Night Owl 19

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Text File | 1996-01-01 | 24KB | 523 lines

Network Mail Status - QFront Version ═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ First off I would like to thank Don Sharp who suggested this version. Also to all those who offered suggestions and comments on my original Status program. Some functions and displays are the direct result of this input. Don Sharp was a beta tester on Status, StatusC and StatusQ. (1) Generates a network Import mail status bulletin showing each conference (full 24 characters for conference names), 1500 maximum, and the total number of messages imported for current date and total to date for each conferences, total conferences and the total messages to date for the specified network. (2) Generates a network Export mail status bulletin showing each conference (full 24 characters for conference names), 1500 maximum, and the total number of messages exported for current date and total to date for each conferences, total conferences and the total messages to date for the specified network. (3) Generates Last Import bulletin showing last import information: date, time, total messages imported in last import and total messages imported to date. (4) Generates, or appends to the end of, a monthly totals bulletin called network.TOT with each rollover. This bulletin contains the total lines from previous Import bulletins along with header. (5) Supports multiple network Import and Export bulletins in addition to the regular bulletins above. This program uses QFront's QSCAN.LOG(s). It does a monthly rollover of the LOG(s) using PKWare's PKZIP.EXE (copyright PKWare). This archive should contain the following files: CLEANUPQ.EXE.......... QFront log reduction program CLEANUPQ.DOC.......... Instructions for running CleanUpQ DOORS.TXT............. Current list of James Huckabey doors FILE_ID.DIZ........... BBS description file SOFTWARE.TXT.......... Information on shareware HUCKABEY.TXT.......... Current list of all James Huckabey software ARCHIVE.TXT........... This list of files READ.ME............... Update/changes information STATUSQ.EXE........... Actual Status program STATUSQ.DOC........... Instructions for running StatusQ STATUSQ.CFG........... Sample configuration file STATUSQ2.CFG.......... Sample configuration file STATUSQ3.CFG.......... Sample configuration file STATUSQ.LUP........... Sample networks line up file Syntax is pretty straight forward: STATUSQ STATUSQ.CFG Full path to STATUSQ.EXE may be used if not in path or in current directory. If you do use a path statement in your execution of Status (not in current dir or in path) you need to set the environment variable "SET STATUSQ=path to STATUSQ.EXE" (SET STATUSQ=C:\UTILITY\OTHER, etc. no ending slash is needed). It is not necessary to add a path statement to the configuration file since the program finds itself. Of course the file must be in location of STATUSQ.EXE. If the configuration file is not in the same location then use the path statement to it's location. "STATUSQ.CFG" and can have any file name with the following format. You can use up to 8 characters of your network name for the name of your .CFG file if that helps keep multi-network configurations clearer. This would be the easiest way to do it. Each line must be populated with a valid entry. Paths to bulletins or logs are not needed if they are in or written to the current directory: ( 1) Unregistered BBS ( 2) 0000 ( 3) Network ( 4) QSCAN.LOG ( 5) C:\BBS\BLT1 ( 6) C:\BBS\BLT2 ( 7) C:\BBS\BLT3 ( 8) PCB ( 9) Bright (10) STATUSQ.LUP CFG line #1 "Unregistered BBS", BBS name if registered. CFG line #2 "0000", valid serial number if registered. CFG line #3 "Network" should be the name of the actual network you are using, case sensitive (Fido 666, Fido 144, etc.). 18 characters max, longer names are truncated. Say you are making two different network mail runs with the same software, you would use those names here, each in it's own configuration file. CFG line #4 "QSCAN.LOG" is the path and name of your QFront scan log . CFG line #5 "C:\BBS\BLT1" is the path and name for your Import bulletin. CFG line #6 "C:\BBS\BLT2" is the path and name for your Export bulletin. CFG line #7 "C:\BBS\BLT3" is the path and name for your Last Import bulletin. If you are not using this option the file can just be written out to the current directory, but it must be generated. CFG line #8 Color and characters used are setup to give you as much control over the output as possible. Not all users can read and handle IBM extended graphic characters (like sight impaired users and voice hardware). Program can use either "=/-" or IBM's extended graphic characters "═/─". Line #8 must contain one of the following options: "PCB" use IBM extended graphic characters and PCBoard's @X0 colorizing codes. "PCB2" use no IBM extended graphic characters and PCBoard's @X0 colorizing codes. "ANSI" use colorizing and no IBM extended graphic characters. "ANSI2" use colorizing and IBM extended graphic characters. "ASCII" use no colorizing and no IBM extended graphic characters. "ASCII2" use no colorizing, but use IBM extended graphic characters. CFG line #9 Text Tone: This option can be either Bright or Normal. The default is BRIGHT. Even if you are using an ASCII option you must still populate this option. CFG line #10 ** Networks option enabled with registration of StatusQ ** ** The networks option is an optional line in the CFG file. Without it StatusQ runs just like earlier versions and does not check for a lineup file. This is in the event you are having problems that this option can be disabled by removing it from the CFG file. This entry in the CFG is the file name for the Fido individual Network bulletins (network