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Night Owl 19
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Night Owl (The Best of Shareware)(NOPV 19)(1996).ISO
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strakd10.zip
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STRAK.DOC
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1995-11-18
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251 lines
StarTrak! Door Activity Tracker V1.00
-------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LEGAL NOTICE
Don't Drink And DownLoad!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is it?
-----------
StarTrak is a MEX program for use with Maximus V3.00+ by Scott Dudley. The
purpose of StarTrak is track the usage of the doors (or anything else you
may want to track) on your BBS.
Features:
---------
- Easy to setup and use.
- Easy maintanence via a Sysop menu.
- Shows Last user, last date/time the door was used.
- Shows date of last counter reset.
- Easy addition\removal of door tracking data.
- Supports up to 50 Doors (default: this can be changed)
Known Shortcoming:
------------------
Activity display is NOT sorted by the MEX program, but can be sorted using
3rd party text sorting programs. I found MEX was waaay too slow for this
program as it supports up to 50 doors. If anyone has come up with a QUICK
MEX sorting routine, let me know. All my attemps were quite slow.
Files Included:
---------------
DTRAK.MEX | StarTrak Display Module (with Sysop menu)
STRAK.MEX | Module that counts door entries
STRAK.CTL | Sample control file for defining doors
STRAK.DOC | Your reading it.
FILE_ID.DIZ | File descriptor.
File created:
-------------
STRAK.DAT | Data file created the first time STRAK is run.
============================================================================
Setup:
------
The following is a basic setup for StarTrak.
- Either unpack the STARTRAK archive in your \max\m directory, or make a
separate directory for it (recommended).
- With your favorite Text editor, change the following in BOTH STRAK.MEX
and DTRAK.MEX to reflect your StarTrak path:
Line 22/23:
#define CONFIG "C:\\MAX\\STRAK\\STRAK.CTL"
#define DAT_FILE "C:\\MAX\\STRAK\\STRAK.DAT"
- Edit the following in DTRAK.MEX to specify the access level needed to
access the Sysop menu:
Line 24:
#define ACCESS "=Sysop "
NOTE: The space after the access level is REQUIRED! You can specify
any access you want: ">Normal ", ">=AsstSysop "
- Compile STRAK.MEX using: MEX STRAK
- Compile DTRAK.MEX using: MEX DTRAK
- Edit STRAK.CTL as follows (see also the sample STRAK.CTL):
1,Falcon's Eye
The number is a reference that will be passed from MENUS.CTL (see below)
which MUST be followed by a comma. Valid numbers are 1-999. After the
comma, define the door as you wish it to appear in the StarTrak display.
2,Barren Realms Elite
3,Solar Realms Elite
4,Lore
57,Usurper <--- See the example below.
67,Red Dragon
77,Planets
87,Global Wars
107,Trade Wars 2002
957,Exitilus
You can define up to 50 doors. Note that other than using numbers from
1 to 999, there is no real rhyme or reason to what numbers you use. I
use XTERN_ERLVL exits here, so I named mine according to the errorlevel
the door uses. You could just use 1 through 10 if you have 10 doors.
- Edit MENUS.CTL as follows:
NoDsp MEX strak\strak_57 Normal/G "5"
Display_file misc\dorinfo Normal/G "5 Usurper"
NoDsp Xtern_Erlvl 57 Normal/G "5"
The first line is what we're concerned with. Notice the "strak_57"?
The "57" is the reference you set up in STRAK.CTL. (You MUST use an
underscore here, not a space)
- Add an option in MENUS.CTL for users to view the StarTrak data as
follows:
MEX strak\dtrak Twit "Activity List"
- SILT MAX
============================================================================
Adding Doors:
-------------
No problem. Just make a new entry in STRAK.CTL, and make the call to
the new door in MENUS.CTL. StarTrak will start the counting the first
time a user enters the door.
Removing Doors:
---------------
Just remove the entry from STRAK.CTL and MENUS.CTL. Then select to
use the Sysop Maint when displaying the activity list. Select to K)ill
the door from there.
Replacing Doors:
----------------
If you wish to use the same number to count the new door, just change
the Door name in STRAK.CTL. Then K)ill the old door in the Sysop Maint.
Resetting a Counter:
--------------------
Select Sysop Maint when displaying the activity list. Then select to
R)eset a counter. Select the door number from the list and the counter
will be set to zero.
Starting a NEW data file:
-------------------------
Select Sysop Maint, and then select to S)tart a new data file from the
sysop menu.
**If you don't want to do anything in the sysop menu, just hit "N" to
exit the maint menu.
============================================================================
Other Considerations:
---------------------
Although StarTrak was intended to track Door activity, you can use it
with any menu option on your BBS. For instance, if you wanted to track
how many people visit ....say.... your message section, and your file
section, you could define the following in STRAK.CTL:
1,Message Area
2,File Area
Then in MENUS.CTL:
Menu MAIN
Title MAIN (%t Microns Remaining)
MenuFile Menus\Main.bbs regular
MenuLength 20
% Name of cmd Optional arguments Priv. Command as it
% to execute for cmd, if any Level appears to user
% ------------ --------------------- --------- -----------------
NoDsp MEX Strak\strak_1 Twit "M"
Display_Menu Message Twit "Message Areas"
NoDsp MEX Strak\strak_2 Twit "F"
Display_Menu File Twit "File Areas"
MEX Strak\dtrak Twit "BBS Activity"
Hitting "B" at the main menu would then display a count of how many
people visit those areas.
Again, this can be used in conjunction with any menu option.
**NOTE: NEVER try editing the STRAK.DAT files with editors which strip
"white spaces" (such as QEdit) This will trash the data file. If you
MUST edit the DAT files, use DOS's EDIT or any other editor which
preserves "white spaces"
I run 30 doors here at StarLab, which are split between 3 menus
(Holodecks 1-3). Each menu has its own StarTrak utility. Tracking 10
doors fits nicely on a full screen. Support for a MORE prompt is
built in if you are tracking more doors than will fit on a screen.
Sorting STRAK.DAT with 3rd party Sort programs:
-----------------------------------------------
I recommend QSort by Ben Baker for this. It's fast, and needs no dump
file for it's output. Just run it on the DAT file in your AFTER BBS
processes as follows:
QSORT /f77 /-21:26 STRAK1.DAT
/f77 <--This switch defines the length of the record
/-21:26 <--This tells QSort to sort by the field at pos 21-26 in
descending order.
STRAK1.DAT <--Data file to be sorted.
DOS has a SORT command, but is quite limited and needs to dump the
output to a different file. Type HELP SORT at you command line for
instruction on how to use this.
QSort should be available to you on most BBS's (if you don't have it
on yours...shame on you! <G>) It is available for FREQ here at
1:229/732 as filename: QSORT
Closing:
--------
Thanks for giving StarTrak a try. I hope it helps you in controlling
which games are simply "space wasters".
As I mentioned above, I would be very interested in seeing a time-
sensitive sort routine in MEX which I might be able to use in a future
version of StarTrak.
You can reach me in either the MECCA/MEX echo as well as MUFFIN. Or
netmail me at 1:229/732.
Larry Monte
StarLab Systems Software
FidoNet 1:229/732