BBS).. then Blue Wave will treat the file as non existent even though it finds it in the appropriate directory. As with TAG, Blue Wave will not charge Users for downloading from file areas marked as Free <no ratios>. -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 4 ]=- Mulitnode Setup For sake of example we will demonstrate the multi-node setup using a Two node system with the following directory structure for the BBS: Node 1: BBS dir = C:\BBS Gfiles = C:\BBS\GFILES AFiles = C:\BBS\AFILES MSG Dir = C:\MESSAGES Node 2: BBS DIr = C:\BBS2 Gfiles = C:\BBS2\GFILES AFiles = C:\BBS2\AFILES MSG DIR = C:\MESSAGES Multinode MULTI Dir = C:\MULTI USERS .LST CDROM .DIR FILES MBOARDS .DAT FBOARDS .DAT Main Blue Wave Directory = C:\BW In the above example the directory tree would look like: ROOT--+ | +----+ BBS <-------- NODE1 STATUS.DAT Directory | | | + AFILES | | | + GFILES | +----+ BBS2 <------- NODE2 STATUS.DAT Directory | | | + AFILES | | | + GFILES | +----+ BW <------- Main Blue Wave Directory (includes all *.PRM | | Files) | + NODE1 <----- NODE1 QBBS System Directory. Must Contain | | | TAG2QBBS.EXE | | + DOWN | | | | | + UP | | | | | + WORK | | | + NODE2 <----- NODE2 QBBS System Directory. Must Contain | | TAG2QBBS.EXE | + DOWN | | | + UP | | | + WORK | +----+ MESSAGES <----- HMS Files (Single HMS Base System) | +----+ MULTI -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 5 ]=- Mulitnode Setup Given the preceding directory structure the calling conventions for each program would be: BWUTILS.EXE - Called from main Blue Wave directory ~~~~~~~~~~~ NODE1 BWUTILS NODE1.PRM NODE2 BWUTILS NODE2.PRM TAG2QBBS - Called from Each C:\BW\NODE? Directory ~~~~~~~~ NODE1 TAG2QBBS C:\BBS C:\MESSAGES NODE2 TAG2QBBS C:\BBS2 C:\MESSAGES TAG2BW - Called from main Blue Wave Directory ~~~~~~ NODE1 TAG2BW %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 C:\BW\NODE1 C:\BBS NODE2 TAG2BW %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 C:\BW\NODE2 C:\BBS2 BWMAIL - Called from main Blue Wave Directory NODE1 BWMAIL -CNODE1.PRM NODE2 BWMAIL -CNODE2.PRM TAGUDATE - Called From Main Blue Wave Directory ~~~~~~~~ NODE1 TAGUDATE C:\BW\NODE1 C:\BBS NODE2 TAGUDATE C:\BW\NODE2 C:\BBS2 =============================[ Batch Files ]================================ NODE1 ~~~~~ @Echo Off C: Cd\BW TAG2BW %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 C:\BW\NODE1 C:\BBS BWMAIL -CNODE1.PRM TAGUDATE C:\BW\NODE1 C:\BBS CD\BBS -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 6 ]=- Multinode Setup NODE2 ~~~~~ @Echo Off C: Cd\BW TAG2BW %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 C:\BW\NODE2 C:\BBS2 : : The Next Line is due to Blue Wave's lack of recognizing : any DORINFO?.DEF file except DORINFO1.DEF : COPY C:\BW\NODE2\DORINFO2.DEF C:\BW\NODE2\DORINFO1.DEF BWMAIL -CNODE2.PRM TAGUDATE C:\BW\NODE2 C:\BBS2 CD\BBS2 As noted in the Batch file comments (any line preceded by a colon and not referred to as a Label is ignored by dos and serves as a comment) Blue Wave doesn't recognize node specific DORINFO?.DEF files.. I elected to create them anyway and allow the sysop to make the appropriate copy so the utility can serve to create the files for other QBBS V7.5 Doors and utilities that do recognize the node specific DORINFO? naming convention. Now for the multiple HMS systems. First off there is absolutely NO good reason for creating multiple HMS areas under TAG unless you have in excess of 200 messages areas (Lord) or your message base size has exceeded 16mg (Double oh lord).. This only serves to break other fine utilities, editors, etc, that would otherwise handle the message system flawlessly. As for data integrity, well you can always go back to the FIDO *.MSG message format. Really, the HMS system is pretty stable and shouldn't give you problems and if you end up with bad sectors you are likely to have other problems anyway. To use the multiple HMS message bases the same rules apply as in the preceding example with the addition of a new QBBS system Dir for each extra HMS base... and of course a corresponding Blue Wave .PRM file. The additional directories would appear as : BW + | + NODE1 <---- TAG2QBBS resides here with node1 HMS1 paths | + | | | + HMS2 <---- TAG2QBBS resides here with NODE1 HMS2 paths | | | + HMS3 <---- TAG2QBBS resides here with NODE1 HMS3 Paths | | | + DOWN | | | + WORK | | | + UP | + NODE2 <---- TAG2QBBS resides here with NODE2 HMS 1 paths. The rest is | + is the same as above. Naturally there would then be NODE11.PRM, NODE12.PRM, NODE13.PRM