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Text File | 1993-09-20 | 169KB | 4,290 lines

CATFILES - BBS file listing cataloguer Version 3.22a By Bill Stirling Copyright 1992,93 All rights reserved CONTENTS 1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. WHAT IS CATFILES? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3. PACKING LIST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND PROGRAM LIMITATIONS . . . . . . 3 5. INSTALLING CATFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 6. RUNNING CATFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 7. USING CATFILES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7.1 THE MAIN MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7.2 CONFIGURATION MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7.2.1 General Program Configuration . . . . . . . 10 7.2.2 BBS Specific Configuration . . . . . . . . 12 7.2.3 Set Preferred Screen Colours . . . . . . . 14 7.2.4 Advanced Program Configuration . . . . . . 15 7.3 MAKE/EDIT THE PICK LIST MENU . . . . . . . . . . 18 7.3.1 Select Areas (Default x from y) . . . . . . 19 7.3.2 Select by System Date . . . . . . . . . . . 19 7.3.3 Select by DownLoad Particulars . . . . . . 20 7.3.4 Select by File Name . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 7.3.5 Select by File Extension . . . . . . . . . 20 7.3.6 Select by Word in Description . . . . . . . 20 7.3.7 Select If/Not Viewed . . . . . . . . . . . 21 7.3.8 Save this Pick List . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 7.3.9 Restore a Saved Pick List . . . . . . . . . 21 7.3.10 Reset (Clear) the Current Pick List . . . 21 7.3.11 View Files in the List . . . . . . . . . . 21 7.3.12 Scan Files in the List . . . . . . . . . . 22 7.3.13 Action the Pick List . . . . . . . . . . . 23 7.4 ACTION THE PICK LIST MENU . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 7.4.1 Move Files in Pick List to another Area . . 23 7.4.2 Produce a DownLoad File . . . . . . . . . . 24 7.4.3 Change DownLoad Status . . . . . . . . . . 24 7.4.4 Change Viewed Status . . . . . . . . . . . 24 7.4.5 Remove Files from the DataBase . . . . . . 24 7.4.6 Print Files in the Pick List . . . . . . . 25 7.4.7 Send Pick List to File . . . . . . . . . . 25 7.5 UPDATE THE FILES DATABASE MENU . . . . . . . . . 26 7.5.1 Add Files to the DataBase . . . . . . . . . 26 7.5.2 Reconcile the Files in the DataBase . . . . 28 7.5.3 Scan for DownLoaded Files . . . . . . . . . 30 7.5.4 Configure File Areas . . . . . . . . . . . 30 7.5.5 Tidy up the DataBase . . . . . . . . . . . 31 7.5.6 Recreate the Index Files . . . . . . . . . 32 7.6 USE ANOTHER BBS LISTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 7.7 VIEW ALL FILES IN DEFAULT AREAS . . . . . . . . . 34 8. PROBLEMS/SUGGESTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 APPENDICES Appendix A - Files Created by CATFILES Appendix B - Support for CompuServe Off-Line Readers Appendix C - Input File Formats Supported Appendix D - Automatic Updating of Downloaded Files. Appendix E - Version History Appendix F - CATFILES Interchange Format Appendix G - Using CATFILES with OLX or QModem Pro 1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Wildcat, Tomcat, OLX and Qmodem Pro are products of Mustang Software. Tapcis is a product of Support Group. OzCIS is a product of Steve Sneed of Ozarks West Software Telix is a product of Exis Inc. Procomm Plus is a product of Datastorm Technologies PKZIP and PKUNZIP are produces of PKWARE Inc. ARJ is a product of Robert K Jung. My thanks also to the beta testers on Direct Line who have found various bugs and made some excellent suggestions. 2. WHAT IS CATFILES? CATFILES started from my own inability to keep a track of the thousands of files that are available on various Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and CompuServe. I wanted to keep a record of the files available, which I wanted and which I already had, I also wanted to be able to search for files by various criteria but there didn't seem to be a program which would help me do this the way I wanted. In particular most boards will have a file containing the main list of the files and then you can get regular updates - but again there didn't seems to be convenient way of integrating the updates with the main list - other than periodically downloading the main list (especially as the files would often appear first in an upload directory and then get moved to it's proper area by the sysop). CATFILES is a program which will read in the file listings provided by various Bulletin Boards and CompuServe and will produce a database of the files. Once you have created a database you can then search for files using various criteria, such as a by name or word in the description. Using the database you can also mark files which you have already downloaded, or files which you want to download at some time. The program produces one database for each BBS listing or CompuServe Forum (each listing must be in different directory). CATFILES will also keep the database up-to-date by reading in a 'New Files' listing, if your BBS system produces such listings, and add them to the existing database. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 1 Using CATFILES allows you to select the file areas or libraries you are interested in and only retain files for those areas. Support is also offered for Tapcis and OzCIS if you are cataloguing CompuServe listings. CATFILES is copyrighted by the author and is not in the public domain and all rights are reserved. CATFILES version 3.22a can, however, be freely used (in a non-commercial environment) and distributed provided that all the files are included and are unaltered. If you like the program and feel you would like to make a donation to assure my continued interest in maintaining CATFILES then a sum of 10 Pounds Sterling (20 US Dollars) would be considered most generous. This may be sent to:- W Stirling Lodge 4 Courtlands Sheen Road Richmond Surrey UK TW10 5AX If you want to use CATFILES in a commercial environment then contact me. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the program works well it should be used "as is" and no warranties are given or implied, nor can any responsibility be take for damages consequential or otherwise. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 2 3. PACKING LIST Version 3.22a of CATFILES should include the following files: File Date Time Size Description CATFILES.EXE 20/09/93 01:00 669,364 The main program file CATFILES.HLP 20/09/93 01:00 59,908 The On-Line Help file CATFILES.DOC 20/09/93 01:00 168,681 The documentation file (this file) README.1ST 20/09/93 01:00 2,884 Some Notes for those who have never use CATFILES before. ADDFILES.BAT 20/09/93 01:00 353 A sample BAT file to e x t r a c t a NEWFILES.DAT file from the QWK packet and build a cumulative file. 4. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS AND PROGRAM LIMITATIONS The program requires and IBM or compatible computer, DOS version 3.xx or later and a hard disk. Whilst CATFILES will run using a 8086 processor and 640Kb of memory a 80386 with some EMS or XMS memory is recommended. The amount of space required on the hard disk will depend on the size of the file listings you intend to catalogue and the size of the descriptions (see Appendix A for full information on file sizes), however here are some examples:- No Files Total File Size 2,182 1,023,329 6,980 970,847 18,647 2,548,260 It may appear odd that the first example with 2,182 files takes more space than the second which has 3 times as many files. This is because the first is a CompuServe catalogue which has much larger file descriptions than the second which a simple BBS listing with a single line description. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 3 The amount of disk space taken by the CATFILES database, in total, is about 50% to 60% more than the original ASCII file list and this is mainly due to the index files since the actual DBF files are about the same size. You can save some disk space by using a utility such as PKZIP or ARJ to compress the files when not in use (see Screen 3, Section 7.2.1 page 11) and this can reduce the size taken by the database to about 35% - 45% of those shown, however it must be remembered that before you can use such a compressed database you must have, at least, the uncompressed size free on you hard disk. The program can be used with databases stored on floppy disk, however in this case, CATFILES will create a temporary directory on your hard disk, copy the files from the floppy into this directory for use and then copy them back after use. The temporary directory, and the files in it, are then deleted from the hard disk. This means that, although your databases are permanently stored on floppy your hard disk must have, at least, that much free space before you can use a database. You should also remember that you SHOULD NOT remove the floppy until you are finished using the databases on that floppy. If you are changing from a database on one floppy to a database on another wait until CATFILES tells you to change floppies. The program is limited to a maximum of 65,500 files in each listing and a maximum of 3,999 different file areas or libraries. The program requires a separate directory for each database (BBS listing) you intend to keep (the program will make any directories if they don't already exist). A typical directory structure might be:- <Root>---CATFDIR----+--BBS1--+--MAIN - Main Listing for BBS1 (Prog Directory) | | | +---CD1 - CD Listing 1 for BBS1 | | | +---CD2 - CD Listing 2 for BBS1 | +---BBS2 Listing for BBS2 | +---CIS--+---FORUM1 - Forum 1 CompuServe | +---FORUM2 - Forum 2 CompuServe 5. INSTALLING CATFILES ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 4 1) Create a Sub-Directory for the program on your hard disk (not essential but desirable) 2) Copy the CATFILES.EXE and CATFILES.HLP into the Sub-Directory. It is not essential that you copy the CATFILES.HLP file but you must if want the On-Line Help. 3) Make sure you have the statement:- FILES=<nn> in your CONFIG.SYS file where <nn> is a number greater than or equal to 20. 4) If you have been provided with an already prepared database (this should comprise at least three files viz BBS_REF.DBF, BBS_FILE.DBF and BBS_DESC.DBF) then create a sub-directory for them and copy the database files into it. 6. RUNNING CATFILES You may execute the file either by:- a) Change to the Sub-Directory and type CATFILES eg: CD \CATFDIR CATFILES or b) Enter the full path to the program eg: C:\CATFDIR\CATFILES or c) Put the directory for the CATFILES program in your "PATH" statement. If you do this then you can run CATFILES from any drive or directory by just typing CATFILES. When you first run the program you will be greeted with an introductory screen and then CATFILES will ask, since you are a new user, if you want to search for an existing database. If you have installed an already prepared database (as in Section 5.4 above) then answer (Y)es and CATFILES will go off and look for it. The way CATFILES searches for database files is by searching the current drive first, then, if nothing is found, it will search the drive on which CATFILES.EXE resides (if different from the current drive) and then if still none have been found CATFILES will ask the user which drives to search. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 5 If you have a very large hard disk or feel unhappy about a program searching your disk drives you can answer (N)o to this search question and specifically tell CATFILES where to find your database in the configuration session next. After the above CATFILES will ask you to fill out a few screens of basic information which will be saved in a file called CATFILES.CFG in the same directory as the program (ie in CATFDIR in the example shown). You can change this configuration data later if you want. Most of this basic information is self explanatory and more detailed information is given in Section 7.2.1 page 10, however a couple of things are worth special mention:- 1) Date format to display. This allows you to chose the format in which you want to see the dates displayed eg dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy. Later you will be asked what date format is in the input files - the displayed format can be different to the input file format. 2) The Default Data (or Start-Up) Directory. This directory will be the database initially in use each time you run the program (once in the program you can of course change the database in use). Since you are just starting CATFILES this directory will contain your first listings Database. If you asked CATFILES to search for an existing DataBase then this should contain the directory where that DataBase is. If you decided not to have CATFILES search for an existing DataBase, but you do have one, you may enter the path to that DataBase now. In any case you can accept the default shown or enter another directory. Whenever entering a directory in CATFILES, it is advisable to enter the FULL path, including Drive, to minimise any likely confusion. If you enter a relative drive specification then CATFILES will try to convert this to an absolute one eg if the current directory is C:\DATABASE\CATFILES and you enter the drive specification "..\FILES\BBS1" then CATFILES will convert this to "C:\DATABASE\FILES\BBS1\". If you enter a directory in CATFILES which does not already exist then CATFILES will generally ask you if you want to create it and if you answer (Y)es then CATFILES will go ahead and make the directory. If you answer (N)o then you will be allowed to enter a new name. CATFILES can create directories several levels ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 6 deep ie if C:\DATABASE\CATFILES exists without any sub-directories then you can enter C:\DATABASE\CATFILES\LEVEL1\LEVEL2\LEVEL3 and CATFILES will create all the necessary directories. You CANNOT make a floppy disk drive as your default directory so you must, at least, have one data directory on your hard disk which CATFILES can fall back to. This default directory can contain an empty database if you like so that you can start CATFILES using an empty DataBase on your Hard Disk and then immediately change to using another listing which is on a floppy. 