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┬─┬─────┐ │ │ │ │ ├───┬─┘ ┌┬──┐ ┬┬─┐ ┌┬──┐ ┌┬──┐ ┌┬──┐ ┌┬─┬─┐ ┌┬─┬─┐ (tm) │ │ │ ││ │ │├─┴┐ ││ │ ││ ││ │ ││ │ │ ││ │ │ ┴─┴ ┴── └┴──┘ ┴┴──┘ └┴──┘ └┴──┘ └┴──┘ ┴┴ ┴ ┴ ┴┴ ┴ ┴ ┬ ┌┐ ┌──┬┐ The ultimate tool for unattended └──┤│ ──┼┤ BBS communications. └┘o└──┴┘ Copyright (c) 1995, Parsons Consulting All Right Reserved, World Wide Parsons Consulting P.O. Box 1551 Manhattan Beach, CA 90267 (310) 372-5846 Voice (310) 374-2367 Fax (310) 374-7540 BBS parsons@netcom.com ===================================== ROBOCOMM/ROBOMAIL REGISTRATION FORM ===================================== Remit to: Parsons Consulting P.O. Box 1551 Manhattan Beach, CA 90267 U.S.A. ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Item | Quantity | Price | Total | |-------------------------------|----------|--------|------------| | Robocomm version 4.3 or later | ________ | $40.00 | __________ | | | | | | | RoboMail (latest version) | ________ | $35.00 | __________ | | | | | | | RoboMail/Robocomm package | ________ | $65.00 | __________ | | | | | | | Shipping (Outside U.S. only) | ________ | $5.00 | __________ | |---------------------------------------------------|------------| | | | | Total amount enclosed | __________ | ------------------------------------------------------------------ Payment by: ( ) Check or money order (U.S. funds only) ( ) MasterCard ( ) Visa ( ) PO # ______________ Card #: ____________________________________ Exp. Date: _________ Signature of card holder: ____________________________________________ Name: ________________________________________________________ Company: ________________________________________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ Phone: ________________________________________________________ INSTANT GRATIFICATION REGISTRATION ONLINE AT GROUP ONE BBS! Call Group One BBS, register with MasterCard or Visa and receive your personalized key file(s)im mediately! Also, qualify for a $2 "Electronic Delivery" discount. >>>> 310-374-7540 or 310-374-2367 <<<< ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page i INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTORS - RoboMail is now available directly from distributors in several countries. If you are currently evaluating RoboMail and you live in one of the countries listed below, please contact your distributor to register your copy of RoboMail: Argentina --------- NEW AGE BBS +54-1-797-9713 (ZyXEL) ----------- +54-1-796-3928 " +54-1-796-2827 " +54-1-795-6419 (USRobotics Dual Std) +54-1-796-3408 (Hayes Optima V.FC) Voice: +54-1-796-1178 Contact: Rodolfo Bordenave Australia and New Zealand ------------------------- My Computer Company 25 Albert Street (P.O. Box 99) Erskineville NSW 2043 AUSTRALIA Phone: (02) 565-1991 Fax: (02) 550-4459 BBS: (02) 565-1044 Norway ------ SOLUND DATA SERVICES BBS: +47-55-348145 Fax: +47-55-342140 Internet: jarle@circus.bbs.no Voice: +47-55-342140 South Africa ------------ NETLINE BBS P.O. Box 3524 Northcliff 2115 Republic of South Africa BBS: +27-11-789-6085 /6/7/8/9 TEL: +27-11-789-6192 FAX: +27-11-789-6081 Internet: sysop@netline.co.za ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page ii Switzerland ----------- McMeier & Son BBS Obfelden/Switzerland Data: USR HST DS 14400 ++41 1 761 27 94 Zyxel 19200 ++41 1 761 27 37 ISDN- SoLIS 38400 ++41 1 776 10 09 ISDN- SLink 115200 ++41 1 776 10 08 Voice: ++41 1 776 10 01 Contact: Roland Hausin ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ WHAT IS ROBOCOMM?................................................. 3 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS............................................... 6 CHECKLIST FOR A TROUBLE-FREE INSTALLATION......................... 6 GETTING STARTED................................................... 8 SPECIAL KEYS ................................................ 8 THE ROBOCOMM ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE................................. 9 EXAMPLES.................................................... 11 COMMUNICATIONS CONFIGURATION..................................... 13 USE MODEM ON COM PORT ...................................... 13 USE FOSSIL DRIVER........................................... 13 DEFAULT BAUD RATE .......................................... 13 MODEM INITIALIZATION STRING ................................ 13 CONNECT STRING ............................................. 15 MODEM DIAL COMMAND ......................................... 15 HANG UP STRING ............................................. 16 USE MODEM ON COM PORT ...................................... 16 USE RTS/CTS FLOW CONTROL ................................... 16 MAXIMUM DIAL ATTEMPTS PER SYSTEM ........................... 16 DIAL ATTEMPTS BEFORE CYCLING ............................... 17 SECONDS BETWEEN DIAL ATTEMPTS .............................. 17 DELAY AFTER MODEM RESPONSE ................................. 17 BREAK BEFORE INITIALIZING .................................. 17 IGNORE MODEM CD STATUS ..................................... 18 INACTIVITY TIMEOUT ......................................... 18 AGENDA ITEM TIMEOUT ........................................ 18 NUMBER OF FAILED CALLS TO ALLOW ............................ 18 KEEP BBS FILE'S TIME STAMP ................................. 19 ALLOW CONNECTS AT LOWER SPEED .............................. 19 INCOMING CALL WARNING FILE ................................. 19 UTILITY CONFIGURATION............................................ 20 FILE LIST/BROWSE COMMAND ................................... 20 ZIP ........................................................ 20 VIEW COMPRESSED FILE COMMAND ............................... 20 VIEW GIF IMAGE FILE COMMAND ................................ 21 DEFAULT FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS ............................ 21 COMMAND TO INVOKE MAIL READER .............................. 23 RAM FOR FILE TRANSFER AND EXTRACT .......................... 23 RAM NEEDED FOR READER AND DOS .............................. 23 DATA AND LOG CONFIGURATION....................................... 24 PATH FOR MAIL PACKETS ...................................... 24 PATH FOR REPLY PACKETS ..................................... 24 NUMBER OF OLD .QWK FILES TO ARCHIVE......................... 24 NUMBER OF OLD .REP FILES TO ARCHIVE......................... 24 FILE RENUMBERING STYLE ..................................... 25 FILE DOWNLOAD PATH ......................................... 25 FILE UPLOAD PATH............................................ 25 NAME AND PATH FOR LOG FILE ................................. 25 LOG FILE CREATION MODE ..................................... 25 LOG FILE TYPE .............................................. 25 LOG FILE WINDOW SIZE ....................................... 26 DOS SWAP TEMPORARY FILE DIRECTORY .......................... 26 ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page iv OFFLINE FILES DRIVE ........................................ 26 PCBOARD FILE LISTING TO UPDATE ............................. 27 WILDCAT FILE LISTING TO UPDATE ............................. 27 GENERAL CONFIGURATION OPTIONS.................................... 27 DEFAULT DATE FORMAT ........................................ 27 YOUR BIRTH DATE ............................................ 27 YOUR PHONE NUMBER .......................................... 27 SPEAKER SOUND STYLE ........................................ 27 EXPLODING WINDOWS .......................................... 28 AVAILABLE FILES DATE SORT................................... 28 AVERAGE DOWNLOAD CPS ....................................... 28 LOAD ROBOCOMM'S VGA FONT ................................... 28 DIALING MACROS................................................... 28 CUSTOMIZED DIALING COMMANDS ................................ 28 SETTING UP DISPLAY COLORS........................................ 29 FILTER LIST ENTRIES.............................................. 29 PREFERENCE LIST ENTRIES ......................................... 30 SEARCH DIRECTORIES............................................... 30 MANAGING THE SYSTEMS DIRECTORY................................... 31 ADDING SYSTEMS.............................................. 31 EDITING SYSTEMS............................................. 32 DELETING SYSTEMS............................................ 35 RENAMING SYSTEMS............................................ 35 VIEWING SYSTEM STATISTICS................................... 36 EDITING SYSTEM NOTES........................................ 36 MANAGING PROMPT DEFINITIONS...................................... 36 RESETTING DEFAULT PROMPTS .................................. 36 IMPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES .......................... 36 EXPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES .......................... 37 CREATING AND EDITING AGENDAS..................................... 37 CREATING A NEW AGENDA ...................................... 37 TEMPORARY, PERMANENT ....................................... 37 DELETING AGENDA ITEMS ...................................... 38 SETTING ACTION DAYS ........................................ 38 MOVING AGENDA ITEMS ........................................ 38 USING THE AGENDA MODIFICATION MENUS ........................ 38 G - GET QWK MAIL PACKET................................ 38 S - SEND REPLY REP PACKET.............................. 39 M - PCRELAY/MEGAMAIL TRANSFERS......................... 39 D - DOWNLOAD A FILE.................................... 40 BATCH TRANSFERS................................... 41 AUTOMATIC .GIF IMAGE FILE VIEWING ................ 41 POST CALL DOWNLOADED FILE PROCESSING ............. 41 IMBEDDED FILE DESCRIPTION PROCESSING.............. 43 U - UPLOAD A FILE...................................... 43 BROADCASTING FILES TO MULTIPLE BBS SYSTEMS ....... 44 AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD DIRECTORY ENTRIES ............. 44 N - SCAN FOR NEW FILES................................. 45 J - JUMP TO TERMINAL MODE.............................. 45 C - CAPTURE COMMAND RESULT............................. 46 P - DOWNLOAD PCBMAIL PACKET............................ 48 R - RUN PROGRAM........................................ 48 E - EXECUTE SCRIPT..................................... 49 ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page v SAVING AN AGENDA ........................................... 50 EDITING AN AGENDA .......................................... 50 PRINTING AN AGENDA ......................................... 50 PREPARING THE BBS FOR YOUR FIRST ROBOCOMM CALL................... 50 PCBOARD BBS SETUP PROCEDURE................................. 51 WILDCAT..................................................... 52 RUNNING AGENDAS.................................................. 54 PREAGEN.BAT ................................................ 54 WHILE AN AGENDA IS RUNNING.................................. 54 PCBOARD TERSE MODE..................................... 55 USING THE ANSI TERMINAL.......................................... 56 ASCII PROTOCOL UPLOADS ..................................... 58 AUTOMATIC ZMODEM DOWNLOADS ................................. 58 AUTOMATIC HS/LINK DOWNLOADS ................................ 58 VIEWING AND MANAGING THE FILE DIRECTORIES........................ 58 BULK DELETE ................................................ 59 DATABASE CLEAN UP .......................................... 59 FINDING FILES .............................................. 60 DEFINING QUERY EXPRESSIONS............................. 60 EDITING FILE DESCRIPTIONS .................................. 61 TAGGING AND ................................................ 61 JUMPING AROUND ............................................. 62 DELETING ENTRIES ........................................... 62 ZAPPING THE DIRECTORY ...................................... 62 MOVING FILES OFFLINE ....................................... 62 MOVING FILES ON-LINE ....................................... 63 VIEWING DOWNLOADED FILES ................................... 63 TESTING DOWNLOADED FILES ................................... 63 IMPORTING NEW FILES LISTINGS FROM OTHER SOURCES ............ 65 ASSIGNING CONFERENCES IN IMPORTED TEXT FILES .......... 65 WRITING TO PCBOARD FORMAT DIR FILES ........................ 66 READING DOWNLOADED MAIL FILES.................................... 66 OPERATING ROBOCOMM FROM THE COMMAND LINE......................... 67 DOS ERRORLEVEL RETURN VALUES ............................... 69 INTERPRETING AND VIEWING THE LOG................................. 69 VIEWING CAPTURE FILES............................................ 69 _______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page vi Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide July 20, 1992 Copyright (c) 1992, Parsons Consulting All Rights Reserved, World Wide ---------------------- DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY ---------------------- THIS SOFTWARE PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION ("ROBOCOMM") IS BEING OFFERED FOR EVALUATION PURPOSES "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OR MERCHANT-ABILITY. BY USING ROBOCOMM, YOU ARE EXPRESSLY RELEASING DAN PARSONS FROM ANY LIABILITY RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENTATION. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING ROBOCOMM. BECAUSE OF THE DIVERSITY OF CONDITIONS, HARDWARE AND OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS UNDER WHICH ROBOCOMM MAY BE USED, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. THE USER IS ADVISED TO TEST AND SUPERVISE ROBOCOMM THOROUGHLY BEFORE RELYING ON IT ----------------- LICENSE AGREEMENT ----------------- 1) Robocomm is being distributed as Shareware. This program is not free. You are granted a limited license to evaluate Robocomm for a period not to exceed 30 days. After 30 days, you must either pay for and register your copy of Robocomm, or immediately discontinue its use and remove it from your computer. 2) You may keep as many backup copies of Robocomm as you wish, but you may not run Robocomm simultaneously on more than one computer. Additionally, you are granted the right to share Robocomm with others, as long as you distribute the Robocomm archive exactly as you received it, with all associated files included. REGISTERED USERS MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE THE SEPARATE FILE ROBOUSR.DEF. 3) Under no circumstances may you charge a fee or receive any other form of consideration for distributing the Robocomm files without express written consent from the copyright holder. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 1 ----------------- TECHNICAL SUPPORT ----------------- Technical support is available via electronic mail on Group One BBS. Located in Hermosa Beach, CA U.S.A., this BBS is available 24 hours a day with HST/v.32bis compatible modems. The public access telephone numbers are: (310) 374-7540 (310) 374-2367 Technical support inquiries may also be sent via electronic mail to: CompuServe: 72167,3662 Internet: parsons@netcom.com Our postal address is: Parsons Consulting P.O. Box 1551 Manhattan Beach, CA 90267 U.S.A. (310) 372-5846 Voice (310) 374-2367 Fax User-to-user and hosted support is also available in Robocomm conferences on the following national and international mail networks: * ILink * RoboNet * PlanoNet * Intelec * Smartnet * RIME * Global-Link * U'NI Net * WildNet ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 2 WHAT IS ROBOCOMM? ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Robocomm is an integrated communications environment which allows you to create "Agendas" composed of "Things to Do" on an unlimited number of PCBoard and Wildcat BBS systems. Robocomm is a comprehensive software tool, designed exclusively to enhance communications with bulletin board systems. The program contains built-in support for PCBoard and Wildcat! BBS systems. The following is a sample of the things that you can tell Robocomm to do for you: Reliably transfer message and reply packets with support for a wide variety of mail doors for offline message reading and replying. Robocomm will automatically rename and delete message packets to keep between 0 and 9 old mail packets for each system you call. Sysops can reliably transfer mail packets with other systems during their events, and also pick up other files without constantly tinkering with scripts. Scan for "New Files" since any date and in any number of the BBS system's file directories from any conference. Robocomm automatically adds the results of your file scans to its databases for easy point-and-shoot selection of files to download. Upload and Download files to and from any conference. Files to download and upload can be tagged and selected through a "Point and Shoot" interface. Alternately, file transfers can be performed via ProDoor. Multiple files can be uploaded or "Broadcast" to many systems just by entering a single agenda command. You can even automatically download password protected files! Automatically use your favorite scanning utility scan for viruses in files immediately after downloading them and insert customized ZIP comments containing download date, time, file description, and source BBS. Automatically export the file name, size, date and description to a standard format PCBoard and Wildcat! file directory files. Sysops can have Robocomm download files, scan them for viruses, insert customized ZIP comments and write an entry to their new files lists all automatically! Capture the results of BBS commands to a text file for review after logoff. This is useful for reviewing messages from BBS systems which do not run a mail door, as well as capturing bulletins and news files for offline reading. Join any conference before issuing the command results to capture. Download compressed mail captures from PCBoard. Compressed "PCBMail" packets are automatically renamed and numbered as they are received. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 3 Run other DOS programs at any time while on-line with a BBS. "Jump to Terminal" - to jump to ANSI terminal mode and sound an alarm to alert you. Execute Script Files to perform virtually any task imaginable. Robocomm contains an extensive script language which can be used to create generic, customizable agenda items that can accept parameters from users to be evaluated at runtime. You can even create Logon Scripts to automate on-line tasks with BBS systems other than PCBoard and Wildcat. Any number or combination of these "agenda items" can be added for an unlimited number of PCBoard systems - all in the same automated agenda! In addition to these automated features, Robocomm offers: Full support for Microsoft compatible mice. OS/2, Windows and Desqview awareness. Robocomm will sense these multi-tasking operating systems and yield idle processor time accordingly. Internal support for Zmodem, Ymodem and Ymodem-G file transfer protocols. 16550 UART support for ultra-reliable file transfers while multi- tasking with programs such as Windows and Desqview. Complete logging of on-line sessions at any of three selectable detail levels. A super fast text file viewer for access to log files and captured BBS output. An internal editor for modifying file descriptions and BBS notes. An ANSI compatible terminal for regular "hands on" calls to BBS systems, including popular features, such as: * Logging of incoming text to capture files and the printer. * DOORWAY mode for enhanced control of compatible remote systems. * Integrated Demon-Dialer * Automatic Zmodem and HS/Link download detection. * Full Color Scrollback Buffer Robocomm includes a timer capability that allows you to set the time and day that it should begin executing an agenda. Robocomm can be run entirely from command line switches. In this way, Robocomm can be used to transfer network mail and also get files during a bulletin board's nightly event. All of the prompts that Robocomm looks for while performing its on- ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 4 line magic are individually configurable for each BBS. Full compatibility with a wide variety of PCBoard and Wildcat add- in products, such as ProLogon, ProDoor, DDoor, TextView, MegaMail, PCRelay, NetMail, Qmail, RoseMail, TomCat and MarkMail. Automatically detects any combination of ProLogon, Ddoor, PCBoard and ProDoor when logging on to PCBoard style systems and reacts accordingly with no special configuration. A viewable copy of your "Statistics" for each bulletin board that you call using Robocomm. Keep tabs on the Upload/Download ratio. With Robocomm, It's now easier than ever to keep your file transfer ratios in line. Access to your mail reader program from the Robocomm main menu using Robocomm's virtual memory management. Hot key access to a large DOS shell -- all but 8K of original RAM before starting Robocomm A super-fast internal ASCII file viewing utility, automatically configured to view capture and log files at the touch of a button. Comprehensive, context-sensitive on-line help. The ability to interrupt a running agenda and continue from where you left off later. You can also tell Robocomm to remain on-line after completing its automated functions for hands-on work. A multi-BBS files database. The database size is limited only by your available disk space and can be instantly sorted by date, BBS or file name. Commands for keyword searches of the database are available. Full length file descriptions are supported. A database of all files downloaded or uploaded with Robocomm. From this directory, you can point-and-shoot to call your favorite compressed file viewer to look at a file's contents and even create a temporary directory to scan for viruses and test out files. File descriptions from this database are automatically used when creating "Upload" agenda items. An integrated offline file cataloging system. Move files offline to floppy disks and keep just the descriptions and vital information on hand for future reference. One keystroke brings the files back on-line when the time comes to upload or use the files. Incoming call detection, with the ability to automatically display a configurable warning message to the caller before disconnecting. Support for 8 international date formats. Support for up to 9 distinct phone numbers for each configured BBS. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 5 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Robocomm has been thoroughly tested and has been found to run reliably on PCs which are 100% IBM compatible and with modems which conform to the Hayes command set. Robocomm supports communications speeds from 300 to 57600 baud. You will need at least 512K of RAM free to run Robocomm reliably. Optimal execution speed is possible on systems with 560K or more RAM free. A hard disk with sufficient free disk space is required. If expanded memory is available on your system, Robocomm will attempt to use it for virtual memory and when swapping to run outside utilities. EMS is not required, however. See the configuration section for details. CHECKLIST FOR A TROUBLE-FREE INSTALLATION ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The following checklist is intended to assist people who already know their way around PCBoard and Wildcat BBS systems and know how to use DOS. It will enable you to get set up quickly and without any hassles. Once you have Robocomm up and running, please do read the rest of this documentation. There are several features in Robocomm that you might miss out on if you don't read on! ____ Extract all files from the two distribution files into a separate \ROBO subdirectory. If you are upgrading from a previous version, unzip the files into your existing Robocomm subdirectory. If PKUNZIP prompts you for permission to overwrite any files, go ahead and answer yes. There is an automatic conversion process built into Robocomm. ---- NOTE Automatic upgrades are not possible from Robocomm versions ---- prior to version 4.2. If you are using any prior version, other than Robocomm 4.2, you will need to create a new Robocomm 4.x installation and re-enter your BBS information into it. It is not necessary to overwrite the ROBOS?.BAT and ROBOR?.BAT files. If you have modified the file transfer batch files that came with an earlier version of Robocomm, you can use them with Robocomm 4.x. ____ Add your Robocomm subdirectory to your DOS PATH setting. ---- NOTE You must start Robocomm from within it's own subdirectory. ---- You are adding Robocomm to the PATH because Robocomm may change directories during operation and DOS may need to find some of the batch files contained in the Robocomm directory. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 6 ____ Make sure that your CONFIG.SYS contains a setting which enables a FILES setting of 39 or more. ____ If you changed your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT, you should re-boot your computer now, so that the changes will take effect. ____ Make sure PKUNZIP.EXE is installed on your system. If you decide not to place it in your Robocomm directory, then it must be available in your DOS PATH statement. ____ Type ROBOCOMM to start up Robocomm for the first time. There will be a slight delay while Robocomm creates some needed files. If you are upgrading, Robocomm will convert your old data files. ____ Go to the four CONFIGURATION screens and enter in the required configuration information. These options are covered in detail later in this user's guide if you have questions. Remember to use [F1] for on-line help if you need assistance. ____ Go to the Directory-BBS screen and set up entries for the BBS systems you intend to call with Robocomm. If the BBS you add is running PCBoard 14.5 and you will be using the Qmail 4.0 door, then the default PCBoard prompt definitions will work. If not, you will need to "import" an alternative prompt set. See the "Managing the Systems Directory" section of this manual for further details. ____ Make sure to read the section that deals with "Setting the BBS up for your first Robocomm call." It will help you get off on the right foot. ____ Follow along with the CREATING AN AGENDA section of this User's Guide to make your first agenda. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 7 GETTING STARTED ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ To start Robocomm, enter the \ROBO subdirectory and type "ROBOCOMM" at the DOS prompt. The program will load and display its opening screen. There may be a slight delay the first time you start Robocomm since the program will need to create several files on your disk. NAVIGATING THE MENUS - First a word about Robocomm's user interface. Most everything is done with Bounce Bar menus. The arrow keys will move the highlight bar. When the option you want is highlighted, press [Enter]. Alternatively, you can press the highlighted letter in any menu option to execute it. GIVE ME A HINT - The bottom line of all screens is devoted to the display of "Hint" lines. If you find your self feeling confused or you want a quick summary of active keys, look at the bottom line of the screen! SPECIAL KEYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Several keys have special functions in Robocomm. [F1] Context sensitive on-line help can be accessed at any point during the operation of Robocomm. Simply go to the place you want help and press [F1] to access the help system. Help text is presented in pages The information in the help window can be scrolled with the arrow keys and [PgUp] & [PgDn]. [Home] will take you to the first line of the help screen and [End] will take you to the last line. You can move the help window to a different location on the screen by pressing holding down either [Shift] key and pressing an arrow key. The location you leave the screen in will be memorized by Robocomm and the help window for will be opened in that spot the next time you press [F1]. To close the help window, press [Enter], [Esc] or [F1]. [F2] At the main menu, pressing [F2] will toggle on and off a status display. The display contains information concerning your swap drive status, currently set agenda, memory usage and your cumulative PC Pursuit usage. [F5] From the BBS-Directory or either of the File Directories, pressing [F5] will call the external batch file, ANALYZE.BAT, which can be used to run a program designed to report on the data in the Robocomm's TRANSFER.LOG file. [F7] To shell to DOS at any time during the operation of Robocomm (except while agendas are running) press [F7]. Robocomm will swap itself to disk or expanded memory and call a copy of your command processor as defined by your COMSPEC environment variable. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 8 [F8] Pressing [F8] at any point during Robocomm execution (except when online) will allow you to view your configured file browsing utility to view your most recent Robocomm agenda LOG file. [F9] Pressing [F9] at any point during Robocomm execution (except when online) will present you with a pop-up list of capture files in the current directory (capture files have a .CAP extension). When you select a file from this list, Robocomm will run your configured file browsing utility to view the capture file. [F10] If Robocomm is asking you for some information, such as an agenda name, BBS ID or file name, you can always pop up a window to browse through possible responses by pressing [F10]. [Esc] At any point during Robocomm operations, pressing [Esc] will back you up one menu level. FIELD EDITING KEYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Whenever Robocomm asks you to type in information into an on screen data entry field, the following keys are active: [Ctrl-Y] Delete all characters from the cursor position forward. [Ctrl-Left Arrow] Jump to the previous word. [Ctrl-Right Arrow] Jump to the next word. [Ins] Toggle insert mode. [Del] Delete the character on the cursor [Home] Jump to the first character [End] Jump to the last Character SCROLLING KEYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Whenever Robocomm is presenting you with a list of items in a scrolling window the following keys are active: Up & Down Arrows Scroll to the previous/next item [PgUp] Move a full screen of items backwards [PgDn] Move a full screen of items forward [Ctrl-PgUp] Move to the first item in the list [Ctrl-PgDn] Move to the last item in the list. THE ROBOCOMM ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ---- NOTE The following discussion of the ROBOCOMM environment is ---- fairly technical in nature. None of it is required to get Robocomm running in a normal installation. If you are ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 9 uncomfortable with the material in this section, just skip ahead to the next section. Many aspects of Robocomm's runtime behavior can be controlled via the ROBOCOMM environment variable. To set this variable, add a line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the following format: SET ROBOCOMM=<command>;<command>;<command> The following commands are available: NOMOUSE Disables mouse usage. NO16550 Disables 16550 UART usage. Ennn Allocates a fixed amount of XMS or EMS memory to be used by Robocomm. XMS and/or EMS memory is used for database buffering and virtual memory storage space. The default value is 512K. You may set this value from 0 to 16 megabytes. Robocomm really shines when sufficient XMS or EMS memory is made available to it. ---- NOTE The E command does not control swapping to ---- run outside programs, If XMS or EMS is available to Robocomm and has not previously been allocated via the E command it will be used for swapping, unless the NOEMSSWAP command is included in the ROBOCOMM environment variable. /OP1 Enables the use of the EMS page frame to hold overlay data. Setting this option is a good idea if you have an expanded memory manager installed. However, it is possible that this option will not be compatible with your particular EMS environment. If Robocomm hangs during operation or other erratic behavior is observed, please remove the /OP1 option from your ROBO environment variable. Do not attempt to use this option when QEMM's "Stealth" feature is active. /OU1 Enables the use of upper memory blocks (UMBs) for overlay data. To use this option, your system must be configured with a UMB provider driver, such as HIMEM.SYS or QEMM.SYS and you must have a contiguous area of upper memory available which is at least as large as the configured overlay opsize. (See the /OO command below) /OOnn Sets the amount of memory, in kilobytes, that will be used to hold overlay data This value may be set from 30 to 90. The default value is 50. Modifying this value is not recommended unless you are asked to do so by a Robocomm technical support representative ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 10 /CXnn Sets the amount of XMS memory to be used for caching of the ROBOCOMM.OVL overlay file. If you have available XMS, you can significantly increase Robocomm's execution speed by using this command. The amount of XMS memory to use can be specified as a percentage by including a % character after the number or as a actual number of kilobytes. Regardless of the method you use, the maximum amount of XMS that will be used is approximately 200K. Please note that if you are specifying this command via a SET command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT or some other batch file you will need to specify any "%" characters twice, as in: SET ROBO=/CX100%% /CEnn Sets the amount of EMS memory to be used of overlay caching. See the description of the /CX variable above for details. If both the /CX and the /CE command are specified, XMS memory will be used. SWAPPATH: This command sets the location for Robocomm's virtual memory management (VMM) swap file. Robocomm always creates this file, but will not actually use it unless insufficient EMS memory is available for current operations. To use this option, simply enclose the desired path within quotes. For example, SWAPPATH:"C:\TEMP" instructs Robocomm to create its temporary VMM files in the \TEMP subdirectory of your hard disk. If you have a large RAM disk, you might want to use this for your swap files. NOEMSSWAP Disables swapping to EMS memory during DOS shell operations. NOXMSSWAP Disables swapping to XMS memory during DOS shell operations. NOEMS Turns of EMS usage for virtual memory. With this option specified, Robocomm will use only XMS or a disk swap file for virtual memory. NOXMS Turns of XMS usage for virtual memory. With this option specified, Robocomm will use only EMS or a disk swap file for virtual memory. EXAMPLES ~~~~~~~~ SET ROBO=E1024;/OP1;/CE100%;SWAPPATH:"C:\TEMP" ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 11 This environment variable tells Robocomm to use 1 megabyte of memory for index buffering and virtual memory, to use the EMS page frame for its overlay area (thereby freeing up 50K of "conventional" memory) and to place any VMM swap files created in the \TEMP directory. SET ROBO=NOEMS;/OU1;/CX200;NOEMSSWAP;NOMOUSE;SWAPPATH:"D:\" This environment variable disables all expanded memory usage and places the overlay area into an upper memory block. A 200K block of XMS is reserved for overlay caching. The mouse is disabled and any VMM swap files would be written to the D:\ directory. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 12 COMMUNICATIONS CONFIGURATION ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ From the Main Menu, select the Configure option, followed by Communications. You will be presented with a screen allowing you to set the following options: USE MODEM ON COM PORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Input the communications port that should be used to communicate with the modem. Enter a number between 1 and 4. If you enter 3 or 4, Robocomm will ask you to supply the base address and IRQ to be used. USE FOSSIL DRIVER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Set this option to YES if you want to access your modem via an INT 14 fossil driver. Fill in the logical unit number (usually 0 for COM1 or 1 for COM2) that you want to address in the "Unit:" field. ---- OS/2 users who are using the SIO/VSIO drivers should NOTE consider loading the VX00.SYS device driver in their ---- Robocomm session and then set the new fossil option on. This will result in a significantly smaller performance hit when doing file transfers in a background session. DEFAULT BAUD RATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Normally, this setting should be set to the highest baud rate your modem supports. Pressing [Enter] will toggle the available baud rates from 300-115200 baud. The baud rate you specify will be used when Robocomm initializes your modem before running an agenda or when entering the interactive terminal mode from the main menu. MODEM INITIALIZATION STRING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These are the characters that will be sent to your modem to tell it how to communicate with Robocomm. To send a carriage return, use an "!". To cause Robocomm to pause for half a second, use the "~" character. In order to work with Robocomm, your modem must be configured in the following way: COMMAND ECHO STATUS - The "E1" in the default initialization string instructs the modem to echo commands entered back to Robocomm. This "command echoing" will be needed if you send commands directly to the modem using the ANSI terminal. VERBAL RESPONSE CODES - The "V1" in the default initialization string tells your modem to respond to the commands Robocomm send it with verbal messages. For example, the modem will respond with "CONNECT" when it has established communications with another modem or "BUSY" when it senses a busy signal. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 13 QUIET MODE OFF - The "Q0" ensures that response codes will be sent from your modem. RESPONSE CODE LEVEL - The "X4" in the initialization string sets the level of response codes that your modem will return. In most instances, you should set this value to the highest level supported by your modem. Robocomm will respond to the following response codes: CONNECT The third option on the Communications Configuration screen allows you to specify your modem's connect string. The default, "CONNECT" will work with all Hayes compatible modems. Do not specify a baud rate in the connect code, as in "CONNECT 2400". Robocomm assumes that it has connected to the BBS at the baud rate you have specified for the system. BUSY Robocomm will attempt to redial this system or the next system in the queue, depending on your configuration. NO DIALTONE Robocomm will hang up and attempt to dial again, incrementing the dial counter by one. NO CARRIER Robocomm will attempt to redial this system or the next system in the queue, depending on your configuration. Receiving this response code also increments the FAILED CALL counter. See details later in this section. VOICE If your modem supports this response code, Robocomm will hang up, remove the number from the dialing queue and make a notation indicating a voice answer in the log file. ERROR Robocomm will reset the modem, re-send the initialization string and attempt to dial again. If three consecutive ERROR results are received, Robocomm will abort the current agenda and make a notation in the log file MONITOR SPEAKER CONTROL - The "M0" in the default initialization string instructs your modem to run in silent mode. If you would like to hear the results of Robocomm's dial attempts, change the "M0" to "M1". DATA-CARRIER-DETECT (CD) - Because Robocomm is designed for unattended operation, it really needs to be sure that it knows EXACTLY what the status of your modem is at all times. To do this, make sure that your modem is set up to correctly follow ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 14 the status of the "carrier detect." Most modems come from the factory with this feature disabled. In other words, CD is forced "True" at all times. Usually, you can cause the modem to correctly track CD with a DIP switch setting or a modem command. If Robocomm gives you an error message when attempting to hang up your phone, check your modem manual to see what must be done to get CD operating properly. In the case of modems which support the Hayes "&" extended command set, adding the command "&C1" to the initialization string will solve the problem. DATA-TERMINAL-READY (DTR) - Make sure that your modem is set up to respond to changes in the DTR status by dropping carrier and returning to the command state. When Robocomm attempts to hang up your phone, it will first try to "Drop DTR." This is the fastest and most reliable way of hanging up. If your modem supports the Hayes "&" extended command set, adding "&D2" to your initialization string will solve the problem. HAYES 2400 COMPATIBLE SUGGESTED INITIALIZATION STRING - To solve CD and DTR problems, the following initialization string is recommended for all modems which are compatible with the Hayes 2400: ATZ!