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I n t e l l i c o m m (TM) v0.94 The Intelligent Telecommunications Alternative USER'S MANUAL Copyright (C) 1991-1992 Liberation Enterprises. All rights reserved. Liberation Enterprises 3091 Eglinton Ave. E., Suite 602 Scarborough, ON CANADA M1J 2G1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to -everyone- who has been involved with Intellicomm up to this point. Listing all the people would be fruitless, so please accept this 'group' THANK YOU! Intellicomm uses the SPAWNO routines by Ralf Brown to minimize memory use while shelling to DOS and running other programs. COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK NOTICE Intellicomm is not public domain software. All files that accompany Intellicomm, including this documentation, are Copyright 1991-1992 Liberation Enterprises. Intellicomm is a Trademark of Liberation Enterprises. Various other products mentioned in the document are trademarks of other companies/developers. TESTING NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER This is a preliminary release of Intellicomm, and though the product has been in testing for several weeks, please be aware that it is still in testing, and still may contain bugs. As such, you are cautioned to use the product carefully and avoid leaving it unattended for any length of time until it earns your confidence. Use special care wherever long- distance fees, online fees, or important information is involved, and monitor the program thoroughly before allowing it to run unattended. Intellicomm and its documentation are distributed and sold AS IS, without warranty of any kind as to performance of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or any other warranties, either express or implied. Neither Liberation Enterprises nor its dealers or distributors shall be liable to the user/purchaser or any other person or entity with respect to any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the software or its documentation. LICENSE You are licensed to use Intellicomm at no charge for a limited evaluation period. Once you are satisfied that the program is useful to you, after a reasonable evaluation period (30 days), you must purchase your copy. To do so, follow the instructions displayed at program startup and exit. Under NO circumstances may Intellicomm be used in a commercial or institutional environment, without purchase, past a 30 day evaluation period. Re-distribution of Intellicomm is encouraged but must comply with the following: 1. The serialized 'key' file ICOM.REG (purchased copies only) must never be re-distributed. You may lose your registered status and could even be sued for damages if the file is distributed inadvertently so please BE CAREFUL with this file. 2. No charges other than reasonable overhead/copying fees ($10 or less) may be levied for distribution of an unregistered evaluation copy. 3. The program files and documentation must remain absolutely unmodified, and must be distributed in their entirety. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION -- BELLS, WHISTLES AND A GREAT DEAL MORE . . . . . 1 1.1 Intellicomm Features, From the Bottom Up . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Communications/Terminal Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.3 BBS Automation Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.4 Intellicomm's File Tagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.5 Future Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.6 User-Supported Software -- The Logical Choice . . . . . . 5 2. THE WORLD OF AUTOMATION -- WHAT TO EXPECT . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.1 Getting Started With Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2.2 The Job Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.3 Adding/Editing/Removing Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.4 Saving a Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.5 Viewing/Editing Previously Saved Jobs . . . . . . . . . . 10 2.6 Running Automated Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 3. BBS INFORMATION FILES -- A CLOSER LOOK . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1 What's in a BIF? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.2 Tips on Defining BBS Prompts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3 Pre-defined BIFS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.4 BIF Screen 1 -- General BBS Information . . . . . . . . . 12 3.5 BIF Screen 2 -- Logon/Extra Information . . . . . . . . . 13 3.6 BIF Screen 3 -- Message Information . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3.7 BIF Screen 4 -- Bank/File List Information . . . . . . . . 16 3.8 BIF Screen 5 -- File Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4. TAKING CONTROL OF BBS FILES -- INTELLICOMM'S FILE TAGGER . . . 19 4.1 Enabling/Disabling the File Tagger . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.2 How to Access the File Tagger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 4.3 File Tagger Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.4 Saving your File Tagger Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 5. AUTOMATED FILE TRANSFERS/FILE LISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 5.1 Locating/Editing File Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 5.2 Download .GET List Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 5.3 Upload .SND List Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 5.4 Changing File Areas (/Area:) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 5.5 Specifying a Password (/Password:) . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 6. MANUAL USE OF INTELLICOMM -- THE TERMINAL . . . . . . . . . . . 26 6.1 Abort Job/Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 6.2 Goto Manual before Hangup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 6.3 Capture Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 6.4 Screen Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 6.5 Scrollback Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 6.6 Clear Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 6.7 Hangup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.8 Script Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.9 Port Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.10 Initialize Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.11 Local Echo/Duplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.12 Set Add Line Feeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.13 Send Break Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 iii 6.14 Keystroke Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 6.15 Send User Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.16 Send Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.17 Receive File[s] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.18 Send File[s] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.19 Terminal Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 6.20 Exiting the Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 7. AUTOMATING TASKS WITH INTELLICOMM SCRIPTS . . . . . . . . . . . 30 7.1 Running Intellicomm Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 7.2 Creating/Editing Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 8. GETTING IN TOUCH WITH YOUR SYSTEM -- THE FILE MANAGER . . . . . 32 9. AT YOUR SERVICE -- THE TOOLS MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 10. ADJUSTING THE SEATS AND MIRRORS -- INTELLICOMM SETUP . . . . . 35 10.1 General Setup Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 10.2 Terminal Setup Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 10.3 Dialing Setup Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 10.4 Screen/File Transfer Setup Items . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 10.5 File/Path Setup Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 10.6 Port Setup Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 11. EXTERNAL PROTOCOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 12. LONG DISTANCE SERVICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 12.1 LD Services, Global Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 12.2 LD Services, BIF Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 iv Intellicomm v0.94 Introduction 1 1. INTRODUCTION -- BELLS, WHISTLES AND A GREAT DEAL MORE Intellicomm has many different aspects to it, and we think you'll agree that it packs quite a few features for the moderate memory/disk requirements, and its $29.95 price tag. Whether you want a simple ANSI communications terminal for performing manual tasks on one BBS, or a full-featured communications system to automate entire sessions on multiple BBS types: If you use BBS's Intellicomm is for you! 1.1 Intellicomm Features, From the Bottom Up o Color configurable, supports monochrome or color monitors. o Auto-detects or allows selection of EGA/VGA 45/50 line modes. o Video functions are Desqview/Topview/Windows/UltraVision aware, and can be configured for direct screen writes, direct writes with CGA snow elimination, or BIOS calls. o Point-and-shoot menus with full mouse support. o Internal full-screen editor with block cut/paste/print/save to disk, forward/reverse searching. The Editor is used for many different things, including script/batch file editing, file viewing, editing attached notes for BBS's, and as a very full-featured "scrollback buffer" viewer. o Full access to DOS from within including DOS shell, two Hotkeys which can be used to run external programs, internal menu selections for Mail Reader and Archive Viewer, and a DOS File Manager that allows tagging groups of files to copy/print, rename/move, delete, view, or edit. To view files on your disk, the manager recognizes a compressed file and will pass the filename to either your Archive Viewer or Text File lister as appropriate. Also supports disk search using wildcards, to locate files. The DOS File Manager handles many things within Intellicomm, including a Script Manager, Capture File viewer, Transfer List viewer, a File Picker for selecting files to upload to BBS's (manual mode), a file menu for the internal Editor to select files to Edit, and as a regular DOS Files Manager to help you with your disk files from within the program. Not just a bell/whistle, the File Manager was put to use in many different areas of Intellicomm. o Uses extended/expanded memory or disk swapping to run external programs/shell to DOS, leaving less than one thousand bytes (1K) of Intellicomm in memory and freeing up the rest for the external program or DOS shell. You must have 300K of free extended/expanded memory or disk space to use this feature. Intellicomm can also swap itself to a RAM disk through configuration of a "Swap Directory" in the main setup program. 1.2 Communications/Terminal Features o Interrupt-driven communications supporting baud rates from 300 to 115,200 on fully configurable ports from COM1 to COM8. 16550 UARTs Intellicomm v0.94 Introduction 2 are enabled if detected, flow control may be set for XON/XOFF, CTS/RTS, DSR/DTR or any combination of the three. o Built-in ANSI support. External ANSI.SYS not required. o Internal protocols include ASCII, Xmodem, Relaxed Xmodem, Xmodem-1k, Xmodem-1k-G, Ymodem (True), Ymodem-G, and Zmodem. Up to eight external protocols may be integrated into the program. Auto-Zmodem downloads may be configured to run an external protocol (such as DSZ) instead of the internal Zmodem, if desired. If the external protocol supports the Call Data Standard usage log format, it will be able to store transfer information in your regular Intellicomm usage log. o The "Keystroke Buffer" saves your last five commands typed to the BBS, and allows you to re-edit and re-send one or more previous commands. Useful if you make a typo during a manual session, this saves you from re-typing the entire command. o The "Scrollback Buffer" (allows viewing text from a BBS that scrolled off the screen) is stored in memory for fast access and has a user- definable buffer size. When you select the Scrollback command (Alt-B) Intellicomm passes the scrollback buffer data directly to the internal Editor where you may mark blocks for saving to disk/printing, print/save the entire buffer, search for text, etc. The Scrollback Buffer also allows blocks to be "pasted" into the Keystroke Buffer, which means you may mark/paste filenames from the scrollback text (i.e. from a BBS files listing), then enter the Keystroke Buffer and send the filenames to the BBS to download them. o The BBS Directory/Dialer allows you to point to then "tag" BBS's to dial. Up to five phone numbers may be defined per directory entry, and you may even specify a max. dial attempt limit for each BBS. Intellicomm uses a dialing queue to dial as most comm. programs do (i.e. if a number is busy, it keeps it in a queue and moves on to the next), but it interprets the results from your modem in a more logical manner. For example, if your modem returns the result "VOICE" from a dial attempt, most programs keep the number in the queue and would dial it again; but Intellicomm will exclude the number from further dialing during that dial run. Up to three results from your modem cause Intellicomm to retry a number (BUSY, NO CARRIER, etc.) while three others cause it to exclude the number (VOICE, NO DIALTONE, etc). The Dialer can also be configured for everything from logging through Long Distance services like PC Pursuit or iNet to automatically logging you on to your favourite BBS's once connected. An optional pager is sounded to get your attention once connected to a BBS (manual mode). o BBS passwords, necessary for auto-logons, are stored encrypted and may be protected from viewing/editing using a special access keyword. o Intellicomm uses the Call Data Standard (CDS) usage log format. This format was designed to allow many different communications-related programs to stamp usage information in the same file, and in a Intellicomm v0.94 Introduction 3 standard format that can be interpreted by a single usage log analyzer. Thus, you may use several comm. packages/external protocols and have all the usage information kept in the same file and in the same format, if the other package also supports CDS. o For special needs/custom use, Intellicomm also sports its own script language of almost forty commands. The syntax is English-like and is very easy to understand. You can do everything from pausing for a specific day/time using the WAITUNTIL command to tracking multiple prompts while waiting for text from a BBS using WHEN / WAITFOR. GOTO labels, UPLOAD / DOWNLOAD files, open a CAPTURE file, and many other useful commands. Quite powerful, and very easy to use. Note that scripts are provided for special use (logging through PC Pursuit/iNet, or handling very tricky tasks that the regular routines can't handle) and are normally not required for automation. 