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1992-09-17
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Page 1
╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│ DAYSTATS │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ A PCBoard Single Day Stats Program! │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Version 1.0 09/17/92 Copyright (c) 1992 │
╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
WHAT IS DAYSTATS ?
-----------------
With the multitude of PCBoard utilities available, I was surprised
that I had never seen a simple utility which would automatically
(in your EVENT) produce a bulletin file which simply listed what
happened on your BBS in one simple line, and gave you a visible history
of each day's stats. Take a look at the sample bulletins and I think
you will see immediately the simplicity and usefulness of the DAYSTATS.
PCBoard provided the perfect source for this information. The
PCBSTATS.DAT file contains precisely what I wanted to know, distilled
down into 4 major items: Calls, Messages, Uploads, and Downloads. Using
the information provided by the PCBSTATS.DAT file, DAYSTATS will produce
a simple but very meaningful bulletin showing you day by day how many
calls, messages, uploads and downloads took place on your BBS. A simple
glance at the bulletin and you can instantly see how your BBS is being
utitilized over a period of time.
Sure, I know there are lots of other Stats programs out there. But I am
not aware of one that gives me summary information about what happened on
my BBS prior to yesterday. Most provide much more detail and information
than DAYSTATS does, while DAYSTATS simply summarizes the major topics.
In theory, DAYSTATS is not intended to replace the full-blown stats
programs, but rather to enhance them by offering previously unavailable
information in a FAST!!! simple program.
CAPABILITIES and LIMITATIONS
----------------------------
DAYSTATS can currently handle PCBoard systems with up to 500 Nodes. Many
of the routines used in DAYSTATS are written in assembler for speed and
ease of error trapping, and smaller code size. DAYSTATS uses a config
file, but can override most of the config file settings with command
line switches for ease of use. Three types of bulletins can be produced:
Single Line, GreenBar (computer paper), and Double Line. The header and
output colors are totally configurable as well. DAYSTATS stores prior
days history in a data file called DAYSTATS.DAT which includes node
information as well as cummulative BBS stats. DAYSTATS has extensive
error trapping and has been tested completely before being release.
DISTRIBUTION FILES Page 2
-----------------
Included in your ZIP file should at least be the following programs.
If these files are not in the copy of the ZIP you have, call
Xignals PCBoard and download a complete copy.
DAYSTATS.EXE <-------- DAYSTATS Executable Program
DAYSTATS.DOC <-------- This Documentation
DAYSTATS.CFG <-------- Sample Configuration File
SINGLE.BUL <-------- Sample "single" line bulletin file
DOUBLE.BUL <-------- Sample "double" line bulletin file
FILE_ID.DIZ <-------- PCBoard upload description file
README.TXT <-------- Information on Cost etc...
RESET.BAT <-------- Example of how to reset PCBSTATS.DAT
OPERATION Page 2
---------
DAYSTATS will read in your PCBSTATS.DAT file, extract the information that
it needs and produce a bulletin report of the day's BBS activity. It should
be noted that if you do NOT currently reset your PCBSTATS.DAT file every
day (or night) in your event, then DAYSTATS is probably of no use to you.
DAYSTATS makes the assumption that your PCBSTATS.DAT file reflects only
a single day's activity on the BBS. DAYSTATS will work regardless of
whether or not you reset your stats, but the information you would get from
DAYSTATS would basically be meaningless if you didn't reset PCBSTATS.DAT
after running DAYSTATS every day. I have included a sample rest batch file
for those who don't know how to do it. I suggest you read your PCBoard manual
or ask for more accurate help from CDC if you are certain about how to reset
your PCBSTATS.DAT file.
Generally your order of processing would be to run DAYSTATS and then
immediately after successful completetion of DAYSTATS, reset your
PCBSTATS.DAT file.
The General syntax for running DAYSTATS is:
C:\> DAYSTATS [/C=xx /B=xx /L=xx /U=xx /T=xx /S=xx /D=xx] /? or /HELP
[optional parameters]
ex: C:\> DAYSTATS
Daystats alone will use the default config file and process as
defined in the .CFG file. <THIS IS THE BEST RECOMMENDED METHOD!>
ex: C:\> DAYSTATS /C=MY.CFG /B=BLT30
Daystats would use the file "MY.CFG" in place of "DAYSTATS.CFG" and
force the output to go to BLT30.
ex: C:\> DAYSTATS /C:\MY.CFG /B=BLT30 /U=NO /D=CURRENT
Same as above, but will also NOT update the history data file and
will use the current day instead of yesterday's date (see /D desc.)
