11/02/94 GAPFILE has a new Command Line Parameter. If you wish to disable the beeps and bells, you may pass a 2nd (or 3rd) parameter to tell GAPFILE to not make noise. GAPFILE accepts the following parameters: 6 - Version Number NOSHELL - Disable Shelling to DOS NOBELL - Disable the Beeps If you don't use the 2nd parameter (NOSHELL) then you can pass NOBELL for the 2nd parameter. If you DO use NOSHELL, then pass NOBELL as the 3rd parameter. Valid Command Line arguments are as follows: GAPFILE 6 GAPFILE 6 NOSHELL GAPFILE 6 NOBELL GAPFILE 6 NOSHELL NOBELL Disabling the BELL was necessary for those of you that allow remote Co-Sysops to maintain your FileBases. You hear all the bells, but the Remote Sysop doesn't ! QWKEXPRT was modified (actually, the GAPCDR library was) so that the status line mimicks GAP's status line a bit better. When a user types QWK to go into the QWK module, the sysop should see virtually no difference in the Screen, except for the fact that the Command Line changed from "Main Board Command : " to "QWK Command : ". 10/27/94 GAPUSER has 3 new report options. You may now produce a report that lists all users with QWK Networking Status. There are also two new Address Label reports that are formatted to use two popular Avery Labels. 10/24/94 GAPMENU will now wait 1 clock tic after waiting for Ring Indicator (RI) to go low and before sending an ATA to tell the modem to answer the phone. This should help eliminate the problem some of you were experiencing with the modem not accepting the 1st ATA that GAPMENU sends because the modem was busy sending a "RING" to the serial port. GAPBBS will no longer accept a filename that begins with a slash or a dash (/ or -) when using the Archive Read and Transfer functions. Even though a filename beginning with a '-' is a legitimate DOS filename, PKZIP (and no doubt all the other archivers) will "hang" your computer by displaying its Help Screens if a filename to extract out of a ZIP begins with a '-'. In GAPBBS, the Swap code was modified to not clear the screen when swapping out to the QWK module. The reason for this is because the QWKEXPRT module has received a face lift, and is now more seemlessly integrated into GAPBBS. 09/17/94 The Auto DoorWay Mode Configuration option was moved from General Configuration (GAPSETUP) to become an individual option for each user in their User Record. GAP will now default to Auto DoorWay Mode OFF. If the user wants it ON, he/she can go to the View/Change Stats Menu and set it to ON. The Sysop can also change the field in GAPUSER. 09/14/94 GAPFILE was recompiled with a larger stack size so that it will not crash with a "Stack Overflow" message when searching the hard disks for a file. 09/12/94 The Global Change Utility in GAPFILE was modified so that you may now replace a Drive Designator with a new Drive Designator. This is similar to typing an asterisk in the Old Value field on the "Where" line, but instead, you type the Drive Designator you wish to replace. For example: Old Value New Value --------- --------- G: H: Don't forget the colon, and don't type anything else after it. 09/10/94 When Locating Files, GAPBBS will now stop scanning Alternate FileBases if the user answers No at any of the prompts. Two new fields were added to the 3rd Miscellaneous Screen in GAPSETUP. The fields are "Minimal User Information" and "Auto DoorWay Detection". Minimal User Information is used (set to Yes) if you do not want GAP to prompt for Address and Phone Number info. This is handy for those of you that could care less about this information or for those that run "file only" support boards where your users call only to download product updates or support files. When this field is set to Yes, GAP will not Verify User Information, even if your SECLEV file says to do so. When using a Minimal System, you should remove your REGINFO file since it is not needed and will tend to confuse a new user. Your NEWUSER file should also be kept short (its probably not a good idea to remove it altogether, but maybe change it to say "Welcome to the System"). The reason you don't want to remove it is because GAP will still ask the user if he/she wants to "Join" the BBS. Most of you know, by now, that if GAP detected that a user has ANSI capability, then when a user Enters a message using the Visual Editor, GAP sends an ANSI sequence telling the user's Terminal Program to enter into DoorWay Mode. Some Terminal programs do not understand this ANSI sequence and instead of turning DoorWay mode on, they simply display the ANSI sequence on the screen. You can now tell GAP to NOT send the DoorWay codes during message entry. 08/21/94 ****************************************************************** * W A R N I N G * ****************************************************************** The format of the FBASE.DAT file (in your GEN directory if you utilize more than 1 FileBase) has changed! You must run GAPFILE before allowing a logon to GAPBBS. This is especially important if you have more than 1 FileBase. Install the new files, and then go into GAPFILE and edit the FBASE.DAT from the File Menu. Your old file will automatically be converted to the new format when you do this. Everything will be the same except for the addition of a new field (explained below). After you've edited the File with the newest version of GAPFILE, if your FileBases are the same between all your nodes, copy your newly edited FBASE.DAT file to each of your node's GEN directories. If you use different FBASE.DAT files for each of your nodes, don't forget to follow the above process for each node. ****************************************************************** GAP now allows for up to 40 FileBases. The previous limit was 20. A new field was added to the FBASE.DAT file (this is the file that tells GAP about your FileBases). The new field is a batch filename. If a batch filename is present in this field, then GAPFILE and GAPBBS will shell to this batch file whenever the Change FileBase Command is issued. The purpose of this batch file is so that you can tell your Network software to remap the CD drive letter. How you accomplish this depends upon your Network. This allows those of you running on say, Novell, to have more CD's online than you have available drive letters. This is the only purpose for this batch file. There should be no reason to use it for anything else. The file should be kept as short and simple as possible. Do not echo anything to the screen as it will "mess up" the GAPFILE Windows. The FileBase Number that is about to be "changed to" will be passed to the batch file and can be tested with the %1 parameter. This allows you to use the same batch file for each of your FileBases that need to have their drive letter remapped. In a multiuser system and when the Sysop Logs In Quick from GAPMENU, GAP will show the node that the Sysop logged in from as "Waiting For A Call". In other words, other nodes won't know that the Sysop is logged on. 08/08/94 On the Port Configuration Screen in GAPSETUP, there is a new field called "Modemless Connection". Set this field to Yes when there is no modem involved in the actual connection (a Direct Connection). GAP will not attempt to initialize or talk to a modem. A connection is established when the remote end raises the Carrier Detect Line. Also on the same Screen, the "Caller Connect BPS Rate" field accepts a new string called "CARRIER". If you have a modem that will only return Compression and Error Correction strings if set so that the caller's bps rate is returned as a "CARRIER " string, you should enter "CARRIER" in this field. GAPMENU will then look for the caller's connect speed in the CARRIER result code that the modem returns. For instance, instead of looking for CONNECT 14400, GAPMENU will look for CARRIER 14400. Most modems based or derived from the Rockwell chip set, return Connect strings like this. GAPMENU was modified to work better with Hayes modems (the ones with all the bugs in their PROM's). The Hayes Accura has a terrible problem of leaving the Ring Indicator line high. This would cause GAPMENU to believe that the phone is ringing when it actually is not. GAPMENU will now work around this problem. The Hayes modems also return the Connect string before raising Carrier. This would cause GAPMENU to "eat" part of the Connect String