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_____________________________ Harmony Bulletin Board System _____________________________ Harmony Bulletin Board System _____________________________ Harmony Bulletin Board System Version 1.1 Version 1.1 Version 1.1 Sysop Manual and Documentation Sysop Manual and Documentation Sysop Manual and Documentation Written by Jasen Fici & Alex Bloom Written by Jasen Fici & Alex Bloom Written by Jasen Fici & Alex Bloom Concord Software Concord Software Concord Software (C)Copyright Concord Software 1992 All Rights Reserved ________________________________________ Copyright................................................2 Distribution Policy......................................3 Limited Use..............................................4 Warranty.................................................5 Features.................................................6 Introduction.............................................10 Installation.............................................11 Configuration............................................14 Text files & Generic Listings.......................14 Security Levels & Requirement Strings...............14 Sigma commands......................................19 Using HMC.EXE (Harmony Configuration)...............21 About Harmony BBS...................................22 Modem...............................................22 Files (File Transfers)..............................26 Message Bases.......................................36 E-mail (Post Office)................................41 Users...............................................41 Text Files & Menus..................................47 System Information..................................49 Starting Harmony BBS.....................................66 Running Harmony BBS.................................66 Chat Status.........................................68 Host Mode...........................................68 Loading HMC.........................................68 Full Logon..........................................68 Viewing Activity File...............................68 Quitting To DOS.....................................68 Logging On To Harmony BBS...........................68 [B] BBS Database...................................72 [C] Chat Mode.......................................73 [D] Doors...........................................73 [E] Edit User Message...............................74 [F] Feedback........................................74 [G] LogOff..........................................74 [I] Information.....................................74 [M] Message Base...................................74 [N] News Files......................................82 [P] Post Office.....................................82 [R] Read User Message...............................82 [S] System Bulletins................................82 [T] File Transfers..................................83 [U] User profile edit...............................91 [V] Voting booths...................................92 [Z] Zip LogOff......................................93 [?] This menu.......................................93 [.] Sysop Mode......................................93 Harmony BBS Editors......................................94 Full Screen Editor..................................94 Dot Command (Line) Editors..........................95 Running Harmony BBS under a Multi-Tasker.................98 Running Harmony BBS with a Mailer........................99 Credits................................................. 105 Harmony BBS Page 1 1 1 ________________________________________ _________ Copyright _________ Copyright _________ Copyright Harmony Bulletin Board System (BBS) is a fully featured bulletin board package. All programs and documentation distributed with this package are protected under United States and international copyright laws. All rights granted by these laws are reserved by the authors Jasen M. Fici, Alex M. Bloom and Concord Software. Under no circumstances shall any part of Harmony BBS be redistributed in any way other than permitted in the distribution policy stated on the next page. Harmony BBS Page 2 2 2 ________________________________________ ___________________ Distribution Policy ___________________ Distribution Policy ___________________ Distribution Policy This is an evaluation package of Harmony BBS. Harmony BBS is NOT in the public domain, nor is it free software. Instead, in order to make Harmony BBS more use to the public, it is being distributed and redistributed as "shareware".under the following conditions : * Harmony BBS is distributed in its original distribution form. Do not change, alter or delete in any way the contents of the distribution files. * Harmony BBS is not to be distributed with any other software package without prior written consent from the authors. * Harmony BBS can not be distributed for any cost exceeding a $10 maximum disk copying charge. * Harmony BBS may only be distributed in the United States of America. * Harmony BBS may not be used by any government agency, or affiliated government agency. Distribution of the REGISTERED version of Harmony BBS in any way, shape or form is in direct violation of the law. We WILL prosecute. Harmony BBS Page 3 3 3 ________________________________________ ___________ Limited Use ___________ Limited Use ___________ Limited Use Harmony BBS is distributed to the public as an EVALUATION copy under the concept of "shareware". You are hereby granted the right to use the evaluation copy for a period of 60 days since that day of first using Harmony BBS. If you wish to continue using it after such time, you are required to register it with the authors (Concord Software). If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please feel free to contact the authors. Registration is a simple process, simply print the enclosed file REGISTER.FRM to your printer, fill out completely, and mail it with your check or money order made out to Concord Software. You are hereby granted the right to use the registered version of Harmony BBS under the condition that only one copy of Harmony BBS may be used per registration. This means that if only one registration fee is sent by you, you will receive one copy of Harmony BBS to execute on your computer. At no time are you permitted to run multiple copies of your registered version. If you wish to do so, each copy that you wish to run must be registered. Once again, Harmony BBS is NOT free software. We are not giving away free copies. Instead, we are giving you the chance to try it before paying for it. Harmony BBS Page 4 4 4 ________________________________________ ________ Warranty ________ Warranty ________ Warranty Harmony Bulletin Board System is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. The authors will only be held responsible to the extent permitted under applicable law. The entire risk is assumed by you. If any part of Harmony BBS is found defective, the authors are not liable for anything. DISCLAIMER : Concord Software, (and it's respective owners) make no representations or warranties, either expressed or implied, with respect to the contents hereof and specifically disclaims any warranties, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose. Any software described in the manual is sold or licensed "AS IS." Should the programs prove defective following their installation or registration (which ever comes first), the user (YOU!), (and NOT Concord Software, its distributors, or its dealers) assumes the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair, and any incidental or consequential damages (including but not limited to monetary damages) resulting from any defect in the software. Further, Concord Software reserves the right to revise this publication and make changes from time to time in the contents hereof without obligation of Concord Software to notify any person of such revision or changes. Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Concord Software. Harmony BBS Page 5 5 5 ________________________________________ ________ Features ________ Features ________ Features We would like to take this time to introduce you to all (or most) of the features of Harmony BBS. Here are just a few of the features that you will find in Harmony BBS: * Easy installation. No hours spent searching through documentation to get the board up and running. * Security. Harmony BBS uses a technique called valid requirement strings. With these strings (21 in all) the Sysop has thousands of combinations for security. They are implemented throughout the entire system, including accessing the message bases, file transfers, voting booths, news, bulletins, user scans, doors, etc.. Here is an example: S<=50:A>21:D<30:N>5:Q=1 If this were the valid requirement string used in message base #3, only users who had a security level (1-100) of less than or equal to 50, were older than 21, had called in less than 30 days, downloaded more than 5 files, and had access to the post office (private mail) section, would have access to it. This of course is an over exaggerated example, but you get the picture. As stated, there are 100 security levels in Harmony BBS. This may sound small when compared to other BBS programs, but when incorporated into the requirement strings, you see the flexibility you gain. * Imbedded Strings (Sigma Commands). In both the private mail (called Post Office), and the menus, the Sysop can imbed what we call sigma commands. Sigma commands are specific codes that are put in the files, that when displayed to the user, will show specific information pertaining only to that user. There are over 20 sigma commands in all. * Menus are configurable. A full set of menus are supplied with the system that are very professional. The option to make them look however you want is yours since all menus are simple ANSI and ASCII text files. You can make use of the requirement strings to hide options that you may not want certain users to view. Also implemented is a hotkey feature along with an expert modem. All available sigma commands may be printed while the menu is printing. Harmony BBS Page 6 6 6 ________________________________________ * Internal QWK packer, and a "QWIK session" feature, that when turned on by the sysop, allows users to log on, so directly into a send and receive QWK packet mode, and log right off again. * The installation, configuration, and BBS itself are all professionally windowed and have mouse support, making it easier for the sysop to change user information and data on the fly. * BBS can be configured to be run as a totally open system (with the need for passwords either being enabled or disabled), a totally closed system (with a main BBS password required), or combinations of both. For example, you may want to run a BBS that is closed to certain people from 11pm to 4am. During the day, the only passwords that would be requested would be the individuals passwords, but from 11 to 4, the system password would take over, and the users would need both to be able to log on to Harmony. * ASCII/ANSI/Monochrome/Caps Only support for users. * User auto message. The sysop can disable this if they wish. The user auto message is a 3 line message that can be left by users for the next callers to view at logon. * Built in denial list to restrict specific names during log on. * Separate Quote generation program is supplied. * The sysop can enable or disable the use of aliases throughout the BBS. If aliases are enabled, they can be systematically disabled throughout certain message bases so that messages on that message base can use only real names. * EASY to network. Harmony BBS supports the standard .MSG format used by FIDO (and compatible) networks whenever a new message is created. Once the message has been exported to the network, Harmony will take all the new messages and place them in its own proprietary, fast and packed message base format. Separate addresses and taglines are available for each message base, allowing you to easily join more than one network. * Three internal editors. An ASCII editor, an ANSI editor, and a powerful full screen editor for users with ANSI support. * Supports up to 1,000 message bases, with as many messages in each base as a directory can hold. Harmony BBS Page 7 7 7 ________________________________________ * Supports up to 1,000 file areas , with as many files in each area as a directory can hold. * All messages (whether through the network, or posted locally) will be appropriately marked if they are directed towards a specific user. The sysop can determine the number of days that they want to keep messages marked, since all marked messages are saved until the user receives it. * Door support. Harmony BBS uses the extended standard DOOR.SYS text file when a door is executed. * Access. The sysop can at anytime turn on and off certain attributes of the BBS. For example, if a specific networked message base wasn't being hosted for some reason, the sysop can just set a flag to turn it off until activity resumes. There are many more places where access flags are used, including the file transfer, post offices, bulletins, and the user statistics themselves. * Downloads can be marked easily as the list is displayed on the screen. This feature, incorporated with batch downloading, makes the file transfer section of Harmony a very friendly place to be. * If a batch transfer is aborted because of a disconnection, and the user calls back before anyone else calls, Harmony BBS will remember what files that they had in the batch queue so that they can continue. * Extensive use of ANSI graphics. When you call a Harmony BBS, you feel alive. * Full interrupt driven modem I/O. Support for locked baud rates, hardware and software flow control, and DTR control. * Internal voting booths, individually controlled by requirement strings. * Internal BBS database that can be updated by users. * Various levels of logging. The sysop can control exactly what it recorded to the caller log. * Separate private mail section. All private letters are kept in a different part of Harmony called the Post Office. * If Harmony BBS is networked, users (with proper security) can send netmail. If they have sysop access, they can send it crash mail. Harmony BBS Page 8 8 8 ________________________________________ * Smart system news reading. All news can be marked as not required to be read at all, or must be read once. News is also controlled by requirement strings, and only users who meet the requirement will be able to read that specific news. Harmony also keeps track of which news files are new to each user. * Seven internal protocols (including Xmodem, Ymodem, Zmodem, Kermit, and ASCII) with support for many external protocol support. * Credit systems can be activated or deactivated for each file area. A different credit system can be implemented for each base, as in a file/file ratio or a Kilobyte/Kilobyte ratio. * Floppy support for file transfers. The sysop can set up floppies to be used as file areas. Harmony will automatically determine whether a disk is in the drive, and if there isn't, that file area will be deactivated. * Individual time limits and calls per day limits for each security level. * Command line parameters can be passed to Harmony for easy combinations of a front end mailer and Harmony. Harmony BBS Page 9 9 9 ________________________________________ ____________ Introduction ____________ Introduction ____________ Introduction Welcome to Harmony BBS. Whether you are a novice or an experienced SYStem OPerator (Sysop), we believe that you will find Harmony BBS to be just what you are looking for. From the very first line of code, Harmony BBS has been written to be one of the most fully loaded BBS programs available today. One of the main concerns that is filled by Harmony is ease of use. Traditionally, BBS programs have been bears, both to setup and maintain. No longer. If you are reading this now, with only a minimal amount of work, Harmony BBS is ready to go. For more information on a quick set up, please refer to the installation section in this documentation. The novice sysop will find Harmony BBS to be *VERY* easy to use. We believe that BBS programs should be just a friendly to the sysop as it is to the users. Once you see how easy Harmony BBS is, we are convinced that you will like it. The seasoned sysop will find Harmony BBS *LOADED* with features. If you have already taken a quick look at the features list, you know what we mean. Almost every part of Harmony BBS can be customized. We intentionally restricted certain things from the sysops though. For instance, many people believe that for a bulletin board system to be truly POWERFUL, you should be able to reconfigure all the commands that are available to users. We believe that this leads to a lot of chaos and confusion for the users. BBS commands should be the basically the same, if not throughout the whole BBS community, then at least through the same BBS programs. When a user calls Harmony BBS, he will know how to get places, and get there fast! On the other end of the spectrum, we also believe that a BBS should be able to show the individuality of the sysop(s). We have tried to make Harmony as configurable as possible, without giving your users any headaches. You will find that most files that are displayed to your users are simple text files that can be edited by the sysop. These "simple text files" can many times be made quite powerful by imbedding commands and other static data right inside of them. Harmony BBS Page 10 10 10 ________________________________________ ____________ Installation ____________ Installation ____________ Installation If you are reading this, then chances are Harmony BBS has already been successfully installed on your system. If you are installing a registered version of Harmony BBS over a previously unregistered system, please refer to the file README.REG enclosed on your registration disk. When you originally received the evaluation copy of Harmony BBS, regardless of the archive that it was sent, it should contain eight files. The first one INSTALL.EXE and the rest should be files numbered 11111111.111 up to 77777777.777. You MUST be in the directory with all eight of those files present to install Harmony onto your system. For Harmony BBS to successfully install onto your system, you should have at least 1 megabyte (1024K) of free disk space. After you have moved to the directory with all eight of those files present, you should run INSTALL.EXE . After the opening screen you will be prompted for the directory that you wish to install Harmony BBS into. All directories and data files that Harmony BBS needs will be put either into, or under this directory. After you have typed the directory, either with your mouse, or with the [TAB] key, move to the CONTINUE INSTALL button and press enter (if you are using the mouse, press the left mouse button). If you wish to abort the installation at this point, you should move to the ABORT INSTALL button instead, you will then be brought back to DOS. IMPORTANT : When you enter the home directory for Harmony BBS, IMPORTANT : When you enter the home directory for Harmony BBS, IMPORTANT : When you enter the home directory for Harmony BBS, it MUST contain the disk drive qualifier. it MUST contain the disk drive qualifier. it MUST contain the disk drive qualifier. Valid Examples : Valid Examples : Valid Examples : Invalid Examples : Invalid Examples : Invalid Examples : ---------------- ---------------- ---------------- ------------------ ------------------ ------------------ C:\HM C:\HM C:\HM HARMONY HARMONY HARMONY D:\TELE\HM D:\TELE\HM D:\TELE\HM \BBS \BBS \BBS E:\BBS\ E:\BBS\ E:\BBS\ TELE\BBS\ TELE\BBS\ TELE\BBS\ Harmony BBS Page 11 11 11 ________________________________________ Harmony BBS will now precede with the installation process. It will first attempt to create its home directory and then all of the sub directories that it will need. After it has successfully created the directories, INSTALL will then unpack all of the archived files into their respective directories. If at any time throughout this process INSTALL has a problem, you will be notified and INSTALL will abort. Since there is not much configuration at the install level, the only thing that you will most likely have to do is find where INSTALL stopped the installation process. One of the most common mistakes is trying to install Harmony BBS into some a directory where all the default directories already exist. INSTALL MUST create these directories itself. If you decided to continue your installation, you will next be asked if you want the installation program to modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you wish to update your AUTOEXEC.BAT manually, then you must add the following line : SET HM=[harmony dir.] [harmony dir.] should be the exact name that you entered at the beginning of the install. Harmony BBS MUST have this environment variable set correctly to work. It allows Harmony to find itself whenever directories are changed. If you choose to have the install modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, you will then be prompted for the full drive and path of your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This question is asked because many people use the DOS SWAP command to change the settings of their drives. At this point, you should enter the location of your AUTOEXEC.BAT, for example : C:\ D:\ are a couple valid responses to this question. If you decided that you do not wish to have Harmony BBS modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT at this point, you can still get out of it by pressing [ESC]. You will next be asked if you would like to print out the documentation to Harmony BBS (this file) to your printer. Harmony BBS Page 12 12 12 ________________________________________ After you have been notified that Harmony BBS is now completely installed, you will be shown the README.1ST file. You should make it a point to look over this file before continuing. It contains important information on last minute changes that were made to Harmony, and information on registering it. If you wish to view this file in full screen mode, move the mouse pointer to the up arrow sign in the upper right hand corner of the box and press you left mouse button. To move around the view box, you can use your arrow keys and your PAGE-UP and PAGE-DOWN keys. Once you are finished reading this file, press [ESC] or move your mouse to the box in the upper left hand corner of view screen and click your mouse button. At this point, Harmony BBS is now fully installed onto your system. INSTALL will give you one final notice and you will then be brought back to your DOS prompt. Notice that you are now in Harmony's home directory. It is now time to customize Harmony BBS to meet your personal satisfaction. NOTE : Harmony BBS can now be loaded and used at this point. The only thing that you may have to change with HMC is the port number that your modem is connected to. If you wish to get your BBS up and running "straight out of the box", at this time you should load up HMC, and configure ONLY the modem configuration settings. When you leave HMC, you will then be ready to load and run Harmony BBS. If you want to use this quick start, you can jump to the chapter called "Up and Running". IMPORTANT : Harmony BBS and HMC (HM.EXE,HM.OVR,HMC.EXE, IMPORTANT : Harmony BBS and HMC (HM.EXE,HM.OVR,HMC.EXE, IMPORTANT : Harmony BBS and HMC (HM.EXE,HM.OVR,HMC.EXE, HMC.OVR) should NEVER be compressed using programs like HMC.OVR) should NEVER be compressed using programs like HMC.OVR) should NEVER be compressed using programs like PKLite (C)Phil Katz. If they are, Harmony BBS will NOT PKLite (C)Phil Katz. If they are, Harmony BBS will NOT PKLite (C)Phil Katz. If they are, Harmony BBS will NOT work. work. work. Harmony BBS Page 13 13 13 ________________________________________ _____________ Configuration _____________ Configuration _____________ Configuration Text files & Generic Listings Text files & Generic Listings Text files & Generic Listings Something that needs to be stressed right away is the fact that Harmony BBS allows for an incredible amount of customization. One place where a lot of sysops tend to forget about this is when they are looking at the FILES.LST text that comes with Harmony BBS. In it, there are many files that have a description, and something saying "replaces generic". For example, whenever a user enters the system bulletins section of Harmony BBS, it will give them a quick numbered listing of each bulletin available to them. Rather boring. BUT before it gives the listing, Harmony BBS will look for the file BULLLSAN.HMY and BULLLSAS.HMY (for ANSI and ASCII callers respectively). If it is found, then Harmony BBS will print that file INSTEAD of the generic listing. All these files are treated as menus, which allow you to imbed requirement strings, and sigma commands directly in the text files. (explained now) Security Levels & Requirement Strings Security Levels & Requirement Strings Security Levels & Requirement Strings Harmony BBS supports security levels from 1 to 100. This may sound a little limited compared to most other BBS programs that support up to 100,000+ levels, but Harmony BBS allows for something a little different. The requirement string is an integral part of Harmony BBS. Almost everything that a user has access to is determined by a requirement string. Requirement strings allow you to define EXACTLY who has access to what on your system. One of the benefits of the requirement string is maintainability. If you ever decide that you want to restructure your system, you will probably not have to change everyone's security levels. The basic format of the requirement string is : [command][operator][number] A ':' (colon) can separate multiple commands. Here is a summary of the valid commands that can be used for your requirement strings: Valid Operators - all allows these operators -> =,<,>,>=,<=,<> Valid Numbers - you will be able to tell from the description of the command what values would be appropriate. Harmony BBS Page 14 14 14 ________________________________________ The number column will list values when a boolean value is expected and will show its value. If for example it shows a 0 for not birthday then it specifies that the valid numbers are 0 and 1. A one would mean it is the users birthday. Cd Op Number Description === === ======= ======================= A all Age B = 1-birthday Birthday C =<> listed below Computer Type D all Days Since Last Call E = 0-no access Access To Msg. Bases