Basically, you can specify the command line options in any order you
like. I strongly recommend you leave a space between the parameters, but
the program will work without separating spaces.
If you forget the syntax, then you can get a brief description of the
command line syntax by typing: DAYSTATS /?
or: DAYSTATS /Help.
<CONFIG FILE> Page 3
DAYSTATS uses a simple Configuration File to store the parameters which
the program needs such as the name and location of your PCBSTATS.DAT
file and desired output bulletin. Your BBS name and desired bulletin
colors are also defined in the configuration file.
NOTE: I STRONGLY suggest you name your configuration file DAYSTATS.CFG
since that is what the default name is, which DAYSTATS looks for
upon start up. You can always override the default name with the
/C=<config.file> parameter, but if you ever forget, DAYSTATS will
attempt to use "DAYSTATS.CFG" and if it's not found, the program
will not function properly,(i.e., it won't run).
CONFIGURATION FILE
------------------
D:\PCB\MAIN\PCBSTATS.DAT <------ (LINE 1 )
D:\PCB\GEN\BLT30 <------ (LINE 2 )
Xignals PCBoard <------ (LINE 3 )
@X1E <------ (LINE 4 )
@X1A <------ (LINE 5 )
@X0B <------ (LINE 6 )
GREENBAR <------ (LINE 7 )
The CONFIGURATION File is REQUIRED! DAYSTATS will NOT work without it.
The file must contain all seven lines with valid values on each line
and they must be in the order presented above.
LINE 01 - Name and Location of your PCBSTATS.DAT file
LINE 02 - Name and Location of the Bulletin file to be created
LINE 03 - Name of your BBS
LINE 04 - Header BORDER colors SEE NOTE1:( about PCBoard )
LINE 05 - BBS Name Colors (in header). ( @Xxx color codes! )
LINE 06 - Default Text colors for Single and Double Type bulletins.
LINE 07 - This field is the indicator for which type of bulletin to
produce. SEE NOTE2:
NOTE1: PCBOARD @Xxx COLOR CODES
-------------------------------
It is assumed you are at least FAMILIAR with running PCBoard and
that you will know about PCBoard @Xxx color codes. I chose to
simply allow the user to directly enter them into the program rather
than try to make a table of colors etc and decypher all the codes.
If you have difficulty with @Xxx color codes, I suggest you leave
them as delivered (they look ok) and ask CDC for assistance with color
codes.
NOTE2: BULLETIN OUTPUT TYPES
----------------------------
There are 3 types of bulletins which DAYSTATS will produce. Each of the
three has the same header, but the data following the header can be
displayed either in GREENBAR (printer paper), or as a SINGLE line of
information or as a DOUBLE line (one stats + a seperator line). See the
included sample bulletins for Double and Single to get an idea of which
style you would like. There is no example file for GreenBar, but it will
look like the Single, and output will be on alternating White and Green
backgounds. In ALL three bulletin types, the most recent day's stats
will be listed first and and subsequent days will be listed in
descending order by date, so a quick glance at the bulletin and you can
see exactly how many calls, messages, uploads, and downloads you BBS had
and on what days.
COMMAND LINE SWITCHES Page 4
---------------------
Once again, I stress, that my intention when writing DAYSTATS was to
have all parameter information that the program needed to be contained
within a configuration file. That was, however, my idea and someone will
most likely want to change things to suit their needs so I added the
ability to override most of the items in the configuration file with
command line switches. If your config file accurately reflects how you
want your bulletin to look and function, then you do not need to specify
any additional parameters on the command line.
If you need to specify different or additional parameters, then
following is a list of the parameters and their functions. Parameters
MUST be listed as /x= (where x = letter of parameter). The = sign must
also be included. If you require more than one parameter, you may
separate them with a space or you may list them all together with no
spaces. Either way is valid.
ex: C:\> DAYSTATS /C=MY.CFG /B=BLT30 /U=NO /D=CURRENT
or
ex: C:\> DAYSTATS /C=MY.CFG/B=BLT30/U=NO/D=CURRENT
Both of those examples are valid.
SWITCHES
--------
/? - Will display a one page help screen (with parameter info)
/HELP - Same function as /?
/C=Config File - If you need an alternative configuration file, you
may specify a new one. Full Drive, path, and filename
are supported.