files for Blue Wave and TAG2QBBS would have to be called from each directory with the paths pointing to the appropriate BBS node dir and HMS message base. heh.. this is what you get for prostituting a *standard*. -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 7 ]=- Postscript If there are any questions or comments direct them to: Rick Cooper Just For the Heck Of It II 1:236/16 (219) 747-5871 - 11/13/92 Modified the File Sharing Scheme slightly, and added a couple more error messages for missing files. -11/14/92 -=[FIXED]=- Problem with Runtime error 201 Fixed! A bit of sloppy programming.. Heh.. Probably not the last time. (Thanks Both John and Jason) Fixed Sysop handle problem.. Seems QBBS doesn't use the first record number for the Alias.bbs file thus all user handles functioned except good 'ole Sysop User #1 Modified the way files are located.. Function will now search the Dos path as well as the TAG file definitions. Added creation of an error file TAG2BW.ERR in the Main BBS directory. This file does slow down the program a bit but should help me find exactly where in the program an error is occurring .. it also contains several of the system variables needed by the program and looks like : System Path = C:\BBS\ Blue Wave Path = C:\BW\ Share Installed DesqView Not Active Found C:\BBS\GFILES\Callers.Log Converting User Information For ExitInfo.BBS ExitInfo.BBS Definition Is Complete Writing ExitInfo 1..C:\BW\EXITINFO.BBS Writing ExitInfo 2..C:\BBS\MESSAGES\HUDSON\EXITINFO.BBS Writing Alias.Bbs File... C:\BBS\MESSAGES\HUDSON\ALIAS.BBS Writing Combine.Bbs File.. C:\BBS\MESSAGES\HUDSON\Combined.BBS Reading USER.LST File C:\BBS\MULTI\USER.LST Assigning USERS.BBS File.. C:\BBS\MESSAGES\HUDSON\USERS.BBS Reading Scan Flag File C:\BBS\MULTI\MZSCAN.DAT Creating USERS.BBS File.. Reading USER.LST Finished Writing C:\BBS\MESSAGES\HUDSON\USERS.BBS Writing C:\BW\DORINFO1.DEF All Files Written and Read.. Conversion Complete -11/18/92 Added communications routines so the user sees the Information Displayed locally.. Also added a "Percent Done" line so the user knows something is happening while the program writes the USERS.BBS file. This adds a couple seconds to the creation routines but the user will probably appreciate knowing that something is happening while they wait... Let me know -=[ TAG2BW Documentation Page 8 ]=- Postscript -11/20/92 Changed the status display so it only updates every 10% done which speeds things back up considerably. -11/21/92 Increased the stack space.. there were a couple of reports of lockups running under DesqView386 standard (not DV/X) and the problem has been traced to the STACKS=0,0 statement in the CONFIG.SYS. Hopefully V1h will correct these lockups. -11/21/92 Further increased the Stack space available (some real dead iron out there apparently) and fixed the problem with not locating File requested for download. Users will now be able to FREQ any files they normally have access to (and ratios/limits are enforced as is security access), except in a CDROM directory. If the current version still locks up under DV386 V2.4? rem out your Stacks= statement in the config.sys file and try again.. that will *probably* handle it now. -11/25/92 Added the ability to create the proper style FILES.BBS to the TAG2QBBS program. Also allows TAG2QBBS to accept command line parameters so it can be run as a nightly event thus keeping your files and message setups current as well as any List Files for Blue Wave. Parameters are: TAG2QBBS C:\BBS C:\HMS Where C:\BBS = Path To Status.Dat and C:\HMS = Message Base Path If you are keeping your .DIR files the Gfiles, Afiles, Or Multi directories, a file will be created within that directory with the naming convention of F+BoardNumber.BBS (eg: F1.BBS).. Please Don't remove those files or Blue Wave will Not be able to find the file your user is attempting to request. Removed all the error log code.. it would appear it's not needed.. well, I didn't actually remove it I just commented it out so it can be restored if needed. -11/28/92 Added the utility TAGUDATE.EXE. This program reads the EXITINFO.BBS file and updates the user's File Download-K and count, Post Count, and Netmail credit/debits. All the user post counts have to go into their public post count regardless of the type (private/public/echo, etc) because QBBS doesn't differentiate between types when it comes to counts. -12/01/92 Public release of the Door and rewriting of the bloody doc files.. I hate writing docs ..