CD Shareware Magazine 1997 January

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SAGE/SAFM 1.00/Beta-17 Statistics Analyzer for GEcho and FMail USER MANUAL Software and documentation written by Arthur van der Peijl Copyright (c) 1993-1996 by Arthur van der Peijl & ArtNED All rights reserved M A D E I N T H E N E T H E R L A N D S Table of Contents 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.1 What does SAGE?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.2 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3 System Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . 5 1.4 The official stuff: License and Disclaimer . . . . 6 2 Technique of storing data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3 SETSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.1 Main Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.1.1 Global Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.1.2 Output Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1.3 Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1.4 Export Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 3.1.5 Exit to DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4 Template files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.1 General definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 4.2 Commands for header and footer templates . . . . . 12 4.3 Commands for bodyheader templates. . . . . . . . . 12 4.4 Commands for body templates . . . . . . . . . . . 13 5 Hints & Tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 6 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 7 Copyright notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 8 Errorlevels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 9 Technical Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 1 Introduction 1.1 What does SAGE? SAGE is an advanced analyzer of the echomail statistics generated by GEcho. SAGE is a standalone program and it's name is an abbreviation of Statistics Analyzer for GEcho. This program makes it possible to analyze your echomail flow with a maximum accuracy of one day. Users of the FMail echomail processor should look for the program SAFM, which will be released in parallel with SAGE. In this documentation you see everywhere the program names SAGE, SETSAGE and GECHO. Users of the FMail program should read SAFM, SETSAFM and FMAIL instead of it. 1.2 Features To have an idea of SAGE's power read this list of the various features: * Fast analyzing of the SUMMARY.LOG file * Option to delete the summary.log after scanning. If not, SAGE will store the date, time and CRC-32 to prevent double scanning (dupe). * User friendly setup program. SAGE does not require any configuration files used by other software, apart from the setup files of GEcho. For best performance set the environment variabel GE (for SAGE) or FMAIL (for SAFM). * SAGE writes a log file in Frontdoor compatible format. User definable logging level. * Support for GEcho v1.02 or higher (SAGE). I recommend the users of GEcho to register their software. New releases may use a newer output format of GEcho which may not be compatible with the evaluation version of GEcho. * Support for FMail v0.98g (SAFM). I here also recommend those who use this echomail processor on a regular base to register their software. * SAGE creates report by using templates. Adjust the templates to your own flavour and personal text. * Output can be done to textfile, message bases (*.MSG, JAM, Hudson message base) and even lotus compatible spreadsheet. 1.3 System Hardware and Software Requirements Normally it should be no problem to use SAGE with GEcho, because the echomail-processors requirements are mostly heavier than those of SAGE. This software has been successfully tested with OS/2 v2.1 (GA), MS-DOS 5.0 and Desqview 2.6. The systems are equipped with various processors like Intel's i486 and AMD's 386/40Mhz. Please report any problems you experienced with SAGE/SAFM as soon as possible to me. Software is never finished, it needs updates every time... 1.4 The official stuff: License and Disclaimer * "SAGE", "SAFM" and Statistics Analyser refer to all executables and manuals as distributed in the compressed file(s) in which this package was released. * SAGE is copyrighted material by Arthur van der Peijl (A.A. van der Peijl). This program may only be used when you agree with the conditions written in this part of the manual. * SAGE is a shareware product. You may use this program, but after you have evaluated this program for 30 days you MUST register or you MUST stop using the Statistics Analyser (SAGE). * You are allowed to distribute SAGE as long as you: 1. do NOT modify any files; 2. supply ALL files; 3. you do NOT ask money for it. * Although care has been taken to write and test a program that does what this manual states, SAGE is provided "as is", without warranty or guarantee of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the quality or performance of this program. * If you use SAGE, SAFM, SetSAGE or SETSAFM you do so at your own risk. In event shall Arthur van der Peijl be held responsible if this program will make some damage to hardware, software or (human) psychological-ware (eg. your brains :-). The author is not responsible for any (direct or indirect) damage or costs, including, but not limited to, lost savings, lost profits and loss of data, which may result from the use or the inability to use SAGE. * You are NOT allowed to do any disassembling, reverse engineering, creating patches for SAGE and things alike. * The author (Arthur van der Peijl) is in NO way obligated to you, or anyone else, to provide new versions or support for SAGE. * Insufficient fees can and will NOT be accepted. Bounced checks will NOT be sent back to you, unless you pay for the costs. * The Statistics Analyser is not functional crippled. Some features however are restricted in use, but can be used. The program always reminds you of the fact that you haven't registrate by displaying no serial number and name. * Additional features you can use after registering: - No restriction to use event in the output manager - No need to enter somewhere the program name in the template * To register SAGE/SAFM, fill out the registration form "SAGE.REG" correctly and send it to the registration site, by netmail or by normal snail mail. * All rights are reserved worldwide. 