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@@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@ @@ (tm) -+ The File List Processor for RemoteAccess 2.x +- Copyright (C) 1993 Lee Muh Hwa. All Rights Reserved. ZENLIST 2.00 User Documentation November 1, 1993 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Table of Contents ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1 License and disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.2 Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.3 System requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.4 Product support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.1 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3 ZenSetup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.1 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.2 ZenSetup keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3.3 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.3.1 System information . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.3.2 Paths and file names . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3.3.3 Miscellaneous options . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3.3.4 File list manager . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3.3.5 File database maintenance . . . . . . . . 14 3.3.6 FILES.BBS export options . . . . . . . . . 15 3.3.7 Import area definitions . . . . . . . . . 16 3.3.8 Export configuration . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3.9 About ZenList . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3.10 Save current settings . . . . . . . . . . 17 3.3.11 Exit/quit ZenSetup . . . . . . . . . . . 17 4 Designing headers and footers . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4.1 Using tokens in templates . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 4.2 List of tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.2.1 Header template . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.2.2 Footer template . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 4.2.3 Area header and footer templates . . . . . 20 5 File list format templating . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5.1 List of tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 6 File database header templating . . . . . . . . . . . 23 6.1 List of tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 6.2 Using color codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 7 Overview of ZenList's operations . . . . . . . . . . . 25 7.1 Tips on improving performance . . . . . . . . . . 26 7.2 Command line switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 8 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Page 1 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1. Introduction ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ZenList is a file list and file database processor designed to operate with RemoteAccess version 2.x. It is intended chiefly to replace the RAFILE FILELIST function, giving you more flexibility to customise so as to produce a file list unique to your BBS. Below is a brief list of features: - Easy to use setup interface - All files list and new files list generation - Configurable list headers and footers, as well as area headers and footers - Powerful file list format templating supported - Various file name, file size and counter formats available - Inserts customizable headers into RA's file database - File database maintenance utility with optional file description reformatting - FILES.BBS export option supporting download counters and multi-line descriptions 1.1 License and disclaimer The ZenList software and its associated documentation, hereafter referred to as ZenList, is the copywritten material of Lee Muh Hwa. Your use of the program automatically constitutes your agreement to the conditions as set out in this license and disclaimer. ZenList is not, and will never be, public domain. It is not freeware. ZenList is distributed under the shareware concept. You may use it for a trial period of 30 days before registering by paying in full. If you do not register the software after the evaluation period, you are to cease using it. Lee Muh Hwa is in no way obligated to provide future versions of, or support for this software. You are encouraged to distribute unregistered, unmodified copies of ZenList provided no fee is charged, unless you have been granted written consent from the author to do otherwise. ZenList is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the Page 2 quality and performance of ZenList is with you. Should ZenList prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction. In no event will the author of ZenList be liable to you for damages, including any lost profits, lost monies, or other special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use ZenList. This includes, but is not limited to, loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by third parties or failure of ZenList to operate with any other program. 1.2 Registration By registering this version of ZenList, you are at the same time registering all future versions if there are any. You will also receive a personalized registration code which will enable you to activate registered-only features. Registered versions of ZenList will identify itself with a + sign after the version number in file database headers (e.g. ZenList 2.00+). Additionally, a registered notice will be displayed in place of the unregistered message at the end of file lists. Please refer to ZENLIST.REG for additional registration information. 