CD Shareware Magazine 1997 January

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MATCH MAKER Wildcat! 5: 32-BIT Version v1.3 by Al Lawrence Sunrise Door Software Sunrise-80 BBS (404) 256-9525 (Data, USR v.everything 33.6) (404) 705-9104 (Data, USR v.everything 33.6) (404) 256-9518 (VOICE/FAX, 9am-9:30pm EST) (EMAIL) al_lawre@ix.netcom.com (c) Copyright 1996, Al Lawrence All Rights Reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------- Match Maker Highlights........................................ 1 Legalities.................................................... 2 Distribution.................................................. 2 Installation.................................................. 3 Configuration File............................................ 3 Running a SUNRISE 32-BIT DOOR From An HTML Screen............. 6 Download Questionnaire........................................ 7 Upload Answers to Questionnaire............................... 7 WELCOME Text File (MMWELCOM).................................. 8 USAGEx Log file............................................... 8 New Questions Bulletin (MMNEWQUE.TXT)......................... 9 TRASHCAN File................................................. 9 STATE and COUNTRY Files (MMSTATE.DAT and MMCNTRY.DAT)......... 9 Question File Setup........................................... 10 Alternate Questionnaire Languages............................. 12 HELLO MESSAGE (MMHELLO)....................................... 12 Maintenance Program (MMAINT).................................. 13 Picture Attach, Picture Downloading, PICTURE.TXT.............. 14 Registration.................................................. 16 Miscellaneous................................................. 16 Page 1 MATCH MAKER HIGHLIGHTS ---------------------- Match Maker allows for the matching of callers with like interests based upon answers given to questions developed by the Sysop. You may create up to 100 questions to be asked of each caller. You may create a different set of questions, based upon the callers sex. All that is required is to assign the proper filename to each set. You can indicate which questions you want a single choice and which you will allow the caller to select multiple choices. You may create a trashcan file containing names you do not want used as an alias. You may limit the number of times a caller may access the door per day. You may send and receive PRIVATE messages to/from ANY MatchMaker users, BBS users OR to the Match Maker Author! Caller database can accomodate unlimited number of users. (Reg version) All Caller database records contain the logon name of the caller. A maintainance program is supplied to be used to purge the User Profile database and recreate the Index file. Purge criteria for the Event maintenance is maintained in the Match Maker CFG file (Purging is allowed in the Registered version only). When run locally you will be asked to define the purge criteria at run time (Registered version only). Unregistered version allows for the search and viewing of Callers records (search may be by Alias or logon name) as well as the recreation of Indexes and a number of other functions. The Maintenance program can also clear all answers to all questions or answers to individual questions. The Match Maker program will then detect this and force the caller to answer the new question(s). Caller can download Questionnaire files, answer the questions offline and upload the answers to questionnaire files directly thru the door itself. You MUST have 2 questionnaires, one being a Self-Description the other being a Desired-Match You can take picture files (uploaded directly thru the Match Maker Door) and attach them to the User's profile, thus making them available for viewing/downloading when that user's profile is chosen to be viewed. MULTI-LANGUAGE capable! Page 2 LEGALITIES __________ THIS SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS ARE DISTRIBUTED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ANYONE INVOLVED WITH THE CREATION AND PRODUCTION OF THIS PRODUCT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF ANY USE THEREOF OR BREACH OF ANY WARRANTY. REVERSE ENGINEERING, DE-COMPILING OR ANY OTHER TAMPERING WITH THE CODE IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED. DISTRIBUTION ____________ You may make this file available for downloading from your BBS or you may upload it to any BBS of your