F = 0-not female Female G = 0-ASCII Terminal Emulation H = 0-no access Access To File Trans. I = 0-no access Access To Batch Msgs. J = 0-no access Batch File Transfer K = 0-no access Access To Post L all Total Number Of Calls M = 0-not male Male N all Number Of Files D/L O all Amount Of Money Owed P all Number Of Msgs. Pstd. Q = 0-no access Enter Post Office R =,<> Area Code S all Security Level U all Number Of Files U/L X =,<> A,B,C System defined flags Z =,<> Zip Code Requirement String Descriptions Requirement String Descriptions Requirement String Descriptions A: A: A: The A parameter in a requirement string lets the sysop use the persons age as a requirement. For example, if you had the string : A<=21 as one of the commands in your requirement string, then only users that were 21 and younger would have access to whatever you applied it to. All of the operators are valid even though most will probably not by used (A<>21 would allow anyone who was NOT 21 access to whatever you used it for.) B: B: B: The B parameter is used to determine if it is the user's birthday. The only valid operator with this parameter is =. If B=0 then you are saying If it is NOT their birthday, on the other hand, B=1 means that you want to give them access on the birthdate only. C: C: C: The parameter is used for giving or denying access to people who own or don't own a certain computer type. The following is a list of computers that Harmony BBS looks for : [1] Amiga 500/1000/2000/3000 [10] IBM PC PS/2 series Harmony BBS Page 15 15 15 ________________________________________ [2] Apple ][/]I[ [11] Macintosh [3] Atari 400/600/800 [12] Tandy1000/2000/3000/4000 [4] Atari ST [13] Tandy Color Computer [5] AT&T [14] Tandy Trs-80 [6] Commodore 64/128/VIC [15] Texas Instruments 99/4A [7] IBM PC AT/compat. [16] Toshiba (all models) [8] IBM PC jr. [17] Dumb Terminal [9] IBM PC XT/compat. [18] Other The only valid operators are the = and <>. For example, the only valid way to represent the C parameter is C=2 or C<>6. Those two would give access to someone who owns an Apple computer, and who doesn't own a Commodore computer, respectively. D: D: D: This allows you to give access to people when they haven't called in a specific number of days. All operator combinations are valid (=,<>,>=,<=). For example if you sent news with the requirement string D>15:D<30, anyone who hasn't called in 15 to 30 days would receive that mail. E: E: E: This parameter can be used to determine if a user has access to the message bases. The only valid operator is =. You can either have E=0 or E=1 which means the user either does NOT have or DOES have access the message base section of Harmony BBS (respectively). F: F: F: This parameter, and the M parameter will probably be found to be a little bit redundant. Anyway, this is used to determine if the user is a female. The only operator available is the = command, and the only 2 cases allowed are F=0 and F=1 which in the first case means the user is NOT a female, and in the second case means that the user is a female. G: G: G: This parameter can be used to give or deny people access who are not using ANSI emulation. The only available operator is the = sign. If you use this requirement string, you can give or deny people access according to whether they are using the ANSI capabilities of Harmony. G=0 means if they DO NOT have ANSI give them access, G=1 means if they DO have ANSI give them access. H: H: H: This parameter is for checking for access to the file transfers section of Harmony BBS. The only valid operator is the = sign. H=0 means give access if the user does not have access to the file transfer section. H=1 means give access if the user DOES have access to the file transfer section. Harmony BBS Page 16 16 16 ________________________________________ I: I: I: This parameter is for checking for access to the batch message Qwik transfers. The only valid operator is the = sign. I=0 means will be true if the user does NOT have access to it, and I=1 will be true if the user DOES have access. J: J: J: This parameter is used for determining whether or not the user has access to batch file transfers and will be allowed to use any protocols that allow batch transfers. The only valid operator here is the = sign. J=0 would be true if the current user did NOT have access, and J=1 would be true if they did. K: K: K: This parameter is used for determining whether or not the user has the ability to post messages. The only valid operator here is the = sign. K=0 would be true if the current user did NOT have access, and K=1 would be true if they DID have access. L: L: L: This parameter is used for checking the total number of calls that the user has made to the system. All operators are valid. L=40 would give access to people who have called 40 times ONLY. L>=40 would give access to people who have called at least 40 times. M: M: M: This parameter, and the F parameter will probably be found to be a little bit redundant. Anyway, this is used to determine if the user is a male. The only operator available is the = command, and the only 2 cases allowed are M=0 and M=1 which in the first case means the user is NOT a male, and in the second case means that the user is a male. N: N: N: This parameter is used for checking the total number of files that the user has downloaded from your system. All operators are valid. N=40 would give access to people who have downloaded 40 files ONLY. N>20 would give access to people who have downloaded greater than 20 files. O: O: O: This parameter is used for checking the amount of money that a user owes. All operators are valid, and the number on the right of the operator can be either an integer or a real (with up to 2 decimal places). O>20.25 would give access to anyone who owes an amount of greater than twenty dollars and 25 cents. P: P: P: This parameter is used for checking the number of messages that the user has posted on your system. All operators are valid. For example, P=20 would give access to people who have posted 20 messages, P<20 would give access to people who have not yet posted 20 (19 or less). Harmony BBS Page 17 17 17 ________________________________________ Q: Q: Q: This parameter is used to determine whether the user is allowed to send private mail. The only valid operator is the = sign, Q=0 would give access if the user did NOT have access, Q=1 would give access if the user DID have access to send private mail. R: R: R: This parameter is used to check the users area code in their phone number. The only valid operators are the <> and = sign. Example : R<>607 would give access to anyone who did NOT live in the 607 area code. R=607 would give access ONLY to people who DID live in the 607 area code. S: S: S: This is the most frequent parameter you will see in requirement strings. It is used to check the users security level. All valid operators are supported. S>10 would give access to anyone with a security of less than 10, S>=10:S<50 would give access to anyone with a security of greater than or equal to 10, but less than 50. U: U: U: This parameter is used to check the number of files that the user has uploaded. All operators are valid. For example, U>10 would give access to people who have uploaded more than 10 files. X: X: X: This parameter is used for checking the system defined flags. The flags A,B,C have been added to Harmony BBS so the sysop can use these three flags to determine access to anything that uses requirement strings. For example, by using the requirement string X=A:A>20, the sysop can give access to ONLY users who are 21 years and older, AND who have their system flag A turned on. If this is used with the <> signs (X<>B) the requirement string would return false IF the users B flag was turned ON. Z: Z: Z: This parameter is used for comparing the users zip code. The only valid operators are the = and <> signs. You can only check to see if someone DOES have a specific zip code, or DOESN'T have a specific zip code. Example: Z=13760 would give access to ONLY those people who live in the 13760 area code. Requirement String Macros Requirement String Macros Requirement String Macros The following macros can be used in place of numbers within a requirement string. They all relate to security levels and Harmony BBS will go and look at the current setting of the macro before comparison. UD Upload And Download Security MB Message Base Security VB Voting Booth Security BB BBS Data Base Security VA Validation (Regular User) Security Harmony BBS Page 18 18 18 ________________________________________ FC First Caller Security NU New User Security Here are a few examples of requirement strings in use : You would like to send news to all users on their first call, the requirement string would be: s=FC You would like to send news to all users with a commodore computer that have called more than 50 times, the requirement string would be: c=6:l>50 You would like to print the user log of all users that owe more than twenty-five dollars and have downloaded more than 40 files, the requirement string would be: o=50:n>40 You would like to purge all users (using HMC) that have not called in ninety days and have regular user security and have posted less than ten messages, the requirement string would be: d>90:s=VA:p<10 You would like to send all sysops news., the requirement string would be: s=100 As you can see, many of these requirement strings will be used mainly for sending news to people, but they can all still be used throughout Harmony BBS. You can mix and match as many possibilities as you can come up with. We give you the freedom to make Harmony BBS as powerful as you want. Let us know what other requirements would be of interest to you. Sigma commands Sigma commands Sigma commands Sigma commands are special key codes, that when placed into menus and private news (all explained later), can make information printed within these menus and messages, STATIC. By static, we mean, the information printed will be different for each user. Most of the information that can be printed this way is user attributes (for example, names, money owed, etc. etc.) Within menus, sigma commands a placed within the # # signs, explained later in the documentation. Within the news messages, sigma commands are not placed inside anything. Harmony BBS will simply parse them out and print out the information they represent. The format for sigma commands are : Harmony BBS Page 19 19 19 ________________________________________ [cmd where cmd is the letter of the user attribute you want to be displayed. The current list of sigma commands available within menus are : N - The user's full proper name (i.e. Jasen Fici) F - The user's first name (i.e. Jasen) L - The user's last name (i.e. Fici) A - The user's alias (if allowed) D - The user's address C - The user's city S - The user's state Z - The user's zip code P - The user's phone number B - The user's birthday O - The last date the user called E - The user's security level K - The amount of K(1024bytes) the user has uploaded W - The amount of K(1024bytes) the user has downloaded G - The total number of calls this user has made to the system H - Total number of messages posted I - Total number of files the user has downloaded J - Total number of files the user has uploaded M - The total amount of money the user owes Q - The current name of the BBS (defined in HMC) S - The current name of the sysop (defined in HMC) T - The current time U - The current date V - The amount of time the user still has left this call (in minutes) Note that sigma commands can be imbedded within menus also. Please refer to the MENUS section in HMC. A quick example of a batch letter : Dear ]N, You owe us ]m dollars. Please pay up!! The key code for getting the symbol is ALT-228, and can be used directly inside the Harmony BBS editors. Harmony BBS Page 20 20 20 ________________________________________ Using HMC Using HMC Using HMC.EXE (Harmony Configuration) .EXE (Harmony Configuration) .EXE (Harmony Configuration) The main configuration program for Harmony BBS is HMC.EXE. This program will allow you to modify almost ALL of Harmony BBS's features. Configuration is traditionally one of the longest (and usually ongoing) parts of running a bulletin board system. HMC attempts to make this process as easy as possible by allowing you to do everything you would need to do in one place. For example, even though Harmony does use a lot of straight ASCII text files, most of the editing of those files can still be done directly in HMC. Before running HMC, you must make sure that you are in Harmony BBS's home directory. If you are not, then HMC will use the current directory and will probably not be able to access all of the files that HMC needs. Defining External Editors Defining External Editors Defining External Editors The first time you run HMC you will be notified that no external editors have been defined yet. HMC does NOT contain any internal text editors for editing menus and text files, you must supply them. If you answer that you wish to define them later, don't worry, you have the option in HMC. When you do decide to define the editors, you will be asked for the fully qualified drive, path and file name of 2 separate editors. Both editors should have the capability of being able to send to the editor the name of the file that you wish to work on, and they should also be able to save the contents of those files in straight ASCII and ANSI format. The first one you will be asked for is the ASCII editor. This should just be a plain text editor. Remember that it MUST have the ability to save text as PLAIN ASCII with no internal control codes embedded within the file. This is the format that you want to save all of your files in whenever it is called. We suggest using an editor that has been tested extensively. The second editor that you will be asked to define is your ANSI editor. Although the ASCII editor will be used for most everything, the ANSI editor will be called whenever you wish to edit an ANSI menu. Harmony BBS does supply you with some generic menus that can be edited. Assuming you run HMC from Harmony's home directory, you will only have to answer the editor questions once. From then on, HMC will call those editors whenever you are required to enter or update text files (ex. news, voting booth question, etc.) Harmony BBS Page 21 21 21 ________________________________________ Moving around HMC Moving around HMC Moving around HMC As you have probably figured out by now, HMC is the sysop interface to the BBS. After typing HMC in the command line, you will find yourself in a menu system that is broken down into different sections of the BBS. Once you become familiar with HMC, you will find it very easy to get someplace and change something. The top line of the screen are all of the main section headings. To move from one to another simply point and click your mouse on the heading you wish to work on, or move the highlighted one around with your left and right cursor keys and press [ENTER] when the section that you wish to work with is highlighted. At this point a drop down menu will be displayed directly under that section. From there you can either use your mouse to point and click, or the up and down arrows and then press [ENTER] for the action that you want to execute. For all screens, unless otherwise stated, pressing the [TAB] and [SHIFT][TAB] simultaneously will move back and forth around the screens from field to field. To leave any specific screen, you can either press [ESC] or with your mouse, click the button on the upper left hand of the open box. For fields with multiple options in them, use the cursor keys to move from option to option, and use the space key to turn them on and off. Also remember that to "finalize" any change that you have made to a screen like this, you must go to the OK button at the bottom of the screen and press enter. This will accept all of the current settings inside the active screen and save them to disk. About Harmony BBS About Harmony BBS About Harmony BBS The box that is highlighted when HMC is first run is the About box. Activating this box will simply display the authors of Harmony BBS and the copyright notice. To exit the about box, press [ENTER] or click the OK button with your mouse. Modem Modem Modem All modem information can be edited through this menu of HMC. If you are trying to get Harmony BBS up and running fairly fast, this is probably the only section that you will have to deal with right away. Following is a description of all of the menu options given to you when this menu is activated. Harmony BBS Page 22 22 22 ________________________________________ Port Information (Modem Parameters) Port Information (Modem Parameters) Port Information (Modem Parameters) This is the box that was used in the previous example. The three fields contained in it are : Port Assignments Port Assignments Port Assignments Harmony BBS supports the use of communication ports 1 through 4. Set the port to the current one that your modem is set up to use. Minimum Baud Rate Minimum Baud Rate Minimum Baud Rate This value should be set to the minimum baud rate allowed for connecting to your system. For example, if this value is set to 1200, anyone that connects at less than 1200bps will be notified that they are at an undesirable speed and will be disconnected. Maximum Baud Rate Maximum Baud Rate Maximum Baud Rate This value should be set to the maximum speed that your modem will allow. If your modem port has been locked (by the use of a FOSSIL or some other way), you should enter the value at which your port is locked here. Port Address Port Address Port Address This value should always be set to 0 unless your computer uses a different address for the com port interrupt. If this is the case, the DECIMAL address should be entered here. Lock Port Lock Port Lock Port If the port that the modem is connected to is locked, either through the modem or a fossil driver, make sure this flag is turned on. When this flag is on, Harmony BBS will not make any attempts to change the bps rate during a connection. It will always remain open at the locked rate. Drop DTR Drop DTR Drop DTR If this option is enabled, Harmony BBS will attempt to lower the DTR of the modem to disconnect a caller. If this flag is not on, Harmony BBS will simply leave the user connected. Hardware Flow Control/Software Flow Control Hardware Flow Control/Software Flow Control Hardware Flow Control/Software Flow Control If either or both of these options are on, Harmony BBS will allow for flow control between modems. If Harmony BBS is being used in conjunction with a high speed modem, one of either of these flags should be enabled. The minimum requirement between these flags will be different for every system, so some experimentation may be required. Harmony BBS Page 23 23 23 ________________________________________ Initialization Strings Initialization Strings Initialization Strings This box allows you to modify all of the commands that are sent to your modem for initializations and forced responses. Harmony BBS comes pre-packed with settings which should work for most Hayes(TM) and compatible modems. Escape String Escape String Escape String This should be set to the string required to bring your modem to its command mode. Answer String Answer String Answer String This should be set to the string required to make your modem answer an incoming call. The modem should be capable of automatic baud matching, and should be able to return through the port ways of notifying Harmony BBS as to the connection speed of the incoming call. On Hook String On Hook String On Hook String Set this to the string required to make your modem disconnect. In other words, drop the modems DTR. Making the modem disconnect can sometime be a tricky subject. Make sure that you do not have your modem set up to ignore the DTR, otherwise connections may not be successfully dropped all the time. This command is used in conjunction with the Escape String to disconnect calls. Off Hook String Off Hook String Off Hook String Set this to the string required to put your modem in the OFF-HOOK mode. Off hook mode is the equivalent of your phone being busy. When this command is used people cannot make calls into your system. Dialing PreFix String Dialing PreFix String Dialing PreFix String At the current time, this string is not used in Harmony BBS. It was put in for future expansion. Force OK Response Force OK Response Force OK Response This should be set to the string that will force your modem to return an OK response (which can be defined in the next section). This is very important because unless otherwise specified, Harmony BBS will send this command every time it is executed to make sure that the modem is responding to everything correctly. Initialization Strings Initialization Strings Initialization Strings These strings are sent to the modem at the beginning of every session (everytime Harmony is executed). Use these strings to set up your modem. You only need to use as many of these strings as you need, but make sure that you always start with initialization string one and work your way down. Harmony BBS Page 24 24 24 ________________________________________ Harmony will stop sending strings at the first empty one that it encounters. There are a couple of things that you should take into consideration when setting up these strings. First, you should make sure that you do NOT have your modem set up to auto-answer. Harmony BBS will answer the phone when appropriate, so if you own a Hayes(TM) or compatible modem, you would probably want to make sure that the S0=0 is in one of your strings. Secondly, you want to make sure that you set up your modem to return the same codes to your computer that you have set up in your Response Codes settings discussed later in this chapter. Usually, the defaults for this are V1 Q0 E1 X4, but it may vary from modem to modem. Please refer to your modem manual for the correct settings. Modem Responses Modem Responses Modem Responses This box contains all the return strings that Harmony BBS will look for being sent from the modem at specific times. Connect Speeds Connect Speeds Connect Speeds The first eight fields in this area pertain to the different responses that your modem will be send whenever a connection is established. They all pertain to the different responses sent by your modem for different connections. If your modem does not support any specific connection speed, just leave that field empty. Error Correction Error Correction Error Correction This should be set to the string that is returned by an error correcting modem when an error correction connect is established. If the modem being used is not an error correct modem then ignore this field. Modem Error Modem Error Modem Error Error should be set to the string that the modem returns whenever an error is returned. This will mainly be used for ensuring that your modem is set up correctly. For example, if you do not have a valid initialization string, your modem will return an error message and it will be displayed during execution of Harmony BBS. No Carrier No Carrier No Carrier This field should be set to the string that is returned when your modem detects a loss of carrier. Although Harmony BBS is not constantly checking for this string, this is used at disconnection time. Voice Answer Voice Answer Voice Answer This is not currently used by Harmony BBS, but was put in for future expansion. Harmony BBS Page 25 25 25 ________________________________________ No Dialtone No Dialtone No Dialtone This is not currently used by Harmony BBS, but was put in for future expansion. Busy Busy Busy This is not currently used by Harmony BBS, but was put in for future expansion. Ring Ring Ring This should be set to the string that your modem replies when it detects a ring in your phone line. If this is set incorrectly, you will not be able to receive any incoming calls since Harmony BBS will constantly be looking for the wrong response from your modem. OK Response OK Response OK Response This should be set to the response that your modem will return whenever a successful command was executed. It is the opposite of the error command and should also be the one that is returned when the Force OK string is sent to the modem. Exiting HMC Exiting HMC Exiting HMC When you are finished configuration, use this choice. If you have made any changes that have not yet been saved by HMC, you will be asked one last time if you would like to save your changes. Note that this last question only takes affect for the SYSTEMS/BBS DATA information. Most everything else within HMC is written to disk immediately upon change. After you have answered, you will be brought back to the DOS command line. Files (File Transfers) Files (File Transfers) Files (File Transfers) The file transfer section of a bulletin board system is usually the most active part. In HMC you are allowed to do many things to help keep your file transfer sections up and running. Internal Protocols Internal Protocols Internal Protocols Harmony BBS supports a wide range of internal protocols. All of which may be deactivated or activated at any time. This is useful for sysops who may wish to use an external protocol instead. There are a total of 7 internal protocols included. Harmony will automatically make them active upon initialization. If at any time you wish to activate or deactivate any of the internal protocols, simply follow the procedures given below. Here is the list of all protocols that come with Harmony BBS : # Protocol Name Max D/L Harmony BBS Page 26 26 26 ________________________________________ === ============ ======= 1. Xmodem 1 2. Xmodem-1k 1 3. YmodemBatch 4. Ymodem-GBatch 5. ZmodemBatch 6. KermitBatch 7. ASCII Determining the maximum number of files that the 4 batch protocols can send can be tricky. To this date, the maximum has not yet been met. We would not suggest going allowing transfers of more then 20 with any of the internal batch protocols. Editing Protocols Editing Protocols Editing Protocols This option will allow you to edit all of the protocols that you have set up for use with your system. Upon activating this field in the menu, you will be given a list of all the current active protocols. At the bottom of the list you will see the word CREATE, this allows you to add another protocol to the list. The first time that you set up Harmony BBS, there will obviously not be any active external protocols. If you wish to add another protocol, you should move the highlighted bar (either with the up and down cursor controls or with the mouse) to the <CREATE> Protocol option