while it is looking for "RING" and "NO CARRIER" when attempting to establish a connection. We devised a new method of looking for these two strings from the modem so as to not destroy the legitimate Connect String. The manner in which GAPMENU stores the Connect String from the modem was modified so that it looks better when GAPBBS displays it on the opening screen. This was needed because modems based on the Rockwell chip set return the Connect string as 4 separate lines of text. 05/22/94 Fixed a problem with Browse Text Files and Alternate FileBases. Added support for Fossil Drivers. If you are running GAP under OS/2, you should probably use a Fossil Driver written explicitly for OS/2 (until our next release when we will support an OS/2 replacement driver directly). In GAPSETUP, Port Configuration Screen, you may choose the Fossil Interface from the list of available COM Port Interfaces. The Fossil Interface and been tested and verified to work with BNU and X00. We suggest that you use X00 if you intend to use a Fossil driver. Even though you may configure the Fossil Driver to lock the COM Port at a baud rate higher than 38400 bps, the Fossil's Interrupt 14 interface does not allow the port to be set at a higher speed. Therefore, in configuration, the highest port speed you may select is 38400 bps. The BNU Fossil Driver does not support Modem Status, therefore GAP has no way of determining if the phone is ringing based upon Modem Status. In configuration, you need to set the "Answer On True Ring Detect" to NO. X00 is not so limited and works just fine with the above field set to YES. The Fossil Driver should be configured to lock the COM port. The speed you set depends upon your modem and the type of UART you have. Typically this would be set to 38400 bps. The Fossil drivers claim that if you lock the port speed, they will ignore any attempts by a program to change the speed. This means that you should be able to tell the Fossil to lock the port speed at 57600 or 115200 bps and configure GAP for a speed of 38400 bps and all should work just fine. We have not verified this, however. Hardware Flow Control (CTS/RTS) should be enabled and Software Flow Control (XON/XOFF) should be disabled. Do not set an excessively large Transmit Buffer size. 512 bytes is more than enough. If you set the buffer too large and you accept 300 or 1200 baud callers, you may find that GAP will time out on the callers while it waits for the Fossil to transmit the data. Despite what the Fossil Documentation may say, the Receive Buffer size should be set to 6k. Over the years, we have determined that a 6k Receive Buffer is the optimal size for high speed file transfers. Anything less and you will likely see a lot of CRC errors during uploads. Note that X00 requires that buffers be set as powers of 2 so the closest you can come to a 6k receive buffer is 8k. A sample invocation for BNU would be : BNU /P1 /T:512 /R:6144 /L:0=38400,8N1 /Z0 And one for X00 would be: X00 B,0,38400 FIFO=15 R=8192 T=512 E If you are running under DESQView, you should add the option to tell X00 to give up its time slice when it is idle. 03/28/94 Added some extra functionality to the Critical Error Handler. This allows functions such as the one that copies files from a CD to give more detailed error reporting should something go wrong. The copy files from CD function will give 3 error codes if it is unable to copy a file. If you have a DOS Reference you can look these codes up in its Extended Errors table. Fixed GAPFILE so that it correctly displays the 2nd and subsequent screens when doing a Mass Move. 03/19/94 A sysop function that has been available for some time now was inadvertantly left undocumented. Sysop Function 8 allows you to mass delete messages that are To or From a specific user. There is a new security level associated with this function and is set on the Sysop Security Levels screen in GAPSETUP. Be sure to change this field since it will be 0 for those already using GAP. Several changes were made to the handling of color prompts and screens. GAP will no longer attempt to change the background color when displaying prompts. In addition, a "Reset Attributes" ANSI sequence will be sent after displaying a screen. These changes should help preserve a caller's terminal background color when using a color other than Black. GAPCALL was also changed so as to not set a background color when it produces its bulletins. The Critical Error Handler in GAPBBS was inadvertantly removed in some previous release of GAP. Because of this, some systems may have experienced lock ups or exception errors if GAPBBS tried to access a disk that was not mounted or otherwise caused a critical error. The Error Handler is now back in. Fixed a problem with Zmodem downloads and Apple Computers. It seems a popular Communications program that is used with these computers could cause our Zmodem to go haywire. 03/06/94 Added support for IRQ's 8-15. This was also added to the QWK/REP modules. Fixed a problem in QWK/REP and the Message Post level that was added in a previous release. GAPSETUP On the Ports Screen, the IRQ field was expanded to allow for a 2 digit number. GAPMENU Added 24000 and 26400 bps CONNECT rates to GAPMENU's list of valid modem Connect rates. GAPBBS In Configuration, Files System Options screen, down at the bottom there is a new field where you may specify if GAPBBS should Warn a Caller that he/she has Marked Files when logging off. If you don't want GAP to do this, set this field to No. Allowed the NEWQUEST (New User Questionnaires) to properly utilize the XDownload command. 02/14/94 If the "Copy Files To CD" flag is set, GAP will use the same locking mechanisms that it uses for downloads in the Archive functions. This means that if a user is attempting to List an Archive, Read an Archive File, or Transfer a File from an Archive, and the Archive resides on a CD-ROM, GAP will lock out the CD drive so that other nodes cannot access it while the Archive manipulation functions are working. A reminder concerning the "CD-ROM Is Busy, Waiting..." message that GAP displays if it tries to access a CD while another node is already accessing it. You (and your users) may or may not see this message. For example, on the Crow, the message is seen on the server but not on any of the nodes. The reason for this is due to the way DOS retries file operations. By default, DOS will retry a file operation 3 times, delaying between each attempt. When GAP tries to lock a record in DRVTBL.DAT and the record is already locked, DOS may retry the lock operation 3 times before it gives up and returns control back to GAP. This could take from 3 to 5 or more seconds. Or, while retrying the lock operation, if the record subsequently becomes available, DOS will lock the record and return a success code to GAP. GAP has no way of knowing that DOS spent 3 seconds trying to lock the record and can't, therefore, display the "Waiting..." message. The bottom line is, you may see a "Waiting..." message or you may see a 3 to 5 second pause with no messages displayed, before the copy or archive function continues. 