3) If you want to delete the Index files after use. If you say (Y)es to this option then the program will build the index files each time you use a DataBase and then delete them when finished. This will save disk space but will make things slower as the index files have to be re-built each time you use a listing. 4) If you want to use CompuServe listings with an Off-Line reader such as Tapcis or OzCIS (see Appendix B for what support means). If you answer Yes then you will be asked for the directory which contains you OLR program. If you have an already prepared database then CATFILES should find this and start using it. If not then the program will create your first (empty) database in the directory you have indicated and you will then be asked some information about this database such as type of listing (CompuServe or other), name etc. If it is not a CompuServe listing it will ask about the format of the input files such as date format and input format. Initially the date format is "Unknown" - if you leave it at that the program will try to determine the format the first time you try to read from the file. See Appendix C for details of the input file formats supported. Once you have entered all this information (see Section 7.2.2 page 12 for full details of the BBS Specific configuration) you will be taken to the CATFILES Main Menu. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 7 7. USING CATFILES CATFILES uses a number of menus and sub-menus to allow the user to chose his actions. The contents of these menus may change depending upon the current status of the database. For example the main menu will not have the option to 'Make a Pick List' if the database currently contains no files. The following description gives details of all the possible menu options (even if they don't always appear to you). Remember if you have copied the CATFILES.HLP file into your program directory you can get context sensitive help at any time by pressing the 'F1' key. For all menus you may select an item by using the Up or Down cursor keys to highlight the option you want and then it can be selected by pressing the 'Enter' key. Alternatively each menu item will have one character a different colour from the rest of the characters - this is called the 'Hot Key' and you may select any item from the menu by just hitting the 'Hot Key'. In all menus the 'Q' key is the hot key to quit this menu and return to the previous menu (or in the case of the Main Menu to quit the program completely) The 'Esc' is generally used to cancel what you are doing and in the case of menus is equivalent to the 'Q' key. At all menus you can 'shell to DOS' by using the 'Alt + F10' combination. When in DOS you can run any program you like (except another copy of CATFILES). When you are finished in DOS type 'EXIT' and hit 'Enter' to return to CATFILES. It should be noted that in order to leave as much conventional memory available to the user when shelled to DOS CATFILES swaps almost all of itself to either EMS, XMS or disk depending on you system configuration. You should be careful about deleting any files when shelled to DOS - you should NOT delete the database files in use or the swap file if it exists. In general this documentation will just list all the menu options and then deal with what they do in detail afterwards. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 8 7.1 THE MAIN MENU This is the first menu you will be taken to when you first run CATFILES, it is also the menu you will normally go to whenever CATFILES is started unless you use the advanced configuration options to change this (see Screen 4, Section 7.2.4 page 17). You must always return to this menu to Quit CATFILES and return to the operating system. The top of the screen will show the name of the DataBase in use (or the directory if you didn't give it a name) and the number of files in the DataBase. The options for this menu are:- "Make a Pick List" or "Edit the Pick List" - If you have already made a list. "Action the Pick List" - Only if you have already made a list "Update the Files DataBase" "Use Another BBS Listing" "Configure Program/DataBase" "View All Files in Default Areas" Only if you haven't already made a Pick List. 7.2 CONFIGURATION MENU This menu will show the name of the DataBase in use and number of files in the DataBase at the top. The possible options for this menu are:- "General Program Configuration" "BBS Specific Configuration" "Set Preferred Screen Colours" "Advanced Program Configuration" ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 9 7.2.1 General Program Configuration This comprises three screens of information and is the information which the program requires you to give when you first run CATFILES. At the end of each screen you will be asked if you are finished with this screen answering (Y)es will progress you to the next screen and (N)o will take you back to the last question on that screen. On any screen you can use the Up and Down cursor keys to move back and forwards through the questions and Page Down will take you to the "finished screen" prompt. Screen 1 Colour Monitor If the program has detected that you have a graphics card installed in the computer then it will ask if you also have a colour monitor. You should answer 'Y' or 'N'. If you have a grey scales monitor you might want to answer Y and then set the colour scheme to best suit your screen. Printer This is asking if you have a printer attached. Answer 'Y' or 'N'. Since this version of CATFILES does not do any printing this answer is incidental. Printer Port If you say you have a printer then the program will display the printer port and ask if you want to change it. Display Date Format The program will display the format in which you want the date displayed and ask if you want to change it. If you answer 'Y' you will be shown a list of possible date formats from which you can choose. Default Data Path This is where you enter the directory which stores the database which will be use every time you start CATFILES. You cannot enter either Drive A: or B: here ie you must have a default database which is on a hard disk NOT on a Floppy Disk. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 10 It is always advisable, whenever entering a directory in CATFILES, to enter the FULL path, including Drive, to minimise any likely confusion. If you enter a relative drive specification then CATFILES will try to convert this to an absolute one eg if the current directory is C:\DATABASE\CATFILES and you enter the drive specification "..\FILES\BBS1" the CATFILES will c o n v e r t t h i s t o "C:\DATABASE\FILES\BBS1\". Delete Index Files If you answer 'Y' to this program then the program will delete the index files it uses after it has finished with them. This will save disk space but will make the program slower since it has to build the index files every time it uses a DataBase. Sound Off CATFILES is fairly quiet but does give beeps as prompts or warnings for certain items. If you answer 'Y' to this the program will be totally silent. Screen 2 This screen is related to using CATFILES with CompuServe listings and an Off-Line reader (sometimes called a navigation program). The program first asks if you want to use the program with an OLR. If you answer (Y)es the program will ask for the path to your OLR (that is where the '.EXE, file resides. The program will then show the type of OLR and ask if you want to change it. If you answer yes to this then a screen will pop-up to allow you to chose which reader you want to use (currently the option are Tapcis v5.4, Tapcis 5.41, OzCIS 1.0 to 1.2a and OzCIS 2.0 to 2.0b). Screen 3 This screen allows you select whether you wish CATFILES to use an external file compression utility (such as PKZIP or ARJ) to compress the database files after they are used (and of course de-compress them before use). These compression programs are not supplied with CATFILES but generally available, as Shareware, from almost every BBS. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 11 In order to leave as much memory as possible when running the compression program CATFILES swaps itself out of conventional memory to either EMS, XMS or disk depending upon your computer configuration. If you say (Y)es to this option you will then be first asked if you want to compress only the files on (F)loppy disks or (A)ll files. Next you will be asked the mask (or program) to use to compress the files. Unless the directory for your compression program is in your PATH statement you should enter the full path and program name and any command/switches needed eg: C:\ARCHIVE\PKZIP or C:\ARCHIVE\ARJ a Finally you will be asked the mask (or program) to use to de-compress the files. Unless the directory for your de-compression program is in your PATH statement you should enter the full path and program name eg: C:\ARCHIVE\PKUNZIP or C:\ARCHIVE\ARJ e When you have completed Screen 3 you will be asked if you want to save this configuration. If you answer (Y)es then any changes you have made will be permanently saved in CATFILES.CFG and will be effective every time you run CATFILES. If you answer (N)o then any changes you have made will be effective for the rest of this session only. 7.2.2 BBS Specific Configuration This allows you enter details about a new BBS listing or edit the information about an existing BBS listings database. If you are creating new BBS listing database then you will be shown a pop up screen allowing you to choose if this listing will contain a 'Normal BBS Listing' or a 'CompuServe Listing'. You may use the cursor keys to highlight your choice and hit 'Enter' to select it. If you choose 'CompuServe Listing' then you will also be asked for the gateway (commonly CIS) and the forum name. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 12 These latter questions will only be asked when you are creating a new BBS listing. If you want to change these settings at a later date then you must hit the 'F5' key when in the BBS Specific configuration screen. Thereafter you will be presented with three screens of information. Screen 1 This screen simply asks for the name or title of the listing. This is optional and you need not enter a name. Screen 2 This screen asks for information about the default files which normally contains listing of files for this BBS. The first item is the directory which contains the full listing. The second item is the default name of the file which contains your full listing. When you first read in files to the database or if you choose to reconcile the database (see Section 7.5.2 page 28) then this file name and directory will be the initial default offered (if it exists). If you are creating this database for the first time the program will then show you a list of supported file formats for the input file and allow you to select the type you want (use the cursor keys to highlight the one you want and press enter to select it). If you already have chosen a format the program will show the currently selected format and ask if you want to change it (see Appendix C for details of the formats supported). The program will then show you the date format that it expects in the input file (this can be different from the format you want to see the dates displayed) and asks if you want to change it. Initially this will be 'Unknown' if you leave it as this then CATFILES will try to determine the date format of the input file (either now, if the file exists, or when you first come to read in the file). One problem about leaving it at unknown is that if the program finds a date such as 10/01/91 it cannot be sure if this is 10 January or 1 October. The program will look through the whole of the input file looking for a date it ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 13 can definitely identify such as 15/01/92 or 01/15/92 but if there are none of this type it may guess wrongly. CATFILES does 'remember' if got a definite date and, if not, will keep trying every time you try to read from that file but this could result in some files in the database having wrong dates. Screen 3 This screen asks for information about the default file which normally contains your update listing of files for this BBS. This file is the one which normally contains your new files which are to be added to the database (see Section 7.5.1 page 26). When you select to add files to the database (except for the first time) then this file name and directory will be the initial default offered. The information asked will be the same as for the full listing. The file format and date format can be different from the full listing. Screen 4 This screen allows you to set the directory and name of the files used by CATFILES to produce 'Download File' listings and 'Update Database' listing for Normal BBS databases. By default CATFILES will use the same directory as the database files and the names DLOAD.LST and CATFILES.DLS respectively, but you may enter any valid filenames and directories you wish. See Section 7.4.2 page 24 for more information on the Download Files List and Appendix D for more information on the update listing. 7.2.3 Set Preferred Screen Colours If you have said you have a colour monitor in the general program configuration then you will also have this option available to you. The screen will show you the five different type of screens available. One of the screens will have a flashing border and this is the 'current' screen. You can use the left and right cursor keys to highlight the screen you want to edit then press 'Enter'. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 14 You will then be presented with screens of foreground and background colours to choose from. There are 16 foreground colour and 8 background colours. All 8 background colours will appear on the screen but the foreground choices will scroll to show the extra choices. If you press enter at any colour to select it then the appropriate screen colours will change so that you can see the effect. Again you can use the left and right cursor keys to select if you want to change the foreground or background colours. 