1.3 System requirements To use ZenList, you need to have at least an IBM AT computer or 100% compatible with color adapter and hard disk. ZenList executables uses 80286 instruction codes and will therefore not run on XT-class computers. If you are using an XT class computer, you may request a XT-version from support sites. You also need to be running under MS-DOS or PC-DOS 3.x or later and RemoteAccess 2.x. As from version 2.00.g1, RemoteAccess implemented the file database system which is completely different from the old FILES.BBS format used in version 1.x. A disk caching program, especially one which supports write-back buffer, can significantly improve performance. However, the use of a disk cache is optional. It is not Page 3 required for ZenList to run. ZenList uses slightly more than 100k of conventional memory to hold its own code. It still requires additional memory to process file database areas. Memory usage varies depending on the size of each file database area and not on the size of the entire file database as a whole. For instance, if the largest size of your fdb*.hdr and fdb*.txt combined for one area is around 200k, ZenList will need roughly 350k of conventional memory to run. 1.4 Product support The latest releases of ZenList is always obtainable from beta/support sites. Should you encounter any problems when using ZenList, you may get technical help from any of the beta/support sites. If you are in Fidonet, you may wish to link up ZEN-HELP, the ZenList support echo. For more information on the availability of the ZEN-HELP echo, you may contact me or any of the beta/support sites listed below: ASIA Lee Muh Hwa Patrick Lye Alpha-32, Singapore Holiday Comms Mail Ctr 65-266-5974 v32b Zyx 65-348-3867 v32b SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Fidonet : 6:600/514 Fidonet 6:600/223 Teo Chee Kian Interact BBS 65-581-7024/7026 v32b Zyx SINGAPORE Fidonet 6:600/601 & 602 NORTH AMERICA David Casey Karen Maynor Crossed Wires BBS The Dart Board 1-919-580-7194 v32b HST 1-912-673-7431 v32b HST Dudley NC USA St Marys GA USA Fidonet 1:3660/809 Fidonet 1:3640/5 Page 4 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 2. Installation ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Installing ZenList is easy. Just unpack the archive ZEN200.ARJ into a separate directory of your choice, e.g. C:\RA\ZENLIST. If you wish to use the sample header, footer and template files provided in the archive, unpack SAMPLE.ARJ. Otherwise, you may create your own header, footer and template files. ZenList is now installed. Proceed to run ZENSETUP.EXE to configure the various options to suit your needs. 2.1 Files Included in the ZenList distribution archive are the following files: ZENLIST.EXE The main executable file for 80286 or better processors. You will need to run this in batch file during nightly maintenance. ZENSETUP.EXE The setup program. You need this to create configuration files as well as to customize various run-time parameters. ZENLIST.DOC This documentation you are reading now. ZENLIST.REG Registration form and information. WHATSNEW.200 List of changes in ZenList since version 0.90ß. README.1ST Release notes for this version. SAMPLE.ARJ Archive containing sample header, footer and template files. FILE_ID.DIZ The ZenList archive description. ZENSETUP.EXE will also create two configuration files used by ZENLIST.EXE during run-time. They are: SETUP.ZEN The main configuration file. AREAS.ZEN File database area definitions imported from FILES.RA. Page 5 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3. ZenSetup ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ZenSetup is the program used to configure ZenList. In other words, through ZenSetup, you control the way ZenList is run. 3.1 Getting started Change to the ZenList directory and run ZenSetup. If you are using ZenSetup for the first time, it will prompt you a message "SETUP.ZEN not found. Create one (Y/N)?". To create SETUP.ZEN, just press "Y". SETUP.ZEN now holds the default settings; you need to modify various settings later to suit your system configuration. Select "Paths and File Names" from the main menu and enter the paths to your FILES.RA and file database in the first and second rows respectively. Once you have done that, you are ready to create the area definitions file, AREAS.ZEN. Return to the main menu and select "Import Area Definitions". 