choice, provided that you do not make any changes to the contents of the archive (ZIP file). The archive and its individual contents may not be DISTRIBUTED by any service that charges any money whatsoever, without the written permission of the author. Page 3 INSTALLATION/LIMITATIONS ________________________ Installation is fairly easy and straight-forward. The following steps and examples should have you up and running in a very short period of time. 1) Create a directory to hold all MATCH MAKER files 2) Unzip WC5MMxx.ZIP into the above directory 3) MOVE the MMAKER.WCX file to your WC5 directory and delete it from the directory created in step <1> 4) Modify the supplied MMAKER.CFG file. A description follows: CONFIGURATION FILE EXPLANATION ------------------------------ SUNRISE-80 BBS Your BBS Name Al Lawrence Sysop's First and Last Name 00000000 Registration Number 0 # of Times per day the Door can be accessed (0=unlimited) Y Y = Log ALL callers to the USAGEx file N = Do NOT log callers Y Use the Heart-Shaped Opening screen (Y/N) C:\MMAKER\ Drive:\Path where ALL Picture files will be kept. Y Allow caller to send PRIVATE Messages 0 Msg conference to place PRIVATE messages Y Allow caller to send PUBLIC Messages 1 Msg conference to place PUBLIC messages Y Allow caller to check for/read Mail Y Allow caller to send EMAIL to the Door Author, Al Lawrence al_lawre@ix.netcom.com Al Lawrence's EMAIL address Y Y = Include Sexual Orientations N = Do NOT include Sexual Orientations Page 4 CONFIGURATION FILE EXPLANATION (Cont'd) ------------------------------ Y Y = Allow caller to change questionnaire answers N = Do not allow caller to change questionnaire answers Y Y = Allow Uploading/Downloading N = Do not allow Uploading/Downloading Y Y = Allow caller to take the Default answers to the questionnaires N = Force caller to answer all questions Y Y = Force validation of STATE abrev. Uses valid abreviations as recognized by the U.S. Postal system. N = No validation; will allow caller to enter any characters in response to STATE. I would suggest that you use N if you have any callers from outside the United States. USA Default COUNTRY CODE to be used when entering or changing personal info or when entering Match Criteria. Maximum 3 characters. Y Y = Force validation of COUNTRY codes N = No validation to take place Y Y = Activate the "MUST MATCH" question N = Do NOT activate "MUST MATCH" option Y Allow caller to upload a picture (Y/N) 365 PURGE callers that have NOT called in this Number of days. This is used by the MMAINT program, when run as an event. Y Send NEW callers a HELLO message from the MMAINT program when run as an event or if you choose that option when manually running the MMAINT program. Requires that MMHELLO exist in the MMAKER directory. N Y = Allow uploaded picture to be made available IMMEDIATELY (use caution!) N = Picture must be made available MANUALLY N N = Use N if you only allow ALIAS' for logon names Y = Will send PRIVATE messages with the MATCH MAKER ALIAS in the FROM field of the message. In addition the sender will NOT see the Logon Name of the recipient when they are entering the message. As a result, the recipient will NOT be able to reply to the messge they receive since the Match Maker ALIAS is NOT known to Wildcat! A text file is displayed to the caller when they choose to send a PRIVATE message and if you have this option set to Y. The name of the file MUST be MSGALIAS.TXT. This file is supplied and you can change it if you so desire. NOTE: There are NO Blank Lines in the Config File!! Page 5 CONFIGURATION FILE EXPLANATION (Cont'd) ------------------------------ 5) Create a menu entry (OR preferably a DOOR MENU) to run the wcCODE Door and you MUST pass the FULL drive:\path of the MMAKER directory as a command line parameter when defining the Door on the menu. An example follows: Selection Key: Menu option number or Letter Description : Selection Key Description Command Type : Run wcCODE Program Program : MMAKER (use pull down list) Parameters : c:\wc5\doors\MMAKER Click on ACCESS button and select the access levels that will have access to MATCH MAKER. Then TOGGLE those selections and ensure that the ones you wish to have access have a + besides the selection. Click OK Click OK SAVE Update you Menu via an editor or wcDRAW. You will have to log off the BBS (if you were logged on) for the changes to take effect. Page 6 Running a SUNRISE 32-BIT DOOR From An HTML