1.3 BBS Automation Features o Intellicomm comes with built-in routines to completely automate almost every imaginable BBS task, on multiple BBS types! We will be working on new BBS's and releasing support for new BBS types in the future as time permits, and as demand/support dictates. Most new BBS Information Files will be made available on BBS's at no extra cost, and without upgrading your executable program files. [BETA NOTE: In this initial release of Intellicomm, only PCBoard, RBBS, and Wildcat support was included.] Advanced Intellicomm users can even add support for new BBS's, or modify the way current BBS's are handled on their own! o New Files Listings, and/or the results of a BBS file search can be automatically captured on most BBS types (or auto-extracted from Qmail-type packets, see below), and browsed offline at your leisure. You may browse the lists in their raw format directly from the BBS, or use Intellicomm's File Tagger and have all new files automatically imported into indexed dBASE-compatible 'catalogs' which can be browsed using the File Tagger itself or any dBASE compatible viewer. See the File Tagger outline below for more details. o Automated File Downloads are carried out using a text file listing and/or through Intellicomm's File Tagger. If you do not have the time or download bytes to transfer a given file, it is saved for the next session. Using the File Tagger you may even specify certain days of the week to transfer certain files. Intellicomm not only downloads files from multiple BBS types, but it also handles "batch" transfers where available, which are much faster than transferring each file separately, as most other automators/scripts do. o Automated File Uploads are carried out in the same manner as above, and batch uploads/extended comments are supported where possible. o Automated message handling includes everything from text "captures" of messages to user-defined files, to downloads of compressed messages prepared by the BBS, to full support for offline Mail systems/Doors. Intellicomm v0.94 Introduction 4 Mail systems currently supported include Kmail, MarkMail, MegaMail, NetMail, PCRelay, Qmail v3, v4, Rosemail, and Tomcat v2, v3. Again, support for other mail systems is in the works and new types will be supported as time goes on (or you may add your own support fairly easily). If using a Qmail-type message system (i.e. one that sends .QWK message packets), Intellicomm will automatically extract the new files listing from the QWK packet and auto-import new files into the proper File Tagger catalog! (You must have the mail system set up to include a new files list with your messages, which is configured within the mail door, and the File Tagger must be installed). Intellicomm also automatically manages your message/reply packets or capture files for you, where appropriate. I.e. old message packets/capture files are 'renumbered' to backup/make room for new ones before they come in, and reply packets are renumbered after successful uploading to avoid duplicate uploads. o Time Bank transactions are currently supported in Depository or ProBank doors (PCBoard) or the Time Door on Wildcat. Support for other banking systems will be added as time permits, or you may add support on your own. o Set starting days and times and save them right in your automated jobs! This allows you to leave the program unattended for days or even weeks on end, carrying out specific tasks on certain days times. Jobs may be executed directly from within the program by hilight/tagging them in the Job Directory just as you would tag a group of BBS's to dial, or by running ICOM.EXE with the /Run: command line parameter. o And if you want something automated that isn't directly supported above, you may run scripts, carry out DOS commands, and even send customized commands to the BBS from anywhere in your automated jobs! 1.4 Intellicomm's File Tagger The File Tagger converts BBS file listings from automated sessions/ captures into dBASE-compatible 'catalogs', eliminating duplicate files, filtering out or auto-tagging certain files according to a set of user- defined keywords, and sorting/indexing each added file three different ways to allow instant re-sorts when you browse the catalog. The Tagger keeps track of which BBS each file came from, and the file area on the BBS, if applicable. All you have to do to get a file is move the hilight bar to the file you want to get, and press the space bar to tag it. The next time a file transfer is requested in Intellicomm, the File Tagger exports the filenames of all tagged files for a given BBS, and Intellicomm will obtain whatever files you have time for, saving others for the next automated session. Once a file is obtained, the filename/date/size/description is automatically copied to your "Upload" catalog, where you may tag the files you obtained and send them to other BBS's. Intellicomm v0.94 Introduction 5 If the Tagger doesn't handle some task you need done, or if you prefer to browse the catalog/tag files in another program, you may use any dBASE-compatible viewer/editor to handle your catalogs. 1.5 Future Enhancements Many future enhancements are planned, including automation of many new BBS/Host types, an Intelligent "Host Mode" or personal BBS which will be designed specifically with automation in mind, Clipper, Foxbase+ versions of the File Tagger (if demand dictates), an auto-modem configuration/setup program to aid in quick setups, a type of auto-learn mode which will also aid in setups, keyboard macros, expansion of the script language (if demand dictates), expanded online help, printed User Manuals, and many, many other features to be announced. 1.6 User-Supported Software -- The Logical Choice If you're new to BBSing, you may wonder where these companies come from who actually release working, uncrippled programs and just 'hope' that people pay for them out of the goodness of their hearts. If you think this way, and are still in a 'retail' frame of mind, that's no problem. Most people who support Shareware today wondered the exact same thing when they saw their first Shareware product. The secret of Shareware is time. Only with time will you realize how/why this type of software exists, and if you're like most people, over time you will eventually start seeing the light and will soon start paying for Shareware. If you wonder whether anyone pays for Shareware the answer is YES. The reason is simple: Shareware benefits you as a consumer as much as it benefits the developer, and once you realize this there is no reason -not- to pay for it, and every reason to support it to ensure that the concept and its benefits continue. Without Shareware you are left with three alternatives: Write software yourself, use Public Domain (free) software, which almost always follows the rule of getting what you pay for, or retail software which forces you to put your money down before trying the package, and to pay for the developer's marketing and advertising. (And you may have to dress up and go out in the rain or snow to return it -- if it's even returnable.) In most people's opinions, after they see the quality of software the Shareware concept has allowed (i.e. payment as opposed to Public Domain/free stuff), and see the many advantages over the retail method, Shareware seems to strike a balance and seems well worth paying for. You almost always get a fantastic price, and you very often get a program that cannot be bought in a software house at ANY price. Were Shareware programs sold retail, the developer would have no choice but to charge much more, and the extra money would be spent on advertising and "middle men". You pay for a LOT more than just software when you buy retail. If you don't pay for Shareware, in all likelihood the police are not going to show up at your door (though certainly don't rely on the fact, as it is contrary to most licenses and corporations/institutions may be Intellicomm v0.94 Introduction 6 prosecuted), but anyone who thinks in these terms is missing the point. Forget the legalities: you simply will not have done your small part to help ensure that the products you like and benefits of the concept itself -- your benefits -- continue. I.e. if you don't pay, you may shoot yourself in the foot, as the products/distribution method/prices you're enjoying today may disappear. This is already happening today as more and more crippled products are released and established Shareware products move into the retail market. Common sense dictates that no company/individual works hard at something, for very long, for nothing: and THAT is one good reason many people pay for Shareware. It's a clear message to the developer that says "keep it up". So, enjoy Shareware, protect your interests by paying for the products that you use and enjoy, and please have fun collecting/distributing it with Intellicomm! 2. THE WORLD OF AUTOMATION -- WHAT TO EXPECT Intellicomm has as many features for manual sessions as it does for automated sessions, and it can provide you with the best of both worlds when it comes to BBS use. This first section discusses the automation end of Intellicomm, while further below you will find information on manual use of the program. Intellicomm has as tough a job automating BBS's as you would entering an unfamiliar shopping mall to do some shopping: It must locate the proper store, find the proper department, navigate the aisles to locate what you're looking for, then get the items back to you in one piece. To accomplish this, Intellicomm uses maps or layouts of several popular types of "stores" (BBS's). These maps are called BBS Information Files, or BIFs for short. If you have a BBS of any of the supplied "map" types in your area -- one that follows the original layout as designed by the BBS Developer -- you're all set. But unfortunately the Managers of some of the stores that use the same store name on the "sign" out front have changed the inside layout around, moved departments, switched or removed aisles, etc., making the standard maps unreliable and causing Intellicomm to "trip". Normally the Managers do this simply because they aren't used to having "robots" in the store doing people's shopping for them... But as more and more robots show up at more and more stores, the Managers realize that their customers must enjoy using them and thus they stop rearranging their stores and tripping up the robots. Most times the BBS modifications that trip up automated sessions are cosmetic (for show) and not very useful in any case. But sometimes the store -must- be laid out in a non-standard way, and in those cases you, or the BBS Operator, or another "shopper" at the BBS may create or modify the maps Intellicomm uses. This is a fairly accurate analogy that should help you understand Intellicomm's limitations, and why those limitations exist. If you had Intellicomm v0.94 Automated Jobs 7 such a robot to do your real shopping, would it make more sense to make the robot so smart that it could handle anything that was thrown at it (making the robot much larger and much more expensive, and possibly having to wait for new technology), or to simply stop rearranging the stores from their original form, so that robots wouldn't need human-like intelligence in the first place? Our theory is "a little of both". We believe we have arrived at a balance in making Intellicomm very flexible, smart, easy to use, and affordable. Now we hope the store designers (BBS Developers) and Managers (Sysops) will meet us half-way and make an attempt to stop tripping up automation and/or making you waste time punching in a new map for every store. YOU are in the middle, and it is you who both Intellicomm and the BBS are meant to serve, so you have the ultimate say in how things will progress: Let your voice be heard. Most times, a BBS operator is more than happy to help out once s/he realizes the benefits of a system like Intellicomm. If you're happy, then the BBS owners are happy as well, since you are THEIR customer as much as ours: Certainly we both want happy customers. However, even if the BBS owner doesn't care whether you're happy or not, Intellicomm also gets users on and off of the BBS very rapidly, without asking questions, and it puts up with busy signals with no complaints allowing the BBS to operate with less overhead (more customers per phone line). It also reduces the usage crunch on weekends/evenings, since people can send Intellicomm "out" while they're sleeping or are at work... Thus, the BBS itself even benefits from reliable automation systems like Intellicomm. 2.1 Getting Started With Automation It is assumed you have read the Quick Start documentation (or experimented a bit), and are familiar with the Terminal, Dialer, BIFs, and how to move about the different areas of the program. Manual use of Intellicomm and the terminal are discussed below if you require more information on those areas. As well, EXAMPLES.DOC will be of interest if you are attempting to set up for a MegaMail/Qmail-type door. Automation requires two things: One or more "Jobs", which tell Intellicomm what to do (get mail, download files, etc.; your "shopping list") and one or more "BBS Information Files" (BIFs) which tell Intellicomm -where- to perform the jobs and exactly how it will go about carrying out the tasks once connected to the BBS (a "map" of each BBS). The first thing we need before making up a shopping list is a reliable map that has been laid out for the BBS you intend to automate. If you did not read the section in the Quick Start documentation (QWIKSTRT.DOC) outlining how to get started on a new BBS, how to use the templates, and how to check for a pre-defined BIF, please read it now. It could save you quite a bit of work. Now, assuming you have a pre-defined BIF for the BBS, or have Created/modified a new BIF using one of the templates -- and have Intellicomm v0.94 Automated Jobs 8 performed at least an auto-logon successfully, you are ready to try something more extravagant. 2.2 The Job Editor Please start Intellicomm if necessary, enter the Job Directory, and select "Create" from the menu. Create is used to create a new automated job, and the first thing Intellicomm must know before automating any session is which BBS to call; thus it immediately asks you to "Select" a BIF when creating new jobs. Hilight the BIF you intend to use, then press Enter. You are then presented with the "Job Editor", which displays the various automated tasks down the left side, and the job you are building (your shopping list) in the Job Window on the right side. At present the job should have only one task: "Call <some BBS>". From here, you may add any of the tasks on the left side, in any order you like (using your common sense to guide you), by entering one or more task numbers. The Job Editor will let you do many things that may or may not work out when you try to run the Job. We forced few rules here, in order to allow you to develop "tricks" through experimentation, and to increase flexibility. If you set something up here that doesn't make sense, in all probability Intellicomm will attempt to do what you asked... even though it doesn't make sense. It assumes you know what you're doing, so use your common sense when setting up jobs. 2.3 Adding/Editing/Removing Tasks For demonstration purposes, type 2-10 (two, hyphen, one zero) and press Enter. The hyphen is a quick way to specify a sequence of tasks; you may also separate specific task numbers with a space (4 6 8 for example), or use a combination of the two (2-4 10 13). As tasks are inserted into the Job Window you are prompted for any necessary information. If you make a mistake, or just want to change something you entered in a given item, move the hilight bar over the task and select "Edit". Edit allows you edit anything from the amount of a Bank Withdrawal/Deposit, to a Download List, to a BIF. If you hilight the "Call <some BBS>", the BIF Editor is entered and it auto-loads the proper BIF so you may make changes or just view the BIF itself. In all probability, you do not have any Upload or Download (.SND / .GET) lists as yet, so trying to edit these entries would not be very useful yet. Normally the File Tagger handles creation of these lists, but before using the File Tagger you must obtain one or more "New Files" listings in an automated job. To remove a task from the Job Window, move the hilight bar over the task and select "Remove". Tasks are both inserted and removed at the position of the hilight bar, in the Job Window. To add a job starting day/time, press Home to move to the top of the Job, then enter task 1. Job starting times may be inserted anywhere in a job: Intellicomm logs you off the BBS automatically if it runs into a Intellicomm v0.94 Automated Jobs 9 Job Starting Time while online. You must, therefore, use the Job Starting times in combination with a "Call <some BIF>", so Intellicomm will log you back onto the BBS when the starting time arrives. If you want to call another BBS, or want Intellicomm to switch to another BBS Information File, position the hilight bar where you want the call/switch to take place, (press the End key to move to the end of the job), then select "BBS" from the bottom menu. If a previous "Call" exists above, as it does in this case, you are asked whether to disconnect from the BBS. If you select "No" then when running the job, Intellicomm would simply load a new BIF and continue with any further tasks (useful if automating several mail systems/doors on one BBS which each require its own BIF ... or for any other purpose that imagination permits). If you select "Yes" to disconnect, then the current BBS job ends at that point and another BBS would be called. Select any BIF from the menu, and you will have either a new "Call <some BIF>", or a "Switch to <some BIF>", depending on what you answered to the "Disconnect from BBS?" question. You may then add any other tasks you wish, and can continue on with this for quite a ways. There is no limit to the number of tasks a job may have, other than the size of the Job Editor's memory buffer, which is large enough to hold dozens of assorted tasks; each task varies in size/memory requirements. Note that the order in which you set up each "Call <some BBS>" is not necessarily how things will take place, when you actually run the job. When running one or more jobs, Intellicomm simply "tags" all the necessary BIFs in the BBS Directory, then dials them in the regular queue manner and carries out the proper job(s) for whichever BBS it connects to first. 