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ROMDOOR v2.02 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CD-ROM Door for WildCat v3.x and PcBoard 14.5 Systems Copyright (C) 1992 by Jeff Bisson TABLE OF CONTENTS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Setting up RomDoor ............................... 2 - 10 Extra notes about use with WildCat 3.5x .......... 10 Extra notes about use with PcBoard 14.5 .......... 10 Adding comments to ZIP files ..................... 10 Setting up groups ................................ 10 - 11 Configuring and maintaining the request feature .. 11 - 12 How to use the CDSONLINE environmental variable .. 12 Common Asked Questions ........................... 13 Command Line parameters .......................... 13 Registration ..................................... 14 Special Thanks ................................... 14 Problems, comments, and future versions .......... 15 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── [Page 2, RomDoor v2.02] SETTING UP ROMDOOR ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor is quite easy to set up, although it may be a bit confusing and will take some time to do everything correctly. The process is not hard, but it is quite repetitive. Over all it is worth the trouble. STEP #1 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Take a deep breath. STEP #2 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Make a NEW directory for RomDoor. Usually ?:\ROMDOOR. ■ Extract the RomDoor archive into this new directory. ■ At this time you might want to print out these instructions for future reference. STEP #3 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Go to the RomDoor directory and type MAKEROM then press ENTER. ■ Press ENTER on "Edit RomDoor's Main Parameters". You should be presented with a menu that shows the following options: BBS Type: Defaults to WildCat! Press the Space Bar if you are running PcBoard. Network: Defaults to NONET. If you are running multinode, change this to either SHARE or NOVELL, this should be the same as in MAKEWILD. Flow Control: Here are some guidelines on choosing flow control: If you are running a high speed modem, or an error correcting modem, then choose "Hardware Flow Control, (CTS/RTS)". If you have a standard 2400 or an (ouch) 1200 bps modem, then choose "No Flow Control". Other options are available, such as "Software Flow Control, (Xon/Xoff)" as well as "Both Hardware and Software flow control", but they are rarely used. BBS Home Dir: Path to the main directory for your BBS program. For example (C:\WC30 for WildCat! systems) and (C:\PCB for PcBoard systems). Default Extension: This is the default file extension that will be used when a download is requested, provided a file without an extension is not located. ZIP and GIF are the two most common selections. [Page 3, RomDoor v2.02] External Protocols: This reads in the external protocols that you have specified in MakeWild and allows you to select which ones will be offered from RomDoor. Don't set any two-way protocols (BiModem or HsLink since RomDoor will not check for uploaded files and it may create problems. Note for PcBoard systems, Zmodem is filtered out because it is offered as an internal protocol in RomDoor. BBS ID: Enter the eight (or less) most significant letters of your boards name. I.E. For Illusions you would enter in ILLUSION. This is for the naming of the area listings that the user creates when they make a list to download from within RomDoor. (* NOTE *) This feature is only available in the registered version of RomDoor, and is disabled if you leave this field blank. Copy Files To HD: If this is set to yes then when a user starts a download of a file, RomDoor will copy the file to the Node Work Dir and download the file from there, after the download it will delete the file. This is extremely useful for high traffic systems. Note: RomDoor is smart and will not attempt to copy the file if there is not enough disk space. If this happens, RomDoor will continue to allow downloads directly off the CD-ROM as if this field was set to "NO". Use Group Names: Set to "YES" if you want to group your file areas together I.E. Games, GIFs, Adult. This is extremely useful for the user if you have a multi-CD-ROM-drive-system, because users don't have to wade through all the file areas each time the want to look for a specific type of file. Read "Setting up Groups" for more information on groups. Write to WC! Logs: Set this to "YES" if you want RomDoor to "log" to the WildCat! activity logs. If this option is set to "NO", RomDoor will