BBS Toolkit/BBS Toolkit.iso/windows/bltcap15.zip/BLTCAP.TXT

Text File | 1992-09-11 | 13KB | 365 lines

*****************************************************************************
*                                                                           *
* BLTCAP V1.0 - Bulletin Capture Program For Use With Intellicom 1.0 and    *
*               Higher (possibly lower!)                                    *
*                                                                           *
*****************************************************************************

Copyright (c) 1992 by Thunder Lizard Ltd..
All Rights Reserved.


Disclaimer

You are free to use and distribute Bltcap as long as:

  * No fee is charged for use, copying, or distribution.
  * The files are not modified in any way.
  * All files are distributed together.

This software is distributed "AS IS". THUNDER LIZARD LIMITED
DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES OF THIS SOFTWARE, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, FUNCTIONALITY
OR DATA INTEGRITY OR PROTECTION. IN NO EVENT SHALL THUNDER LIZARD
LIMITED BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE, OR
INABILITY TO USE, THIS SOFTWARE.

Intellicomm is a registered trademark of Liberation Enterprises.
The QWK format is Copyright 1987 by Sparkware.
Canada Remote Systems is a registered trademark of 884097 Ontario Limited.


Overview

Bltcap is a FREEWARE add-on for use with Intellicomm V1.0 or higher.
It is designed to capture bulletins from a BBS and incorporate them
into a QWK compatible mail packet.

Bltcap has the unique feature of generating a customized Intellicomm
script each time it is run. Unlike generic script-based alternatives,
bltcap's custom script captures ONLY the bulletins that have changed.
It doesn't have to test every download combination possible. This makes
it extremely fast, saving precious on-line time for other tasks.

In addition, bltcap provides the ability to always include or exclude
specific bulletins. This way, you receive only the bulletins that are
of interest to you. Bltcap also handles conference specific bulletins.

Finally, bltcap was designed to be as generic as possible. It generates
its custom script based on information stored in an initialization file.
You can specify a different initialization file for each BBS that you
want to run bltcap on. In addition, creation of these initialization
files is done "automagically", since bltcap derives most of its information
from your ICOM.INI and BIF files. If you've correctly set up Intellicom,
configuring bltcap should be a breeze.

                                      - 1 -



Installing Bltcap

If you only intend to capture bulletins from one BBS, just copy the contents
of this archive into your Intellicomm directory (e.g. C:\ICOM). It also
GREATLY simplifies the configuration and running of the program.

If you intend to customize bltcap for a number of BBS's and don't want to mix
your Intellicomm files with the ones created by bltcap, I would recommend
making a sub-directory under your Intellicom directory (e.g. C:\ICOM\BLTCAP).


Configuring Bltcap

If you want to get started without reading anything, just type "bltcap /h"
and figure things out from there. Otherwise...

In order to configure bltcap for a specific BBS, it needs access to the
Intellicomm initialization file, ICOM.INI (or it's equivalent if you use a
different one), and the BIF file for the desired BBS. Before I walk through a
couple of examples, here's the full syntax of the setup option of bltcap:

   bltcap /s bif_file [bltcap_ini_name] [icom_ini_name]

Where: /s is the setup option

       bif_file is the name of the Intellicomm BIF file that corresponds
       to the desired BBS. blt_cap will default to looking in the BIF
       sub-directory if it can find it. Otherwise, type the full path name
       for the BIF file.

       bltcap_ini_name is the optional name of the initialization file that
       will be created. The default name is "bltcap.ini".

       icom_ini_name is the optional name of the Intellicomm initialization
       file that you use. Bltcap will look for the default "icom.ini" in the
       current directory. Otherwise, type the full path name for your
       Intellicomm initialization file.


A Simple Example

Unless you've made life miserable for yourself by changing all you Intellicomm
default directory names, initialization file names etc... here's an example of
a simple setup.

Assuming you have Intellicomm installed in it's default location (C:\ICOM), and
bltcap.exe is located in C:\ICOM, in order to set up the BIF CRS.BIF, you would
type: bltcap /s crs.bif. That's all there is too it!

After bltcap creates it's initialization file (bltcap.ini), it will prompt you
and ask if you want to modify your "postmail.bat" file. This is a file which
is executed by Intellicomm after a mail packet has been downloaded. All
modifications are added to the end of the file. You're now set up to use bltcap
in your Intellicomm jobs.



                                      - 2 -



In order to capture bulletins, your Intellicomm job should look something like
the following:

   Call CRS
     DOS: bltcap.exe   <- Option 13 on the Intellicomm Job menu
     CC: @bltcap       <- Option 12 on the Intellicomm Job menu
     ...
     ...
     Get all new mail
     ...
     ...
     Exit to DOS

When the job runs, bltcap will create a custom script called bltcap.scr and
places it in your script directory. The next line in the job then executes that
script. At some point in the job, you should download your mail packet. When
the job completes, Intellicomm will run postmail.bat which will add the
captured bulletins into your mail packet.

After your job has run, you should check your ICOM.USE file (located in the CAP
sub-directory). Bltcap will place a comment in the file indicating how many
bulletins it captured.


A Complex Example

If you want to run bltcap on a number of different BBS's, you'll need to
create a custom initialization file for each BIF. As an example, say you made a
sub-directory under Intellicomm called C:\ICOM\BLTCAP and copied this package
into it. In order to create a custom initialization file for CRS.BIF (located
in C:\ICOM\BIF), you would type the following:

   bltcap /s c:\icom\bif\crs.bif crs.ini c:\icom\icom.ini

This will create an initialization file for bltcap called crs.ini and store it
in C:\ICOM\BLTCAP. You can create initialization files for other BIF's in a
similar manner.

