CD Shareware Magazine 1997 January

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Text File | 1996-10-08 | 14.3 KB | 326 lines

Program : PCBDE.PPE - Version 4.04 Compiled 10-08-96 (c)1996 Practical Computer Services Description : The PCB Door Executive will replace your existing DOOR & OPEN commands and automatically Create a menu of all available doors & PPE's each time it is run. I've been running PCB for several years now and as my BBS grows so does the number of Doors I run. I wanted a quick way to add a door without having to go in and edit a display file EVERY TIME! I also wanted to be able to have my doors & PPE programs on 1 menu! Here is my solution! Features : - Automatically creates Door & PPE menu when run. - FAST, FAST, FAST!!!! - Displays last time door was opened. Very handy to see what doors are actually being used! - Displays how many times door has been opened. - Displays 'Shortcut' commands to users. - VERY easily maintained after initial Installation. - Detects & loads OTHER PPE programs from the SAME menu! - Optionally categorize doors & PPE's for easier access. - 3 color selectable highlighting of Doors or PPE's. - Custom Header for registered users. Requirements: PCBoard 15.2x Working knowledge of PCBoard 15.2x Registration: $15 US funds ONLY! Registration removes all the nasty unregistered messages and delays. The registration number will work for ALL future releases of The PCB Door Executive. PCBDE is not free software. PCBDE should be registered no later than 30 days after installation. Refer to the enclosed file REGISTER.FRM for complete registration instructions. You can call up the support BBS to generate your own key file for this program. Shareware is a viable concept, So give a call to (609) 587-2672, logon, type KEY, and choose to register PCBDE. Simple, quick, and kinda fun in a BBS sort of way. Just remember that those people who do not pay for shareware are a slimy sort and you really don't want to be in their company. Support : You can get support a number of different ways, first and formost you can reach us directly at PCS support bbs, (6090) 587-2672 (33.6 USR DS). If you can not get through due to the overwhelming urge to call at the same time as someone else, you can reach us at our voice number (609) 584-7947 or via Internet e-mail at bob.watson@tao.com Loading Other PPE's : If you would like PCBDE to load OTHER PPE's you'll need to be sure of 2 things: 1) Path to PPE *MUST* be specified in PCBDE.CFG. You *MUST* have a trailing '\'!!! 2) You MUST use the same NAMING standard with the PPE programs as you use with the doors. for example, if you have a PPE called DUMMY.PPE the SHORT CUT command must also be DUMMY or the PPE will not load from the PCBoard command line. The short cut command should come from your CMD.LST. If your path to your PPE's are to long to fit in the given PCBDE.CFG space, then place the keyword LONG in the PATH space. This will tell PCBDE to pick up all path info from the file called LONGPATH.DAT. LONGPATH.DAT looks like so: 9;C:\PCB\PPE\GAMES\ADVENTURE\TEXT\ ┌───────────┘│└────────────┐ The number as shown on │ Full path (remember no PPE name), the doors open menu! │ with the trailing slash! ┘ A Semi-Colon Simple, No? Then the only thing you need to place in the PCBDE.CFG (in the slot for path) is the keyword LONG. Using the LONG parameter here, will tell PCBDE to look in the file LONGPATH.DAT. From the Command Line: You can Send PCBDE 2 command line parameters! 'OPEN' alone will cause the user to be prompted for display by category or All Doors/ppe's. To avoid this prompt you may type: OPEN A - Display All the doors/ppe's OPEN C - Select category PCBDE will pass on command line parameters to the door being called. For example you can pass the "D" command to Qmail with the following: "OPEN QMAIL D". Installation: *********** THE IMPORTANT PART *************** 1) Just add this PPE file name and path to your CMD.LST file so PCBoard will run this PPE instead of the internal DOOR command. This is an Example of what it might look like: 1) OPEN 0 C:\PCB\PCBDE.PPE 2) DOOR 0 C:\PCB\PCBDE.PPE 2) Edit the PCBDE.CAT ********** MUST BE IN SAME DIRECTORY AS PCBDE.PPE *************** This is the category Control File. If you DON'T want category's just delete this file, and your users won't be asked if they want to see the doors by category. There is a sample PCBDE.CAT file in the archive for you to use an example. Whatever text you enter here is displayed to the user when they request to see a list of category's. line 1 ---> Description of Category 1 line 2 ---> Description of Category 2 line 3 ---> Description of Category 3 line 4 ---> Description of Category 4 line 5 ---> Description of Category 5 line 6 ---> Description of Category 6 line 7 ---> Description of Category 7 line 8 ---> Description of Category 8 line 9 ---> Description of Category 9 You Don't HAVE to have 9 category's! Just put in as many as you like. If you want to add one later no problem, just add a line. DON'T FORGET. If you want category's, you *MUST* assign each door to a category in the PCBDE.CFG file, or they won't be displayed properly!!!! 3) Edit the PCBDE.COL file ********** MUST BE IN SAME DIRECTORY AS PCBDE.PPE *************** This is the Color control File. 8 lines. Each line control's the color of a field. line 1 ---> Main Entry & Border line 2 ---> Secondary Border Text line 3 ---> Door Number line 4 ---> Main Headings line 5 ---> Number of Times Opened line 6 ---> Highlighted entry #1 line 7 ---> Highlighted entry #2 line 8 ---> Highlighted entry #3 line 9 ---> Shortcut Command line 10 ---> Last Opened Each line should contain 1 PCB Code. The PCBDE.COL file included in this archive is fully commented for easy installation. 