7.2.4 Advanced Program Configuration This will allow you to set your own preferences in the way which CATFILES works. You will be presented with five screens of information. On each screen you may move up and down the requested information using the Up and Down keys, or you may hit the 'Esc' key to finish. You may also use the Page Up and Page Dn keys to go back or forwards When you reach the end of a screen CATFILES will ask if you have finished with this screen. If you answer (N)o it will go back to the first item on this page. If you answer (Y)es then it will either:- Go forward a screen Go back a screen if you had previously pressed Page Up or Will ask if you want to save this configuration if you had previously pressed 'Esc' Instead of answering (Y)es or (N)o to the "Finished this screen" you may press the 'F5' key which will allow you to enter a screen number and you will jump straight to that screen eg go from screen 1 to screen 5 or from screen 4 to screen 2. Screen 1 This deals with your preferences for outputting pick list to either a file or the printer and allows you to set the number of characters per line left margin etc.. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 15 Screen 2 This screen deals with how you want to handle the reading in (or adding) of files to the database. There are two ways you can add files to the database either automatically or manually. The first question asked is if you want to add files to the database automatically. If you answer (Y)es then every time you start CATFILES or use another database it will check to see if the default update file (as specified on Screen 3 of 7.2.2) has been modified and if so will start to read it in. Note: If you set the auto adding to yes then CATFILES will try to auto add to every database you use unless there has been no file name specified as the default update file. The second question is if you want to be prompted during automatic adding of files. This means do you always want to be asked if you want to view the files as they are added, if you want to delete the input file when it has been read in, or if you want to reduce the files size to Zero bytes. If you answer (N)o to this item then every time CATFILES will 'remember' what you did the last time during an automatic input and do the same the next time. If you haven't already set the default prompts for an automatic read for a particular database then CATFILES will ask you once and then repeat it thereafter. If you specify no here then you will not be prompted for all database - BUT the default responses can be different for each. For example you can have one database set to View files as they are added, don't delete the input file when done but reduce to zero bytes and another set to not Viewing files as they are added and delete the file when done. The third question deals with prompting for manual adding of files (ie you have selected Add files to Database from the Update Menu) and is basically the same as for automatic input. It should be noted that the manual defaults, as well as being different for each database are/ can be different from the auto adding defaults. During a manual read CATFILES will always prompt you for the input file name even if you have set prompting to (N)o. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 16 Screen 3 This screen deals with how you want to handle scanning of drives or directories for downloaded files. The first question asks if you want to automatically scan for downloaded files every time you start CATFILES or use another database. The second asks if you want to be prompted during an automatic scan. This means if you want to be asked for the drive/directory to scan and if you want to scan sub-directories. Again the defaults for these can be different for these latter can be different for each database. The third question asks if you want to be prompted during manual scan. Unlike the auto/manual adding of files the defaults for manual and auto scan are the same. The fourth question asks if you want to use only the file name when checking for downloaded files. Normally CATFILES checks to see if the file on the drive/directory has the same name as one in the database AND is approximately the same size (within 2k) If you answer (Y)es to this question then CATFILES will ignore the size of the files. Screen 4 This screen permits you to set which screen you want to see every time you start CATFILES or use another database. Normally CATFILES will start at the Main Menu, however using this screen you can change this. You can have different start-up screens for databases with files and databases without files. Screen 5 This Screen lets you see and change the default prompts for use with both manual and automatic adding of files. This screen ONLY deals with the current database. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 17 7.3 MAKE/EDIT THE PICK LIST MENU This is the real "heart" of CATFILES and from here you can select the files you are interested in by various means. This menu will show you the name of the DataBase and the number of files currently in the pick list. The possible options for this menu are:- "Select Areas (Default x from y)" "Select by System Date" "Select by DownLoad Particulars" "Select by File Name" "Select by File Extension" "Select by Word in Description" "Save this Pick List" "Restore a Saved Pick List" "Reset (Clear) the Current Pick List" "View Files in List" "Scan Files in List" "Action the Pick List" The action taken by any of these options will vary depending on whether there are files currently in the 'Pick List' or not. If there are no files in the 'Pick List' then selecting, say, by file name will make a list of all files in the default areas with the names you specify. If there are currently files in the 'Pick List' then the selecting by files by, say name again, will eliminate all files from the current pick list which do not match the names you specify. Also, if there are files in the 'Pick List' and you select to find, say, by word in the description and no files match that word then the 'Pick List' will be unchanged. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 18 7.3.1 Select Areas (Default x from y) The (Default x from y) will only be shown if there are no files currently in the 'Pick List'. If you select this item you will be shown a list of all areas or libraries which currently contain some files along with the number of files in that area. The areas selected will be flagged. You may use the cursor keys to move up and down the list (the list will Scroll if there are more than 16 available areas). When the area you are interested in is highlighted you may:- Hit the 'Space' to toggle the flag Hit the '+' to include the area Hit the '-' to exclude the area When you have selected the areas you are interested in then hit 'Enter' to action your selection. Alternatively you may hit 'Esc' to cancel with no action. The first two items in the list are "All Areas" or "No Areas". These cane be used to quickly select all but one or two areas by selecting All Areas and the deselecting the ones you don't want or conversely just one or two areas by selecting "No Areas" and then selecting the ones you want. If there are no files currently in the list then you will be asked if you want to pick all these files now or wait until you make a second search criteria. 7.3.2 Select by System Date If you select this item you will be allowed to select all files, either before a specified date or after a specified date. (the system date is normally the date that the file was uploaded to the BBS. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 19 7.3.3 Select by DownLoad Particulars If you select this item you will be shown a list of possible options these include:- All files already downloaded All files NOT already downloaded All files downloaded before a specified date All files downloaded after a specified date All files marked as wanted for downloading All files NOT marked as wanted for downloading 7.3.4 Select by File Name If you select this item you will be asked to enter a list of file names you want to look for. This is the first part of the file name (ie not the file extension) so the names you enter should not contain the '.' but can contain wild cards ('?' and '*'). You may enter as many names as you want just keep typing the names you want and press 'Enter' at a blank name to finish. The program will select from this list based on 'OR' selection ie if you enter 'A*' and 'B*' it will select all files beginning with A or B. Because of the way the files are indexed the program will be significantly faster if you can specify the start of the filename ie it will find all files which match 'A*' faster than all files which match '?A*' even if there are the same number of files in each choice. 7.3.5 Select by File Extension This is exactly the same as selecting by file name except that the selection is based on the file extension. 7.3.6 Select by Word in Description This is similar to the select by file name. If you select this item you will be asked to enter a list of the words you want to find. The search is not case sensitive so if you enter 'WORD' it will find 'WORD', 'Word' and 'word'. It also ignores spaces at the end or start of the string and will include sub words ie entering 'ZIP' will also find 'ZIPPED' and 'UNZIP'. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 20 7.3.7 Select If/Not Viewed When you 'look' at a file, either when they are being added to the DataBase or when you View files in the pick list then they are marked on the DataBase as 'Viewed'. Using this option you can select all files which you have not already looked at or all files which you have already looked at. 7.3.8 Save this Pick List If you select this item you will be allowed to save the current list to disk for later recalling. If there are any saved list already you will be presented with a list of the saved files which you can select from to overwrite, or you may create a new one. You will be asked to enter a short description of the list. 7.3.9 Restore a Saved Pick List This will only appear if the program has found previously saved lists. If you select this item you will be shown a list of the previously saved files (newest first) from which you can select. If there are already files in the Pick List then those in the saved list will be added to the current list (unless they already in it). Using this option you can also delete saved Pick Lists. If you highlight the list you want to delete then hit the 'Delete' key you will be prompted to confirm that you want to delete this list and if you answer (Y)es the list will be deleted from the disk. 7.3.10 Reset (Clear) the Current Pick List If you select this item then the current list will be cleared or emptied. 7.3.11 View Files in the List If you select this item you will be shown all details of the files in the list one after another. In the file view screen only a maximum of 10 lines, each with 76 characters will be displayed. If there is more you may use the Up and Down Cursor keys at anytime to scroll the description. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 21 When viewing a file in the list the program will ask you if want to delete the file from the list (only from the Pick List NOT from the DataBase). If you answer (N)o then you will be asked if you want to change anything. If you answer (Y)es you will be able to mark the file as downloaded or as wanted for downloading or add a comment or note to the file. When the program is asking if you want to delete the file from the list you can hit 'F5' and the program will then allow you to jump to a specific file in the list. You may also use the following 'Hot Keys' when viewing a file: Alt + "N" To attach a Note or comment to the file. Alt + "D" or Alt + "*" To mark a file as downloaded. Alt + "W" or Alt + "+" To mark a file as wanted for downloading. 7.3.12 Scan Files in the List This option will only be shown if there are more than one file in the list. If you select this item you will be shown a list of the files in the list with an abbreviated (one line) description of the file. You may Scroll up and down this list. To the left of the filename will appear the following:- * If the file has already been downloaded. + If the file has been marked as wanted for downloading. When any particular file is highlighted you may hit 'Del' to remove the file from the list (again just from the pick list and not from the database). You may also hit 'Enter' which will show you the full details of the highlighted file. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 22 When in the scanning list or when the full details of a file are showing you may again use the following 'Hot Keys': Alt + "N" To attach a Note or comment to the file. Alt + "D" or Alt + "*" To mark a file as downloaded. Alt + "W" or Alt + "+" To mark a file as wanted for downloading. 7.3.13 Action the Pick List If you select this option then you will be take to the "Action the Pick List" sub-menu (see Section 7.4 pages 23 to 26 for more details). 7.4 ACTION THE PICK LIST MENU This menu will show you the name of the DataBase and the number of files currently in the pick list. The possible options for this menu are:- "Move Files in Pick List to another Area" "Produce a DownLoad File" "Change DownLoad Status" "Change Viewed Status" "Remove Files from the DataBase" "Print Files in Pick List" "Send Pick List to File" 7.4.1 Move Files in Pick List to another Area If you select this item you will be shown a list of the available areas. You use the cursor keys to move up and down the list to highlight the area you want. Then use the space bar to flag it and press 'Enter' to action it. All files in the list will then be moved to the selected area. