Welcome to the Change history file! This file is constructed in a unique format. Read the following information carefully so you can easily follow the changes made in Mansion since the public release of version 9.1.1 (or later).
Mansion was first released as shareware with version 9.1.1. Many new features have been added since that time. I felt it was best to keep the Mansion Documentation as it was with 9.1.1, allow you to install and set up your BBS using the original documentation, then print out this document and review it to understand the changes that have been made.
This file was created as the changes were implemented. This means that it was written from the bottom up. We will create a complete new manual that will include all these changes in the future. So... Start at the bottom of this document and work your way back up to here. Like I said, print it out, it will make it much easier for you.
New and upgrade versions are always available on the Mansion Support BBS Systems.
Currently ZModem protocol is being developed for the Library areas. We hope to release a version with this and other new capabilities very soon.
Thanks for understanding the development cycle of a programmer that NEVER has enough time.
@TimeON - Script variable that returns the amount of time a
caller has been online (minutes) during the current session.
Bullet - the font now correctly contains the bullet character
Serial Connect - there is now a serial to serial connect option in
the menu for connections from machine to machine. This is
a test function only for the development of new protocals.
You won't need this. Serial connections are locked at 19,200.
Time to download a file is now displayed to the sysop as it is to
a caller of a lower level.
Phone number checking message is displayed to a new user, as is a message if a dupe is found
Font Uniformity -- ZSys font is now used in all dialogs/windows everywhere.
You can use any proportional font you like if you are handy
with ResEdit. The Fond and Font family must be named IM.
Text Out Speed: It's now up to par. I was changing the font type
with every 'textout' statement. It's now consistant and
your text should be up to speed... if not faster than before.
Last 5 Callers - Cleaned up the formatting to make it pretty.
Birthday input Format - is now clean. When inputing the year info.
# of Users - This has been fixed to work correctly now.
You can now use the script command @USERS to get the number of users in your Mansion user file.
Clear Screen - Another new script command. Any time you issue a
CLEAR command in a script, the screen will be cleared both
on the sysop and callers screen. (providing they don't have
their terminal program filtering out the CLS ^L char.).
If you want the screen cleared before each menu is displayed...
Use the Menu Script X options. You can have a script run before each/any menu and displayed automatically. Simply create a script in your Script folder named Menu Script # (the # is the number of the menu you want the script to be ran before. A script named "Menu Script 1" would be activated before each time Menu 1 is accessed.)
To clear the screen before each menu, make a script, named
for each menu. The script would be as follows:
; Menu Script 1
CLEAR
END
That's all there is to it.
Note: ALL script commands are available for menu scripts.
NoModem:
If you create a text file (doesn't matter what is in it) in
the SAME LEVEL that Mansion is in...
Name the file NoModem.
Mansion will NOT initialize the modem. This is ONLY for testing
purposes. It's great when you are testing something and don't
want to wait for the modem to get set up every time you re-
launch Mansion. (great for ZModem testing :)
This is only for you to use when testing things like external
applications, scripts, etc.
DO NOT FORGET AND LEAVE THE NoModem FILE IN YOUR MANSION FOLDER,
ELSE YOUR MODEM WILL NOT GO THROUGH PROPER INITIALIZATION PROCEDURES!
Birthday entry:
When callers enter the year for thier birthday, they need only
enter the last 2 digits. The "19" will be assumed.
Text:
The word Number is all caps when the caller is prompted to enter
the NUMBER of the file they want to download.
Last 5 callers:
The baud rate is now displayed with the Name-City-State info.
If the baud rate is over 9400, High Speed is listed.
Added 2 additional switch fields for Greg. (games are coming!)
Playing with a new Mansion font. Ansi on the sysop side still
isn't there but it's getting there.
I added some text about terminal settings whenever the user
changed his ansi settings.
SCRIPT COMMAND - BELL. "Bell" (w/o the quotes)
as a line in a script will BEEP ON THE CALLERS SYSTEM. Continue
to use the BEEP command to sound a beep on the Sysop side.
BELL will only beep on the callers machine.
ANSI MENUS
Mansion now will let you use ANSI menus.
Any time a menu is accessed, Mansion looks to see if that menu, with
a /ANSI appended exists.
All the format of an ansi menu is the same as a standard menu. Instead of the standard ascii menu part (the text displayed to the user), replace that text with ansi text and it will be displayed.
I'm hoping that someone writes a complete document on how to create ansii menus in the near future.
Common questions asked about ansii and Mansion.
Q> Why dosen't my ansii Mansion Logo display?
A> The terminal program that the caller uses must conform to ANSII
Standards. It must send and receive an ansii acknowledgement string to know that ansii is available. Most IBM PC term programs handle this.
Microphone II v4 and greater handles this. Programs such as ZTerm and White Night do NOT.
Q> User has ansii on, turns it off from the utilities menu but
the ansi utilities menu is still displayed.
A> That is because the user hasn't changed menus yet and Mansion
is displaying the Menu.Temp file. When the user goes to another
menu, standard ascii will be displayed.
Q> When I call with one term program and then call back with another,
I get different ansii colors.