and press [ENTER] or click the left mouse button. If you wish to edit and existing protocol, bring the highlighted bar to the protocol you wish to edit in the same manner. To escape this process, you can press [ESC]. After verifying that you are ready to work on a protocol, you will be prompted with for the following settings : At the bottom of this box there will either be 2 or three buttons. There will always at least be the [OK] or [CANCEL] buttons which may be used to either accept all of the current changes or abort them. If you are editing a pre-existing protocol, then there will be a third button named [DELETE]. Use this if you no longer want this protocol activated. Be aware that you are only erasing Harmony's AWARENESS of the protocol, and HMC will make no attempt to erase the external protocol program itself. As a matter of fact, Harmony BBS will not even erase the batch files that you have created for the use of the external protocols, you will have to do this manually through DOS. Harmony BBS Page 27 27 27 ________________________________________ Name Name Name The name of the protocol that you are working on should be entered here. It is the name that will be shown to users when the protocol choice list is displayed to them. If you want to add one of the internal protocols that are available, you must precede the name with 2 characters. The first one MUST be an exclamation point (!). This signifies that an internal protocol is to be used. The next character must be a number 1-7. That number will correspond with the list of internal protocols names earlier. For example, if for some reason, you wanted to call the internal Xmodem protocol Internal Xmodem, you would enter !1InternalXmodem. Regardless of the name given, Xmodem would become the active protocol for that slot. Description Description Description Use this to tell a short description of the protocol. You can leave this blank if you wish, but if it is filled with something, then the description of the protocol will be displayed to the side of the name when it is listed. Note that you may add any description you desire for internal protocols also. Send File Send File Send File Leave this field blank for internal protocols. This should be the fully qualified path and name of the batch file that you have manually created that will be executed when a user wants to download something from your system. In other words, your BBS is going to SEND something to them. Batch files can receive a number of parameters through the command line, and Harmony BBS makes use of this by sending certain information that your protocol will need. Harmony BBS sends the following in the following order : %1 is the port number that you have set up for Harmony. Most protocols need to know the port number that you wish to send the file from. %2 is the current baud rate that the user is connected at. Some protocols can determine this on their own and you may not need to use this parameter. %3 is the actual name of the file that the user wishes to receive. It is the FULLY QUALIFIED path and file. If the user has decided to receive multiple files, Harmony BBS will send the file FILES1.TMP which is a list file of all the files that Harmony BBS will be sending. Most ALL batch-file protocols support the "list file" format. Harmony BBS Page 28 28 28 ________________________________________ Receive File Receive File Receive File Leave this field blank for internal protocols. This should be the fully qualified path and name of the batch file that will be called when a user wishes to send a file to your BBS. Harmony BBS will send to this file the exact same parameters that are listed above for receive file. Max Downloads Max Downloads Max Downloads NOTE : You MUST set this number correctly for internal protocols. Xmodem, Xmodem-1k, and ASCII only allow for 1 file transfer at a time. You MUST put a one in this spot for those protocols. For the other 4 protocols, put the maximum number of files that you wish to allow users to download at any given time. This number should be the maximum number of downloads that are allowed to be sent at one time. This was put here for external protocols which can send multiple files in a single session. There is only 1 way Harmony BBS deals with Multi-file protocols : When a protocol that allows for multiple downloads is requested, Harmony BBS will make a temporary file in your file transfer directory called files1.tmp. This is an ASCII file consisting of all of the fully qualified paths and names of all of the files that have been requested for downloading. Be aware that this is done even if the user only wishes to download 1 file. The files1.tmp text file will be the one that is sent to the batch file upon execution of the protocol. All Multi-file protocols MUST allow for ways to deal with this list (most do by making you append a @ in front). An example Receive batch file would then look like this for a Multi-file protocol : ProtocolName Send Port %1 Baud %2 File @%3 Notice that there is no space between the character that signifies the batch download and the parameter being passed. OK DOS Code OK DOS Code OK DOS Code Enter the error code that this protocol returns when all transmissions using this protocol were SUCCESSFUL. Harmony BBS will use this number that will be returned to the BBS to determine whether the upload or download was acceptable. If any other number is returned to Harmony, the BBS will view it as a unsuccessful transmission. For internal protocols, this number MUST be set to zero (0), otherwise, all internal file transfers will be treated as unsuccessful. Harmony BBS Page 29 29 29 ________________________________________ Key Code Key Code Key Code This should be an letter of number that is original to this protocol. It will be used when it is time for the user to decide which protocol they wish to use. If it is not original to all of the other active protocols, then problems may occur. You are allowed to enter any character you wish for internal protocols also, regarding the above rules are met. Add File Base Add File Base Add File Base The file transfer section is broken up into categories. Each base should have a specific kind of files in them to make life easier for your users. For example, you could have a file base set up specifically for Windows applications. You may also want a section devoted specifically to graphics pictures, etc. etc. Try to lay out your file transfer section ahead of time. If you find that users are uploading programs that don't necessarily fit into that base, chances are you will need to add another one, and you will have to do some file manipulating if you don't want to keep those "irrelevant" files in that base. To add a file base to Harmony BBS, choose Add File Base under the Files menu. Move around the fields in the normal fashion. The meaning of each field will now be explained : Base Name Base Name Base Name The base name is the title of this file base. It should be descriptive, telling the users what kind of files will be found in that base, and what kind of files should be uploaded to this base. Directory Path Directory Path Directory Path This should be the FULLY qualified path for the location of all files that will be found in this base. Harmony BBS maintains an indexed directory of all of the files information found in this base. This directory should be used for the SOLE purpose of holding files for this base. Harmony BBS Page 30 30 30 ________________________________________ When creating a new base, you are given the default directory that these file statistics will be held in. DO NOT use this for your spot to hold files. You will most likely want to put all of your file bases UNDER this directory. It was put here merely for the sake of adding to it. For example, if you wanted to create a file base for word processors, and you wanted to put it under the C:\HM\UD\ directory, you will only have to make it look something like C:\HM\UD\WP\. Of course you do not HAVE to store your files like this, but this constitutes the most easy setup. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THE FULL PATH BE ENTERED!! STARTING FROM DRIVE:\ETC\ETC. Req. To Enter Req. To Enter Req. To Enter Enter the requirement string settings that must be met in order for a user to have access to this file base. If this requirement string is not met, Harmony BBS will hide this base from the user, and they will never even know it exists. Batch D/L Req. Batch D/L Req. Batch D/L Req. Enter the requirement string settings that must be met in order for a user to enact a multiple download session with one of the batch protocols. If this requirement string is not met, the user will only be able to download 1 file at a time from this base. Credit Inactive Credit Inactive Credit Inactive Enter the requirement string settings that must be met in order for the credit system to be inactive for a user on this base. This can be useful if you want to have certain files available to people at all times, regardless of their up/download credit. The credit system is very flexible in Harmony BBS, as you will soon see. Max Space Max Space Max Space This should be set to the maximum number of K (1k=1024 bytes) you will allocate for this file base. If this is set to 0, then Harmony BBS will set the limit to the amount of free space that you have on your disk drive (Harmony looks at the free space of the file bases path setting). If you have limited disk space, it would be wise to set this value accordingly. Max Files Max Files Max Files This value should be set if you wish to limit the number of files allowed in this base. This is another way of limiting the size of this particular base. If this value is set to 0, then the only file limit imposed is the number of files that your file bases directory path can maintain. Harmony BBS Page 31 31 31 ________________________________________ NOTE : You are allowed to set both of the previous settings to numbers other than 0 at the same time. This will allow you to limit both the number of files allowed in the base, and the amount of space you will allocate for it at the same time. Credits/Up Credits/Up Credits/Up If the credit system is active for the user on this base, this number should be set to the number of file credits you wish to give a user for every 1 file that is uploaded. If the file credit system if active, which will be explained soon, this number should at least be 1, since a 0 in this spot will never give a user credit at all for ANYTHING that he or she uploads. Credits/Down Credits/Down Credits/Down IF the credit system is active for the user on this base, this number should be set to the number of file credits you wish to take away from a user for ever 1 file that is downloaded. K/Up K/Up K/Up If the credit system is active for a user, this number should be set to the amount of K (1024bytes) that should be awarded to this user for every 1K that is uploaded. K/Down K/Down K/Down If the credit system is active for a user, this number should be set to the amount of K (1024bytes) that should be taken away for every 1K downloaded. NOTE: The credit system for each file base can be in 1 of three states: OFF which means that none of the above numbers will ever be in effect. A file/file credit system, in which the users credit ratio is determined by the formula : (NumberOfFilesUserHasUploaded * Credits/Up) ----------------------------------------------- (div.) (NumberOfFilesUserHasDownloaded * Credits/Down) or the K/K credit system, in which the users credit ratio is determined by the formula : (AmountOFKUserHasUploaded * K/Up) -------------------------------------- (div) (AmountOFKUserHasDownloaded * K/Down) Harmony BBS Page 32 32 32 ________________________________________ Sec To Val. Sec To Val. Sec To Val. Enter the security level (1-100) that a user must have to be able to validate unvalidated files in this base. Most of the time, this will be set to 100 for sysops only, but if you decide to have some higher access user who you will allow to validate files, then this number comes in useful. Min Baud Min Baud Min Baud Enter the minimum baud rate that users must be connected to for access to this base. If a user is NOT connected at a fast enough bps rate, then they will not even know this base exists. Default Extention Default Extention Default Extention This field should contain the 3 character default of the DOS extention name that will be used for this file base. The default extention allows users to enter file names without having to enter the extention. If no extention is entered, Harmony BBS will first look for the file name without adding this exention. If it is not found, Harmony will then search with the extention added. File Ratio File Ratio File Ratio Enter the minimum FILE ratio that a user must have to be able to download files from this base. It would most likely be a decimal number. For example, if the FILE credit system were active, and the Credits/Up were set to 2, and the Credits/Down were set to 1, and the user has uploaded 3 files and downloaded 10, their ratio would be : 2*3 = 6 ----- --- = .6 1*10 10 If the file ratio were set to .5, then the user would have enough credit to download more files, but if it were set to .7, then the user would get a NOT ENOUGH CREDIT TO DOWNLOAD message. K Ratio K Ratio K Ratio This works exactly the same as the file ratio, except this number is used when the K/K credit system is in effect. Another thing you should note about these 2 ratios is that you should not set them to 0 if that type of credit system is active. A requirement of always having a ratio of over 0 will ALWAYS be met and would therefore make the credit system not work. Edit Base Flags Edit Base Flags Edit Base Flags This button will bring you to another screen that will let you turn on and off specific flags for this base : Harmony BBS Page 33 33 33 ________________________________________ ________________ File Base Active : This flag can be used at your discretion. If you wish to temporarily disable this file base, but do not wish to delete it, turn this flag off. No one will have access to it. ____________________________________ Files Automatically Made Unvalidated : If this flag is set on, then anytime someone uploads a file to this base, it will be marked as UNVALIDATED, and only people who meet the security requirement will be able to download it until it has been validated. ____________________ Credit System Active : Turn this flag on if you wish to have the credit system active for this file base. If this flag is not set, then the user's ratio will never be checked with the requirement ratio, and users will be able to download freely from this base. ____________________ File/File K/K system : If this flag is set (X), then the File per File credit system will be used (if the credit system is on at all which is determined by the previous flag). If the flag is not set, then the K/K credit system will be used for this base. _____________________________ Extended Descriptions Allowed : If this flag is set, Harmony BBS will allow the users to add extended descriptions for files. There is ALWAYS at least a 1 line description available to all files, but when this flag is on, then an extra 4 lines will be allowed. If you do not wish to take up the disk space required for extended descriptions, then set this flag off and the extended description index will never be made for this base. If you are editing a previous base, and decide to change this flag, Harmony BBS will automatically create or stop using it at the time you make the switch. ______________________________ Allow Password Protected Files : Set this flag if you wish to allow users to be able to connect a password with files that are uploaded to this base. If a password is connected, only people who know the password will be allowed to download that file. ______________________ Allow Sysop Only Files : Set this flag if you want Harmony BBS to ask the user before they upload the file if this is a sysop only file. Sysop only files will not be seen by ANYONE unless they have a security level of 100. Harmony BBS Page 34 34 34 ________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Normal Users Can Download Unvalidated Files : Set this flag if you will allow unvalidated files in this base to be downloaded by anyone. Although this is not the safest option in the world to set, it can be useful if you want to make files available to people immediately, but don't have the time to validate the files integrity right away. _____________________ Floppy Base Directory : If this flag is set, then Harmony BBS will treat this file base as if it were a floppy disk. This allows you to constantly change what is in this base, just pull out one disk and slip in another. Floppy bases are not treated quite the same as others. First, you MUST set the file base path to the floppy of your choice (ex. A:\). Secondly, Harmony BBS does NO cataloging whatsoever of floppy based directories. It will simply read the directory as DOS would, and show what it finds. You should also set the Max Space option to the capacity of your floppy. This type of system makes it easy for a sysop to take files off-line and easily make them available again if something is requested by a user. You should also be aware that before Harmony lets a user into a file base that is marked as being a floppy base, it will do a check to make sure there is a disk in the drive. If there is none to be found, then Harmony will not let them into the file base. Once you are finished setting up the new file base, use the [OK] button to verify that everything is ready, or [CANCEL] to abort the creation of the new file base. Edit File Base Edit File Base Edit File Base If you wish to edit an existing file base, you will be shown a list of all the current file bases. Choose the one that you want to work on, and press the [OK] button. You will then be prompted with the exact same screen options that are given when you Add a file base. Delete File Base Delete File Base Delete File Base If you wish to permanently remove a file base from your BBS, choose this option. You will then be shown a list of all of the file bases. After choosing, you will then be given a choice of 2 things before the file base is deleted. If you wish to delete all of the files that are located in that file bases active directory, highlight the corresponding box. If this box is not highlighted, all files for that base will remain intact. Harmony BBS Page 35 35 35 ________________________________________ If you wish to remove the directory from your system that the active file path was pointing to, choose this option. This option will ONLY be able to remove an empty directory, so if you wish to have it removed and there are files in it that you want saved, you must back those files up first and then delete them. These two options can easily be done through the command line, but having them here makes life a little easier on the sysop. Move File Base Move File Base Move File Base This option allows the sysop to rearrange the order of their file transfer sections. Once this command is chosen, pick the file base that you wish to move and press ENTER. Now, move the highlight to the new location for this file base and press ENTER again. Message Bases Message Bases Message Bases The message base system is again, one of the most used parts of a BBS. Although it is not necessary to layout your entire system before actually setting it up, it is strongly recommended. Having a good idea of how you wish to arrange security levels, access to message bases, file bases, and other things throughout the BBS is a VERY good idea. You will reduce the amount of maintenance needed in the long run. With that in mind, let's get to setting up your message base systems ... General Message Base Information General Message Base Information General Message Base Information Each message base is stored in the widely used Squish (Tm) format. This format was originally developed my Scott Dudley, but has caught on through the entire BBS community, mainly because of its great flexibility. Since Harmony BBS uses the Squish format, you must get ahold of a utility that can pack squish message bases at the very least. If you plan on running Harmony BBS with a network, you will need a program that can toss/scan messages to and from this format. The most poular of such utilities is named (oddly enough) SQUISH, and was also created by Scott Dudley. It is extremely suggested that you get a hold of a copy of it. Harmony BBS Page 36 36 36 ________________________________________ All the messages for each message base are held in 2 files. For each message base, Harmony BBS will take the first 8 letters of the message base name, and create a DOS filename. For example, say you had a message base called "Need A Job", Harmony BBS would create 2 DOS files in its MSG directory. They would be named NEEDAJOB.SQD and NEEDAJOB.SQI. For this reason, you MUST make sure that the first eight characters of each message base will consist of valid DOS characters. Anything else will cause problems. Also, make sure that the first 8 letters are original to that message base only. Those two files that are created will hold all the messages for that message base. The only other thing that needs to be understood is that WHENEVER you import/export/or pack messages from the network, HMHOUSE -M must be run immediately afterwards. This is a rather quick process and simply lets Harmony BBS know the number of messages that exist within each message base. To work on the message bases in HMC, choose the Messages title at the top of the screen in the usual manner. You will be provided a menu with the following options : Add Message Base Add Message Base Add Message Base If you choose to add a message base to Harmony BBS, you will be prompted with a screen with the following options : Base Name Base Name Base Name Enter the name that you wish to call the message base. Try to make it descriptive so that the users will know what kind of topics will be discussed in it. Requirements Requirements Requirements This field should have the requirement string that must be met for users to have access to this particular message base. SubOp's # SubOp's # SubOp's # Enter the user number of the person you wish to "watch over" this particular message base. There are a couple extra options that the Subop of a message base has. First, and most important, you should realize that you do NOT have to raise a SubOp's security level to make them a Subop. Just entering the user number here will give them a couple extra privileges (and responsibilities). Harmony BBS Page 37 37 37 ________________________________________ First, making a user a Subop will allow them to erase ANY message, regardless of who wrote it. Secondly, all private mail directed towards the subop of a message base will go to that user. Subops are usually expected to maintain the conversations within a message base, answer questions user's may have, and delete any objectionable messages that are found within the message base. Chances are, your Subops will want to draw the entrance files (both ASCII and ANSI) for their message base also. NOTE : We have found that having a subop for a message base will stimulate conversations quite a bit. Sometimes all it takes is someone (like a Subop) to spark conversations and get people into leaving messages. Net Name Net Name Net Name Only fill in this field if the message base is part of a network. It should contain the ACTUAL name as recognized by your network and mailer system. Currently, this is not used. Net Address Net Address Net Address The format for the network address SHOULD follow the standard ZONE:NET/NODE.POINT format. The point was added for people who may wish to run the BBS as a point off of a real network node, but do not actually want to run a bulletin board system. Look at your mailer documentation for more information on running a point. Tagline Tagline Tagline Enter the line that you wish to have printed at the end of each networked message. This is usually required to contain AT LEAST the network address of your BBS. It may also contain your BBS name, phone number, or anything else you wish. Maximum Messages Maximum Messages Maximum Messages Enter the maximum number of messages allowed for this message base. Read the introduction to message bases carefully to determine this number. Be aware that this number will NOT stop users from posting messages. This number is here for HMHOUSE. HMHOUSE should be run every night with the -M parameter. Look at the HMHOUSE documentation for more information in using this IMPORTANT program. Anonymous Security Anonymous Security Anonymous Security Enter the minimum required security level to be able to post Anonymous messages. If you do not wish to allow anonymous messages, enter a security of 100. Harmony BBS Page 38 38 38 ________________________________________ If this is a networked message base, you should make sure that the network allows for anonymous messages before allowing users to post anonymously. Batch Security Batch Security Batch Security Enter the minimum security level required for users to be able to receive this message base in batch message packets in the QWK message packer. Edit Base Flags Edit Base Flags Edit Base Flags Activating this button will allow you to toggle the message bases flags and turn all your users post flags on or off. Turn the NETWORKED flag ON if the message base you are working on is a network base. If you wish to allow batch retrievals of this message base via a Qwik session, this switch should be set on. If you want the messages on the base you are working on to be cycled during HMHOUSE, this flags should be turned on. If it is off, when the message base is filled, none of the users will be allowed to post when the maximum number of messages have been met. If you wish to allow aliases for this message base, turn this flag on. If aliases are allowed, everytime a user enters or replies to a message, the user will be asked if they want to use their real name, or the alias for the message. Network users should make sure that the network allows for aliases on that particular networked message base. If you wish to turn all the post flags on or off for all users, turn on the appropriate box. You will be asked to verify your selection before any action is taken on the message base. Edit Message Bases Edit Message Bases Edit Message Bases This menu option will allow you to change any of the message base statistic information. Everything explained above will be available to you from the edit