3.2 ZenSetup keys The following keys can be used to get around in ZenSetup: Up Arrow - Move selection bar to the previous option Down Arrow - Move selection bar to the next option Enter - Select option ESC - Return to the previous menu (or exit to DOS when in the main menu) When editing a data field, the following editing keys are available: Left Arrow - Move cursor one character left Right Arrow - Move cursor one character right Home - Move cursor to the first position of the field End - Move cursor to the last position of the field Delete - Deletes the character at the current cursor position Backspace - Deletes the character left of the cursor ESC - Abort editing; changes not saved Insert - Toggle insert mode on/off Page 6 When ZenList displays a list of areas for tagging, the following movement keys are available: Up arrow - Moves selection bar one position up Down arrow - Moves selection bar one position down PgUp - Moves selection bar to the top row. If the bar is already at the top row, then previous page will be displayed PgDn - Moves selection bar to the bottom row. If the bar is already at the bottom row, then the next page will be displayed Home - Moves selection bar to the first area End - Moves selection bar to the last area Additional keys are displayed on the status bar. 3.3 Menus There are 10 top level menus. Each of the menu functions are described in this section. 3.3.1 System information Sysop name This is the field used to generate your registration code when you register. It also the field inserted by %sn and !sn tokens in file lists header and footer templates. The maximum length of this field is 30 characters. System name This field is inserted by %bb and !bb tokens in file lists header and footer templates. The maximum length of this field is 30 characters. Registration Enter your registration code here. A registration code will be given to you once you register ZenList. 3.3.2 Paths and file names System path Page 7 The full path to your RemoteAccess system files. ZenSetup will look for FILES.RA in the directory as specified here. You need to define this field before you can import area definitions from FILES.RA. FDB path The full path to your RemoteAccess file database. This path is usually located within your RemoteAccess system directory as FILES. Header tpl The file name of the file database header template. It is the header file to be inserted in your file database. When your users perform a file listing of your directory, this header will be displayed before the file listing. You can configure it to display information such as area number and description, number of files and size of the area. Refer to the section on Header File Templating for more details. {+} Registered only. Unregistered versions default to using the hardcoded header. Filelist fmt Define the file name of the default file format template you wish to use for your all files list. If this field is left out, ZenList will use the default, hardcoded file list format. Please refer to the section on File List Format Templating for details on its use. Newlist fmt Similar to filelist fmt above, except that it is applicable to new files list. List header Enter the file name of the default file list header template you wish to include in the all files list. This header will be used if no alternate header is defined in list manager. List headers will only appear once at the top of file Page 8 lists. Please refer to chapter 7 on "Designing headers and footers" for information on using this template. List footer Similar to list header above, except that it is applicable to file list footer template. List footers will only appear once at the bottom of file lists. Area header Enter the file name of the default area header template you wish to include in the all files list. Area headers will appear before every file area is listed. Area footer Similar to area header above, except that is is applicable to area footer template. Area footers will appear at the end of every file area in file lists. Newlist hdr Similar to list header, but applied to new files list. Newlist ftr Similar to list footer, but applied to new files list. Newarea hdr Similar to area header, but applied to new files list. Newarea ftr Similar to area footer, but applied to new files list. 3.3.3 Miscellaneous options Filename format Page 9 You can use any one of the 7 different kinds of file name capitalization formats for your file lists. They are: FILENAME.EXT FILENAME.ext filename.EXT Filename.EXT Filename.Ext Filename.ext filename.ext File date format There are 9 different types of file dates format for file lists: mm-dd-yy dd-mm-yy mm/dd/yy dd/mm/yy mm.dd.yy dd.mm.yy ddmmmyy dd-mmm-yy dd-Mmm-yy Header date format Similar to file date format, but applied to the system date (instead of file date) appearing in file list headers and footers. The various options are identical to those in file date format. Counter format Select the download counter style for your file lists. Counter style can be anything from 2 digits (minimum) to 4 digits (maximum). The numbers are either enclosed by [ ], < > or ( ). If the number of downloads exceed the number of digits specified, the counter will be padded with 9's. In other words, if you are using the format [00] and a file happens to be downloaded 100 times, the counter will appear as [99]. New file days Specifies the number of days a file is treated as new. Any number between 0 to 255 inclusive is valid. Tag new files If set to YES, all new files within the number days as specified by new file days will be tagged in the all files list. Page 10 Tag character This is the character which is used to tag new files. Military time When set to YES, ZenList will use the 24-hour format for showing time. Otherwise, the 12-hour format will be used. An example, 12-hour time format: 9:30 am, 11:30 pm etc. 24-hour time format: 09:30, 23:30 etc. Use kilobytes Toggles file size