02/01/94 GAPBBS Fixed a problem with Keyword searches in Enhanced View. A couple of new commands have been added to the Questionnaires. The first is a new 'X' command. It is called 'download' and its use allows your users to download a file or series of files from within the Questionnaire. The format of this command is the same as the other 'X' commands, where the 'X' is in upper case and the command itself is in lower case. The name of the file to download appears after the 'download' command, separated by a space: Xdownload FILE.ZIP You can use this command to semi force your users to download your house rules or make certain files easily available for your users inside a Questionnaire. You cannot force a user to download a file since they can always abort the Download procedure. The 'download' command would generally appear after a label and would generally be followed by a 'goto' command. For instance, you might ask a user if he she wishes to download a file. If the user answers Yes, you would then 'goto' the label that is followed by the 'Xdownload' command. After the 'Xdownload' you would then 'goto' a label that carries out further Questionnaire processing (or simply "fall thru" to the next command or prompts. The other new Questionnarie Commands have to do with extending a user's Subscription Date: SubAdd XX - Add XX Number of Days to User's Subscription Date SubDate XX/XX/XX - Set User's Subscription Date to XX/XX/XX SubAdd would be used to add a specified number of days to a User's Subscription Date, whereas SubDate would be used to set a User's Subscription Date to a specific Date. Examples: SubAdd 90 SubDate 12/31/94 When showing User Info Files, GAPBBS will now skip spaces in last names such that Info Files for users with 2 last names will be made up of 5 characters (if there are 5 characters in the last names). For instance, with a name such as John P Smith, GAP used to look for a User Info File named - PJ. It will now properly look for a User Info File named - PSMITJ. Many users download files from your Master File Listing. GAP now makes it easier to download files when there are two or more FileBases. If there is more than 1 FileBase configured, files may be downloaded from FileBases other than the current FileBase (without having to Change FileBases and Mark Files). To do so, the FileBase number must be appended to the complete Filename. For instance, if your currently selected FileBase is #1 and you wish to download files from the current FileBase as well as files from FileBase #2, you would append a semi colon and a 2 after all the Filenames from FileBase #2. Example: File # 1 : FILE1.ZIP - From Current FileBase File # 2 : FILE2.ZIP File # 3 : FILE3.ZIP;2 - From FileBase #2 File # 4 : FILE4.ZIP;2 Notice that it is not necessary to append the FileBase Number after any file that resides in the currently selected FileBase. If your currently selected FileBase were FileBase #2, then you would append a ";1" after FILE1.ZIP and FILE2.ZIP, and leave off the ";2" from FILE3.ZIP and FILE4.ZIP. Do Not forget the semi colon. It is required so that GAP knows you wish to download a file from a FileBase other than the currently active one. Also, you must type the full Filename and not rely upon GAP to fill in the default extension for you. GAPUSER Added FixSysop to the Utility Menu. This was previously available as a separate program and then through GAPMAINT. It is now in GAPUSER, where it belongs. NOTE: As before, do NOT use this Utility unless absolutely necessary. Unlike previous versions, this one fixes all the fields so that they can be edited. Added another Forum UnRegister function to the Utility Menu. This function allows you to UnRegister Users with a specified Security Level from a Forum or group of Forums. GAPSETUP On the Forum Configuration Screens, there is a new field called "Level To Post Messages". This is the minimum Security Level a user must have in order to post messages in the Forum. If you are a member of a Network that forces Read Only Forums and you were setting the Maximum Message Lines to 0 in order to accomplish this, you should, instead, set a high security level for posting messages, and set the Maximum Message Lines back to 99 or however many lines you normally allow. 12/05/93 First Release of Version 6.4 This release is compiled with the Visual C compiler. The first thing you may notice is that all EXE files are smaller. For years, we have been releasing a 286 processor specific version of GAPBBS.EXE to the Beta Testers. These 286 specific versions are now available to all registered GAP Sysops. In addition, there are 386 processor specific versions available. There is a 286 and a 386 version of GAPBBS. These programs are identical to the regular version except that they are compiled to run on specific processors. Neither version will run on an 8088 machine and the 386 version will NOT run on a 286 machine. Both of these versions are non-overlayed. They may use more memory than their overlayed counterparts, however they are generally smaller and faster (especially the 386 version). There is a 386 version of the external Utilities (GAPFILE, GAPSETUP, GAPUSER, etc). These versions will NOT run on a 286 or an 8088 machine. GAPSETUP, GAPUSER, GAPFILE, and GAPNET will look for their respective help files in three different ways: 1st - In the Directory Specified by the GAPCNF Environment Variable. 2nd - In the Directory where the EXE file is located. 3rd - In the Current Directory. If the files cannot be found in any of the three directories, the Help System will be disabled. GAPMENU If the OFFLINE.TXT file is present in the MAIN Directory, indicating that a user has requested an OffLine File, GAPMENU will automatically pull down the Files Menu and place a check mark next to the View OffLine Files Request Menu Item. This is to let you know that there are requests for OffLine Files. GAPBBS Three new AnsiCmds were added: BEEP - When encountered, GAP will send the Bell character to the remote computer and if the Sysop's Alarm toggle is turned on, the local computer will beep as well. FBASE# - The currently selected FileBase Number FBASED - The description of the currently selected FileBase (as derived from FBASE.DAT). Since FBASE.DAT is not read until a user Changes to an Alternate FileBase, the Main FileBase will be called "Main FileBase". When a user Changes to the Main FileBase, GAP will then use the description you have given to FileBase #1. When Viewing Files in Enhanced Mode, if a user selects the Download Command and the user has files Marked, GAP will Mark the currently displayed file and invoke the Download Marked Files command. If the user doesn't have any files Marked, GAP will do as it has always done and simply pass the name of the currently displayed file to the Download routine. When Viewing Files in Condensed Mode, if a user selects the Download Command and the user has files Marked, GAP will no longer ask the user if he/she wishes to Download Marked files. Instead, GAP will automatically invoke the Download Marked Files command. When logging off, if a User has Marked Files that haven't been downloaded, GAP will issue a warning message and give the user a chance to download those files. If a user is using a non-Batch Protocol and he/she has a single file Marked, GAP will no longer force the user to select a Batch Protocol. The user will be allowed to download that single file using a non-Batch Protocol. If the user has more than 1 file marked, then a Batch Protocol will be necessary. When Listing, Searching, or doing a New Files Scan in Condensed Mode, if there is only 1 file currently displayed on the screen and a user subsequently issues a View or Info Command, GAP will no longer ask the user to select which file he/she wishes to View or obtain further Information on. Since there is only one file showing, GAP already knows which file the user wishes to manipulate. If a user has Marked Files and prior to downloading he/she deletes all of the files from the List of Files (i.e., Edit List, Delete), GAP will clear the Marked Files buffer such that there will no longer be any Marked Files. GAP will indicate in the DOOR.SYS file whether or not a caller is using RIP emulation based upon how the Sysop has the Doors configured. Please see the entry for GAPSETUP for further information. The total number of calls is now written to the caller log. You may now have up to 10 Forum Menus (FORUMM). They are numbered as follows: FORUMM FORUMMG FORUMMR FORUMM1 FORUMM1G FORUMM1R FORUMM2 FORUMM2G FORUMM2R FORUMM9 FORUMM9G FORUMM9R In order for GAP to display the correct Join Forum Prompt, your Forum Menus must be numbered sequentially. In other words, you cannot have a FORUMM and a FORUMM2 without an intervening FORUMM1. If you do have multiple Forum Menus and you have skipped a number, GAP will stop displaying the extra menus as soon as it finds one that does not exist. The prompt that is issued is as follows: Enter Forum [#] To Join (0 - 999), [L]ist, [M]ore : The "[M]ore" part of the prompt will display only if there are multiple menus or if the user isn't on the Last Menu. Please adjust your RIP Forum Menus accordingly. For instance, if you disable the Text Window, you need to add the List Command, and the More Command to all Menus except the last. GAP now allows you to have up to 20 FileBases. Generally you would have Alternate FileBases only if you are using more than 1 CD-ROM drive, however this does not have to be the case. Your Main FileBase (the one you are utilizing