This file contains documentation for Searchlight 3.5's RIP Graphics Features, as well as notes on last-minute changes. To read the main manual, press F10. INTRODUCTION TO RIP GRAPHICS ---------------------------- Searchlight supports RIP Graphics, a new kind of terminal protocol that allows your BBS to take advantage of features like high resolution graphics, mouse support, fonts, icons, and more. RIP graphics are generated by a special language called RIPscrip. What is RIPscrip? One way to think of RIP graphics and RIPscrip is as an alternative to ANSI graphics. Most bulletin boards use some kind of ANSI graphics today; Searchlight, in particular, takes advantage of ANSI screen controls to a great extent. ANSI is what allows Searchlight to do full screen interfaces, menubars, colors, and cursor positioning on a remote terminal with ANSI support. You can also make your own colorful ANSI files using products like THEDraw or Laughing Dog. Like ANSI, RIP is a terminal protocol; that is, it's a special language that Searchlight can use to communicate with a remote terminal. While RIP is compatible with ANSI, it offers far more functions than ANSI alone provides. Among them are: o Full screen graphical primitives (Box, Circle, Line, etc.) o Specialized fill patterns o Full color manipulation o Multiple scalable fonts o Simultaneous text and graphics windows on the screen at once o Full mouse support for point and click operation o Remotely stored bitmap icons for detailed, high-speed graphics o Full clipboard copy and paste ability o Custom line-styles for technical drawings, etc. Using RIPscrip graphics on your Searchlight BBS, you can show visually stunning graphics, offer full point and click access to your system, and in many cases, speed up throughput of your user's on-line connect times. In other words, RIPscrip graphics can often be transmitted faster than ANSI graphics. Most of Searchlight's RIP features are only available during an online sessionthat is, when you or your caller dials into your BBS from a terminal program that supports the RIPscrip protocol. You won't see RIP features during a local login, although you can see "Previews" of your RIP menus locally. You can also use a null modem connection between two computers to create a RIP session without actually making a telephone call. No special commands are necessary to "enable" RIP graphics; Searchlight automatically detects whether a caller has RIP capability when a connection is established, and goes into "RIP mode" whenever possible. In the event that the initial RIP detection fails, or if you do want to manually turn RIP mode on and off during a session, you can use the ANSI command on Searchlight's main menu to do so. How Searchlight Supports RIP Searchlight's RIP graphics support can be roughly divided into three main categories: o Built-in RIP features. These are features like pop-up dialog boxes, scroll bars, etc. that are built in to Searchlight BBS, and are displayed automatically in RIP mode. You can change the colors and certain other aspects of these features, but you can't change the buttons or commands that appear. o RIP menus. Searchlight lets you build your own RIP menus, using our menu editor system in conjunction with a set of "RIP Styles". Your RIP menus can contain any command buttons you choose, and can appear in a variety of colors, font styles, and layouts. o External RIP support. Searchlight can display external files created with a RIP graphics program, such as RIPdraw or RIPaint. These files can simply be pictures, or they can be menus with buttons and mouse areas. You can also use externally generated RIP files as backdrops for built-in menus. In a moment, we'll look at each of these categories in more detail. First, though, let's look at Searchlight's RIP General Setup and RIP Styles Setup menus, located in the CONFIG program. RIP GENERAL SETUP The RIP General Setup menu controls overall aspects of Searchlight's RIP features. The options are: 1. Enable RIP Graphics ...... Yes 2. RIP on All Help Levels ... Yes 3. ANSI Menus in RIP Mode ... No 4. RIP Dialog Box Style ..... Aqua 5. RIP Popup Box Style ...... Aqua 6. RIP Text Editor Style .... RedGrey 7. RIP Subboard List Style .. Aqua 8. RIP Text Quote Style ..... Aqua 9. RIP Bulletins Style ...... RedGrey 1 Enable RIP Graphics This is a "master switch" that you can use to enable or disable RIP graphics for your entire system. If you do not desire any RIP features to be available in your BBS, turn this switch to No. 2 RIP On All Help Levels If set to Yes (the default), Searchlight displays full RIP menus regardless of whether a user's help preference is set to Novice, Intermediate or Expert. This is the recommended behavior, because RIP menus generally need to be displayed in full each time they are used in order for mouse areas to be available. If you set this switch to No, then Expert and Intermediate users may get abbreviated ANSI menus rather than RIP menus on some screens. 3 ANSI Menus in RIP Mode This switch tells Searchlight what to do if it encounters an external ANSI file attached to a menu, but no external RIP file. If set to No (the default), Searchlight displays its own internally generated RIP menu rather than the ANSI file. If set to Yes, then Searchlight displays the ANSI file rather than its internal RIP menu. Since ANSI files do not have mouse areas, it is recommended to leave this switch set to No. If you'd like to display your ANSI files to RIP callers, however, then set this switch to Yes. o Notice that if an external RIP file is available, it is displayed in RIP mode regardless of this switch setting. This switch only controls whether Searchlight's internal RIP menus get precedence over external ANSI files. 