line ups). File name can be any legal DOS file name. Format as follows: <position number one on each line (do not indent) IMPORT:C:\PCB\BLTQIMP1 <import bulletin EXPORT:C:\PCB\BLTQEXP1 <export bulletin Fido 5666 <network name Adult_Issues <conference name Teen_Issues <etc. Star_Trek First line must contain import bulletin, second line export bulletin and third line network name. These are followed by the conferences belonging to that individual network. You repeat the process for each additional network: <position number one on each line (do not indent) IMPORT:C:\PCB\BLTQIMP1 <import bulletin EXPORT:C:\PCB\BLTQEXP1 <export bulletin Fido 5666 <network name Adult_Issues <conference name Teen_Issues <etc. IMPORT:C:\PCB\BLTQIMP2 EXPORT:C:\PCB\BLTQEXP2 Fido 7684 Men_Only Women_Only Teens_Only For_Sale IMPORT and EXPORT must be uppercase and use a colon. NO SPACE AFTER THE COLON. Borland's Turbo Pascal is unable to open a file with a leading space, unlike DOS. The individual conferences are written out in sorted order regardless of how they are entered in the list. BUT they must match existing conferences. There is a maximum of 500 conferences for each individual network. The network name has the same 18 character limit as the standard bulletins. No Last Import bulletins are generated. See sample STATUSQ.LUP for additional information on format. It is now possible to generate all manner of bulletins. You can have like minded conferences in different networks and combine them into one bulletin. Say you have adult conferences in several Fido networks, now you can combine them together to make "Fido Adult" bulletins. Say you have genealogy conferences in several networks, now you can combine them together to make "Genealogy" bulletins. There are endless possibilities. All networks can be run from separate configuration files, but this means that StatusQ has to process all data each time. It is faster, less wear and tare on hard drives, it all network data is in one configuration file. If you want different formats, then generate additional configuration files to generate the formats desired. Two different formats require only two different configuration files (example: STATUSQ.CFG/STATUSQ2.CFG). The networks file (example: STATUSQ.LUP) also has to have different bulletin names in it or it will overwrite the previously generated bulletins. STATUSQ TOTAL FILE(s) This file, StatusQ Totals, is written to the current directory only. Current directory is the directory where you call STATUSQ.EXE from. The file name is the first eight alphabetical characters of your network name. This way if you are making multiple network mail runs each network will have it's own totals file. The extension is always "TOT". Please make note that if your copy of StatusQ is not registered that the total file will have "Unregistered BBS" in the BBS line of the bulletin. If you keep the file and register StatusQ you will have to edit the top line of the bulletin or erase the file(s) and start over. This file/bulletin has unlimited possibilities. If you are making more than one StatusQ execution, say for different formats, only the first one will be executed with the rollover. So this file will only contain that color format. It is complete with whatever color codes existed in the original bulletin. The colors can be removed or replaced with whatever colors you want manually using a text editor. The file has a three line header when first created, (1) line with BBS name in it, (2) an explanation of what it is, (3) a header termination line. It then has one line for Import and Export totals followed by a blank separation line. Each successive appendage is two lines total. A year's worth of information would have a total of thirty-nine lines. What you do with this information is up to you. Just another friendly option added to the program. If you are going to use it as an active bulletin it can be copied anywhere you want. Just make sure that if you want the next rollover appended to the end that you keep the file in the current directory for the execution of StatusQ. If you change this directory make sure you move the total bulletin(s) to your new directory. Special Bulletins Showing Totals Each Conference It is possible to make a "Previous Month's" activity bulletin out of the rolled over log(s). At least the data would be all there and compacted if you have used CleanUpQ. All you have to do is make a special STATUSQ.CFG file with the name of the bulletins for these special bulletins. You could do one each month for the previous month. The bulletin for the Last Import could just be written to the current directory and not used. For a full month the Bulletins would have something like 01-01-95 to 01-31-95 for the time period as this would be the dates in a log for January 1995. Of course the above would work even if you did not run CleanUpQ. It should be noted that when you start using StatusQ for the first time that if your QFront log(s) are not just the current month's log(s) that the log does not roll over until the month in the log equals your system's current month. The first archive will contain everything to last day of previous month. The new log will start at the first current month's date StatusQ finds in the current month's log. Bulletins generated will show information only for the current month and from this point on each roll over archive will contain only the previous month's log. Errors Errors are written to the same directory as STATUSQ.EXE in a file called STATUSQ.ERR. If the file already exists additional errors are appended to the end of the file. It may be deleted after you have made note of any errors. It's existence it not required by the program. During the start up procedures that program displays "Searching!"