maintain its own activity logs in the RomDoor directory. Note: PcBoard SysOps should set this to "NO" since it will look for ACTIVITY.XXX. Later versions will support the PcBoard activity logs. [Page 4, RomDoor v2.02] Link with BBS: Set this to "NO" if you want to keep the security level information separate from your BBS's. For example if you want the user to have a 1:1 download ratio in RomDoor, but a 2:1 download ratio in your BBS, you would have to set this to "NO". If this is set to "YES" the file ratio and daily limit information is matched with your BBS settings when your press ALT-U from the "Edit Security Level Information". More on this in Step 7. Allow Requests: Set this to "YES" if you want to use the Request feature. If you are interested in setting up the request feature please read the section "Configuring and maintaining the request feature". Drive Letter: You will only need to set this if you are planning to use the request feature. For more information on this option please read the section "Configuring and maintaining the request feature". ■ !!!! Now hit F10 to save your options !!!! STEP #4 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Now you are ready to start setting up your first CD-ROM. ■ Find the text files which listed the files that are on your CD-ROM and place those somewhere on your hard drive. You will need them later so remember where you put them. ■ Before you start importing the text files into the RomDoor database you have to tell RomDoor the format of the text file i.e. location of the filename, date, and description. ■ To configure the text files press ENTER on "Configure Text File Definitions". ■ INS to Add a New Record. ■ Type in the file name of one of the text files which came with the CD-ROM. This is the file that contains all the file names, sizes dates, and descriptions. ■ You will then be prompted with a question asking you what name you want to identify the record with, for ease of remembering type in the CD-ROM's name. ■ You will be presented with the first 6 lines from that text file, you may move up and down in the text file by using the up and down arrow keys. ■ You will notice the file name arrow which spans columns 1 to 12, if the location is incorrect move it using your arrow keys. Use the TAB Key to move from arrow to arrow. [Page 5, RomDoor v2.02] ■ If the text file has a file size field in it, then press INS and select "Size", a new arrow will appear which you may move. Place it directly under the file size field in the text file. If there is a date field then press INS again and move the date arrow to the date field. Similarly do this with the "Description" arrow. Make sure the "Description" arrow starts at the beginning of the description field and ends at the end of the field. Note you may move the arrows to 80 columns maximum. If you have a RBBS-IN-A-BOX style file listing there should be a area field, insert and move the "Area" arrow to the correct position. ■ Press F10 to save what you have done. ■ Press ESC to return to MakeRom main menu. STEP #5 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Now you are ready to enter the CD-ROM information for the disk that you are adding. ■ Press ENTER on "Edit CD-ROM information". ■ You will be presented with a menu listing the CD-ROM disks that you have configured. If you haven't configured any CD-ROMs then the names will be blank. Press ENTER on the CD-ROM that you want to configure. ■ The first time you press ENTER on a CD-ROM number you will be presented with a screen that tells you that it created a directory called ROMxx, which is located directly off your RomDoor directory. ■ Press ENTER on "Edit CD-ROM info". You will presented with a screen which allows you to configure the: Name of disk: Enter the name of the CD-ROM disk that you are adding. Volume label: If the CD-ROM disk has a volume label then you will want to enter it here. To find out the volume name of the CD-ROM disk you are adding and if it has a volume label - go to DOS and type VOL ?: ─┘. ? being the drive letter where the CD-ROM disk is located. Drive letter: Simply the drive letter that you will have the disk in. If you have multiple CD-ROM disk drives and will be switching the disks around you can leave this field blank. When RomDoor loads up it will check for the disks in the disk drives. [Page 6, RomDoor v2.02] RomDoor will have to have a way for checking so you have to have a volume label and/or a file to check for so RomDoor can identify the disks in the drives. File to look for: If the CD-ROM disk that you are adding doesn't have a volume label then