now) contains the Upload Directory and all of the Forum Specific Files. Each Alternate Filebase would contain the files from a single CD-ROM. So if you have 4 CD-ROM players, you would have 5 FileBases, where the Main FileBase contains all the Forum Specific files and all Uploaded files. In order to utilize multiple FileBases, you must tell GAPSETUP the number of FileBases you wish to have. This is done on the Files System Options Screen. Then, in GAPFILE, you Edit/Create an FBASE.DAT file from the Files Menu. This file tells GAP certain information about each of your FileBases. You then use GAPFILE to Edit/Create the alternate FileBases by first Changing to an Alternate FileBase (Edit Menu) and then using the available options to manipulate the FileBase. The only differences between your Main FileBase and the Alternate FileBases are the names of the files and the fact that an Alternate FileBase has no Upload Directory or any Forum Specific Directories. There is no difference in the structure of the data files. You then assign a security Level to the 'Change FileBase' File Command and add the command to your FILEM(g,r) files. The following new files are used in conjunction with Alternate FileBases: Name Directory Description ----------------------------------------------------------------- FILESxx.DAT MAIN FileBase Data File 2 - 20. These are FILESxx.IDX MAIN FileBase Index File 2 - 20. created FILEKxx.DAT MAIN Keyword Data File 2 - 20. by FILEKxx.IDX MAIN Keyword Index File 2 - 20. GAPFILE FC HELP User Help for Change FileBase Command DIRxx(g,r) GEN Available Subjects Listing. Same as DIR(g,r) for FileBases 2 - 20. FILEM(g,r) GEN Modified to show Change FileBase Command. DIRSxx GEN Same as DIRS for FileBases 2 - 20. FILESxx.DIR GEN Same as FILES.DIR for FileBases 2 - 20. FBASE GEN Menu showing available FileBases. FBASE.DAT GEN Data file describing your FileBases. (needed by GAP and GAPFILE). ( Note: (g,r) = Color/RIP ) Most of the work in creating Alternate FileBases in done in GAPFILE. You will need to use an ANSI or XCode Editor to create the DIR and FBASE files. When a user issues the Change FileBase Command from the Files Menu, GAP will display your FBASE file and ask the user for a FileBase number to change to. Selecting 1 will switch the user to the Main FileBase. Any other valid number will switch the user to that Alternate FileBase. All file operations work with the Currently Selected FileBase. You may use the two new AnsiCmds to give an indication of which FileBase is active. When Locating Files, the user will have the option of seaching all FileBases. There is no Upload directory associated with Alternate FileBases. All uploads go to the Main FileBase. Forums that have their own files continue to use the Main FileBase. While in a Forum, if a Forum does NOT use the Main Board Files, a user will not be allowed to Change FileBases. Otherwise, if the Forum's files are in addition to the Main Board, if a user Changes to an Alternate FileBase, that Forum's files will no longer be available until the user Changes back to the Main FileBase. Marked Files are carried from one FileBase to another. This means a user may mark files in one FileBase and download those files while another FileBase is active. Please note that you do not have to have gigabytes of files in order to use Alternate FileBases. You may use them as you see fit. Please see the section GAPFILE for further information on Alternate FileBases. GAPSETUP On the Files Menu, a new item was added called 'CD-ROM Data'. This Menu Item allows you to edit the DRVTBL.DAT file. This is a new file that tells GAP about your CD-ROM configuration. If you do not utilize CD-ROMs, you do not need to create this file. DRVTBL.DAT consists of two fields per line. The first field, called Logical, is the Logical Drive Letter assigned to your first CD drive. This is the Drive Letter you use when accessing this CD. The second field is a Physical Drive designator that you assign to this CD. Each CD will have a unique Physical Drive number and some CD drives. If you have a Disk Changer that holds 6 discs, each disc will be given a unique Logical Drive Letter but will all use the same Physical Drive Number. See the Help screen associated with the Physical Drive field for further information and an example. GAP uses DRVTBL.DAT to control multi-user access to the CD-ROM drives, where only one user at a time will be allowed to access a Physical drive unit at a time. This works in conjunction with Copying Files from the CD-ROM to a hard drive (this option MUST be set to Yes to activate this feature). In conjunction with the above, on the Files System Options Screen, you no longer specify the CD-ROM Drive Letters. Instead, you enter Yes or No to copy files, and as before, the drive to copy the files to. On the Files System Options Screen, a new field was added called "Number Of FileBases". You may have up to 20 FileBases. Multiple FileBases are described under the entries for GAPBBS and GAPFILE. On the File Menu Commands Screen, there is a new security level called 'Change FileBase'. This is the minimum level needed in order for a user to use the Change FileBase command. On the Third Miscellaneous Screen, there is a new option where you may specify whether or not GAP should write "RIP" to the logon DOOR.SYS file. If set to Yes and a caller is using RIP emulation, GAP will write "RIP". Otherwise, GAP will write "GR" or "NG" to show the caller's color setting. A new field was added to the end of each line in the DOORS.DAT file. This is a Yes/No field to indicate whether or not the door program can correctly read the Color line from DOOR.SYS. If a caller is using RIP emulation and he/she invokes a door program and that program subsequently displays all output in black and white, this indicates that the program is not correctly reading the Color line from the DOOR.SYS file. In this case, you should set the Rip Flag for this program in the DOORS.DAT file to No. If the door program can interpret the Color line as one of NG, GR, or RIP and correctly displays output according to the user's color preference, then you can set this field to Yes. Note that you should edit your DOORS.DAT file from the File Menu in GAPSETUP to convert your file to the new format. Be sure to do this for each of your DOORS.DAT files if you are running the multinode software. On the Port Configuration Screen, the field that holds the Baud Rate has changed from a string to a long. Your Baud Rate will not be valid as you no doubt noticed when GAPMENU tried to initialize the modem. You need to be sure to edit this field and enter the proper Baud Rate (which can now go up to 115200 bps). GAPFILE Several new Menu Toggles were added. All of your Menu Options will return to their defaults since a new GAPFILE.CNF has to be written. The Files Menu is now operational. You may edit any of your DIRS and FILES.DIR files. In addition, a new file was added called FBASE.DAT. This file may also be edited from this Menu. Its purpose is explained below. On the Utility Menu, 'Move Files' has a new Toggle called 'Don't Move Files'. If checked, GAPFILE will not physically move a file if you change the Area or Subject. The file will, in other words, stay on the same drive and in the same directory that it is currently in. Note that any file that resides on a CD-ROM Drive (as defined in your DRVTBL.DAT file) will never be moved. Only the Area and Subject will be changed. The file will stay right where it is. The above option is for files that reside on a hard drive. The Edit Menu has a new Toggle called 'File Date'. If checked and when Editing files, GAPFILE will not attempt to update the File Date. This is handy if you change the date of the file in the FileBase such that the file appears to be newer than it actually is. Also on the Edit Menu is a new Item called 'Change FileBase'. Selecting this Menu Item allows you to switch to Alternate FileBases. GAP now allows you to have up to 20 FileBases. Generally you would have Alternate FileBases only if you are using more than 1 CD-ROM drive, however this does not have to be the case. Your Main FileBase (the one you are utilizing now) contains the Upload Directory and all of the Forum Specific Files. Each Alternate Filebase would contain the files from a single CD-ROM. So if you have 4 