2.4 Saving a Job When you have defined all the Call BBS's/tasks you want, select "eXit" (or press Esc) and you will be asked to type in a description for the job. The description you enter here will be displayed from the Job Directory, so type whatever you want to see from there. Job descriptions are sorted alphabetically in the Job Directory, but if you want to sort some common jobs to the top, you MAY (it's not mandatory) precede the job description with one of the symbols on the top row of your keyboard (i.e. shift-1 to shift-0). Exclamation marks (!) sort to the very top, @ next, # next, etc. So if you type "!Most common job" as the description, that entry should sort right to the top of the Job Directory due to the special symbol (!) as the first character. It is recommended that you keep a job called "@Temporary" in your directory, which you can then use to create/save jobs on the fly as needed, rather than accumulating a mess of jobs that will only be run once or twice. The @ causes it to sort near the top (only descriptions starting with a space or ! will precede it). Enter @Temporary now to save this demonstration job we just Created, and the job will be saved to disk and you will be returned to the Job Directory where the description is now displayed. Intellicomm v0.94 Automated Jobs 10 2.5 Viewing/Editing Previously Saved Jobs Whenever you want to view or modify a job, just hilight the job's description in the Job Directory and select "Edit". Your @Temporary job could be Edited whenever you need a quick, one-time-only automated job. Select "Edit" to edit this job now. Normally the first thing you'll do when Editing the @Temporary entry is to "Remove" old unwanted tasks, or simply to select "Clear" to clear out the whole job and start fresh. You are asked for confirmation after selecting "Clear" (try it now), in case it was a mistake. Note that Clear does not affect the job on-disk, but only in the Job Window (i.e. in computer memory). You must re-save a Job after "eXit" to affect the job on-disk. Now that you have a totally clear Job Window to work with, do you remember how start again and place a "Call <some BIF>" at the top? That's right, you would select "BBS" from the bottom menu, then Select the BIF to call from the menu. You could then enter whatever tasks you want to carry out. Select "eXit" now to re-save the newly cleared @Temporary entry, and whenever you need to set up a quick job for use only once or twice, just re-Edit @Temporary and re-save it, and you'll be all set to go. Instead of typing in a description to save this job, just press Enter to save under the same @Temporary description. Note that even if you enter a new description on eXit from a previously created job, a new Job Directory entry is NOT created. For example, if you change the @Temporary description to "Get Mail from Joe's BBS", you would lose the @Temporary entry as it would be overwritten with the new description (i.e. you have simply changed the description of the SAME job ... That is actually how you do change the description of a job if you want to). You must select "Create" from the Job Directory when you require a new job, and wish to add another entry to the Job Directory. 2.6 Running Automated Jobs If you followed the above, and have read and understood the Quick Start documentation, you should be ready to "Create" and "Run" an automated job. MegaMail/Qmail-type setups and automated download setups are discussed in EXAMPLES.DOC for specific info on setting up for those tasks. You may run the jobs you Create by either hilighting/tagging them from the Job Directory then selecting "Run", using "Find" to Find/Tag jobs for you then selecting "Run", or by using the Run command line switch from DOS, which automatically performs a Find All/Tag All then selects Run for you: ICOM /Run:Mail < no space in the switch, no quotes required ICOM "/run:Get Files" < a space exists and thus quotes are required ^--------------^---------- Intellicomm v0.94 Automated Jobs 11 The switch may be preceded by either / or -, case is not significant. Double quotes ("") tell DOS to keep the text together as one unit. Without quotes, if a space exists, DOS will separate the switch into separate units and you will lose the text from the space onwards (Intellicomm will see it as a separate parameter). Thus you only need quotes if a space exists in the switch. The first example, ICOM /Run:Mail, would cause Intellicomm to Find/Tag, then Run all jobs that contained the word Mail in the Job Directory. Before using the Run switch, you should test your search text. To test the "Mail" string, you would enter the Job Directory, select "Find", type in Mail when asked what to search for, then select "Find all/Tag all". This will SHOW you exactly which entries would be tagged/run if you use that search string from DOS in a Run switch. If an unwanted job got inadvertently tagged in your test, either revise your search string (change Mail to something more specific) or change the description for the unwanted job by "Edit"ing it/re-saving using a different description, so that it doesn't get included (i.e. remove or change the word Mail in that job's description). You can ALWAYS get the jobs you want to run through testing with a Find all/Tag all, then modifying job descriptions and search text, if necessary. After you get the hang of it, you will start using certain keywords in your job descriptions to aid in use of Find/Tag and Run switches. Note that the "Run" command line switch is a convenience intended only for totally unattended automation and/or to run certain jobs from DOS menu programs, etc. You may test the command line switches before purchasing Intellicomm, but you are not able to "set a switch and forget" the program until you purchase it and receive your key file to remove the purchase reminders. If you are confident enough with Intellicomm to let it run unattended through command line switches, then your evaluation is certainly complete enough to purchase the program and be rid of the reminders/random keypress. 3. BBS INFORMATION FILES -- A CLOSER LOOK In this chapter, we will cover the different sections (screens) of a BIF, and the important items on each screen. If you follow the guidelines, you should be able to even set up full BIF templates from scratch just as we do here at the "factory". Many items of a BIF are self-explanatory, and we won't waste time/paper with those ones. If a BIF item is omitted below, you can find out all you need to know by hilighting the item and reading the online help. 3.1 What's in a BIF? BIFs are the most important link in the chain of automation. The Intellicomm "jobs" outlined above are easy enough to set up and run, but without a properly defined map of the BBS (the purpose a BIF serves), Intellicomm will almost surely have trouble communicating with the BBS. If you have a problem automating a job on a BBS, the solution almost certainly lies in the BIF. Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 12 Happily, getting a BIF into working order, from one of the pre-defined templates, is usually quite easy; even if the BBS Operator made changes to the original BBS. The trick is to take it one step/section at a time. If you try to set up an entire BIF at once you may end up becoming overwhelmed, as there are many configurable items per BIF. As well, you will learn quickly which items need configuring from BBS to BBS, and which items are usually left alone (the usual items that require changing are pointed out in the BIF Editor with an arrow > following the item's description). Many of the items in each BIF will never need changing -- but configuration is provided for special cases, and for advanced users. We learned a lot about "special cases", and how bizarre things can get from BBS to BBS in the two years of automating PCBoard with our previous automator "The Liberator". Intellicomm is as configurable as it is due mainly to that experience and nothing in a BIF is there for show. 3.2 Tips on Defining BBS Prompts It is very important when defining prompts/messages in BIFs to use text that is unique to the prompt/message you have in mind. For example: | Startup Command Main Menu A . . Menu | The text "Menu" defined in the Main Menu item of a BIF may work fine as far as the text showing up at the main menu of the BBS -- but it would also cause Intellicomm to think it was at the main menu if the text "Message Menu", or "File Menu" showed up, since all contain the word "Menu". Likewise, "Name" may show up in the prompt that asks for your name, but if the BBS displayed the word "Name" in the opening bulletins or logon news, Intellicomm would enter your name each time. I.e. the program does not read entire screens and try to determine the meaning of a word in a sentence. So be sure to use punctuation (i.e. "Name? " instead of just "Name") wherever possible, to help separate the real prompt from regular BBS text. The BIF Editor displays a double arrow after each prompt to show you any trailing spaces that may exist after the prompt. Spaces are tracked just as any other character is, so if you define two trailing spaces in a prompt, two spaces must also show up on the BBS. 3.3 Pre-defined BIFS The first step in setting up a BIF is always to look on the BBS to see if the BBS Operator, Liberation Enterprises, or a helpful Intellicomm user has already set one up and has uploaded it to the BBS for everyone to use. Logon to the BBS and attempt to download a file called ICOMBIF.ZIP (.ZIP being the compression type used on the BBS; could also be .LZH, .PAK, etc). If a pre-defined BIF exists, most of it should already be set up properly, and you just enter the proper comm. port settings, name, password, and you're done. Be sure to see any README files that come with the .BIF though ... and make sure you read the BBS Notes in the BIF Editor. There may be special setup tips there. 3.4 BIF Screen 1 -- General BBS Information Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 13 The only items that require special mention on this screen are the protocols (hilight and read the online help for other items): | Send Mail . . . Zmodem Last Connected . 00/00/00 | | BBS Letter . . Z Total Connects . 0 | | Receive Mail . . Zmodem Response Delay . 0 | | BBS Letter . . Z BS Protection . 5 | | Send Files . . . Zmodem Logon Timeout . 30 | | BBS Letter . . Z General Timeout 360 | | Receive Files . Zmodem Max. Timeouts . 3 | | BBS Letter . . Z Max. Online Time 0 | Send Mail/BBS Letter are currently only of use if you are setting up for a Mail Door such as MegaMail/Qmail-type doors. Since Qmail-type mail doors allow you to define a protocol within the door, Intellicomm also must know which protocol to use in the door. If you selected Zmodem and/or if 'Z' is the letter used on the door's protocol menu to select Zmodem, then you won't have to change anything. But if you use another protocol for uploads, you must select the Send Mail item and pick the proper protocol from the menu. NOTE that you must also define the filename of the reply packet to send on the "Message" screen. BBS Letter in every case below is only needed if the message door/BBS ASKS you for a protocol and presents a menu of protocols (to which Intellicomm sends the BBS Letter). Receive Mail/BBS Letter can be used to either cause Intellicomm to open a capture file to capture messages (by defining ASCII as the protocol), or may be used to specify which protocol you use on the BBS or in the message door/system to download mail "packets". In either case, the proper Message Filename must be defined on the "Message" screen. Send/Receive Files/BBS Letter are the protocols you use on the BBS to transfer regular files (.ZIP and .GIF files, etc). Most BBS's have a selection of protocols, but Zmodem is preferred and if you have defined Zmodem as your transfer protocol on the BBS -- or if 'Z' is the proper letter to select Zmodem from the BBS menu, you won't have to change these items. 3.5 BIF Screen 2 -- Logon/Extra Information | Startup Command Main Menu A . . Main Menu? | | Logoff . . . . . Main Menu B . . | The most important item on this screen is the "Main Menu" prompt. The text defined here signals the end of the logon, and thus if not defined properly the logon will never complete and nothing will ever be accomplished. Make sure you do not include any text in the prompt that may change from one session to the next (such as time left online, etc). Other useful items on this screen that may require further explanation are the "Extra" commands and prompts: |-| Extra Commands |----------------| Extra Prompts |---------------| Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 14 | External Extra A External A . . . | | External Extra B External B . . . | | Message Extra A Message A . . . | | Message Extra B Message B . . . | | File Extra A . . File A . . . . . | | File Extra B . . File B . . . . . | Different Extra Prompts are tracked during different automated tasks. For example, the two Message Extras are tracked only when accessing the message menu, when performing actual tasks on the message menu, or when leaving the message menu. File Extras are tracked similarly, but only during file operations (accessing/leaving the file menu, auto-collection of new files listings, file searches, or auto-file uploads/downloads). The External Extras are tracked during any non-file, non-message functions, such as during the logon/logoff, or when sending any Custom Commands you define, etc. There is no specific purpose for any of the above prompts, and you are free to use them as you see fit, whenever you need something "extra" handled. 3.6 BIF Screen 3 -- Message Information Many items on this screen require further explanation, due to the wide variety of message systems this one BIF screen serves. Everything from mail door transfers to a simple capture of a message read command can be set up -- all from this one screen. The "NOTE:" text in certain items below explain various tricks. Access Msg Menu/Message Menu This command/prompt combo are required only if you cannot access messages from the Main Menu of the BBS. It is important to note that if you define an "Access Msg Menu" command, that you MUST define a "Message Menu" prompt. Intellicomm will not continue automating the job, after trying to access a sub-menu/door, until the message menu is found (this does not apply if you do not define an Access Msg Menu command). Further, if you define a Message Menu, you must use text that only shows up at the message menu. For example, you might use "Message Menu?" as the prompt as opposed to just the text "Menu?", since "Menu?" may also show up at the main menu and other menus. Intellicomm must be able to distinguish WHICH menu it is at. This requirement was built in for error-handling, so that Intellicomm will 'know' whether it actually accessed the sub-menu/door properly or whether it was unable to access it, and just ended up back at the main menu. If all menu prompts look alike in the BIF, Intellicomm will always think it is at the BBS main menu, and this may cause it to fail. Send Replies/Send Replies Now/Replies Accepted are used only in Qmail- type systems. The "Send Replies" command is the command that tells the mail door to prepare for an incoming reply packet (i.e. a reply packet upload). When the "Send Replies Now" message is received, Intellicomm actually starts the upload (using the "Send Mail" protocol as defined on screen 1). "Replies Accepted" signals that the upload was successful, and causes Intellicomm to renumber/delete the reply packet. If a Replies Accepted prompt is defined, and it is NOT received, the upload Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 15 is attempted again. NOTE: If no "Send Replies" prompt is defined in the BIF, Intellicomm assumes that there is no such prompt available and starts sending replies immediately upon finding the "Message Menu". Reply Filename is only used in MegaMail/Qmail-type doors, and initially contains BBSID as part of the filename. You must replace BBSID with the proper ID (filename) of the reply packet. Usually the ID is the same for both message and reply packets. Confirm Answer/Confirm Receive are used to handle a common question in Qmail-type doors. These message systems normally scan for messages, show you the results of the scan, and then ask if you want to download a message packet. "Confirm Answer" is sent when this "Confirm Receive" question is found. General/Personal Read and Receive Messages/Receive Success are similar to the Send commands/prompts defined above, but with one important difference: If the "Receive Mail" protocol, defined on screen 1, is the ASCII protocol, no actual download takes place, but Intellicomm instead opens "Msg Filename" (below) as a new capture file, and captures the messages to that file. NOTE: If no "Receive Messages" prompt is defined in the BIF, Intellicomm assumes that there is no such prompt available and starts receiving replies immediately upon finding the "Message Menu". Msg Filename is the filename downloaded/captured to. If using an Intellicomm internal protocol, it makes no difference what the BBS actually calls the file and you may force any name you prefer. For example, the BBS could send a file called "080991.CAP", but Intellicomm will override the filename with whatever name you use here (some external protocols cannot support this feature). Thus, you may name the incoming file whatever you like, if using an internal protocol as your "Receive Mail" protocol, defined in screen 1. NOTE: If you define ASCII as the Receive Mail protocol, this item holds the filename to capture to. More Answer/Message More override the usual 'More' command/prompt defined on the logon screen to enable special handling when capturing text messages. Normally the "More Answer" should be set to something that tells the BBS to display ALL of the text with no further "More" prompts (i.e. non-stop or continuous read). Intellicomm will then be able to capture all the mail quickly, with no further interruptions. Leave Msg Menu/Logoff Msg Menu tell Intellicomm how to continue with the next automated job (leave the message menu and return to the main menu), or how to logoff the BBS directly from the message menu if no further jobs are defined. If there is no "Logoff Msg Menu" command, Intellicomm leaves the message menu and logs off from the main menu. Note that neither of these items are required if no "Access Msg Menu" command was used. Reply Dir/Message Dir way at the bottom are only for special use for those who must keep message packets in multiple sub-directories. For Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 16 the average user, the Reply/Message Directories are defined once (in the Intellicomm main setup) and these two items will never be needed. 