messages base section. After choosing the message base you wish to edit in the usual manner, there are a couple things you should be aware of : First, you are allowed to toggle any individuals ability to post in this message base via the Edit Post Flags button. Second, you are allowed to take this message in and out of an individual users newscan. Usually you will not have to use this button since most users will configure their newscans themselves. Harmony BBS Page 39 39 39 ________________________________________ Also note, if you decide to change the directory where messages are to be stored, you will have to do a manual DOS copy of all the files from the old directory to the new directory. Delete Message Base Delete Message Base Delete Message Base Decide on the message base you wish to delete from the list. Once chosen, you will have the chance to decide on 4 things: Delete Messages Delete Messages Delete Messages Choose this option if you wish to have the actual messages deleted. You may not want this option on if you wish to save the messages themselves. Many times, a sysop will delete a message base, but for some reason or another, want to save the messages. Most the time you will want this flag turned on. Remove Directory Remove Directory Remove Directory Choose this option if you want HMC to remove the directory from your system. If there are ANY files present in the directory, it will not be removed. Since there are probably messages in the directory, you will probably have to turn on the Delete Messages option along with this one if you want the directory removed. Erase/Renumber Entrance Files Erase/Renumber Entrance Files Erase/Renumber Entrance Files You will almost always want this flag turned on, unless you want the entrance file for this particular message base saved. If this option is not on, HMC will not touch any of the message base entrance files. Notify Subop VIA E-Mail Notify Subop VIA E-Mail Notify Subop VIA E-Mail If you have a Subop for this message base, chances are you will want to notify them that their message base is about to be erased. If you turn this flag on, Harmony BBS will automatically send the subop a letter and you won't have to worry about it. Once you are sure that all the flags are correctly set, verify that you want the message base erased, and HMC will go to work. After you are finished erasing all the message bases desired, you will almost definitely want to rescan and mark your messages, since the marked message index file will no longer be correct. Move Message Bases Move Message Bases Move Message Bases This option allows you to rearrange the order of your message base. . . First, choose the message base that you wish to move and press enter. Next, point to the new location for this message base and press enter again. Harmony BBS Page 40 40 40 ________________________________________ E-mail (Post Office) E-mail (Post Office) E-mail (Post Office) This section of HMC allows you to do some basic housework needed to maintain the private mail section of your BBS. Private mail is entered VIA the Post Office (P from the main menu on Harmony). All private mail is held in a separate Squish file. This file is called NETMAIL.SQD & .SQI. It is held in the system directory. Users Users Users One of the main concerns of a sysop is proper maintenance of the users. This section of HMC will help maintain the user information quite easily. Edit Users Edit Users Edit Users This is one of the most commonly used section of HMC. This is where you are allowed to edit all individual user information. Upon choosing this request, a rather full screen of information will be displayed. HMC starts out with editing user #1 (the sysop). It is one of the first things that you will want to d o after installation. NOTE : User #1 should ALWAYS be the sysop (you!). It should contain all information required about yourself (including a security level of 100). IMPORTANT : After you are finished editing a user, you MUST press the [OK] button for the changes to be recorded. Do NOT move to another user without pressing the OK button or else the changes will not be permanent. Dates Dates Dates Through this section, and most of Harmony BBS, all dates are stored in a standard MM/DD/YYYY format. This means that all numbers less than 10 should be stored with a padding zero. For example, the date August 5, 1934 should be stored in the format 08/05/1934. Notice also that the FULL year is stored in this format (1934, not just 34). Changing current user Changing current user Changing current user There are many different ways to change the current user being edited. [PgUp] Pressing the Page Up key will change the current active user by -1. For example, if you are editing user #26, pressing the [PgUp] key will change to user #25. Pressing this key is also the equivalent of pressing the [-1] button displayed at the bottom of the screen. Harmony BBS Page 41 41 41 ________________________________________ [PgDown] This is the opposite of Page Up key. The current user being edited will be increased by 1. For example, if you are editing user #324, pressing [PgUp] will make user #325 the current active user. If the [CTRL] (Control) key is pressed when either the [PgUp] or [PgDown] key is used, HMC will increase or decrease the active user being edited by a factor of 10. Example, user #57 is being edited, holding down the [CTRL] key, and pressing [PgDown] will make user #67 the current active user being edited. Another way to change the current active user is by pressing the [USER #] button displayed at the bottom of the screen. You will be asked to enter a full name, an alias, or a user number. HMC will search and make that user the current active user. User Name User Name User Name The full name (first & last) should be in this field. Alias Alias Alias If your system is setup to allow aliases, this field should contain the alias of the current user. If the user does not wish to use an alias, the user's full name should be repeated here. Password Password Password The user's private password should be stored here. Do not change this password without notifying the user. If you do, then the user will not be know their password and they will not be able to log on to your BBS. Address Address Address This should contain the street address of the user. There are separate fields for city, state and zip code. This field should contain the street address only. City City City This field should contain the city where the user lives. State State State This field should contain the 2 letter state code of the users address. Zip Zip Zip This should contain the users zipcode. Harmony BBS does not yet support the extended zip code format. Phone Phone Phone This field holds the user's phone number. It should be in the standard ###-###-#### form. Harmony BBS Page 42 42 42 ________________________________________ Birthday Birthday Birthday The user's birthday is stored in this field. If any of the requirement strings check for the age of users, you should do as much as possible to validate this date with your users. It is stored in the format MM/DD/YYYY. Last On Last On Last On This field should contain the date that the user last called your BBS. In most cases you will not have to change this field. Security Security Security This field contains the current security level of this user. This number should range from 1 to 100. For more information on security levels, see the section on Security and Valid Requirement Strings. Calls Total Calls Total Calls Total This field contains the total number of calls this user has made to your system. In most cases, you will not have to change this field. Protocol Protocol Protocol This field contains was put here for future use. Harmony BBS only uses this field in the QWIK packing section. Computer Computer Computer This field contains the number of the type of computer this user owns. For a complete list of these computer types, look at the section entitled Security and Valid Requirement Strings. Calls Today Calls Today Calls Today This field contains the number of calls this user has made to your BBS today. This number resets every day a user calls for the first time. For example, if a user called 3 times on a Saturday, and you edit that user on Sunday, if they have not yet called on the Sunday, the 3 will still be shown in this box. Just note that this number is only accurate if the last call date field is the current date. Money Owed Money Owed Money Owed This field contains the amount of money this user may owe to your BBS or establishment. It is mainly used when checking valid requirement strings where the BBS has been set up to look at this field. Files U/L Files U/L Files U/L This field contains the total number of files this user has uploaded to your system. Harmony BBS Page 43 43 43 ________________________________________ KB U/L KB U/L KB U/L This field contains the total number of KB (Kilobytes 1= 1024 bytes) this user has uploaded to your system. Files D/L Files D/L Files D/L This field contains the total number of files this user has downloaded from your BBS. KB D/L KB D/L KB D/L This field contains the total number of KB (Kilobytes 1= 1024 bytes) this user has downloaded from your system. Msgs Pstd (Messages Posted) Msgs Pstd (Messages Posted) Msgs Pstd (Messages Posted) This field contains the total number messages this user has posted in the message base section of your BBS. Scr Length (Screen Length) Scr Length (Screen Length) Scr Length (Screen Length) This field contains the number of active lines the user has on the computer screen. It is mainly used when checking for screen pausing. You will usually never have to edit this field. Scr Width (Screen Width) Scr Width (Screen Width) Scr Width (Screen Width) This field contains the number of columns this user has on their computer monitor. It is mainly used to determine word wrap during a message editing session. You will usually never have to edit this field. Edit User Flags Edit User Flags Edit User Flags If you choose this button, you will be given a list of the current user flags. Here is the description for each flag : ANSI Default ANSI Default ANSI Default - This flag will be on if the last time the user called they used ANSI instead of the normal ASCII character set. Screen Pausing Default Screen Pausing Default Screen Pausing Default - This flag determines whether screen pausing will be enabled or disabled. If this flag is on, screen pausing is active. Capital Letters On Capital Letters On Capital Letters On - If this flag is on, all lower case letters will be sent as upper case to the calling system. Some old monitors only have one character set and still need this type of option. Access To Message Bases Access To Message Bases Access To Message Bases - If this flag is on, the current user has access to the message bases. If it is off, then they do not. This flag overrides all requirement strings when it is turned off. For example, if they have enough security to enter the message bases, but this flag is not on, they will NOT be allowed in the message bases. Harmony BBS Page 44 44 44 ________________________________________ Access To File Transfers Access To File Transfers Access To File Transfers - If this flag is on, then the current user has access to the file transfer section of your BBS. This flag also overrides any type of requirement string or security level when it is turned OFF. Allowed To Download Batch Messages Allowed To Download Batch Messages Allowed To Download Batch Messages - If this flag is on, then they will be given access to the [B] command in the message base system. Having this flag on will allow them to enter a Qwik session. Sex Sex Sex - If this flag is on, the user is defined as a male. If it is off, the user is defined as a female. Allowed To Download Multiple Files Allowed To Download Multiple Files Allowed To Download Multiple Files - If this flag is not on, the user will not be allowed to download more than one file at a time with any of the batch protocols in your file transfer system. Allowed To Post Messages Allowed To Post Messages Allowed To Post Messages - If this flag is not on, the current user is NOT allowed to post messages in the message base section of the BBS. Allowed to Send Private Mail Allowed to Send Private Mail Allowed to Send Private Mail - If this flag is turned on, the current user will be allowed to send private mail to other users. If it is not on, they will only be allowed to receive private mail from other users. Automatically Show Subop Entrance Files Automatically Show Subop Entrance Files Automatically Show Subop Entrance Files - If this flag is on, then everytime a user enters a different message base subboard, they will be shown the entrance file (usually created by the subop). You will usually not have to worry about this flag since users are allowed to turn it off and on. Allowed To Download Files Allowed To Download Files Allowed To Download Files - If this flag is NOT on, the current user will NOT be allowed to download files from the file transfer section of the BBS. You should be aware that this flag has precedence over the ALLOWED TO DOWNLOAD MULTIPLE FILES flag. Allowed To Download Unvalidated Files Allowed To Download Unvalidated Files Allowed To Download Unvalidated Files - This flag determines whether the user has the ability to download files that have not yet been validated. In most cases you will want this option off. Full Screen Editor On Full Screen Editor On Full Screen Editor On - If this flag is on, the everytime the user goes to edit a message, Harmony BBS's full screen editor will be activated. Again, most the time you will not have to worry about this flag since the users have the ability to turn it off and on. Harmony BBS Page 45 45 45 ________________________________________ Graphics Screen Pausing On Graphics Screen Pausing On Graphics Screen Pausing On - If this flag is on, and the user has the SCREEN PAUSING DEFAULT flag on, a scrolling message will be displayed during each screen pause. If this flag is off, a plain "Press any key to continue..." message will be displayed. System Defined Flags A-C System Defined Flags A-C System Defined Flags A-C - These three flags were put with no specific purpose in mind. You can turn them on and off, and incorporate them into all the requirement strings throughout the BBS. Delete User Delete User Delete User Press this button if you wish to delete all the information being held in this user's position. After verifying this request, HMC will change all the information to the default "Empty User Status". The next time a new user calls, this position will be filled, and they will be assigned the user number of the old user. New User Edit New User Edit New User Edit This section of HMC allows you to edit the default flag settings of new users. Each one of these flags have been explained above in the Edit User Flags section. Purge Users Purge Users Purge Users This option allows you to do a massive user purge. A user purge should be done to trim down the number of active users on your system. If you choose this option, you will be asked to enter a valid requirement string. HMC will then scan through the userlog and delete ALL users who meet this requirement string. For example, if you enter a requirement string of S<20:D>30, HMC would delete all users who have a security level of less than 20 and have not called your system in over 30 days. Before HMC does the user purge, you will be asked if you want to make a back up of the user log. If you answer yes, you will then be prompted for the full path and file name for the backup copy. If you later decide that you did not wish to purge these user, or if a mistake was made, you would then just copy this file back over the USERLOG.HMY file in your USERS directory. Denial List Denial List Denial List The denial list is a simple ASCII file in your USERS directory. Each line of text will be checked at log on and during a new user application. If the user enters a name or alias that contains one of these lines of text, the user will not be allowed on the system. This is useful for stopping profanity and hackers from entering your system. For example, if the denial list contained the following lines : Harmony BBS Page 46 46 46 ________________________________________ HACKER JOHN PIRATE MASTER Anyone who enters a word that contains any of these words will not be allowed on your system. Obviously, you would not want to put words like John in the denial list. If you did, anyone who has a name of John (John Doe, Johnson) in their name, would not be allowed on your system. HMC allows simple editing of this file by reading in each line and allowing your to edit them. To add a word to the denial list, simply go to one of the Empty lines and press the [OK] button. Enter the new word that you wish added to the denial list. If you wish to take a word out of the denial list, go to the word, press the [OK] button and replace the word with the word "Empty". When you are finished editing the denial list, HMC will write all the words (not including the "Empty") to the denial list. Validate Users Validate Users Validate Users HMC allows you to validate a group of users at once. If you choose this option, the first thing you will be asked is to enter a valid requirement string. Anyone who meets this requirement string will be validated. Validation simply consists of a change in security level to the Validation Security Level described in the BBS Statistics section of HMC. For example, if you entered a requirement string of S<20:O=0.0:L>3, HMC would scan through all users, and change all user's security level to the validation level who met the requirement of already having a security of less than 20, didn't owe any money, and have called over 3 times. After entering the requirement string, you will be asked if you want to be prompted before each validation. If you answer Yes, HMC will stop at every user to be validated and ask you to answer yes or no. Answering no will result in the user NOT being validated. Text Files & Menus Text Files & Menus Text Files & Menus The text files section of HMC allows you to edit all of the menus and other system files to be displayed. If you choose this drop down menu, you will be given a choice of 2 types of files. Harmony BBS Page 47 47 47 ________________________________________ System Text Files System Text Files System Text Files These are all the files that Harmony BBS will look for that are NOT menus. This includes entrance files, logon and logoff files, etc. etc. A description of what each file is used for is given on the bottom line of HMC. For a more complete listing of system files, look at the FILES.LST included with Harmony BBS. System Menus System Menus System Menus These are all of the menus that Harmony BBS will look for. Make sure that all of these files are present. If any of them are missing, your users will not be able to navigate around your system. When you have decided on the file that you wish to edit, Harmony BBS will shell out to the appropriate ASCII or ANSI editor. As a rule, all files that end in AN (logonAN.hmy) will call the ANSI editor. When the ANSI editor is loaded, it means feel free to add ANSI codes and colors to the file, since this file will only be displayed when a user has logged on in ANSI mode. If a file ends in AS (logonAS.hmy), the ASCII editor will be called upon. Make sure that you do NOT put any ANSI codes inside this file, since it will be displayed to users who do not have ANSI enabled. Creating Menus Creating Menus Creating Menus The menu structure of Harmony BBS is extremely easy, and powerful. Harmony BBS uses standard ASCII and ANSI files for all of its menus. This allows you to use your favorite editors to create them. All menus (both ANSI and ASCII) have the ability to imbed commands. This allows certain parts of menus to be hidden from users, and also allows for menus to contain specific information about the user that is currently on-line. All the commands within menus are imbedded with the character # (Shift-3 on most keyboards). If you wish to print the # character in your menus, you must put it in 2 times. For example, the line : Send private mail to user ##1 in the post office. would only print the # character 1 time within a menu. Requirement Strings Requirement Strings Requirement Strings Requirement strings can be imbedded within menus. Take a look at the following line of text from a menu : [ F ] #s<40#Not available#s>=40#Send Feedback Harmony BBS Page 48 48 48 ________________________________________ Notice the 2 requirement strings. This line would first print the [ F ] string. Then, if the user have a security level of less than 40, it would print Not available. If they had a security level of greater than or equal to 40, it would print Send Feedback instead. After a requirement string is encountered, NOTHING will be printed until either 2 conditions are met. Either, another requirement string must be encountered, and the user must meet the requirement, or the text #$# must be encountered. The #$# automatically turns printing back on, and should be used at the end of most lines of text that contain requirement strings. As you can see, having the ability to imbed requirement strings directly into your menus adds quite a lot of functionality to Harmony BBS's entire menuing system. Sigma Commands Sigma Commands Sigma Commands How sigma commands are used is explained in the Sending News section of this documentation. They are being discussed here because sigma commands can be imbedded into menus the same way requirement strings can. The main difference between imbedding sigma commands and requirement strings is that sigma commands do not turn printing on or off, they simply display personal information on a menu. Again, this can be explained better with an example : You have posted #[Alt-228][h# messages. (Note, [Alt-228] should display the Greek letter sigma, thus the term SIGMA commands). The line of text above, when it is in a menu, will tell the user on-line the total number of messages posted since their first logon. For a complete list of available sigma commands, look under the section entitled Sending News. System Information System Information System Information Under the SYSTEM menu of HMC, you will find options for editing many parts of your system. BBS Statistics BBS Statistics BBS Statistics The first choice is the BBS Statistics. This is where the heart of your BBS can be edited. Once this option is chosen, a screen will be displayed with quite a lot of information that can be edited to your personal wishes. Harmony BBS Page 49 49 49 ________________________________________ BBS Name BBS Name BBS Name This should contain the name of the your BBS. Examples : Ralph's Place, Programmer's Parade, etc. etc.); Sysop Name Sysop Name Sysop Name This should be the full name(s) of the people who run your system. It does NOT have to be the same as the name held by user #1. Sysop Alias Sysop Alias Sysop Alias This should be the alias of the sysop(s). It does not have to be the same as the alias held by user #1. Password Password Password This is the password required for closed systems. If you are running a private BBS (explained later in this section), all users must be able to enter this password before logging on. This password is requested immediately after the first logon file is displayed. DOS Password DOS Password DOS Password This is the password required for someone in sysop mode to be able to enter DOS commands. This is just taken as an extra precautionary method for safeguarding against hackers. Information on Directories Information on Directories Information on Directories A note about all the directories. They should ALWAYS contain the fully qualified path name, INCLUDING DRIVE LETTER. If you change any of the following directories, make sure all the files from the old one are copied into the new one. System Directory System Directory System Directory This should contain the directory where all your system files are located. Install puts this directly under your main Harmony directory. User Directory User Directory User Directory This should contain the directory where your user information and denial list are located. File Directory File Directory File Directory This is the directory where all file transfer information is stored. NOTE : This is NOT where the files themselves should be stored. This directory is used by Harmony to store index files, and other information about the file transfer section. Menus Directory Menus Directory Menus Directory This is the directory that should contain all the menus text files. HMC will also use this directory when you decide to edit any of these files. Harmony BBS Page 50 50 50 ________________________________________ Message Directory Message Directory Message Directory This is the location of all your message base information. It should NOT be the location of any of the messages directories themselves. This directory holds all the statistics for the message bases. Also in this directory are the entrance files (if you decide to have any). TagLine TagLine TagLine This is the default tagline appended to the end of messages posted by your users on networked message bases. Chat Chat Chat This is the text that will be displayed whenever the sysop wants to chat with a user. As soon as the sysop breaks in, this text will be displayed. Total Total Total This field holds the total number of calls your system has received since installation. This number is incremented by 1 everytime a full logon is completed. Max Users Max Users Max Users This field should contain the maximum number of users you wish to have on your BBS. The default is 500 (the maximum allowed by Harmony BBS is 1000). Calls Today Calls Today Calls Today This field contains the total number of calls received today. It is reset at 12:00am every day. TagMail TagMail TagMail This field contains the total number of days you want Harmony BBS to mark messages in the message base section that have not been received. Marked messages will not be erased during a message base housework in HMHOUSE. Once a message has been read by the user it was directed towards, it will be flagged as RECEIVED and will no longer be eligible for being marked. New User Security New User Security New User Security This is the security level given to new users. It is normally lower than the validation security level. Harmony BBS Page 51 51 51 ________________________________________ 1st Call Security 1st Call Security 1st Call Security This is the security given to users on their first