Screen ------------------------------------------------- Download a file called NAVTERM4.ZIP. This is a freeware program that will Handle this for you! Page 7 DOWNLOAD QUESTIONS to QUESTIONNAIRE ----------------------------------- Callers will be given the option of downloading the questionnaire and replying to it offline. MatchMaker will format the questionnaire file to make it easier for the caller to read. The reformatting takes place in one of 2 ways: (a) If you change/add/delete questions then the maintenance program (MMAINT) will do it automatically once you have chosen option #6 to signal a change to the MatchMaker Door. (b) If you choose option #7 After either of the 2 options are exercised, these files will be placed in the MatchMaker directory: MMQUESTM.DLM/MMQUES2M.DLM and MMQUESTF.DLF/MMQUES2M.DLM (two for the Male questionnaire and/or two for the Female questionnaire) NOTE: A file called MMDLTEXT.E is supplied with sample verbage that will be included at the beginning of ALL downloadable question files. We suggest that you review it to make any changes you feel would be appropraite. At a minimum you would want to add your BBS name. The MMDLTEXT.E file, as supplied, is the English version. If you wish to create MMDLTEXT files for each language defined in the MMQLANG.DAT file, then the names of the text files must contain the ONE-Character extension defined in the MMQLANG.DAT file. For example: the Italian version would be MMDLTEXT.I and the German version would be MMDLTEXT.G UPLOAD ANSWERS to QUESTIONNAIRE ------------------------------- Callers are given the option of UPLOADING the answers to the questionnaire directly to the MatchMaker Door. Typically they would download the questionnaires and then CREATE a SEPARATE and UNIQULEY NAMED ASCII file with the replies for each question on a spearate line. The replies MUST be in ASCII format, NOT Zipped, and have replies for each question on a separate line. If user is responding to a question with more than one (1) choice, then the choices MUST be written as: ABCD No punctuation of any sort! If the caller wishes to 'flag' a question as a MUST MATCH question (if the answer to this question is not a MATCH to the answer in a profile being matched, then bypass the profile) he/she would place an "O" (with out the quote marks) along with the other answer choices.. ie: ABO. The MUST MATCH letter "O" is ONLY valid with the DESIRED MATCH questionaire. Page 8 WELCOME Text File (MMWELCOM) ____________________________ To allow you complete flexibility in the way in which you can welcome your callers to the MatchMaker Door, you would use a Text editor to create a freeform file called MMWELCOM.E See sample file included in this ZIP file. The MMWELCOM.E file, as supplied, is the English version. If you wish to create MMWELCOM files for each language defined in the MMQLANG.DAT file, then the names of the Welcome files must contain the ONE-Character extension defined in the MMQLANG.DAT file. For example: the Italian version would be MMWELCOM.I and the German version would be MMWELCOM.G This text file will support the Wildcat! 5 @ codes. USAGE LOG --------- As an option, we provide you with the ability to log every player to a text file. IF you enter Y in the CFG file to log callers, the Door will place the caller's name as well as the ON and OFF times each time a caller selects the Door. A separate file will be created for each Node and the name of the file will be USAGEx, where x is the Node number. You may delete these files at any time and the Door will recreate them the next time a caller enters the Door. If you do NOT want to continue logging callers, change the CFG file entry to N. Page 9 New Questions Bulletin (MMNEWQUE.TXT) _____________________________________ This file is displayed when the Sysop has chosen to clear the current set of questions or add more questions or change individual questions. You would use the CHANGE QUESTIONS option in the Maintenance program to signal the change to the MatchMaker Door and therefore force the callers to re-answer the new set (or individual questions). You can use the default file supplied or create your own. The file name must be called MMNEWQUE.TXT ! This text file will support the Wildcat! 