3.7 BIF Screen 4 -- Bank/File List Information The bank commands/prompts are straightforward, and not much more can be said here than what is displayed in the online help available by hilighting the item. As with the Access Msg Menu prompt, if you define an "Access Bank Menu" prompt, you must also define a "Bank Menu" prompt, or Intellicomm will never realize it has reached the bank and will not continue with the job. You can't have one without the other. Make sure the text you define as the Bank Menu is also unique to the Bank menu (i.e. the text should not show up at the main menu, or file menu, or any other menu other than the bank menu or Intellicomm will never know where it is). "Leave Bank Menu" and "Logoff Bank Menu" also work the same as their equivalents on the message menu. Please see the message section above for more information. The "BBS File List Details" on the lower part of the Bank/List screen enable Intellicomm to read 'raw' file listings from the BBS (i.e. for file transfer purposes) and/or to import/export file listings to/from the File Tagger's catalogs. Setting up these items can be a little tricky and requires an understanding of the BBS, of Intellicomm's file transfer abilities and, optionally, of Intellicomm's File Tagger if you use the Tagger. |-| BBS File List Details |---------| BBS File List Details |-------| | Catalog to Use . Day Position . . | | Default Lst Area Year Position . | | Filename Start . Date separator . | | Filename End . . Comment Start . | | Extension Start Comment End . . | | Extension End . Continue Comment | | Size Position . Continue Comment | | Month Position . New File Area . | Catalog to Use is the name of the File Tagger Catalog to import file listings to (the catalog is created if it does not exist), and to scan for tagged files when a download is requested. This allows you to keep a separate File Tagger Catalog for a given BBS, if necessary. Default Lst Area is the BBS/File Area the File Tagger assumes (defaults to) if no file area is specified on a .NEW file listing from the BBS (a new files list or the result from an automated file search). The item is only of use on BBS's that USE separate file areas... Many BBS's allow any file to be transferred from the same File Menu, and where this is the case you needn't define a Default Lst Area. Filename/Extension Start/End Positions can be determined by loading a file list from the BBS into the internal editor. The "positions" of the various items can then be determined by moving the cursor to the start/end of the item and reading the "Col" (column) item on the status line. Please read the two items below, then see the examples that immediately follow for clarification. Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 17 Month/Day/Year positions are very important, as this is how the File Tagger determines whether a line of text on a file list is actually a BBS File, or is just some extraneous text from the BBS. Month/Day/Year positions needn't actually show up in that order on the file list. I.e. the BBS may display files using the format Day/Month/Year, or Year/Month/Day, etc. In this case just enter the proper positions of each item (it assumes 2 character fields for each date item). Date Separator is used in combination with the above three items to determine valid file lines. You don't define the Date Separator YOU want to use here, rather you must define the date separator that the *BBS* uses on its list to specify dates. If the BBS displays file dates as MM.DD.YY on its file listings, then you would place a "." (period... with no quotes) in this item. Comment Start/Comment End define the start/ending position of the main file comment or description. These positions are not assumed/used for extended description/comment lines: only the main comment line. EXAMPLES (the numeric ruler is for positional reference only): 1 2 3 4 5 12345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890... <-- Positions FILENAME.EXT 12345678 MM-DD-YY File Description from here on... FILE2 EXT DD.MM.YY 12345678 File Description from here on... In the first example, Filename Start is 1, Filename End is 12, Extension Start/End are both 0 (the extension is connected to the filename field and could start anywhere in the filename field), Size Position is 15 (an 8 character field is assumed for file sizes), Month position is 25, Day Position is 28, Year Position is 31, Date Separator is - (hyphen), Comment Start is 35, and Comment End would be 80, or the end of the screen. In the second example, note that the extension is NOT part of the filename (i.e. all extensions would start at position 10). In this case, Filename Start is 1, Filename End is 8, Extension Start is 10, Extension End is 12, Size Position is 25, Month Position is 18, Day Position is 15, Year Position is 21, Date Separator is . (period), Comment Start is 35 and Commend End would be 80, or the end of the screen. Notice in the second example how various positions are out of order (i.e. the date comes before the size, and month/day/year do not show up in that order). Using this method, and specifying exact positions for each item, Intellicomm (and the File Tagger which also uses this information to import/export file lists) can understand just about any file listing from any BBS. The various items can show up anywhere on the line. Continue Comment is used to identify "extended comment" lines, which are used on certain BBS types to give a more detailed description of the file. If extended descriptions on the BBS start with a space, then you could define one or more spaces as a "Continue Comment" identifier. If extended comments start with a vertical bar (|), you could use that. Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 18 New File Area is of use mainly on prepared file listings, such as those contained in Qmail "QWK" packets (Intellicomm auto-extracts these new files lists and imports them into the File Tagger). If the Tagger runs across a line in a file list that starts with the characters defined here, it assumes a new file area immediately follows. This example file list can probably explain it best: Conference 2 FILE1.ZIP 12345678 MM-DD-YY Description Conference 3 FILE2.ZIP 12345678 MM-DD-YY Description If you defined "Conference " in the "New File Area" item, then Intellicomm would recognize the area changes on the list (conferences being PCBoard file areas) and would import FILE1.ZIP into the Tagger as being located in File Area (conference) 2, and FILE2, FILE3.ZIP as being in file area 3 (it assumes the actual file area is the first 'field' following the defined "New File Area" text). If this item/example confuses you, it probably is not needed. 3.8 BIF Screen 5 -- File Information Most items on this screen are self-explanatory, and only the following items require special mention: Access File Menu / File Menu are only needed if you cannot send/receive files right from the main BBS menu. If you define an "Access File Menu" command, you MUST define a "File Menu" prompt or Intellicomm will timeout and eventually fail. Further, the text defined as the "File Menu" must be unique to that menu, and must not show up at any of the other menus Intellicomm "knows" about (i.e. the Main Menu, the Message Menu, or the Bank Menu). Please see the Access Msg Menu command above for more information on accessing sub-menus. Default BBS Area is the BBS area Intellicomm will change to (using the "Area Change" command below), if no specific area is specified on the file list. File lists and /Area: switches are discussed in a separate section below. The File Tagger also uses this item and handles /Area: switches on your File Lists for you. Area Change is the command to send at the File Menu (or main menu if no file menu is used on the BBS) to change to a new file area. % is used in this command as a placeholder, and is substituted with the actual file area when online (e.g. an Area Change command of "J %" would be sent as "J 2" when online, to change to file area 2). Chars per Line / Max Lines tell Intellicomm how to enter the description when uploading files. Chars per line is how many characters the BBS accepts per description line, while Max Lines is the total number of description lines allowed per file. Intellicomm v0.94 BBS Information Files 19 Files per U/L / Files per D/L are used for "batch" transfers. Some BBS's allow batch downloads, but not batch uploads, some allow both, and some do not allow either. Similarly, some external protocols may not support batch upload lists as Intellicomm/and Forsberg's "DSZ" (external X/Y/Zmodem program) do. If you have problems with batch transfers, either uploading or downloading, you may set either of these items to 1, turning off batch transfers. 4. TAKING CONTROL OF BBS FILES -- INTELLICOMM'S FILE TAGGER Intellicomm's File Tagger employs advanced database techniques on the information collected from text-based New Files lists from various types of BBS's. It "imports" (adds to the database) the filename/date/ size/description of each file from virtually any type of BBS list, excluding files you don't want, stripping certain extended description lines, and even auto-tagging special files you're interested in, using lists of user-defined keywords. Each valid record is sorted (indexed against other files) three different ways after it is added to the database, allowing instant re-sorts of the entire list on command. When the import completes, you have what the File Tagger refers to as a 'catalog'. All you must do to use the Tagger is to tell Intellicomm to pick up a "New Files List" from one or more BBS's (or download a Qmail-compatible .QWK message packet that contains a new files listing... Intellicomm will auto-extract the new files list, making it available to the File Tagger). Everything from that point on is automatic. All the necessary information is kept within catalogs, such as which BBS (BIF) the file came from, which file area on the BBS must be accessed before downloading, the filename, date, size, description (including extended description lines), and even the date that the record was imported into your catalog. The import date is used to 'purge' (mark as Deleted) records that are older than a given number of days. Files from different BBS's, and different -types- of BBS's can all be stored in one catalog, or you may set up multiple catalogs per BBS by specifying a 'Catalog to use' in the BIF for a particular BBS (see the "Bank/File List" screen in the BIF Editor). Intellicomm Catalogs are stored in dBASE III/III+ format, so once the catalogs are created you have literally hundreds of tools available to help you manage them. You need only use the File Tagger to convert (import) the text listings to dBASE format ... Intellicomm does this automatically if the Tagger is enabled in the main setup. If you prefer to use dBASE itself, or some other compatible system to browse/tag files and manage your catalogs after the File Tagger creates/updates them, that is entirely up to you. However, this is just a perk as the File Tagger comes complete with just about everything you could need to browse, edit, select files to transfer, and otherwise manage your catalogs. 4.1 Enabling/Disabling the File Tagger Intellicomm v0.94 The File Tagger 20 If you did not install the File Tagger using the main installation program, or if you wish to disable it for some reason, you may do so in the Intellicomm main setup (Tools, Setup or running SETUP.EXE) on the "Screen/File Transfer" screen: | Use ICOM's File Tagger . Yes | | Keep an Upload Catalog . Yes | "Use ICOM's File Tagger" controls whether new files listings from BBS's (*.NEW) are imported to File Tagger catalogs, and whether Intellicomm asks the Tagger for tagged files from its catalogs before calling a BBS where an auto-download is requested. "Keep an Upload Catalog" controls whether the filenames/descriptions of newly downloaded files are imported into the FILELIST upload catalog, and whether the FILELIST catalog is scanned for files to upload when one or more auto-uploads are requested. You may enable/disable either item according to your needs. If you disable the File Tagger, you may still perform automated file uploads and/or downloads by creating your own File Lists from the *.NEW file listings Intellicomm gathers. Creation of File Lists is fairly straightforward and is outlined in the "Automated File Transfers" section below. 4.2 How to Access the File Tagger The Tagger can be accessed where the other external Tools are available, from the Job Directory "Tools" menu. "Select files for Downloading" and "Select files for Uploading" access the Tagger and automatically load the NEWFILES catalog (imported *.NEW files lists) and FILELIST catalog (files obtained through auto-downloads) respectively. You may also run the File Tagger directly from DOS by running TAGGER.EXE. The Tagger supports the following command line parameters when run from DOS: CATNAME An optional catalog name; NEWFILES is used if none given. /i Import *.NEW from the \ICOM\LST directory. /pack Purge/pack all catalogs. /snd:BIFNAME Create/update a .SND list for BIFNAME. /get:BIFNAME Create/update a .GET list for BIFNAME. Switches may use / or - and case is not significant. Examples: TAGGER FILELIST Starts the Tagger and loads the FILELIST catalog for browsing. TAGGER -i Imports any .NEW files lists to the proper catalog(s). This command is automatically sent by Intellicomm after automated sessions, if any *.NEW files listings are found. TAGGER /get:CRS Scans the default CRS catalog (or the NEWFILES catalog if none specified in CRS.BIF) and exports any tagged files to CRS.GET. Once inside the File Tagger, the catalog is displayed in "browse mode" one file per line (as many files as will fit in the box). You can move the hilight bar around as usual, using the keys listed under the catalog Intellicomm v0.94 The File Tagger 21 box and may Tag files for transfer by pressing the space bar or selecting the "Tag" item on the bottom menu. "Find" is used as in the Intellicomm Job/BBS Directories to find, and optionally tag certain files that match the search text you enter. The filename, description and extended description of each file is checked in a search, and thus it can take a little longer than a Job Directory search. "Edit" can be used to view or modify entire file records, rather than the one-line method used by the browse mode. After you select Edit you may change a given field by using up/down arrow to move the hilight bar, then typing in the change. To modify the description, the internal editor is used. Press Esc to exit the editor when you finish changing the description. You can also set "Transfer Days" in Edit mode by entering a number in that item. Hilight the Transfer Day item to obtain the numbers for various days. If a Transfer Day is set for a given file, it is only exported to the .SND / .GET list if Intellicomm performs an auto- download on that day. Thus, you may save certain files for certain days. Edit mode may also be used simply to view a catalog and tag files, if you prefer to see the entire file record/description when browsing. PgUp and PgDn allow you to move up and down through the catalog, and if you see a file you wish to tag, simply press the "T" key to set the Tagged? item to True. Note that the True/False help text displays the current state of the record in 'bold' text. I.e. if the record is not tagged, False is bolded, if it is tagged True is bolded. This is done so you can concentrate on the Description, but can still see the tagged status of the record out of the corner of your eye, without having to look closely at the Tagged item for a T or F. Press the Esc key to exit Edit mode and return to the main Tagger menu and browse mode. "Delete/View/Untag" are self-explanatory and don't require special mention other than to say that "View" searches your Download Directory and Upload PATH only, to locate a given file for viewing (it is really useful only when browsing the FILELIST catalog, which contains files that you have already obtained). You must have defined your Archive Viewer command in the Intellicomm main setup before using "View". "Sort" is used to change the order in which files are displayed. The current sort order is displayed on the line below the cursor key help line. To change the sort order, select Sort then pick the order of your choice from the sort menu and the catalog will be instantly re-sorted without losing your position (the same file will be hilighted after the sort). SPECIAL NOTE: If you use the "Tag Status/Location" sort order, and you tag/untag a file, it will 'disappear' as the change in tag status groups the file in a totally different location. The Tag Status index is not really meant to be used for browsing/tagging purposes, rather it is meant to be used AFTER you finish viewing/tagging files, in Intellicomm v0.94 The File Tagger 22 order to see all tagged files grouped together. You may then enter Edit mode and set Transfer Days for the tagged files, etc. The Tag Status/Location index is also useful to see any auto-tagged files (defining keywords to auto-tag files is discussed shortly). You may change the default sort order using the Tools/Setup item, discussed shortly. "Column 2" will be fairly self-explanatory after you select it. It is used to change the information that is displayed in column 