/"Configuring!" while it is reading in and verifying all information in the configuration file. These are to show you what the program is doing should lockups occur. Normally these two displays should be very quick and unreadable depending on system speed and StatusQ's configuration. The program confirms each item in the configuration file before it does anything else. Program aborts if each option cannot be confirmed. If the program has any problems with your log(s) such as no conferences found or log not found, bulletins (Import and Export) are generated showing "No data found" and the error information is written to STATUSQ.ERR. Making Different Bulletins Perhaps you want to make a bulletin with the PCBoard color codes and one using straight ASCII codes and yet another using ANSI codes, Bright or Normal Text Tones. The .CFG files would contain the bulletin names and the form setting (#9): STATUSQ STATUSQ.CFG (.CFG with PCB, uses PCBoard color codes and IBM extended graphic characters and normal text tone) STATUSQ STATUSQ2.CFG (.CFG with ASCII, ASCII and no IBM extended graphic characters and normal text tone [must be populated]) STATUSQ STATUSQ3.CFG (.CFG with ANSI, ANSI colors and no IBM extended graphic characters and bright text tone) You just call STATUSQ as many times as needed, with as many configuration files as needed to generate whatever formats you want. On my 486DX4 100 it takes less than ten seconds to run the program on a 16,500 line test log. PKZIP.EXE used by the StatusQ Program "PKZIP.EXE" must be somewhere in your path or in the current directory. When the month changes in the export/import.log the program archives the current log into a file using 'SQ'+ the current date (SQ010195.ZIP, etc.). It also includes the current logs and all bulletins. It creates this in the directory that contains the log file(s). The program then rewrites the log using only the current new month's data. This way there is only one month's log data in your QFront log(s). The bulletins are added to the archive so the last information posted on the BBS before rollover is available should this information be required by you. If you do not want the previous month's log(s) simply delete the archive from your hard drive. In your calling batch file you can add "IF EXIST SQ*.ZIP DEL SQ*.ZIP" and this will auto-delete the archive. There must be at least one meg of free disk space for the archive to be executed. I have no idea the possible sizes and if anyone has problems with the archive with one meg as the minimum please let me know and I will increase the size of the free space required. The StatusQ Program If you don't like the program please write to me and explain why. Send me any suggestions you might have. If they enhance the overall program I will try to incorporate part, some, all, in the next release. This program package represents many hours of programming, testing, updating and LD telephone calls to get it tested and to distribute the beta and release copies. Please support my efforts and register your copy. Registration enables CleanUpQ and the Networks option. StatusQ Registration Please supply name of BBS to be added to program, up to sixty characters. Anything longer than this is truncated, no exceptions. This is to be on one line of code and must be legible since the serial number is based on exact syntax. I cannot be responsible for unreadable data. Please print. Case sensitive! For those who do not understand "case sensitive" I will explain since some people do not seem to know the term. If you send me your BBS name in all capital letters that is what your serial number matches. If you send me your BBS name in all lower case letters your this is what your serial number matches. If you send me your BBS name in capital and lower case letters that is what your serial number matches. Writing small capital letters is not the same as lower case. I have gotten registrations where the first letter of words were in large capital letters and the rest of the letters in that word in small capital letters. My interpretation is that this is all uppercase (capital) letters. By match means that your configuration file must contain the same format your serial number is based on: (1) all uppercase, (2) all lower case, (3) mixed case. Example: "Jim's Graphic BBS". In StatusQ it comes out as the following in all bulletins generated: ==================(Jim's Graphic BBS)================== StatusQ Registration Form [-------------------------------------------------------------] (put BBS name above) Send BBS information and one of the following in U.S.$ (1) Registration via mail.............................$15 (outside U.S./Canada please add $2) (2) Update from version 1 or 2 via mail only..........$3 (3) Registration and latest version via mail......... $17 (outside U.S./Canada please add $4) Include diskette size. (4) Registration and latest copy of all James Huckabey software (BBS and regular PC).....................$18 (outside U.S./Canada please add $4) Include diskette size. Option: 1: [ ] 2: [ ] 3: [ ] 4: [ ] Diskette Size: 360: [ ] 1.2: [ ] 720: [ ] 1.44: [ ] Your current version number: [ ] FROM: Name: --------------------------------------------------- Address: --------------------------------------------------- City: --------------------------------------------------- State & Zip: --------------------------------------------------- BBS Name: --------------------------------------------------- Phone(voice): (data) ---------------------- --------------------- Your registration number and any diskettes, if requesting current version or other software, are sent by return mail. James Huckabey 3621-A Fraser Street Bellingham, Washington 98226-2473 U.S.A. (360) 671-2868 (voice, Pacific)