4) Edit the PCBDE.CFG file. ********** MUST BE IN SAME DIRECTORY AS PCBDE.PPE *************** You Can do it by hand, UGH, or use Chuck Valecek's PCBDEED3.EXE that's included in this Archive! Thanks Chuck! PCBDEED3 makes it a snap to change things! If you are *UPGRADING*, you'll have to add the additional fields in by hand before using PCBDEED3. The layout of this file is VERY important. If you don't set this file up correctly to begin with you'll have big problems with PCBDE! There is an example config file in the archive, just edit that file and replace the appropriate fields. Each line of this file represents a door on your system. So if you have 10 doors you should have 10 lines in your config file. Column 1-41 - Door Name & Description Column 42 - MUST BE A COMMA Column 43 - PATH to PPE if column 69 = '!' PATH *SHOULD* include trailing '\' PATH *SHOULD NOT* include PPE name LONG if this PPE path is too long to fit (see above) Leave *BLANK* if this is a door! Column 66 - MUST BE COMMA Column 67 - Integer 1-9 Category Number you wish to assign this door to. Column 68 - MUST BE COMMA Column 69 - '!' Exclamation If this is a PPE. ' ' Blank if regular door Column 70 - MUST BE A COMMA Column 71 - '*'Asterisk if you want the door/PPE Highlighted with highlight Color 1. '&'Asterisk if you want the door/PPE Highlighted with highlight Color 2. '^'Asterisk if you want the door/PPE Highlighted with highlight Color 3. ' 'Blank if you do not want this door/PPE highlighted. Column 72 - MUST BE A COMMA Column 73-80 - Shortcut command (*RIGHT JUSTIFIED*) due to a limitation shortcut commands less than 8 characters MUST be RIGHT justified!! See included PCBDE.CFG for example! 5) Create a NEW DIRECTORY BELOW the directory that you run THIS PPE from. This Directory HAS TO BE CALLED 'DATA'. For example on my system I had to create the Following directory. ROOT──┐ ├─PCB─┬─MAIN │ │ ┌────────────Store PCBDE PPE Here, with ALL MY PPE's │ │ ┌───── ****New Directory just created**** │ └──PPL─┐ │ └─DATA └─Util Why do I have to create this directory you ask? I use this directory to store information about each door/ppe. 6) If you are a registered user and would like to use a custom header PCBDE now supports this. Just create a file called PCBDE.HDR in the same directory as PCBDE.PPE. Included in the release archive is an example header file called HDR.DAT. PCBDE.PPE by default does *NOT* use a custom header. 7) THAT'S IT! 6 Easy steps! Trouble Shooting : Q) I only have 10 doors but 11 doors show up on the menu. The last door displayed is blank. A) Be sure the last character on the last line of the PCBDE.CFG file is <ALT-26>. Q) Some of the lines in the display file are jumbled. A) Please refer to the installation steps above. If the comma's are not placed EXACTLY on EVERY line things will not work right! Q) What's a 'SHORTCUT' command? A) PCBoard allows you to load a door right from the main prompt. This feature is used by more experienced PCB users to avoid the menu screen. For normal DOOR programs the short cut command can be found in PCBoard's DOORS.LST file. For PPE's the shortcut command will be whatever you call it in your CMD.LST file. Q) PCBDE is not keeping track of how many times the door has been opened or the last date it was opened. A) Be *SURE* you have created a directory called DATA under the directory that you run PCBDE.PPE from. Without this directory PCBDE can not keep track of the above 2 items. ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│ │ │ Q) The first page of the menu comes out great, but then ││ │ │ all hell breaks loose with the display! ││ │ │ A) This is a local ONLY problem. It's caused by the ││ │ │ DOUBLE line display at the bottom. Use the /LOCALON ││ │ │ switch when you log on locally and everything will ││ │ │ look much better! ││ │ │ ││ │ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ LICENSE TO USE AGREEMENT ------------------------ Practical Computer Services grants a nonexclusive license to use PCBDE. PCS shall have the right to terminate this license if purchaser violates any of its provisions. Purchaser agrees that the software products and accompanying materials are the property of Practical Computer and that PCS shall maintain title to and ownership of the software products at all times. PCS makes no warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, with respect to the quality, performance, accuracy, or fitness of PCBDE. PCS assumes no responsibility for any decisions made or actions taken on the part of the purchaser because of the use of PCBDE. In no event shall PCS, or any of its representatives, be liable for any loss of profit or damage arising from the use or inability to use PCBDE even if Practical Computer or an authorized agent of PCS has been advised of the possibility of damage. PCS reserves the right to make any changes, enhancements, and/or improvements to PCBDE at any time and without notice. (Can you beleive the crazy stuff we have to put in here?) DISCLAIMER ---------- There is made no warranty of any kind, express or implied including without limitation, any warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. PCS shall not be liable for any damages, whether direct, indirect, special or sequential arising from a failure of this program to operate in the manner desired by the User. PCS shall not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused directly or indirectly by the User of this program. IN NO EVENT WILL Practical Computer Services BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.