CD-ROM players, you would have 5 FileBases, where the Main FileBase contains all the Forum Specific files and all Uploaded files. In order to use Alternate FileBases, you must create a file in your GEN directory called FBASE.DAT. This can be accomplished by selecting 'FileBase Description' from the Files Menu. If you run Multi-Nodes with separate GEN directories, this file needs to be present in each of the GEN directories in order to activate Alternate FileBases for that Node. The Format of FBASE.DAT is as follows: Num Dirs Description where Num = Number of this FileBase Dirs = Number of Directories for this FileBase Level = Security Level needed to Access. OffLine = Y = Files Are Offline, N = Files are available Description = A Description of this FileBase The FileBases need to be numbered sequentially starting with number 1. FileBase Number 1 is your Main FileBase. For the Main FileBase, GAPFILE will default the number of Directories to the number of directories you have configured in GAPSETUP. While editing the FBASE.DAT, if you change the number of directories for the first FileBase, GAPFILE will update your configuration to reflect the new number of directories. The Level is the minimum Security Level needed in order for a user to Change to this FileBase. The OffLine field is a Yes or No flag indicating whether or not the Files are currently available. If you have more CD Discs than you have Players, you may rotate your Discs easily, simply by inserting a Disc in the Player and modifying the OffLine flags as appropriate. The Description will be displayed to your users during certain operations. GAPFILE will display the number of the FileBase currently being edited at the top of the screen. You cannot leave gaps in your FBASE.DAT. In other words, you cannot skip numbers. For instance, if you number your FileBases number 1, 2, and 4, GAP will NOT assume that you have 4 FileBases but number 3 in not available. Instead, if a user wishes to change to FileBase #3, GAP will read the 3rd line in FBASE.DAT to obtain the necessary information. You will need a DIRS and a FILES.DIR for each of your FileBases. For the Main FileBase, these files retain their current names. For the Alternate FileBases, these files have the following names: DIRS2 FILES2.DIR - FileBase #2 DIRS3 FILES3.DIR - FileBase #3 DIRS20 FILES20.DIR - FileBase #4 As with the Main FileBase, you must have an equal number of Lines in DIRSxx and FILESxx.DIR as you have Directories for that FileBase. If you change to an Alternate FileBase and the number of lines in that FileBases's DIRS file does not equal the number of directories configured for that FileBase, you will need to edit the appropriate file (either DIRS or FBASE.DAT) and fix the problem. The number of directories in the Dirs field of FBASE.DAT for the Main FileBase is for reference only. GAP will always use the number of directories you have configured in GAPSETUP when manipulating the Main FileBase. If you create New (empty) Alternate FileBases (this is done when you switch to an Alternate FileBase and it does not yet have any files), your menus will change such that the only operations you may peform are Add File, Import Files, and Stray Files. It is the same as if you were creating a brand new FileBase (which you are). If you have CD-ROMs which come with pre-made FileBases, you may copy these to your hard drive giving them the name of an alternate FileBase. The FileBases are named as follows: Main FileBase Alternate FileBases ------------- ------------------- FILES.DAT FILESxx.DAT FILES.IDX FILESxx.IDX FILEKEY.DAT FILEKxx.DAT FILEKEY.IDX FILEKxx.IDX (xx = 2 thru 20) If you have only a single CD-ROM but would like to separate the CD-ROM files from the uploaded and Forum files, you can copy your FILES.* and FILEKEY.* files to FILES2.* and FILEK2.*, copy DIRS and FILES.DIR to DIRS2 and FILES2.DIR, then use Delete Drive to delete all of the CD-ROM files from your Main FileBase and then switch to FileBase 2 and use Delete Drive to delete all the non CD-ROM files. You will then need to change subjects as appropriate and create new DIRS and FILES.DIR files. While editing the Main DIRS file, if you increase or decrease the number of lines in the file, GAPFILE will automatically update your configuration to reflect the number of new directories. If you use Alternate FileBases, GAPFILE will NOT update the directories field for the Main FileBase in FBASE.DAT. To do this, simply Edit the FBASE.DAT file and change the number of directories on line 1 to the number of directories you now have. When first loaded and when GAPFILE builds a Subject List for the Main Board (which it does by reading your DIRS file), if the DIRS file is missing or if the number of lines in the file does not match the number of directories you have configured, GAPFILE will no longer dump you back to DOS. Instead, you will be given two chances to fix the problem. GAPFILE will first take you to the DIRS editor where you can either create the file, or add/delete lines to make the file correspond with the number of directories you have configured. If the problem is not with the DIRS file and you Esc out of the editor and the problem still persists, GAPFILE will then take you into the FBASE.DAT editor. Here you should change the number of directories for your Main FileBase so that it matches the number of lines in your DIRS file. If, after the 2nd attempt at fixing the problem, there is still a mismatch between the configured number of directories and the number of lines in your DIRS file, GAPFILE will exit to DOS. 07/29/92 First Release of Version 6.3 NOTE: You NEED to run GAPSETUP on each of your Nodes in order to save out the new configuration. GAPBBS If a LOGON.BAT exist, GAP will run the file even if the sysop is logging in Locally. In order to avoid this, Sysop In Quick may be used. When joining a Forum, if a user's Last Read Message Pointer is higher than the highest message in the Forum, GAP will adjust the user's message pointer in one of two ways: If the user has New Mail in that Forum, GAP will set the Last Read pointer to the first message number. If the user doesn't have New Mail, GAP will set the Last Read pointer to the last message number. This should help alleviate the problems where a user read a message with an extremely high number and is now stuck with that high number as a last read pointer, or when the sysop moves Forums around, or resets the Message Pointers in MESSNO.DAT. Previously, certain files were hard coded to be in your Main Board GEN directory. For instance, if you had a Forum UPLOAD file, GAP would always display the UPLOAD file from the Main Board. Now, any GEN file that does not pertain to the logon sequence can be Forum specific. A new AnsiCmd was added called HANDLE. When used, GAP will substitute the caller's Handle. GAP now checks to see if the remote Terminal supports RIP graphics. If so, the Status Line will show an 'R' indicating that the user can receive RIP graphics. GAP will then display RIP versions of all your screens. If a RIP version isn't available then your regular screens will be sent. Note that on the SYSOP end, the local screen will continue to display the color (or ASCII) versions of the files. What the user sees isn't what the Sysop sees! The "Do You Want ANSI Color" was changed to "Do You Want Color" and the help file modified accordingly. If the user chooses No (even though GAP detected RIP capability), then the regular ASCII screens will be sent and GAP will filter color codes. RIP detection is tied into ANSI detection. They are both performed at the same time. Therefore, if you have "Seconds To Wait for Auto ANSI" turned off (set to 0) then GAP also won't check to see if the caller's Terminal has RIP capability. Note that even if GAP detects and sends a RIP file (Main Menu for instance) it will STILL display its prompts. Your RIP files can disable the Text Window so the user doesn't see these prompts, if you wish. Any screen that requires user input, must be designed so that the Terminal program on the other end knows what to send back when the user mouse clicks or selects an item on the screen. RIP files are named similarly to your graphic files: MAINM MAINM.50 NEWS NEWS1 WELC WELC1 MAINMG MAINMG.50 NEWSG NEWS1G WELCG WELC1G MAINMR MAINMR.50 NEWSR NEWS1R WELCR WELC1R <- RIP