between kilobytes and bytes. Values in kilobytes will always be suffixed with a 'k' (e.g. 1024k) Show offline Set this option to YES to include offline files in your file list. Otherwise, all missing or offline files will not be shown. ZenList will use the offline flag in the file database to determine whether the file is missing. It will not make a physical search for the files. Any files marked as deleted or unlisted will not be listed in any case. Multiline desc When set to YES, long descriptions exceeding one line will be word-wrapped. Otherwise, they will be truncated. Omit FDB header If you wish to exclude file database headers from your all files list, set this option to YES. ZenList will always correctly distinguish comment lines from headers inserted by itself. However, it may fail to identify a header created by other means. If such a case arises, you can set the omit comments option to omit all kinds of headers (including comment lines). Another alternative is to ensure all headers consist of vertical and horizontal line draw characters. Page 11 Omit comments Set this option to omit comment lines from your all files list. Comment lines are always excluded from new files list, regardless whether this option is set or not. Show file status An optional, one-line status giving additional file information can be appended after each file entry in your all files list. If this option is used, additional information such as uploader's name, upload date and whether the file is free or missing will be displayed. This option applies only if you are using the hardcoded file list format. 3.3.4 File lists manager The file lists manager manages up to 8 all files lists and 8 new files lists within one single configuration file. You may use PgDn and PgUp keys to select between the various sections. All files list The name of your all files list. New files list The name of your new files list. Leave this out if you do not wish to generate one. On request only If this option is set to YES, this section will be ignored during run-time. ZenList will only process "on request only" areas when the /R switch is specified on the command line. This is useful for CD-ROM lists which only needs to be processed once. Max list security This option defines the maximum list security that will be allowed to appear in your file lists. Areas having higher list security will be omitted Page 12 from being listed even if they are tagged. Areas to list Here, you can tag the areas which you want listed in the file lists as stated in all list name and new list name. The sorting order for every area can also be defined. Apart from no sorting, four other different sort fields are supported either in ascending or descending order: Name - Sorts by file name. NameAscii - Sorts by file name treating name and extension as one ASCII string such as the one used by RAFILE SORT . UploadDate - Sorts by date of upload. Size - Sorts by file size. The status bar at the bottom of the screen shows the addition keys available for your use. Alternate template files ZenList allows you to define alternate template files for each section in the file lists manager. If omitted, the default file names given in the paths and file names menu will be used. All list format - alternate all files list template New list format - alternate new files list template All list header - alternate all files list header template All list footer - alternate all files list footer template All list area hdr - alternate all files list area header template All list area ftr - alternate all files list area footer template New list header - alternate new files list header template New list footer - alternate new files list footer template New list area hdr - alternate new files list area header template New list area ftr - alternate new files list area footer template Page 13 3.3.5 File database maintenance ZenList provides a minor file database maintenance utility relieving most users from the need of running multiple passes of RAFILE to achieve similar results. Rebuild Index Rebuilds the file database quick index (fdb*.idx). Trim description Cleans off unused descriptions thus compacting the description database (fdb*.txt). Each time you modify file descriptions using RAMGR, the old descriptions do not get overwritten. Instead, your edited descriptions get appended to the end of the description database thus making it larger. Remove missing Removes the entries for missing files from the file database. Remove deleted Removes the entries marked as deleted from the file database. If the actual files are present, they will be deleted as well. Insert FDB header Inserts a header into every area of your file database. ZenList will insert a hardcoded header unless a template is defined in Header Tpl under "paths and file names". Flag as CD-ROM This function enables you to toggle the CD-ROM flag in AREAS.ZEN on or off. This is only useful to those who do not want to set the CD-ROM flag in FILES.RA. Sort areas Defines the order your file database is sorted. The available sorting orders are similar to that in "areas to list" under "list manager". The status bar at the bottom of the screen shows Page 14 additional keys for the functions. File description reformatting Remove spaces This option tells ZenList to eliminate