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Text File | 1991-05-03 | 12.8 KB | 234 lines

Changes in UDBS Version 5.40 - April 1991 1) Useact now has the ability to process more than one callers log file per run. In the past multiple node sites had to run Useact once per node to process multiple log sections. The only other way was to join multiple callers logs by appending the together with copy. This is no longer necessary. The names of multiple callers logs are now placed into a text file, and the name of that text file is specified on the INPUT= statement with an '@' in front of it. So if you placed 4 callers logs filenames in a file called MYLOGS, the input specification you would use would be INPUT=@MYLOGS. Useact would then process all of the callers logs that were specified in MYLOGS in one run. The documentation explains this in detail. 2) Another random occurrence in the callers log file has been causing Useact to 'burp' lately. As long as EVENT is specified in your UDBS.CFG file, no problems occur, but the line never the less is causing Useact to skip it because of a parsing error so it needs to be recognized and remedied. The line I am referring to is this: 03-16-91 (15:08) (1) (2400) (G) * NEW USER * I'm not sure what causes it, but it happens several times a week. I think it has something to do with first time callers. In any event, if Useact finds a name that has a length of zero, the remainder of the record is ignored. 3) Several sections of the documentation have been re-written to make them easier to understand. I have gotten feedback from several users that instructions for setting up UDBS on multiple node systems was at best sparse. A new Appendix has been added which specifically explains UDBS setup on multiple node systems. 4) Support for UDBS is no longer available in an ILINK conference specifically dedicated to UDBS. The conference was discontinued by ILINK's administration in December 1990 for lack of traffic. I can still handle support questions over ILINK's SYSOPS conference, but would prefer to handle the support directly on my BBS. Conference 4 on the SailBoard is still the UDBS support conference. The SailBoard's telephone number is in the documentation. 5) There are no changes to any of the other programs, the time/date stamps are correct on these. Changes in Useact 5.32b - March 1991 For whatever the reason, PCBoard can occasionally generate user names that start with punctuation characters (notably periods "."). When this occurs and Useact attempts to process this name, it can cause an immediate error in Useact, or errors later on when you run Query or Modify. This change only allows names starting with A-Z or 0-9 to be processed. Any other first character will cause that caller record to be ignored. Changes in Useact 5.32 - February 1991 This change came about from a bug in another authors door program. The bug that this door had was that, under the right circumstances, it wrote the "Time On:" when the person logged off from the door as approximately 59,000 minutes. When Useact tried to parse this line it caused an Error 6 (Overflow) since the variable that was to receive the time was an integer (only having a range of 0-32767). When the error occurred Useact would end abnormally and the log would not be processed. The fix made to Useact 5.32 is to check the time used amount on each call record. If it is greater than 1440 minutes (24 hours), it will be disregarded Changes in UDBS version 5.30 - August 1990 1) Well, the inevitable happened. A bug that has long been dormant in Useact was finally triggered by a change in the Callers log. CDC added an extra space in the callers log after the name of a transferred file. This caused file names of downloads to parse out as 13 characters (12 + 1 space). The bug was in the Indexing package (written by another author). The length of the KEY (file names) for transfers has always been 12 characters. When a 13 character string was passed into the indexer, it didn't clip to 12 characters. Hence the indexer returned a "not found" on a lookup that did in fact exist. This caused Useact to improperly add a new download entry. Unfortunately, since this entry already existed, the new one was not referenced (or unreachable). The symptom was that "who download a file" didn't report all downloads on that file. This also cluttered up the Download.Nam file with redundant entries. Useact 5.30 prevents this problem by limiting the length to 12 and stripping spaces. 2) A repair utility caller REPAIRDL.EXE is included to undo the damage caused by the bug. This will reassemble the scattered transfers to where they should have been originally. It will also remove the redundant entries and rebuild the index file. Instructions for how to use it are found in REPAIRDL.DOC. Unfortunately trying to support a product that never seems to be in a production state (always in beta) is becoming more of a problem. Things change too often, and as in this case, it is months before the side effect is seen. I try my best to keep up with these changes, but I'm at a disadvantage in that everyone rushes headlong into the latest software before any incompatibilities can be spotted. You should assume that this could, and probably will, happen again. The next time there might not be a solution for it. Protect yourself, keep good backups and hold on to your