Tri-HD's-Utility File Name : THDUTL36.ZIP (as of writing) Author : Hal D. Holland Support BBS : Radio Freaks/HD's Support BBS 404-941-1308 Registration : $25.00 In the last three months, there have been allot of new utilities released for TriBBS. Of all these utilities, one of my favorites is Tri-HD's Utility. The reasons, well, its because it can and does take the place of several other utilities I was running. Instead of writing a program that does One thing, and one thing only, Hal has combined the functions of several into his. What can it do ? Just take a look at the following: 1. Last 15 Callers Screen with programmable "watch" items. Provides the usual screen with a few added goodies that allows you and your callers to get a feel for the boards Activity. 2. BBS Door/activity tally screen with programmable "tally" items. Activity in your doors as listed in the DOORS.MNU is tallied automatically, alternately; you may add additional items to be tallied. 3. Welcome New users screen. List of names, City/State, date and baudrate of new callers 4. Download tracking. The utility places the usual "# Downloads:" comment in your FILES.LST. Special interest downloads may be tracked with the name, city & state, and date/time of download being placed in a separate file. 5. Upload Tracking. THDUTL builds a file named UPLOAD.DAT in the TriBBS directory. you may use it as you wish. The file simply contains the names of the files that were uploaded. 6. Upload archive Integrity checking, conversion and Virus checking in the BETWEEN.BAT (after the user logs off), optional. Stripping and Addition of new archive comments, addition of DESC.SDI files to archives having none is also supported. 7. Top 10 Tracking of Uploaders, Downloaders and popular Files. Screen displays your top 10 activity if desired. 8. BBS hourly usage graph. A screen to appraise your users of when the BBS is busy and when it is most open for their call. Mail run hour may be flagged also. 9. Trim your CALLERS.LOG to a specified length automatically. You set the maximum length in kilo-bytes. Trimmed portion may also be saved. 10. Dropped carrier notification. An exit code of 1 from THDUTL indicates that the user has dropped carrier before the "logged off" flag appeared in the CALLERS.LOG. You may use it as you deem fit with a third-party program or DOS batch ERRORLEVEL checking. As you can see, THDUTL has many features that make it tempting utility to use on your board. Setting up THDUTL is not that difficult, but it can take some time to sit down and figure out exactly what you want it to do. With the customization it is capable of, you will need to sit down and decide what features of your board you would like your users to be able to track. Lets take a quick look at my .CFG file and see how I've decided to set it up : Imagine - first line is easy, your BBS name C:\TRIBBS - Simple again, your BBS Home directory CD=OK - OK to track CD-ROM downloads * BULLET28 - Name of last 15 caller screen BULLET29 - Name of BBS Activity tally screen BULLET30 - Name of New User Welcome Screen BULLET31 - Top 10 activity screen BULLET32 - BBS Hourly usage screen QWK=MESST - Variable #1 for Last 15 Caller Screen VGA=VGA Planets - Variable #2 CD =FILE1 - Variable #3 Downloaded file - Variable #1 for BBS Activity tally Uploaded file - Variable #2 - Entered message - Variable #3 | NEW USER added - Variable #4 | Read Bulletin - Variable #5 | - I'm not sure how many are max, Loss of carrier - Variable #6 | but as you can see, I have 13 1200 baud - Variable #7 | of them on my Screen. Of 2400 baud - Variable #8 | course, you need not have any 2400E baud - Variable #9 | - if you wish to. 9600 baud - Variable #10 | 9600E baud - Variable #11 | 14400 baud - Variable #12 | 14400E baud - Variable #13- There are a few things that need to be explained in the .CFG file. The first few lines are easy. Where the questions might come in are on the Variable lines. On the last 15 callers screen, you are able to track up to three things that the users have down. The header will be a three letter abriviation. As in my case QWK, VGA and CD. After the header, you need to tell THDUTL what to look for in the callers log. Once again, in my case, if a user has entered Trimail, the log will show them executing MESST so that is how I put it in the .CFG line. The same goes for the other two, VGA planets is set up as a door, so just the