you will want to use this field so RomDoor can tell if the CD-ROM disk is "Online". You will want to enter a file name that is UNIQUE to that CD-ROM disk. It can be ANY file that is on the CD-ROM. You will need to include the full path to the file so for example if you where going to use FILENAME.EXT which is located in the root directory of the drive you would enter: \FILENAME.EXT Instead of just FILENAME.EXT. ■ Press F10 to save you changes. STEP #6 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ The next thing to do is "Edit Areas". This is where you will configure each of the file areas that is on the CD-ROM disk. You will be asked how many file areas you want to have for that CD-ROM disk. You can set this number from 1-1000, usually this is set to the number of file areas that are on the CD-ROM. You can change the number by "Setting Max Areas For CD" from the previous menu. ■ Select the area to edit with your cursor and press ENTER. ■ This window has three different fields: Area Name: This is the name of the area. Groups: The groups that the file area belongs to. If you are not planning on using the grouping feature then just disregard this option. If you want to configure groups then please read the section "Setting up groups". Area Paths [1..6]: The next six fields pertain to the paths for the areas. ■ Since the CD-ROM's drive letter has already been designated, you do not need to include the drive letter when you type in the path. For example \GIF\NATURE instead of I:\GIF\NATURE. [Page 7, RomDoor v2.02] ■ RomDoor allows up to six paths for one file area, if you need more than you may separate the paths using semi-colons ';'. For example I:\GIFS\NATURE;I:\GIFS\GRAPHICS;I:\GIFS\PICTURES This can be useful if files for a particular file area aren't in one location on disk. ■ Hopefully your CD-ROM disk came with a text file that lists the area names and paths, you will use that to enter the correct information in the file areas. Go through the file areas entering the name, paths, and groups joined for every file area. ■ Before going onto the next step make sure that: The all the file areas have names and correct paths. STEP #7 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ The next step is to configure the security levels. ■ To do this press ENTER on "Edit Security Level Information" from the main menu in MakeRom, you will be presented a list of the security levels that you have defined in MakeWild, or for PcBoard sysops in PCBSETUP. ■ Press ENTER on the security level to configure, you will presented with a screen where you can configure the certain options that pertain to security levels. Access To Areas: If you press F2 on this field you will be presented with a list of the CD-ROM disks that you have configured in MakeRom. Press ENTER on the CD-ROM disk that you want to change the access to. To toggle access to individual areas press the spacebar. If you want to give the security level access to all of the areas on this CD-ROM disk simply press ALT-S to select all of the areas. If you want to clear the all of the areas press ALT-C. Press F10 when you are finished. Max Ratio: Controls the ratio of downloads to uploads that must be met. For example, if a ratio is set to 10, a user could download 10 files without uploading any. Starting with the 11th download the user would be advised that the download/upload ratio has been exceeded. Max Daily Downloads: Limits the amount of files that a user can download during one day. Max Daily DL K-Bytes: Limits the total kilobytes (1024 bytes) that a user can download during one day. [Page 8, RomDoor v2.02] DL Warning Action: Determines how RomDoor will react when a user goes over their download ratio. The options are "Ignore", "Warn", and "Disable". The last two will send a message explaining that they are over their ratio, and disable will not allow them to mark or download the file. Ext Protocols Access: If set to "NO" then the user's will not have access to the external protocols. Max Requested Files: Sets the maximum amount of files that a user can request at any give time. For more information on the request feature please read the section "Configuring and maintaining the request feature." Max Requested K-Bytes: Sets the maximum amount of K-Bytes a user can request at any give time. ■ Press F10 to save changes. *NOTE* If you have Link Sec Levels in "RomDoor's Main Settings" set to "YES" then ALT-U will correlate to your BBS settings for that particular security level. And if you ever change your BBS's security levels than you must press ALT-U to update RomDoor's security