excess spaces from your file descriptions. Two or more spaces between words will be reduced to a single space. However, this function does not affect descriptions which consist of vertical or horizontal line draw characters. {+} Registered only. Remove CR/LF/Hyph If this option is used, CR/LF combination appearing in descriptions will be replaced with a space (effectively stripped). If there are hyphenated words immediately before CR/LFs, the hyphens also get removed. Hyphenated words are converted to whole words as a result. As with the previous, this function does not affect descriptions which consist of vertical or horizontal line draw characters. {+} Registered only. Areas to process Select the areas in which file description reformatting functions are active. {+} Registered only. 3.3.6 FILES.BBS export options Export FILES.BBS Toggle FILES.BBS export on/off. If this option is set to YES, FILES.BBS will be created in every directory of your file areas. If the areas are in CD-ROM, ZenList will export FILES.BBS in the current directory where ZenList is started. The naming convention used is FIL#####.BBS (e.g. FIL1.BBS, FIL32452.BBS). Include headers Page 15 File database headers will be included in the exported FILES.BBS if this is set to YES. Include offline Whether offline or missing files will be included in the FILES.BBS. Include comments Whether to include comment lines in FILES.BBS. Include counters ZenList can optionally insert download counters in FILES.BBS using the format as specified in "counter type" below. Counter type The download counter format you wish to use for FILES.BBS export. Please refer to "counter format" under "miscellaneous options" for the available counter types. Multiline desc If this option is set to YES, ZenList will export multiple-line long descriptions word-wrapped at the 79th column. Otherwise, descriptions will be truncated at the 201st character. Desc Indent The indent column for multi-line descriptions. You may select any number between 30 to 50 inclusive. 3.3.7 Import area definitions ZenList uses the areas information found in AREAS.ZEN during run-time. Therefore, this selection has been included to enable you to create/update area definitions from FILES.RA. Every time you modify FILES.RA, you need import area definitions in order for ZenList to be aware of new or deleted areas. Page 16 When "import area definitions" reports an error, please check that you have given the path to FILES.RA correctly in "paths and file names" under the main menu. 3.3.8 Export configuration Within this menu, you can export various ZenSetup configurations to ASCII text files. This can be a very useful tool when you need to troubleshoot your setup. The various export options are listed below: Export general configuration Writes ZenSetup general configuration to a text file. Export list manager setup Writes the File List Manager setup to a text file. Export areas information Lists information on all file areas to a text file. 3.3.9 About ZenList By selecting this option, you will see a small window giving you some information about this release of ZenList. 3.3.10 Save current settings Writes changes back into the hard disk. 3.3.11 Exit/quit ZenSetup Exits to DOS. Page 17 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 4. Designing Headers and Footers ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ZenList allows you to completely customise your header and footer files for your file lists. On start up, it will look for the template files and if they are found, process them. Otherwise, the headers or footers will not be included in your file lists. You may include special tokens in your header and footer templates to display variable information such as area size or number of files in area etc. 4.1 Using Tokens in Templates Tokens in templates are identified by a prefix of either a '%','~' or '!'. '%' defines a string of variable length, i.e., one which is as long as its characters will occupy. '~' tells ZenList to replace the token with the character that precede the '~'. The number of characters replaced being equivalent to the length of the corresponding variable-length string. This may not be immediately clear to you, but let us look at the following example: You may want to create an area header as such ┌───────────────────────┐ │ Area - Communications │ └───────────────────────┘ However, area description will more often vary in length. In order to fit the border around the description (which is not consistent in length), you can do this in your area header template file: ┌────────~ad─┐ │ Area - %ad │ └────────~ad─┘ %ad is a variable-length string for area description. ~ad will replace itself with the character ('─' in this case) that precedes it immediately, the number of such characters inserted being equal to the length of the area description. There is a third prefix '!'. This indicates a fixed-length string. If the string does not occupy the entire length, the rest will be padded with spaces. Fixed-length strings can either be left justified, right-justified or centered. Page 18 4.2 List of tokens The following is a list of tokens that can be inserted in the respective template file. Please note that all tokens are CASE SENSITIVE! 