4 RIP Dialog Box Style This selectionand the selections following it define the "RIP Style" used to generate dialog boxes, popup menus, the full screen text editor, and other features listed when in RIP mode. The options available here correspond to the named RIP styles you have created in RIP Styles Setupas described in more detail below. o Note that many of Searchlight's internal features use defaults for font sizes and other features that will override the style settings. This behavior is necessary in order to ensure that information is properly formatted on screen. RIP STYLES Searchlight uses a concept called RIP Styles as the primary means of customizing the look of its RIP menus and other RIP features. A RIP style is really a collection of colors, font sizes, and other options. Since there are so many different options associated with each RIP element, RIP styles give you a convenient way to assign options to multiple RIP features without having to manually key in a long list of colors and other settings for each feature on your system. o RIP Styles are used to customize the way Searchlight looks in RIP mode. If you're not interested in customizing Searchlight, or if you prefer to do this step later, you can skip this section and use Searchlight with the default settings that are provided. Searchlight divides each RIP element into three sections: Windows, Titles, and Buttons. A "Window" is a rectangular area of the screen which contains a particular RIP element, like a menu or a subboard listing. A "Title" is an area at the top of the window -- typically one line -- that contains a title or heading for that window. "Buttons" are controls (mouse areas) that appear inside the window and let you perform functions. Here's a typical RIP display, showing all three elements: Here, the "Window" is the entire area; the "Title" is the box that contains the text "Electronic Mail"; and the buttons are the various controls, "Read", "Send", etc. You can customize not only the colors of these features, but also font and font size, "beveling" and other special effects, and in some cases screen position. You can also disable the title or the window itself. To view or modify the RIP styles, select "RIP Styles Setup", which can be found under "General Configuration" in the Searchlight CONFIG program. A listing such as this appears: Searchlight BBS RIP Styles Setup A. Aqua Blue-Green Window B. Steel Grey/Black C. RedGrey Steel w/Red Letters D. Up to 16 styles can be entered. Each style is given a one to eight letter name, which is used to apply the style to menus and other features later; a description; and various settings. To view a style, select one of the existing styles and press Enter. The following listing appears: Searchlight BBS RIP Styles Setup Menu 1. Style Name .................... Aqua 2. Style Description ............. Blue-Green 3. Window Attributes [...] 4. Title Attributes [...] 5. Button Attributes [...] Enter the name and description for the style in lines 1 and 2. As mentioned, the style name is what you'll use later to apply the style, so choose a name that you'll remember. The descripion is only displayed here. Each style has further submenus for the window, title and button attributes, as shown. Start by selecting "Window Attributes" (place the cursor on this line, then press Enter or double-click with your mouse). Window Attributes The options that appear here are: 1. Make Window Visible ...... Yes 2. Window Position .......... Center 3. User Defined Top Left X .. 0 4. User Defined Top Left Y .. 0 5. User Defined Bottom Right X 0 6. User Defined Bottom Right Y 0 7. Foreground Color ......... White 8. Background Color ......... Blue 9. Bright Color ............. Lt Cyan 10. Dark Color ............... Blue 11. Surface Color ............ Cyan 12. Corner Color ............. Cyan 13. Bevel Size ............... 5 14. Font Style ............... Default 15. Font Size ................ 1 16. Window Style Switches [...] Here's a description of each item: 1 Make Window Visible This option determines whether the window itself -- the square, usually beveled area that acts as the outline for the entire area -- appears. This is normally set to Yes. If set to No, the effect is to have the window's title and buttons "floating" above whatever is already on the screen. You can use this effect to add buttons to existing RIP pictures ("Wallpaper", as described later in this section). 2 Window Position This field defines where on the screen this window will appear. There are a number of options that can be selected here: Center, Top-Left, Top-Right, Top-Center, etc. There is also a "User Defined" setting that allows you to describe exactly where you'd like the window to appear on your screen. If "User Defined" is selected, use lines 3 through 6 to define the upper-left and lower-right hand corners of the window. These coordinates are given over a 640x350 pixel range. o Use the "User Defined" setting to place a Searchlight genrated menu within an existing background, such as a picture created with RIPaint. When using this setting, you should be careful to make the window large enough to hold the title and buttons intended to fit within it, otherwise some of these elements may be omitted or may overlap the window border. 