In order to capture bulletins, your Intellicomm job should look something like
the following:

   Call CRS
     DOS: c:\icom\bltcap\bltcap.exe /i c:\icom\bltcap\crs.ini
     CC: @bltcap
     ...
     ...
     Get all new mail
     ...
     ...
     Exit to DOS

In this job, bltcap is run with the /i option which tells it to use an
initialization file other than the default, bltcap.ini. Apart from this, its
operation is the same as described in the simple example above.



                                      - 3 -



Customizing Bltcap

Hopefully, I've made bltcap robust enough to create a custom script based only
on the information stored in its initialization file. So if your job bombs,
it "should" just be a matter of tweaking your initialization file. As such,
here's an example initialization file and a complete breakdown of each entry:

Sample contents of bltcap.ini:

BLTCAP1                       - Initialization file header
version="1.5"                 - Bltcap version number
capfile="C:\ICOM\CAP\ICOM.CAP" - Icom session capture file to look at
scrdir="C:\ICOM\SCR"          - Icom script directory to store bltcap.scr
desc="Canada Remote System"   - BIF description of the system you're on
scac="N"                      - BBS scan messages response
pauc=" "                      - BBS pause message response
nomc="N"                      - BBS more prompt response (set to Y for Win 3.x)
scap="last read"              - BBS scan message
paup="er) to continue"        - BBS pause message
morp="More? "                 - BBS more prompt
mnap="Board Command? "        - Main board prompt
mnbp="rence Command? "        - Secondary (conference) board prompt
lnbc="A"                      - Leave secondary board prompt command
lmmc="Q"                      - Leave mail door command
mmnp="Qmail Command? "        - Mail door prompt
facc="J % Q"                  - Change area command
lbmc="Q"                      - Leave bank door command
bmnp="] Command? "            - Bank door prompt
srch="New Bulletin(s):"       - Search string for new bulletins (in icom.cap)
bcmd="B Q"                    - Access bulletin area command
bltp="List Command?"          - Bulletin area prompt
lcmd="% NS"                   - List bulletin command (set to "%" for Windows)
include="5 13:5 13:1"         - Always include these bulletins
exclude="2 4"                 - Always exclude these bulletins
delay="20"                    - More loop delay time (in 10th's of a second)
timeout="600"                 - General timeout time (in seconds)

N.B. Each line should have no leading spaces and the parameters should be
     enclosed in quotes.

Unlike version 1.0 which had only a few parameters, there's just too many
parameters in version 1.5 to explain in detail. If you want to see what each
does, change a parameter and run bltcap. Take a look at bltcap.scr to see what
changed. Only the include and exclude parameter are of real use. Read the
whats.new file for details on some of the new features and how to tweak some of
the above parameters to implement the new features.

The Custom Script File, BLTCAP.SCR

If you are interested in writing Intellicomm scripts, or want to try and debug
the one created by bltcap.exe, you should look at BLTCAP.SCR located in your
SCR (script) directory. Each time bltcap.exe is run, it will create a custom
commented script. Since every line in the script is commented, it makes it
very easy to see what the script does. Now if you only could figure out how
it gets created...


                                      - 5 -



Limitations

Although I've tried to make the package as easy to use and customize as
possible, there are a couple of obvious limitations/features. First, and
foremost, it only works with QWK mail packets. I haven't got a clue
(or interest) about other types of mail packets.

Also, because of the simplistic naming convention for QWK bulletin files
(BLT-x.y where x is the conference area and y is the bulletin number),
there's no way to distinguish which BBS the bulletins came from. As a result,
if you try to run a job like:

   Call BBS1
     DOS: bltcap /i bbs1.ini
     CC: @bltcap
     Get all new mail
   Call BBS2
     DOS: bltcap /i bbs2.ini
     CC: @bltcap
     Get all new mail
   ...
   ...

Bltcap will successfully capture bulletins for each board, but will overwrite
bulletins captured from previous BBS's. Also, when postmail.bat runs, it will
stuff ALL bulletins it finds into the first QWK mail packet it comes across.
The work around for this is simple, but requires a little effort.

First, copy your postmail.bat file to a file that is unique for each BIF. For
the above example, you'd copy postmail.bat to bbs1.bat and bbs2.bat. Then,
edit each batch file to remove all references to mail packets other than the
desired one (bltcap will create a unique entry for each BIF so this should be
easy to find). Finally, modify your job to look like the following:

   Call BBS1
     DOS: bltcap /i bbs1.ini
     CC: @bltcap
     Get all new mail
     DOS: bbs1.bat
   Call BBS2
     DOS: bltcap /i bbs2.ini
     CC: @bltcap
     Get all new mail
     DOS: bbs2.bat
   ...
   ...

This will ensure that the captured bulletins for BBS1 get added to the proper
QWK mail packet BEFORE BBS2 gets called. If you need detailed help on this,
send me an E-mail or write.







                                      - 6 -



Getting Additional Help

Since I monitor the Icom conference on Canada Remote Systems fairly regularly,
you can send mail to "MICHAEL LIVSEY". I'm particularly interested in finding
out what's required, if anything, to get bltcap to successfully run on other
BBS's. As I have indicated, I have only tested the program on Canada Remote
Systems so my logic might be flawed for generic cases.

You can also send regular mail to:

   Michael Livsey
   F4-1667 Nash Road, Box 94
   Courtice, Ontario
   L1E 1S8

In the event that I've really missed the boat and no one can get the program
to do what I can, don't bother chewing out my ear. I'll just hang up my
programming hat and go back to making home-brew!

Cheers!

Mike.


































                                      - 7 -