2 Technique of storing data Before you start using SAFE on a regular base, it is important to understand why some things are not possible to generate. As you know, GEcho generates a SUMMARY.LOG in which you can see in what areas messages were tossed into the message base, how many messages it contains, and how many dupes were detected. SAGE analyses this output file of GEcho and stores the information in the file SAGE.DAT. In this temporary database the conference data of the current day are stored. With the help of SAGE.TAB, which contains the area tags, SAGE can take a look in this data file. Every new day, SAGE transfers the data of the previous day from SAGE.DAT into a permanent database file called SAGE.DBF. The output files of SAGE are always based on the database SAGE.DBF. So when you start using this program, you have to wait for at least one day before you can get any information out of the database. In this way you are certain that the stored data are of exactly one day and that the database SAGE.DBF is not getting to large. Used files: SAGE.EXE main program SETSAGE.EXE configuration program SAGE.CFG configuration file SAGE.EVT configuration file for outputs SAGE.DAY SAGE's database of his latest scan & report activity SAGE.DAT messages and dupes of the current day SAGE.TAB table of area tags (don't touch this file!) SAGE.DBF messages and dupes of the previous days 3 SETSAGE SetSAGE is the configuration program for SAGE. You can start the setup by entering 'SETSAGE'. SetSAGE will automatically generate a new configuration file if none exists. After this you will see the initial screen with the main menu. It can happen that SetSAGE exits already with an error, because it couldn't find the SETUP.GE. In that way you have to specify the right environment setting for GEcho, eg SET GE=C:\GECHO. 3.1 Main Menu In the main menu you see the different options you can choose. In 'Global settings' you define the settings SAGE needs to operate in a correct way. In 'Output manager' you can define when and how you would like to have a report created. The copyright notices are placed in 'Information'. You can export the setup in 'Export data' and to exit the configuration you can choose 'Exit to DOS'. 3.1.1 Global Settings This menu contains some various inputs for a right use of the Statistics Analyser. Most of the inputs need no explaination Site information Enter here your own name (Name) and BBS-name (System). Path settings For a correct functioning of the analyser you have to specify where SAGE may read and put his needed files. First of all you have to enter the place where the echomail processor puts its files (GEcho or FMail). Mostly this is equal to what you have specified in the environment variable. The second input is for a logfile of the analyser. When you don't want to have any logfile, please do not enter any value in it. The third and last value must contain the place where SAGE may put his databases. For optimal functioning it's the best to enter the path where you put your SAGE-files. Miscellaneous Date format Choose the format of date-display. Days to keep Specify here the number of days SAGE may keep in his database. On my system it's 360 days. In this way (and with the manual generation of statistics) you can analyse flow of a large periode. Delete sum Enter here is you want to have deleted the summary after scanning by SAGE. If you choose yes, it will be a little slower (deleting costs time). It's advisible for FMail users to choose yes. FMail appends always his summary.log instead of overwriting. Log options Here you can choose what kind of info you want in you logfile (if specified). Choose all options for debug- purposes. Security When you want to protect your configuration file, you can enter here your password. It will be asked when you launch your setup program. It's just a simple protection for kids, etc. Don't put too secure info in it, you may use Pretty Good Privacy for that :-) Registration key Enter here the registration code you got from the registration site. 3.1.2 Output Manager Day of output Frequency Output type Filename Enter $DAY$ and $WEEK$ for repectively the daynumber or weeknumber. Use $DATE$ if you want a complete daynumber as filename. Cluster Output selection Sorting routine Stats of # days Options Mail address Disp orphaned Disp inactive High ascii Force output Header Bodyhead Body Footer 3.1.3 Information This option displays the version number and copyright notices. Yes, you saw it right: it's developed in the Netherlands too! 3.1.4 Export Data Enter a filename in which the configuration can be stored in text format. Press <enter> after input of the filename and SetSAGE will create an ascii formatted file. 3.1.5 Exit to DOS By pressing the <ESC> button or choosing this option by <enter> you leave the configuration program. If any settings were changed SetSAGE will ask you if you want to save the changes. Press 'Y' for Yes or 'N' for No. 4 Template files SAGE makes use of template files for it's reports. In the template files you can define at what place you would like to have your information presented.. 4.1 General definitions The macros that can be used do have some general structures. Every macro command starts with an '^'. With this the interpreter recognizes a command. After the command, which contains of 1 or 2 letters, you can define the outlining. This can be left (':'), right ('#') or centered ('&'). After the outlining-parameter you have to specify the number of character this may contain in the output. For defining the time in an output you can for example use this: '^T#10', which means: "place in the output here the current time, and use right outlining. Using the outline options make it possible to define complete graphic boxes around the data, as you can see in the example files. 4.2 [obsoleted by beta-14] 4.3 [obsoleted by beta-14] 4.4 [obsoleted by beta-14] 5 Hints & Tips See the example templates... 6 Credits I would like to thank the beta testers who gave me the advise and support I really needed to complete this program. The beta testers for this first release were: * Peter Smink (2:285/1) * Jan Hoolwerf (2:283/211) * Henk van de Weerdt (2:283/203) * Peter Faase (2:512/187) * Peter Lindeman (2:283/6) * Nitz Neder-Helman (2:286/0) 7 Copyright notices To keep the lawyers happy, and those who can't live happy without it, you find here a list of copyrights. The brand and product names are Copyrighted (C) material, Trademarks (tm) or Registered Trademarks (R) of their respective holders: FrontDoor Joaquim H. Homrighausen GEcho Gerard J. van der Land FMail Folkert Wijnstra MS-DOS, Windows Microsoft Corporation OS/2 (just use it!) International Business Machines Corp. Borland Pascal, Turbo Assembler Borland International, Inc. 8 Errorlevels SAGE/SAFM returns one of the following errorlevels: 0 No errors occurred Note (taken from the GEcho documentation): The ERRORLEVEL keyword in a batch file by default tests if the exit code is greater than or equal to the specified number. They should therefore be tested in descending order. The condition "ERRORLEVEL 1" will be true for all errorlevels. 4DOS allows you to specify a "EQ" (equal) condition, for example "ERRORLEVEL EQ 249". 9 Technical Notes SAGE/SAFM is written in Pascal (using Borland Pascal 7.01 with objects) and assembly language (assembled using Turbo Assembler Version 3.2). The source code is not available.