5 @ codes. TRASHCAN FILE _____________ This is a text file you must create (if you wish to use one), with a file name of MMTCAN.DAT and it must reside in the Door directory. This file is used if you want to block the use of "offensive" alias' callers may choose to use. Each name (up to a maximum of 25 characters must appear on a separate line within the text file. This file is also used to check the body of any messages left by callers for words you have in this file. All occurances of the word(s) will be replaced with a string of asteriks. NOTE: The name or word must match EXACTLY !!! STATE and COUNTRY Files _______________________ There are 2 entries that the caller must respond to when they are entering their Personal information; STATE and COUNTRY. You can choose to allow the caller to enter whatever they wish for those categories OR you can force the entries to match against a set of valid entries. There are 2 OPTIONAL files included in the MMAKER archive, MMSTATE.DAT and MMCNTRY.DAT. MMSTATE contains the valid 2 character state abreviations used in the United States and the MMCNTRY.DAT contains the valid 3 character Country codes. If either of the files is not found in the MMAKER directory OR if you have responded NO to the 1 or 2 of MMAKER.CFG entries that control validation of the STATE and COUNTRY entries, no validation will take place. Page 10 QUESTION FILE(S) SETUP ______________________ For ALTERNATE Questionnaire Languages, please see NEXT topic. In MatchMaker you MUST use two question files for both Male and Female. The first questionnaire will contain a SELF-DESCRIPTION set of questions (ie: your answers describe you) and the second questionnaire will contain a DESIRED-MATCH set of questions (ie: your answers describe what you are looking for in a match). The Male question files must be named MMQUESTM.QUE and MMQUES2M.QUE and the Female question files must be named MMQUESTF.QUE and MMQUES2F.QUE. The Male file, MMQUESTM.QUE, is REQUIRED to be present and the Female file, MMQUESTF.QUE, is OPTIONAL. If you do NOT want separate question files, DO NOT create the MMQUESTF.QUE file. If you do use both, bear in mind that the questions should be essentially the same, but may be "slanted" to either sex. You MUST have the same number of questions and the same number of answers in EACH file, or you will not get legitimate matches. A sample MMQUESTM.QUE file is included to get you started. ******* You MUST run MMAINT, option 10, to convert the question files ******* after you have made a change to the questionnaire files.!!!!!! **You can force existing users to re-answer the questions by using the option on the MMAINT menu (you MUST use the NON-event option to run MMAINT). You may have up to 100 questions. Each question can contain a maximum of 3 lines Each question can have up to 14 answers. A question or answer line, must be enclosed in quotation marks (") if the line contains any punctuation other then a '?'. (see example files) The shorter the question the better. One liners are the best, three liners are the limit! Page 11 The following is an explanation of how to set up this file: 38 <TOTAL number of questions in this file 1 <number of lines in the 1st question 10 <number of answers S <S=accept ONE choice, M=multiple choices How old are you? <question line 1 Less than 18 years old <answer A 18 - 20 years old <answer B 21 - 25 years old <answer C 26 - 28 years old <answer D 29 - 32 years old <answer E 33 - 38 years old <answer F 39 - 43 years old <answer G 44 - 49 years old <answer H 50 - 60 years old <answer I Over 60 years old <answer J 2 <number of lines in the 2nd question 3 <number of answers M <accept multiple choices, S=single choice "Now honestly, did you tell the whole truth on the" "questionnaire, and nothing but the truth so help you God?" "Yes, I told the whole truth" A few lies never hurt anyone I told mostly the truth etc etc Page 12 ALTERNATE QUESTIONNAIRE LANGUAGES -------------------------------- If you wish to provide your callers with alternative language choices for the questionnaire files, you must create an ASCII file named: MMQLANG.DAT The format of the MMQLANG.DAT file is as follows: LANGUAGE, IDENTIFIER where LANGUAGE = Name of the language IDENTIFIER = A single, UNIQUE, character that will be used as the 3rd character of the questionnaire file EXTENSION (will also affect the download questionnaire filename and the formatted questionnaire filename) For example, the following sample MMQLANG.DATE file English, E Spanish, S Italian, I German, G will require that the correspponding questionnaire file(s) be named MMQUESTM.quE MMQUESTM.quS