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 23 7.4.2 Produce a DownLoad File This option will only be offered if there are 100 or less files in the list. If this is a 'Normal BBS Listing' then the program will look for the file specified on Screen 4 of the BBS Specific Configuration (DLOAD.LST in the DataBase directory by default. See Screen 4 Section 7.2.2 page 14). If the file is found then you will be offered the choice of overwriting the existing file or adding to it. If the file is not found CATFILES will create it. The program will then write the names of the files in the list to this file. This is an ASCII file with one entry per line. If this is a CompuServe listing and you have selected an OLR to use with it then CATFILES will produce the appropriate type of file for the OLR selected. See Appendix B for details of the support offered. 7.4.3 Change DownLoad Status If you select this item you will be allowed to mark all files in the list as: Already DownLoaded Not DownLoaded Wanted for DownLoading Not Wanted for DownLoading 7.4.4 Change Viewed Status If you select this item you will be allowed to mark all files in the list as either already viewed or Not viewed. 7.4.5 Remove Files from the DataBase If you select this item the you will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the files. If you answer (Y)es then the files in the list will be permanently deleted from the DataBase. This is one way of deleting files from a DataBase ie make a list of the files you want to delete then 'Action' this list. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 24 7.4.6 Print Files in the Pick List If you select this item you be able to print the details of the files in the pick list. The first thing you will be asked is the type of listing you want to produce as follows:- Simple List of just File Names This is as it says a list of the file names in the pick list with one file per line. Single line File List This will produce a list similar to the one you get when you 'Scan' a pick list. There will be one file per line with each line containing the file name, the size, the date and a short description. Full File Description This will give the full file description. 7.4.7 Send Pick List to File If you select this item you be able to send the details of the files in the pick list to an ASCII file (unless you chose the CATFILES Interchange Format). Again the first thing you will be asked is the type of listing you want to produce and the list is the same as with printing with the additional format:- CATFILES Interchange Format This special format which will allow you to produce a file which CATFILES can read back in to another Database. See Appendix F for further details. You will then be asked the directory that you want the output file to be placed in (the default is the same directory as the database) and then the name of the file which you want to place the output listing in. If you don't give a file extension to the output file name then .PRN will ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 25 be added if it is an ASCII listing and .CIF if it is a CATFILES Interchange Format. If the output file already exists you will be asked if you want to Append (add) to the existing file or Overwrite it. 7.5 UPDATE THE FILES DATABASE MENU This menu allows you to select how you want to update the DataBase manually. The DataBase can also be updated automatically. If the Listing is a CompuServe listing then refer to Appendix B for details of the support of OLR, if not then refer to Appendix D for details of how the program can be made to update automatically. The top of the screen will show the name of the DataBase in use (or the directory if you didn't give it a name) and the number of files in the DataBase. The options for this menu are:- "Add Files to the DataBase" "Reconcile the Files in the DataBase" "Scan for DownLoaded Files" "Configure File Areas" "Tidy up the DataBase" "Recreate the Index Files" 7.5.1 Add Files to the DataBase If you select this option then you will be presented with a screen which will allow you to enter the path and file name you want to read in. The path or directory will normally be that which you specified during the configuration of this listing (see Screen 2 Section 7.2.2 page 13) and also, if it exists the default file name you specified. You may change the directory by hitting the 'F4' key. When the screen is waiting for you enter the file name you may hit the 'F9' key and CATFILES will show you a list of files in the current directory which seem as if they might be valid input files (it will exclude files with the ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 26 extensions .EXE, .COM and .BAT and also files which do not have a carriage return + line feed pair at least every 159 characters). If the file you specify is not one of the default files (as specified during the configuration) then the program will ask for the file format and will try to determine the date format. Unless the file you specify is in CATFILES Interchange Format which is automatically recognised or this is a CompuServe database, in which case CATFILES will assume that it is either in long or short format. When you have entered the above information the program will then ask if you want to view the files as they are added. If you answer (Y)es then you will be shown each new file as it is found and you will be asked if you want to add it to the DataBase. If you answer (N)o then all new files will be added to the Database without asking. If you decide to view the files while they are being added then as each new file is found you will be asked:- a) If you want to add the file b) If you want to mark the file as wanted for downloading c) If you want to add a comment or note to the file You can cancel this at any time by hitting 'Esc' when the shows you a new file and is asking you if you want to add the file. The program then proceeds to read in the file and add any new files to the DataBase. You may cancel the reading of an input file by hitting the 'Esc' key at any time. If this database is for CompuServe listings, then, before reading in the file you have specified, CATFILES will look for a file in the same directory as the input file and with the same name but with the file extension '.SEC'. If CATFILES finds this file then it will read this first looking for the numbers and names of the forum libraries. During the reading of the input file CATFILES will update your database under the following circumstances:- a) The file is not currently on the DataBase then it will be added (unless you have specified that you do not want to keep files for this area). ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 27 b) The file is on the DataBase but in a different area ie the last time you read in a file FILE1.XXX was in the say 'Uploads' Area but is now shown as in 'DOS Utilities' then FILE1.XX will be moved to the new area - unless you have specified that you do not want to keep files for this new area, in which case FILE1.XX will be deleted. c) This is a newer version of the file. If the old version is marked as downloaded then the new version will be added to the DataBase. If the old version is not marked as downloaded then the new version will replace the old version. When CATFILES has finished reading in the input file you will be asked if you want to delete the input file (unless you have cancelled the reading by hitting 'Esc'). If you answer (N)o to deleting the input file, CATFILES will ask if you want to reduce the file to Zero Bytes long. If you answer (Y)es to this then the input file will still exist, with the same date and time, but will be empty. This is useful with a package such as Tapcis which relies on the date and time of the CAT file to know how many days to suggest when you are getting a new or updated catalogue from CompuServe. If you have hit the 'Esc' key to cancel reading in the input file or if you said (N)o to both deleting the input file and reducing it to zero bytes, then CATFILES will save how much of the input file has been processed. The next time you come to 'Add' files to the DataBase CATFILES will check to see if the file you last read still exists and if it was cancelled part way through, or if you read it fully and it appears to have been added to, then the program will offer you the opportunity of continuing to read the input file from where you left off. This is useful when, for some reason you don't want to delete the input file then, later, add to the file by getting new files CATFILES then doesn't need to read the whole file only the part it hasn't already read.. 7.5.2 Reconcile the Files in the DataBase This is a special form of the Add files to the DataBase. Using this option you can read in a completely new file listing and any files which do not appear in the new 'full' listing will be deleted from the DataBase. Files will not, ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 28 however, be deleted from the DataBase, even if they are not in the input file, under the following circumstances:- a) They have been marked as downloaded. b) They are in an area/library which you have specifically flagged as being excluded from the reconciliation (see Section 7.5.4 page 30) c) Files are in an area which you have said you do not want to keep files (see Section 7.5.4 page 30). This is because when you specify that you do not want to keep files for an area you are asked if you want to delete any files which are already in that area - if you said (N)o to that question it is assumed that you want to keep them for some reason. The advantage of performing a reconciliation, rather than deleting all files in the DataBase and reading in your new listing is that you will retain all the 'special' file flags or marks such as download details etc. The input screen and questions are the same as the Add Files to the DataBase (Section 7.5.1 page 26). The only difference is that there are two extra stages. The first stage precedes reading the input file where CATFILES goes through all the existing files and sets a special flag. The second stage comes after reading the input file where CATFILES goes through the input file and deletes any files which were not in the input file. Before proceeding with this CATFILES will ask you if you want to see each file before deleting it. If you answer (Y)es then CATFILES will show you each file prompt you before deleting it. After deleting any files CATFILES will then check the file areas and it will delete any areas which no longer contain any files (it assumes that these areas no longer exist on the BBS), unless the area has been 'flagged' to be excluded from the reconciliation. As with adding file to the DataBase you can cancel the reconciliation process part way through by hitting the 'Esc' key, but unlike Adding you cannot resume it later on from where you left off. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 29 7.5.3 Scan for DownLoaded Files If you select this option the program will ask you for a Drive or Directory to search. Once you have entered this the program will ask if you also want to search sub-directories of the Drive/Directory entered. Once you have answered these the program will then scan the directories specified looking for files which appear to be the same as any in the current DataBase. If any are found the program will display details of the file found and the file in the DataBase and ask you if they are the same. If you answer (Y)es then the program will ask for the DownLoad Date (by default it will be the date of the file on the disk and then mark the file on the DataBase as downloaded. 7.5.4 Configure File Areas Selecting this option allows you to display a list of all the files areas or libraries and add new areas, delete existing ones, specify that you do not want to keep files for an area or say that you want to exclude an area from the reconciliation process. CATFILES will show a list of all the areas which you can use the cursor keys to scroll through. As each area is highlighted then the bottom of the screen will show the current status of this area. If you press 'Enter' then you will be take to the bottom of the screen and be allowed to edit the configuration information. The following information will be required:- a) Include in Reconciliation. If you answer (N)o then the area will be excluded from the reconciliation. This is useful if you have access to some special areas on the BBS which are not are not normally included in your 'complete' listing. b) Do you want to keep files for this area. If you answer (N)o then any files contained in this area in future listings will be ignored. If you decide that you do not want to keep files for this area, and the area currently contains files, then you will be asked if you want to delete all the files currently in this area or delete them. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 30 You can of course delete an area completely but if you do that then the next time a listing contains this area name it will automatically be added to the DataBase again ie CATFILES has to 'know' about the area before it can ignore it. c) Do you want to delete the area. 7.5.5 Tidy up the DataBase As files and areas are added to the DataBase they are given a unique ID number or 'handle'. This handle is allocated sequentially so that if you add 100 files to an empty DataBase the next handle to be used will be 101. If you delete 99 files the next handle to be used will STILL be 101. The biggest handle available for files is 65,500 and for file areas is 3,999. As a consequence of this, if you add files then delete some then add more etc, you can reach a point where, although you have less than the maximum number of files or areas you might have no more handles left. If you reach this point then you must tidy the DataBase. Tidying the DataBase means the program will go through the DataBase and re-number all the files and areas starting from one. This process can take some time and should not be interrupted or else you may corrupt your DataBase. In addition the tidying operation will also:- Look for files which are no longer in valid areas and these will be put in the "Undefined Area". Look for file description which have don't have a corresponding file and delete them. Re-count the files in each area. All of the last three should not really be required since the program should normally keep all this up to date - but the DataBase might have become corrupted. An example of this might be if the program 'crashes' when reading in an input file. CATFILES counts the number of ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 31 files in each area but only updates this count in the DataBase files when the read terminates 'normally'. If the program does not get a chance to update these counters then you might have a situation where the database has thousands of files but each of the areas showing fewer than you expect, or even none. Tidying the DataBase will correct this. 7.5.6 Recreate the Index Files If you select this item the program will re-create the index files for the current DataBase. This should not normally be required since the program should keep the indexes but they might become corrupted. If the program starts to give peculiar results then this might be worth trying. You can also delete the index files in DOS and CATFILES will re-built them the next time it uses this DataBase. 