7 Foreground Color 8 Background Color These fields control the color of the text that appears on the face of the window. The "Background Color" is used only for text "boxes" that appear inside a window (such as in a subboard listing). For regular menu windows, the background color is always the same as the window's surface color. 11 Surface Color This is the color of the surface of the button. For example, in the traditional "Steel" look, the surface color is grey. 12 Corner Color This is the color used to generate a "3-D" look or shadowed look on the corner of the button. 13 Bevel Size This is the size, in pixels, of the "beveling" effect created around the surface of the window, if beveling is enabled. (Beveling makes the window appear to be a raised button rather than a flat feature). 14 Font Style 15 Font Size Use these fields to set a font style and size for the window text. Various fonts are available, as defined in the RIP protocol. 16 Window Style Switches This option leads to an additional screen of yes/no settings: 1. Chiseled ................. No 2. Recessed ................. No 3. Beveled .................. Yes 4. Sunken ................... No These are various special effects that make a window appear chiseled, recessed, beveled or sunken when selected. Title Attributes The next major portion of a RIP style is the Title Attributes. Options are: 1. Make Title Visible ....... Yes 2. Title Postion ............ Top Center 3. Foreground Color ......... Yellow 4. Background Color ......... Black 5. Bright Color ............. Black 6. Dark Color ............... Black 7. Surface Color ............ Green 8. Corner Color ............. Black 9. Bevel Size ............... 1 10. Font Style ............... Default 11. Font Size ................ 1 12. Title Style Switches [...] Most of the items shown here perform similar functions to the same items listed under Window Attributes, except they apply to the title section of the window, rather than to the window as a whole. Below, we'll list the differences that apply: 1 Make Title Visible If set to Yes, the title portion of the window appears; if No, then the title is omitted. You can omit the title for menus that don't require it. 12 Title Style Switches These switches are similar to the Window Style switches, except that they apply to the titlebar, and several new options are available: 1. Chiseled ................. No 2. Recessed ................. No 3. Drop Shadow .............. Yes 4. Beveled .................. No 5. Adjust Vertical Center ... Yes 6. Sunken ................... No 7. Left Justify Label ....... No 8. Right Justify Label ...... No Button Attributes These attributes apply to the buttons created within a menu: 1. Foreground Color ......... Blue 2. Background Color ......... Black 3. Bright Color ............. Lt Cyan 4. Dark Color ............... Blue 5. Surface Color ............ Cyan 6. Corner Color ............. Cyan 7. Underline Color .......... Red 8. Bevel Size ............... 3 9. Font Style ............... Default 10. Font Size ................ 1 11. Orientation .............. Center 12. Width .................... 80 13. Height ................... 25 14. Spacing .................. 25 15. Button Style Switches [...] 7 Underline Color Buttons that are commands feature an underline under the command's keyboard equivalent, where such an equivalent exists. This setting defines the color of the underline. 11 Orientation This setting describes how the text label is presented within the button: Centered, left, right, etc. 12 Width 13 Height 14 Spacing These fields define the width and height of buttons, and the spacing between buttons, in pixels. When changing these values, bear in mind that the dimensions of the entire screen are 640 (width) by 350 (height). You must ensure that the buttons are large enough to hold the intended commands; otherwise, the commands may overflow the buttons. 15 Button Style Switches The largest number of special visual effects are available for buttons. They include: 1. Chiseled ................. No 2. Recessed ................. Yes 3. Drop Shadow .............. No 4. Beveled .................. Yes 5. Underline Hotkey ......... No 6. Adjust Vertical Center ... No 7. Sunken ................... No 8. Highlight Hotkey ......... Yes 9. Explode .................. No 10. Left Justify Label ....... No 11. Right Justify Label ...... No Using RIP Styles The RIP styles you create apply to two major areas of Searchlight: menus (which are created and maintained in the menu editor portion of the CONFIG program), and built in RIP features. To apply styles to built-in features, use the RIP General Setup menu shown above. For more information about applying styles to user-defined menus, including a "preview" function that lets you see what your styles actually look like, see "Searchlight Menu Editor". INTERNAL RIP FEATURES Searchlight provides a host of internal RIP features that are automatically engaged when a caller connects to Searchlight with a RIP compatible terminal. In most cases, the RIP version of a feature contains the same commands as the ANSI version (i.e. the version seen locally or displayed to non-RIP callers), but the screen presentation is enhanced with features like mouse buttons and menus. For example, Searchlight's message editor in RIP mode looks like this: Notice the differences between this display and the ANSI representation. These differences can be summarized into the following categories: o Scroll Bars. The scroll bar to the right of the display allows you to navigate through a