name I've set the door at in the DOORS.MNU is all I need. But for my CD door, I have put it on the Files Menu so the batch file is called File1. The options are limitless. You could track chats, Callback doors, questioners, or any other special area of your board. The next set of variables are for your BBS Activity Screen. I'm really not sure of what the maximum number of lines are here, but as you can see, I have 13 of them. These lines MUST MATCH the entry in your CALLERS.LOG EXACTLY. If they do not, they will not be tracked. It took me a while to get them write, as errors like capitalizing the wrong letter will make it miss the entry all together. There are several other set-up items you may also choose to use. One is the THDUTL.XCL file, this is a list of users that are not to be included in your Last 15 callers screen. Once again, you must enter the name EXACTLY as it appears in the CALLERS.LOG. You may put one name per line, up to 20 names. You may also optionally select the colors used by THDUTL for the various screens. Just edit the provided THDUTL.CLR file as desired for each of the 5 screens. THDUTL.ACX file is used to exclude files from being repacked. Just enter the three letter file extensions you do not wish repacked...ie GIF. THDUTL.TTX is a list of file names you do not want included in your Top Ten files Screen. You may list up to 50 files. THDUTL.MSG is the archive comment text. Place the message you wish added to your archives in this file. Now that we have set things up, lets take a look at running it. THDUTL is run by using THDUTL /switches. Below are the switches you may use. Multiple switches may be used in any order. : /F = This is for the first time you run the utility. This will use the entire CALLERS.LOG and initialize all your screens. /D = This is another one time only switch. This is to force the tracking of downloads. This will go through your CALLERS.LOG and append the "# Downloads:" to any file show downloaded in your current CALLERS.LOG /A = Include all users (ignore the THDUTL.XCL file) /L = Include local logons in the Last 15 Callers Screen. /T# = Trim log length in Kilo bytes. /T50 will maintain your CALLERS.LOG length at 50,000 bytes, trimming it back each time it exceeds the desired setting by %20. The log is trimmed back to the first logon occurring after the specified length. /ST = Save Trimmed Log. Entries from the CALLERS.LOG trimmed with the use of the /T# switch are appended to file CALLERS.TRM. This file will continue to grow until trimmed/removed by you. CALLERS.TRM + CALLERS.LOG = full log of events. /U = Perform upload archive integrity checking and Virus checking on any uploads found. Convert the archive to the default (.ZIP) and (optionally) add archive comment from the THDUTL.MSG file. Files failing the check are deleted and the entry is removed from the FILES.LST /M = If no "Uploaded By:" line is found in the FILES.LST, place one in the file with the name of the Sysop as the Uploader. /R = If he logon name is an alias, change it to the Real name of the user. /H## = Mail run Hour. The hour indicated (00-23) will appear in the BBS Hourly usage screen flagged as the Mail Hour. So, now that we know what it can do, lets see what it looks like. First, lets look at my Last 15 Callers Screen: @cls@@moreoff@ ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º Imagine Last 15 Callers º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ º CALLER Date/Time On Off Baud Up Dn Msg QWK VGA CD Nu º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ º David Archer 12/05/93 20:37-20:52 9600 º º Robyn Liles 12/05/93 19:29-19:50 2400 º º Daniel Rimar 12/05/93 18:06-18:07 14400E º º Daniel Rimar 12/05/93 18:08-18:42 7200E º º Patrick Jackson 12/05/93 16:56-18:05 2400 2 º º David Archer 12/05/93 15:34-16:42 9600 4 º º David Childress 12/05/93 15:23-15:26 2400 5 û º º Mark Rosen 12/05/93 14:59-15:11 2400 5 º º Robyn Liles 12/05/93 13:29-14:09 2400 4 º º Jeff Binkley 12/05/93 13:09-13:28 1200E º º Robert Clark 12/05/93 12:32-12:44 2400E 1 û º º David Childress 12/05/93 12:03-12:09 2400 û º º Anthony Brown 12/05/93 11:04-11:36 14400E 4 û º º Anthony Brown 12/05/93 10:53-11:03 14400E û º º Thom Howie 12/05/93 10:34-10:36 14400E º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍAsciiÍbyÍHDÍÍÍÍÍͼ @moreon@@more@ Of course, it this is the ASCII version, but you get the idea, now on to my BBS activity tally