/D=CURRENT - DAYSTATS, by default, assumes you are running your EVENT
in the middle of the night (after midnight). If you want
stats for Thursday, and your event is actually running
at 2:00am on Friday, then you would need to subtract one
day from the Friday date in order to display "Thursday's"
proper date. The /D=CURRENT parameter overrides that
function and will display the true date which is current
at the time of DAYSTATS execution. The keyword CURRENT
is the only option associated with /D=.
/L=@Xxx - If you are using the DOUBLE style bulletin and you would
like the separator line to be a different color from the
text lines, using the /L=@Xxx allows you to specify a
PCBoard @ color code for the line. This parameter will
have no effect on SINGLE or GREENBAR bulletins.
/T=Type - If you want to change the Bulletin Type, you may use the
/T=type command where type = GREENBAR, SINGLE or DOUBLE.
It should be noted that DAYSTATS creates a completely new
bulletin everytime it is invoked, so if you started out
with a SINGLE, and wanted to see GREENBAR the next time,
you do not have to start all over. DAYSTATS will simply
build your new bulletin with the style type you wanted.
<See /U= parm for companion option>
Page 5
/U=YES or NO - The /U= option tells DAYSTATS whether or not to update
the DAYSTATS.DAT history file. This might be useful if
you wanted to experiment with colors or bulletin types.
By default, Daystats will append the new information from
PCBSTATS.DAT to the history file (DAYSTATS.DAT), so if
you ran DAYSTATS 10 times on the same PCBSTATS.DAT file
without the /U=NO switch, you would then have 10 records
of the same data and no way to remove the duplicate
entries. Be careful with this file since the DAYSTATS.DAT
file is crucial to the operation of DAYSTATS.
NOTE: If DAYSTATS.DAT does not exist, and you use the
/U=NO parameter, DAYSTATS will not work.
/B=Bulletin File - If you wanted to specify an alternative bulletin file
other than what is defined in DAYSTATS.CFG, then you
may use /B=<drive,path,filename> of a new bulletin file.
/S=StatFile - If you wanted to specify an alternative PCBSTATS.DAT
file, you can use the /S=<drive,path,filename> of a
different PCBSTATS.DAT file. The only reason I can
think of for using this is testing. But it's here if
you want it. :-)
Once again all of these switches except for the Help , /L= and /D= are
and should be defined in your DAYSTATS.CFG file.
OUTPUT FILES
------------
DAYSTATS uses several files during processing. Every effort has been
made to ensure that if something (power outage or lockup etc..) happens
at anytime during the running of DAYSTATS, that no data or files are in
danger of being lost.
DAYSTATS.DAT is the accumulated history file of each day's statistical
information. Whatever you do, DO NOT alter this file in
any way. The record lengths and file size are fixed and
the program depends on their integrity.
DAYSTATS.TMP is the temporary bulletin file which DAYSTATS creates. If
all processing is successful, this file becomes your
specified Bulletin file. Unless there is a program or DOS
error, you will probably ever see this file, but I think
it is a good idea to let you know ahead of time what it is.
DISCLAIMER (you knew! this was coming ...) Page 6
__________________________________________
MilesWare hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this product,
whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied
warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
MilesWare cannot and will not be liable for any special, incidental,
consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or
any other reason, even if MilesWare or an authorized MilesWare
agent has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no
event shall the liability for any damages ever exceed the price
paid for the license to use software, regardless of the form
and/or extent of the claim. The user of this program bears all risk
as to the quality and performance of the software.
COPYRIGHT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
------------------------------
DAYSTATS is not public domain. It is copyrighted software.
Copyright (c) 1992 MilesWare, All Rights Reserved.
I would like to thank Richard Pope and Floyd Vest for assisting
me with the more difficult programming routines. It's absolutely
frightening how similar Amiga Basic is to QuickBasic. Thanks guys.
DAYSTATS is written completely in Microsoft QuickBasic 4.5 with
assembler routines thrown in here and there for good measure.
SUPPORT AND UPDATES
-------------------
The Latest copy of DAYSTATS (and other PCBoard utils by MilesWare) can by
always be found on: XIGNALS PCBoard
(205) 821-4664 14.4 USR HST/DUAL
Miles Lester (Author and Sysop)
Auburn, Alabama
If you have problems or suggestions or just want to say thanks for a
simple but useful utility, then you can reach me via the following
methods.
SALT AIR BBS Home of PCBoard --- I call at least weekly
ILink In the Ilink sysop's conference
InterNet mlester@ducvax.auburn.edu
BitNet mlester@auducvax.bitnet
Xignals PCBoard number is posted above etc..
U.S. Postal Service Miles Lester
1001 E. Samford Ave.
Auburn, AL 36830