long message with your mouse, and also indicates the current cursor position and relative size of the message (by the size of the scroller element). To move the cursor, you can click anywhere on the scrollbar. Below the bar itself are additional controls for page up and down. o Buttons. Functions such as save, quote-text, and abort can be entered by clicking the buttons with your mouse, instead of giving keyboard commands (but the keyboard commands are still available in case you don't have a mouse). o Pop ups and dialog boxes. In many cases, when you're using a full screen display, additional menus or messages "pop up" over the display, as shown here. Select an item from these menus with the mouse or cursor keys. When an item is selected, the pop-up feature disappears and restores the display beneath it. Searchlight uses full screen RIP displays for many internal features, including the message editor, the message browser, subboard listings, and bulletins. Although these features are functionally the same as their text equivalents, the graphics representations are more attractive and often more functional, thanks to the mouse support and scroll bars. Customizing Internal Features You can't change the basic look of Searchlight's internal features or add commands to the displays, but you can change the colors in which these features appear, and to some degree the appearance of the text and menus, by assigning a RIP style to each feature under RIP General Setup (as described earlier in this chapter). Note that some changes you may make to a style used for an internal feature -- most notably, font changes -- are overridden by the feature's defaults. This is necessary to maintain correct display formatting. RIP MENUS Perhaps the most important RIP feature in Searchlight BBS is its ability to generate RIP representations of user-defined menus created with our menu editing system. In other words, Searchlight takes the menu choices placed on menus by you, and generates its own graphical RIP representation of the menu, complete with a window, mouse buttons, and a title. You can control the colors, fonts, layout and screen position of the menu through RIP styles and menu options. Notice that Searchlight makes RIP menus "on the fly" -- that is, it generates these menus as it executes, which means that menus can have different commands based on user access levels and attributes. And when you add or change commands on a menu, the RIP screens are automatically updated. Since there are no external RIP files, you don't need to manually update a file every time you change a menu. Creating RIP Menus As discussed, Searchlight creates RIP menus automatically, and there isn't much else you need to do to have Searchlight create a RIP menu except to create menus as described in our Menu Editing section (see p. for more information). Three fields associated with each menu control how that menu will appear in RIP mode. The are: 15. RIP Display Style ........ Steel 16. RIP Menu Columns (Novice) 2 17. RIP Menu Columns (Expert) 2 RIP Display Style controls how the menu will look -- what colors will be used to draw it, what special effects (like beveling) will be used, and where the menu will appear on screen. Lines 16 and 17 control the number of columns that will be used to generate the menu in Novice or Expert mode (Intermediate mode follows the Novice setting). It's easy to describe all the different style settings that are available, but when it comes to actually laying out a menu, you really need to see what the menu will look like. Fortunately, Searchlight provides a RIP preview function that enables you to do so. In fact, you can actually edit your menu and your RIP styles from within the preview mode, making it much easier to actually put a visual representation to all of the different RIP colors and settings. To enter RIP preview mode, go to the Menu Editor main screen, place the cursor next to the desired menu, and press F6. A graphics screen similar to this one will appear: You must be running a system with at least EGA graphics capabilities preferably with a color CRTin order to use this preview mode. Also, you cannot use the preview mode if running the CONFIG program from a remote location. What your screen shows here is a mock-up of what the menu will look like when displayed online to a RIP-compatible caller. You can use this display to judge the general appearance of the menu, colors, and placement of commands and text. Notice that the menu is first displayed in "Novice" mode. To see what it looks like in "Expert" mode, click on the word "Novice" on the status line beneath the menu. If you want to change any aspect of the RIP Style used in the menu, you can do so by clicking on the status line or pressing the following keys: F1: Change Window Attributes F2: Change Window Style Switches F3: Change Title Attributes F4: Change Title Style Switches F5: Change Button Attributes F6: Change Button Style Switches Bear in mind that when you change any of these settings, you're changing the style associated with the menu, not the menu itself. In other words, any other menus or features that use this style are also affected by the changes. (See the discussion of RIP styles earlier in this chapter for more information about style editing). Finally, if you want to access the menu's own settings (to change the column placement or style), click on the menu's name in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Searchlight provides a great deal of flexibility in creation