level file. STEP #8 (Still in MakeRom) ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Now you are ready to start importing file names and descriptions into the RomDoor documentation. ■ Press ENTER on "Edit CD-ROM information". Select the CD-ROM that you are adding. Then press ENTER on "Edit Areas". ■ Place your cursor on the file area you are going to import into and press ALT-I. ■ Enter the name of the text file that contains the file information for that area or multiple areas as discussed below. ■ Note: If the text file that you are importing has multiple areas then MakeRom will increment the area number once it encounters a blank line in the text file. IMPORTANT: Since MakeRom will go from one area to the next when it detects a blank line, you must: 1: be sure that the text file listing is in the same order by area as you defined the file areas in MakeRom (Step #6). 2: insure that there are no additional blank lines in the text listing other than the ones that separate the file areas. [Page 9, RomDoor v2.02] ■ You will then be asked for the Directory Setup Number, which is the number of the text file information that you entered in the "Text File Definition" (Step #4). At this point you can press F2 to get a pick list of the directory setup numbers. ■ Press "Y"es if you are importing a multi-area text file. ■ Press "Y"es if the information in the box is correct. ■ Now MakeRom should be importing the files into the RomDoor database. If the description is longer than 40 characters it will word wrap it and add it to the next line. Up to 10 lines of description are imported per file. Repeat this step for all of the file areas on this disk. ■ If you make a mistake you can press ALT-R with your cursor on a file area to remove the entries in that area. STEP #9 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Repeat steps 3-8 for every CD-ROM that you are importing into RomDoor. *** IMPORTANT *** Back up the RomDoor databases all the files in the ROMxx directories. After importing EACH CD-ROM just in case you run into a problem. STEP #10 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Exit the configuration program and setup your door batch file. ■ An example is included in the file SAMPLE.BAT. ■ It should look something like this: C:\ROMDOOR\ROMDOOR ■ It's that simple! STEP #11 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Configure WildCat! or PcBoard for the new door. ■ You will need to load MakeWild or PCBSETUP make sure there is a door number available. ■ (* NOTE TO WILDCAT SYSOPS *) RomDoor will also run from a DOS HOOK from any of the menus, i.e. from the file menu the batch file would be FILE1.BAT or FILE2.BAT. [Page 10, RomDoor v2.02] STEP #12 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── You may now exhale, you are done! Give RomDoor a test drive to make sure everything is working correctly. This can be done by logging on locally to your BBS or executing RomDoor from the command line by typing ROMDOOR LOCAL. EXTRA NOTES ABOUT USE WITH WILDCAT 3.5x ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor v2.02 works perfectly with WC! 3.5x. And requires no extra configuration. EXTRA NOTES ABOUT USE WITH PCBOARD 14.5 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor v2.02 works great with PcBoard 14.5. Inside PCBSETUP make sure that you have said that RomDoor uses the DOOR.SYS, other than that it requires no extra configuration with PcBoard. ADDING COMMENTS TO ZIPS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── To add a comment to a ZIP file, such as an ad for your BBS. Create a text file named ROMDOOR.CMT in your RomDoor directory. This file should be a text file, and the first two lines should be blank for it to look right when the user unzips it. For this function to work you need to have the option COPY FILES TO HD set in MakeRom. This is done by entering MakeRom and pressing ENTER on "Edit RomDoor's Main Parameters" then moving to the "Copy Files To HD" field and setting it to "Yes". SETTING UP GROUPS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Introduced in version 1.10, groups allow you (the SysOp) to categorize your file areas so that the user doesn't have to wade through hundreds of file areas to find something that he/she needs. To configure groups: ■ Load up MakeRom and press ENTER on "Edit Group Information". ■ This will pop up a screen where you can enter the group names'. Notice you may have up to 32 groups. ■ Type in a name for your first group. For example MUSIC or GRAPHICS. ■ Press F10 when finished. [Page 11, RomDoor v2.02] ■ Now you need tell RomDoor which files