The difference is the 'R' in the base part of the filename. If a particular file doesn't have a RIP equavalent, GAP will look for a file called TEXT.RIP (GEN Directory). If this file is found, it will be sent to the remote terminal. This file should place the remote terminal in "text mode". If the TEXT.RIP file does not exist, GAP will place the remote terminal in text mode itself, but there won't be any fancy borders and what not. If "Write DOOR.SYS at Log On" is set to Yes, GAP will now write the number of minutes the user has left. Previously GAP was writing 0 to the DOOR.SYS file for time remaining. When performing a Verification Check on a user, GAP will now give the user 2 tries to enter verifiable information. ASCII downloads somehow got broken a few versions ago. Guess nobody uses ASCII these days! Working again for what its worth. Upon Return from a Door, GAP will include as one of the re-readable fields in DOOR.SYS, the User Expiration Date. Before GAP updates the User Record with a changed Subscription Expiration Date, it will first validate the date and make sure it is in GAP Format. If not, that field will not be changed in the User Record. A valid date is: 99/99/99 Where leading zeros are required and slashes instead of dashes are used to delimite the month, day, and year. And of course, the date must resolve to a valid calendar date. The way Free Files (as defined in the FileBase for each individual file) are handled, has changed dramatically. If a user tries to download a Free File and the user doesn't have enough Bytes, Files, or Time allocated, GAP will now allow the transfer anyway. If a Free File takes 20 minutes to download and the user only has 10 minutes left (and there is no Event pending) GAP will allow the download (single file download) or the Queing up of the File in the Batch Que. If you don't want the user to loose any time while downloading the Free File, then set the Config Option of "Stop Clock on Free Files" to Yes. Otherwise, if the user tries to download a batch of Free Files that take longer than the number of minutes the user has available, the user will be logged off for "Expired Time" after the download. Added support for GAPCom (soon to come) so that GAPBBS and GAPCom can talk to each other behind the scenes. More support to come in future releases. When writing a DOOR.SYS file, GAP will no longer write all of the Forums a user is a member of. Instead, GAP will just write a 0 (for the Main Board). This should NOT present a problem since we do NOT know of ANY DOORs that use the FORUM Membership line in DOOR.SYS. If you have a Door that DOES use this info, speak up now or we will leave it as it is. The above change was made for those who have a LOTS of Forums configured. Reading the MEMBER file while writing DOOR.SYS slows these systems down tremendously. Fixed the TimeCredits while Uploading so that the credits are in effect while entering the Descriptions. It seems users with a 1 to 1 Upload Credit (no time lost, no time gained) were being logged off for 'Expired Time' after they spend several minutes filling out the Descriptions. (Whatever time they gained during the actual uploading was being lost filling out the Descriptions). Local Downloads are implemented. The process is automatic. If you or a user are on locally, GAP will prompt you for the path to copy the file(s) to. Fixed a problem with sending files using Zmodem. Because of the change Microsoft made to the time routines in the C Library, the Zmodem dates were off. We implemented a work-a-round. The Overlay Manager was patched so that it opens GAPBBS.EXE using shared attributes. You should keep in mind that if you share your EXE files between your nodes, you still need to set the EXE's to Read Only. Even though the Overlay Manager will open the EXE in shared mode, DOS continues to open and load files using exclusive access mode. This means that if two nodes try to run GAPMENU, GAPBBS, or any of the other EXE files at exactly the same time, only ONE Node will be given access rights to the EXE. The only inconvienence of setting your EXE files to Read Only is forgetting to reset the attribute when you install new updates (you won't be able to copy the updated EXE on top of the old file). The workings of the ARCREAD.BAT have been modified slightly. You will need to change your ARCREAD.BAT or use the supplied file. GAP will now pass as the first parameter, the full path of where the file to be read should be extracted to (which will be one of your Work Directories). The other 3 parameters remain the same but they've been moved up one (for instance, the old parameter 1, Name of Archive to Process, is now parameter 2). Your batch file needs to be modified so that it extracts the file to be read into the work directory. GAP will then display the extracted file from your work directory. After displaying it the file will be deleted. Fixed a problem with the View/Change Stats menu where users were being allowed to select the number of a field that was not displayed and change the information contained in the unseen field. We think we may have finally caught the Phantom Sysop and locked him up. Only time will tell since he isn't a regular visitor. Due to popular demand, GAP now supports the viewing and reading of any Archive file format, including self contained archives (EXE or COM files). GAP internally supports the viewing of ARC's and ZIP's and externally supports other compression formats via a batch file. The internal support for the reading of a text file within an ARC or ZIP has been removed. This is now performed externally via a batch file. When a user selects the Archive View Command, if the archive is not an ARC or ZIP, GAP will shell to a batch file called ARCVIEW.BAT. This file goes in your Default Directory. A sample batch file is included. It handles ARC, ZIP, and LZH formats. This batch file must invoke the compression program so that it creates a listing of the archive. The listing is redirected to a file called ARCVIEW.TXT, which must be placed in your Default Directory. GAP will delete this file after it has displayed it to the user. When a user selects the Archive Read Command, GAP will shell to a batch file called ARCREAD.BAT. This file goes in your Default Directory. A sample batch file is included. This batch file must invoke the compression program so that it extracts the file specified by the 3rd parameter passed to it. The file must be extracted into your Default Directory. GAP will rename this file to ARCREAD.TXT and display it to the user. After displaying the file, GAP will delete it. Fixed some problems with messages addressed TO the Sysop and the Sysop being told he has no mail to read. GAPBBS will recognize a Quick LogOff (G Q), and NOT display the ENEWS file if the user knows how to issue the command. The Quick Log Off will NOT be allowed if the Quick Log On is NOT Allowd. GAPBBS will now strip leading spaces in front of any command that it expects to receive. OFF, LOGOFF, BYE, GOODBYE, and any combination thereof will be recognized as a legitimate Log Off Command. Fixed a problem with Read Only Forums and not being able to Read Mail or Import Mail. Any Marked files will now be displayed with the word "Marked" in the date field (condensed listing). GAP will no longer say a user is Available for Chat when a user has his/her Chat Availability turned off. Any file that fails the upload integrity check will now be written to the caller log. GAP now supports the DigiBoard COM/Xi series of Intelligent Serial Communications boards. These boards contain 4 or 8 serial ports along with their own on-board processor to control the ports. These boards are actually a single-board computer dedicated to handling serial port I/O. By moving the serial I/O functions from the Host Computer to the DigiBoard, the IRQ and Interrupt Latency bottleneck that plagues Multi-Tasking users is eliminated. GAP supports the DigiBoard in two ways: Direct Programming and INT14/EBIOS calls. Direct Programming is the fastest because it eliminates the need for costly software interrupt calls to a slower BIOS. In addition it does not require the presence of a Device Driver which basically performs the same functions as the Direct Programming method. INT14/EBIOS requires that a Device Driver be loaded (this driver is supplied by DigiBoard). Serial Port I/O is performed by issuing software interrupts (Interrupt 14). Whether or not to use the Direct Interface or the Int14/EBIOS Interface depends on the external programs you are running. GAP and any Door program written with GAPCDR or GAPQBDR will work with the Direct Interface without problem. This Interface is faster and more reliable than the Int14/EBIOS Interface. However many Door programs will simply not work at all, no matter which interface you choose and those that will work with the DigiBoard require that the DigiBoard Device driver be installed. In that case, the Int14/EBIOS Interface must be used. The Direct Interface requires that you use the program RESETDIG.