4.2.1 List header template The list header template may not exceed 30 lines. %bb - BBS Name %sn - SysOp Name (YOUR name) %sd - System Date %st - System Time '%' denotes string of variable length. Prefix '~' with instead of '%' to pad characters. !lb, !rb, !cb - BBS Name (30 characters) !ls, !rs, !cs - SysOp Name (30 characters) !ld, !rd, !cd - System Date (9 characters) !lt, !rt, !ct - System Time (8 characters) '!' denotes fixed-length string. Listed in order of left justified, right justified and centered. 4.2.2 List footer template The list footer template may not exceed 30 lines. %bb - BBS Name %sn - SysOp Name %sd - System Date %st - System Time %tf - Total Files in All Areas %tz - Total Size in All Areas '%' denotes string of variable length. Prefix '~' with instead of '%' to pad characters. !lb, !rb, !cb - BBS Name (30 characters) !ls, !rs, !cs - SysOp Name (30 characters) !ld, !rd, !cd - System Date (9 characters) !lt, !rt, !ct - System Time (8 characters) !lf, !rf, !cf - Total Files in List (6 characters) !lz, !rz, !cz - Total Size in List (12 characters) '!' denotes fixed-length string. Listed in order Page 19 of left justified, right justified and centered. 4.2.3 Area header and footer templates The area header and footer template may not exceed 10 lines. %af - Files in Area %az - Size in Area %ad - Area Description %an - Area Number '%' denotes string of variable length. Prefix with '~' instead of '%' to pad characters. !lf, !rf, !cf - Files in Area (6 characters) !lz, !rz, !cz - Size in Area (12 characters) !ln, !rn, !cn - Area Number (3 characters) !ld, !rd, !cd - Area Description (30 characters) '!' denotes fixed-length string. Listed in order of left justified, right justified and centered. Page 20 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 5. File List Format Templating ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ZenList allows you to design the look and feel of your file lists through the use of a file list format template. Instead of using the hardcoded file list format, templating allows virtually unlimited ways in which your file list can be presented. This is done through the use of tokens similar to that in header/footer templating. All tokens are either fixed-length or variable-length. Fixed-length tokens will be indicated by the length of the token string in parenthesis. You may assume that all other tokens are variable in length. Other characters appearing inside the template will be reproduced in your all files list. The use of a template will slow down processing slightly especially when your file list is large. Please note that ZenList places an upper limit of 5 lines in your format template file. 5.1 List of tokens %fn - filename + extension (12 characters) %fs - filesize %ud - upload date %fd - file date %ld - last download date %cs - cost of the file %td - times downloaded; returns the number of times a file was downloaded. The counter format used is as specified in ZenSetup. %st - attribute of the file (None, Free, NotAvail and/or Missing) If the file attribute is free and missing, %st will return: 'Free Missing' (sans quotes). If not free, not available and not missing, %st will return 'None'. %sn - similar to %st, except that 'None' is not displayed. %tc - tag character (1 character); this token will insert a tag character if the file is new. Otherwise, it is inserts a space. NOTE: This token is for all files list only! %ds[nn] - description [length]; this token inserts the description of the file. It MUST be the LAST token to appear in any line of your template file. An optional 2-digit number can be Page 21 suffixed to the end of the token to specify the maximum characters in every line of the description. Please note that the last character will not be allowed to exceed the 80th column. If this 2-digit number is omitted, ZenList will word wrap descriptions at the 79th column. Page 22 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 6. File Database Header Templating ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ ZenList can insert headers into your file database (do not confuse this header with the headers used in all files lists). Such headers will be displayed before the on-line listing of files when the user selects a directory listing. Similar to File Format Templating, tokens are available for use. File database header template files may not exceed 15 lines (including blank lines). 6.1 List of tokens %bb - BBS Name %af - Files in Area %az - Size in Area %ad - Area Description %an - Area Number %k[nn] - Inserts ANSI color codes (see next section) '%' denotes string of variable length. Prefix with '~' instead of '%' to pad characters !lb, !rb, !cb - BBS Name (30 characters) !lf, !rf, !cf - Files in Area (6 characters) !lz, !rz, !cz - Size in Area (12 characters) !ln, !rn, !cn - Area Number (3 characters) !ld, !rd, !cd - Area Description (30 characters) '!' denotes fixed-length string. Listed in order of left justified, right justified and centered. 6.2 Using color codes ZenList supports ANSI color file database headers. This is done through to use of %k[nn] token in the header template. 