call. This may sound a lot like New User Security, but they are not the same. This is the actual security given to a caller the first time they call (when they apply as a new user). This security will remain the same for the number of calls specified in the New Calls field. After they have called that many times, their security is then changed automatically by Harmony to the New User Security. This option was put here for sysops allowing new users full access at first, and then after they have checked out the BBS a couple times, their security can be set to automatically lower, and the sysop then has the option to validate them based on their usage earlier. If you do not wish to have your system set up this way, just set New User Security to the same number as 1st Call Security. New Calls New Calls New Calls See the description above for information on this field. Validation Security Validation Security Validation Security This is the security level defined by your system as VALIDATED. This should be the "normal" security level. This is also the security level given to users that are validated with HMC. Message Security Message Security Message Security This is the general security level required for a user to have access to the message base section of your system. If a user meets this security, their security level will then be checked with the individual message bases. If they do not have access to any of these message bases, the user will not have access to the message bases. File Security File Security File Security This is the general security level required to enter the file transfer section of your system. If a user does not meet this minimum security, they will not gain access. If they do meet this security, Harmony will then check the user's access with each individual transfer base. BBS Security BBS Security BBS Security This is the minimum required security level required to enter the bulletin board database section of your system. Voting Security Voting Security Voting Security This is the minimum required security level required to enter the voting booth section of your system. Harmony BBS Page 52 52 52 ________________________________________ Import Security Import Security Import Security This is the minimum required security required to be able to import files from the host system into messages. This should usually be given only to users with sysop or cosysop access. Save Mail Save Mail Save Mail This is the minimum required security required to be able to save a user's private mail. If a user does not meet this security level, before they leave the post office, they will be required to delete all of their mail. Read Name Security Read Name Security Read Name Security This is the minimum required security level required to be able to read real names. If your system is supporting aliases, and a user meets this security level, they will usually see the person's real name next to the alias in parentheses. Start Closed Start Closed Start Closed This is the hour in military time, from 0-23 that you wish to run a closed system. Closed systems require that the system password be entered before a user can log on. If you wish to have a completely closed system, this should be set to 0. Also note, that for these hours to take effect, the Private BBS flag must be turned on (discussed later in this chapter). End Closed End Closed End Closed This is the hour (in military time) from 0-23 that you wish your closed system to become an open system. Open systems do not require users to know the system password. If you wish to run a totally closed system, this should be set to 0. Validate Files Validate Files Validate Files This is the number of days you wish files to remain unvalidated. HMHOUSE will wait this many days before it marks a file a validated. Note that ONLY HMHOUSE can change this flag. Registration Cost Registration Cost Registration Cost This monetary value should be set to the amount of money that a user owes when they log on for the first time. Harmony BBS will notify users everytime they log on that an amount of money is owed to your establishment. Blank Screen Blank Screen Blank Screen This is the number of minutes you want Harmony BBS to wait while waiting for a call before clearing the screen. This is used to prevent what is known as "screen burn". If you do not wish to have the screen clear at all, this should be set to 0. Harmony BBS Page 53 53 53 ________________________________________ Start Available Start Available Start Available This is the hour (in military time) that the sysop of your system (usually yourself) becomes available for chat. If you wish to be available for chat at all times, this field should be set to 23. End Available End Available End Available This is the hour (in military time) that the sysop becomes UNAVAILABLE for chat. If you wish to be available for chat at all times, this field should be set to 24. Once the sysop has become unavailable, any attempts to page you will result in the file NOTHERE.HMY file being displayed. Users will then be asked if they wish to leave a private message to the sysop. Set BBS Flags Set BBS Flags Set BBS Flags Within Harmony BBS, there are numerous flags that allow for even more customization. You should take the time to review each of these flags and make sure they are meeting your needs : Private BBS Private BBS Private BBS - This flag must be turned on for the closed BBS hours to take effect. When a system is in private mode (determined by those hours), users will be required to enter the system password defined by you and given only to the people you wish to have access to your system. Passwords Needed to Logon Passwords Needed to Logon Passwords Needed to Logon - If this flag is not on, user's will NOT be required to enter their individual passwords at log on. Be VERY careful of this feature. The only time you would not want this flag turned on is if you were running a totally open system. For example, if you only wanted people to be able to download a specific file, you could set up a single user on your system. You would also not allow for any new users. The only thing a user would have to do once connected it type in the user number. Everyone would be using the same account. Aliases Allowed on System Aliases Allowed on System Aliases Allowed on System - This flag is pretty self- explanatory. If it is on, Harmony BBS will allow for aliases all throughout the system. If it is NOT on, only real names will be allowed. Activity Logging Activity Logging Activity Logging - If this flag is on, Harmony BBS will use the log levels (described later in this chapter) to record events all throughout your system. If this flag is off, then no logging will be done at all. Regardless of the log levels settings. Accepting New Users Accepting New Users Accepting New Users - If this flag is on, your system will allow for new user applications at logon. New users will be not be allowed when this flag is turned off. Harmony BBS Page 54 54 54 ________________________________________ 1st Time Callers Have Access to Message Base 1st Time Callers Have Access to Message Base 1st Time Callers Have Access to Message Base - If this flag is on, the first time a user calls, they will have access to the message base section. Usually you will want to this flag kept on, and you will determine individual access to the message base systems through both the message bases themselves, and the individual user flags. 1st Time Callers Have Access to File Transfers 1st Time Callers Have Access to File Transfers 1st Time Callers Have Access to File Transfers - This is essentially the same as the flag mentioned above, except it applies to the file transfer section of your system. Again, you will usually want to keep this flag turned on. Message Bases Active Message Bases Active Message Bases Active - If you temporarily want to disable ALL of the message bases, turn this flag off. This flag allows for easily enabling and disabling of the message base section without having to change any security levels or mass groups of flags. New Users Required to Leave 1st Time Feedback New Users Required to Leave 1st Time Feedback New Users Required to Leave 1st Time Feedback - If this flag is on, a new user will be required to enter a message during their application. They will also NOT be allowed to abort the message. This is useful if you wish to get some sort of background on your users. The subject of all new user application messages will be NEW USER APPLICATION. Non-Validated Users Allowed to Post Messages Non-Validated Users Allowed to Post Messages Non-Validated Users Allowed to Post Messages - If this flag is NOT on, any user with a security less than that of the standard validated user security will NOT be allowed to post messages in the message base section. Reason Required for Chat Request Reason Required for Chat Request Reason Required for Chat Request - If this flag is on, whenever a user attempts to call the sysop to chat, they will be prompted for a one line reason. This reason will be displayed while the page is active. New Users Allowed In Post Office New Users Allowed In Post Office New Users Allowed In Post Office - If this flag is not on, anyone with a default new user security will not have access to the post office. This means that they will not be allowed to send private mail to any user BUT the sysop through feedback. Show Subop Entrance Files in Message Base Show Subop Entrance Files in Message Base Show Subop Entrance Files in Message Base - If this flag is not on, the entrance files for the message bases will NEVER be displayed, even if the individual users have this flag turned on. Networked BBS Networked BBS Networked BBS - Turn this flag on if your system is connected to a message network. This flag must be turned on for Harmony BBS to recognize your network address. Harmony BBS Page 55 55 55 ________________________________________ Netmail Allowed Netmail Allowed Netmail Allowed - Turn this flag on if you wish to allow users to send netmail. Netmail is private mail sent through the BBS network that you are connected to. If you do not run a networked BBS, this flag will be ignored. File Transfer Section Active File Transfer Section Active File Transfer Section Active - Turn this flag off if you wish to temporarily disable the file transfer section of your system. This will allow you to disable and enable the file transfer section without having to change required security levels or mass user flags. Sigma Commands Allowed in Post Office Sigma Commands Allowed in Post Office Sigma Commands Allowed in Post Office - If this flag is off, you do not wish to have sigma commands active. If sigma commands are not active, the characters used to create the sigma commands will be printed in place of the sigma string it should have created. Doors Active Doors Active Doors Active - Turn this flag on if you wish to have the door system of your BBS active. If this flag is off, NONE of the users of your system will have access to the doors. Auto-Message Active Auto-Message Active Auto-Message Active - If this flag is on, the current auto-message will be displayed at every logon. If it is not on, it will simply be ignored. Zip-Logoffs Allowed Zip-Logoffs Allowed Zip-Logoffs Allowed - If this flag is on, then the Z command from the main menu will allow for IMMEDIATE logoff. If this flag is not on, this command will not be active. Allow Swapping to EMS Allow Swapping to EMS Allow Swapping to EMS - If this flag is on, everytime Harmony BBS executes a door, or the sysop shells to DOS, Harmony BBS will try to store itself in memory above 640k. If there is not enough memory, Harmony BBS will be swapped to disk. If this flag is NOT on, Harmony BBS will default to disk ALL the time. Show System Bulletins at Logon Show System Bulletins at Logon Show System Bulletins at Logon - If this flag is turned on, users will be brought to the system bulletins section immediately after reading your BBS news during a logon (right before they are brought to the main menu). Allow QWIK Sessions Allow QWIK Sessions Allow QWIK Sessions - If this flag in on, and you are running the version of Harmony BBS that supports the creation of QWK packets, users will be allowed to enter a QWIK session right after logging on. A Qwik session consists of uploading a reply packet if they have one, downloading a message packet if they wish, and then logging off of the BBS immediately after downloading the packet if they wish. Logging Logging Logging Harmony BBS supports 11 different types of activity logging. It also includes 4 different levels of each log. Harmony BBS Page 56 56 56 ________________________________________ There are four basic types of logging, the number on the left corresponds to the flag which must be turned on in order for that TYPE of logging to be on : 12 Record EXTRA things with each type of log. If this flag is on, Harmony BBS will store some "miscellaneous" information for each type. 13 Record POSITIVE things with each type. If this flag is on, Harmony BBS will record all activities it considers POSITIVE for each type. 14 Record NEGATIVE things with each type. If this flag is on, Harmony BBS will record all activities it considers NEGATIVE for each type. 15 Record SysOp things with each type. If this flag is on, all special activities that are executed by people with security level of 100 will be recorded. As mentioned, there are 11 types of logging that you can actively turn on and off. Each type, in conjunction with the levels mentioned above, will result in being recorded ONLY what you want to be recorded (logged). The number on the left corresponds to the flag number used to indicate each type of logging. 1 Log the entering and exiting of different sections of your system. 2 Log all deletions and additions of items. 3 Log sysop mode activity. 4 Log when files are created and read. 5 Log any attempts which Harmony considers to be "hacking". 6 Log editor functions. 7 Log any house work done on BBS. 8 Log start up activities. 9 Reserved for future use. 10 Log file transfer activity. 11 Log user editing activity. Set Time Limits Set Time Limits Set Time Limits This option lets you set all of the individual time limits for all the different securities. You should make sure you set ALL the time limits for ANY possible security levels your users may hold. The first thing you will be asked is the security level you wish to work with. After deciding, you will then be prompted to enter the time limit for that security level. If you do not wish restrict the number of minutes users of this security are allowed on your system, a 0 should be entered. Harmony BBS Page 57 57 57 ________________________________________ Set Call Limits Set Call Limits Set Call Limits This option lets you set all of the individual maximum number of calls per day allowed for each security level. You should make sure you set ALL the time limits for ANY possible security levels your users may hold. The first thing you will be asked is to enter the security level you wish to edit. You will then be asked to set the maximum number of calls per day users with that security level will be able to make to your system. If you do not wish to restrict the number of calls for a specific security level, a 0 should be entered. News Edit News Edit News Edit Newsletters are displayed during the log on process. News files should contain any and all important information that users need to know. After choosing this menu option, a list of all the current news files will be displayed, plus the option to create a new news file. If you wish to edit a current existing news file, choose it, otherwise choose <CREATE> NEWS. You will then be displayed a screen which will allow you to edit that news files statistics. Subject Subject Subject Enter the subject of this news you wish to write. If you are editing a previous news file, you have the option to change the subject here. Requirements Requirements Requirements This field contains the requirement string that users must meet in order to view this news file. If a user does NOT meet this requirement string, they will not even know this news file exists. Type Of News Type Of News Type Of News There are 2 types of news files. Each type will now be explained : Not Required to be Read Not Required to be Read Not Required to be Read - This means that this news file is NOT required to be read by users. They will have the option of reading it or passing it up. Required to be Read Once Required to be Read Once Required to be Read Once - This means that this news file is REQUIRED to be read by ALL users AT LEAST once. During the logon sequence, users will not be allowed pass the news file list until ALL news files that have not been read by this user are viewed. Harmony BBS Page 58 58 58 ________________________________________ Reset Flags Reset Flags Reset Flags If you press this button, you will be asked if you want to reset this news files flags. To reset a news files flags means it will mark it as NOT being read by any of the users. In other words, it will be considered new to all users. Delete Delete Delete If you are editing an existing news file, use this button to delete it. If you choose to delete it, you will be asked to verify your selection. You will then be brought back to the News file list. Text Text Text Use this button to edit the text of this news file. This is where you will write the actual message. HMC will shell out to the defined ASCII editor to allow you to edit this news message. Remember NOT to type below the line marked DO NOT TYPE BELOW THIS LINE. CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL Choose this option if you wish to abort any of the changes made during this news editing session. OK OK OK Choose this option if you wish to write the changes that you have made to this news file to disk. Bulletin Edit Bulletin Edit Bulletin Edit Bulletin edit lets you define what files will be available for viewing by your users. This section lets you add and delete bulletins from your system. If you choose this option, you will be given a list of all the current bulletins available, plus the option to add a new bulletin. After you decide which bulletin you want to edit (or create), you will be given the following options : Title Title Title This will be the title of the bulletin. This is what will actually be displayed to the users when the bulletin listing is displayed. Requirements Requirements Requirements This should contain the requirement string that must be met in order for a user to be able to view this bulletin. If a user does not meet this requirement, they will not be able to view it. Harmony BBS Page 59 59 59 ________________________________________ Filename Filename Filename This should contain the complete path (including drive) and file name of the file that will be displayed when a user chooses to view this menu. Delete Delete Delete If you are currently editing an existing bulletin, the DELETE button will be available to you. Use this button if you want to delete the current bulletin from your system. This will NOT erase the file itself, only the statistics that Harmony BBS uses. Events Events Events An "event" will tell Harmony BBS to end, and exit to DOS. It will exit to DOS with an error code. If Harmony BBS is executed from within a DOS batch file, you can run any program you want, at any time and any day you want. When you choose the Events menu option, you will be given a list of all of the current events, plus the option to create a new event. Once you have decided which event you wish to work on or create, you will be given the following options : Title Title Title This should contain a short 1 line description of the current event. If this event is the next one scheduled, this title will be displayed in the Next Event line while your system is waiting for the next call. Time Time Time This should be the time, in military format HH:MM that you want this event to occur. ErrorLevel ErrorLevel ErrorLevel This should be the error level that you want Harmony BBS to exit to DOS with. Note that if you are not running Harmony BBS from a batch file, an event will have no bearing, and your system will simply halt. A batch file must be set up to re-load Harmony BBS after an event has been executed. In most cases, you will simply have to edit the batch file (HARMONY.BAT) that is automatically installed on your system. If your system is tied into a network, and you are running Harmony BBS "under" a network mailer, chances are you will not have ANY events within Harmony BBS, but rather they would all be set up in the batch file that is running the mailer. You always want to schedule events with the program that will be waiting to accept phone calls. Harmony BBS Page 60 60 60 ________________________________________ Days to Run Event Days to Run Event Days to Run Event Each day of the week that you want this event executed should be marked. If a day is not marked, Harmony BBS will not run the event on that day. Event Status Event Status Event Status Active Active Active - If you wish to temporarily disable an event, turn this flag on. This will prevent Harmony BBS from ever exiting to run this event. Forced Forced Forced - If this flag is on, Harmony BBS will give this event priority over incoming callers. If a user calls, and their time limit overlaps with the scheduled time for this event, the caller will be notified that their time limit has been adjusted for the current call. They will then only be able to stay on your system until it is time for the event. Delete Delete Delete If you are editing a pre-existing event, you will have this button. Use this button if you want to permanently erase this event from your system. Network Addresses Network Addresses Network Addresses This option allows you to add and delete network addresses. Each line should contain the full ZONE:NET/NODE number for each network that the system is connected to. When a user is sending netmail to someone else in another system, Harmony BBS will ask the user which network address should be used. BBS Database BBS Database BBS Database This option allows you to delete all of the current BBS's that are listed in your system's BBS database. If you choose this option, you will be asked to verify your choice. If you answer yes, ALL information on ALL the BBS systems listed in the database will be wiped. Doors Edit Doors Edit Doors Edit This option allows you to edit all of the current doors that are defined on your system. A door is an external program that the users are allowed to run (or enter). Most doors consist of on-line games and magazines. When Harmony BBS shells to the door, it will create the standard, in extended form, DOOR.SYS file used by most doors to get user information. This file is written to the SYSTEM directory, is a standard ASCII file. Harmony BBS will also send over quick information, that can be used in batch files in the form : Harmony BBS Page 61 61 61 ________________________________________ %1 Full Real Name of user %2 If the user is in ANSI mode, a 'C' character will be passed, otherwise, a 'N' character will be sent. %3 The amount of time left for this user. %4 The connect rate of the user. If you choose this option from the menu, you will be given a list of all the currently active doors on the system. You will also be given the option to create a new one. After choosing which one you wish to edit or create, you will be given the following options : Name Name Name Enter the name of the door that you want to be displayed to the users. It will be displayed along with all the other active doors that the user has access to. Description Description Description This should contain a one line description of this door. This is so the user will know what the purpose of this door is. Requirements Requirements Requirements This should contain the requirement string required for access to this door. If a user does not meet this requirement, they will not be able to enter this door. As a matter of fact, they will not even know the door exists. Host Batch Host Batch Host Batch This should contain the fully qualified path and file name of the program (or batch file) that should be executed when the sysop logs onto the system in host mode. This was put here because many doors require different execution procedures when there is no one connected to the other side of the telephone line. User Batch User Batch User Batch This should contain the fully qualified path and file name of the program (or batch file) that should be executed when a user enters a door. Note that Harmony BBS does not automatically change directories when it runs a door. Make sure that Harmony BBS will be able to find this program, and if a directory is changed during the course of the door, Harmony will do its best at relocating the system. Start Time Start Time Start Time This should be hour (in military time) you want this door to become active. If you want the door active 24 hours a day, this field should be set to 0. Harmony BBS Page 62 62 62 ________________________________________ End Time End Time End Time This should be the hour (in military time) you want this door to become inactive. If you want the door active 24 hours a day, this field should also be set to 0. Delete Delete Delete If you are editing a currently existing door, this button gives you the option to erase it from your system. If the door is erased, note that Harmony BBS does not erase any of the files that are used to run the door, only the statistics within Harmony BBS. Voting Booth Edit Voting Booth Edit Voting Booth Edit The menu option will allow you to edit the current voting questions available on your system. If you choose this option, you will be given a list of all the current active voting booths. You will also be given the option to create a new one. Once you decide which voting booth you wish to edit or create, you will be given the following options : Title Title Title This field should contain the subject of the current voting booth. This will be displayed when the list of current voting booths is displayed. Requirements Requirements Requirements This field should have the requirement string that is required to have access to this voting booth. If a user does not meet this requirement string, they will not even know this voting booth exists. Reset Votes Reset Votes Reset Votes If this button is activated, all of the current statistics for this voting booth will be reset. This includes setting the flag for each user to off, which means they will be able to vote on this question again. This will also reset the