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file so that the DigiBoard is properly initialized each time you boot your computer. This program is needed in order to properly establish the communications channel between GAP and the DigiBoard. It need be run only once when the computer is first booted. NOTE: Do NOT use RESETDIG.EXE if you have elected to use the Int14/EBIOS Interface. If you do, you will essentially put the Device Driver to sleep and since GAP uses Enhanced BIOS calls, the communications routines will fail. When using the Int14/EBIOS interface and the DigiBoard supplied Device Driver, it is not necessary to turn on the "Character Waiting" flags for each of the ports. GAP does not use these flags as they basically defeat the purpose of using a multi-port board in a multi-tasking system. To use these flags an IRQ must be dedicated to the DigiBoard. If the flags are not used, the IRQ need not be set. Imagine running 8 ports under a Multi-Tasker where all 8 ports are in use. As characters are received by each of the 8 ports, an interrupt is generated. The Device Driver must service the interrupt request and since the driver runs on the Host Computer, it will be spending a lot of precious time figuring out which of the ports generated the interrupt and updating its "Character Waiting" flag for that port. By disabling the "Character Waiting" flags and not utilizing the IRQ, the Host Computer will not know it has 8 serial ports running at high speed at the same time. If, however, the the IRQ and Character Waiting flags are enabled, no harm is done. GAP simply will not utilize the flags. The Character Waiting flags are provided because making Interrupt 14 calls takes longer than simply checking a memory address (which, by the way, is what the Direct Programming interface does). When Invoking a Door Program or when shelling to an External Protocol Driver, GAP will pass COM 1 as the Port Number to use. This Port Number should be ignored and your batch files should be configured so that each Node runs a Door or External Protocol based upon your DigiBoard Configuration. These configuration options for the door or protocol basically depend upon your DigiBoard Channel Number. In order to run a Node in Local Mode, you have always needed to set the "Communications Port" to 0. The same still applies. If you run 4 or 8 nodes with a DigiBoard but one of those nodes is a Local Only Node (i.e., no modem is involved), then for THAT node, select the STANDARD Interface and set the Port to 0. The Maximum Baud Rate for a DigiBoard Node should be no higher than 38400. Some of the newer boards (the 2 Port Board for instance) are capable of 115200 bps but we do not suggest setting the Channel that high. The COM/Xi supports speeds up to 57600 but suffers from the "CRC Syndrome", meaning, it looses characters. If you experience lost characters and/or see a lot of CRC errors during File Transfers, then your Port Speed is set too high. But just because you are using a lower Port Speed doesn't mean things have slowed down. Remember that the DigiBoard is handling the COM Port I/O. NOTE: If using the Int14/EBIOS interface and you have the February 1993 release of the XIDOS Device Driver, you MUST call the DigiBoard BBS and download the patch to this driver since the 2/93 release has a bug that will cause all File Transfers and Attached Files to fail. LOGON.BAT and the Sysop Defined Menu Items are no longer credited against a user as a Door Opened. Fixed a problem with Zmodem Uploads where a single error could cause the entire transfer to be aborted. If running a Subscription board and a user's subscription is expired, when unregistering the user in private Forums, GAP will no longer go through every Forum to see if it is a Private Forum and if so, delete the user from the Member record of that Forum. Instead, GAP will now index through the Member File for just that user and delete any records that belong to a Private Forum. This should speed up log ons for users who's subscription is expired. When replying to a message, you may now reply to the person that the message is for (the To Person in the message header). To do so, you simply append a 'T' after the Reply command in the message disposition prompt: R - Reply normally (to the person who left the message) RT - Reply to the person the message is To (if the message is to YOU, then you will reply to yourself). For instance, if Bob Jones leaves Sally Smith a message and you issue a RT at the prompt, you will reply to Sally Smith instead of Bob Jones. When replying to a message, you may now delete the message you are replying to (providing "Allow Deleting of Messages" is turned on or you have Sysop level). To do so, simply append a 'D' after the Reply command in the message disposition prompt: R - Reply normally RT - Reply to the To person of a message RD - Reply normally, delete message after reply RTD - Reply to the To person of message, delete after reply When reading messages and invoking the user editor to edit the record of the person who left the message (the To user), using the 'F' command, you may now alternatively edit the record of the person the message is To. To do so, simply append a 'T' after the 'F' command: F - Edit user record belonging to the person who left the message. FT - Edit the user record belonging to the person the message is To. If you are using LOGON.BAT to simply create a DOOR.SYS file you may remove that file since GAP will now write a DOOR.SYS file when a user Logs On. DOOR.SYS won't be created when the Sysop logs in locally (Sysop In or Sysop In Quick). If you want GAP to write a LOGON.BAT file, then on the Third Miscellaneous Screen in GAPSETUP there is a new option down at the bottom where you tell GAP to write the file. When Joining a Forum, if there is a LOGON.BAT in the Forum's Default directory, GAP will run the batch file. As with the regular LOGON.BAT file, this will not occur if it is the Sysop on-line or if an Event is pending. The 5 Node version has been replaced by a 6 Node version. The 10 Node version has been replaced by a 99 Node version. GAP now consists of the following versions: Single Node - $ 79.00 3 Node - 159.00 6 Node - 259.00 99 Node - 359.00 GAPPACK When packing any of the Message Files, GAPPACK will now delete an attached file that belongs to a message about to be purged. The ISAM Pack routines were not closing the original Data File after the packing process was completed. For some NetWare Lite users, this was preventing GAPPACK from renaming or copying the Data File to a Backup File. GAPUSER There is a new Report option on the Reports Menu called "Export Users". This Report will create a Comma Delimited File containing all of the users in your User File (with the exception of the Sysop). The name of the file will be USER.EXP. The USER.EXP file can be imported into most DataBase programs (Clarion, Dbase, FoxPro, etc). Any program capable of reading a file where each record appears on a single line with strings surrounded by quotes will be able to read this Export File. The fields that are written are defined as follows: String : Last Name String : First Name String : Address 1 String : Address 2 String : City String : State String : Zip String : Country String : Home Phone Number String : Business/Data Phone Number String : Registration Date String : Subscription Expiration Date Integer : Security Level With the above information, you can create reports, mailing labels, dunning letters, or what have you, using your favorite DataBase Manager. The Security Level is included as part of the Export in case you segregate users