2 when in browse mode. This can be useful when you're looking for files from a certain BBS, or if you change to the Filename/Date index and wish to view the file dates in column 2. You may change the default column 2 item using the Tools/Setup item, discussed shortly. "Load" is used to load another catalog for viewing. Note that there is no "save" option that you must select before loading another catalog. Any changes you make to a catalog are saved to disk immediately, and thus you may eXit or Load another catalog at any time: all your changes to the current catalog will have been saved to disk already. "Tools" opens the Tagger's Toolbox consisting of the following items: "Archive Viewer/Jump to DOS" are the same as on the Intellicomm Tools menu. The first runs your external Archive Viewer (which must be defined in the main setup), while the second allows you to temporarily exit to DOS to carry out some external task or run another program: type EXIT when done and you'll return to the Tagger right where you left off. Note the hotkeys displayed beside these items on the Tools menu ([Alt-V] and [Alt-J]). This means you may press these key combinations from virtually anywhere in the Tagger to select either of these items. "Tagger Setup" opens the main File Tagger Setup menu. Please see the section of the same name below for details. "Import BBS Lists" is used to import any .NEW files listings that exist in the \ICOM\LST directory. "Import Files from Disk" allows you to add files that you obtained through non-automated means to your upload catalog. You should first "Load" the FILELIST catalog, then select this item and enter the proper filespec of the directory to import from. Duplicate files that already exist in your catalog are ignored as usual, while any files that don't exist are imported using the actual file's date/size information as reported by DOS. Since the file was not obtained automatically from a new files listing, no description of the file will be available and you'll have to enter that manually using "Edit". "Export" is used to convert catalogs back to text file format. The catalog is exported from beginning to end using the current sort order. When you select Export you will be asked which format to export to, and are presented with the names of your BIF files. If you wish to export Intellicomm v0.94 The File Tagger 23 the listing in PCBoard format, select the PCBOARD entry from the menu, etc. "Create" is used to create a new catalog. "Purge" is useful when you want to get rid of a number of files all at once. Select the Purge item and you'll get some further help (you may press Esc to exit without actually purging anything), and will be asked how many days worth of files you want to keep. All records that are older (according to the IMPORT date, not the actual file date) than the number of days you enter will be marked as deleted. You may then exit back to browse mode to see the results, and can undelete any records if necessary by hilighting the record and selecting "Delete" (which always toggles the deleted status). "Pack/Rebuild" is used to permanently remove all records marked as deleted and rebuild the indexes. If a catalog gets damaged somehow, you should select this item to attempt to rebuild it. 4.3 File Tagger Setup The Tools/Setup option accesses the File Tagger's main setup, where you may configure various catalog details, as well as the Exclude and Auto- Tag keywords. "Import Details" are explained thoroughly when you select the item by hilighting it and pressing the Enter key. "Default DBF Path" is the drive/pathname where the File Tagger will create, and look for existing catalogs. If you wish to store your catalogs with your other dBASE-compatible database files, or don't have space on one drive and must use another drive for catalogs, you may specify the new location here. "Default Sort Order" is the way catalogs are initially sorted. If you find yourself using another sort order frequently, you may change the default order here and save yourself some trouble. "Tagger Column 2" determines what is displayed in column 2 of the browse mode, at startup. If you find yourself frequently using another item in column 2, you may want to change the default here. "Strip Comment 1-5" are five keywords or search strings that will cause an extended comment line from a BBS new files listing to be ignored (this does not affect the main file description, and thus will be of no use on BBS's that do not support multi-line file descriptions). PCBoard has an "Uploaded by:" extended description line, which many times is useless, if the original uploader was from a different BBS. To strip the line, simply enter "Uploaded by:" (without the quotes) in one of these entries. Other BBS's may have other pesky extended comment lines you don't wish to take up your disk space with, and you may strip these similarly. Intellicomm v0.94 The File Tagger 24 "Exclude File 1-5" are used to have the File Tagger certain ignore files that contain certain text in either the filename, main comment, or extended comment. For example, if you are not interested in games, you could add the word "game" (without the quotes) as an Exclude string, and any new file with that word in its name/description would be ignored and would not be added to your catalog. Other candidates could be "GIF" or "Soundblaster" or "religion/politics", etc. Be careful with this though, as you could end up excluding files that you DO want by using general keywords. For example, if you do not have a VGA display, you may think that VGA would be a good candidate for an exclude keyword... but don't forget those descriptions that mention "Mono/CGA/EGA/VGA". "Auto-Tag File 1-5" are applied to new files listings in the same manner as the Exclude strings above, but these ones cause the Tagger to automatically tag files. Use these for files you are especially interested in. The purpose of Auto-Tagged files is not to transfer the files based solely on the keywords, without prior review. The idea is to have interesting files auto-tagged only so they will be pointed out when you later browse the new files. You may also re-sort the catalog by "Tag Status/Location" to group all auto-tagged files together. 4.4 Saving your File Tagger Setup Once you are satisfied with your settings (or if you are unsatisfied and want to abort), press the Esc key and you will be presented with the same exit options as in Intellicomm's main setup. Select "Save changes" to save the setup to disk in the TAGGER.INI file, "Abandon changes" to exit without saving (though the settings will remain as they were, for the remainder of the File Tagger session), or "Cancel" to return to the setup menu. 5. AUTOMATED FILE TRANSFERS/FILE LISTS This section discusses the files lists called Upload and Download Lists, that Intellicomm uses to perform automated file uploads and downloads from BBS's. It is meant to help you modify and update Intellicomm's .SND / .GET lists manually, for special needs such as obtaining/sending files to/from specific BBS file areas, or specifying a password to up/download a password-protected file. For a general/overall discussion on the automated file transfer process, please refer to the second section of the EXAMPLES.DOC file. The file transfer process in general is outlined there, and may save you from dealing with this section for some time. 5.1 Locating/Editing File Lists To automatically transfer files to/from a given BBS, Intellicomm looks in its "List directory" (may be re-defined in the main setup, defaults to \ICOM\LST) for files called BIFNAME.SND or BIFNAME.GET to send/get files respectively; BIFNAME being the filename of the current BIF. 'Current' BIF meaning the filename of the BIF specified in the "Call <some BIF>" or "Switch to <some BIF>" item in the Intellicomm job. Intellicomm v0.94 Automated File Transfers 25 If you forget the name of a File List, or even just wish to view/edit the list itself, "Edit" the job, from Job Directory. The name of the file list is displayed with each "Send/Get Files" request in the Job Window and you may View/Edit the list itself by moving the Job Editor's hilight bar over the task and selecting "Edit". If the list exists, it will be loaded into the editor. 5.2 Download .GET List Format The format/layout of Download Lists is defined in each BIF on the "Bank/List" screen, and defaults to the same way files are listed by the BBS itself. By using the BBS file list layout itself, it allows you to capture file listings from a BBS and edit/copy/dump lines from that listing DIRECTLY to your .GET list. If you are using the File Tagger, it will handle copying filenames to the .GET list just before dialing for an automated file transfer. Details of the BIF "Bank/List" screen are outlined above in section 3.7 5.3 Upload .SND List Format Upload Lists use a fixed format no matter which type of BBS is being called. The format is the drive/path/filename on one line, followed on the next line (or lines) by a tab and the file comment/description. You need only specify a drive/path before the filename if the file is NOT on the "Upload PATH" defined in the Intellicomm main setup. Examples follow ([tab] signifies where an actual tab would be): ICOMBIF.ZIP [tab]A pre-defined Intellicomm BIF for this BBS. ICOM094A.ZIP [tab]Intellicomm communications, v0.94 1 of 2 [tab]Unattended calls to MULTIPLE BBS types! [tab]Save time, effort and long distance [tab]charges by having calls carried out [tab]overnight while you're sleeping. Mega- [tab]mail/Qmail-type message transfers, auto [tab]file uploads/downloads and much more. ICOM094B.ZIP [tab]Intellicomm communications, v0.94 2 of 2 [tab]User's manual, Quick Start/Example docs. There's a bit of a trick to designing file descriptions that are compatible with multiple BBS types (if you're concerned with that). Some BBS's accept only one description line per file, some accept two, and some accept up to eight lines per file. For compatibility with all these BBS types, make sure the first two lines of your descriptions can stand alone. I.e. line one should be able to stand on its own for BBS's that only accept one line, lines one and two should stand on their own for BBS's that accept two lines, and from there on mention any extra info for PCBoard-based BBS's that accept up to eight lines per file. 5.4 Changing File Areas (/Area:) Intellicomm v0.94 Automated File Transfers 26 If the BBS uses different file areas to separate certain files, you may have Intellicomm change areas by specifying an /Area: switch on your list: /Area:IBM The forward slash (/) character must be in column one of the list (no spaces or other characters may precede it), and only one switch is accepted per line. You may specify an Area switch as many times as you like, as Intellicomm will only actually send a change area command to the BBS when necessary. I.e. If you specify ten different /Area switches in a row, only the last Area change would take effect, and it would only take effect if an actual filename was found to transfer. 5.5 Specifying a Password (/Password:) If you must specify a password for a given file, place a /Password: switch on any line above the password-protected file on the list. /Password:SOMEPASSWORD Intellicomm allows an "Enter password" prompt to be defined in the BIF, on the "File" screen, if the format of the file password prompt differs from the main logon password prompt. 6. MANUAL USE OF INTELLICOMM -- THE TERMINAL Sometimes, setting up a job to automate a BBS session is impractical or just unnecessary. Using Intellicomm's manual terminal mode, you may interact with the BBS directly, with a full set of tools at your disposal just a keystroke away. These terminal tools include the internal and external file transfer protocols, the scrollback buffer for viewing text that previously scrolled off the screen, the keystroke buffer for editing/re-entering previous commands to the BBS, Intellicomm scripts, session and screen captures, access to DOS and external programs, and more. Access to the terminal features/tools is provided in two ways: by pressing the [Alt-Z] key combination and using the terminal menu, or by pressing the hotkey to access the feature directly. If you are not familiar with using the terminal menu and/or hotkeys, please go through the QWIKSTRT.DOC document now, as the general introduction was provided there. Organization of the terminal's features is presented in the same order as the [Alt-Z] terminal menu, starting with "Terminal" menu, then the "Keys" menu, etc. 6.1 Abort Job/Script Intellicomm v0.94 Terminal Mode 27 This item is only of use when an automated job or script is running, and it will stop either and place you in manual mode. 6.2 Goto Manual before Hangup During an automated session (but not during file transfers), you may select this option to set/unset the "goto manual" flag. If this flag is on, after all automated jobs complete, but before disconnecting from the BBS, Intellicomm will sound a pager for two minutes to get your attention. If you return to your machine and press a key, Intellicomm temporarily switches to manual mode and allows you to carry out some manual task on the BBS. If you do not return and press a key, manual mode is cancelled and Intellicomm logs off. When you're finished performing your manual tasks, do not log off the BBS manually. Select this item AGAIN (it changes from "Goto Manual before Hangup" to "Return to Automatic" when in manual mode) and Intellicomm will return to automatic mode, log off the BBS, and continue with any other BBS's/jobs that remain in the queue. 6.3 Capture Log This opens, closes, or pauses the Capture Log. When the Capture Log is open, all text that comes in from the BBS is written to the Capture Log filename (defined in the Intellicomm main setup; defaults to \ICOM\CAP\ICOM.CAP). These files are useful for reviewing a session offline, after you disconnect. For example, if you wanted to read three BBS bulletins, rather than tie up the BBS and waste online time, just open the Capture Log, have the BBS display the Bulletins (or whatever) in non-stop mode, then read the information once you are offline. If the capture log is open when you select this item, you will get a menu that allows you to Close, Pause or UnPause the capture file. Use Pause/UnPause when you wish to exclude some portion of your session that you do not need saved. 6.4 Screen Capture This option writes the contents of the current screen to the Screen Capture file (defined in the Intellicomm main setup; defaults to \ICOM\CAP\SCREEN.CAP). 6.5 Scrollback Buffer Enter the Scrollback Buffer to view/save/print text that scrolled off the screen and/or text from the current screen. The scrollback buffer provides an [Alt-Z] menu for help, and all items should be self- explanatory. Two items that aren't self-explanatory are how to mark "blocks" of text, and what the "Paste to Keystroke Buffer" items are used for. Both of these items were covered previously in the QWIKSTRT.DOC file. 6.6 Clear Screen Intellicomm v0.94 Terminal Mode 28 Clears the terminal screen to the default terminal color (defined in the Intellicomm main setup), and re-writes the status line. 6.7 Hangup This command is used to cause your modem to break the connection. Some BBS's require that you hangup after logging off, some break the connection themselves. Use this item whenever necessary. 6.8 Script Manager The Script Manager has most of the same features as the "File Manager" discussed below, with the exception of the "Run" and "Create" items. To run one or more scripts, hilight or tag them in the Script Manager main window, then select "Run". To create a new script from scratch, select the "Create" item. Scripts themselves are discussed in a separate section below. 6.9 Port Settings Selecting this item brings up the Port Settings menu, which operates the same as the other pull-down menus in Intellicomm. Keyboard users should use the hotkeys to open a given menu/select a setting, while mouse users can just move up/down/left/right and press their left button to select various settings. The current settings are displayed at the bottom of the menu. 6.10 Initialize Modem This causes Intellicomm to send the "Initialize Modem String" (defined in the Intellicomm main setup) to the modem. 6.11 Local Echo/Duplex This item causes Intellicomm to print (echo) characters you type to the terminal screen. Normally when you type a character, it is echoed back from the BBS/Host; but if you don't see the characters you type, select this item. 6.12 Set Add Line Feeds If lines of text from the BBS are over-writing one another, you will need to turn this item on. If lines are double-spaced, turn this item off. 6.13 Send Break Signal Use if/when asked to by the BBS/Host. 6.14 Keystroke Buffer The Keystroke Buffer saves your keystrokes to the BBS and allows you to re-edit and re-send up to five previous commands. Further help is provided online when you select the item. Intellicomm v0.94 Terminal Mode 29 6.15 Send User Name If you defined a Logon Name in the BIF of the BBS currently connected to, this item sends that name. 6.16 Send Password If you defined a Password Answer in the BIF of the BBS currently connected to, this item sends that password. 