of RIP styles and menus. At the same time, it is possible to create settings that don't make sense, either because the text of your selections overflows the size of the menu or buttons or because your menu is too large to fit within the space given. The preview mode will help you make adjustments to your menus visually so that you can design graphics that look and work well for your own needs. EXTERNAL RIP FILES External RIP files provide the ultimate in design flexibility: they allow you to take any RIP scene or menu that you can create with an external drawing program and use it in your system, typically as a replacement for the built-in menus. External menus are more flexible because they can contain illustrations and layouts beyond what can be created with our internal RIP styles, but they are also somewhat more difficult to create and maintain since you need to use an external RIP painting program. When RIP mode is enabled, Searchlight searches for text files ending in .RIP instead of .ANS or .TXT. You can make .RIP files for menus, include files, your login and logoff screens, and anywhere else that Searchlight displays a TXT or ANS file. In fact, since RIPscrip is plain text, you can even load RIP graphics into messages. If no RIP file is available for a particular menu or display screen, your existing ANS or TXT file is used instead. RIP graphics screens are displayed properly only on a remote RIP terminal. Your local screen will show only the RIP command sequences. Consequently, your BBS can support high resolution RIP screens even if your local terminal does not support graphics. How can I create RIP files? RIP graphics files are created with special programs such as RIPaint and RIPdraw, available from TeleGrafix Inc. They produce text files ending in .RIP, which you can load into your BBS. Searchlight displays the .RIP files instead of text or ANS files when searching for an external text file. Note that you can only use files created with a RIP specific drawing program; you can't use files created with other kinds of drawing programs. If you would like more information about software to create custom RIP graphics screens, or if you are a developer and would like information about adding RIP graphics support to your online product, please contact Searchlight Software at our technical support number. RIPscrip Guidelines RIPscrip contains a rich set of commands that can make a RIP terminal display graphics, fonts, change screen sizes, relocate screen windows, and more. Since Searchlight operates in text mode when it is not displaying a RIP file, RIP files should, in general, avoid using commands that would render Searchlight's text unreadable (unless that effect is desired). In order to ensure that its text is readable, Searchlight always resets the RIP terminal's text window and font size whenever it clears the screen. RIPscrip files can contain mouse areas and mouse controls in addition to high resolution graphics, icons and other features. Typically, you will use mouse areas in menu display files, and have the mouse areas return a keystroke to Searchlight indicating the correct menu choice. For example, if F is the key to press to enter the files system on your main menu, you could generate a RIPscrip menu with a mouse button for files access; the mouse button would type the letter 'F' when pressed. Note that your RIP menus should always send a single character in response to a mouse press. Even when you use the "Word" style menus in Searchlight, it isn't necessary to return an Enter keystroke after the command letter, since Searchlight only requires a single key when displaying a RIP menu. o RIP buttons contain an option that allows the act of pushing the button to clear the screen. Don't use this option in your RIP menus with commands that generate pop-up RIP features (like Searchlight's Time or Version command). Since Searchlight expects the screen to remain unchanged after these kinds of commands execute, it doesn't redraw the menu below; clearing the screen will thus destroy the "pop-up" effect. Since Searchlight provides its own mouse support with built in menubar menus, and may support other RIP features internally, a special command is included in the menu setup screen to disable Searchlight from producing mouse areas for its internal menus: 14. Use RIP Mouse Areas ...... Yes Set this option to "No" if you are using RIPscrip files to generate your own menus with mouse areas. Otherwise, leave it set to "Yes". The "No" setting prevents Searchlight from interfering with mouse areas that may have been created by your external RIPscrip file. RIP "Wallpaper" Files Searchlight contains a unique feature that lets you combine the built-in RIP menu feature with external files -- we call it the "wallpaper" feature. What it allows you to do is take an external RIP file that contains drawings, but no mouse buttons, and use it as a background image over which Searchlight will display one of its built-in RIP menu representations. The wallpaper feature gives you the best of both worlds: you can design any kind of illustration with a RIP painting program, but still have Searchlight control the actual commands and mouse areas. Since Searchlight controls the commands, the actual menu can dynamically adapt itself to changes in access levels and attributes or changes in the Searchlight menu file itself. To use the wallpaper feature, create (or obtain) a RIP file that you'd like to use as background material, and place in the "Text" file directory in