voting numbers for each choice, and the total number of people that have voted. Edit Choices Edit Choices Edit Choices This button will activate a pick list of all the current choices available for this voting question. To edit one of the current choices, simply choose that item, and you will be asked to enter a new choice. If you press [ENTER], the new choice will replace the old one. To add a new choice to this voting booth, simply choose one of the EMPTY boxes. You will be prompted to enter the new choice. Harmony BBS Page 63 63 63 ________________________________________ To delete a current choice, choose the choice you want deleted, and type EMPTY when you are prompted for a new choice. When you are finished editing any of these choices, simply press ESC, or DONE, and you will be brought back to the main voting booth editing screen. Edit Question Edit Question Edit Question If you choose this button, HMC will shell out to the current ASCII editor that is set in HMC. The current message will be loaded, and you will be able to edit it. Delete Delete Delete If you are editing a currently existing voting booth, this button will be available. If you activate this button, you will be asked if you want to delete the current voting booth. If you verify that you want it deleted, HMC will erase the questions and all of the statistics for it. Logon Text Files Logon Text Files Logon Text Files Logon text files are files that are displayed during the logon process. They are displayed after the user passes the news section of logging on, and after the logfiles.bat program is executed if it exists. Note that this is not the same as new files or system bulletins. For a good example of one of these logon text files, take a look at the logfiles.bat that comes pre- packaged with Harmony BBS. If you choose this option, you will be given the list of all of the current logon text files. Actually, the list will consist of the ASCII file name. Logon files do not have titles of any kind. Choose the logon file that you wish to edit, or choose the CREATE option to make a new logon file. You will then be given the following options : ASCII File ASCII File ASCII File This field should contain the fully qualified path and file name of the file to be displayed for users who are not in ANSI mode. ANSI File ANSI File ANSI File This field contains the fully qualified path and file name of the file to be displayed for users who are using ANSI graphics. Harmony BBS Page 64 64 64 ________________________________________ Clr Scr? Clr Scr? Clr Scr? This field determines whether the screen will be cleared before the file is printed. If you want the screen to be cleared, the letter Y (for Yes) should be entered here. Otherwise, enter N (for No). Requirements Requirements Requirements This field contains the current valid requirement string. If the user logging on does not meet this requirement string, this logon file will not be displayed. Delete Delete Delete If you are editing a currently existing logon text file, this button will be available. Use this button to delete the current logon file. Note that this will NOT erase the files that are displayed, only the information that Harmony BBS uses to display them. Harmony BBS Page 65 65 65 ________________________________________ ____________________ Starting Harmony BBS ____________________ Starting Harmony BBS ____________________ Starting Harmony BBS Running Harmony BBS Running Harmony BBS Running Harmony BBS Running Harmony BBS is just like running any other DOS program. Simply switch to your Harmony directory, which should default to HM, then type 'HARMONY'. If you do not want to run Harmony BBS from a batch file, simply entering HM will be sufficient. Harmony.BAT is the batch file that comes pre-packaged with Harmony BBS. Harmony BBS allows for a number of command line parameters to be sent when it is executed. Note that Harmony.BAT does NOT incorporate any of these parameters, and if you wish to use it, modification will be needed. -O tells Harmony BBS not to send any of the modem initialization strings. This is useful if you know there is already a carrier detected, or the system wants the BBS to boot up quicker. -H tells Harmony BBS to boot up, and begin the logon sequence in host mode. When Harmony BBS is in host mode, no carrier checking is done. This allows for the sysop to use their BBS locally. -Bxxxxx instructs Harmony to initialize the port at the baud rate of xxxxx. This is usually used only when you know there is someone connected, for example, in a network situation where a front end mailer program has received an incoming caller and has passed them along to Harmony BBS. -Pxxx instructs Harmony BBS to initialize port number xxx instead of the default port. This again, would be used in a network front end mailer situations (as described above). -Txxxx tells Harmony to adjust the time limit of the person calling. This would only be used in conjunction with the -B and -P commands when you know that there is already a person connected. xxxx is the maximum number of minutes to allow for this call. Assuming no command line parameters have been sent to Harmony BBS, the first thing it will do is make sure it can find all of the important data files that the BBS needs to operate correctly. If Harmony fails at this in any way, program execution will be aborted. Harmony BBS Page 66 66 66 ________________________________________ Next, Harmony BBS will try to initialize the modem. It will first open the port, and then send the init strings that you have defined within HMC. When Harmony loads up the opening screen should look similar to this: --------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- Board > Your BBS Name Sysop > Your Name Calls Today > 0 Last Caller > Empty @ 12:00am Calls Total > 0 Total Users > 1 Event > No more events to run today. Last Modem Reply > OK Chat Status > Available +---------------------------Available Commands----------------- -+ [A] Host mode / Sysop quick logon [C] Exit, Load Harmony Configuration, Re-Load BBS [L] Full logon (with or without carrier detect) [T] Override chat availability [U] View activity log [Q] Quit (exit to DOS) +-------------------------------------------------------------- -+ The board and sysop name would be the names you defined in HMC. The next two lines are self explanatory. The events line is also defined in HMC. If for example you wanted to optimize your disk at 1:00am, you would set up an event to do so. The event spot would then print the upcoming event stating it was at 1:00am. Last modem reply prints the last response that came from the modem. This can be used for trouble shooting with your modem and BBS configuration. You should receive an OK as the last response. Harmony BBS Page 67 67 67 ________________________________________ Chat Status Chat Status Chat Status According to the times defined in HMC, you will either be available or not available for chat. If for some reason you happen to be around at a time you usually aren't you may use 'T' to override the chat option. At the next available or unavailable time change, your availability will be reset. Host Mode Host Mode Host Mode Host mode is used for the system operator to log on from the host computer. Using this feature, (the 'A' option) will allow quick logon. All it really does is bypass the opening screens and avoids having to enter a user number and password. No carrier checking will be done from here, and the modem will be instructed to go off-hook. Loading HMC Loading HMC Loading HMC Using the 'C' function at this point will load Harmony configuration. Note that any incoming calls will not be answered by Harmony at this point. Once you exit HMC, the new changes will immediately take effect and calls will again be answered. Also note that this option is ONLY available if Harmony BBS is loaded from the HARMONY.BAT file. Full Logon Full Logon Full Logon The option 'L' will allow the host to perform a full logon. Just as a incoming caller would view things. Except for the modem speed of course. If you receive an incoming call and for some reason the modem does not answer you can use the full logon procedure to force the modem to complete the log on sequence. Viewing Activity File Viewing Activity File Viewing Activity File This will allow you to take a look at the activity on your system. The depth at which your activity is recorded will be determined by your settings in HMC. Refer to the section on configuring your BBS for more information. Quitting To DOS Quitting To DOS Quitting To DOS This will tie up all loose ends in the board, take your system off-line and return you to DOS. Logging On To Harmony BBS Logging On To Harmony BBS Logging On To Harmony BBS Since most of the bulletin board is seen from a callers point of view we will take you straight through from a users stand point. We will make note of SysOp only functions along the way. The first question that will be asked is whether or not their terminal program supports ANSI. The options are (y,n,m,?). Yes and no, m is for monochrome support and the question mark will display a file explaining what ANSI is. Harmony BBS Page 68 68 68 ________________________________________ Next, depending on how you have your BBS configured either the BBS will be closed or opened. If the BBS is closed you may still choose to have an opening screen before the system password is requested. It will proceed to ask for the system password. Next, whether closed or opened the BBS will request the user name, user number, or alias (if aliases are allowed). Then the individual users password is requested. If the BBS is closed you have the option to turn individual passwords off. New User Applications New User Applications New User Applications If your system is set up to allow for new users, Harmony BBS will also allow them to enter NEW at this point. After the user has entered all of the information requested by Harmony BBS, it will them look for the file NEWUSER.BAT in your Harmony BBS system directory. If it is found, Harmony BBS will create the DOOR.SYS file used in the door section of Harmony BBS, and run NEWUSER.BAT. If will also send the user number of this user as command line parameter %1. This will allow for 3rd party new user utilities for be added to Harmony BBS. For example, a call back verifier could be added here. Opening Information Opening Information Opening Information After the user has been identified he is briefed with some information as shown here : Welcome to Harmony BBS, Alex You are caller #2276 (caller 1 for today) Last caller : Jasen @ 3:00:00am Current Date (time):Wed., January 6 1992 (2:02:09am) You last called on : 01/01/1992 You have called here : 377 times Your calls for today : 1 times (limit :unlimited) Your time limit is : No Limit There are 2 new system bulletins (g-files). Press [ENTER] To Continue... Private Mail and Marked Messages Private Mail and Marked Messages Private Mail and Marked Messages If the user has any private mail waiting, or any public messages, Harmony BBS will notify them now. They will have the option of reading and replying to all mail and public messages at this point. Harmony BBS Page 69 69 69 ________________________________________ Qwik Sessions Qwik Sessions Qwik Sessions If you are running the professional version of Harmony BBS, and you have allowed for QWIK sessions, as defined within HMC, Harmony BBS will now prompt the user if they would like to enter one. If they answer yes, they are then asked if they have a new upload reply packet to upload, then if they wish to download a new mail packet, and then log off immediately. This option allows for extremely efficient on-line time use. System news System news System news Now all system news as defined in HMC will be displayed. Depending on your security level, you may or may not see all system news. This is a nice feature to have in case you want to have news for only a select group of users. The system news is renumbered according to access. For example, if news number 2 out of 3 is only supposed to be seen by a security of level 100. Then a user with security <100 that calls will only see two bulletins. Number three will become number 2 to the user. Therefore they will have no idea the bulletin ever existed. This technique is used throughout the bulletin board system. (Voting booths, message bases, etc.) Logfiles.bat Logfiles.bat Logfiles.bat At this point the system looks for a file called logfiles.bat and if it's there it runs it. This is a batch file that will run. Refer to the section in HMC for more information on error level codes. Your system comes set up to run a small quote of the day program. Logon.hmy Logon.hmy Logon.hmy After logfiles.bat has been executed, the user will be shown all the current files that they have access to as defined in HMC under LOGON TEXT FILES. System Bulletins System Bulletins System Bulletins If you have the BBS set up to display the system bulletins menu during a log on, now is when it will be displayed. Main Menu Main Menu Main Menu You now arrive at the main menu for Harmony BBS. This is the center of the entire bulletin board system. This documentation has been designed in a order that is consistent with a user that would have level 100. That would be the security of a System Operator. Therefore we will be able to cover all options. This documentation will go straight through the menu options, when hitting a option if it must jump to another menu, we will note it and then when that menu is finished it will trace back to the previous menu. From here you will begin to feel the power of Harmony. Harmony BBS Page 70 70 70 ________________________________________ Layout Of Menus Layout Of Menus Layout Of Menus Logon | -------Main Menu---------- / | | | | \ / | | | Doors \ / Message base | | \ | | | | File Transfer | Post Office | | SysopMode | System Bulletins Qwik Packer The above diagram will help map your understanding of the way your bulletin board system is laid out. It will also help you follow through the documentation. Function Keys Function Keys Function Keys The F1 key will bring up a menu that is seen only by the sysop. From here you will be able to change their time limit, enter chat mode, edit that user, notify the user that the sysop must make use of the system and then throw them off-line, not notify them and throw them off-line (comes in handy), a quick change of security, shell to DOS, and toggle your chat availability. All these options are only seen on the sysops side. If you decide to edit the user, or shell to DOS, the user will be told to Please Hold ..., otherwise, unless you execute your commands quickly, the user will be left in limbo until ESCAPE is pressed to get back to the BBS. The F2 key will serve a purpose to the sysop from the host system. It will toggle through your status option window at the bottom of the screen. The default view shows the users name and user number. The time they logged on and their security level. Hitting F2 at this point will show the logon time, how long the user has been on-line, their time limit, how much time the user has left, and the security. Hitting F2 again will turn off the window so you can view the BBS as a user would. Hitting F2 again would of course bring you back to the default view. At this point Harmony does not make use of any other function keys. Harmony BBS Page 71 71 71 ________________________________________ Chat Mode Chat Mode Chat Mode A quick note about chat mode : When you are finished chatting with the user that is on-line, pressing ESCAPE will bring you out of chat mode, and many times, it may look like Harmony BBS is locked up. Actually, Harmony BBS is waiting at the last prompt where you broke into chat. Care should be taken here, and sometimes, you may want to help the user by pressing [ENTER] or ?, or whatever would be appropriate. [B] BBS Database [B] BBS Database [B] BBS Database Here is where you will find a mini-database on-line Harmony, for users to input their favorite bulletin board systems. A - Add BBS to List A - Add BBS to List A - Add BBS to List When adding to the BBS database you will be asked the following: Name of system, Phone Number, City, State, Hours of Operation, Minimum Baud rate, Maximum Baud rate, Special note - anything special the inputting user would like to comment on. Then you will be given a list of computers to choose from to select as the host computer. The host computer is the computer type that the BBS is supporting or running off of. D- Delete BBS from List D- Delete BBS from List D- Delete BBS from List You can then [D] delete a BBS from the list. The user will simply be asked for the number of the bulletin board system as listed. (Not the phone number, the number that is showed within a full listing) G - GoodBye G - GoodBye G - GoodBye Good-bye/logoff from BBS R - Read/Scan BBS List R - Read/Scan BBS List R - Read/Scan BBS List This will allow the user to access the list. You will be asked if you would like to read [A]ll or [S]pecific BBS's. If the user selects All then all information and all BBS numbers in the system will be displayed. If the user selects specific parts then the following will be asked for a list of all the attributes held within the database, described in [A]dd BBS List above: Name to scan for - this must be the exact name Area code Date to scan for - the date is was entered Minimum Baud Maximum Baud Harmony BBS Page 72 72 72 ________________________________________ City State Then you will be asked if you would like to quick scan the list. Quick scanning will only show the BBS name and number. Where as a regular scan will show the other information. Q - Quit to the main menu Q - Quit to the main menu Q - Quit to the main menu ? - Display the options again ? - Display the options again ? - Display the options again [C] Chat Mode [C] Chat Mode [C] Chat Mode Call the sysop to chat If the sysops hours are set so he/she is available, then when the SysOp is paged, the chat bell will sound the PC speaker. For approximately 30 seconds the tone will remain. If you do not answer 'CHAT!' will still flash down in your status window (if showing). If you don't answer then a file as discussed in HMC will be displayed. The default supplied with Harmony simply states that you are busy and apologizes. If a certain flag is set in HMC then the user will be forced to leave a reason for chatting before you are paged. If the page is not answered or the sysop is not available then the user will be asked to leave feedback. If you have the option set, Harmony will record whether they paged you or not in the activity file. Regardless of if they leave feedback or not. (Sometimes its nice to know) You may enter chat at any point by hitting F1. [D] Doors [D] Doors [D] Doors This will bring you to the doors if they are set up. Depending on whether you have doors turned on or access requirements are met. The section in HMC will explain how to get doors up and running in Harmony. When the door list is displayed, Harmony BBS looks for the file DOORAN.HMY and DOORAS.HMY (for ANSI and ASCII users respectively). If they are found, Harmony BBS will print them on the screen instead of displaying the generic menu. Note that these files are treated like menus, so it is possible to imbed both requirement strings and sigma commands, allowing for maximum customization. Harmony BBS Page 73 73 73 ________________________________________ [E] Edit User Message [E] Edit User Message [E] Edit User Message This will allow you to edit the user message assuming the sysop has it activated. The user message is shown to all users at log-on. It is a simple three liner that you can enter. If you or the user enters one you will erase the old message. Anyone can enter a message. There are no security requirements. [F] Feedback [F] Feedback [F] Feedback Feedback to the sysop. If a user would like to leave the Sysop a message this is the place to do it. This message goes into the post office, and is private (only the sysop will be able to view it since it is addressed to user #1). [G] LogOff [G] LogOff [G] LogOff Good-bye/LogOff - Log the user off the system asking if he/she is sure and whether they would like to leave feedback or not. The defaults allow the user to hit enter twice for both questions and log off very quickly. [I] Information [I] Information [I] Information Harmony information - This will tell you the version of Harmony BBS. It will also display the authors name, and who designed the system. [M] Message Base [M] Message Base [M] Message Base Whenever you are at the main message base menu the default time update prompt will be replaced with the current sub-board name. Harmony does not implement a sequential numbering of messages. For example, we don't start a message at number 1 and no matter what sub-board your posting in, add to the next sequential number. Instead we treat each individual sub-board as its own message base and start each sub-board with number one. We have found the other way to be a nuisance. We feel your users will better understand a system like Harmony than vice versa. This keeps everything hidden. If you don't want users to know there are other messages this technique is necessary. They would know if they have an option of reading number 1-2999 and then choose 500 and it says 'sorry you can't read this'. This eliminates that problem. Also ALL private mail is kept separately in the post office. This way new users aren't apt to think their private post just went public. Our method also prevents blocks of messages from missing also. For example, the board will say there are 2999 messages however the user can't access 1000-2000. With this system the cycling of messages is done much more efficiently since there is a smaller base of messages to deal with at a time. Harmony BBS Page 74 74 74 ________________________________________ The goal here is to only show users what they can use, not what they can not use. This will keep even things like hacking of systems to a minimum. B - Batch Retrieval B - Batch Retrieval B - Batch Retrieval IF you are running a copy of Harmony BBS that supports QWIK message packing, and batch mail is allowed, Harmony BBS will automatically enter the QWIK session of the BBS. For more information on Qwik sessions, please look at the file HMQWIK.DOC included with your BBS package. C - Change Sub-board C - Change Sub-board C - Change Sub-board You will be given the valid range of numbers for sub- boards. Choose one and if the requirements are met you will be allowed in. Use the command [L] to list the sub- boards. D - Delete Message D - Delete Message D - Delete Message Enter message number to erase (1-xxx,[ENTER=Abort]) : Just type the message number you would like deleted. You may only delete a message if it is yours, unless the user is a sysop of level 100 or if you are a sub-op of that particular sub-board. You must go to the individual sub- board where the message is located to delete it. If the sub-board is networked then you will be warned: This is a networked message base, you can delete it locally, but chances are it has already been sent out to the network. This means that if the message was sent out to the network already, it can only be deleted on the system it was sent out on and will still be displayed on all systems networked to that particular sub-board (echo). E - Enter message (Posting a message) E - Enter message (Posting a message) E - Enter message (Posting a message) You will be entering a message into the current base you are in. Who is this message for ([ENTER=All) ? Enter the name to address to. It must be exact if you want it marked to a special user, otherwise it does not really matter. Would you like to make this message anonymous (Y/N) ? Harmony BBS Page 75 75 75 ________________________________________ If your security level meets the required security, and the sysop is allowing for anonymous messages within this base, this question will be asked, if you answer yes to this question, then your name will not be put into the message, only the word Anonymous. Would you like to post with your [R]eal name or [ENTER]=Alias: You will not be allowed this option if aliases are not allowed in this particular sub-board. Ex. You may turn it off so users can't use an alias because a lot of networks require a real name to be used. Enter the subject of this message ([ENTER]=Abort) ? The subject of your message (post) will be used later for scanning by users to find a topic they might be interested in. IMPORTANT : Whenever a message is posted, Harmony BBS will create the file CREATED.MSG. It is a 0 length file, and is only used within batch files to determine whether a house work needs to be done. Since whenever someone posts a message, it is created as it's own separate MSGNUM.MSG file within that message bases directory, most the time you would want to set up your batch file to check for this CREATED.MSG and either scan all your networked message bases for outbound mail, or run HMHOUSE -M or HMHOUSE -UD to convert the message to Harmony BBS's proprietary format. Note that those HMHOUSE commands should never be run until you are sure that all networked, outbound messages have been scanned and packed. F - Leave SysOp feedback F - Leave SysOp feedback F - Leave SysOp feedback Same as listed in main menu. It is put here again to make it easy for the users to reach you without having to back out to the main menu everytime and this is considered a message base feature. G - Good-bye/logoff BBS G - Good-bye/logoff BBS G - Good-bye/logoff BBS Allows user to disconnect. Note quick logoff can only be used through Main menu. H - Set highest message read H - Set highest message read H - Set highest message read This option is most useful for resetting your newscans to the highest message attainable in all sub-boards. The decrement value is just the number that you would like subtracted from the highest attainable message in all the sub-boards. Harmony BBS Page 76 76 76 ________________________________________ Example #1 Message base #1 has 50 messages total. Message base #2 has 65 messages total. Message base #3 has 5 messages total. Now if you selected 10 for the decrement value it would give the following results: Message base #1 newscan would start at message 40. Message base #2 newscan would start at message 55. Message base #3 newscan would start at message 1. Ex#2 If you set the decrement value to 999 you would have an easy way to set all sub-boards to message number 1. Using a decrement of zero will take the highest attainable message in all the sub-boards, subtract zero and will then set this value as the newscan level for the sub-board and so forth. Enter decrement new scan value([?]