6.17 Receive File[s] Receiving files from a BBS normally involves these steps: Request a "Download" from the BBS menu, tell the BBS the name of the file you wish to download, select a BBS protocol to use -- then select this item in Intellicomm (PgDn), pick the same protocol that you chose on the BBS, and enter the same filename if necessary. The transfer should then kick in and an pager will be sounded to get your attention, when it completes. 6.18 Send File[s] Sending files to a BBS normally involves these steps: Request an "Upload" from the BBS menu, tell the BBS the name of the file you wish to upload, select a BBS protocol to use -- then select this item in Intellicomm (PgUp), pick the same protocol that you chose on the BBS, and enter the same filename. Rather than entering the filename manually, you may also press [Alt-F] to call up the File Picker, hilight or tag the files to send, then select "Send". The transfer should then kick in and an pager will be sounded to get your attention, when it completes. 6.19 Terminal Tools A smaller version of the main "Tools" item in the Job Directory. Please refer to "The Tools Menu" below for a detailed description of these items. 6.20 Exiting the Terminal You may exit to one of several locations when you decide to leave the terminal. Exiting is accomplished by pressing the F1 function key and selecting the next area (or DOS) from the menu, by using the hotkeys shown on the F1 menu directly, or by selecting [Alt-Z], opening the eXit menu and selecting the next location from there. Intellicomm v0.94 Scripts 30 7. AUTOMATING TASKS WITH INTELLICOMM SCRIPTS Intellicomm scripts can be compared (loosely) to the other type of script you've heard of -- play or movie scripts. As a movie script directs the cast to do certain things and behave in a certain way, so can Intellicomm's scripts control how Intellicomm behaves. Like a movie script uses certain terminology like "Fade in:", etc., Intellicomm also has its own terminology. If you're going to get it to perform well, you have to use the proper terminology and syntax. Note that scripts are normally not needed for regular automation, but are provided for special needs, if you require some task automated that isn't supported directly in the internal automation routines. You may also integrate scripts WITH the internal automation routines for anything from entering a command longer than the twenty characters the BIF Editor allows, to a complex task such as logging through a Long Distance service such as PC Pursuit or iNet. 7.1 Running Intellicomm Scripts There are three ways to run Intellicomm scripts: by entering the Script Manager, hilighting/tagging scripts and selecting "Run", by including a @SCRIPTNAME Custom Command in a Job via the Job Editor, or by entering @SCRIPTNAME as a response to a prompt in the BIF Editor. The @ character must be the first character in the item ... SCRIPTNAME is the filename of the script (.SCR is assumed as the extension, so you needn't specify it) and it should immediately follow the @. Examples: Call Joe's BBS Drop off message replies Get all new mail CC: @PAGEJOE Page user/jump to manual The above is an example Job that demonstrates how to call a script via a Custom Command. You simply enter @ followed immediately by the script's filename when entering the Custom Command. PAGEJOE.SCR will be run after the new mail had been picked up, and it may contain any/all of the thirty-odd script commands to perform the task of Paging Joe. Once Joe has been paged and the script completes, Intellicomm pages you and switches to manual, presumably to chat with Joe. +=| Logon/Global Commands |=========| Logon/Global Prompts |========+ | Your Logon Name> @NAME Name . . . . . . st name? | | Password Answer> <Confidential> Password . . . . will echo)? | The clip from the "Logon" BIF Editor screen above calls the NAME.SCR script when the "st name?" prompt is found (NAME.SCR would be located in the "Script Dir" defined in the Intellicomm main setup; \ICOM\SCR is the default). If you have a name longer than the twenty characters allowed per item in the BIF Editor, you would use a script to enter your name. NAME.SCR could contain just one line: send "Mynameis Overtwentychars" Intellicomm v0.94 Scripts 31 "Send" is the command (word) to use to send text to the BBS (out the current comm. port), and the text between the double quotes is what to actually send: the quotes themselves are not sent. A carriage return (^M) is automatically added by "send", so you needn't specify ^M in the text. If you do NOT want a carriage return added, "sendnc" may be used. 7.2 Creating/Editing Scripts The Script Manager can be accessed from most places in Intellicomm via the [Alt-U] hotkey, and is used in tandem with a text editor to both create new scripts, and to modify existing scripts. Before "Create"ing a new script, you will probably want to "Edit" the !EDITME.SCR script, which outlines all script commands. The commands were designed to be as easy-to-use as possible, and you shouldn't require any more information than what is contained in !EDITME.SCR. As you will see, script commands are made up of one word (capture, capclose, chdir, etc.) and some require one or more items to follow the command word. Single or double quotes must surround strings (strings are a group of letters, numbers, symbols) while numbers do not require quotes at all. The reason strings require quotes is a) to keep the text grouped together as one item if a space/tab is used in the string, and b) for future expansion of the script language where things called "variables" may be introduced (variables are used to store something, and you then refer to the variable name rather than the actual text/number that the variable is storing). Variable names must be distinguishable from regular text strings, and quotes are the standard way to do it most all programming languages. The "send", "when" and "waitfor" commands are used most frequently, and will be of use to just about anyone, even if you have no programming experience whatsoever. When and waitfor team up to allow you to handle some very complex tasks with surprising ease. Some other script languages require several complex commands to accomplish what Intellicomm's when/waitfor handle. With these two commands, you may track up to seventeen BBS prompts/messages, send a different response to or goto to a "label:" for each prompt, while waiting for some key text -- with timeout protection and an optional jump to a "label:" if the waitfor text is not found. All this using just TWO commands! Learning how to program your own scripts is largely a matter of practice and experimentation. If every possible detail was outlined here, you not only would fall asleep reading, but the info would almost surely go in one ear and right out the other, unless you had a specific need in mind. When you have a need for a script, just browse the !EDITME.SCR script to check the proper format of the command you need. Or if you use scripts frequently, print out !EDITME.SCR and keep it handy for reference. Intellicomm v0.94 DOS File Manager 32 8. GETTING IN TOUCH WITH YOUR SYSTEM -- THE FILE MANAGER The File Manager is available from most places in Intellicomm by pressing the F1 key and selecting "File Manager" from the menu, or by pressing the [Alt-F] hotkey. It is also available as the "DOS" option from the Job Directory main menu. The File Manager also wears other "hats" in different parts of Intellicomm, such as the Capture File, File List, and Script Managers, and as the File Picker, used for tagging/selecting files to send to a BBS when in manual mode. The File Manager is also employed by the internal editor, to select a file to edit when you request a "Load". This multi-purpose usage not only saves disk space and memory, by using the same "program" in many areas, but it also allows you to learn one interface and put that knowledge to use in many areas. Using the File Manager is much like using the Job Directory or BBS Directory in that you may "Tag" items so that they can be operated on as a group. I.e. if you want to copy three different files to the another disk or directory, you may simply hilight each of the three files, tag them using the "Tag" option or by pressing the space bar, then select "Copy" to copy all three files in one operation. "Tag" may also be used to change to a different disk directory, by hilighting any entry that displays <DIR> after the filename (including the ".." entry which means the next directory up), and selecting Tag (Edit and View also behave in this way if a directory is hilighted). "Edit" ignores tagged files and is used to view/edit the currently hilighted file. If you defined an external editor in the Intellicomm main setup, your external editor is called to view/edit the file. Otherwise the file is loaded into the Intellicomm's internal editor. Note that the File Manager recognizes several different types of compressed files, and will pass a compressed file to your external Archive Viewer if you try to Edit a compressed file. "View" is used to view files with your favourite external Text File Viewer or Archive Viewer program (both program commands must be defined in the main setup). The hilighted filename is passed to the appropriate external program according to the type of file (compressed or not). "Find" is useful when you know a file is hanging around somewhere, but you can't quite remember where you put it. When you select Find, you are prompted for a filespec to search for (wildcards * and ? are okay) and you may precede the filespec with a drive letter to search a disk other than the default drive (i.e. E:TEST*.* would search drive E: for any file matching TEST*.*). It searches the entire disk starting at the root directory and working through sub-directories as they are encountered. If the file is found, the File Manager changes to the proper directory and hilights the file for you. "Copy/Rename/Delete" behave as you would expect, and allow you to handle files one at a time (the current hilight if no file are tagged) or in Intellicomm v0.94 DOS File Manager 33 groups of tagged files. Note that "Rename" may also be used to MOVE files from one directory to another on the same drive. When you select Rename, you are asked what to rename the first tagged file to (or the current hilight if none tagged) and if you enter a DIRECTORY name here (e.g. C:\TEMP or \SOMEDIR\OF\MINE, etc), all tagged files are moved to the specified directory. If you enter a filename, the file is simply renamed and you move on to the next tagged file. "Untag" will untag all tagged files. "Newdir" is used to change to/view another drive/directory. "DOS" is the same as the [Alt-J] "Jump to DOS" command, and it places you at the DOS command prompt. If swapping is turned on in the main setup, Intellicomm will swap itself out of memory freeing up all but 500 or so bytes of the memory that was available when you started Intellicomm. You may then run other programs and enter DOS commands, etc. When you're ready to return to Intellicomm enter EXIT at the DOS command prompt and you will return to Intellicomm right where you left off. "eXit" is the usual option to leave the area. You may also use the Esc key to exit the File Manager. Intellicomm v0.94 Tools 34 9. AT YOUR SERVICE -- THE TOOLS MENU The Tools menu provides access to the Intellicomm external tools (the Tagger and main setup program), to your favourite communications-related external tools, and to other miscellaneous areas of Intellicomm. It also provides a program integrity check and miscellaneous program information. "Mail Reader/Archive Viewer/Hotkey 1 and 2" must be defined in the main setup before you can use them from here. Select "Intellicomm Setup" and change to the File/Path screen to do so. "Tag Files for Down/Uploading" access the File Tagger, and automatically load the proper file catalog for browsing. "File Lists" calls the File Manager (discussed above) and displays the LST directory, which is where new files lists (*.NEW) and your Upload (*.SND) and Download (*.GET) lists are stored. The File Tagger, if enabled in the main setup, creates the .SND / .GET lists for you, and Intellicomm reads these lists to know which files to transfer. As files are transferred, Intellicomm automatically removes them from the .SND / .GET list. These lists, and some practical tips on creating and maintaining them, are discussed above in the "AUTOMATED FILE TRANSFERS" section. "Capture Files" displays the Intellicomm capture files, which are normally automatically opened to capture BBS sessions to disk. This is useful to see how an automated session went, and/or to help you figure out why an automated session failed. Intellicomm maintains or "renumbers" these capture files each time a new session begins, according to various settings in the main setup (see the first screen in the main setup, or refer to the setup section below for more details). The ICOM.USE Usage Log is also stored in this location. This file holds records of online usage information which can be used to verify your telephone bills or just to keep track of which files came from where, etc. "Usage Log Analyzer" programs that support the Call Data Standard (CDS) usage log format can be used to compile detailed statistics quickly. "Intellicomm Setup" accesses the SETUP.EXE program and loads the currently active .INI file for view/editing (i.e. If you started Intellicomm using the /INI: command line switch, the proper .INI filename will be passed to SETUP.EXE). Please refer to the setup section below for more detailed information on the main setup. "Script Manager" is used to manage your Intellicomm script files. Script files are discussed in a separate section above. "Editor" accesses your external text editor, if you defined an external editor in the main setup, or the internal editor if you didn't. "DOS Shell" is used to temporarily exit to DOS command mode. If swapping is enable in the main setup, Intellicomm will swap itself out of memory leaving all by about 500 bytes of the original memory Intellicomm v0.94 Tools 35 available for you to use in the shell. Enter EXIT at the DOS command prompt to return to Intellicomm from a DOS shell. "Program Verify" was included mainly as a measure of protection against corrupt file transfers, or unauthorized/malicious modifications to Intellicomm. If you are inclined to worry about computer viruses, it can also help check for these, though they certainly are not as prevalent as some people would have you believe. At release date, a formula known as a Cyclic Redundancy Check was run on the .EXE files (ICOM.EXE and TAGGER.EXE). The same routines that calculated these CRCs are built into the program so it may perform the same CRC check when you choose this Verify item, and "compare notes" as to whether the file has changed since the original CRCs were calculated. The check is not 100% accurate, but it is close enough at 99.9 odd % that any tampering should be picked up. If your copy fails the CRC check it is recommended that you do not even exit the program -- simply turn your computer off right away, reboot, and erase all trace of the corrupted files (whether the files were purposely corrupted, or were inadvertently corrupted by line noise during a file transfer, the code is bad and could to anything to your computer). Then, obtain another copy of Intellicomm from another source and PLEASE notify the other source that the files MAY BE corrupt. "May be" simply because many things could have corrupted the files on the way to your computer ... the copy the disk distributor/BBS has may well be in perfect working order. He can run the CRC check at his end for final judgement. "Program Information" gives you Intellicomm's vital statistics. 10. ADJUSTING THE SEATS AND MIRRORS -- INTELLICOMM SETUP Intellicomm Setup has many different settings which allow you to configure the program to suit your needs. Everything from Intellicomm toggles and switches, to external programs, to intimate details regarding operation of your modem can be configured through an organized point-and-shoot menu system. To access the Setup program, you may select "Intellicomm Setup" right from the Job Directory's Tools menu, or run Setup directly from DOS using the command: SETUP [INIFILE] You must enter the command from your ICOM directory, if you did not place that directory on your PATH. INIFILE is an optional INItialization (Setup) file to create or edit. You may maintain multiple .INI files, each with different settings, using this special feature. For example, if you have two different modems you might create a separate MODEM2.INI file by entering the command SETUP MODEM2. The Setup program would then create MODEM2.INI (using your original Intellicomm settings), and load the file for editing. You may then make Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 36 any changes you like, select eXit/Save, and new .INI file for Intellicomm. Intellicomm recognizes the /INI: switch on its command line to load INItialization files other than ICOM.INI. For example: ICOM /INI:MODEM2 Would cause Intellicomm to read the MODEM2.INI file to get its settings. If you do not specify INIFILE in the SETUP or ICOM commands, ICOM.INI is assumed. All Setup items will be discussed below, excluding the items that are covered in the Quick Start document README.DOC. If you have not performed your initial setup as yet, or if an item you require information on is missing below, please refer to README.DOC for the information. 