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1992-07-04
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WC35AUTO (c) 1992 Karl Schneider
8505 Woodwick Ct.
For Wildcat! 3.5+ ONLY! Tampa, FL 33615
813-884-9661 voice day/eve
" " " bbs midnite-0800 EST
14.4 HST
=====================================================================
About The Program
WC35AUTO is a completely new 'auto-description' utility program
(similar to AUTODESC for earlier Wildcats) for Wildcat 3.5 and
later, and supports the EXTENDED file Descriptions as well as the
'basic' 60 character descriptions in the main WC File database record.
It will NOT work with 3.02 or ANY EARLIER VERSION.
What WC35AUTO does is check .ZIP, .LZH or .ARJ files AS THEY ARE
UPLOADED (via SCANFILE.BAT) for a DESC.SDI or FILE_ID.DIZ. If there
is a DESC.SDI description file in the archive, this will automat-
ically be put into its Wildcat 3.5 File Database record DESCRIPTION.
If there is ALSO a FILE_ID.DIZ description file, the text from it
will be placed in the EXTENDED (detailed) description, WHETHER THE
UPLOADER DOES OR DOES NOT TYPE IN ANY DESCRIPTION WHEN PROMPTED!
Note, however, that if there IS a FILE_ID.DIZ file in the archive,
but there is NO DESC.SDI file, the program will NOT put descriptions
in automatically! This is because very often the first line of
a typical FILE_ID.DIZ file doesn't contain very much useful infor-
mation. Even using the first 60 characters (maximum allowed by
Wildcat for the 'primary' description) is risky, so I've chosen
to set it up this way at present. Perhaps someday these will all
become more standardized and it will be possible to make the pro-
gram a bit more versatile. In the meantime, I've tried to make the
program include as much useful information as possible in the
description - therefore, if the DESC.SDI file only contains, say,
20 characters, I add up to 40 characters from FILE_ID.DIZ (if it exists)
to make up the 60 character field, hopefully adding a bit more useful
information.
You can tell your users that when they upload archive files con-
taining DESC.SDI and FILE_ID.DIZ, when asked by Wildcat for
descriptions, just press Enter (or type anything else...WC35AUTO will
over-write it anyway). This does appeal to many users, not having
to type descriptions online after uploading; they can simply
press <enter> when prompted for 'description' (when DESC.SDI is
included in the upload) and 'detailed description' (when FILE_ID.DIZ
is also included).
Uploads with extensions other than .ZIP, .ARJ and .LZH are ignored.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
To use WC35AUTO:
1. You must have PKUNZIP.EXE on your system so that it can be run
from your WC Home directory...(in your PATH or WC dir)
If you allow .ARJ and/or .LZH uploads, you must ALSO have ARJ.EXE
and LHARC.EXE pathed. If you have a variant of LHARC called
LHA.EXE, you must either re-name it or COPY it to LHARC.EXE.
2. The Environment variable WCNODEID must be set for the node in
question.
3. You MUST have the latest WCFILE.EXE program from MSI (version
3.5 or later) in your PATH or WC Home directory. Earlier ver-
sions of WCFILE will NOT work correctly!
4. Put WC35AUTO.EXE anywhere in your PATH.
5. Create or add to your SCANFILE.BAT (in your Wildcat Home directory)
the following command:
wc35auto %1
If for any reason you do NOT want the program to add KEYWORDS,
add 'nk' at the end, like this:
wc35auto %1 nk
(remember, you can create a BADKEYS.LST file to keep words like 'the',
'is', 'new', etc., from being placed into the key fields).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's all there is to it! Please note that if you are doing OTHER
things in SCANFILE that require you to change directory, like maybe
to the wcwork\node%NODEID% , you will need to CD back to the WCat
HOME dir before executing WC35AUTO.
Remember to tell your users that ONLY 60 characters are allowed for
the primary (DESC.SDI) description for Wildcat, and FILE_ID.DIZ
(which is pretty well standardized) is limited to 15 lines of 45
characters! WC35AUTO will chop off any text exceeding these limits.
My PUTDESC program (available on my board and others), makes adding
these description files fairly fast and painless.
Note that WC35AUTO will also work with LOCAL uploads; so that is a
way you can add descriptions to your own uploads without having to
type them in while you're logged in locally...
Try to let your users know that WC35AUTO is installed...maybe a
bulletin, a short note in your PREUP.BBS display file, or both,
explaining that DESC.SDI is needed, and FILE_ID.DIZ is optional
to be able to skip entering file descriptions when uploading.
I have tested this program as carefully and thoroughly as possible, and
have not had any reports of problems, but as with any software, wide
variations in system configurations can sometimes cause unexpected or
unforseeable results. For this reason, I make no warranties with
respect to this program as to its usability, safety to data, or any
results deriving from its use, and accept no responsibility for any
loss or damages directly or indirectly caused by using it.
This program is shareware, you may use it for a reasonable time for
evaluation, after which you should register it. This will insure
future support for this and other Wildcat utility programs.
If you contribute $40 or more, you will be entitled to registration
and support on ALL my WC3 utilities. That's under $1.00 apiece!
Any bug reports, comments or suggestions are solicited and welcome!
Thanks.