~~~~AT E1 V1 Q0 X4 M0 &C1 &D2! ---- For high speed modem it is ESSENTIAL that your modem is NOTE properly configured for RTS/CTS handshaking. ---- Unfortunately, the commands to implement this are not standardized. For US Robotics compatible modems, you should ensure that your initialization string contains &H1&R2 to enable Hardware Handshaking. CONNECT STRING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the text that Robocomm should look for to determine that your modem has established a connection with a BBS. Do not enter any numbers in this field, as Robocomm needs this string to be "Generic." The default string, CONNECT, should be correct in nearly all instances. MODEM DIAL COMMAND ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the command which needs to be sent to your modem to initiate a dial. The default ATDT is the Hayes standard command and will work in the vast majority of instances. If your phone connection does not support touch tone dialing, specify ATDP in this setting to use pulse dialing. PBX users who require access to an outside line before dialing may want to add the number to access the outside line followed by one or more commas. Each comma causes a pause of the number of seconds specified in your modem's "S8" register. Set it with a ATS8=XX command, where XX is the number of ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 15 seconds you want to pause per comma. For example, "ATDT9,," would cause Robocomm to dial "9" and wait 1 second before sending the BBS phone number. ---- NOTE You can create customized dialing commands on a BBS by BBS ---- basis through the use of Robocomm's "Dialing Macros" feature. See the section on setting up dialing macros later in this configuration section. HANG UP STRING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the string which Robocomm will send to the modem to attempt to hang up in the event "Dropping DTR" doesn't work. Use "~" for a half second pause and "!" to send a carriage return. The default hang-up string is: ~~~+++~~~ATH0! USE MODEM ON COM PORT # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter a number between 1 and 4 to indicate the COM port that Robocomm should use for communications. If you enter a number above 2, Robocomm will require you to define the start address and IRQ line to use when communicating with this port. START ADDRESS - Enter the address, in hexadecimal, of the COM port. IRQ - Enter the number of the IRQ line to use for this communications port. USE RTS/CTS FLOW CONTROL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Also know as "hardware" flow control, the use of this option allows Robocomm to inform the modem when it's internal communications buffer is about to overflow. This enables both modems to stop sending information so your computer can catch up. If you are using Robocomm with a high speed modem, the use of RTS/CTS flow control is essential to guard against the potential loss of data if Robocomm's internal buffers fill up. MAXIMUM DIAL ATTEMPTS PER SYSTEM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter a number indicating the maximum number of dial attempts Robocomm should make for each BBS when attempting to connect. This option applies only to dialing controlled by an agenda. The Demon Dialer in terminal mode does not honor this setting. ---- NOTE This option can be overridden for the current session only ---- with the /Ln command line switch, where n is the number of redial attempts that should be made per system in the ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 16 agenda, DIAL ATTEMPTS BEFORE CYCLING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the number of dial attempts that Robocomm should make to connect with a system before cycling to the next BBS in the redial queue. When Robocomm reaches the end of the queue, it will return to the first number in the queue and begin dialing the systems again, until a connection is made or the maximum redial attempts number is reached. SECONDS BETWEEN DIAL ATTEMPTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the maximum number of seconds that should elapse between the start of two consecutive dialing attempts. Unless a message indicating a connection is received from the modem, Robocomm will ensure that the number of seconds you specify here elapses before initiating the next dial attempt. Fill in this option by completing the statement: "During agenda processing, I want Robocomm to dial a phone number every _____ seconds. " Entering a zero in this field will cause Robocomm to redial as rapidly as possible by initiating a new dial as soon as any message is received back from the modem. Entering a zero in this field is strongly recommended. The maximum number of seconds that Robocomm will ever wait for a response from the modem is 120 seconds. ---- NOTE Your modem most likely supports a command similar to ---- Robocomm's dialing delay with its S7 register. If you find that your modem is returning "NO CARRIER" to Robocomm before the number of seconds you specify here has elapsed, add a "S7=n" command to your initialization string, where n is the number of seconds you specify in the Robocomm configuration option. Consult your modem manual for more details. DELAY AFTER MODEM RESPONSE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some modems send more than one line of information when they are unable to connect. Some others require a little rest period after a failed dialing attempt before re-dialing. If your modem fits either of these categories, you should enter a number in this field. If you do, Robocomm will wait the number of seconds you specify after a modem response is received, discarding any characters received during that time period. BREAK BEFORE INITIALIZING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If your modem or network setup requires a BREAK signal to "wake up" the modem before sending the initialization string, set this option to YES. The default for this option is NO. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 17 IGNORE MODEM CD STATUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you get an error message from Robocomm whenever it attempts to hang up the phone and you are unable to get your modem to properly report CD (Carrier Detect) status, set this option to "YES" and Robocomm will bypass all attempts to determine if your modem is on or off hook. ---- NOTE With this option set to "YES" Robocomm will be unable to ---- sense if the connection between it and the BBS is unexpectedly interrupted. This may result in delays in processing. So, make sure you've included &C1&D2 in your initialization string, and try a new modem cable before giving up and setting up Robocomm to ignore CD status. INACTIVITY TIMEOUT (SECONDS) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the BBS system you are calling hangs, or excessive line noise causes Robocomm to be confused, Robocomm will wait the number of seconds you specify here for a line of text from the BBS. If a complete line of text, ending with a carriage return, is not received within the number of seconds specified here, Robocomm will hang up immediately and continue with the next BBS on the agenda. The number of seconds since the last received line of text is displayed in the upper right corner of the screen while Robocomm is on-line. AGENDA ITEM TIMEOUT (MINUTES) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the maximum number of minutes that any one agenda item should take to complete. This is a safety hatch against a runaway "looping" situation which might occur if your prompt definitions don't properly match those sent by the BBS or if a script file is designed improperly. Set this option to a value that makes you feel comfortable, but be careful not to set it too low. Some file and mail scan operations can take quite a while to complete. ---- NOTE File transfers stop the clock on this timeout watch. You ---- don't need to worry about Robocomm disconnecting during a file transfer because this timeout value has been reached. NUMBER OF FAILED CALLS TO ALLOW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Set this option by answering the question: "I only want Robocomm to dial a system ____ times if the system is not responding properly." This option allows you to avoid long dialing periods when BBS systems go "down" unexpectedly. Whenever Robocomm dials a phone number and no response or NO CARRIER is received back from the modem within the number of seconds specified in your Seconds Between Dialing Attempts option, ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 18 an internal count of "Failed Calls." for that system is incremented. If the cumulative number of failed calls encountered for a BBS during a single agenda run equals the number you input for this option, Robocomm will automatically remove the BBS from the dialing queue. Failed call detection is also designed to minimize the danger of dialing long distances in unattended mode. If the modem on the other end of a Robocomm call is malfunctioning and answers the phone but no connection is established, Robocomm has no way of knowing that and could redial the system up to the number of times specified in the Dial Attempts Per System option. This option minimizes the ill effects of such a situation. You should set it at whatever level makes you most comfortable. KEEP BBS FILE'S TIME STAMP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you are downloading with Robocomm's internal Zmodem protocol, and would like the time and date of downloaded files to be the same as those on the BBS system, set this option to YES. If you would prefer Robocomm to set the time and date stamps to the current time and date at the end of the download, set this option to NO. ---- NOTE System operators downloading files for their BBS will ---- almost certainly want to set this option to NO. Doing so will ensure that Robocomm downloaded files show up properly during their caller's new file scans. ALLOW CONNECTS AT LOWER SPEED ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have a high speed modem and would prefer not to accidentally connect with systems operating at 2400 baud or below, set this option to NO. If you do this, Robocomm will immediately hang up the line, remove the BBS from the agenda dialing queue and make a note in the log if it dials out at 9600 bps or above and connects at below 9600 bps. This option is designed to keep phone bills down if you plan a to move a significant number of bytes and don't want Robocomm to do it if the modem (for whatever reason) accidentally establishes a connection at a lower rate than expected. INCOMING CALL WARNING FILE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option will be appreciated by Sysops who may have Robocomm configured to dial out during their BBS "event." When a BBS is attempting to dial out, the situation is often complicated by callers attempting to dial in to the system. This can be particularly frustrating if the caller is continually re-dialing. To provide some relief in this situation, Robocomm allows you to specify the name of a file that will be shown to incoming callers before disconnecting them. If you supply a valid file name in this option and Robocomm detects an incoming call while attempting to ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 19 dial out (a NO DIALTONE message is sent back by the modem after a dial attempt) then Robocomm will instruct the modem to answer the call, pause two seconds and then display the outgoing call warning file to the caller. After the file has been displayed, Robocomm hangs up on the caller and continues its scheduled agenda. UTILITY CONFIGURATION ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ To specify the utility programs that Robocomm will use while operating, select Configure from the main menu, followed by Utilities. The followig configuration options are available: FILE LIST/BROWSE COMMAND ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm allows you to view its log and capture files with its internal file viewing utility if you specify the word INTERNAL here. While the internal view is quite fast and easy to use, it lacks the ability to do text searches. You might prefer to use Vernon D. Buerg's excellent LIST.COM utility for file browsing. However, you may also want to use SemWare's QEdit to browse your log and capture files, as this super-fast editor will allow you to also edit and print the file as you browse. Whichever you choose, just enter the name of the command needed to run the utility here. Robocomm will supply the appropriate file name as a parameter at run- time. ZIP & ALTERNATE EXTRACTION COMMANDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Those of you who are already familiar with bulletin boards are undoubtedly also accustomed to using file compression & decompression utilities. Robocomm requires access to a decompression utility to extract the NEWFILES02-10-95T file from the mail packets that it downloads from QWK format mail doors. Robocomm will automatically detect if your .QWK packet was created with ZIP format, and call the appropriate extraction utility. If the mail packet was not created with the ZIP format, Robocomm will run the alternative extraction utility that you specify in the Alternate Extraction Command field. In either case, the extraction utility will be called with 2 parameters, as follows: <Decompression utility name> <Mail packet name> NEWFILES02-10-95T VIEW COMPRESSED FILE COMMAND ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The command you specify here will be executed whenever you execute the View command in the directory of downloaded files or when you select a compressed PCBMail packet for reading. Robocomm defaults to SHEZ, the excellent Shareware "Compression Companion" by Jim Derr. SHEZ will allow you to quickly view, extract, test, convert or alter the contents of virtually any compressed file you may have downloaded. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 20 VIEW GIF IMAGE FILE COMMAND ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If the highlighted file name is a GIF image file, Robocomm will call the utility you enter in this field to view the file. The file name will be passed as the sole command line parameter to the utility. DEFAULT FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each system definition in Robocomm's BBS directory includes fields to set the transfer protocol for four different file transfer situations: ■ Mail Upload ■ Mail Download ■ File Upload ■ File Download The four corresponding options on the Utility Configuration screen allow you to set the default values that Robocomm will insert in any new BBS system definition you create. Robocomm includes 3 internal protocols, which can be specified with the following key words: ZMODEM The standard protocol for high speed, reliable file transfers. Most BBS systems offer Zmodem as a file transfer protocol. You should use this protocol if it is available. YMODEM This older, batch protocol is offered on all PCBoard BBS systems. If all else fails, you should always be able to use this protocol. YMODEM-G An ultra-fast transfer protocol that relies on the built in error correcting capabilities of modems with MNP capability. If you have a high speed modem with a fast computer and a 16550 UART installed, you might want to use this protocol instead of Zmodem. Using External Protocols - The Robocomm distribution files contain several ROBOS?.BAT (Send) and ROBOR?.BAT (Receive) sample batch files which implement protocol transfers with two popular external protocol engines, DSZ and HS/Link. To use one of these batch files, make sure the appropriate transfer engine utility is available in your DOS PATH setting, and specify the appropriate batch file name in the spaces provided. For example, to use Zmodem-MobyTurbo for your file transfers, specify ROBORZ (For Robo receive Zmodem) and ROBOSZ for (Robo send Zmodem) and make sure that DSZ.COM or DSZ.EXE is in your current DOS search PATH. ---- NOTE Robocomm uses the DOS ERRORLEVEL returned from the file ---- transfer program to detect unsuccessful file transfers. If ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 21 you decide to use a file transfer utility other than DSZ or HS/Link, make sure it returns an ERRORLEVEL of 1 or greater in the event of an unsuccessful file transfer. CREATING OR MODIFYING YOUR OWN FILE TRANSFER BATCH FILES - Advanced users may want to modify the default external protocol batch files or even create their own. To do so, just specify the name of the appropriate batch file to call in each of the 4 file transfer situations. When Robocomm calls one of these batch files to start a transfer, it will pass up to four parameters: Parameter Uploads (Send) Downloads (Recieve) --------- ----------------------- -------------------- %1 Comm port in use Comm port in use %2 Current communications Current rate communications rate %3 Full path and name of File being file being sent received %4 N/A Directory to receive downloaded files For example, the ROBOSZ.BAT file contains just one line, calling DSZ to start the transfer as follows: DSZ port %1 speed %2 sz -m %3 When DSZ is called, parameter %1 is replaced by the current comm port, parameter %2 is replaced by the current speed of the connection between the computer and the modem (not necessarily the same as the connection speed between the two modems), and parameter %3 is replaced by the FULL PATH and FILE NAME of the file being transferred. The ROBORH.BAT (HS/Link receive) uses the fourth parameter (sent only on downloads) which contains the target directory for received files: HSLINK -P%1 -B%2 -! -HS -U%4 EXTERNAL PROTOCOL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES - Whenever Robocomm passes control to DOS to execute an external protocol, it places the following environment variables into a transient copy of the environment that existed before Robocomm was started: BBS The ID of the currently connected BBS BAUD The current host-modem connection speed DOW The day of week, i.e. MONDAY, TUESDAY, etc. MAILUP Your REP Directory MAILDOWN Your QWK Directory ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 22 FILEUP Your File Uploads Directory FILEDOWN Your File Downloads directory ROBODIR The Robocomm home directory ---- NOTE Robocomm will also place a DSZLOG environment variable ---- in the child environment when downloading files from a PCBoard system. The DSZLOG is used by Robocomm to check on the results of batch download operations. Your external download protocol must support the DSZLOG log file standard if you intend to download files from PCBoard systems. (DSZ and HS/LINK, the most popular external protocols, fully support this standard. COMMAND TO INVOKE MAIL READER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm allows you to run your mail reader from its main menu. To do so, just enter the command that Robocomm should use to start your mail reader in this field. With most mail readers, you can set an environment variable to tell the reader program where to find its support files. In other instances, you will want to create a short batch file that switches to the appropriate subdirectory before calling your mail reader. A simpler alternative may be to install your mail reader into your Robocomm subdirectory, or to copy your reader's configuration file into the Robocomm subdirectory. If you do this, you can specify your reader directly, without the need for a batch file. Robocomm automatically restores the proper working directory once you quit your mail reader. ---- NOTE Running RoboMail from within Robocomm is not recommended ---- unless you have a system with at least 4 megabytes of free Memory. To run RoboMail from within Robocomm, create a batch file that changes to your RoboMail sub-directory before executing RoboMail. Then, specify the batch file you've created in Command to Invoke Mail Reader field. Also, make sure that the FILES= statement in your CONFIG.SYS file is at least 50. RAM FOR FILE TRANSFER AND EXTRACT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the kilobytes of memory required by your file transfer and file extraction utilities. Robocomm allows you to specify this value so that it will not have to swap all of itself out of memory every time it downloads or extracts a file. This saves time if your are low on EMS or XMS memory and Robocomm is forced to swap to disk. If you are using an alternative command processor, such as NDOS or 4DOS and receive error messages when Robocomm attempts to run outside utilities, you should increase this configuration option. RAM NEEDED FOR READER AND DOS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 23 Enter the amount of memory that Robocomm should free up whenever it shells to DOS or runs your mail reader. By default, Robocomm sets this value to zero, which means it will attempt to free up as much RAM as possible. If you specify a number here which is greater than the amount of RAM it is possible to free up, Robocomm will free as much as possible. Remember that your mail reader may also need to shell out to DOS to run file extraction and compression programs, so make sure to allow enough RAM for that process as well. DATA AND LOG CONFIGURATION ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ To access the configuration screen controlling the location and names of files used by Robocomm, select Configure from the main menu, followed by Data & Logs. You will be presented with the following configuration options: PATH FOR MAIL PACKETS (*.QWK, *.PCB) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the drive and directory where you want Robocomm to place incoming mail packets. This should normally be the same directory that you specify in your mail reader configuration. PATH FOR REPLY PACKETS (*.REP) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the drive and directory that Robocomm should look in to find reply packets that are waiting to be sent. This should be the same directory that you specify in your mail reader's configuration. NUMBER OF OLD .QWK FILES TO ARCHIVE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm will rename and keep up to 9 old QWK and PCB mail packets on hand for you. Depending on your configuration, Robocomm will add the numbers 1 through 9 to the beginning or end of the file name. 1 is the newest "old" packet and 9 would be the oldest. You can specify the maximum number of old packets to keep for each BBS by changing this number. Enter 0 to keep no old packets. NUMBER OF OLD .REP FILES TO ARCHIVE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option works exactly like the QWK archiving described above. Enter the number of REP packets that you would like Robocomm to keep on hand for you. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 24 FILE RENUMBERING STYLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm can place the number indicating the age of an archived file at the beginning or end of the file name. Use this option to toggle between the two options, ????????.??# and #???????.???. ---- NOTE Some mail readers will mistakenly attempt to re-process a ---- REP packet that has been archived renamed with the ????????.??9 style. If that's the case with your reader, you should choose the alternate style, with the archive number at the beginning of the file. FILE DOWNLOAD PATH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm will place all files (not mail packets) that it downloads in the directory you specify here. FILE UPLOAD PATH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm will use this directory as the default when prompting for files to upload while creating an agenda. You can, however, upload files form any drive and directory on your system. This is only a default value. ---- NOTE When creating agenda items, Robocomm will search any number ---- of specified directories for files to be upload. See the discussion of Search Directories, later in the configuration section, for details. NAME AND PATH FOR LOG FILE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm can keep a comprehensive log file of all of its on-line activity. The log file will be created according to the file name and path you enter here. If you do not wish to create a log file, leave this field blank. LOG FILE CREATION MODE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pressing [Enter] with this field highlighted toggles the log file between APPEND and OVERWRITE modes. In append mode, the log file is appended to each time you run an agenda. In overwrite mode, the log file contains only the results of the most recently run agenda. LOG FILE TYPE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm create three different types of log files. By highlighting this option and pressing [Enter] you can toggle this setting between the following options: BRIEF The smallest type of log file possible - just connect/disconnect messages and 1 ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 25 entry to report the result of each agenda item. STANDARD The log will be updated with useful information and status messages throughout the agenda. VERBOSE The on-screen log will contain the same information as the standard log, but the disk file log will also contain a capture of all text which was sent to or received from the BBS system. This type of log is useful when you need to be absolutely certain that the agenda went as intended, or when diagnosing problems relating to customized prompts. LOG FILE WINDOW SIZE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While Robocomm is on-line, the main screen is divided into two windows. The top displays the on-line activity while the bottom lists all notations that are being made in the log file. This configuration item sets the number of screen rows that will be dedicated to displaying log data. DOS SWAP TEMPORARY FILE DIRECTORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Whenever Robocomm needs to run an outside utility program or when you decide to shell to DOS, there is a chance that a temporary file will need to be made on your disk. This file contains an image of the memory currently in use by Robocomm and will be created if there is insufficient EMS or XMS memory available. Input the full drive and path to tell Robocomm where you would like it to place these files. To be safe, you should make sure that there is always at least 640K of free disk space available on the drive you specify here before you start Robocomm. The F2 pop-up status window on the main menu screen always shows the amount of available temporary file space. The display will flash if Robocomm detects that disk space is running low. Even if you plan to use memory for swapping, Robocomm still requires that you specify a valid swap drive path here. When the time comes to swap part of Robocomm out of main RAM, Robocomm will automatically use EMS or XMS if it is available. If sufficient free EMS or XMS is NOT available, Robocomm will revert to using your specified swap disk drive. OFFLINE FILES DRIVE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use this option to specify the disk drive that Robocomm will move files to and from when you execute the "O"ffline/"O"nline command from the Downloaded Files directory. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 26 PCBOARD FILE LISTING TO UPDATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm has the ability to write the file name, size, date and description of all the files it downloads to a standard PCBoard format file directory listing. The listing will look just like the "New File" listings you see when scanning for new files on PCBoard. Sysops can use this feature to automatically post files downloaded by Robocomm during their nightly event to their Uploads file directory DIR file! Don't forget that with Robocomm's FIXFILE.BAT file, downloaded files can be prepared for posting in any way you like -- scan for viruses, insert custom ZIP comments, etc. WILDCAT FILE LISTING TO UPDATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This option specifies the name of a text file to update for use in inserting files downloaded with Robocomm into Wildcat's data files. The format of the file is One line per file, terminated with a carriage return+line-feed pair. Each line contains the filename, padded to 12 spaces, followed by two blank spaces, followed by the file description. GENERAL CONFIGURATION OPTIONS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Odds and ends that really didn't make sense on the other configuration screens are grouped together under the General banner. To access the screen, select General from the Configure menu. DEFAULT DATE FORMAT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Press [Enter] to select the default date format that will be used to display dates throughout the program. This date format will also be assigned as the BBS default whenever you add a new system on the Directory-BBS screen. YOUR BIRTH DATE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When logging on to Wildcat systems, Robocomm may be asked for your birth date. Enter the date here. Make sure that all the Wildcat systems you call have the same birth date for you, since Robocomm only supports this one spot for you to specify your birth date. YOUR PHONE NUMBER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your phone number: Wildcat may also ask for your phone number when you are logging on. Enter the number you input when setting up your user account on Wildcat systems. SPEAKER SOUND STYLE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Toggle this option between PUSHY, which turns all program sounds on, to SUBTLE which subdues the siren sounded on entering the ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 27 terminal mode to SILENT which completely disables all sounds. EXPLODING WINDOWS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Toggle this option OFF and ON to control the way pop-up windows are displayed on screen. AVAILABLE FILES DATE SORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use this option to set the sort key used when the Available Files Directory is sorted by Date. Some users prefer the list sorted by the file date that was displayed on the BBS, while others prefer the list sorted by the date of the file scan. This option also gives you the option to specify the secondary and tertiary sort keys. AVERAGE DOWNLOAD CPS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enter the average characters per second your system achieves on a typical file download. Robocomm will use this figure to make estimates about the download time of the entries in your Available Files directory.. LOAD ROBOCOMM'S VGA FONT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm comes supplied with a customized VGA font that it can load to enhance the effect of some of its screen displays. If your system is equipped with a VGA monitor and you'd like to use this font, set this option to YES. ---- NOTE Robocomm will not attempt to redefine VGA characters when ---- it detects that you are running under a multi-tasking operating system. DIALING MACROS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ You may place the letters A-J anywhere within a phone number and Robocomm will replace the character with the corresponding string that you set up on the dialing macro table. The dialing macro table can be viewed and edited by pressing F10 while editing any phone number or by selecting Dialing Macros from the Configuration menu. For example, to disable call waiting, you might define dialing macro "C" as "*70" and input your phone numbers as: C1-310-374-7540 CUSTOMIZED DIALING COMMANDS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To defaine a dialing macro as a custom dialing command, prefix any defined macro letter with a (backwards tick mark) character. Doing ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 28 so causes the contents of the macro letter to be used to dial the number instead of the default dialing command specified on the Communications Configuration screen. This enables you to send customized commands to the modem on a BBS by BBS basis. For example, to turn on the modem speaker ON when dialing Group One BBS, you could input this as the phone number: `E1-310-374-7540 Then you would set up the "E" dialing macro as: ATM1DT The most common use for this feature will probably be to turn off MNP negotiation if you are calling a system with a non-MNP modem from a MNP capable modem. Doing this keeps the first prompt sent by the BBS from being eaten by your modem's attempts to negotiate an MNP connect. To do this, you might set up a dialing macro letter as AT&M0DT and then include the macro letter, along with a preceding ` character in the phone number. ---- NOTE To send a break signal to the modem before every dial ---- attempt, set up a dialing macro as the word BREAK and then include the letter in the phone number to be dialed. SETTING UP DISPLAY COLORS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ To set the colors that are used on-screen while Robocomm is running, select Display Colors from the Configure menu. Robocomm will present you with a screen listing all of the colors currently in use by the system. Use this screen to control the colors Robocomm uses while in operation. To do this, use the + and - keys to select the color that you would like to change indicated between the and characters on the screen and use the arrow keys to move the small box so that it surrounds the color that you would like to set. When the desired color is selected, press [Enter] to confirm the color selection. On color systems, you can toggle between blinking foreground and high intensity backgrounds by pressing [Alt-B]. The effect of this is to give you 128 additional color selections. [Alt-D] will set the colors back to Robocomm's defaults for your monitor type, and [Alt-S] will save your color selections so they will be loaded each time you start Robocomm. FILTER LIST ENTRIES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ While importing file lists into your Available Files directory Robocomm will compare each potential new file entry against the contents of your ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 29 Filter List to see if any of its entries occur within the file name, or description. If a match is found the file will be ignored and NOT added to your Available Files directory. You can edit this list by selecting Filter Words from the Configure menu or by pressing [Alt-F] while in either the Available Files or Downloaded Files directory. Finally, you should keep in mind the fact that Filter conditions take precedence over Preference Words (described in the next section). A file description that contains both a Filter Word and a Preference Word will not appear in your Available Files directory. You can define up to 4095 entriesfilter words, but keep in mind that Robocomm has to check the entire BBS name, file name and file description against each defined filter word individually. Try to strike a balance between the number of filter words you define and the speed of execution when importing files. As a practical matter, the faster your machine is, the more filter conditions you can define. See the section of this document that describes how to define query expressions to see the syntax for building filter conditions. Filter expressions may be a simple literal comparison or a complex boolean expression. PREFERENCE LIST ENTRIES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Defining preference list entries works similarly to defining filter conditions but they have the opposite effect on your Available Files directory. After a file has passed all your defined filter conditions, Robocomm proceeds to check if this is a file that you are particularly interested in. You tell Robocomm your interests by selecting Preference List from the Configure menu, or by pressing [Alt-P] while in either the Available Files or Downloaded Files directory. Any new file entry that contains one or more of your defined preference words in its file name or description will be automatically marked with KEEP status as it is added to the Available Files directory. This means that the file cannot be removed from the list until you physically remove the KEEP flag. See the section of this document that describes how to define query expressions to see the syntax for building filter conditions. Filter expressions may be a simple literal comparison or a complex boolean expression. SEARCH DIRECTORIES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Whenever you use the Delete, View or Test commands in the Downloaded Files directory or select a file for upload, Robocomm will search all of the directories listed in the search directories window for the ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 30 file. This capability is particularly useful for System Operators or anyone else who may move files between a variety of directories and would like to have easy access to them from within Robocomm. As long as every directory that a downloaded file might be moved into is listed in the Search Directories list, Robocomm will never loose track of a file, even if another utility moves it without informing Robocomm. To access the list, select the Search Directories option from the ---- NOTE When Robocomm attempts to upload a file, it expects to find ---- the file in the same location as was specified when the agenda item was created. The directories listed in your Search Directories window will not be searched while an agenda is in progress. MANAGING THE SYSTEMS DIRECTORY ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ By selecting Directory followed by BBS Systems from the main Robocomm menu, you will placed in the Systems-Directory screen. This is where you edit or view all the information specific to the bulletin board systems you plan to call with Robocomm. The number of systems you can enter here is limited only by your available disk space. The directory is automatically sorted by the BBS ID each time you add or edit a system. The BBS Systems-Directory screen uses a dual light bar menu system. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the BBS system that you are interested in, then use left and right arrow keys or any of the highlighted speed keys to select the option to perform from the menu at the top of the screen. ADDING SYSTEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To add a new bulletin board system definition to Robocomm's database, choose Add from the top menu. Robocomm will then prompt you to enter a unique "ID" for the system to add. If the system you are adding supports a mail door, it is ESSENTIAL that the ID you enter here matches the BBS's mail ID exactly. For instance, if you pick up a QWK mail packet JOEBLOW.QWK from "Joe Blow's Amazing BBS" you would enter "JOEBLOW" (no quotes!) at Robocomm's "System ID:" prompt. Following System ID assignment, Robocomm will prompt you to indicate the type of system being added and will display a message indicating the default prompt set that is being assigned. Robocomm's default PCBoard prompt definitions are set up for PCBoard 14.5a (or later) systems. By default, support is provided for PCBoard's internal QWK command as well as the Qmail 4 door, from Sparkware. If the BBS you are adding does not use the Qmail 4 and you do not intend to use PCBoard's internal QWK command for mail transfer, you MUST assign the proper prompt definitions by ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 31 editing the prompts manually or importing a pre-defined prompt definition file. Robocomm supports the following QWK format doors with the following prompt definition files: Mail Door Prompt File -------------------------- ------------ Qmail 4.0 DEFAULT.PPF CAM-Mail (all versions) CAM-MAIL.PPF RoseMail (all versions) ROSEMAIL.PPF To import the appropriate prompt file for the system you are adding, select Prompts from the Directory-BBS menu, followed by Import. Then, press F10 to get a list of the available prompt files. After the prompts are imported, Robocomm will display any special instructions relevant to the particular BBS setup. Please read them carefully! EDITING SYSTEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After entering a new system ID, or by highlighting the system to edit and selecting "Edit" from the Systems-Directory menu, you will be able to use the up and down arrow keys or the indicated speed key letters to select the specific information to change. Press [Enter] when you have highlighted the field to change. SYSTEM NAME - Enter the full name of this BBS system. This name will appear on Robocomm's screens and in log files. SYSTEM TYPE - Pressing [Enter] with this option highlighted will toggle between the following: possible options: PCBoard 14.5 (or later) Wildcat! 3.0 or 3.01 Wildcat! 3.02 Wildcat! 3.5 (or later) Login Script Only ---- NOTE It is extremely important that you specify the correct ---- version of Wildcat. There are subtle differences in the required responses to the BBS's prompts depending upon the version of the software being run. Both PCBoard and Wildcat BBS systems display the software version number immediately after connecting, before you log on. PHONE NUMBERS - Enter up to two phone numbers for the BBS in the spaces provided. Enter the numbers in order of connect preference. Field #1 should contain the phone number you'd most like to connect with and #2 should be your alternate choice. You may include one or more Dialing Macros in the phone numbers as well. See the discussion of Dialing Macros in the configuration section for further details. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 32 ---- NOTE You may temporarily disable Robocomm's usage of an ---- individual phone number by placing a "/" character at the beginning of the phone number field. SPECIFYING AN EXTENDED PHONE NUMBER LIST - If three phone numbers are not enough for a BBS, you can specify up to nine numbers by creating an external extended phone number list for the BBS. To do this, place a file name, preceded by an "@" symbol in the "Phone number 1" field. Then, press F5 to edit the list. You will be placed into Robocomm's internal editor, where you can list up to nine phone numbers for the BBS. Each phone number should be by itself on a line, and there should be no blank lines anywhere in the file. You may use dialing macros or the "/" character to disable a number in the extended phone list. LOGIN SCRIPT - If you would like to execute a script prior to Robocomm's automated activity takes over, or if you have defined this BBS as a Login Script Only type, enter the name of the script to execute in the space provided . If you enter a script file name here, Robocomm will use it to log on to the BBS. See the included TELNET.RS script for an example of a login script that uses an internet provider to log into a PCBoard system via the unix telnet program on a dialup host system. The SCRIPT.DOC file includes details on user-defined script macros which can be stored in the notes entry for a BBS. This type of macro is also demonstrated in TELNET.RS. LOGIN ID NAME - Enter your full name. Robocomm will use this name when it logs on to the BBS. Robocomm properly applies 3 part login IDs into BBS System's "First Name" and "Last Name" prompts. Simply enter all 3 parts of your name in this field, separated by spaces, and Robocomm will do the rest. PASSWORD - Enter the password that Robocomm should use on the system BAUD RATE - Pressing [Enter] when this field is highlighted will toggle between the available baud rates for communications between Robocomm and your modem. Robocomm will set communications to this baud rate before attempting to dial this system. Robocomm always uses 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit when communicating with PCBoard systems. The Default Baud Rate configuration option on the General configuration screen sets the baud rate which is used to initialize your modem at the start of an agenda. ---- NOTE If you experience communications difficulties with the baud ---- rate set at or above 38400 baud, please select 19200 baud. You should only use 38400, 57600 or 115200 if you have a 16550 UART and are certain that your system will be able to handle that level of throughput reliably. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 33 MAIL DOOR MENU - (Wildcat Systems Only) - Select the menu that Robocomm must navigate to before issuing the command to open the mail door. MAIL DOOR COMMAND - (Wildcat Systems Only) - Enter the command that Robocomm must issue to open the mail door. Use the pipe symbol "|" to represent carriage returns. FILE UPLOAD AREA - (Wildcat Systems Only) - Enter the BBS file area that Robocomm should upload files to. If you enter a number here, Robocomm will always send files to this area, without asking you to enter a value when you are creating the upload agenda items. If you enter the letter X, Robocomm will assume that the BBS does not ask you to assign an file area before the upload, and will not ask you to supply one. If you leave this field blank, or enter the letter A, Robocomm will always ask for the upload area when creating upload agenda items for this BBS. MAIL DOOR - (PCBoard Systems Only) - If this BBS system has a QWK format mail door, enter the number or name of the door to open in this field. If Robocomm will need to join a conference before opening the mail door, specify the conference number or name in the space provided. ANSI GRAPHICS - (PCBoard Systems Only) - If you would like to see colors and/or ANSI graphics and animation on screen during agenda processing, set this option to YES. This option also controls whether or not the QWK mail door will include colorized files in your mail packet. FILE CONFERENCE - Enter the name (PCBoard systems only) or number for the default "file" conference that you would like to send and receive files from on the BBS. ■ This conference will appear as the default when you create an "Upload File" agenda item. ■ This conference will appear as the default when you type in the name of a file to download without selecting it from the available files list. ■ This conference is used to fill in the Conference field when manually importing unmarked file lists into Robocomm's Available Files Directory. ■ If you use Robocomm's "Broadcast" mode to tag multiple BBS systems to upload to, Robocomm will make sure it is in this conference before sending the upload command to the BBS. FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOLS - Robocomm allows you to individually specify different protocols to be used for file and mail transfers during agenda operations. For each of the options, enter ZMODEM, YMODEM, YMODEM-G, or the name of an external protocol batch file. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 34 For detailed information on Robocomm's internal protocols and on setting up external protocols, see the Transfer Protocols topic in the Utilities Configuration section of this manual. LANGUAGE TO USE - Many PCBoard systems now offer the "Standard" prompts as a language option at logon. This is a great benefit to Robocomm users because it saves you from having to create a customized prompt definition for the BBS. To specify the language containing standard prompts at logon, simply enter the number of the language that Robocomm should select here. ---- NOTE If you are trying to call a BBS where the Sysop has decided ---- to customize the system's prompt files, consider asking him/her to offer the "CDC Standard" prompts as a language option. It's a simple thing for Sysops to set this up, and if you explain that being "Robocomm friendly" will help more users access the BBS in less time, they may be inclined to help you out! DATE FORMAT - Date Format: Select the date format to use when communicating with this BBS. For proper functioning of file scans, it is essential that the date format you specify here exactly matches that which is used on the BBS. DELETING SYSTEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To permanently remove a system from Robocomm's data files: 1. Highlight the desired system ID in the scrolling list on the left side of the screen 2. Select Delete from the menu, or press D. 3. After deleting systems, you may want to go to the Available files directories and Bulk Erase any files which are marked as being available from the deleted BBS. RENAMING SYSTEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To change a system's assigned ID: 1. Highlight the desired system ID in the scrolling list on the left side of the screen 2. Select Rename from the menu, or press R. 3. Robocomm will prompt you for permission to change the system ID throughout the system. If you confirm this, all your file and agenda entries which reference the old BBS ID will be updated to the new ID. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 35 VIEWING SYSTEM STATISTICS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have executed a script which issues the STAISTICS command to capture information from the BBS, you can use the "Statistics" menu on the top of the Directory-BBS screen to display the captured information. EDITING SYSTEM NOTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each BBS Directory System Definition includes an integrated notepad that you can use to store notes about the system setup or any other specific information you desire. To access the notes highlight the desired BBS ID in the scrolling pick list, and then choose Notes from the top menu. Press F1 while in the editor for help on specific notepad commands. Press Ctrl+Enter when you've finish editing the notes and would like to save them to disk. MANAGING PROMPT DEFINITIONS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ By highlighting a BBS ID and selecting "Prompts" from the top menu, you will be placed in a screen which details Robocomm's definitions for the prompt strings it will look for when connected with the currently highlighted BBS. To change any of the definitions, use the up and down arrow keys to select the prompt text you would like to change. Then press [Enter] to begin editing the prompt. RESETTING DEFAULT PROMPTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To revert back to Robocomm's "Default" prompt definitions for the current BBS, select "Default" from the top menu. After a confirmation, the prompts will be reset and you will be show the help text for the prompt set. IMPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm has the ability to import prompt definitions from files called "Prompt Definition" files. For PCBoard systems, these files have a PPF (PCBoard Prompt File) extension. Similarly, the file name for Wildcat! prompt files is WPF. To import a prompt definition file select "Import" from the prompt screen menu. Then, input the file name to import in the space provided, or press F10 for a list of the available prompt files in the Robocomm current directory. Once you have told Robocomm what prompt file to import, the screen will clear and special notes regarding system setup with these prompt files will be displayed. Make sure to read these notes carefully and follow any additional instructions they may provide. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 36 EXPORTING PROMPT DEFINITION FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you have developed a set of prompt definitions that works well for a particular BBS, you can export the definitions from the Robocomm BBS directory to a Robocomm Prompt Definition file. Just select "Export" from the prompts menu and then type in an 8 character name for the file. Robocomm will append a the appropriate extension to the file. Before completing the export, Robocomm will enter a word processing mode where you can input notes about this prompt set. Press Ctrl+Enter to save the notes and create the prompt definition file. You can then upload the customized prompt set to the BBS for others to download and use. CREATING AND EDITING AGENDAS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ By setting up "Agendas" of "things to do," you tell Robocomm what it's objectives should be when it goes on-line. Agendas are very flexible. In fact, their potential size is unlimited. If you had the time, resources and inclination, you could set up an agenda to call literally thousands of PCBoard and Wildcat! BBS systems automatically. CREATING A NEW AGENDA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To create a new agenda, select Agenda, followed by Create from the main menu. Robocomm will ask you to enter a unique name, up to ten characters long, for the new agenda. Immediately after you enter the name, you will be taken to the agenda modification screen to create your new agenda. TEMPORARY, PERMANENT & DONE AGENDA ITEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All items that you add to your agenda are classified as either "Temporary" or "Permanent" as you add them. Temporary agenda items, indicated by a diamond character (standard mode) or an inverse video T (VGA font loaded) , are removed from the agenda after they are successfully completed by Robocomm. Permanent agenda items, indicated by a half block (standard mode) or inverse video P, remain on the agenda even after they are completed, so that they may be used again. You can toggle the temporary/permanent status of any agenda item by highlighting it and pressing the "-" (minus sign or dash) key. When a permanent agenda item is completed by Robocomm, its bullet character on the agenda is replaced by a check mark. Completed agenda items will not be attempted again until the agenda is "reset" (more on this later) or until their "Done" status is toggled to "To Do" status by highlighting the agenda item and pressing either "+" (plus sign or equal sign) key on your keyboard. To toggle the status of all agenda items for a BBS, highlight the "Call <BBS>" agenda item and press the "+" key. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 37 DELETING AGENDA ITEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To delete an agenda item, simply use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the agenda item to delete and press the [Del] key. To delete all agenda items for a BBS, simply highlight the "Call <BBS Name>" agenda item and press [Del]. SETTING ACTION DAYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can specify that an agenda item only run on certain days of the week by highlighting an agenda item and pressing [Alt-D]. A window will pop-up with a list of the days of the week. Select the days you want the item to execute and press enter. You can also highlight an agenda item and press [Alt-E] to set the item to execute every day or [Alt-N] to set the item to never execute. MOVING AGENDA ITEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Robocomm's agendas you can place items for an individual BBS in any order. To do so, use the [Tab] and [Shift-Tab] keys. The [Tab] key will move the highlighted agenda item down the list and the [Shift-Tab] key will move an item up the list. DOS 5.0 users with enhanced keyboards can also use [Ctrl+Up] and [Ctrl+Down] to move agenda items. By default, the agenda items are placed at the end of the list as you add them. Also, you can quickly move the cursor to the next or previous BBS in the agenda by pressing the [Enter] and [Backspace] keys respectively. ---- NOTE Consider the order of the items on your agenda carefully. ---- Try and group all items that use a similar door together. Place your mail send and receive commands next to each other. Try to group all commands that use the same BBS resources consecutively. That way Robocomm won't be bouncing all over the board to get things done. USING THE AGENDA MODIFICATION MENUS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The menu on the bottom of the screen lists all of the pre-defined actions that Robocomm can perform while on-line. You build the agenda of "Things to Do" by pressing any of the keys listed in the agenda commands window and answering the prompts which appear. The following is a summary of all of the commands which are available. G GET QWK MAIL PACKET ------------------- Robocomm will prompt you for the ID of the system to get the QWK packets from. You can press [F10] at this prompt to select from a pop-up list of all the systems in you systems database if you wish. This agenda item defaults to permanent status. Robocomm is compatible with PCBoard's internal QWK command as well as many mail doors which support the QWK packet standard, such as Qmail 4.0, RoseMail and WCMail (Wildcat). ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 38 ---- NOTE For safety reasons while on-line in unattended mode, ---- Robocomm does not support the "Automatic Re-Scan" feature of many mail doors, which will automatically scan and send a new packet if the first mail scan didn't include all waiting messages. If you want to receive multiple mail packets in a single session, you can schedule as many individual "Get Packet" agenda items as you like S SEND REPLY REP PACKET --------------------- Robocomm will prompt you for the ID of the system to send replies to. If there is a .REP reply packet waiting to be sent to this BBS, then the agenda item will be followed by a "Packet Waiting" message in the agenda window. This agenda item defaults to permanent status. If the only agenda item for a particular system is "Send Replies Packet" and no reply packet is waiting to be sent to that system when the agenda is run, Robocomm will not dial that BBS. This allows you to create a "REPLY" agenda which contains only "Send Qmail Replies" agenda items for several systems. When the agenda is run, Robocomm will dial only the systems which have replies to be sent and deliver your replies. You can reuse such an agenda over and over again to deliver your replies without downloading other messages or calling systems unnecessarily. M PCRELAY/MEGAMAIL TRANSFERS -------------------------- Robocomm has the ability to transfer mail with both PCRelay and MegaMail mail doors. The PCRelay door is for Sysops who are transferring network mail, and the MegaMail door is a general purpose offline mail door for BBS users. The operating principals off both doors is identical. Upon opening the door, Robocomm will look for the word "RECEIVE" or the two asterisks in a Zmodem transfer header. At this time Robo will drop to DOS and execute the OUT batch file you specify with the following parameters: %1 The current communications port %2 The current baud rate %3 The ID of the BBS being called After the Upload has been completed, Robocomm will look for the word "SEND" or the same DSZ header and drop to DOS to execute the IN batch file you specify with the same parameters as above. When the download is finished the doors return you to PCBoard. That's all there is to it! PCRelay Configuration - Set your "Comm Directory" option in the CONFIG.EXE program to your Robocomm subdirectory. Then create two batch files to send and receive your mail. The examples below are in use on Group One BBS. You will need to alter the batch file to indicate your system ID, as shown with the underlined items: ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 39 RELAYOUT.BAT dsz port %1 speed %2 ha both sz GROUPONE.rly RELAYIN.BAT dsz port %1 speed %2 ha both rz IN.rly MegaMail - MegaMail is implemented similarly to the network mail door, but requires slightly more complicated batch files that you will have to edit for your system. Here are the sample batch files included with Robocomm: MEGAOUT.BAT DSZ port %1 speed %2 ha both pB4096 sz \mega\up\%3.ul IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO END COPY \mega\up\%3.ul \mega\up\%3.old del \mega\up\%3.ul :END MEGAIN.BAT IF EXIST \MEGA\DOWN\%3.DL DEL \MEGA\DOWN\%3.DL > nul DSZ port %1 speed %2 ha both pB4096 rz \mega\down\%3.dl To edit these files for your system, just replace all instances of "\MEGA\DOWN" with the location of your MegaMail receive directory and "\MEGA\UP" with the location of your MegaMail send directory. D DOWNLOAD A FILE --------------- Use this agenda item to download from any of your defined BBS systems. Robocomm will prompt you for the name of the file to download. Press [F10] at this prompt if you would like to choose one or more files from Robocomm's own Available Files directory. While you are in the directory, you can select one file and press [Enter], or use the space bar to "Tag" multiple files for downloading. While in the file directory, you can see a summary of your tagged files, by pressing [Alt-T]. If you select multiple files, Robocomm will ask your permission to automatically create download agenda items for all the files that you have tagged. All of the automatically created download items will default to temporary status. If you selected only one file from the new files list or you are entering a file name manually, Robocomm may also ask for the name or number of the conference to join before attempting the download. After indicating the conference, Robocomm will prompt you for a password for downloading the file. If a password will be necessary, enter it here. Finally, Robocomm will ask you to choose temporary or permanent status for this agenda item. Enter "T" or "P" respectively. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 40 BATCH TRANSFERS --------------- On PCBoard systems, when Robocomm encounters two or more consecutive download requests, the files will be downloaded in batch mode. If you are using an external transfer protocol on PCboard systems, make sure that the protocol supports batch transfers. In addition, the protocol engine must also support the DSZLOG reporting standard. Robocomm will set a DSZLOG environment variable when downloading via an external protocol and will use the contents of the resulting file to determine the success or failure of the individual files in the batch transfer. ---- NOTE When Robocomm is processing your agenda while on-line, it ---- will not attempt to download a file if it already exists in your specified download directory. That way, you can tell Robocomm to download the same file from multiple BBS systems and when it gets the file, it will not attempt to download it from other systems on the agenda which have yet to be called. If you've absolutely, positively have to have that file overnight, Robocomm can do it all for you while you sleep! AUTOMATIC .GIF IMAGE FILE VIEWING --------------------------------- If you would like to use one of the popular utilities that enables you to view a GIF image file while it is being downloaded, Robocomm will accommodate you by automatically shelling out to the run the batch file GIFDOWN.BAT if it exists in the Robocomm directory whenever a .GIF file download request is being processed. For example, to view downloads using the popular Shareware utilities SHOWGIF and DSZ, you should create the following GIFDOWN.BAT file in your Robocomm directory: showgif /f:%1 /r dsz port %1 speed %2 ha cts rz -m %3 showgif /u Overriding the defined transfer protocol with a call to GIFDOWN.BAT allows you to use one of Robocomm's internal protocols for normal file downloading, only calling the GIF viewing routines when necessary. POST CALL DOWNLOADED FILE PROCESSING ------------------------------------ After a call to a BBS has been completed, Robocomm will check to see if the file FIXFILE.BAT exists in your Robocomm subdirectory, If it does, Robocomm will automatically run it on all files that it downloaded via the "Download File" agenda items. Robocomm supplies two parameters to the batch file: %1 The name of the file ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 41 %2 The file extension of the file In addition to these parameters, the standard Robocomm environment variables are created during the shell out to the batch file. Among these is ROBODIR, which contains the full drive and path to the Robocomm home directory. Robocomm is shipped with a default FIXFILE.BAT file which contains the following commands: @echo off REM - Here we handle the comment insertion... IF %2 == ZIP pkzip -z %1 <comment.txt IF %2 == ARJ arj c -zcomment.txt %1 REM - Now, we try to send any description files to Robocomm IF %2 == ZIP pkunzip %1 %ROBODIR% file_id.diz desc.sdi IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR IF %2 == LZH lha e %1 %ROBODIR% file_id.diz desc.sdi IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR IF %2 == ARJ arj e %1 %ROBODIR% file_id.diz desc.sdi IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR GOTO END :ERROR CLS ECHO No FILE_ID.DIZ or DESC.SDI file was found. :END This FIXFILE.BAT routine updates the ZIPfile comment, and also uses another of Robocomm's post download features, which is the ability to create customized merged comments for all downloaded archive files.. Before Robocomm executes FIXFILE.BAT, it looks for a file called COMMENT.FRM, which it will merge with information specific to the downloaded file to create COMMENT.TXT. The default COMMENT.FRM that comes with Robocomm looks like this: =============== Robocomm Download Information ============== Downloaded By: {USER} Downloaded from: {ID} - {BBS} File name on BBS: {FILE} Download date: {DATE} ------------------------------------------------------------ (DESCRIPTION} ============================================================ If you like, you can modify the file to create your own customized ZIPfile comments in all the files downloaded by Robocomm. Robocomm merges the text in COMMENT.FRM by looking for key fields, contained in curly braces. The fields you can include in the comment form are: {USER} The name used to log on to the BBS {ID} The mail ID of the system {BBS} The name of the BBS ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 42 {FILE} The name of the file {DATE} The date of the download {DESCRIPTION} The multi-line description of the file. IMBEDDED FILE DESCRIPTION PROCESSING ------------------------------------ The FIXFILE.BAT shown above also checks for the existence of imbedded file descriptions in the archive being processed. These descriptions may be found in either the FILE_ID.DIZ file or the DESC.SDI files. If either of these description files exists in the archive that's being processed, then the FIXFILE batch file places them in the Robocomm home directory through the use of the %ROBODIR% environment variable macro. When Robocomm regains control from the FIXFILE shell, it immediately checks for either of the imbedded description files in its home directory. If either is found, then that description is imported into Robocomm's Available Files directory. ---- NOTE Robocomm's post-call file processing behavior will differ ---- depending upon whether or not the COMMENT.FRM file exists. If it does, then Robocomm will swap out to FIXFILE.BAT one time for each file downloaded during the session. This is because it must re-merge COMMENT.TXT between each file and also check for the existence of an imbedded description file. If you elect to forego automatic zip comment creation, Robocomm will shell out one time, running a batch file which CALLs FIXFILE.BAT repeatedly. U UPLOAD A FILE ------------- Use this agenda item to Upload a file to a BBS. Robocomm starts off by asking you to supply a filename. The field already contains the drive and path specifications of your default upload directory, but you can backspace over this to enter any valid path and filename. If you would like to select from a pop-up directory listing, simply press [Shift-F10]. Robocomm will search the path and file specification you enter for matches. You can enter any valid wildcard filename and path. If you omit the file specification, Robocomm will default to "*.*". Alternatively, you can press [F10] to select from Robocomm Downloaded Files directory, which contains entries for all the files you have previously downloaded or uploaded with Robocomm. Use the space bar to tag multiple files to be uploaded or highlight a single file and press [Enter] to create the upload agenda item(s). While you're in the directory you might want to use the E command to edit the description of the file to get it just right. If the file had previously been moved to a diskette with Robocomm's Offline command, Robocomm will prompt you to insert the diskette with the file so it can be copied to the computer's hard disk again. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 43 After returning to the agenda screen, Robocomm may ask you to supply a description of this file for use during the upload. Finally, specify the BBS to call, conference to join and the temporary/permanent status of this agenda item, as described previously. If you are uploading to a PCBoard BBS with a ProDoor specified, Robo will open ProDoor before uploading the file. If you are uploading to a Wildcat system and you have set the File Upload Area option on the Directory-BBS screen to "A" or left it blank, Robocomm will pop-up a box asking you to assign an area number to the file. You must assign an area number. If the BBS requests one and Robocomm does not have one to supply, the agenda item will be aborted. ---- HINT For Wildcat systems that require the user to select the ---- appropriate upload area, you might find it helpful to go on-line manually and use CAPTURE FILE feature of Robocomm's terminal to make a .CAP file containing the file upload areas that are available. Then, you can press F9 at the upload area prompt, and Robocomm will show you the capture file to refresh your memory. BROADCASTING FILES TO MULTIPLE BBS SYSTEMS ------------------------------------------ Robocomm has the ability to upload a file to multiple Bulletin Boards without requiring you to compose a separate agenda item for each system. To do this, press [F10] when Robocomm asks for the ID of the system to upload to. While the pop-up listing is displayed, you can use the space bar to Tag/Untag the systems that you want to upload the file to. When you have selected all the systems you want, press [Enter] and Robocomm will automatically create upload agenda items for each system you tagged. If you combine this feature with the tagging of multiple files to upload, Robocomm will create agenda items for each file on each BBS, all automatically! ---- NOTE When using the Broadcast mode, Robocomm will use the ---- conference stored in the File Conference option on the Directory-BBS screen for each BBS tagged and all upload agenda items will be assigned temporary status. AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD DIRECTORY ENTRIES ------------------------------------ Whenever you enter a file to upload in Robocomm and there is no matching entry in your "Downloads" directory, Robocomm creates an entry for you automatically. This entry is used to hold the extended description, and will enable you to simply pick from the list and the file description will be supplied automatically the next time you upload this file. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 44 N SCAN FOR NEW FILES ------------------ You can add to Robocomm's "New Files" database by scanning for new files on the BBS systems that you call. When you specify this agenda item, Robocomm will ask you to supply the ID of BBS to call. Type in the ID of the system, or press [F10] to select from a list. Next, enter the date to scan forward from -- use an "S" for "since last logon" or type in a date in the format MMDDYY, where MM is the month from 1 to 12, DD is the day from 0 to 31, and YY is the last two digits of the year (i.e. "89" for 1989). As an example, you would enter "021089" to scan for all files since February 10, 1989. Next, Robocomm will ask you to specify the directories to search. Wildcat systems default to "A" for All Directories. For PCBoard systems, the default is "U" for the BBS's "Recent Uploads" directory. You can change this to "A" to search "All" available file directories, or you can specify the directories to search individually, by specifying their numbers, separated by semi- colons. Make sure that the string you enter contains valid directory numbers for the BBS and also that it doesn't contain any imbedded spaces. For example: A All Directories U Upload Directory (PCBoard Only) 3 Directory 3 2;3;5;7;9;11 Directories 2,3,5,7,9 and 11 ---- NOTE On some BBS systems, the "Uploads" directory is private, so ---- the Sysop can screen files before posting them on the BBS. If this is the case, you will not be able to scan recent uploads by specifying "U" for the New files Scan. To scan the uploads on these systems, simply specify the number of the system's alternate "Upload" directory explicitly. J JUMP TO TERMINAL MODE --------------------- When Robocomm prompts you for the ID of the systems you want to enter terminal mode on, you can either enter an ID, or press F10 to select one or more BBS systems. When the agenda is running, this agenda item will cause Robocomm to go into ANSI terminal mode and sound an alarm to alert you. The type of sound used is controlled by the Speaker Sound Style option on the General Configuration screen. As a safety feature, if Robocomm jumps to terminal during an agenda and doesn't get the attention it desires from a live person with 1 minute, it will return to automated agenda processing automatically and put a disgruntled notation to that effect in the status log. ---- NOTE Since, Robocomm's terminal mode Demon Dialer doesn't allow ---- you to specify PC Pursuit systems, you can create an agenda which contains "Jump to Terminal" agenda items for PC ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 45 Pursuit systems to create the same effect. This will allow you to dial systems repeatedly , through the PC Pursuit network. C CAPTURE COMMAND RESULT ---------------------- This is Robocomm's most flexible agenda item. With it, you can send a command or capture the results of almost any PCBoard or Wildcat command to a capture file for browsing after you log off. The first question Robocomm asks when you press "C" at the agenda creation and modification screen is the command to capture. If you need to send a carriage return during the capture command, include the pipe character "|" in the appropriate place in the capture command. For example, on PCBoard systems, you could enter any one of the following: T;# Where # is the letter of the protocol that you want PCBoard and/or ProDoor to use for file transfers. Make sure that your file transfer batch files for this system (on the Directory-BBS screen) match this new protocol letter and that this item comes BEFORE any upload or download agenda items! B A listing of the Bulletins available on the system. B;# Capture an individual bulletin by number, where # is the number of the bulletin to capture. F A listing of the file directories available on the system -- also very valuable when creating agendas. F;# A listing of a specific file directory. For example, to view all the files in directories 3 and 5, you would specify: F;3;5 I The initial Logon screen, which usually contains information on the Sysop, and the BBS phone numbers. J A listing of all conferences available on the BBS, and their numbers. This information is very useful when creating agendas. L Locate a file by wildcard filename. The full command you specify will be made up of three parts, separated by semicolons. For example: L;ROBO*.*;A would search through all file directories on the BBS for ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 46 any file starting with ROBO. To search specific directories, simply specify the directories to search, separated by semicolons. For example to search in only directories 1, 3 & 7 you would specify: L;ROBO*.*;1;3;7 You can add the results of this search to your available files database by using the "E" agenda command to execute the MAKELIST.BAT file supplied with Robocomm immediately after the capture command. Or, by using the Import command on the Available Files screen. NEWS Enter this command to capture the BBS news file. R Read messages. Many variations on this command are possible. Note that a simple "R" won't accomplish anything. For example: R;S All messages posted since last read. Y;S;A Read messages posted for you since last read. R;100+ Read messages with number > 100. R;100- Read messages with number < 100. R;F;S Messages you have posted since last read. The "conference" option on the capture command agenda item will allow you to read messages in any PCBoard conference that you have access to. Z Scan for text in the directory listings. This command works the same as the "L" command described above, except that you specify text to search for instead of a filespec. For example, to find all occurrences of FORMAT in all file directories you could enter: Z;FORMAT;A Because of the way PCBoard 14 parses commands, the text you search for must be 1 word, with no spaces. ---- NOTE You can add the results of this search to your ---- available files database by using the "E" agenda command to execute the MAKELIST.BAT file supplied with Robocomm immediately after the capture command. Or, by using the Import command on the Available Files screen. After you have specified the command that you would to issue, Robocomm will ask you if you want to capture the results to a CAP file. If you answer yes, Robocomm will ask if it should append to or overwrite any existing CAP file for this BBS. Finally, Robocomm will ask you to specify the system to call, the conference to join ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 47 before issuing the command to capture and the permanent/temporary status of this agenda item. P DOWNLOAD PCBMail PACKET ----------------------- Robocomm has the ability to download compressed capture files of messages from PCBoard 14.5 systems by issuing a R;A;Z command at the PCBoard Main Board command prompt and downloading the resulting compressed capture file. It will be given the same name as the BBS ID with a .PCB extension. As they are received, the packets are automatically renumbered, just like QWK packets and are placed in your defined QWK directory. ---- NOTE To select the conferences that will be scanned by this ---- command issue the SELECT command at the PCBoard Main Board command prompt. R RUN PROGRAM ----------- During an agenda, you can shell to DOS and execute an external process with this agenda item. Robocomm will ask you for the command to execute while in DOS. "Why would I want to do that," you ask? One example is to add the results of "Z" or "L" capture commands to Robocomm's new file list. The SAMPLE agenda shipped with Robocomm demonstrates this. Immediately after executing a capture of a Z;ROBO;A command, the agenda shells to a batch file called MAKELIST.BAT which appends the current contents of the BBS's capture file to a file called NEWLIST02-10-95T. The batch file contains the following lines: @ECHO OFF ECHO Appending %BBS%.CAP to NEWLIST02-10-95T now... TYPE %BBS%.CAP >> NEWLIST02-10-95T ERASE %BBS%.CAP In this example, DOS expands the %BBS% variable to the BBS ID of the system as configured by Robocomm. This works because at the end of each call with a BBS, Robocomm looks for a file called NEWLIST02-10-95T. If it exists, Robocomm will scan it into the New Files list indicating that the file is available on the BBS that it just disconnected from. Whenever Robocomm passes control to DOS via the "Run Program" agenda item, it places the following environment variables into a transient copy of the environment that existed before Robocomm was started: BBS The ID of the currently connected BBS BAUD The current host-modem connection speed DOW The day of week, i.e. MONDAY, TUESDAY, etc. MAILUP Your REP Directory ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 48 MAILDOWN Your QWK Directory FILEUP Your File Uploads Directory FILEDOWN Your File Downloads directory ROBODIR The Robocomm home directory ---- NOTE The program you run from within an agenda MUST return ---- control to DOS when it completes so Robocomm can continue on with its agenda. Remember -Robocomm is still connected with the BBS when executing this agenda item. If you execute a process that hangs or that requires a key press at some point it will be up to the BBS to hang up on you. Robocomm is not in control of the process and can't hang up for you! E EXECUTE SCRIPT -------------- Robocomm includes a full-featured script language that you can use to automate tasks other than those provided for in Robocomm's "hard coded" agenda items. The script language commands and their usage is documented in a separate file, included with your distribution files, called SCRIPT.DOC. When you create an Execute Script agenda item, Robocomm will pop-up a box asking you for the name of the script you want to execute. If you know the name of the script file you want to execute, type it in. To select from a list, press [F10]. Robocomm will pop-up a window listing all files in the Robocomm directory with a .RS extension. Use the up and down arrows to select the script you want to execute. ---- NOTE Several sample script files are supplied with Robocomm ---- To see what scripts are available, press [F10] at the "Script to Execute" agenda item creation prompt to see a list of the available scripts, along with a brief description of their purpose. From within the list, you can press "E" to edit the script and see a detailed description in the script comments. Check the Group One support BBS for new scripts you can use to automate other communications related tasks. Editing Scripts - If the script you are selecting will require editing prior to being run, or if you need to view it for further explanation of its usage, press the E key while the script name is highlighted. An editor will pop-up with the script file loaded. When you are done viewing/editing the script, press [Esc] to return to the script selection window. Editing Script Parameters - After you select a script file, Robocomm may require additional information, which will be used to customize the script's behavior. These bits of information ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 49 are called Script Parameters and they are linked to each individual Execute Script agenda item. If the script requires parameters to run, Robocomm will pop-up a window containing a series of questions. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the question to answer, and press [Enter] to edit your answer. When all of the questions have been answered, press [Esc] and Robocomm will return you to the agenda editing screen. You can view the parameters linked to every Execute Script agenda item by highlighting the agenda item and pressing [Alt-P]. Robocomm will pop-up the parameter editing window and allow you to make whatever changes you wish. ---- NOTE For complete documentation on creating custom scripts ---- Robocomm's script language, see the file SCRIPT.DOC, which is included with the Robocomm distribution files. SAVING AN AGENDA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The displayed agenda is saved automatically each time you exit the Agenda Creation and Modification screen. To exit the screen, just press "Q" or [Esc]. EDITING AN AGENDA ----------------- To edit or review an existing agenda, just select the agenda to edit by selecting "Agenda" followed by "Set" at the main menu. You can then type in the name of the agenda to make current or press [F10] to select from a pop-up list. If the agenda you specify was not completed the last time it was run, Robocomm will ask you if you would like to reset all agenda items to "To Do" status, or continue from where you left off. PRINTING AN AGENDA ------------------ To print all items in an agenda, press [Ctrl-P] while the agenda editing screen is displayed. PREPARING THE BBS FOR YOUR FIRST ROBOCOMM CALL ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Before you can use Robocomm to access a BBS, you must follow a few special steps to make sure that the BBS is set up the way Robocomm expects it. There are different requirements for PCBoard and Wildcat systems. Please make sure that you familiarize yourself with these requirements so that setting up BBS systems will be quick and simple. To start the setup process, go into Robocomm's interactive terminal mode and use the Dial command [Alt-D] to connect with the BBS. Be prepared to make a few notes that you can refer back to after you log off. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 50 PCBOARD BBS SETUP PROCEDURE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. Language Selection - Take a look at the first prompt you receive from the BBS. Is it asking you to select a language number? If so, take a look at the displayed language menu and see if anything like "Standard Prompts" or "Scripting Prompts" is listed. If it is, make a note of the language number indicated. You should make sure to fill in that language number on Robocomm's Directory-BBS screen for this BBS. 2. File Transfer Protocols - Use the "T" command from the PCBoard main menu to select the file transfer protocol that you intend to use to transfer files. Make a note of the protocol you select, and make sure it matches the protocol indicated in the File Upload and File Download fields on the Directory-BBS screen for this BBS. 3. Mail Door Selection - By default Robocomm will use the internal QWK command to retrieve and deliver mail packets to and from the BBS. If you intend to use PCBoard's internal QWK command, then type SELECT at the BBS's "Main Board Command" prompt and pick the conferences you would like to receive. If you do not want to use PCBoard's intenral QWK capabilities, type the word DOOR from the BBS's Main Menu or Conference Command prompt. Take a look at the available mail doors. If Qmail 4.0, RoseMail or CAM-Mail is listed, you will be able to use one of Robocomm's supplied prompt definition files to transfer QWK format mail with the BBS. (Other QWK format doors can be used by customizing Robocomm's pre-defined prompt definitions.) Make a note of the Door number and make sure it is filled in on the Directory-BBS screen. Mail Door Setup - Enter the number of the mail door you plan to access and the BBS will load the door for you. Follow the menus presented in the mail door to make sure you have set the following options: ■ Transfer protocol (usually Zmodem) ■ Archiving method (usually ZIP) ■ Conferences to scan ■ High message pointers ---- NOTE If you want Robocomm to pull available files from the QWK ---- packet, make sure that the file scan option is also set ON. Be careful when getting new file lists from the mail doors, however. Often they will list files which are not available from the main board. When importing new file lists from QWK packets, the configured mail door conference will be assigned to all imported files. If the files ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 51 listed in the QWK come from other conferences, it's probably better to just turn the file scanning OFF in the door and create individual New File Scan agenda items for each conference containing files you want to see. ---- NOTE If you decide to use an external mail door and the mail ---- door you decide to use is not Qmail 4.0, you will need to import a prompt definition file. See the Importing Prompts section of this manual for details. 4. QWK Packet Name - By using the download or upload options in the mail door, determine the name of the QWK packet that you will receive from the BBS. The BBS ID you set up in Robocomm MUST match this BBS ID exactly. If it doesn't use the Rename command on the Directory-BBS screen so the Robocomm ID matches the BBS's QWK mail ID exactly. 5. Expert Mode - Before leaving the mail door, you should set Expert Mode ON. In most mail doors, this will suppress the display of menus in future settings. Once expert mode is set, quit back to the PCBoard Main Board prompt and use the X command to set Expert Mode ON in PCBoard as well. That's all there is to it! The PCBoard BBS is now set up for Robocomm access. Before running an agenda, you should check your notes against your Directory-BBS screen to make sure all the BBS settings agree with those in Robocomm. WILDCAT! BBS SETUP PROCEDURE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To set up a Wildcat BBS, log in and go to the MAIN Menu prompt. Next, issue the command required to access the Your Settings screen. Usually, this is the letter Y. Once the screen is displayed, you will need to set or verify the following options: 1. Birth Date and Phone Number - Make sure that the birth date and phone number displayed match those that you entered on Robocomm's General Configuration Screen. 2. Screen Length - Make sure this option is set to "0 (continuous)" 3. Hot Keys - This setting must be set to NO. Robocomm sends a carriage return after all data sent to the BBS. If the BBS reacts before Robocomm sends the carriage return, automated processing will not work. 4. File list format - Set this option to DOUBLE. 5. Color Menus - Setting this option to NO is not required, but it's a really good idea. With color menus on, Wildcat sends a ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 52 great deal of "ANSI codes" to Robocomm that are not required for automated processing. The speed of your Wildcat agendas will be significantly increased if you set color menus off on all the Wildcat systems you call. 6. File Transfer Protocol - Select Zmodem, Ymodem or Ymodem-G as your default transfer protocol. Make sure that your selection matches the File Upload Protocol you defined on the Directory-BBS screen for this system. 7. Help Level - It is essential that this option be set to Expert. This is the briefest menu format allowed by Wildcat. It will speed your automated processing and reduce the chance of having a customized BBS prompt effect Robocomm's operations.. 8. Mail Door - There are a variety of ways to open mail doors on Wildcat systems. Not all will be available on every system you call. The most common way is through a menu option on the MESSAGE menu. Check this menu for an option to "T"ransfer Mail or "D"ownload mail. If no command is available from the message menu, try the main menu. Sometimes, the mail door is only listed on the DOOR sub-menu of the main menu. Once you've entered the mail door, make a note of how you got there, then use the mail door menus to make sure that the following options are set: ■ Transfer protocol (usually Zmodem) ■ Archiving method (usually ZIP) ■ Conferences to scan ■ High message pointers ---- NOTE If you want Robocomm to pull available files from the ---- QWK packet, make sure that the file scan option is also set ON, and that your configured file list format is set to "Double." Be careful when getting new file lists from the mail doors, however. Often they will list files which are not available from the main board. When importing new file lists from QWK packets, the configured mail door conference will be assigned to all imported files. If the files listed in the QWK come from other conferences, it's probably better to just turn the file scanning OFF in the door and create individual New File Scan agenda items for each conference containing files you want to see. 9. QWK Packet Name - By using the download or upload options in the mail door, determine the name of the QWK packet that you will receive from the BBS. The BBS ID you set up in Robocomm MUST match this BBS ID exactly. If it doesn't, use the Rename command on the Directory-BBS screen so the Robocomm ID matches the BBS's QWK mail ID exactly. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 53 Once you've determined the QWK packet ID and have verified the settings on all of the options listed above, log off the BBS and compare your notes with the information stored on the Directory-BBS screen. Once everything matches up, you're ready to run an agenda commanding access to this BBS. RUNNING AGENDAS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ To run an agenda, you must select an agenda to make current by selecting the Set command from the Agenda menu. Once you have done that, select Go from the main menu, followed by Run Agenda Now or Run Agenda Later. To begin execution of your agenda immediately, select "Now." If you select "Later," Robocomm will ask you to specify the time and date that you would like the agenda to begin. Enter a time in the format HH:MM in military time and a date in MM/DD/YY format. For example, 02:00 is 2AM and 14:00 is 2PM. If the time and date you enter has already passed, Robocomm will start immediately. That's all there is to it. Now, just relax and let Robo do the rest! PREAGEN.BAT & POSTAGEN.BAT PROCESSING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Before starting an agenda, Robocomm will look for the existence of a PREAGEN.BAT file in its directory. If it finds the file, it will run it before every agenda. Similarly, Robocomm will look for the existence of a POSTAGEN.BAT file, which, if it is found, will be run at the conclusion of all agendas. WHILE AN AGENDA IS RUNNING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Whenever the redial window is displayed on the screen, you can press any of the following keys: [Esc] Stop dialing and interrupt the agenda. Remember, that later you can resume this agenda from where you left off by simply starting the agenda again. [Space] By pressing the space bar, you can cause Robocomm to skip over the currently displayed BBS. Robocomm will attempt to re-dial this BBS the next time it comes up in the agenda dialing queue. [Del] To remove the currently displayed BBS from the dialing queue, press the delete key while the BBS is displayed in the redial window. If you restart this agenda again later, Robocomm will attempt to dial the previously removed BBS. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 54 When Robocomm is on-line with a BBS, the following keys are active: [F1] Pressing [F1] while Robocomm is on-line with a BBS will cause you to "jump" temporarily to Robocomm's ANSI terminal. This is often useful for doing things like resetting your message pointers inside the mail door or doing a quick ad- hoc search for and download of a file. See the ANSI Terminal section of this manual for more information on the features of the terminal. When you have finished in the ANSI terminal, just press [Alt-X] and you will be returned to unattended communications. ---- NOTE As Robocomm returns from the ANSI terminal, it ---- sends a carriage return to the BBS. To ensure that your agenda picks up properly from where it left off, make sure to leave the Terminal at the same prompt Robocomm was at or approaching before you pressed [F1] to enter ANSI terminal mode. PCBOARD TERSE MODE ------------------ In an effort to maintain automation in an age of increasing BBS customization, Robocomm now uses "terse mode" prompts when communicating with PCBoard systems. These will appear as numbers and little happy faces while Robocomm is online with PCBoard systems. If you "jump to terminal" at an unexpected moment, you may end up with a bunch of odd numbers on the screen where you used to see prompts. Robocomm's terminal mode now contains two keys to control "Terse Mode" prompts. F6 can be used to restore normal "text" prompts and F5 can be used to switch back to the numerical "Terse" mode prompts. Robocomm will attempt to automatically switch you in and out of Terse mode when you enter the ANSI terminal mode, but there may be some instances where it will not succeed. Remember to use [F5] and [F6] to toggle in and out of terse mode when you are in the terminal mode. ---- NOTE It is essential that you toggle terse mode back on ---- with the [F6] key before exiting from the terminal back to unattended operations. [F3] If you press the [F3] function key while Robocomm is on-line with a BBS, Robocomm will immediately hang up on the BBS and return to the main menu. Remember, you can pick up again right from where you left off by restarting the agenda with a "Go" command, even if you've quit Robocomm and restarted it again. However, you might want to review ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 55 the agenda on- screen first because the agenda item that was executing when you pressed F3 will have been marked as an error and will not be re-attempted until it has been reset. [F10] Pressing [F10] while on-line with a BBS toggles the "Remain On-line" status of that BBS. When the words "Remaining On- line" are flashing on the agenda status title bar, Robocomm will automatically jump to terminal mode after it has completed all the scheduled items on its agenda. If you see something that requires your attention while an agenda is in process but don't want to interrupt the agenda while it's in process press [F10] at any time before Robo finishes its work. USING THE ANSI TERMINAL ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ To enter Robocomm's ANSI terminal, select Terminal from the Go menu or press [F1] or [F10] while Robocomm is on-line during an agenda. If you are entering the terminal from the main menu, the modem will be initialized and communications to your modem will be established at the Default Baud Rate that you specified on the Communications Configuration screen. To call up a help screen of terminal options, press the [F1] key at any time while in the terminal. The following options are available: [Alt-H] Hang Up - To immediately end communications between the BBS and Robocomm, select "Hang Up" from the terminal menu. Robocomm will first attempt to temporarily drop carrier. If this unsuccessful in breaking the connection, Robocomm will send the "Hang Up String" you specified on the "Configure- General" menu. [Alt-D] Dial - To activate Robocomm's Demon Dialer feature, press [Alt-D] while in the terminal mode. A window will open up listing all your configured BBS systems. Highlight the systems you would like to dial and press the space bar. When all of the systems you want to dial are tagged, press [Enter] to start dialing. If no systems are tagged when you press [Enter] Robocomm will dial the currently highlighted system. [Alt-B] Set Baud - Select "Baud" to change the current baud rate of the terminal. Robocomm operates only at "no parity", "eight data bits" and "1 stop bit". [Alt-C] Clear the Screen [Alt-L] Printer Logging - To send terminal text to the printer as well as the screen, press [Alt-L]. When printer logging is active, pressing [Alt-L] again will disable it. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 56 [Alt-C] Capture File - To send terminal text to a capture file that you specify, press [Alt-C]. Once capturing is active, you can disable it by pressing [Alt-C] again. [Alt-P] Send Password - Press [Alt-P] to send your password for the current BBS. [Alt-R] Send Break - Used to send a one second BREAK signal to the modem. [Alt-W] Robocomm's terminal mode has a full-screen, full-color Scroll-Back buffer feature which allows you to view information which has previously scrolled off of the top of the screen. To activate the buffer, press Alt-W while in the interactive terminal mode. Then use the up and down arrow keys to move through the buffer. The buffer cycles through the terminal's 500 most recently displayed lines of text. [Alt-X] Exit Terminal Mode. Robocomm will prompt you to hang up first if you are still online. [Alt =] DOORWAY Mode is used by some BBS systems to allow the remote machine to send most all of the keys on its keyboard to the host (BBS) computer. To enable this mode in Robocomm's terminal, hold down the [Alt] key and press. You should use this feature whenever you are using the "visual" editor on the BBS. It will allow all of your standard arrow and editing keys to function as you would expect. ---- NOTE Once DOORWAY mode has been activated, the only way ---- to exit the terminal or issue any other terminal command is to toggle the mode off with [Alt =]. [F5] Turn OFF PCboard Terse Mode prompts. [F6] Turn ON PCBoard Terse Mode prompts. [F7] Shell to DOS - To temporarily exit to DOS from the Robocomm terminal, select "DOS Shell" from the terminal menu. When you do this, Robocomm will attempt to free up the amount of RAM you have specified in your "RAM for Mail Reader" option of the utility configuration menu. If insufficient disk space is available, Robocomm will free up as much RAM as possible and place you at a DOS prompt. When you have finished, type EXIT at any DOS prompt and you will be returned to the ANSI terminal. [PgUp] Upload - To Upload a file using Robocomm's internal ZMODEM, YMODEM, YMODEM-G or ROBORZ.BAT file, select this option. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 57 You will be prompted for the file name to send. Pressing [F10] at the prompt will pop-up a pick list of files matching the file specification in the field. [PgDn] Download - To download a file using Robocomm's internal ZMODEM, YMODEM or YMODEM-G, use this option. The file(s) received will be placed in your configured "Download Directory." ASCII PROTOCOL UPLOADS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To send the contents of a text file out the communications port, one line at a time, press [PgUp] and select "ASCII (Text Only)" as the transfer protocol. This option is useful for uploading messages to the BBS when on-line manually. AUTOMATIC ZMODEM DOWNLOADS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When it is in interactive ANSI terminal mode, Robocomm can automatically detect the sequence of characters used by Zmodem to indicate the start of a file download. By default, Robocomm uses it's own internal Zmodem for auto-downloads. If you would prefer to use DSZ or some other external Zmodem protocol engine, you will need to create a Z-AUTO.BAT file in your Robocomm directory. If Z-AUTO.BAT exists in the Robocomm directory when the time comes to initiate an automatic download, Robocomm will change directories to your configured download directory and then shell to DOS, calling the Z-AUTO.BAT file. For this reason it is essential that your Robocomm directory be included in your path statement. If it isn't, DOS will report a "Bad command" message because it can't locate Z-AUTO.BAT. The following batch file implements a Zmodem auto-download using DSZ: DSZ port %1 speed %2 rz -m AUTOMATIC HS/LINK DOWNLOADS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HS/Link auto-downloads work differently than Zmodem auto-downloads in that Robocomm looks for a HS-AUTO.BAT file and Robocomm sends the path for downloaded files as the %4 parameter. Thus, the default HS-AUTO.BAT file that is shipped with Robocomm is: HSLINK -P%1 -B%2 -R -O -HS -! -U%4 VIEWING AND MANAGING THE FILE DIRECTORIES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Robocomm automatically creates entries in two files directories for you. The "Downloaded Files" directory holds information on the files you have downloaded or uploaded using Robocomm. The "Available Files" directory holds information on files available for download on the BBS systems that you call. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 58 Entries are added to the New Files directory when you do "New File Scans" as part of an agenda, or if you set up a mail door to scan new files for you. If a file listing received in a new files scan is already part of your list (from the same BBS) or if the file is found in your Downloaded Files directory (from any BBS) then Robocomm will not add a record to your New Files directory for that file. You can view the Available Files directory in one of two ways. From the main menu, select Directory followed by Available Files. Alternatively, you can view the files directory while creating a download file agenda item by pressing [F10] at the "File Name:" prompt. Similarly, you can view the Downloaded Files directory by selecting Directory followed by Downloaded Files from the main menu. Or, you can press [F10] at the "Upload File" prompt on the agenda editing screen. When the Available Files Directory is shown on the screen, the following keys are active: BULK DELETE ~~~~~~~~~~~ Press [B] from either file directory screen to bring up the Bulk Delete window. This command allows you to mark file entries from specific systems and/or before a specific date for deletion. File entries marked for deletion will appear in dark text (on color systems only) and the word DEL will appear to the right of the file name. To permanently remove these files from the list use the Clean Up command or select the Pack option when quitting Robocomm. If you mark a file as deleted and want to return it to normal status, highlight it and press Del . ---- NOTE The Bulk Delete command does not touch any files that have ---- been tagged with "Keep" status. An option is provided to "Ignore Keep Status" so you can permanently remove all desired entries from the file directory. DATABASE CLEAN UP ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You can permanently delete all files marked for deletion by pressing [C] in either the Available Files or Downloaded Files directories. After confirmation, the clean up process will begin and a bar graph will display Robocomm's progress. The Clean-Up operation cannot be interrupted. ------- WARNING Do not re-boot or shut off your computer while Robocomm ------- is cleaning up its data files. If you do, you will most likely loose a portion of your file list data. In the event of a power loss during PACK or CLEAN UP operations, you should immediately re-start Robocomm with the /P switch. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 59 FINDING FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Press [F] to search for keywords within either files directory. Robocomm allows you to enter either an explicit "literal" string of characters to search for, or a complex expression with full boolean logic and wildcard matching. DEFINING QUERY EXPRESSIONS -------------------------- The easiest way to input a search string in Robocomm is to simply type the exact text you would like to search for in the fields provided and press Enter. When you do this, Robocomm will search for an exact "literal" match (including any imbedded spaces) in the file names and descriptions. For more complex searches, you can include wildcards and/or boolean logic in the search string. Wildcards in search strings work the same way that they do in DOS file names. The question mark "?" character is used to represent any single ascii character and the asterisk "*" character can be used to match any series of characters. For example, a search string of "Robo?ail" would match both "RoboMail" and "RoboJail." Entering "Robo*ail" for a search string would match both of the above as well as: "RoboMail needs 512K of memory or it may fail." For even more searching power, Robocomm allows you to specify multiple search keys with a single string and control how they related to each other with boolean logic. Robocomm supports the following boolean operators: Use the "pipe" symbol: | to signify OR. Use the ampersand symbol: & to signify AND. Use an exclamation mark: ! to signify NEGATION. Use parenthesis: ( and ) to specify precedence. Use double quotes: " to surround all search text. For example, to search for files which contain references to motorized vehicles which are not motor cycles, you could specify: (("MOTOR" & "VEHICLE") | "CAR" ) & (! "CYCLE") Translating this search string to English yields: "Find all file descriptions containing the terms MOTOR and VEHICLE or containing the term CAR but not containing the term CYCLE." ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 60 ---- NOTE Robocomm does not consider the case (upper or ---- lower) of alphabet characters when performing searches of any kind. Since the Available and Uploadable file directory search routines are performed on the BBS ID, file name and file description, you can search for specific files or systems by including the file name (with or without wildcards) and/or BBS ID in the search string. For example... ("ROBO" & "GROUPONE") & (! ("ROBOTICS" | "GIF")) would probably be a good string to use to try and isolate Robocomm and RoboMail related files on the support BBS. The English translation of this boolean logic is: "Find all files on GROUPONE BBS that have ROBO in the name or description and do not contain ROBOTICS or GIF in the description." NAVIGATING THROUGH THE MATCHED RECORDS -------------------------------------- Once the matching records are displayed, you may scroll through and tag them as normal. To return to a display of all files, press [S] and pick a new sort criteria. You can mark all files which match the search criteria for deletion by pressing [Alt-D] whenever the directory is sorted by search results. When the sort method is other than "Search Text", you can quickly jump to the previous and next search matches by holding down [Ctrl] and pressing the up and down arrow keys or [Ctrl-P] and [Ctrl-N] . EDITING FILE DESCRIPTIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To edit any file's description, simply highlight the file and press [E]. Robocomm will pop-up a small editor for your use. When you are satisfied with the description, press [Ctrl-Enter] to save it to disk. TAGGING AND "KEEPING" FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All files in Robocomm's file listings can have a combination of two file tags. Pressing the space bar will tag/untag a file for group operations, such as uploading and downloading. Pressing the [K] key will tag/untag a file's "Keep" status. File entries with "Keep" status are never removed from the file directory. They remain until explicitly marked for deletion with the DEL key or, in the case of downloads, when the file is downloaded. The "Keep" ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 61 status is ideal for files that you think you will want to download at a later time. Once these type of files are tagged with the "K" key you are free to use the bulk erase and zap commands to remove large quantities of unwanted files from the list. The files with keep status will remain long after the transient files are removed from the list. The [+] and [-] keys can be used to apply or remove both types of tags to a file. If you see a file you want to download and you anticipate that you will be cleaning out the file directory between the time you create a download agenda item and the time the file is downloaded, then you will need to tag it for downloading and also give it keep status. The [+] key automates this process to one keystroke. Conversely, the [-] key removes all tags from an individual file listing. Several keys are available for quick manipulation of the standard tags on many files at once. [Ctrl-T] will tag all files in the list automatically, [Ctrl-U] will untag all file listings and [Ctrl-I] will invert the tags. ---- NOTE Robocomm assumes you want to Keep all file listings in your ---- Downloads directory. References in this section to the "Keep" flag apply only to the New Files directory. JUMPING AROUND ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To jump to the first file beginning with a specific letter, put the listing into file name order with the "S" key, then press [Alt-J] (for "jump") followed by the letter you wish to jump to. To move to the first file in the directory, press [Ctrl-PgUp]. To move to the last file, press [Ctrl-PgDn]. DELETING ENTRIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To delete a listing from either file directory, highlight the file name and press the [Del] key. The word "DEL" will appear on the listing. To "un-delete" an entry simply highlight the DELeted file and press [Del] again. If you are in the Downloads directory, Robocomm will ask you if you also want to permanently delete the downloaded file from disk. DELeted files are not actually removed from the directory until you issue a "C" command to clean up the database or until you exit Robocomm and select "Pack" before exit. ZAPPING THE DIRECTORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To mark as DELeted all files that have not been given "Keep" status, simply press the [Z] key. MOVING FILES OFFLINE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm includes a functional floppy disk cataloging system that ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 62 will allow you to archive your downloaded files offline and easily recall them for use or for uploading to a system. This function is activated with the "O" key while in the Downloads Directory. It will move the highlighted file to a diskette in the drive you specified in the "Offline Files Drive" option on the "Data & Logs" configuration screen. THE DISKETTE MUST ALREADY HAVE BEEN FORMATTED! Don't forget that you can press [F7] if you need to drop to DOS to format a disk. If the diskette doesn't already have a Volume label, Robocomm will prompt you for one. Once the file is on the diskette, the status display for that file will indicate "Offline" and the location display will indicate the diskette that the file is located on. MOVING FILES ON-LINE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To move a file off a diskette and back into your "Downloads" directory, highlight a file that is displayed as being "Offline", insert the appropriate diskette in your offline files drive and press the "O" key. Robocomm will copy the file back onto your hard disk. This step really isn't necessary however, because Robocomm will automatically prompt you to insert the appropriate disk if you attempt to upload a file that has been moved offline. In this instance, the file status will be marked as "Pending Upload." VIEWING DOWNLOADED FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To view a compressed or GIF image file that has been downloaded, simply highlight it in the Downloads directory and press [V]. Robocomm will swap itself to disk or expanded memory and call the program that you specified on the Utility Configuration screen to view the file. When you are finished with the file view, simply quit the program and you will be returned to Robocomm. TESTING DOWNLOADED FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm also allows you to test and scan a downloaded compressed file directly from the Download Directory. To do this, highlight the file name and press the [T] key. Robocomm will swap itself to disk or expanded memory and call up a batch file called TESTFILE.BAT. Robocomm sends the following parameters to the batch file: %1 The full path and name of the file to test %2 The extension of the file type (Common types are: ZIP, ARC, ARJ, GIF and LZH) A sample TESTFILE.BAT is supplied with Robocomm. It switches to a temporary directory, decompresses the file, runs McAfee's SCAN.EXE program, pauses, calls a transient copy of your %COMSPEC% and allows you to test the extracted files. When you're done with the file, a quick DEL *.* followed by EXIT will whisk you back to ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 63 Robocomm, where you may be inclined to OFFLINE, DELete, UPLOAD or simply ignore the file. Similar to FIXFILE, the TESTFILE process also checks for an imbedded description file in the archive, and if one is found, it is moved into the Robocomm directory using the %ROBODIR% macro. If Robocomm sees an imbedded description file in its home directory after returning from TESTFILE, then it will ask for permission to import that description in to its available files entry. Here is the default testing file that is included with Robocomm: @ECHO OFF CLS REM TESTFILE.BAT - Robocomm file testing batch file REM %1 = Filename (Including Path) REM %2 = Type of file (The file's extension) rd ROBOTEMP md ROBOTEMP>nul cd ROBOTEMP IF EXIST FILE_ID.DIZ DEL FILE_ID.DIZ IF EXIST DESC.SDI DEL DESC.SDI IF %2 == ZIP GOTO UNZIP IF %2 == LZH GOTO UNLZH IF %2 == ARC GOTO UNARC IF %2 == ARJ GOTO UNARJ GOTO ERROR :UNZIP PKUNZIP %1 GOTO DONE :UNARC PKUNPAK %1 GOTO DONE :UNLZH LHA x %1 GOTO DONE :UNARJ ARJ e %1 GOTO DONE :ERROR CLS ECHO %1 IS AN UNKNOWN FILE TYPE ECHO (You may want to edit your TESTFILE.BAT file) ECHO Parameter 1 was [%1] ECHO Parameter 2 was [%2] pause GOTO END :DONE ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 64 REM Use McAfee's viral scan to test the file for critters CLS SCAN *.* /A /nomem if errorlevel 1 pause if exist file_id.diz copy file_id.diz %robodir% >nul if exist desc.sdi copy desc.sdi %robodir% >nul %COMSPEC% if exist file_id.diz del file_id.diz if exist desc.sdi del desc.sdi :END IMPORTING NEW FILES LISTINGS FROM OTHER SOURCES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm can import any text file which contains a files listing in the standard PCBoard or Wildcat Double line format. Many BBS systems make a file available for download which contains a compressed listing of all files available on the BBS. You can download such a file, then go to the New Files directory and press "I" to start the import operation. Robocomm will prompt you for the filename to import and also the name of the BBS that has these files. Robocomm will then check the list for files that aren't already listed in your Downloads directory or your New Files listing and add them. Remember, Robocomm's file listings can grow to any size, and are only limited by your available disk space! You'll still get lighting quick sorts and file access, so feel free to import as many listings as you want. ASSIGNING CONFERENCES IN IMPORTED TEXT FILES -------------------------------------------- If you would like conference numbers/names to appear in file listings you "I"mport into the available files directory, you need to edit the files to include the following marker: CONF> │ └──── This should be the ASCII 16 character. The ASCII 16 ">" character is created by holding down the [Alt] key and typing 16 on the numeric keyboard. We cannot include the real ASCII 16 character (which looks like a solid arrow head pointing to the right) in this document because it will do odd things to most printer's font selection. For example, to edit a file listing to show that all subsequently listed files can be found in the WINDOWS conference, you would include the following label in the text file, starting in column 1: CONF>WINDOWS A directory listing may include any number of these markers. All ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 65 files found subsequent to a marker will have the indicated conference included in their conference field, which is automatically supplied when the file is selected for downloading. The conference name may be up to 13 characters in length. ---- NOTE Be careful that you do not attempt to import a PCBoard file ---- listing from a Wildcat system and vice-versa. Robocomm assumes that the file list you specify is in the native format of the BBS system you specify. WRITING TO PCBOARD FORMAT DIR FILES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use the "W" command in either directory to append standard format PCBoard DIR file entries to a specified text file. If there are files tagged when you press [W], Robocomm will write out descriptions for all tagged files. If not, then just the currently highlighted file will be written. You will be given the option of using today's date or the file date when you create append to the DIR files. READING DOWNLOADED MAIL FILES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Robocomm allows you to run your mail packet reader programs by selecting "Read" from the main menu. The command to execute to start up your Mail Reader is specified on the Utility configuration menu. QWK Messages - A command is executed as specified on the Configure-Utility Screen under the "Command to invoke mail reader" option. Captured Mail - Robocomm will scan your configured "Path for *.QWK packets" for packets with a "PCB" extension and present you with a menu of matching packets. When you select a packet from the menu, the operation will differ, depending upon whether a file called READPCB.BAT exists in your Robocomm directory. If READPCB.BAT doesn't exists, then Robocomm will call your configured ZIP file viewing utility to view the file. ---- NOTE Running RoboMail from within Robocomm is not recommended ---- unless you have a system with at least 4 megabytes of free Memory. To run RoboMail from within Robocomm, create a batch file that changes to your RoboMail sub-directory before executing RoboMail. Then, specify the batch file you've created in the "Command to Invoke Mail Reader" configuration option. Also, make sure that the FILES= statement in your CONFIG.SYS file is at least 50. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 66 OPERATING ROBOCOMM FROM THE COMMAND LINE ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Robocomm can execute agendas based on command line parameters. This feature will be particularly valuable for system operators who want to use Robocomm for network mail runs, as part of their BBS's timed event. The syntax for Robocomm's command line switches is: ROBOCOMM /A<agenda> /T<time> /D<date> /R /Lnnnn [Other Switches] The AGENDA switches are: /A (Optional) This parameter must be first if it is included in the command line. /A followed immediately by an agenda name (non-case sensitive) tells Robocomm which agenda to execute. After Robocomm has executed the agenda, it immediately exits back to DOS. /T (Optional) /T followed immediately by the time (In 24 hour format) to start the agenda specified by the /A parameter. Don't use the /T parameter if you haven't specified an agenda with /A. If /A is specified and /T is omitted, then the Agenda will be execute immediately. /D The date that the agenda should begin operating. Enter it in the following format: MM-DD-YY where MM is the month, DD is the year and YY is the year. /R (Optional) Tells Robocomm to "reset" the agenda so that all items marked as "done" become "things to do." /Ln Overrides the Redial Attempts Per System configuration option and forces all systems in the current agenda run to be dialed nnn times. The OTHER switches are: /M Force monochrome mode. Do not use if the /C command is being used. /C Force color mode. Do not use if the /M command is being used. /P Pack the data files at the conclusion of processing before returning to DOS. /IP Imports a file containing PCBoard format file listings into Robocomm's Downloads directory. This feature is helpful for Sysops who would like the contents of their PCBoard upload directory to be available for uploading from Robocomm's Downloads list. For example, on Group One BBS, ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 67 the nightly event runs Robocomm as follows, to import the BBS's new files list into Robocomm: ROBOCOMM /IPJ:\PCB\MAIN\DIR0 /IW Imports a Wildcat double line format file listing into Robocomm's Downloaded Files directory. Uses the same syntax as the /IP switch. /O Causes Robocomm to place the modem off-hook before quitting to DOS. This causes callers to get a busy signal. /S Run a small Quick-Setup for a specified BBS ID. For example to run a quick-setup screen for GROUPONE BBS you would specify: /sGROUPONE /! This switch allows you to re-set any items in an agenda that are marked with an exclamation point (which indicates that they were attempted but not completed). To use it, you specify the agenda name immediately after the "!" character. This switch should be used all by itself, not in conjunction with other switches. Examples: ROBOCOMM /!FOO Re-sets all incomplete permanent agenda items in the FOO agenda to To-Do status and deleted any temporary items marked as incomplete. ROBOCOMM /AQMAIL /T5:00 /R Starts Robocomm and executes an agenda called "QMAIL" at 5:00 AM. In addition, Robocomm is instructed to reset any "Done" items to "To do" status. Meanwhile, I sleep... ROBOCOMM /AREPLY /R /M /P Starts the agenda "REPLY" immediately, resets all "done" items to "To Do" status and forces monochrome mode. The data files will be cleaned up after the agenda runs. ROBOCOMM /C Forces color mode ROBOCOMM /AEAST /T22:00 Starts the agenda "EAST" at 10 PM. Only those items marked as "To Do" will be attempted since no /R switch was used to reset the agenda. ROBOCOMM /Afoo /R /L10 Executes the agenda FOO immediately, resetting all done items to ToDo status. A maximum of 10 dial attempts per system is specified. ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 68 DOS ERRORLEVEL RETURN VALUES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robocomm will exit with the DOS errorlevel set to 1 if it is started from a command line and the specified agenda contains any attempted but incomplete agenda items. (When viewing these items on the agenda editing screen, they would be marked with an exclamation point). Robocomm will exit with an errorlevel 2 if it is started via a command line switch and any specified agenda items remain unattempted at the conclusion of processing. This could result from a failure to connect with the BBS or a unexpected disconnection during normal automated processing. INTERPRETING AND VIEWING THE LOG ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ All of the messages that you see printed in the log window during an on-line session are echoed to a log file if you have one specified in your Robocomm configuration. Whenever an agenda item is about to be attempted, the name of the agenda item is indicated with the symbol indicating its temporary or permanent status. The notations that follow indicate the steps that Robocomm took in order to complete the agenda item. When Robocomm finishes an agenda item, a notation is marked with a check mark if the item was completed successfully and an exclamation mark if there was an error condition. You can view the Robocomm log file at any time with the [F8] hot key. Just press this key and Robocomm will call your file browsing utility to view the log. Alternatively, you can select Read followed by LOG File from the main menu. VIEWING CAPTURE (CAP) FILES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Robocomm also includes a hot key for viewing files captured with the Capture Command agenda item. By pressing [F9] you will be presented with a list of all text files with a .CAP extension in the Robocomm directory. Use the arrow keys to select the file to view. Alternatively, you can select Read followed by LOG File from the main menu. ---- NOTE If you would like to have the Robocomm documentation ---- available for browsing while using Robocomm, just rename this file, Robocomm.doc, to Robocomm.cap and place it in the Robocomm subdirectory. # # # ______________________________________________________________________ Robocomm 4.3 User's Guide Page 69