logs during these beta cycles. Changes in UDBS version 5.25 - May 1990 1) There have no major changes to speak of in this version. The only changes were made to USEACT to make it compatible with PCBoard version 14.5. There have been several minor changes made to the callers log in PCB 14.5, the first being the addition of the "ANSI" mode. This places a (A) on the first line of a callers record. UDBS counts this as a non-graphic call. The other change to the callers log affects ONLY single node sites. In PCB 14.5 the callers name was moved one character to the left, this causes Useact 5.2, 5.21, & 5.22 to incorrectly parse the users name. In fact NEW data records are created in the data base since for example "PETE SMITH" is a different name than "ETE SMITH". If you obtain this version before running 14.5 you will have no problem. If you obtain this version AFTER starting to use 14.5 and you have created oddball user records as noted above, there is a VERY simple fix for this. Use the "Merge Data Records" function in Modify to merge the bad records into the ones they belong. Using the above example you would merge "ETE SMITH" into "PETE SMITH". Merge will automatically remove "ETE SMITH" from the files. Do this for as many bad records as you might have created. Changes in UDBS version 5.2 - July 1989 1) USEACT is now fully text configurable, and may be used with other languages besides English. All scanning text has been placed into external text file(s) that may be changed by the Sysop to match any changes made to PCBTEXT. In addition, more than one text file may be specified allowing for multiple language operation. A new chapter entitled "Text and Language Configuration" has been added to the documentation. You should read this chapter before upgrading. You will also need to make additions to your UDBS.CFG file. A text file containing all standard English entries to PCBTEXT is provided, this is what was hard coded in Useact as of release 5.1 and is ready to use for most sites. A stand alone program is available from me to registered users to assist in creating alternate text files from PCBTEXT (for those with customized PCBTEXT's or foreign language PCBTEXT's). The program reads only the records from PCBTEXT (version 14.x) that it needs and creates a UDBS text file. You then make minor alterations to the output file and you're ready to go. 2) A new function has been added to the Modify program. You now have the ability to merge two data records. This can be used if a current user in your database changes his name (such as going from handle to a real name). You can merge the information from the handle name into the real name. See the documentation for more information on this. 3) A new function has been added to the "Reset Bulletin Flags" operation in Modify. You may now reset a bulletin flag for a single user as well as globally reset bulletin flags. You would reset a flag for a single user if you wanted to see if that user re-read a specific bulletin. These three changes were made at user requests. Thanks to those that suggested them. No changes have occurred in the utility programs, the door programs, Query.Exe, or Sync.Exe since the release of 5.1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes in UDBS version 5.1 - May 1989 1) Added support for 38400k baud. (Captures counts, displays, and doors will now operate at 38400.) 2) Found a minor bug that would prevent the last record in some databases from being read or scanned. This was corrected in the following areas: In Query: B - Users Who Never Download C - Users Who Never Upload L - Users Exceeding DL/UL Ratio T - Sub menu B - Display New Users for a Given Month U - Scan For User Name In Modify: B - Delete If Not In Users File C - Purify (User/download/upload) D - Undelete I - Database Size Info K - Subscriptions (Sub Menu Scan) L - Comment (Sub Menu Scan) M - Rebuild Index Files N - Reset Bulletin Flags In Expsub Utility: Last record in database not checked. In Cmtutil utility: Last User record in database would not have comments added to it. 3) Additionally most of the programs and utilities have had some minor code changes to consolidate routines and procedures. 4) Both doors have been updated to include the 38400 baud count in the 9600+ field. The doors have also had some rework done to them to make them compatible with PCBoard 14.1 Specifically they can now operate at 38400 baud. The doors no longer use the built in functions from QuickBASIC to handle the serial I/O. I have written my own serial I/O routines using C. The screen I/O is now also done using C. This change was done to solve some nasty problems that certain networks had with my original screen routines. 5) Documentation changes were made. 6) The conversion routines CONVDL & CONVUL have been removed from distribution. It is assumed that by now everyone has converted from version 4 to version 5 that needs to do so. These programs are still available if anybody should need them. They will be posted on the SailBoard. 7) Support for the User Database System is now available on the INTERLINK mail Network. An Interlink system near you should be carrying this conference. If not, the nearest Regional Host will have it. You should regularly check this conference for news about changes and fixes. All updates and registered programs are now available on the Sailboard. 201-831-8152