'nn' is a 2 digit number representing background and foreground colors respectively. Below is a list of color codes: Background Colors without blinking foreground Description color code ─────────────────────────── Black 0 Blue 1 Green 2 Cyan 3 Page 23 Red 4 Magenta 5 Brown 6 Gray 7 Background colors with blinking foreground Description Color code ─────────────────────────── Black 0 Blue 1 Green 2 Cyan 3 Red 4 Magenta 5 Brown 6 Gray 7 Foreground colors Description Color code ─────────────────────────── Black 0 Blue 1 Green 2 Cyan 3 Red 4 Magenta 5 Brown 6 Gray 7 Dark Gray 8 Light Blue 9 Light Green A Light Cyan B Light Red C Light Magenta D Yellow E White F The use of ANSI color codes in file database headers has its short-comings; users with non-ANSI terminals will see a messed up header display. Fortunately now, most users are using ANSI terminals but choosing ASCII display to reduce transmission time. In these cases, such users will still be able to see your ANSI headers. One important point to note is to include a color code at the end of the header to reset the display back to gray on black background (%k07). Otherwise, ANSI colors will 'bleed' the user's terminal screen. Page 24 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 7. Overview of ZenList's Operations ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ On start up, ZenList reads the configuration files SETUP.ZEN and AREAS.ZEN in that order. In the first phase, tasks such as file database maintenance and FILES.BBS export are processed first. Depending on the options you have enabled, ZenList will report the tasks that it is going to perform on screen. Here is one example: Available Memory : 407088 bytes Processing File DataBase: - Insert FDB headers - Export Files.BBS - Rebuild index files - Trim description files - Remove missing entries - Remove deleted entries and files In this way, you will be able to counter check if certain options you wish enabled have been left out. 'Available memory' indicates the amount of free conventional memory AFTER ZenList has been loaded. It is the maximum memory available to ZenList for processing the file database. In this phase, all areas marked as CD-ROM areas will be skipped. CD-ROM areas will not be processed unless the /D switch is specified in the command line. ZenList uses the CD-ROM flag in AREAS.ZEN to determine whether an area is in CD-ROM. It does not perform other forms of checking on read-only media. ZenList generates file lists in the second and subsequent phases of execution. In a single phase, it can at most generate an all files list and the accompanying new files list. Depending on the number of file lists required to be created, the number of phases varies. ZenList will halt only after all the phases are done. If you are running on a multi-tasking environment, it is highly recommended to load SHARE.EXE in order to prevent ZenList from accessing to the file database when other programs are doing so. If SHARE.EXE is loaded, and a user is on-line browsing a particular file area, ZenList will abort with a DOS error when attempting to access the same area. This a measure to safeguard your file database from being corrupted. Make a point to run ZenList only when the file database is not in use. Page 25 7.1 Tips on improving performance Because ZenList performs disk intensive operations, it is highly recommended that you use some form of disk caching program that also supports write-back buffering. Having an efficient disk cache can make a great difference on the amount of time ZenList requires to complete all tasks. When a file area is already ordered, do not enable sorting for that area. ZenList performs two kinds of sorting: during maintenance and when creating file lists. When you enable the former, the latter will become unnecessary, since the file database has already been ordered after the first operation. Keep a separate file list for CD-ROM areas. As the files in those areas do not change, it is not necessary to re-generate them every time. 7.2 Command line switches Switches can be issued from the command line through the format : ZENLIST.EXE [switches] /C<pathname> Full path and name of the alternate configuration file /R Include processing of "On request only" areas /D Include processing of CD-ROM areas /L Generate file lists only (no file database processing) /M File database processing only /S Strip headers from file database /H Display help screen Page 26 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 8. Credits ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ Many thanks to all registered users of ZenList. Your registration has gone a long way in supporting the continued development of ZenList. Also thanks to all those who have helped me directly (or indirectly) and given me valuable suggestions for improving the software. Finally, a million thanks to the ZenList beta/support team. Thanks to you people, for bogging me down with suggestions, bug reports and giving excellent support for ZenList in Singapore as well as in the United States! -------- ZenSetup implements a FrontDoor-style user-interface concept originally designed by Joaquim Homrighausen. It is used with permission. The following product names are copyrighted materials, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders: FidoNet Tom Jennings and Fido Software FrontDoor Joaquim Homrighausen RemoteAccess (RA), RAFILE and RAMGR Wantree Development and Andrew Milner MS-DOS Microsoft Corporation IBM, PC-DOS International Business Machines Corp. Page 27