7.6 USE ANOTHER BBS LISTING If the file CATFILES.DIR containing your list of available directories containing databases exists then CATFILES will pop up this list to allow you to select from. If the directory you want is not in this list (eg you want to create a new one) then you can hit 'Esc' and you will be presented with an entry screen to allow you to enter the path you want. If the file CATFILES.DIR does not already exist you will go straight to the screen to allow you to type in the path you want - while at this point you can get CATFILES to create a CATFILES.DIR file for you by hitting 'F9'. You will then be asked which drives you want to search and CATFILES will then search them looking for databases and build a CATFILES.DIR from the result. CATFILES will only search drives C upwards and will not allow you to search floppy drives A: and B:. If you want to include drives A: or B: in your CATFILES.DIR you must add them manually (see later) If you are entering a the directory from the entry screen you should enter the full path including drive. It is always advisable, whenever entering a directory in CATFILES, to enter the FULL path, including Drive, to minimise any likely confusion. If you enter a relative drive specification then CATFILES will try to convert this ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 32 to an absolute one eg if the current directory is C:\DATABASE\CATFILES and you enter the drive specification "..\FILES\BBS1" the CATFILES will convert this to "C:\DATABASE\FILES\BBS1\". If the specified directory does not exist you will be asked if you want to create it. If the specified path doesn't already contain the necessary DataBase files they will be created and you will be taken to entering the details about this BBS (see Section 7.2.2 page 12 for more details). This is the way you create new (empty) listings. As already mentioned, once CATFILES.DIR exists the program will then display the list of available directories from which you can choose by highlighting the one you want and pressing 'Enter'. As stated in Appendix A you can make or edit CATFILES.DIR using a wordprocessor which will create ASCII files. CATFILES will only create or add entries in CATFILES.DIR for hard disk drives (ie not the drives A: or B:). If you want to have CATFILES display the Drive A: or Drive B: then you should manually edit CATFILES.DIR and add a line "A:" and/or "B:". You only need one entry per floppy drive (without the quotes) and each entry should be on a separate line. When CATFILES reads the directory file and it finds an entry for A: or B: it checks to see if that drive contains a disk and if the disk contains one or more valid database directories. If so then these directories are, temporarily, added to the list for display. If you are currently using a database on Drive A: then an entry also appears which say "Different Disk in A:" if this option is chosen then the current database on Drive A: is closed and copied back to the original floppy and then a message will appear which will ask you to ensure that the next disk is in Drive A: at which time you swap disks. When the program is displaying the list of available directories you can 'force' CATFILES to update this by hitting 'F9' again. This will cause CATFILES to scan your drives again. Once CATFILES.DIR has been created the program will normally keep it up to date by adding any new DataBase directories as you create them. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 33 7.7 VIEW ALL FILES IN DEFAULT AREAS This item will only appear in the Main Menu if there is no files currently selected in the Pick List. This can be considered a special form of generating the Pick List and will create a Pick List of all the files in the currently selected areas and then take you straight into 'Scan' the Pick List. This is functionally equivalent of:- a) Select 'Make a Pick List' b) Select 'Select Areas' and press 'enter' without changing anything and say (Y)es to select all files now. c) Select 'Scan Files in Pick List' 8. PROBLEMS/SUGGESTIONS If you have any problems with CATFILES or have any suggested improvements (such as new input file formats etc) then please contact me and I will see what I can do. I can usually be contacted on the Direct Line BBS in London (where I go by the name Bill Stirling). Number Lines Speeds 081-845-8228 3 300/1200/1200-75/2400/9600/14400(v32) HST 9600/14400/16800 HST MNP5/v42bis 081-841-4114 3 300/1200/1200-75/2400 MNP5 081-841-1847 1 3/12/2400/9600 + HST 96/14.4 MNP5/v42bis 081-842-2030 1 3/12/2400/9600 + HST 96/14.4 MNP5/v42bis 081-842-4176 1 3/12/2400/9600 + HST 96/14.4 MNP5/v42bis 081-845-5811 1 3/12/2400/9600 + HST 96/14.4 MNP5 Direct Line is also a member of Power-Net and TheNet in the UK and WildNet messaging networks. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 34 I can also be contacted on CompuServe as ID NO 100014,3335 or in the following forums CIS:UKCOMP CIS:UKFORUM CIS:CLIPPER If CATFILES should crash with an error then it will usually give you an error message followed by a list of routines with line numbers in brackets after each routine eg: BASE/1001 Called from AREADFILE (1000) Called from VINPFILE (300) Called from MAINMENU (500) If you take a note of these and provide me with a brief description of what you were doing at the time I will try to reproduce and correct the problem. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a Page 35 Appendix A - Files created by CATFILES CATFILES creates various files for its use at various times. Some of these files are 'permanent' and others are 'temporary'. Permanent Files CATFILES.CFG This is the general program configuration file and is created in the same directory as the CATFILES.EXE files when you first run the program. CATFILES.DIR This file is also created in the same directory as the program file and contains a list of directories in which you have listings databases. This file will not be created unless and until you first ask the program to show you a list of directories which contain listings (see Section 7.6 page 32). Once created then CATFILES will keep it up-to-date. This is a simple ASCII file and can be added to or edited by you. It contains one directory per line. Each entry should be the complete path including Drive. BBS_*.DBF These are the main database files and three such files are created each time you make a new listings database. These files will be created by CATFILES in the database directory. The size of the files will depend on the amount of information stored. The files are:- BBS_REF.DBF The reference file and contains details of file areas or libraries, name of the listing etc. The size of this file will be 45 bytes for each area or library plus a small overhead. BBS_FILE.DBF The file containing the main details of the files in the database name, size etc. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a A-1 The size of this file will be 39 bytes for each file in the database plus a small overhead. BBS_DESC.DBF The file containing the file descriptions. The size of this file will be 64 bytes for each 60 characters in the file description (no description no entry) plus a small overhead. BBS_*.?DX If you chose NOT to delete the index files after use then there will be one of these files for each 'DBF' file in the database directory. If you chose to delete the index files after use then there will be one file for each 'DBF' file but these will be created in the program directory and will be deleted after use. The size of these index files will depend on the size of the corresponding 'DBF' file. The minimum size is 2560 bytes. The index for the BBS_FILE.DBF will be about 70% of the size of the 'DBF' file. The index for the BBS_DESC.DBF will be about 10% of the size of the 'DBF' file. BBS_COMP.BBS If you choose to use a compression utility to compress the files after use then this will be the name of the compressed file containing the individual files. DLOAD.LST If you are using a 'normal BBS listing' then you can make a pick list of the files you are interested in and if the list contains less than 100 files you can select 'Action the Pick List' from the Main Menu and then 'Create a DownLoad File' from the sub-menu. CATFILES will then create the file you specified in the BBS Specific Configuration (or DLOAD.LST in the DataBase directory by default) which contains a list of the file names in the 'Pick List'. You can then use this with a comms package to automate your file downloading. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a A-2 PICKSAVE.nnn One option you have when you make a 'Pick List' is to save that list, or restore a previously saved list. These files are saved in the DataBase directory with the name PICKSAVE.nnn where nnn is a number eg PICKSAVE.001, PICKSAVE.002 etc. The program will create these files and you can re-use them. Temporary Files PICK_LIS.* The program will create two files PICK LIS.DBF and PICK LIS.IDX in the program directory, to contain information about the files in the current 'Pick List'. These files will be deleted when you quit CATFILES, or when you 'Use Another BBS'. X_0nTEMP.* CATFILES will make number of these files during a 'Tidy' of the DataBase to hold temporary copies of the DataBase files. These files will be created in the DataBase directory. These files should be deleted by CATFILES after they are no longer needed. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a A-3 Appendix B - Support for CompuServe Off-Line Readers There are quite a number of programs which can assist you in your use of CompuServe and these programs are generally called On-Line navigation programs. Some such programs can also be called Off-Line Readers since they allow the user to read most of their mail and/or Forum messages off-line. These latter programs also allow the user to decide which files he wants to download prior to going on-line so that the actual on-line time is minimised. In this area CATFILES can "work with" such programs by allowing the user to select the files they want to download with CATFILES and then CATFILES can produce a special file which the off-line reader can process to actually do the download. Currently Version 3.22a of CATFILES offers support for two such Off-Line reader or navigation programs and these are Tapcis (version 5.4 and 5.41) and OzCIS (versions 1.0 to 1.2a and 2.0 to 2.0b). Support for Tapcis The support for Tapcis takes the following form:- a) If you have transfer logging enabled in Tapcis then Tapcis will create a file called XFER.LOG which contains details your file transfers. When you use a CompuServe listing in CATFILES, and provided the listing contains some files then CATFILES will look for XFER.LOG and update the DataBase by marking the files found in the XFER.LOG as DownLoaded. Once CATFILES has read XFER.LOG once (for each CompuServe listing) it will remember the date, time and size of the XFER.LOG file and will only update from it if there a newer version and then will only read the 'new' bit. b) You may make a list of files (a 'Pick List') which you want to download and, provided the Forum is in one of your PARAMS.* files it will allow you to create (or modify an existing) "DOW" script file so that the files can be downloaded by Tapcis. CATFILES will search all your PARAMS.* files, starting with PARAMS.CIS first then any others in date order taking the newest first looking for one which contains the forum name which you want to download from. When CATFILES finds relevant PARAMS file it will create the "DOW" file and then modify the PARAMS file so that Tapcis will show that there are files to be downloaded. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a B-1 Support for OzCIS CATFILES currently offers support for OzCIS versions 1.0 to 1.2a and 2.0 to 2.0b OzCIS v1.0 and v1.2a splits the CompuServe file catalogues into one file per file section so that a short form catalogue might have 10 files called <forum>.S1 to <forum>.S10 and a long form catalogue might have 10 files called <forum>.L1 to <forum.L10>. To read these files into CATFILES you could read each individual file one at a time, so with a forum called OzCIS you could read in OzCIS.S1 then OzCIS.S2 etc (or if you have long form listing OzCIS.L1, OzCIS.L2 etc). Whilst this will work it means multiple reads and it is easier to create a single large catalogue and then read that in and delete it when done. For example to create one large catalogue from all the short form listings type:- COPY OZCIS.S* OZCIS.CAT<Enter> or for long form listings:- COPY OZCIS.L* OZCIS.CAT<Enter> OzCIS v 2.0 maintains the catalogues as one large file called <forum>.CAT for long listings and <forum>.LST for short listings so a single file is already available for reading. OzCIS v 2.0 also creates files called <forum>.CUP and <forum>.LUP to contain updates to the long and short listing respectively - these files can also be read into CATFILES. Once a database has been produced in CATFILES then support is similar to that provided for Tapcis and takes the following form:- a) When you use a CompuServe listing in CATFILES, and provided the listing contains some files then CATFILES will look for any OzCIS log files (of the form MMM-YY.LOG) and update the DataBase by marking the files found in the log files as DownLoaded. b) You may make a list of files (a 'Pick List') which you want to download. CATFILES will then search your HOSTS.DB file to find the location of your FORUMS.DB(s) files. Once CATFILES has found all your FORUMS.DB it will search them looking for one which contains details of the Forum listing in use. CATFILES will then allow you to create (or modify an existing) "DL", in the specified OzCIS forum directory, so that the files can be downloaded using OzCIS. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a B-2 There are two other ways that CATFILES can integrate with OzCIS. With both version 1.x and version 2.0x you can specify CATFILES as one of the external programs. To do this you select (C)onfiguration from the main menu, then (E)xternal maintenance and then Add. You then fill out the resultant screen as follows:- ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │Title Catfiles Cataloguer │ │CmdLine C:\CATFILES\CATFILES.EXE │ │Use 2nd Shell? N Prompt at Exit? N Get Parameters? N │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ The CmdLine should obviously be completed with the path to your copy of the CATFILES.EXE program. With OzCIS version 2.0x there is an additional method of CATFILES support and that is you can specify CATFILES as your default catalogue manager instead of the internal OzCIS one. This means that when you select "Forums" from the main OzCIS menu and then "Downloads/Catalogs" and then "Select from Catalog" you will run CATFILES. When you are in the General Program Configuration of CATFILES and at Screen 2 you have said that you want to use it in conjunction with OzCIS v 2.0 and then tell CATFILES the path to your OZCIS.EXE file then CATFILES will look for an OZCIS.INI file, and if found CATFILES will then read this file to see if this copy of CATFILES.EXE has been specified as the CatalogMgr. If not then CATFILES will ask you if you want to modify your OZCIS.INI file so that CATFILES becomes the default catalogue manager. If you answer (Y)es then CATFILES will take a back-up copy of your existing OZCIS.INI file and then modify the OZCIS.INI file so that there is a line similar to this:- CatalogMgr=C:\CATFILES\CATFILES.EXE. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a B-3 Appendix C - Input File Formats Supported CompuServe CATFILES supports both standard Long and Short listings. CATFILES does not however keep information on the "KEY WORDS" or the uploader ID number. When you read in an input file CATFILES will look for a file called <forum>.SEC in the same directory as the input file. If this file is found CATFILES will read this file first (before reading the input file proper) looking for details of the names and numbers of the libraries in this forum. Other BBS listings All file formats should have the following general form:- <File Area Name> <one or more file descriptions> <Next File Area Name> <one or more file descriptions> The file listing can include ANSI colour codes as these will be removed. If a file description is found without a previous Area Name the file will be put is a special area called "Undefined Area" and you can move them later. File Area names are limited to 40 characters. All file descriptions must comprise, at least, a file name, a size and a date. Filename: This must be a valid DOS filename and must be in upper case for it to be recognised as such. Size: This is the file size, and depending on the file format, can be in Bytes (with or without commas) or in k. Date: This is taken as the System Date ie the date the file was loaded on the BBS system. Except for certain cases (see the detailed file format descriptions for ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-1 the exceptions) this should be in one of the following formats:- dd/mm/yy dd-mm-yy dd.mm.yy mm/dd/yy mm-dd-yy yy.mm.dd yy-mm-dd ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-2 Below is given details of the file formats currently supported for normal BBS listing: FORMAT 001 A typical example of this format is the two line file listings produced on WILDCAT BBs The file Area Names recognised in this format should be of the form:- 1) **** <Area Name> 2) New files in area "<Area Name>" 3) <Area Name> followed by a line eg <Area Name> ------------------------------------------ The file descriptions recognised are of the format:- <FileName> <Size in Bytes> <Date> | Description Line 1 <Other Stuff> | Description Line 2 <Other Stuff> | Description Line 3 etc or <FileName> <Size in Bytes> <Date> Description Line 1 Description Line 2 Description Line 3 etc Example of File Format 001: <START OF EXAMPLE LISTING> -----------------+ Listing of all Files | These Lines on MYBBS | are ignored as at 01/01/92 | -----------------+ **** General MSDOS FILE1.ZIP 12,345 01/02/91 | This is a sample file 1 LAST DL: 01/01/91 NO DLS: 1 | Rest of the Description New files in area "Graphics" FILE2.GIF 523,123 01/02/91 This is the first line of description This is the second line of the description This is the third line of the description ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-3 Anti-Virus Software ------------------------------------ FILE3.ZIP 12,345 01/02/91 | This is a sample file 3 LAST DL: 01/01/91 NO DLS: 1 | Rest of the Description <END OF EXAMPLE LISTING> ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-4 FORMAT 002 This format is identical to Format 001 with the exception that the file size is in k Bytes instead of Bytes. A typical example of this format is the one line file listings produced on some WILDCAT BBs. Although these are generally one line listings (ie one file per line) this format supports multi-line descriptions. Example of File Format 002: <START OF EXAMPLE LISTING> -----------------+ Listing of all Files | These Lines on MYBBS | are ignored as at 01/01/92 | -----------------+ **** General MSDOS FILE1.ZIP 13k 01/02/91 | This is a sample file 1 New files in area "Graphics" FILE2.GIF 511k 01/02/91 This is the first line of description This is the second line of the description This is the third line of the description Anti-Virus Software ------------------------------------ FILE3.ZIP 13 01/02/91 | This is a sample file 3 LAST DL: 01/01/91 NO DLS: 1 | Rest of the Description <END OF EXAMPLE LISTING> ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-5 FORMAT 003 A typical example of this format is the listings found on some GT-BOARDS The file Area Names recognised in this format should be of the form:- 1) Files located in Directory -<Area Name> 2) ┌────────────────────┬───────────────────┬──────────────────────┐ │1░░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓████ │ <Area Name> │ █████▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░ │ ╘════════════════════╧═══════════════════╧══════════════════════╛ The file descriptions recognised are of the format:- <FileName> <Size in Bytes> <Date> <Date> [2] | Description Line 1 <Other Stuff> ^ ^ | Description Line 2 <Other Stuff> | | | Description Line 3 etc | | This Date is ignored----------+ | | This is taken as the File Date-------+ Example of File Format 003: <START OF EXAMPLE LISTING> -----------------+ Listing of all Files | These Lines on MYBBS | are ignored as at 01/01/92 | -----------------+ Files located in Directory -I:\general ----------+ File Name Size Date | This line is ignored ----------+ ALLFILES.ARJ 14,636 04/25/91 07-13-92 [152] | All files on this BBS ALLFILES.BBS 46,872 04/25/91 07-13-92 [39] | All files on this BBS ALLFILES.ZIP 15,553 08-22-91 07-13-92 [60] ┌──────────────────┬────────────────────────┬───────────────────┐ │1░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████ │ Anti-Virus Software │ ████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░░ │ ╘══════════════════╧════════════════════════╧═══════════════════╛ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-6 FILE1.ARJ 8,951 03/27/91 01-21-92 [ 3] | First part of this file description | Second part of this file description FILE2.EXE 2,833 09-13-91 01-21-92 [ 2] from: My Name | First part of this file description | Second part of this file description <END OF EXAMPLE LISTING> ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-7 FORMAT 004 The file Area Names recognised in this format should be of the form:- Directory <Area Name> The file descriptions recognised are of the format:- <FileName> <Type> <Size in Bytes> <Date> Description Line 1 Note: This type of listings is one of the exception to the normal date formats and the Date in this type of listing is of the format "yymmdd" Example of File Format 004: <START OF EXAMPLE LISTING> Directory PD1:<MSDOS.4DOS> -------------+ Filename Type Length Date Description | These lines ignored =========================================== | -------------+ FILE0001.ZIP B 7964 920716 Description of File 1 FILE002.ZIP B 8332 900323 Description of File 2 <END OF EXAMPLE LISTING> ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-8 FORMAT 005 This format has the same area name header as format 003 but the file format is of the form:- <FileName> <Size in K> <Date> <Number> <Description> The <Number> field is ignored <START OF EXAMPLE LISTING> -----------------+ Listing of all Files | These Lines on MYBBS | are ignored as at 01/01/92 | -----------------+ ┌──────────────────┬────────────────────────┬───────────────────┐ │1░░░░▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓████ │ Anti-Virus Software │ ████▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒░░░░░ │ ╘══════════════════╧════════════════════════╧═══════════════════╛ FILE1.ARJ 89k 03/27/91 001 First part of this file description Second part of this file descr. FILE2.EXE 28k 09/13/91 004 First part of this file description Second part of this file description <END OF EXAMPLE LISTING> ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-9 FORMAT 006 This a specific form of Format 1 for use with Wildcat 2 line listings. It assumes that each file is a two line listing of the form:- Line 1 bits 1-12 the file name bits 13-21 the file size bits 25-32 the date bits 36- the first part of the description Line 2 bits 36- the second part of the description This can be use for Dline listings (and possibly others) and will process them about 30% faster than a type 1 format - but is less forgiving of slight variations of format. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-10 FORMAT 007 This will read in files with the format as follows:- <START OF EXAMPLE LISTING> File: FILE001.EXE Date: 01/01/91 Downloads: 1 Size: 24,800 Last Accesss: 02/01/91 Cost: 0 From: John Doe Free DL: No Area: General DOS Offline: No Keys: KEYWORDS Desc: Line one of the description Lines two of description onwards ---------------------------------------- File: FILE002.EXE etc <END OF EXAMPLE LISTING> ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a C-11 Appendix D - Automatic Updating of Downloaded Files. When you use a DataBase (either the default start-up database or when you change database) which is a 'Normal BBS Listing' the program will look for a file (specified in the BBS Specific Configuration but by default called CATFILES.DLS in the same directory as the database files). If this file is found the program will read the contents looking for lines which have a valid file name (in upper case) as the first entry on the line and which also contains the word SUCCESSFUL (the latter can be in upper/lower or mixed case). If any such lines are found, the program will look for that file on the database. If the file is also found on the database, and is not already marked as downloaded then it will be so marked and the download date will be the date of the CATFILES.DLS file. Once CATFILES.DLS has been read by the program it is deleted. Example of a CATFILES.DLS: <START OF EXAMPLE LISTING> Start you Zmodem transfer now FILE1.ZIP - SUCCESSFUL! 1500 CPS FILE2.EXE - SUCCESSFUL! 240 CPS FILE3.ARC Successful <END OF EXAMPLE LISTING> This update file can be prepared in a couple of ways: 1) Using a wordprocessor to prepare an ASCII file which contains the list of downloaded files. This is convenient if you have just created your file listing and have a big list of files already downloaded. 2) If you are using a Wildcat board the format described is that produced by Wildcat after you have downloaded your files so you can use your comms package to capture the screen output to CATFILES.DLS (you can do this as part of a script file or manually). For example in Telix the ALT+L and Procomm Plus the ALT+F1 switches the screen capture/log on. So when you are the files download menu hit ALT+L or ALT+F1 and enter the name of the capture/log file (giving the full path to your database directory) eg C:\CATFILES\BBS1\CATFILES.DLS ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a D-1 then start your download session and when finished hit ALT+L or ALT+F1 again to switch the capture/log off. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a D-2 Appendix E - Version History Version 3.00C - First generally released Version Version 3.01a 1) Removed a bug which prevented reading from Input files of less than 512 bytes. 2) Added the option of reducing the input file to zero bytes long instead of deleting it. This is useful when using CompuServe files in association with Tapcis. 3) Removed a bug which meant that a CompuServe listing was not always updated from the Tapcis XFER.LOG. 4) DataBases stored on floppy disk (drives A: or B:) will now be copied to the hard disk (to a temporary directory called %TEMP%) before being used and will be copied back to the floppy after use. The temporary directory (%TEMP%) will be a sub directory of the directory which contains the program files and will be created if it doesn't already exist and deleted after use. 5) Added the option of being able to pack/unpack the database files using a compression utility such as PKZIP/PKUNZIP. (Note that because the packing routine must run in the memory left by CATFILES certain programs may not run eg ARJ will NOT run PKZIP/PKUNZIP will run on a 640k machine). This is set in the General Program Configuration 6) Previously CATFILES would only allow you to create a "download" file (in the Action Pick List sub-menu) if there were less than or equal 40 files in the pick list - this has been increased to 100 files. 