your system. Next, edit the menu in question. In the field marked "Display Filename (Optional)", enter the name of the wallpaper file using this syntax: 4. Display Filename (Optional) @!MYFILE Notice the special "@!" syntax: this tells Searchlight that the file is a wallpaper file (otherwise, Searchlight would assume the file was a complete menu, and would not generate its own RIP menu). Searchlight displays the wallpaper file first, then draws its "default" menu on top. You may wish to disable the RIP window and title when using the wallpaper feature (you can disable them by editing the style associated with the menu). Without a window and title, Searchlight simply draws buttons over the wallpaper -- which can make the buttons look more like an integral part of the picture. One final note: you can add a wallpaper file to a menu without destroying an existing ANSI or ASCII text screen. Just place the @!FILE after the existing ANSI filename on line 4, separated by a space: 4. Display Filename (Optional) @ANSI @!RIP Additional Features ------------------- A number of last minute features were added to Searchlight 3.5 after the manual was created. The following documents these added features: High Ascii Chars ---------------- A new "Allow High Ascii Chars" setting is available in the CONFIG program (General Setup #2). The default is No. When set to Yes, Searchlight allows high ASCII characters (in the range 128-255) to be entered into user names and most other inputs in the program. Non-english speaking users can take advantage of this setting to allow additional characters to be used. Filename Display ---------------- The display of filenames/descriptions is handled in a slightly different way. Searchlight clears the screen and displays the heading after each page of files, rather than scrolling the header up the screen. Additionally, files and descriptions are displayed together on the same page whenever possible. For example, if the cursor is on line 22 and the next file has a 10 line description, Searchlight will immediately generate the next "more" prompt, then clear the screen and display the file with its complete description. (The old version would have displayed the first 2 lines of the file description, then generated a "more" prompt followed by the remaining eight lines). For file descriptions longer than 24 lines, the screen clears between each page of the description, but the file can still be tagged. This version doesn't display blank lines in extended file descriptions. The change was made for two reasons: to make the file list neater, and to allow a text file created from the file list to be re-importable with the Import facilities (if there were blank lines in the descriptions, Searchlight would not be able to import the descriptions correctly). File Importing -------------- This version of the CONFIG program contains an updated Directory Import feature that will allow importing of text style directories much more efficiently than previous methods, without the need to pre-process import files. CD-ROM users can import directly from CD-ROM disks without copying the import file to a hard disk directory first. Multiline file descriptions are also supported. To import files using the new CONFIG program: (1) Run CONFIG and select option C, "File Directory Maintenance". (2) Place the cursor next to the desired directory, then press F3 to access the Directory Utilities menu. (3) Select option B to import filenames. (4) The CONFIG program checks the directory containing the files for the current area and attempts to find the correct file for importing. If the correct filename appears, press Enter to accept it. Otherwise, enter the name of the file you want to use for importing. (5) Answer Yes or No to the Update Existing Files question. (6) The import procedure begins. The new import procedure takes place in several phases. Press Enter when importing is complete. The CONFIG program uses several steps to import files, including the creation of a temporary file on your hard drive (which is deleted after importing is complete). The new procedure ensures that the Searchlight directory file is built and indexed optimally, regardless of the order in which files are listed in the text file. Therefore, there is no need to manually sort or otherwise pre-process the text file before importing it. Default Search Strings ---------------------- The Files command (internal command 300) and Zippy command (internal 305) may be provided with a default filename or wildcard (for command #300) or default search string (for command #305) by placing the desired text on the parameter line below the command in the menu structure. For example: 11. Command Number (1) ............ 305 12. Command Parameters (1) ........ JONES This command would perform a Zippy search using the search key "JONES". The user is not prompted to enter a search key in this case. The files command (#300) can also be provided with a parameter which is either a filename or a wildcard. A filename with no wildcard characters provides a list of the current directory from that filename onward. A wildcard provides a list of filenames which match the wildcard (ie. *.ZIP or ABF??.TXT). Default File List Format ------------------------ Internal commands 300 and 305 can be made to skip the "Display Long File Descriptions?" prompt by adding a parameter to the command which defines the desired behavior: /L Forces long file descriptions /S Forces short file descriptions /P Forces the Yes/No prompt to appear Using /L, /S or /P overrides the user's default setting. Example: 11. Command Number (1) ............ 