=Help,[A]bort,[ENTER]=0) : The default is zero since this is the most common use. If a user hadn't called for a few weeks he/she would not want to look through a bunch of old mail. L - List sub-boards L - List sub-boards L - List sub-boards You will be asked if you would like to view the sub-boards expanded or condensed. Expanded will show all sub-boards that the user has access to. It will also include information including total number of messages in that base, Sub-op name, maximum messages allowed to be left on system. Note that if the files MBLISTAN.HMY and MBLISTAS.HMY exist within your main message base directory, those files (for ANSI and ASCII users respectively), will be displayed instead of the generic listings described above. This allows for total customization by the sysop. These files are treated as menus, so you may imbed both sigma commands and requirement strings right inside the file. This will allow you do hide specific information about message bases. N - Set newscan bases N - Set newscan bases N - Set newscan bases When performing a newscan which is used by the user to scan for new messages since his/her last date, you may define what sub-boards you want scanned. Say you dislike a certain topic discussed on a sub-board, obviously you don't want to scan for new messages in that base everytime, so you may turn on or off individually each base. Don't worry about turning it off, it can easily be turned back on. Harmony BBS Page 77 77 77 ________________________________________ P - Enter the post office P - Enter the post office P - Enter the post office The post office is where you may send private mail to another user on the bulletin board system. You may do this by knowing the user name, number, or alias. The post office is also used to send mail through the network. Of course you may only send network through the mail if you are set up with a mailer program. The post office was designed to keep the private mail out of the regular message bases. This will make things easier for your users in understanding that private mail is private and that the message base is used for public messages. The user may reach the post office through the main menu or from the message base menu. The option to get there is [P] from both menus. The user may also reach a crippled version of the post office if he/she has mail waiting at log on. They will be able to read their mail and reply to each individual message. They also will be able to delete their mail from logon. The features of the post office are as follows: [D] Delete a Individual Letter [D] Delete a Individual Letter [D] Delete a Individual Letter This is used to delete a letter that has been sent to the user. If you attempt to delete a message when you have none, you will be notified: Sorry, you have no mail to delete. If a letter is deleted the messages are renumbered. Ex. If you delete letter 9, and there are 10 letters, letter number 10 will become letter number 9. Once a letter is deleted there is no way to recover it, of course we mean through methods using Harmony BBS. Whenever a message is deleted, Harmony BBS creates the file DELETED.MSG. This is done so that you can run any kind of various Squish packing utilities required for Harmony BBS. See the section labeled Notes On Squish for more information. [G] Good-bye [G] Good-bye [G] Good-bye As with every menu, a way to say good-bye to Harmony BBS. Logging off the system, as some wish to call it. Harmony BBS Page 78 78 78 ________________________________________ [L] List your mail (Scan) [L] List your mail (Scan) [L] List your mail (Scan) If there is no mail in your mailbox you will be told there is no personal mail found. Otherwise the system will list all your mail that is waiting in your mailbox. In the listing, FROM, SUBJECT, and DATE will appear. [R] Read Your Mail [R] Read Your Mail [R] Read Your Mail If there is no mail to read the user will be prompted: Sorry, you do not have any mail to read. If mail is present in the mailbox the system will alert you with how many messages are present and will ask you which one the user would like to read. An easy way to go through all mail is by hitting [enter] after being asked what number the user would like to read. The mail will sequence through until reaching the last letter and then finally abort to the post office menu. After reading a message the user will be asked whether they would like to delete the message [D], [R] reply, or continue by hitting enter. [S] Send Private Mail [S] Send Private Mail [S] Send Private Mail This is the option that will allow you to send mail to others. If the you are hooked up to a network and the user has high enough security the first question asked will be: Do you wish to send private mail to another BBS (Y/N) ? If the user answers with a yes the following questions will follow: Enter Zone Address : Enter Network Number : Enter Node Number : These are used to designate where the message will be sent. For more information on this refer to your mailer package. You will then be asked which network address you wish to be tagged as the origin address. This allows for easy integration of more than 1 network. Then regardless of if you are sending the mail to another BBS, you will be asked to enter the users name (alias, or number if not networked). Harmony BBS Page 79 79 79 ________________________________________ If the user has security of 100 then they will be prompted whether they wish to send it crash mail or not. You may also allow anyone to send crash mail based on their security defined in HMC. Crash mail sends the mail directly to the address by calling it when the user hangs up. This makes the process quicker, but costly. For more information consult your mailer package. [Q] Quit Post Office [Q] Quit Post Office [Q] Quit Post Office This will drop you back to the previous menu. Depending on how and where you entered the post office from. Either the main menu or the message base menu. [?] Display This File [?] Display This File [?] Display This File This will redisplay the menu you are using. back to the message base menu ... Q - Quit Message Base Q - Quit Message Base Q - Quit Message Base This option will take you back to the previous menu (main menu). R - Read Messages R - Read Messages R - Read Messages When you decide to read a message you have a few choices. They include, reading [A]ll messages, [N]ew messages, [F]rom, [T]o, [K]eyword, s[U]bject, and [?]-help. [A] All messages [A] All messages [A] All messages With the option of reading all messages you will have the valid range of messages displayed in the beginning of the prompt. For example the prompt will look close to the following: Read (1-20), [A]bort, [N]ext, [R]eply, [S]can, [Enter]=15 : | | Message numbers Current Message Notice there are twenty total messages in this base and the current message number is fifteen. You may type in any valid message number or for ease of use the current message number will be updated after reading each consecutive message by hitting enter. [A] Abort will bring you back to the main read messages prompt. [N] Next will bring you to the next reply in the series (scanned by subjects) Harmony BBS Page 80 80 80 ________________________________________ If you reach the final message the next message number will be changed to say 'ABORT' and will bring you back to the main read messages prompt. When you use the next reply function, the messages you skip over will be marked as read (added to your newscan high water marker) [R] Reply will reply to the current message you are reading. This function is very useful for two reasons. First you will not have to abort the reading or wait until your done reading to post a reply to that message. You may reply while the message is still fresh in your mind. Replying to a message gives you the same options as posting a message, including the creation of the CREATED.MSG file discussed earlier. Secondly, when replying you will not have to type whom the message is addressed to. It will also keep the same topic which is useful when scanning for a series of messages with the same subject. [S] Scanning of messages will show you who the message is from, the date and the subject. [N] New Messages. This allows the user to read all NEW messages since the last time they read messages. It has nothing to do with the last time the user called. Every message is marked whether a individual user has read it or not. [F] From a particular user. This allows for reading of all messages posted by a specific user. [T] To a particular user. Allows for reading of all messages posted too a specific user. Useful for reading all messages to the user performing the scan. [K] Keyword. Allows for reading of all messages that contain any specifc text. The search will be case INSENSITIVE. [U] Scanning for a particular subject. Allows for reading of all messages with a specific subject. The prompt will display: Enter subject to scan for : S - Scan Messages S - Scan Messages S - Scan Messages This function will allow you to scan all messages in the base. The scan will display all message numbers. With each message number the scan will display, who the message is from, too and its subject. Harmony BBS Page 81 81 81 ________________________________________ V - View entrance text V - View entrance text V - View entrance text This will display the opening message that is usually displayed when one enters the message base. Depending on how the sysop has configured the system it may or may not print each time a person enters the sub-board. That is why it is included as a menu option so the user may still see the file. This file is usually created by the sub-op and then uploaded to the system. The system will say welcome to (the name of the message base). Then it will say : Your message base host is so and so. Message base host and sub-op are used interchangeably. ? - Display this menu ? - Display this menu ? - Display this menu This would display your menu over again (the message base menu), incase line noise had garbled some options. We now return to the main menu ... [N] News Files [N] News Files [N] News Files This option will bring the user to the news files listings that are displayed during the logon sequence. [P] Post Office [P] Post Office [P] Post Office This command will bring them to the post office, which was explained earlier in the message base section of the documentation. [R] Read User Message [R] Read User Message [R] Read User Message This command will display the current user auto-message to the user. [S] System Bulletins [S] System Bulletins [S] System Bulletins The system bulletins are used to allow the sysop to display text files they would like their users to have access to. At Harmony we have for example, The Harmony BBS Guidelines, The Harmony BBS's History (you could tell about your BBS experience as a SysOp or about the system the BBS is run on), and a couple other game scoreboards. As with all other options with the bulletin board system if the security of the user is not high enough a bulletin will be hidden from the user and the bulletins will be renumbered accordingly. Harmony BBS Page 82 82 82 ________________________________________ After the listing is printed, (which, by the way is a very generic listing of the bulletins, and can be replaced with ANSI and ASCII text files described in FILES.LST), Harmony BBS will show the user a list of all of the bulletins that are new to them. [T] File Transfers [T] File Transfers [T] File Transfers This section describes how to use the file transfer section of Harmony BBS. Since the file transfer section of a BBS is usually one of the most used sections of a bulletin board, a full understanding of the file transfer section should be understood by the sysop. Every command available to the users of a Harmony BBS system will be explained. There commands are available from the main file transfer section menu. The file transfer section of Harmony BBS is divided into "file bases". Each file base, and it's use, is determined by the sysop, and configured in HMC. As a general rule, each file base is used to hold files that are related. For example, you may want to set up a file base called BBS Utilities. This type of setup is up to the sysop. If you decide that you want to hold all of your files in one file base, although it is not suggested, you may do so. Please read each command carefully and make sure you understand all of them. A - Add File Locally A - Add File Locally A - Add File Locally This command is ONLY available to users with a security level of 100 (Sysop). It allows you to add a file that already exists on the sysop's hardrive to this file base. This first message you will get when this command is used informs the user that the file that they are going to add to this file base WILL be copied to the directory used for this file base. Harmony BBS does not supply a means of "pointing" to a file that is in another directory. This leads to more confusion than necessary. Enter the file name of the file to add. The first prompt ONLY asks for the file name. You do NOT want to enter the path name (location) at this time. You will then be asked to enter all the important information that Harmony BBS and other users will need to download and view this file. You will be asked to enter a one line description of this file, an extended description if they are allowed in this file base, and whether or not you want to password protect this file. Harmony BBS Page 83 83 83 ________________________________________ You will then be asked to enter the FULL path of this file. Enter the current location where the file exists. If the file is already in this file bases directory, just press [ENTER] and Harmony BBS will default to that directory. Finally, Harmony BBS will ask if this file should be for sysops only and whether or not the file should be flagged as unvalidated. Unvalidated files cannot be downloaded without the proper security. If Harmony BBS has any problem finding or copying the file, it will notify the user and the addition will not take place. B - Enter Batch Menu B - Enter Batch Menu B - Enter Batch Menu The batch file transfer section of Harmony BBS allows the user to work with files that they have previously marked. Marking files will be described later in this section. Just understand at this point that multiple files can be flagged throughout your session, and the downloaded simultaneously with a batch protocol. After this option has been entered, the user has a three options : [C]lear marked file list [C]lear marked file list [C]lear marked file list : This lets the user start "unmark" all files that they have flagged to downloading. [D]ownload marked files [D]ownload marked files [D]ownload marked files : This option lets the user on- line actually download all the files that they have marked. The user will next be given a list of all the protocols that support batch transfers. After choosing the protocol they want to use, a list of all the files that they have marked will be displayed. After verifying that the list is correct, the user will be asked if they want to be logged off automatically. IF for some reason, the transfer is aborted, and the user calls back before someone else, the marked file list will be preserved and the user can continue their transfer if the protocol allows for crash recovery. On the other hand, if the transfer is successfully completed, the marked file list will be automatically deleted. [V]iew marked file list [V]iew marked file list [V]iew marked file list : This option simply displays all of the files that the user has currently marked for downloading. C - Change File Base C - Change File Base C - Change File Base This command allows the user to change the current active file base. The actual list of file bases can be displayed by using the ?. Harmony BBS Page 84 84 84 ________________________________________ If you wish to create your own custom screen of file area listings, create the files UDLISTAN.HMY for ANSI callers, and UDLISTAS.HMY for ASCII callers. Place these files in your main file transfer directory (as defined in HMC/System/BBS Statistics). If these files exist, Harmony BBS will display these files when the user requests a file base listing. If these files are not found, Harmony BBS will simply display a numerical list of all the file bases that user has access to. Note that these files are treated as menus and allow for imbedded sigma commands and requirement strings. D - Download File(s) D - Download File(s) D - Download File(s) This command allows the user to receive any files that are available for downloading. The user will first be asked which protocol they wish to use for the transfer. Depending on the protocol chosen, the user will be able to download either a single file, or multiple files. Once they have chosen a protocol, the user will be shown the default extention, and be asked to name the file or files that they want to download. If the filename being entered has the same 3 letter exention as the default extention for this file base, only the first part of the filename must be entered. If the user has chosen a batch protocol, and they have entered all the files that they want to download, pressing [ENTER] on a blank line will cause Harmony BBS to stop asking for files to download. Harmony BBS will then verify that the user wishes the transfer to begin, and ask the user if they want to be automatically logged off when the transfer is complete. If the user is using one of the internal protocols supplied by Harmony BBS, a progress window will be displayed on the sysop's screen informing the sysop of the transfer and of any errors that may be received on the way. The sysop can abort a transfer at any time by pressing the [ESC] key. E - Edit File Comment E - Edit File Comment E - Edit File Comment This command allows users to "rate" files that are available for downloading. Harmony BBS will first ask for the filename that the user wishes to leave a comment on. If the file is not found, Harmony BBS will bring the user back to the file transfer main menu. The user can also abort this procedure by pressing [ENTER] on a blank line. If the file is found, Harmony BBS will then prompt the user for a one line comment on this file. Again, the user can abort this process by pressing [ENTER] on a blank line. Harmony BBS Page 85 85 85 ________________________________________ Harmony BBS can only have 1 comment per file, and any user has the ability to change the comment. Note that comments are NOT the same as the actual file descriptions. File descriptions are permanent, and can only be changed by the user who uploaded the file, or the sysop. The only time a comment is displayed is when the user is asking for information on a specific file ([P] from the file base menu). F - Send Feedback F - Send Feedback F - Send Feedback The option lets the user send private mail to the sysop. This is the same as the [F] command from the main menu. G - Good-bye G - Good-bye G - Good-bye This option lets the user logoff (disconnect) from your system. It is the same as the [G] command from the main menu. K - Kill/Delete File K - Kill/Delete File K - Kill/Delete File This option lets the user delete a file that was uploaded by THEM ONLY. If the user has a sysop security of 100, they will be able to delete any file. L - List Files L - List Files L - List Files This command lets will display all of the current files in the current file base. Harmony BBS displays the list 1 screenful at a time. The files are displayed in this format : St # Size Name Description St is the current status of the file. There are 4 different status flags that can be displayed. U means the file has not yet been validated, and unless the user has proper access, will not be able to download it. P means the file has been password protected by the person who uploaded it. E means the file has an extended description. O means the file is not currently on-line. If a file is not on-line, the user will not be able to download it. # is used for marking files for download at the end of each screen. This will be explained in more detail in a moment. Size is the actual size (in BYTES) of the file. Name is the DOS name of the file. Harmony BBS Page 86 86 86 ________________________________________ Description is the information about the file entered by the user who uploaded it. At the end of each screen, the user is given the choice to continue (Y)es, stop listing files (N)o, continue listing without pausing at the end of every screen (non[S]top), or (M)ark files. Marking files is a very powerful and easy way to allow the user to pick and remember the files that they want to download WHILE they are viewing the file list. When they are done viewing all of the lists that they want to look at, the can enter the (B)atch menu, and download all of the files with a batch protocol (explained above). If the user chooses this option, they should enter the batch menu, and download all of the files with a batch protocol (explained above). If the user chooses this option, they will be asked to enter the file numbers that they want to add to their batch queue. The file numbers they should enter are the numbers in the second column (after the file flags). It should be noted that if the user does not have enough access or credit to download any of the files, they will be prevented from adding it to their batch queue immediately. M - Change File Description M - Change File Description M - Change File Description This option allows the user to change the one line description that is displayed when the file list is being viewed. The user is prompted to enter the file name of the file they wish to modify. Only the user who originally uploaded the file is allowed to change the description. If the user has sysop security (100), then they can change any file description. N - List New Files N - List New Files N - List New Files This command is the same as the [L]ist files command. The only difference is that before the list is displayed, the user is asked if they want to scan all of the bases. If they answer yes, then Harmony BBS will scan every file base that the user has access to. Then the user is prompted to enter the date to scan for. By just pressing [ENTER] at this prompt, the list will scan for all files added to the file list since the last time they called, otherwise, Harmony BBS will scan for all files added since the date entered. The date should be entered in the following form : YYYYMMDD. Make sure that all padding zeros are added. For example, if the user wanted to scan for all files added after January 5th, 1992, the user would want to enter 19920105. (Notice the padding 0's before the 1 and the 5). Harmony BBS Page 87 87 87 ________________________________________ P -Print File Statistics P -Print File Statistics P -Print File Statistics This command allows the user to view all of the pertinent information about a file. After choosing this command, the user is prompted for the file. As usual, if the file has the same extension as the default for this file base, it does not have to be answered. If the file is actually found, The following information will be displayed: File Statistics for : XWORD.EXE (size : 30566 bytes) Description : None. Last User Comment : None. Uploaded by : Jasen Fici (1) Date uploaded : 03/08/1992 File Index : 2 Press [ENTER] To Continue... Most of the information in this screen is self explanatory. The last one, File Index, may be a little confusing. It is used for checking the status of the link between the index and statistic file. Most of the time, this line can be ignored. Q - Quit File Base Q - Quit File Base Q - Quit File Base This command exits the file base and brings the user back to the main Harmony BBS menu. S - Show Text File S - Show Text File S - Show Text File This command will display a text file that is in the file base to the user. It will NOT display any of files that have the extension EXE, COM, ZIP, or ARC. U - Upload A File U - Upload A File U - Upload A File This option allows the user to upload a file to your BBS. The file uploaded will be sent to the current file base that the user is in. When this option is first chosen, the user will be asked to choose the protocol that they want to use. The upload can be aborted at this point by pressing [ENTER]. The user will then be notified how much space is available in this file base. If there is not enough space, and the transfer is continued, Harmony BBS will return a Transfer Incomplete Error, and no credit will be given for the upload. Harmony BBS Page 88 88 88 ________________________________________ Next, the user must enter the name of the file that they wish to upload. Note that the default exention is NOT in effect here. If the file has the same extention as the default, then it MUST be entered. The user will then be asked to enter all the "attributes" for this file. This includes a single line description that will be displayed when a file list is requested, an extended description (if they are allowed in this file base), a password for this file (explained in a moment), and whether this file is for the sysop only. If the file is password protected, whenever a user tries to download this file, this password MUST be entered. This is useful if you want to send a single file ONLY to a specific number of people. All that has to be done is informing these people what the password is. If they decide to mark the file for sysop only, then the file will NOT be displayed in the file list when one is requested. The only time it will be displayed in this file, is when a user with a security level of 100 is getting the listing. At this time, Harmony BBS will check to make sure the file does not already exist in this file base. If it does then the file transfer will be aborted at this point. Harmony BBS will now go into receive mode. At this point it is the users turn to begin the transfer. If the protocol chosen is an external protocol, Harmony BBS will execute the protocol. Refer to the protocol configuration section of HMC for more information on external protocols. When the transfer is complete, Harmony BBS will notify the user that the transfer was either successful or unsuccessful. If the everything went OK, then Harmony BBS will give the proper credit to the user. UPLOAD.BAT UPLOAD.BAT UPLOAD.BAT When an upload has been completed, Harmony BBS will check for the existence of this batch file within the main file transfer directory (default is C:\HM\UD\). If it exists, it will be executed. Harmony