are in which groups. To do this press ENTER on "Edit CD-ROM Information". And select the CD-ROM that you want to work with. Next press ENTER on "Edit Areas" when you come to a file that should be in one of your groups press ENTER on that area and press F2 on the "Groups" field. Then simply press the SPACE BAR on the groups that it belongs in. NOTE you may assign a file area to multiple groups. ■ Once you have configured the names press F10 to save your changes. ■ Make sure that "Use Group Names" is set to "YES" in the "Main RomDoor Parameters" menu. CONFIGURING AND MAINTAINING THE REQUEST FEATURE ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── New to version 2.00, the request feature allows users to request files from offline CD-ROM disks. This feature is useful for boards that have more CD-ROM disks than they do CD-ROM disk drives. (Only avaliable in the registered version.) To configure the request feature: ■ Load up MakeRom and press ENTER to edit "RomDoor's Main Parameters". Move the cursor down to "Allow Requests" and press the SPACE BAR to toggle the field to "YES". ■ If you want you can put a drive letter in the next field "Drive Letter". The drive letter that you put in this field will be the first drive letter that MakeRom will look for the files that it needs to copy when you try to copy the requested files to the HD. If MakeRom doesn't find the file that it is looking for it will say "File Not Found" and then will ask you for the drive letter that the CD-ROM disk is in. ■ If you want to limit the amount of files a certain security level can request then press ENTER on "Edit Security Level Information". Move the bar to the security level that you want to edit and press ENTER. There are two ways to limit a security level. The first is by limiting the amount of files that they can have requested at any given time, and the second way is to limit the amount of K-Bytes they can have requested at any given time. Once you have the request feature setup the users will be shown all the CD-ROM disks that have been configured for the board. If they decide to download a file from an offline CD-ROM they will be asked if they wish to "Request" the file. If they press "Y"es then the request will be added to the request database located in the REQUEST directory directly off of the RomDoor directory. It is the sysops job to maintain the requests and copy the requested files to the HD. This process has been made simple with the use of MakeRom. [Page 12, RomDoor v2.02] To maintain the request feature: ■ Once a day, or however often you like. You will have to load up MakeRom and select "Check File Requests". You will be presented with a screen showing all of the requested files and if they are currently "Available" to the user. If there are any files that are "Not Ready" then you have to copy it to the HD. There are two ways you can go about doing this, the first is to move the cursor to any file that is "Not Ready" and press ENTER. The second and most convenient way is to press ALT-A. MakeRom will scan the database and check to see if there are any files that are "Not Ready". If there are, then MakeRom will prompt you for the CD-ROM disks to insert and will copy the files from the disks. HOW TO USE THE CDSONLINE ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLE ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ■ Hopefully you will not need to use this feature of RomDoor since there are ways to get around it, using the "Volume label" and "File to look for" fields. But if you decided you want to force RomDoor to have a CD online then you can use this variable. ■ You will want to place the SET CDSONLINE = x-x statement in your batch file which loads up RomDoor. ■ Valid settings for CDSONLINE are: # : i.e. SET CDSONLINE = 1 #, # : i.e. SET CDSONLINE = 1, 2, 3 or SET CDSONLINE = 1, 3, 5 #-# : i.e. SET CDSONLINE = 1-3 or SET CDSONLINE = 5-25 Or any such combinations. ■ If you are getting an error when you call this batch file from your BBS program (WildCat! or PcBoard) such as "Out of Environment Space" put a SET CDSONLINE= line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT, the problem is that DOS won't allocate any memory for environmental variables from a shell. You can still change the CDSONLINE environmental variable from the DOOR# batch file, but you can't make a new environmental variable in a shell. [Page 13, RomDoor v2.02] COMMON ASKED QUESTIONS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Question: I have imported the files into the database and setup the files areas. But when I go into RomDoor I can't see the file areas. Answer: There are a two possible reasons why you are have this problem. 