7) Previously, if using databases on floppy disk, and changing from one database to another CATFILES would not give you time to change floppies - this has now been added. 8) Removed a bug which could give problems when 'scanning' the pick list. 9) Added the ability to 'Scan' pick list of less than 15 files. 10) Added another support for another input file format (005). Version 3.01b ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-1 1) If you were using the 'Packing' option on the hard disks and selected F9 when changing BBS then it would not find directories which had packed listings. This has been corrected. 2) Previously when using the 'Packing' option on hard disks CATFILES would unpack the listing and then delete the BBS_COMP.BBS file. This meant that when you quit CATFILES or changed BBS the files would always have to be recompressed. Now CATFILES will only delete the BBS_COMP.BBS file if there is less than 1Mb free on the disk and therefore will only recompress your files if: a) it had to delete BBS_COMP.BBS because of lack of space or b) any of the files have been changed. 3) Added support for the new form of Tapcis 'DOW' files as included in version 5.41 (this is set in the General Program Configuration). 4) When Adding a new file area in the 'Configure File Areas' option the program will now ask you to confirm you really want to Add a new area. 5) Changed the layout of the 'Make Pick List' Sub-Menu so that the View and Scan files in the list are at the bottom of the menu and stand apart from the other menu items. 6) In the Scan Files you can now use the 'Home' and 'End' keys to go to the first or last file in the list (these can only be used if there is more than 15 in the list but you can still scan less than 15 files). 7) Added the option of being able to output files in the Pick List to and ASCII file in one of three formats. (see the Action Pick List sub-menu) 8) If you call up the help when you are being asked what file input format you want you will now get example of the file formats. Version 3.01c 1) When scanning a disk for down loaded files CATFILES will now 'remember' the drive/directory you last used and offer that as the default instead of offering the current drive. This ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-2 information is stored with the BBS files and so can be different for each database. 2) You can now change the gateway and forum names on an existing CIS listing by going into the BBS configuration and hitting the 'F5' key. 3) When 'Scanning' files in a Pick List the will now display:- an '*' if the file has already been downloaded or '+' if the file has been marked as wanted for downloading Version 3.10a 1) When outputting the Pick List to a file CATFILES would only allow you to enter a maximum of 11 characters for the destination file name this has been increased to 12 characters. 2) The index file for the main file details has been changed from BBS_FILE.IDX to BBS_FILE.CDX. The first time you use a database with the old index files CATFILES will automatically detect the old index files and create the new index format. The result of this change is the CDX file will be up to twice the size of the old IDX file, but the effect is that adding files to the database will be up to 3 times as fast. 3) Made some modifications to program coding which should speed up adding files to the database when the CATFILES finds new file areas in the input file. This will be most noticeable for databases which have quite a number of file areas. 4) Added support for what I have called CATFILES Interchange Format. This is an non-ASCII file format. If you select to output files in your Pick List you will now be offered a fourth choice which is the CATFILES Interchange Format. If you select to Add Files or Reconcile your Database CATFILES will automatically detect any input files in this format (irrespective of the specified input format). CATFILES will also process it's own format faster than any other input format. I have added this format for a number of reasons:- a) If, for any reason in the future, I decide to modify the structure of the CATFILES databases then this will ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-3 provide a convenient means of transferring from the old database structure to the new. b) Previously there no convenient method of transferring files from one database to another (especially if one was a Normal BBS Listing and the other was a CompuServe listing). You can now do this with this format. c) If, for any reason, you wish to Archive a database you can use this format since the file size is smaller than either a raw listing or the DBF files. Version 3.10b 1) There was a problem in V3.10a if you 'tidied' a database in that all the areas would apparently contain no files even although the top of the screen said it did. This would cause CATFILES to crash if you tried to make a pick list. This has been corrected and if you corrupted your database in this way running the 'Tidy' in V3.10b will restore your old database. 2) Because of the changes in V3.10a the EXE file size has increased by about 20k which means that if you were using the compression option then it may no longer run due to "Insufficient Memory". This could result in any changes made to the Database not being saved (ie the 'zipped' file would not be updated). I can't cure this (not without spending money!!!) but I have instituted a couple of checks which (should) check to see if the zipping or unzipping seems to have been done and if not CATFILES will abort and leave your changed files intact. Version 3.11a This was quite a major revision. 1) Added some slight mods so that a 'new' user can download a DBF and CATFILES would make some default assumptions 2) If CATFILES thinks you are a first time user (no CATFILES.CFG exists) it will put a 'welcome' screen and explain that they are going to be asked a few general configuration question. Also CATFILES will 'look' for any directories which already have database files in them (ie if they have downloaded one) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-4 3) If scanning a drive/path for downloads CATFILES will NOT now ask you if you want to scan sub-directories if none exist in the path you specify. Also some changes made to speed up this function. 4) Another option has been added to the Main Menu called View all Files in Default Areas. If you select this then CATFILES will go to the Pick List Menu, make a Pick List of all files in the currently selected areas (or all files if none selected) then go straight into 'Scan' Mode. When you quit 'Scan' mode you will stay at the Pick List Menu until you Quit as normal. This Menu option will not appear at the Main Menu if you have already created a Pick List. Again this is primarily aimed at the 'first time' user. If you select this item - you can stop it building the 'Pick List' at any time by hitting the 'Esc' and it will go into scan with how ever many files it had 'picked' before you hit 'Esc' As an aside to this you can stop building the 'Pick List' by hitting 'Esc' if you have selected certain areas and said (Y)es to picking all these files now. This is for people like me who select all areas and then (mistakenly) say (Y)es to picking them now and CATFILES goes off and starts making a list with x thousand files!! 5) If you now select to 'Use Another DataBase' CATFILES will now go straight to the pop-up menu of available Databases (if CATFILES.DIR already exists). If you 'Escape' this pop-up screen without making a choice (ie you want to create a new database) or if CATFILES.DIR doesn't exist then you will get the normal entry window. 6) Added the ability to Print Pick Lists as well as send them to a file (with the same three ASCII formats as file output). This option will only appear if you have said that you have a printer in the General Program Configuration. I have tested this for LPT1 & LPT2 but have no access to a computer with a printer attached to any of the Comms Lines to try it. There is no fancy error checking of the state of the printer so if the printer has a problem it will only offer you the choice of Quit or Retry and if you Quit - it will Quit CATFILES (but no damage to databases) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-5 7) Added another menu choice to the Configuration Menu called 'Advanced Program Configuration'. If you don't set anything using this option CATFILES will work as before. If you select this option you will be presented with 4 screens of options/defaults 8) You can now attach a comment to a file (two lines of 60 characters each). You can do this in one of two places: a) If you are 'viewing' files as they are added to the database then CATFILES will ask you if you want to add the file and if you answer (Y)es then it will ask if you want to mark for downloading - then it will ask if you want to add a comment. b) If you make a 'Pick List' then 'View' the files - if you reply (Y)es to Do You Want to Change Anything? one of the options will be to add a comment This is the only way you can edit comments As an aside to this I have changed the CATFILES Interchange Format to support comments. Normally I try to make things backwards compatible - but since, probably no one uses this yet then v3.11a cannot read earlier versions of CIF file. If you have some CIF files the you must read them in to a database with 3.10b and then upgrade to 3.11a and read them out again. Version 3.11b (Issued as Delta Patch [CATDELTA.EXE]) 1) There was a problem of the automatic display of the CATFILES.DIR this has been corrected. Version 3.11b (Issued by Delta Patch 1 [CATDELT1.EXE]) 1) Corrected a problem that could cause overwriting of the screen when display the CATFILES.DIR where the directory names were shorter than 28 characters. 2) If you had set prompting to (N)o in either auto adding or manual adding CATFILES would still prompt if your previous answer to any question was (N)o - this has been corrected. Version 3.11c ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-6 1) There have been problems reported that CATFILES has apparently failed to create directories under certain environments (OS/2 and Novell). This has resulted in a run time error. CATFILES now does some additional checks to see if a directory exists before trying to either open the database files (or create them if them don't exist). If these tests fail then CATFILES will abort with a message saying that the directory doesn't exists and that you will have to create them manually - ie it doesn't cure the problem, just makes the reason for the failure clearer. 2) There were problems under OS/2 (and probably under Novell) that if you printed a Pick List then the printing wouldn't actually take place until you had exited CATFILES. I have added some changes to (hopefully) cure this. 3) I have added a Screen 5 to the Advanced Configuration which allow you to view and set the default prompts of the current database which will be used for auto/manual adding of files. This is only for the current database. If you want to check the settings for other databases you must use them first. 4) I have added some changes to the Advanced Configuration to make moving around the screens easier. You can now: Hit 'Page Up' on any screen - it will then ask if you have finished with this screen and if you answer (Y)es then it will go back one screen. If, when it is asking if you are finished with the screen, you hit the 'F5' key you can enter a screen number to go to eg directly from screen 1 to screen 5, or from screen 4 to screen 2. 5) You can now delete saved Pick Lists. To do this you select Restore a saved list and when the one you want to delete is highlighted hit the 'Delete' key and you will be prompted to confirm that you want to delete it. You will stay in the Restore list until a) You have deleted all available Pick Lists. b) You select a list to restore. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-7 c) You hit 'Esc' to cancel the restore. 6) When scanning a drive or directory for downloaded files and CATFILES finds a likely candidate then it asks you if this is the same file. Previously the default for this was (N)o this has now been changed to (Y)es. 7) Previously CATFILES would never do an Auto-Add if the last file you read in manually was not the default file and the read was not completed (eg cancelled by the user) even if this other file had been subsequently deleted. CATFILES now checks to see if the interrupted file has been deleted and if so will now do an Auto-Add. 8) When CATFILES thought you were a new user it would search ALL drives it could find looking for possible databases. This could cause problems if you had lots of drives and directories. CATFILES will now ask you if you want to search drives first. If you answer Yes then CATFILES will search the default drive and if none have been found it will search the drive that CATFILES.EXE is on (if different). If still none have been found then it will prompt you if you want to search other drives. For the same reason, CATFILES will now prompt you for the drives to search if you hit 'F9' to re-built the CATFILES.DIR file. Version 3.11d 1) The problems with CATFILES failing to create a directory under OS/2 and Novell were not, as I had previously thought, a problem with the actual creation routines, but a failure of CATFILES to detect that the directory doesn't exist in the first place - this has been corrected. 2) When making a pick list of all files Before/After a certain date the 'After' option will be the highlighted default. 3) There was a problem that if you had selected your OLR as TAPCIS 5.41, then CATFILES was not reading and updating from you XFER.LOG, if present. This has been corrected. 4) You can now go straight from the 'Pick List' menu to the 'Action Pick List' menu and back again. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-8 5) There was a potential problem for new users, in that during the general program configuration the user could 'Page Down' past the default directory, which might not exist. You cannot do this now. 6) Executable file size has been reduced by about 4k. Version 3.20a (Rev 1) - Second Generally released version 1) When saving or restoring a Pick List the message would appear on the screen on the wrong line and remain there this has been corrected. 2) There was a potential problem when doing a 'Tidy' on a database with more than 160 file areas this has been corrected 3) If sending a pick list to a file as a single line format then the resultant line length in the output file was one less than specified. This has been corrected. 4) If you specified a line length of more than about 80 characters for printing, or sending to a file then you would not necessarily get the line length specified. This has been corrected. 5) If you didn't have CATFILES.DIR and tried to create it from the 'Use Another BBS' prompt the screen got a bit scrambled. This has been corrected. Version 3.20b This version uses the latest versions of the compiler (5.2b) and the database driver (1.1c) and also a new linker. 1) There was a problem running CATFILES under DOS 6.0 when using EMM386 with the NOEMS switch which could cause the program to crash unless you set the environment variable CLIPPER=E:0. This should no longer be necessary (in fact CATFILES will benefit from the presence of some EMS memory). 2) 'Hot' keys were added to permit editing the comments, or toggling the Downloaded or Wanted for Downloading flags when 'Scanning' a Pick List. These are:- Alt + 'C' Add or edit a Comment Alt + 'D' or Alt + '*' Toggle the Downloaded Flag Alt + 'W' or Alt + '+' Toggle the Wanted for downloading ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-9 The '*' and '+' are the keys on the keypad. 3) Added a new two new file formats (FORMAT 006 and 007) 4) Added the ability to 'Shell to DOS' from any of the menu screens by using ALT + F10 keys. When in DOS you can run any program you like (except another copy of CATFILES). 5) Previously if you wanted to produce a 'Download' file from a 'Pick List' in a Normal BBS listing then CATFILES would always create this file as DLOAD.LST in the same directory as the database files. Similarly when opening a database for a Normal BBS listing CATFILES would look for and read a file CATFILES.DLS in the same directory as the database and use this file to updated the downloaded files. Both of these file names and directories are configurable from a new Screen 4 in the 'BBS Specific Configuration'. 6) Fixed a number of bugs. Version 3.20d 1) There was a problem when displaying a full file description in that although CATFILES would store a large file description it would only display a maximum of 10 lines (each of 76 chars). This has now been corrected - if, when displaying a full file description, you now use the Up or Down cursor keys you can scroll through the full file description. 2) Previously you could only use the 'Hot Keys' to change the downloaded, wanted for download and comments when scanning a list of files in a Pick List. You now may also use these hot keys whenever a full file description is being shown. There was also a potential problem with the use of the 'Alt+C' Hot Key combination to add comments. To overcome this, and at the same retain some connection between the Hot Key and its action, I now call the file Comments 'Notes' and use the Alt+'N' as the Hot Key combination associated with it. 5) Support was added for OzCIS v1.0 to v1.2a (a OLR for use with CompuServe). 6) Fixed a number of bugs. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-10 Version 3.21a - Third Generally released version 1) There was a problem that when using FORMAT001 with the a Wildcat two line file listing that when the file size got to 1Mb or above the file name and size ran together eg FILENAME.ZIP1,000,000 10/01/93 | File Description If this happened CATFILES would ignore such files - this was corrected. 2) During a reconciliation CATFILES would delete any file areas which contained no files after reconciliation, even if the reconciliation file contained that area name. This has been corrected. Version 3.21a (Rev 01) - Fourth Generally released version 1) Fixed a small bug which caused the program to stop until the 'Esc' key was hit when CATFILES was trying to determine the date format of an input file. Version 3.22a - Fifth Generally released version 1) There was a problem if you changed the default path or file names for the DownLoad list file or Update list file in that this got reset to the defaults the next time you read an input file. This has been corrected. 2) Support has been added for OzCIS version 2.0/2.0a 3) When CATFILES asked a New user if it should search for an existing database files then previously it would search for EVERY directory on the drive looking for EVERY occurance of CATFILES databases and then only use the first. CATFILES will now stop searching as soon as it makes a find. 4) In the various configuration screens (General, BBS Specific and Advanced) I have changed the titles Page 1, 2, 3 etc to screen 1, 2, 3 etc. This is to avoid confusion with page numbers in the documentation. 5) Previously when CATFILES displayed a list of file areas for a normal BBS listing (such as Select Areas in Pick List or Configure File Areas) the list would be sorted alphabetically but the sort was case sensitive ie "GIF" would come before "Games" and "ZOO" before "amiga". This has now been sorted. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a E-11 Appendix F - CATFILES Interchange Format The following is a description of the CATFILES Interchange Format Byte 1 & 2 <EOF> == ASCII 26 == HEX 1A Bytes 3 - 14 The string $_CATFILES_$ in upper case Byte 15 Format used in this Interchange file Currently only ASCII 1 is valid Byte 16 Type of original File entry where 1 == Normal BBS listing 2 == CompuServe listing Bytes 17 & 18 16 bit unsigned integer giving the length of the following header. Currently headers are not used and so these two bytes are zero Then subsequent entries as follows:- Byte 1 Type of entry where 1 == Area Name 2 == File Description Byte 2 & 3 Number of bytes in this entry (excluding 1st 3) as a 16 bit unsigned integer (maximum 65535) For a Type 1 entry (Area Name) the following applies:- Byte 4 & 5 The Library Number (only for CompuServe Listings) Rest The Library/Area Name For a Type 2 entry (File entry) the following applies Bytes 4 - 11 The file name (eight characters) 12 - 14 The file extension (3 characters) 15 - 18 A 32 bit unsigned integer giving the file size 19 A single byte giving the accuracy of the file size where:- ASCII 0 == exact size to nearest byte any other number means the number of 128 byte blocks ie ASCII 1 == 128 byte accuracy, ASCII 8 == nearest 1024 (k) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a F-1 This means that 1024 in bytes 15-18 with the following in byte 16 means:- 0 - file is exactly 1024 bytes long 1 - file is between 897 and 1024 bytes long 8 - file is between 1 and 1024 bytes long 20 - 27 The system date as a character string in the format YYYYMMDDD. 28 - 35 The date downloaded as a character string in the format YYYYMMDD. This should be 19000101 for a BBS generated listing. 36 The file status - this should normally be zero for BBS generated listings, but is used internally by CATFILES to reflect if the file has been downloaded, wanted for downloading, viewed etc. 37 Indicates the number of bytes of comments at the end of the file description (max 255 bytes) Rest If this is a Normal BBS listing as indicated by Byte 16 then this contains the file description (less comments at the end). If this is a CompuServe listing as indicated by Byte 16 then the first byte indicates the length of the Title (maximum 255 bytes) then follows the title and the balance is the description (less comments at the end). ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a F-2 Appendix G - Using CATFILES with OLX and QModem Pro OLX and QModem Pro are Off-Line Readers (OLR) by Mustang Software (actually Qmodem Pro is a complete Comms/OLR package) for use with normal BBS systems which can provide 'QWK' packets. Both these programs (and possibly some others) only unpack the QWK packet when actually reading the contents and when finished leaves the packet as is. The result is that the NEWFILES.DAT remains 'locked up' in the QWK packet and inaccessible to CATFILES. There are a number of possible ways to overcome this problem but as an example I include with CATFILES the BATCH file ADDFILES.BAT. This batch file could be invoked manually every time you download a QWK packet or invoked as part of your download script. The batch file just unpacks the NEWFILES.DAT from the relevant QWK packet and then appends it to a running file which takes all the accumulated NEWFILES.DAT until you run CATFILES when you can read in the cumulative or total file and delete it. This appendix gives a description of how the batch file works. The batch file assumes that the QWK packet is called DLINE.QWK and is in the current directory, that the total or cumulative file will be called DLINE.TOT, and will be put in a directory called C:\CATFILES\DLINE\. All of these assumptions can, of course, be changed to suit your own requirements. @ECHO OFF SET CATFXX=C:\CATFILES\DLINE\ The SET CATFXX line sets up a temporary environment variable which contains the directory where the combined or total file listing is to be placed (and where CATFILES will look for it) The example here shows the directory C:\CATFILES\DLINE\ but can be whatever you want but there MUST be a backslash at the end and there MUST NOT be any spaces either side of the equals sign. IF NOT EXIST DLINE.QWK GOTO END If there is no QWK file to process go to the end and do nothing. PKUNZIP -o DLINE.QWK NEWFILES.DAT Use PKUNZIP to extract the NEWFILES.DAT from DLINE.QWK (both will be/are in the current directory). Note this assumes that PKUNZIP.EXE is either in the current directory, or on you PATH statement ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a G-1 IF NOT EXIST NEWFILES.DAT GOTO END If there has been no Newfiles.Dat extracted just skip to end. IF EXIST %CATFXX%DLINE.TOT GOTO ADD If there is a Total file already skip to the ADD function, if not continue with the next instruction. COPY NEWFILES.DAT %CATFXX%DLINE.TOT OK there is no total file already so just copy the Newfiles.Dat in the current directory to the desired directory with the new name. ERASE NEWFILES.DAT Delete the Newfiles.Dat now that we have copied it. GOTO END Jump to the end. :ADD The next few lines are what we do if a Total already exists. COPY /a %CATFXX%DLINE.TOT + NEWFILES.DAT %CATFXX%DLINE.TOT Copy the old Total file plus the Newfiles.Dat to a new Total file. ERASE NEWFILES.DAT Delete the Newfiles.Dat file now we are finished with it. :END SET CATFXX= Reset the temporary environment variable to blank. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── CATFILES Version 3.22a G-2 Index Adding Files to DataBase Files from Pick List 22 Automatically 16 Index Files 7, 11, 32 Manually 26 Saved Pick List Files 21 Advanced Configuration DOS Shell 8 Adding Files 16 DOS Version 3 Default Prompts 17 Files General 15 Adding to DataBase 27, 28 Print/File Preferences 15 Adding to the DataBase 26 Scanning for Downloaded Compressing DataBases 11 Files 17 Created by CATFILES A-1, Start Up Menus 9, 17 A-2, A-3 Areas Default Inputs for a Configuring 30 DataBase 13 Delete 29, 31 Default Inputs for Keeping Files for 30 DataBase 14 Maximum Number per Deleting from DataBase 24 DataBase 4 Deleting Indexes after Move Files to a Use 7, 11 different 23 Input Format 7, C-3, C-5, Selecting for Pick List 19 C-6, C-8, C-9, C-10, C-11 Automating CATFILES 16, 17, D-1 Input Formats 13, C-1, C-2 Colour Maximum number per Monitor 10 DataBase 4 Setting Screen 14 Outputting Pick List to 25 Comments, Adding 22, 23, 27 Packing List 3 Compressing DataBases 11, A-2 Producing a Download CompuServe list 24 File Formats 27 Removing/Deleting from File Listings 11, 12, 27 DataBase 24 Files for Download 24 Scanning for Downloaded 30 Forums 12, B-1, B-2 Sizes 3, A-1, A-2 Navigation Programs 7, 11, Statement in CONFIG.SYS 5 24, B-1, B-2, B-3 Temporary A-3 Configuration Viewing the Pick List 21 Advanced Program 15 Viewing while adding 16, 27 BBS Specific 12 Floppy Disks 4, 7, 10, 12, General Program 10 32, 33 Menu 9 Format Screen Colours 14 CATFILES Interchange 25, Creating DataBases 12, 13, 33 F-1, F-2 Date Date 6, 7, 10, 13, 14 Display Format 6, 10 Input File 7, 13, 27, C-1, Input File Format 7, 13, C-2, C-3, C-5, C-6, 14, 27 C-8, C-9, C-10, C-11 Select by System 19 Help Select files downloaded File 3, 5 by 20 On-Line 8 Default Data Directory 6, 10 Problems/General 34 Delete Hot Keys 8, 22, 23 File Areas/Libraries 29, 31 Mark Files Files from DataBase 24, as Downloaded 22-24, 30, 29, 30 B-1, B-2, D-1 as Viewed 21, 24 Manually for Downloaded as Wanted 22-24, 27 Files 30 Menu Shell to DOS 8 Action the Pick List 23 Support 34 Configuration 9 Tapcis 7, 11, 28, B-1 General 8 Updating DataBase Main 9 Adding Files 26-28 Make/Edit the Pick List 18 Automatic Adding Files 16 Setting Start Up 17 Automatic Marking Files Update the Files as Downloaded C-12, D-1 DataBase 26 Automatic Scanning for OLR (Off-Line Reader) 7, 11, Downloaded Files 17 24, B-1, B-2, B-3, G-1, G-2 Configuring File Areas 30 OzCIS 7, 11, B-2, B-3 Menu 26 Pick List Reconciling 28, 29 Actioning Files in 23 Recreating the Index Changing Download Status Files 32 of 24 Scanning for Downloaded Changing Viewed Status Files 30 of 24 Tidying the DataBase 31, 32 Clearing 21 View Make/Edit Menu 18 Files in Pick List 21 Moving Files to another Files while Adding 27 Area 23 Printing Files in 25 Producing Download File from 24 Producing File from 25 Removing/Deleting Files from DataBase 24 Resetting/Clearing 21 Restoring a Saved List 21 Saving 21 Scanning Files in 22 Selecting by Area 19 Selecting by Download Particulars 20 Selecting by File Extension 20 Selecting by File Name 20 Selecting by System Date 19 Selecting by Viewed Status 21 Selecting by Word 20 Viewing Files in 21 Printer Set Up 10, 15 Printing the Pick List 25 Problems 34 Scanning Automatically for Downloaded Files 17 Files in the Pick List 22