screen: @cls@@moreoff@ Imagine - Tally 12-05 to 12-05 ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ BBS Activity Tally ³ BBS Activity Tally ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Downloaded file 11 ³ Uploaded file 0 Entered message 5 ³ NEW USER added 0 Read Bulletin 0 ³ Loss of carrier 0 1200 baud 0 ³ 2400 baud 4 2400E baud 0 ³ 9600 baud 2 9600E baud 0 ³ 14400 baud 0 14400E baud 1 ³ TriBank 0 The Pit 0 ³ Global War 0 Scrabble 1 ³ Trivia Castle 1 King Of The Board 1 ³ Trade Wars 0 BBS lister Door 0 ³ Chess 0 BBS Crash 0 ³ NetRunner 0 Reading Room 0 ³ Icon Update Door 0 RIPVersie RIP Graphics Door 0 ³ RIP Vote 0 RIP Black Jack 0 ³ RIP Turbo Guppies 0 VGA Planets 0 ³ Galatic Overlord 0 Quizard's Mountain Trivia 0 ³ Call the North Pole 1 Subscribers PIT 7 ³ Forum 0 ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄAsciiÄbyÄHDÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ @moreon@@more@ On to the New Users Welcome screen: @cls@@moreoff@ ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º Imagine Welcomes the following New Callers º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ º Name From Date Baud º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ º Joe Venezia Fort Myers, Fl 12/04/93 14400 º º Rod Evans Ft.myers 12/02/93 14400E º º Brian Zimmerman Cape Coral, Fl 11/28/93 2400 º º Alfred Morin Bradenton, Florida 11/28/93 14400E º º Butch Nordstrom Pinehurst, Ma 11/27/93 14400E º º Tina Cuevas Sarasota Fl 11/25/93 2400 º º Justin Smith Bonita Springs Fl 11/25/93 2400 º º Jon Liles Cape Coral Fl 11/23/93 2400 º º William Bailey Bonita Springs, Fl 11/23/93 2400 º º Andrew Liles Cape Coral Fl 11/23/93 2400 º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍAsciiÍbyÍHDÍÍÍÍÍͼ @moreon@@more@ Next in line, is the Top 10 Activity Screen: @cls@@moreoff@ ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º Imagine TOP 15 List º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ º Uploads Downloads Files º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ º Steve Sears 54 Mark Rosen 59 IMAGSUB.EXE 56 º º Mark Rosen 8 Paul Cook 34 #1HARRY.ARJ 6 º º Paul Cook 3 David Archer 31 TRI0993.ARJ 6 º º Geoff Garrett 2 Steve Sears 24 ARJ241A.EXE 6 º º Mike Vaughn 1 Robert Clark 24 TB50-1.ARJ 5 º º Nicholas Lesiecki 1 Vince Shank 22 TB50-2.ARJ 5 º º Hal Holland 1 Jim Kunert 20 BASKET1.ARJ 4 º º Mike Lott 1 Eugene Zoppo 19 DPRO3DOS.ARJ 4 º º Jack Todd 1 Wolfgang Daniel 19 MNUMAKE4.ARJ 3 º º Jim Kunert 1 Anthony Brown 18 GRUNT.ARJ 3 º º Tribbs News 1 John Osborne 17 VGA_PS.ARJ 3 º º Jeff Binkley 1 Gene Duncan 16 SSNUN11.ARJ 3 º º 0 Tony Garcia 16 BBSLST5.ARJ 3 º º 0 Matt Strickland 14 DSFC11.ARJ 3 º º 0 Joe Hebert 12 ALAINA11.GIF 3 º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍAsciiÍbyÍHDÍÍÍÍÍͼ @moreon@@more@ Things are looking good, TriBBS is being downloaded nicely . Ok, last but not least, the BBS Hourly Usage Screen: @cls@@moreoff@ ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º Imagine Hourly Usage Graph º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹ º º º º º º º º º ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ º º ÜÜ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ º º ÜÜ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ º º ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ º º ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ º º ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÜÜ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ ÛÛ º º 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍAsciiÍbyÍHDÍÍÍÍÍͼ @moreon@@more@ Let it be noted that I put all the variable in lower case, they are correct in the screens. All in all, THDUTL is a very full featured utility. It offers much more than just one screen, and has usefull functions besides those screens. Hal has made a commitment to work with sysops to improve on it. Since it first came out, it has already added many new function. In fact, when I first wrote this article, I found a "bug". It really was not a bug per say. In my BBS activity screen, I was trying to track the baud rates of callers, and it was not working. When I noticed this, I put something in the article about it, uploaded it to Hal, and not more than an hour latter, had a new version that worked. That is commitment. THDUTL should be available on almost all TriBBS support boards, the Authors board, Imagine, and of course, The Lobster Bouy.