1) Check to make sure that you have given your security level access to those file areas. NOTE to give a security level access to a CD-ROM make sure that the correct CD-ROM Number is in the file area records. Then press ENTER on the security level in question and press F2 on the "Access To Areas" field. Then select the CD-ROM by pressing ENTER. Make sure that you have access to the areas on the CD-ROM disk. 2) The environmental variable CDSONLINE needs to be changed. Check what the environmental variable is set by loading up RomDoor and pressing F9, look at the bottom of the info screen on the left and it should say what it is set at. If the CD-ROM in question is not included then that is the problem. Question: Users are having problems downloading, they keep getting CRC errors. Answer: If you have a high speed modem (9600+) then you need to set the flow control to CTS/RTS. Question: I changed a security level in MakeWild! but RomDoor doesn't seem to know that I changed it. Answer: Whenever you changed a security level in WC! you need to make sure you load up MakeRom and update the security file. To do this press ENTER on "Edit Security Level Information", and then ALT-U for update. COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── RomDoor has two command line parameters: LOCAL and NOLOG Using LOCAL will tell RomDoor that you are running it from the command line and not to look for the DOOR.SYS and USERINFO.DAT files. RomDoor will get the sysop's name from MAKEWILD.DAT, and will get your security level from the ALLUSERS.DAT, and it will give you 5 hours. Using NOLOG will tell RomDoor that you do not want it to create a log file. Normally RomDoor creates a file called RDOOR##.LOG in the directory that you execute RomDoor from, using this parameter nullifies this action. Here are examples: ROMDOOR LOCAL ; Run RomDoor in local mode. ROMDOOR NOLOG ; Run RomDoor with out making a RDOOR##.LOG file. [Page 14, RomDoor v2.02] REGISTRATION ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Why should you register? First of all you should register if you like RomDoor and plan to keep it on your system. You must register if you use RomDoor for more then the 30 day trial period. Registration allows you free upgrades to most future versions, major upgrades that involve substantial changes may require a nominal fee. All future version will be available on the boards listed on the next page. With registration you will also get additional programs such as ROMEDIT, ROMCHK, FIXROM, ROMBULL (Descriptions are located in REGISTER.DOC). You will also have the ability to create your own menus for use with RomDoor using ANSI. For the larger boards, you will be able to offer up to 32 CD-ROMs. Unregistered versions are limited to one. You will also give the user the ability to create text file listings ON-LINE! Most importantly you will have access to download premade databases so that when you add a new CD-ROM disk to your board, you don't have to spend hours adding to the database!!! SPECIAL THANKS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── First of all I would like to thank Ralph Maya who helped me test out RomDoor through all of it's problems. It has not been an easy task. He has given me so many suggestions to make the program better, and a lot of the program's design and function wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Ralph. Second I would like to thank John Choi of Infinite Data Source for suggesting RomDoor as a program to write and for giving me suggestions along the way. In addition, I would like to thank all my beta testers for helping me along the way, especially Ryan Cramer. [Page 15, RomDoor v2.02] PROBLEMS, COMMENTS & FUTURE VERSIONS ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── If you have any problems with RomDoor, you can contact me on: Infinite Data Source, SysOp John Choi (703) 642-8704 2400 (703) 642-9883 2400/9600 CompuCom (703) 642-9891 9600 v.32 (703) 642-3612 14.4K v.32bis (703) 642-3615 14.4K HST (703) 642-5123 9600 Hayes V-Series Illusions BBS, SysOp Ralph Maya Node 1: (703) 641-0173 Dual Standard 14.4K HST, v.32 9600 Node 2: (703) 641-9218 Sportster 14.4K v.32bis Data Connection BBS, SysOp Ryan Cramer Node 1: (703) 506-8598 v.32 9600 You may also reach me voice. (703) 821-3776 Or you can send me a message in the WC! conference on RIME. If all else fails. Try this: Jeff Bisson 8210 Hunting Hill Lane McLean, VA 22102 The current version of RomDoor will always be on BBS's listed above as well as WildCat! HQ.