A> This is due to the terminal program itself. Most, if not all
term programs do not conform strictly to the Ansii standards.
Ansi commands work now. I found that the ANSI flag wasn't being remembered/read in after it had been set.
There is a new variable you can use with scripts to test whether ANSI is turned on or not. &284 will return a 0 if ansi is off or a 1 if it is on. So you can do things in scripts like...
IF &284,=,1
PRINT ANSI graphic mode is turned OFF.
PRINT You can turn it on via the Utilities Menu.
ENDIF
The menu command for ANSI is 10. l010l000l
I'm using a newer version of ANSIMouse to create screens.
I export the finished menu to text, then manually remove the extra
linefeed at the beginning of every line (except the first and last
lines). You can use any text editor to do this. I've requested the
author add an option to export ansi in this format in his next version.
Ansi screens can be displayed any time you display a text file.
Mansion will look for a file of the same name with "/ANSI" appended toit.
Example:
Text file Mansion Welcome
ANSI file name Mansion Welcome/ANSI
If the ansi file is found, and the user has ansi turned on AND his
terminal program set up for ansi... it will happen.
In the callers term program they must have ANSI turned on and Strip High Bits turned OFF. They can usually find this in the Terminal settings area.
At this time Mansion can't display the ansi to the sysop calling from
local. If I can find some sample code and some time this will change.
New ANSI flag for scripting.
&284 returns a 1 if ansi is on, 0 if off.
Mansion 9.5 update change history.
==================================
AS ALWAYS: keep a copy of your current version of Mansion and any files that you change for this version in case you find you have problems with this upgrade!
If you are currently running Mansion, you only need to replace
your current version with this one. Read the following update
history! If you are going to be using the new Survey command,
READ ALL OF THIS AND THE SURVEY DOC FILE AS WELL... CLOSELY!
If you have been using the Survey and VoteStatus externals,
you will be able to do away with them and use the internal
commands.
New Switch file for externals: Additional lines have been added
to the Switch file in order to handle Greg Shaw's upcoming new
version of Callback Verifier. As I haven't tested this, expect
another update when Greg finishes his changes. Look for other
new externals for Mansion from Greg in the near future.
New User Logon:
Cleaned up some of the text.
Added: New users are now prompted as to whether or not
they want FastKeys on or not.
Broadcast: You can broadcast a message to the user online.
Activate Broadcast via the Options menu.
Statusbar:
Added the callers 1st and last date that they called.
Mansion will now display the callers security level
in the status bar if it is able to fit!
Added command keys for logs
Reformatted email commands.
Downloads: Mansion will give the approximate time it will take
to download a file! This is a nice addition.
(this will NOT be displayed if your security level is greater than 89)
Added extended code for CD ROMs. Now cdroms can be accessed either with the script directory commands or with the "CD ROM folder" method explained in the manual.
====
The following update information is for the New Survey commands built into Mansion. You will be able to have a voting area for your users. I've ran one for several years and the users really get involved in it and like it.
The Mansion Survey command is the actual voting section.
The VoteStatus command checks to see if there are questions that
the caller has not voted on yet and alerts them that they need
to Vote. I put this command in my Logon Script. Callers are
then notified that they need to vote when they log on.
As with any Mansion commands, the voting commands are optional.
They only activate if you have the commands in your menus or
scripts.
For Sysops already using the external version of Mansion Survey
and VoteStatus:
Move your Survey Data folder into your Mansion Data folder.
The survey folder M U S T be now located in your Mansion Data folder!
Until I (or someone) finishes the docs for this version, you must
have Mansion Survey in order to figure out how to make this work.
All pathways are now internal!
No resedit.
====
Here are the changes from the original Mansion Survey and
documentation.
VoteStatus and Mansion Survey are now included in Mansion!
Menu commands are:
command 87 = Mansion Survey
Here is an example of the Mansion Survey command in a Mansion Menu.
Here is an example of the VoteStatus command in a logon script.
COMMANDR 88,0
(examples are included)
If you have never used the Mansion Survey and VoteStatus
externals...
1. Place the included Survey Data folder in your Mansion
Data folder.
2. Add the commands to your menus/scripts
You should probably limit the commands to Sysop levels
until you have experimented with the Survey and know that
it all is set up correctly.
3. READ all this unorganized information that was originally
written for the external versions. The functionality
of the programs are the same.
NOTE: The commands for deleting/creating new survey questions are
ONLY available for users with a security level of OVER 89.
In other words, only sysops.
Mansion Survey
What it is:
-----------
This is a menu command external for Mansion BBS v8.0 or newer.
Also included is an optional external for your logon script.
What it does:
-------------
With this program you can create surveys that your users can vote on.
You can have up to 50 questions with up to 9 answers per question.
Users can vote only 1 time per question.
Each question is 'flagged' so the user can easily tell what questions
they have or have not voted on.
A report is created each time the survey program is entered with the
results of all the questions. This report can easily be displayed via
a Mansion script or menu command. This report can also be viewed
from within the Survey program. Pause, Continue, Abort are supported.
Each question is flagged as to if the user has voted or not.