305 12. Command Parameters (1) ........ JONES /L This command does a Zippy scan using the search key "JONES" and always displays long file descriptions. Default Directory Search ------------------------ The "Search All Directories?" question can be eliminated from internal commands 300 and 305 by using the following parameters: /A Search all directories /N Do not search all directories (search current directory only) Example: 11. Command Number (1) ............ 305 12. Command Parameters (1) ........ JONES /L /N This command does a Zippy search on the keyword "JONES", always displays long descriptions, and searches only the current directory. All three user prompts (search key, display long descriptions, search all directories) are eliminated; therefore the listing appears immediately when this command is executed. The "Default Directory Search" and "Default File List Format" switches (used with commands 300 & 305) now also work with the New Files command (command number 303). Elimination of Default Greeting ------------------------------- The default login greeting message, showing the BBS name and last caller name, may be eliminated by setting a switch on CONFIG General Setup Menu #2: 16. Default Login Greeting ........ Off In the "On" position, the standard greeting message is displayed. In the "Off" position, no greeting is displayed. Also, in the Off position, you may provide an alternate greeting by placing a text file named GREETING.TXT, GREETING.ANS and/or GREETING.RIP into your Text file directory. When the default greeting is disabled, Searchlight will still: (a) Display the "Visible Login?" prompt for Sysop logins; (b) Display the "Do you wish to be available for chatting?" prompt if the user has chatting capabilities (to remove chatting capability and eliminate this prompt, set chatting security attributes on the Function Attrib menu in CONFIG). (c) Display the amount of time permitted in the current session for non- Sysop logins. Guest Account ------------- Multiuser systems now allow multiple GUEST account logins on the same system. Binary File Attachment ---------------------- Searchlight allows you to "attach", or associate, a binary file (i.e., a file of any type) with a message. The attached file can be downloaded at the time the message is read. File attachment is a convenient way to send files privately through email, and can also be used with public messages. To attach a file to a message, press F2 (or ^U) in the message editor when entering (or editing) the message. Searchlight prompts you with: Enter Name of File to attach to message: > There are two ways to respond to this prompt. If you're using Searchlight as a normal user (not the Sysop) and logged in from a remote terminal, enter the desired filename here. Searchlight then prompts you to upload the file, first selecting one of the internal file protocols. Assuming the file is uploaded successfully, it is stored in the "File Attach Path" as defined in your CONFIG file, and "attached" to the message. If you're logged on as the Sysop, you can also specify the complete path to a file that exists on your local hard drive here. For example: C:\SLBBS\SYSOP\MYFILE.ZIP Instead of initiating a file transfer, Searchlight copies this file into the attach directory. Note that each file that's attached to a message must have a unique filename. If you try to attach a file with the same filename as another file attachment, Searchlight will inform you that the file already exists. You need to choose another name for the file. Downloading Attached Files Whenever you read a message that has a file attachment (whether in your mailbox, or a public message or bulletin) Searchlight will inform you of the file attachment, and ask if you'd like to download the file. If you do want to download it, you'll be prompted to choose a protocol, and the transfer begins. Note that there is no upload ratio associated with attached files; they're treated as part of a message, and anyone who has permission to read a message that has a file attachment can also download the file. However, time limits are enforced; if you don't have enough time to download the attached file, the download is disallowed. If you have a multiuser system, it is important that each node in your system has the same file attach path. Otherwise, files attached to a message in one node won't be accessible from another node. Maintaining Attached Files All file attachments are stored in the "File Attach Path" defined in your CONFIG program (see "File Pathnames Setup" in this manual for details). These files remain on your disk until the message to which they are attached is deleted (or, if the message is carbon-copied to a number of users, until the last copy of the message is deleted). You can manually maintain attach files in several ways. First, if you edit a message that contains an attached file, you can remove or replace the file attachment by pressing F2 to attach another file. The new file replaces the old one. You can also delete files from the attach directory directly from the DOS prompt, even if you do not know to what message the file is attached. If that message is later read, Searchlight simply displays a message to the effect that the attached file is no longer available for download. You may wish to perform this kind of maintenance periodically in case a large number of file attachments build up in your system and aren't deleted.