MMQUESTM.quI MMQUESTM,quG For EACH language you will be supporting, you MUST have an ASCII questionnaire file with the language identifier as in the above example. PLEASE NOTE: If you wish to use only ONE language, DO NOT create the MMQLANG.DAT file, but name the ASCII questionnaire file: MMQUESTM.QUE and MMQUES2M.QUE. HELLO MESSAGE (MMHELLO) ------------- MMHELLO contains the text of the message that will be sent to ALL new users of the Match Maker. It is generated from the MMAINT program, if the MMAKER.CFG option is activated. If MMAINT is run as an EVENT then the message is sent automatically, else if you run MMAINT manually you can choose the approriate option to generate the HELLO message. Page 13 MATCHMAKER MAINTENANCE PROGRAM (MMAINT) _______________________________________ The Caller Database should be purged periodically. The Caller database can hold an unlimited number of callers. There are 2 ways to remove a caller from the Match Maker database. You can delete it manually, after searching for & viewing the record, automatically if the door has NOT been accessed in the number of days specified in the MMAKER.CFG file, for Events or requested when run manually OR if the caller no longer exists in the BBS database. There are a number of other options included with the MatchMaker maintenance program. They are self-explanatory. Page 14 PICTURE ATTACH/PICTURE DOWNLOADING/PICTURE.TXT ______________________________________________ Match Maker allows the Sysop to attach a picture to a User's profile. The Sysop has TOTAL control over whether to make this option available. By making this an option the Sysop can ensure that the pictures conform to his/her BBS guidlines. The format of the picture files are left up to the Sysop (ie: GIF, PCX, etc). The caller uploads the picture file via the Match MakerDoor and it is placed in the directory defined in the MMAKER.CFG file. If the Sysop, after reviewing the file accepts it, he/she uses the Match Maker Maintenance program (MMAINT Option 1, EDIT) to edit the caller's profile and add the FILENAME of the picture to the appropriate field in the caller's record. The Drive:\Path\ to the Picture Filename must be defined in the MMAKER.CFG file and is NOT entered witht eh file name!! Callers that choose to view another callers profile, will be informed that there is a picture available for Downloading/Viewing. The caller is given the option of downloading it and viewing it offline OR if they are using a terminal program with a GIF viewer TSR, viewing it as they download it. If Match Maker finds a file named PICTURE.TXT, it will display it prior to asking if the caller wishes to download/view the picture file. You may place any verbage you wish in the PICTURE.TXT file, including the Wildcat! 5 @ codes. It can be used to tell the caller what format the picture is in... assuming you have standardized on one format or you can tell the user how he/she can submit pictures for attachment to their profile. Page 15 [ BLANK PAGE ] Page 16 REGISTRATION ____________ Registration and the subsequent insertion of the registration number into your configuation file, allows for the display of your BBS name on the opening and closing screen as well as the reduction of a delay built into the opening screen display along with the ability to change certain values in the configuration file. In addition it will activate certain options in the maintenance program. To register your copy of MatchMaker, please fill out the registration form (REGISTER.FRM) and mail it along with the registration fee to the name and address on the form. Once a door is registered, any changes to registration information (Sysop name or BBS Name) will require the doors to be re-registered at the registration fee in effect at that time. Be sure to use the proper upper/lower case when filling in your name and BBS name, as they MUST match the way you entered them in the configuration file. ^^^^ Based upon information supplied on the registration form, I will pre- register you on my BBS. You will then be able to call SUNRISE-80 and pick up your registration number. MISC ____ The latest version of MATCH MAKER and other fine SUNRISE DOOR programs are always available for download from SUNRISE-80 BBS. Remember, should you have any problems, questions or suggestions, be sure to drop me a message on Sunrise-80 or in the RIME network (BBS_Doors, PCBHints, SYSops) or EMAIL (al_lawre@ix.netcom.com) or VOICE!