Sysops can:
VERY easy to set up and maintain.
Second window displays user information while in the program.
Vote multiple times per question.
Create/delete/replace questions from the local, remote, or Finder mode.
Set security level to allow others to modify the survey questions.
Report generated allows you to display all results to users.
VoteStatus is an external that I wrote to use in my Logon script.
It can be used as a menu external as well. All it does is checks
to see if the caller has answered all the survey questions and
displays a message telling them if there are questions that they
haven't answered or not. See the additional notes at the end of
this document.
-------------------------
These may seem to be awkward when you first read them but in
reality they are very easy. It was necessary to set it up
in this fashion in order to allow easy remote configuration.
When you first enter the program you will be displayed the current
questions that were supplied with the program.
You edit the surveys by entering Q from this prompt.
You will be asked if you want to delete the highest numbered
question. (This will simply do as it says. If you have 8 questions
and reply Y to this prompt, you will delete question number 8.)
Enter N or press RETURN to go on.
You will then be asked if you want to replace a question.
This will allow you to either REPLACE or ADD a question.
Enter Y.
Enter the number of the question you wish to replace.
You can either replace one of the existing questions or add
the question 1 number higher than the highest existing question.
Enter the question.
Enter the # of answers for this question.
Enter the answers.
All files are initialized automatically and you may now vote
on this question.
-------------------------
Technical Information.
-------------------------
File formats:
The Survey Data Folder includes the following:
1-50 Question files. Named Question 1, Question 2...
Each question file contains the question or if that question is
not in use, contains No Question followed by a Return.
Voted files. Named Voted 1, Voted 2...
These contain the real names of the users that have voted for
that particular question. These are cleared when a question is
added or replaced.
VoteAnswers files. Named VoteAnswers 1, VoteAnswers 2...
These contain the survey data for each question.
Following is the format of these files:
Line 1 The number of answers for this question.
Line 2 - x Each answer has 2 lines of information.
The first line is the actual answer.
The second line is the number of votes made
for that answer.
These continue for the number of answers each
question has.
Last line Total number of answers for this question.
Vote Report file. This text file lists all the questions and
answers from the survey. This is a standard text file that can
be displayed via Mansion commands. This file is updated every
time the Mansion Survey program is EXITED.
You can customize Mansion Survey further if you want using ResEdit.
You do not need to edit any of these if you simply move the
applications and the Survey Data folder to the same folder that
Mansion is located in.
VoteStatus:
I wanted a way to let the callers know if there were any questions
that they hadn't voted on when they logged on. This external
will do that. You need not use it at all but it's there if you
want to.
This will run the VoteStatus program at the end of the script and
return to the BBS and take the user to your #1 menu.
This procedure is for Mansion 8.07 and may change in future versions
of Mansion.
You might want to try using this, my users like it.
How to get ahold of me.
* Disclaimer *
This software is provided "as is" and without warranty of any kind.
There are no warranties to you or any other person or entity for the
products, expressed or implied. Including but not limited to the
implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
All such warranties are expressly and specifically disclaimed. In no
event shall the seller be responsible for any indirect, special, incidental, consequential, or similar damages for lost data or profits to you or any other person or entity regardless of the legal theory, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damage.
Nine!.3.0 Change History
This document contains the change history between Mansion 9.1.1
and Mansion 9.3.0. The only thing required to upgrade is to rename this version to Mansion and replace your old application with this one. There are several new features that you will only be aware of if you read this documentation.
As always, whenever upgrading to a new version you should keep a copy of your original version and back up all three of your user files in case you have any problems with this version.
• Re-wrote the Generic import routines. Mansion is now compatible with Tabby event sorting utilities such as TSort (note: TSort will not run with some System 6 configurations. This is a TSort bug, not related to Mansion or Tabby).
Import Tech note:
Mansion now only actively works with a file named Mansion Import. If there is a Mansion Import file with messages to be imported, they will be processed. Mansion then checks for the existence of a Generic Import file. If found, it is renamed to Mansion import and then
processed. Mansion will always check for a non-busy Generic Import file.
• Logs available from the MenuBar. User, Message, Library logs are available while Mansion is waiting for a call. Logs are displayed WITHOUT full modem initialization after displayed.
• Re-arranged Options menu
• Any page requests (page the sysop) are recorded in the user log.
• Copyright info updated
• BIRTHDAY information stored in the user log.
Full BBS commands and scripting language is supported.
New users are prompted for this information when they apply.
BBS Commands -
Command #86 allows users to change the birthdate info.
Scripting Commands -
@BDAY is a constant that can be used in a print or draw statement or in a Boolean IF/ENDIF statement. It returns the current birthday in the format of mm-dd-yyyy.
BDAY is a new script command that when used, prompts the caller to enter their birthday information.
I'm including my LOGON script and Utilities menus as examples of how to use these commands. Take special note of my LOGON script. It checks to see if users have birthdate in their user file and if not, they are prompted to enter one.
Support for the Mansion Editor will be added.
• Anyplace you have a <$$$> for pausing a text file, the caller is prompted to press RETURN to continue.