10.1 General Setup Items Password Access Key is discussed in README.DOC. It is used to protect your BBS Passwords from unauthorized persons. Program Startup Area is the area or location of Intellicomm that you want to go to when you enter the ICOM command from DOS. Most communications programs start in either Terminal Mode, or the BBS Directory, and if this is how you wish to use Intellicomm, you may bypass the Job Directory and go right to any of these areas at startup. Edit the item for a list of possible startup areas. Allow ICOM to Make Dirs controls whether Intellicomm is permitted to create a directory, if necessary. For example, if you change your Up/Download directories, and forget to create them, Intellicomm will do it for you when necessary if this item is set to "Yes". Use PATH to Locate Files controls whether all the directories on your DOS PATH will be searched if you enter a filename to send to a BBS, and the file is not found on your Upload Path. PATH searches can be time- consuming, and could inadvertently turn up a file you would rather not send to another system. Thus, only set this item to "Yes" if you know what directories are on your PATH and are relatively sure of the results you will get from a PATH search. File Renumber Mode is the method used to rename or 'renumber' certain files, as new ones are created. For example, if you connect to a BBS, Intellicomm normally 'captures' the session to disk in a special file named ICOM.CAP. Thus you can browse the session afterwards after you are offline, and read anything you missed. But the next time you connect, in all likelihood you will be finished with the previous session capture file and won't want the next capture added onto the end of the first. Thus Intellicomm renames ICOM.CAP to either ICOM01.CAP or ICOM.C01 -- putting numbers in either the "Filename" or "Extension", Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 37 according to how you set this item up. It is largely a matter of preference as to where you want the numbers to go. You control how many backup, or 'renumbered' packets to keep for each type of file, in the items that follow. Usage Log Renumber Total controls whether to renumber the Usage Log, and if so, how many backup Logs to keep. If the entry remains at 0, then the Usage Log stays intact as one file and all your sessions are logged in the same file. This makes it possible to run "Usage Log Analyzer" programs on the single file, and get detailed statistics on a given time period. If you plan to use a Usage Log Analyzer, you should leave this item set to 0, then either let the Analyzer itself maintain the Log, or delete it manually after you run an analysis for a given time period and get the information you need. If you don't plan to use a Usage Log Analyzer, you may choose to keep anywhere from 1 to 99 backup Logs on hand. The more you choose to keep, the longer the maintenance will take. Each backup Log also requires disk space, so if you are short on disk space, setting the item to 1 will allow frequent renumbering and will keep the backup files to a minimum. You may also choose to disable Auto-Opening of the Usage Log, if you have no need at all for this file. Capture Renumber Total is the same as Usage Log Renumber Total, but controls the number of previous Capture Files to keep on hand. Five, the default, will allow you to review your last five connections to BBS's. If you are short on disk space, you may choose to lower the renumber total, or even turn Auto-Capture off, below. Message, Reply Renumber Total controls the number of backup message or reply packets to keep on hand. If 0, then no backups are kept, and old messages/replies are lost as new ones are transferred from/to the BBS. It is recommend you leave these items set to at least one backup in case something goes wrong with an automated session, or the BBS, and you must recover some information from the backups. Auto-Open Usage/Capture are as they appear. If you are short on disk space, it may be desirable to set both of these items to "No". Stamp Date/Time Cap Open controls whether Intellicomm places a 'header' line in the capture file whenever it is opened. The header is made up of a dividing line, the Date/Time (in Call Data Standard format), and the current BBS connected to, if any. Sound controls whether Intellicomm is allowed to make any sounds at all on the speaker, including whether 'beeps' are sounded when bell codes are received from the BBS. Sound is automatically turned off for automated sessions, regardless of how you set this item so you need only turn it off here if you don't want sound during manual sessions. Pager is used to get your attention after certain events take place in manual mode. For example, you may tag a group of BBS's for Icom to dial, and have it 'Page' you, (sound a series of tones) when it gets Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 38 connected to a BBS. File transfers can also take some time to complete, and you may end up in another room before they finish, so the Pager is also sounded after file transfers. If the BBS makes sufficient noise to get your attention (i.e. through the beeps mentioned above), then you may choose to turn the Pager off. However, if you frequently leave the room during dialing/file transfer, and may not hear a small beep, the Pager will provide more noise to get your attention. Intellicomm uses the Pager in other areas of the program where it is absolutely necessary to get your attention (i.e. when switching from automatic mode to manual due to a specific request you give it), and in these cases the Pager is always sounded, even if you turn the above two settings off. Enable Swapping allows you to have Intellicomm remove itself, or 'swap itself out' of memory, when running other programs or shelling to DOS. Swapping is done to extended memory, expanded memory, or disk in that order, and less than 500 bytes of Intellicomm will remain in memory after the swap. It is recommended you leave this item on, or you may have trouble running the File Tagger or your Mail Reader from within Intellicomm. However, if you aren't using the File Tagger, and do not have extended/expanded memory to swap to, you may want to disable this item to avoid unnecessary delays while Icom swaps to disk. Enable Mouse/Lefthanded determines whether to use the mouse, if your mouse driver is loaded, and whether to switch the functions of the mouse buttons around, for left-handed users. The mouse buttons are normally Enter as the left button, Tab as the middle button (changes columns on most menus), and Esc as the right button. Lefthanded causes the left and right buttons to be swapped. Enable Extended Keyboard allows Intellicomm to recognize the extended keys on extended keyboards. Date Format, Date Separator, Time Format, and Time Separator are self- explanatory, for international use. No matter what date/time format you specify here, the Call Data Standard format is used in the Usage Log, and in Capture file headers. See the File/Path settings, and Usage Log, for more information on the CDS format and its purpose. 10.2 Terminal Setup Items The first six items on this screen were discussed previously in the README.DOC file. Please refer to this file if you missed it. Init Modem if Carrier? is asking you whether you want Intellicomm to send the Initialize Modem String if a connection is detected at the time. Normally if a connection is already made, your modem has been initialized and re-initialization would not be necessary. Drop DTR to Hangup? asks whether your modem will disconnect if it detects a change in the 'DTR' line (stands for Data Terminal Ready; the Data Terminal being Intellicomm). Intellicomm can 'play dead' and cause Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 39 most modems to drop the connection if this item is set to "Yes". If a connection is still detected after Intellicomm raises the DTR line, it sends the Modem Hangup String, defined above. Status Bar controls whether a status line is displayed on the Terminal screen. The Status Bar contains information such as the current connection status (Offline, or the name of the BBS connected to), whether Intellicomm is in Manual or Automatic mode, or is running a Script, the port speed/settings, the current stat of the capture file, and some help on how to pop up the Terminal Menu. Scrollback Size is the amount of memory, in kilobytes, that Intellicomm allocates for its Scrollback Buffer. One kilobyte is approximately one 25-line screen of text, given relatively 'full' screens (spaces at the end of a line are not stored in the buffer). With 10K allocated you will get seven or eight previous screen's worth of file listings from a BBS. Less full screens will take up less room. Echo should remain off unless you don't see any characters on your screen when you enter Terminal Mode. Most modems do their own echoing, and it is not necessary for Intellicomm to echo as well. Add Line Feeds controls whether Intellicomm sends a line feed character (ASCII 10) with Carriage Returns, or when you press the Enter key. Normally this is not needed. Backspace Destructive? is asking you whether you want Intellicomm to erase the previous character if a Backspace is received from the BBS. If set to "No", the cursor moves back a position, but the character is not erased. If you are debugging a session from a BBS in which certain prompts get erased, set this item to "No" and the Backspaces will not erase the prompt. Send DEL as Backspace? will cause the Backspace key to send the DEL code to the BBS (ASCII 127). You may always send a DEL to the BBS by pressing the Del key on your keyboard, or by pressing Control-Backspace, so unless you require this often it is best to leave it off. Received Char Mask is for masking out certain characters from the BBS. Intellicomm applies this 'mask' to all received characters by ANDing it with the character. The result of the AND is what is displayed on your screen. For example, if you want to strip the high 'bit' of all characters received, you could enter 127 as the mask. Enable 16550 if found? will cause Intellicomm to place your 16550 UART in FIFO mode if detected. If you have a 16550 and want to operate in non-FIFO, for debugging purposes, etc., set this item to "No". ENQ Response/@SCRIPT is the response Intellicomm sends if an ENQuiry (Control-E, ASCII 5) is received from the BBS (normally nothing is required, and an improperly defined ENQ string could interfere with proper operation of Intellicomm). You may also call a script when ENQ's are received, which may be useful in calling external protocols. Compuserve uses ENQ to signify the start of a CIS QuickB transfer. Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 40 10.3 Dialing Setup Items All items on this screen marked with > were previously discussed in the README.DOC file. Please refer to that file for details on these items. !, @, $ Dial Codes are for long distance codes, or other items you need to embed within a dial command. You may define anything in each of these items, including use of the ^ and ~ characters. Whenever a !, @, or $ is found in either the Dial Prefix, Dial Suffix, or in the actual numbers you define for BBS's, Intellicomm will substitute the !, @, or $ with the text you define here. E.g. if you defined ! as 1-416-, then you defined a number as !555-1234 Icom would expand it to 1-416-555-1234 when dialing took place. Dial Timeout defines how long to wait for any of the above responses from the modem before 'timing out' and giving up. Stop Dialing is the command Intellicomm sends to your modem if you abort dialing, when one of the six non-connect result codes are found, or when a timeout occurs. Normally ^M (Enter) is sufficient but if Intellicomm does not cancel dialing when it should, look up the proper command in your modem manual, and plug it in here. Pause Between Dials defines how many seconds Intellicomm will wait between dialing each number. Some telephone exchanges cannot handle a rapid hangup/redial, and MOST (if not all) require at least a one second delay to reset. If Intellicomm seems to dial properly the first time, but then fails on the next dial attempt, increase the pause between dials. Attempts per BIF/Cycle controls how many times Intellicomm will go through the list of BBS numbers in the BBS Information File (BIF) for a given BBS, before cycling to the next tagged BIF. Normally set to 1, it tries each number in the BIF once, then cycles to the next tagged BBS. LD Service Phone Num is dialed instead of a direct BBS phone number, if you set a BBS Information File up to dial through iNet/PC Pursuit, or a Custom dial service. It is assumed you use only one of these Long Distance services (and since neither is available in the same country, it is a logical assumption), and the same LD phone number is dialed for whichever service you define. The details on setting up iNet/PC Pursuit are given in the Appendix at the back of this manual. 10.4 Screen/File Transfer Setup Items Colors allow you to change the screen colors Intellicomm uses. Select Edit on this item and you will be presented with the color menu. Hilight the color you wish to change (Border, etc.) then press Enter. You may then move through the different foreground/background colors using the cursor keys. Press Enter to select the color with the 'box' around it, or Esc to cancel. The samples to the right of the screen Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 41 allow you to see what the change would look like, before actually selecting it. Once you have the colors as you want them, select "Preserve and exit" to keep them, or "Abandon and exit" to reset your colors the their original values. Default Screen Size is for those with EGA/VGA monitors, and allows more lines to be displayed per screen. All Intellicomm menus will adjust to the new screen size. Status Window Delay defines, in tenths of a second, how long a forty character "status window" (an error message, etc.) is displayed on the screen for. The actual delay for messages longer/shorter than forty characters is adjusted up/down from this value. Alt-N, O Hotkey Description describes the program/action that the Alt-N 'hotkey' runs. The actual command is defined on the File/Path screen. For example, if your Usage Log Analyzer was QAnalyst, you could enter that here and Intellicomm would integrate the word "QAnalyst" right into its menus. Normally it displays "Hotkey 1/2" respectively. Note that this only defines what is -displayed- on some of the Intellicomm menus, it does not actually define the command to run the program. You must do that from the File/Path screen. Use ICOM's File Tagger controls whether Intellicomm automatically integrates its actions with the external File Tagger that was provided with Intellicomm. If set to "Yes", then whenever a New Files Listing is captured from a BBS, Intellicomm calls the File Tagger and asks it to 'import' the new file lists into its catalog so you can browse/tag files for downloading from within the Tagger. Also, when a download is requested (to get files from a BBS), Intellicomm calls the File Tagger and asks it to export any tagged files, so we can download them from the BBS. Keep an Upload Catalog defines whether the File Tagger automatically keeps track of newly downloaded files, and stores the filenames/descriptions in a special "Upload Catalog" which can be used to tag files to SEND to BBS's. If you have no need to perform uploads to BBS's, and do not wish to keep this catalog, set this switch to "No", and the Upload Catalog will not be maintained. Extract NEWFILES from .QWK? This toggle controls whether Intellicomm will attempt to extract the new files listing (NEWFILES.DAT) from newly downloaded .QWK-compatible message packets (from Qmail, MarkMail, Tomcat and other .QWK-compatible message systems). If enabled, this item causes the new files listing to be extracted to your "List Directory" (defined on the "File" screen, defaults to \ICOM\LST) as <BIFNAME>.NEW. <BIFNAME> being the BIF that was used to pick up the .QWK packet. This is done before importing files to the Tagger, so if Tagger imports are enabled the .NEW files list will then be auto-imported into the Tagger! Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 42 You must have the Qmail-compatible door set up to send you a New Files listing for this feature to be of any use: [C]onfigure the mail door manually online to do so. NOTE: To extract the NEWFILES.DAT file from the .QWK packet, you must define the proper Archiver command(s) on the "File/Path" screen. These items default to PKUNZIP and PKUNPAK, and the program assumes either or both are on your DOS PATH. But if you have renamed these utilities, or are using another compression type in the message door, or if they are NOT on your PATH, you may change the archiver commands to the proper format on the File/Path screen. Move Old Downloads can be useful to keep your Download Directory 'clean' as it causes Intellicomm to move your old downloads right into your Upload Directory (where Icom looks for files to upload), before new downloads come in. Thus, each time you perform new downloads from BBS's, you will know exactly which files are the new ones since all the old files are automatically moved out of the way before the connection is made. This is also handy if you do regular uploads, as Intellicomm will automatically move files where it can find them for uploads. Auto Zmodem Receive is a very useful feature which causes Intellicomm to keep its 'eyes' open for special codes from BBS's which signify a Zmodem download is about to begin. Intellicomm normally handles the download using its internal Zmodem, but you may also call an external Zmodem protocol program (such as DSZ) if you wish. See below. Auto Zmodem Protocol is the protocol Intellicomm should use to download files when an Auto Zmodem Receive code is detected from a BBS. You must have Auto Zmodem Receive set to "On" for this item to have any effect. Auto Zmodem Protocol is normally set to Intellicomm's internal Zmodem, but if you set up an external Zmodem program, using the "External Protocols" item below, you may have Intellicomm call that program instead if using internal Zmodem. Zmodem Crash Recovery should remain "On" unless you experience problems, as it allows an interrupted (aborted) Zmodem download to resume at a later time, right where it left off. I.e. if you are in the middle of a long download, and have to stop for some reason, you may safely abort the transfer and continue it later without re-transferring the entire file. If this item is turned "Off" the transfer will not continue where it left off, but instead will start right back at the beginning. Auto Filename Convert causes Intellicomm to convert invalid filenames to proper MS-DOS format. I.e. if the file is being sent from a different type of computer, the filename may not be valid and may need conversion. If you are not running MS-DOS and this feature causes problems, set it to "Off". Manage Duplicate Files is used during downloads, and determines what action Intellicomm will take if an incoming file already exists on your disk. If the file exists, and Zmodem Crash Recovery is turned on, and Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 43 Zmodem is the protocol being used, then this item makes no difference as the transfer will simply resume where it left off. However, if Zmodem is not being used, or if Zmodem Crash Recovery is turned Off, this item causes Icom to change the name of the incoming file (for example from ICOM090.ZIP to ICOM090.ZI0), if it is set "On". If it is set "Off" the transfer would be aborted. Delete Aborted Transfers is as it looks. If a download aborts for some reason, you may have Icom delete the file, as it would probably be incomplete and corrupt. If you don't use Zmodem/Zmodem Crash Recovery, setting this item to "Yes" may be desirable. ASCII Transfer Line Pace is used when Intellicomm is SENDING a file to a BBS as an ASCII upload. ASCII uploads are normally used to send text files right into a BBS message editor, etc. I.e. you can type the message offline, using your text editor, or Icom's internal editor, then save the file to disk, enter the BBS message Editor, then start the ASCII upload where you would normally begin typing your message. However, Intellicomm can "type" the file very quickly, and thus you may need to have it pause at the end of each line to let the BBS catch up. Line Pacing is in tenths of a second, and defaults to pausing for one second at the end of each line. ASCII Transfer Char Pace is as above, but causes a delay between each character Intellicomm sends. If the above Line Pacing delay still goes too fast for the BBS, you can slow things down even more by setting a delay here. ASCII Recv Timeout is used on ASCII file downloads, and causes Intellicomm to assume the ASCII Receive has ended if no characters are received within this time (also defined in tenths of a second). Normally Intellicomm watches for a Control-Z to end an ASCII transfer, but if the file being received didn't contain a Control-Z, the transfer would never end without a timeout. This timeout could be lowered if 30 seconds is too long for your needs. External Protocols are discussed in the next chapter. 10.5 File/Path Setup Items The first few items of this screen were previously discussed in the README.DOC file, and are not repeated here. Please refer to that file for more information. Alt-N, Alt-O Hotkey are both used to allow you to run external programs from within Intellicomm. Enter the command just as you would enter it from the DOS command line, and Intellicomm will run the command when you press either Alt-N or Alt-O from within the program (disabled in certain areas). Extnl Editor can be defined if you wish to use an external editor, rather than Intellicomm's internal editor. Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 44 Tagger Cmd is the command Intellicomm sends to DOS when it needs to access its external File Tagger. If you have to locate the Tagger on another drive due to space limitations, you may reconfigure the command here. BIF Dir is the drive/directory where BIF files are stored. Filelist Dir is the drive/directory where Intellicomm looks for SND/GET lists, which are lists of filenames to send/get (upload/download) from BBS's. Upload PATH is a series of directories Intellicomm will search, if an upload is requested and the file cannot be found in the current directory. This entry may be defined in the same manner as DOS's PATH, using a semicolon to separate paths. E.g. C:\ICOM\SND;D:\TEMP The Upload PATH is not searched on message reply uploads; you must specify the location of replies in the Reply Dir item above. Download Dir is where all newly downloaded file from BBS's are stored. The exception is newly downloaded mail/message packets which always go in the Message Dir, defined above. Script Dir is the directory where you keep your Intellicomm Script (.SCR) files. Capture File is the default filename used whenever a session capture is started. Capture files store all text from a given BBS session. Screen Cap is the filename Intellicomm 'dumps' the screen to, if you select a screen capture from terminal mode. If the file exists when a screen capture is requested, the current screen is added to the END of the file. The screen capture file is maintained (renumbered) along with regular capture files. Usage Log is the path/filename Intellicomm stores usage information in. The Usage Log is written in Call Data Standard format, which at the release of Intellicomm was the only known standard in Usage Logs. The idea behind the CDS format is to have every communications-oriented program use the same record-keeping format, all in the same file, which allows a single Log Analyzer to obtain combined statistics from all your connections. It also allows external protocol programs to stamp their information in the main Usage Log (see DSZ-D.BAT for more information), using the same format, if the protocol supports CDS. To date, not many programs are aware of this standard, and thus several Usage Log analyzers may be needed where one could suffice. Swap Dir is where Intellicomm will swap itself to disk if you have Swapping enabled, you do not have sufficient extended memory, and a DOS shell is requested. If you like to keep a RAMdisk set up, and the RAMdisk always has 290K of free space when you run Intellicomm, you may have Intellicomm write its swap file there by pointing this entry to the RAMdisk (D:\, etc.). Intellicomm v0.94 Intellicomm Main Setup 45 Printer is the device name your printer is connected to. COM1, or LPT2 are other examples of what could be used here. 10.6 Port Setup Items The Port screen is for advanced use only, and should not be modified unless you know what you're doing. If you do know what you're doing, then the screen will be self-explanatory. Some modems have instructions that come with them that will enable you to use this screen, but it is usually not necessary to change these items. Note that all values are entered as decimals. 11. EXTERNAL PROTOCOLS Intellicomm supports many common BBS protocols internally, including the very flexible Zmodem protocol. However, if you have special needs or have purchased an external protocol package and wish to make use of it with Intellicomm, this chapter will explain how to go about doing just that. Up to eight external protocols may be added to Intellicomm. The "DSZ" package, by Chuck Forsberg, is a popular external protocol package that is available on most BBS's. To demonstrate setting up an external protocol, we will use the DSZ package as an example, but the same techniques are used for most external protocols. External protocols are defined in the Intellicomm main setup, which is available by selecting "Tools" then "Intellicomm Setup" from the Job Directory, or by just running SETUP.EXE from DOS. Once in the main setup program, change to the "Screen/File Transfer" screen by pressing 'S'. On this screen, press the Up arrow to move to the "External Protocols" item, then press 'E' to edit. The finished product, after setting up DSZ-Zmodem will look like this: +-| External Protocols |----------------------------------------------+ | Ask for File | | Description Hotkey Receive Cmd. Send Cmd. name on D/L? | | | | 1. DSZ-Zmodem D DSZ-D.BAT DSZ-U.BAT No | | 2. No | | 3. No | .... Press the Enter key to edit external protocol 1. In the "Description" item, enter the name of the protocol, as you want it to appear on the Intellicomm protocol menu. Intellicomm integrates the external protocols right into its main protocol menu, so after you set this up you may select the external protocol just as you do any other protocol. In our example, DSZ-Zmodem is used to distinguish the external Zmodem from Intellicomm's internal Zmodem protocol. Press Enter after you type the description and you will move to the "Hotkey" item. The hotkey is the key you use to actually select the protocol from the protocol menu. Z is used for internal Zmodem on the protocol menu, so you may not use Intellicomm v0.94 External Protocols 46 it. At the bottom of the screen you are shown a list of the hotkeys already in use. The letter/number/symbol that you use as this protocol's hotkey MUST be in protocol's "Description" that we just defined. The letter 'D' would be a good choice for our example, as it's the first letter in DSZ-Zmodem, and the letter D is not in use already. Next we have the "Receive Cmd.", which is the command Intellicomm will use to actually run the protocol (the command sent to DOS), when you request a Receive or download (i.e. when you press "PgDn" from terminal mode, or when an automated task must perform a download with this protocol). DSZ-D.BAT is included with Intellicomm as an example, and it runs the DSZ.COM program, passing it the proper parameters to perform a Zmodem download. If you create other .BAT files to call other external protocols, you may refer to DSZ-D.BAT as a guide: it outlines how to pass the proper parameters to the protocol. Most protocols require that you specify which comm. port to carry out the transfer through, and some may require the port speed or "baud rate", etc. Thus, Intellicomm passes this information to the .BAT when it runs it, so you may then pass the information along to the external protocol using the standard batch file "%" parameters (%1, %2, etc). Please refer to DSZ-D.BAT for specific details and an example. You must either locate DSZ-D.BAT in the Intellicomm "home directory" (where ICOM.EXE is located), or place it on your path. Otherwise you'll get a "Bad command or filename" message from DOS when Intellicomm attempts to run the .BAT file. DOS actually runs the .BAT, and thus it must be able to locate the file just as if you were running it from the DOS command prompt. The next item to define is the "Send Cmd.", which is the same as the Receive Cmd. described above, but this command is used to Send or Upload files (i.e. when you press PgUp from terminal mode or when an automated task needs to send a file using this protocol). DSZ-U.BAT is included as an example, and you may refer to that file for specific information. Finally, we have the "Ask for Filename on D/L?" item. This item determines whether Intellicomm will prompt you for a filename before calling the external protocol. If set to "Yes" you are asked for the filename to download, and this filename is then passed along with the "Receive Cmd." where the .BAT may then pass it to the protocol (again, see DSZ-D.BAT to find out where/how to pass the filename). Most modern protocols do not require a filename as the filename is supplied by the sender when the transfer begins. Once you finish setting up all items, press the Esc key to exit the external protocol menu. Before we eXit, you may be interested in one other item on this screen, and that is the "Auto Zmodem Protocol" item. This item determines which protocol Intellicomm calls when an auto-Zmodem download is detected from a BBS (assuming "Auto Zmodem Receive" is turned ON above). If you want Intellicomm to run DSZ-Zmodem, or some other external protocol you may do so here. First you must define the external protocol as outlined Intellicomm v0.94 External Protocols 47 above, then just hilight the Auto Zmodem Protocol item, press 'E' to Edit and select the external from the protocol menu. When you're all done, select eXit and "Save changes" to disk. The protocol can then be tested out from Intellicomm terminal mode in the same way you use Intellicomm's internal protocols. If the protocol doesn't run, in all probability it is because either the .BAT or the actual .COM or .EXE of the protocol specified IN the .BAT (DSZ.COM for example) was not found by DOS (if you do not have "swapping" turned on, there is also a probability that there was not enough memory to run the external protocol program). Again, the .BAT files may be located in the Intellicomm "home directory" (where ICOM.EXE is located) as Intellicomm checks there and will precede the command with the proper path if necessary, OR they may be located in a directory on your DOS PATH. The .COM or .EXE that is run BY the .BAT must be located on your path, or you must precede the command with the proper pathname. For example, if DSZ.COM is located in your \ICOM directory, and that directory is NOT on your PATH, you must modify DSZ-D.BAT and DSZ-U.BAT so the DSZ command is prefaced with the \ICOM directory: DSZ-D.BAT: C:\ICOM\DSZ port %2 ha on rz -mrr DSZ-U.BAT: C:\ICOM\DSZ port %2 ha on sz -m %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 (DSZ-U.BAT) This is all standard DOS stuff, and has little to do with Intellicomm. If you're confused, please refer to your DOS manual and read up on DOS filenames and the PATH. 12. LONG DISTANCE SERVICES Intellicomm's dialer, combined with special scripts, can dial and log you through two popular long distance services: PC Pursuit and iNet 2000. This section provides you with step-by-step instructions to set Intellicomm up for either service. Advanced users may also create their own custom scripts to handle a long-distance service that is not directly supported, but that is entirely up to the script programmer and is not discussed here. If you plan to program custom scripts to log through some other LD Service, you can probably pick up quite a few pointers by reading this section and viewing the PC Pursuit/iNet scripts. 12.1 LD Services, Global Setup The "global setup" items are configured once, for either/any LD service, and can then be forgotten. Global setup consists of entering the LD service's phone number in the main setup, then entering your User ID and password in the appropriate logon script. To begin, start Intellicomm if necessary, press <Alt-R> to enter the Job Directory, then select "Tools" and "Intellicomm Setup". Once in the main setup program, change to the "Dialing" screen, press Up Arrow to Intellicomm v0.94 Long Distance Services 48 hilight "LD Service Phone Num", then enter the local indial number for Telenet or Datapac. "eXit" and save your changes to disk. Next, press <Alt-U> to call up the Script Manager, hilight either PCP- ON.SCR for PC Pursuit, or INET-ON.SCR for iNet, and select "Edit". Here take note of the comments with <-- arrows and follow the instructions to change the necessary items. Press <Alt-S> to save your changes to disk when done, then Esc to exit the editor (if you configured an external editor, and are in it now, save the script and exit using whatever commands your editor requires). That's it for the global setup. Press <Alt-D> now to change to the BBS Directory. 12.2 LD Services, BIF Setup Each BIF that you want to dial through the LD Service must be configured using the steps below. First, hilight the BIF you're interested in, and select "Edit" (or hilight the proper template and select "Create" if setting up a new BIF. You must also enter the "BBS/Host name" in the first item on newly Created BIFs). Enter the BBS phone number in the first "Phone Number" item for PC Pursuit, or enter the iNet address of the BBS for iNet (e.g. A CRS GA). Don't forget to change your Port Settings if necessary. Next, press TAB to change columns, then hilight "LD Service" select Edit and pick the proper service from the menu. Then, Edit the "City/Address" item, and enter either the PC Pursuit city to dial (area code) or the Datapac address to iNet. That's it for the long-distance service setup. But be sure to enter the usual BBS information, (i.e. the items with an arrow following their descriptions), on the following screens. As when setting up ALL BIFs, press PgDn and double-check each item with an arrow (>). When you're finished, eXit and save the BIF by typing in a filename. It can then be tagged/dialed and used in automated jobs just as any other BIF is used.