BBS passes to this file 3 command line parameters : %1 The current base number that this user has just uploaded a file to. Harmony BBS Page 89 89 89 ________________________________________ %2 The file name of the file just uploaded. Note this parameter passes ONLY the file name and extention (FILENAME.EXT) %3 This entire DOS path and filename of the file just uploaded. For example, C:\TELE\HM\UD\WIN\HELLO.ARC. This was put here for easy file validation by external, 3rd party virus checkers. It is also used in conjunction with the HMHOUSE command K which accepts a file base number and a file. It will take that file off-line. For example : V - View Archive V - View Archive V - View Archive This option lets the user view the contents of compressed files. The user will be prompted for the name of the file they wish to inspect. The default exention is NOT active here, and the full file name must be entered. After the user enters a file name, Harmony BBS will automatically determine if the file is a compressed file. If it is a compressed file, Harmony BBS will then determine whether it is a ZIP file, or a LZH file. Harmony BBS can show compressed executable files. Please note, that at this time, the only kind of compressed files that Harmony BBS can look into are ZIP and LZH files. If the file is compressed, Harmony BBS will show all of the files included in the archive. It will also show the original size of the files, the compressed size of each file, and the CRC value of each file. Y - Print Base Stats Y - Print Base Stats Y - Print Base Stats This command will inform the user of some important information. If the user has a security level of 100, quite a lot of information will be displayed. Information on the current file base is displayed, including the default extension, the maximum space and files allowed, the number of files currently in the base, and the current amount of space used by this file base. The next block of information informs the user about his or her current statistics of file transfer use. This includes the number of files that they have uploaded and downloaded. Harmony BBS also tells the user what their current ratio is, and whether the credit system is active for them in this base. Harmony BBS Page 90 90 90 ________________________________________ If the user has sysop security, another screen, packed full of self-describing information will be displayed. Everything a user needs to know about the file current file base will be displayed on these screens. ? - Print Menu ? - Print Menu ? - Print Menu This option simply redisplays the file transfer menu. [U] User profile edit [U] User profile edit [U] User profile edit This option is available to the user so he/she may configure Harmony to their own liking. After selecting this option you will have seven options as follows: D - Display message base entrance text D - Display message base entrance text D - Display message base entrance text You may toggle this on or off. E - Edit personal information E - Edit personal information E - Edit personal information With this option the user is allowed to edit information that they originally entered as a new user. The options include changing: Name, Address, Phone Number, Password, Screen Length, Screen Width, Color Graphics on or off, Pause at full screen, and computer type. F - Full screen editor On or Off F - Full screen editor On or Off F - Full screen editor On or Off A user that only had ASCII would want to turn the full screen editor off. Or maybe they just like a line editor. G - Graphics pausing currently On or Off G - Graphics pausing currently On or Off G - Graphics pausing currently On or Off It will have the prompt scroll in ANSI mode as the BBS waits for you to press a key. Some users find it a bother, therefore they have the option to turn it off and use the standard prompt. S - Scan user log S - Scan user log S - Scan user log This is used to scan the user log to find out if a particular user is on the system. To find out what user number a certain user is or to find out how to spell their name properly. If the user has a security level of 100, they will also be prompted to enter a requirement string. Harmony BBS will scan the user log, and print ONLY those users who meet the requirement string entered. Harmony BBS Page 91 91 91 ________________________________________ Q - Quit user functions Q - Quit user functions Q - Quit user functions This will exit the user from editing functions and return them to the main menu. X - Expert Mode On or Off X - Expert Mode On or Off X - Expert Mode On or Off This option allows the user to toggle their expert mode. When expert mode is ON, NONE of Harmony BBS's menus will print, instead, a quick one line listing of all the available commands will be displayed. NOTE : Whenever a user is at a menu, and they enter the ? command to display the menu, expert mode will be turned off automatically. [V] Voting booths [V] Voting booths [V] Voting booths This is now becoming a standard of bulletin board systems. We have included it with the bulletin board system instead of having it be an additional cost. You also have the option to disable the voting booths to allow the sysop full freedom to put up their own voting booth as a door. If a user does not have the security required they may not enter the voting booths. Also you may set up several questions and have each question have a security level in addition to just entering the main booth. As with all other places in Harmony BBS, the user will not see questions that are designated for security above their own. The questions would be renumbered accordingly. Once selecting a question a user may encounter the following: Ex. 1 Voting Question : Voting Booths --------------------------------------------------------------- Are you happy with this Voting booth being enabled? --------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Yes, I'm glad you did 2. I could care less. Please enter selection : After this the statistics would be printed for that user. They will not know how anyone voted until after they have voted. Harmony BBS Page 92 92 92 ________________________________________ The next example is what happens if a user has already voted. Ex. 2 Voting Question : Voting Booths --------------------------------------------------------------- Are you happy with this Voting booth being enabled? --------------------------------------------------------------- You have voted on this question. Choice Votes Percent Choice Description 1. 12 100% Yes, I'm glad you did. 2. 0 0% I could care less. Press [ENTER] To Continue... [Z] Zip LogOff [Z] Zip LogOff [Z] Zip LogOff This function, if enabled, allows the user to quickly logoff your system. If the user chooses this option, within a matter of seconds, they will be disconnected from your system. [?] This menu [?] This menu [?] This menu This would reprint your main menu file. Or the one that is supplied with Harmony BBS. Useful if it becomes chopped off or garbled due to line noise, etc. The question mark also has the unique ability of turning expert mode off if it has been turned on by a user. [.] Sysop Mode [.] Sysop Mode [.] Sysop Mode This mode will only be allowed to be entered if the user has security of level 100. The way we have configured the supplied main menu, this option will not show unless the user is a SysOp. You may want to do the same. What a user does not know is their will prevent them from attempting to hack your system. All of the commands available within sysop mode a pretty self explanatory. Special case should be taken as to only letting HIGHLY TRUSTED people into sysop mode. Major damage could be done. Harmony BBS Page 93 93 93 ________________________________________ ___________________ Harmony BBS Editors ___________________ Harmony BBS Editors ___________________ Harmony BBS Editors Harmony BBS has three on-line editors that may be used to edit messages by the users. The two main editors are the full screen editor, and the dot command editor. The third editor is just a hybrid of the dot command editor with ANSI codes disabled. All on-line editors are limited to 100 lines, 80 columns per line. Full Screen Editor Full Screen Editor Full Screen Editor The full screen editor of Harmony BBS is can be used almost like a real word processor for the users. In the full screen editor, if the user has ANSI capability, the user us able to freely move around the screen and make adjustments to their message. If the user is using the full screen editor, whenever it is time to create a message, the screen will clear except for a few status lines at the top and the bottom. The user if now free to type their message. Some terminal programs require the user be in what is called "doorway mode". This mode will translate keyboard commands entered by the user to commands Harmony BBS can interpret. The following keys may be used in the full screen editor : [CTRL]-[K] : Display the list of all available commands within the full screen editor. [CTRL]-[A] : Abort the current message. This command does will prompt the user to make sure they really want to abort the message. [CTRL]-[L] : Toggle insert mode on and off. Default is ON. When insert mode is off, anything under the cursor at the moment will be deleted, and the new character entered will take its place. [CTRL]-[Y] : Erase the current line that the user is on. All text lines under the current line will be moved up 1 line. [CTRL]-[N] : If the user on-line has sysop access (security=100), this command allows them to import (load) a file from the BBS disk into the message. Care should be taken that the file being imported contains ONLY ASCII characters. [CTRL]-[Z] : This command saves the current message to disk. The difference between this command and CTRL-S is that this command will prompt the user to make sure they are ready to save the message. Harmony BBS Page 94 94 94 ________________________________________ [CTRL]-[A] : This command aborts the current message being edited. Harmony BBS will prompt the user before actually aborting the message. [CTRL]-[W] : This command toggles the word wrapping feature. If word wrapping is disabled, when a user reaches the right hand side of the screen, they will brought back to the left hand side and the word will be split up that they are typing. [CTRL]-[CrsrRight]/[CrsrLeft] : When the control key and either the left or right cursor key are pressed, the cursor will just to the beginning of either the last or next word. [CTRL]-[CrsrUp]/[CrsrDn] : The control key and either the up or down cursor keys are pressed, it will be as if PageUp and PageDown (which can also be used) have been pressed. The screen will either advance or backup one half a screen of text. Dot Command (Line) Editors Dot Command (Line) Editors Dot Command (Line) Editors If a user does not wish to use the full screen editor provided for ANSI users, or if the user does not have ANSI capability, they can choose to use the dot command editor. This editor is greatly limited in features compared to the full screen editor, but still offers the basic functionality of allowing users to type in messages. One of the major advantages of the line editor is quickness. If the user is not going to be creating big messages, or if the user does not want to quote replies to other messages, then this editor should be used. The disadvantage of the line editor is that making changes to a message (editing) can be quite tedious. Cursor movement (other than left with the BACKSPACE key, and right with the SPACE key) does not exist. In order to change a line of text, one of the . (dot) commands must be used. Typing a message Typing a message Typing a message Entering a message with the line editor is quite simple. Simply type text as you normally would with any other editor. Dot Commands Dot Commands Dot Commands Dot commands allow the user to toggle specific options on or off, and execute specific commands. All dot commands MUST be entered from a blank line, with the cursor in column position one (1). With the cursor in column 1, pressing a period (.) will bring the user to the command prompt. From the command prompt, the following commands will be available : Harmony BBS Page 95 95 95 ________________________________________ A - Abort current message A - Abort current message A - Abort current message. This command allows the user to stop editing the current message without saving. Caution should be used with this command, since all text will be erased that the user has entered. D - Delete a line D - Delete a line D - Delete a line. This command allows the user to delete one of the lines that currently exist. If this option is chosen, the user will be asked which line they wish to erase. After the line is deleted, all text below that line will be brought up by 1. E - Edit line number E - Edit line number E - Edit line number. This command allows the user to edit a currently existing line of text. If this command is chosen, the user will be prompted for the line number they wish to edit. That text line will then be displayed, and the user will be asked to enter the new text for this line. L - Toggle line numbering L - Toggle line numbering L - Toggle line numbering. This option defaults to off. When it is turned on, the current line number that the user is typing on is displayed to the left of the screen. If a long message is being entered, it may be best to turn line numbering on since Harmony BBS only supports 100 lines be edited message. W - Toggle word wrap W - Toggle word wrap W - Toggle word wrap. This option defaults to on. When word wrap is on, the user's will not have to press ENTER at the end of every line, the editor will automatically grab the current word being typed and move it down to the next line. If this option is turned off, the user will just be brought to the next line, and the word that was being typed will be split between the 2 lines. S - Save current message S - Save current message S - Save current message. This command will end the editing session, and save the text entered to wherever the user was sending it. V - View message V - View message V - View message. This command simply allows the user to view all text that has currently been entered. It will ask the user if they want to view the message with line numbers which can be useful for editing a message. I - Import a file I - Import a file I - Import a file. This command is only available to users with sysop security of 100. If this option is chosen, the user will be asked the name of the file (from the system drive) to load into memory. Care should be taken in that Harmony's editors only allow for 100 lines per message. ? ? ? - This command will display a quick list of all the available dot commands. Harmony BBS Page 96 96 96 ________________________________________ . - By pressing a . 2 times consecutively . - By pressing a . 2 times consecutively . - By pressing a . 2 times consecutively, the user will be allowed to put a period (.) in the first column. Harmony BBS Page 97 97 97 ________________________________________ ________________________________________ Running Harmony BBS under a Multi-Tasker ________________________________________ Running Harmony BBS under a Multi-Tasker ________________________________________ Running Harmony BBS under a Multi-Tasker Harmony BBS is aware of most popular multi-tasking software. It has been tested (not thoroughly though), and will notify the sysop when waiting for a call WHICH multi-tasker Harmony BBS is being operated. Please note, this does NOT mean that Harmony BBS is a multi- node BBS system. IT IS NOT! This simply means that the sysop can use their system while the BBS is operating, as long as they do not try to run Harmony BBS in more than one session. We have tried to make Harmony BBS give up as much idle time as possible when running under a multi-tasker. If you find someplace where Harmony BBS seems to be bottlenecking under a multi-tasker, please let Concord Software know and we will try to remedy the problem for the next revision. Harmony BBS Page 98 98 98 ________________________________________ _________________________________ Running Harmony BBS with a Mailer _________________________________ Running Harmony BBS with a Mailer _________________________________ Running Harmony BBS with a Mailer Harmony BBS has been designed to run with any network or multiple networks that supports the standard ZONE:NET/NODE.POINT format as originally designed by Tom Jennings for FidoNet. This is accomplished in two ways : First, Harmony BBS uses the Squish format for all messages, public and private. The only 2 extra pieces of software that you will need to run your BBS with a network will be a network mailer (described in a moment), and a message tosser/scanner (preferably Squish by Scott Dudley) Second, Harmony BBS can be configured in a small amount of time to work with a mailer. In the examples that follow, we will refer to a network mailer called Front Door, since Harmony BBS was designed with Front Door running as our network mailer. (This is not to say that Harmony BBS doesn't operate quite smoothly with other mailers as well.) To run Harmony BBS with a mailer, there are only a few basic rules that need to be followed. 1. In most network situations, the mailer will be the program that will be set up to answer incoming calls. It is then the mailers responsibility to determine whether the call coming in is a BBS caller, or another mailer trying to transfer mail. The other situation that exists is if the BBS is setup to answer incoming calls, and an event is added to the event list that will run the mailer at a specified time. The major drawback of this type is system is that the BBS will not be able to handle ANY calls from other mailers except when the mailer event is being executed. Also, all other systems within the network would have to be notified of this so that they would not accidentally try to call your system at a time when the BBS was running and not the mailer. For this main reason, this type of setup is strongly *NOT* recommended, and subsequently will not be discussed. Before reading this section any further, make sure you have a full understanding of HOW your mailer operates. Once you have your mailer setup and running, there are only 3 things you need know to run Harmony BBS with it : Harmony BBS Page 99 99 99 ________________________________________ 1. You will NOT be running your BBS with the batch file supplied with Harmony BBS anymore. If you do, it will have to be modified greatly. Instead, you will run a new batch file that you have to create. 2. *ALL* events should be run through the mailer, and NOT Harmony BBS. This may seem a little obvious to some, but it is very important that your mailer support external events. Since the mailer is the program that will be waiting for calls when events are executed, make sure that you move all of your Harmony events over to the mailers. 3. The mailer should be able to pass an incoming caller's statistics to the BBS. This includes 3 parameters : baud rate of the caller, port number used by the connection, and time until next event (in minutes). Harmony BBS should be set up to look for these parameters using the command line switched -P## -B#### -T#### where P## is port ##, B### is baud rate #### of the connection , and T#### is #### number of minutes until the next event. If Harmony BBS receives these command line parameters, 2 things will happen : -The Waiting for a Call screen will be skipped, and the BBS will go directly to the logon sequence. -Once the user has logged on, if their time limit is greater than (including unlimited time limits) the number of minutes passed by the -T switch, Harmony BBS will adjust their time limit accordingly. When an incoming caller logs off from Harmony BBS under a network environment, the mailer program should be loaded back up to wait for the next user to call, mail call, or event. The following batch file was designed with Front Door in mind. Please look it over carefully. ------------------------------------------------------ @echo off rem This section should bring you to the directory location of your network rem mailer (front end). :Mailer c: cd \fd rem Run Mailer fd Harmony BBS Page 100 100 100 ________________________________________ rem ------------------------------------------------- rem The next lines control all the different errorlevels that your mailer is rem defined to exit with. if errorlevel 254 goto MailOUT if errorlevel 253 goto MailIN if errorlevel 200 goto userBRK if errorlevel 32 goto sysopLOGON if errorlevel 31 goto Incoming if errorlevel 10 goto userBRK if errorlevel 1 goto FDerror rem ------------------------------------------------- rem This section should contain the steps you will need to pack up all new rem mail for the day. The example below uses a *.MSG compatible packer rem known as Squish. It is a rather popular program, and contains many rem utilities needed for efficient network message handling. :MailOut squish out -cSQUISH.CFG squash goto FrontDoor :EndMailOut rem ------------------------------------------------- rem This section takes contains the steps you will need to unpack all new rem network mail for the day. Again, we use the program Squish in our rem example, but any squish compatible message tosser should do the trick. rem The first line of :MailIn runs the SQUISH OUT rem command again, just to make sure this has happened. With a little rem strategic planning within your batch files, a more efficient way can be rem worked out. :MailIn squish out -cSQUISH.CFG squash squish in -cSQUISH.CFG sqpack \hm\system\*.SQD sqpack \hm\msgs\*.SQD cd \hm hmhouse -m -f goto FrontDoor :EndMailIn rem ------------------------------------------------- Harmony BBS Page 101 101 101 ________________________________________ rem This section simply uses DOS 5.0 EDIT.COM to view the current caller rem log that Harmony BBS has created. :fdLOG edit c:\hm\system\calllog.hmy goto FrontDoor :EndFdLog rem ------------------------------------------------- rem This section lets the sysop setup a routine within the mailer, that will rem allow for them to load up the BBS and logon on without having to do it rem manually. :sysopLOGON cd \hm hm -o -h goto FrontDoor :EndSysopLogon rem ------------------------------------------------- rem This section handles a graceful exiting of the batch file. :userBRK echo User Break goto done :EnduserBRK rem ------------------------------------------------- rem This section handles an actual incoming call. In this example, the rem mailer program creates a batch files called DOBBS which in turn rem executes a batch file called EXEBBS. DOBBS will pass to EXEBBS all the rem needed information to properly get the BBS going (baud rate, port rem number, and time limit). :Incoming dobbs goto FrontDoor :EndIncoming rem --------------------------------------------------- rem Handle any errors the the mailer returns :FDerror echo Mailer returned an error (1-9) :done Harmony BBS Page 102 102 102 ________________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------ EXEBBS.BAT : rem ------------------------------------------------- rem Generate a random quote of the day using HMQUOTE cd \hm\system hmquote cd.. rem ------------------------------------------------- rem Run the BBS using the command line parameters the DOBBS.BAT sent rem over. hm -b%1 -p%2 -t%3 rem ------------------------------------------------- rem Now comes the magic. To ensure that all new messages are dealt with, rem we check for the existence of CREATED.MSG. This file should only be rem found when there are new messages to be converted. The same hold rem true for DELETED.MSG, whenever a message has been deleted, this file rem will have been created, and SQPACK should be run if exist created.msg goto ScanMail if exist deleted.msg goto ScanMail goto Finish rem ------------------------------------------------- rem Ok, there is new mail, check to see if it is network mail (public), and rem get it out there. The last line in this section will convert any new rem messages over to the Harmony BBS format, but it does NOT recycle or rem mark messages, it is just a quick conversion. :ScanMail cd \fd squish out -cSQUISH.CFG -aAREAS.BBS sqpack \hm\msgs\*.sqd cd \hm hmhouse -m rem ------------------------------------------------- rem End of this batch file, re-run the main mailer batch file (from above) Harmony BBS Page 103 103 103 ________________________________________ :Finish cd \fd fde Exporting and Importing Mail into Harmony BBS Exporting and Importing Mail into Harmony BBS Exporting and Importing Mail into Harmony BBS There are only 2 main concerns with getting and sending mail from and to the network. First, the program used MUST be able to take incoming network packets, and separate each message into a squish message file format. It must allow for distributing each message to its respective directory. It must also be able to scan a set of directories, and pack all new messages since the last time the directory was scanned. Second, and most important : Everytime mail is received and unpacked, HMHOUSE -M MUST be executed. The -M tells HMHOUSE to scan all of the message bases, and look and tell Harmony BBS how many messages are in each message base. Harmony BBS Page 104 104 104 ________________________________________ _______ Credits _______ Credits _______ Credits Concord Software would like to express their thanks and appreciation to the following people and companies : Bob Ainsbury, Technojock Software Inc., for the product Technojock Object Toolkit. Mark May for the spectacular MKMSG code. Anyone who wants a look at some great OOP, should take a look at this code. Borland International Inc., for Turbo Pascal v6.0 Turbo Power Software Inc., for Turbo Async v1.1, and other various utilities Ken Sallot, for the product MulAware 2.2 (thanks for the constant fixes!) Kelly Drown for FIDONET.PAS message structures and code. (C)Copyright 1988,1989 Laser Computing Scott Dudley, last but not least, for the Squish message base format, and making it generally accessible. Without the combined use of ALL of these products, Harmony BBS would not be the bulletin board system it is today (maybe 5 years down the line, but not today). We would also like to thank all of our beta testers. Without you guys (and girls!), Harmony BBS could have been a disaster. All products and companies mentioned in this documentation, including but not limited to MS-DOS, Windows, Desqview, Front Door, FidoNet, Squish, and Hayes are the copyrights and trademarks of their respective owners. Harmony BBS Page 105 105 105