based upon level. There is a new Item on the Utility Menu where you may change the Public Forum flag for your users. This flag was previously hard coded to Yes, which means that any user who's subscription has expired would be removed from all Private Forums that the user is a Member of. In conjunction with the new option in GAPSETUP, you are now responsible for how Expired Users are dealt with in regards to Private Forums. This Utility allows you to change the Public Forum flag from Yes to No, or No to Yes. When UnRegistering users in a Forum or a Range of Forums, GAPUSER will no longer loop thru each User Record. Instead, it will simply delete any Member Record that belongs to the Forum(s) being unregistered. This will speed up the process of UnRegistering users but it also means that User Names cannot be displayed, just User Numbers. In GAPUSER, there are two new fields. These fields relate to QWK Networking and if you are not a HUB for a QWK Network, you can simply ignore these two fields. The two new fields are at the bottom right hand side of the screen and are: QWK Network Status Allow Non Echo Forums QWK Network Status allows a user to send messages to your BBS using a QWK Mail Door (or internal QWK) where the messages are not FROM the user. If you run a QWK Network HUB, you will want to set this field to Yes for ANY user that is a "node" off of your HUB. By setting this field to Yes, you are allowing the user to UPLOAD messages that do NOT have his/her name in the FROM field of the message. This field is used by GAP's QWK/REP Modules. The second new field, "Allow Non Echo Forums" goes with "QWK Network Status". If a user has Network Status, then you can optionally allow the user to have access to your non Echoed Forums. With other systems, your QWK Network Users are required to use two separate accounts on your BBS. One for Network Mail and one for personal Mail. By setting this flag to Yes, you are allowing the QWK Network User to have access to the Forums you have that are NOT ECHOED (Same as if the User were just using a Mail Reader). If you prefer that the Netmail Node have two separate accounts on your BBS, leave this field set to NO. With this field set to NO, the Node will have to call back using a different Name and import/export non-echoed Forums in the normal manner (where he/she has to read the messages with an off-line Mail Reader). If you have insurances from your Netmail Node that he/she will place the messages from your Non-Echoed Forums into private Forums where only the Sysop has access to those Forums, then you can set this field to YES. If you do NOT understand the differences between allowing a Net Status User access to NON Echoed Forums, then DEFINATELY set this field to NO. You should NOT set this field to YES unless you KNOW for a FACT, that the Node has set up restricted access to the Forum where he is importing your non-echoed messages (on his/her board). We will have a separate manual for those who use the internal QWK modules to implement QWK Networking. GAPFILE Fixed a problem with Stray Files, Mass Move, and the FILES.DIR. If you didn't have a CR/LF (Carriage Return/Line Feed) after the last entry (the last line - Upload Directory), then while attempting to perform the Stray Files Import or the Mass Move, GAPFILE would produce an error message saying that the "Destination Dir" doesnt not exist. Fix Keywords has been enhanced to filter out all non Alpha Numeric characters, with the exception of a few delimiters. In addition, more "bad words" were added to the list of keywords that should not be allowed into the Keyword file. Also, if a keyword exists twice in the Keyword field, that keyword will be added to the Keyword file only once. This will reduce the size of the Keyword files a bit. For those of you running GAPFILE from remote via DoorWay, you may now pass a 2nd parameter to GAPFILE to tell it to disable the Dos Shell Key (Alt-F5). This is necessary since the sysop won't be able to see or do anything while in the shell. The 2nd parameter is called NOSHELL: GAPFILE 6 NOSHELL During Importing, GAPFILE will no longer allow a description to overflow into the Password field. This was fixed several years ago but somehow got broken again. You may Globally change any and all Passwords to a password of your choosing or no password at all. To do this, enter an '*' in the Old Field, and the new password (or blank) in the New Field. You may now include files that are in the Root Directory of a drive in your FileBase. To do so, leave off the trailing slash. For instance, a file in the Root Directory of Drive C: would have a 'Where' Field of 'C:'. Fixed a problem with the Move Files Utility Function. If you were moving more than 200 files, the last file on the screen was causing problems with the first file. To tell GAPFILE to NOT create a DOS Window when using the Stray Files command, a new toggle was added to the Stray Files Menu. You can toggle the window on and off by checking the "Use DOS Window" prompt on the Menu. Note that in order to "remember" this toggle, we had to add a new field in the GAPFILE.CNF configuration file. This means any previous defaults you had set up for the Utility Menus will be lost. On the Utility Menu there is a new function that allows you to merge one FileBase with another. Using this utility, you can take a FileBase and merge all of its files with your current FileBase. One use of this new feature would be if you just purchased a CD and the CD came with its own FileBase. Instead of loosing your existing files or having to export them and then re-import them into the CD FileBase, you can simply merge them with the files from the CD. To use this feature, you will need a FILES.DAT from your old FileBase. It should be renamed to FILESOLD.DAT or something similar. You won't need the .IDX file or the FILEKEY.DAT and .IDX files. GAPFILE will merge all of the files in the FILESOLD.DAT with the files in your current FILES.DAT. Any duplicates, that is, any files in the FILESOLD.DAT that are already in the current FileBase will not be merged. Their names along with the Area and Subject where they are located will be written to the IMPORT.LOG file. GAPFILE was modified to support the new PKZIP compression format. The next release will support the ARCVIEW and ARCREAD batch files so that it will support any archive format and allow reading of a text file from within an archive. When Moving Files using the Move Files Utility Menu option if there are more than 200 files in the directory, you may now move files beyond the 200th file. 200 files will be displayed at a time. You will process the group of 200 files in the normal fashion (i.e., tag the files to be moved and press F9 to move them). After the files are moved the next 200 files will be displayed. If there are no files in the group to be moved, you may press PGDN to bring up the next group of 200 files. You may also include only those files that are older than so many days. For instance, if you want to move only those files that are older than 30 days, you may specify 30 in the new Menu Option field for Move Files and any files less than 30 days old will not appear in the list of files. Keep in mind that while filtering files, the displaying of any files found will be slower since GAPFILE has to check the date on each of the files. If you don't want to filter files by their age, simply leave the "Older Than" field at 0. Also, during the Move Files utility, you may now press F6 to see an Enhanced Description of the current file (the file where the cursor is). This will allow you to see who uploaded the file, how many times it has been downloaded, the last access date, etc. Remember that the Active Function Keys are ALWAYS explained by pressing the F2 key. If you need to see what key does what, don't forget the F2 key! GAPMENU There is a CAS Compatible FAX version of GAPMENU available for download from the Support Board. If you do not have a FAX Modem or the CAS software to interface with the modem, then don't bother downloading this version of GAPMENU. If you have a FAX Modem and your Modem returns "CONNECT FAX" or returns FAX anywhere in the CONNECT String when there is a FAX on the other end instead of a Modem Caller, GAPMENU will shell out to a file called FAX.BAT (in the DEFAULT Directory for the Node). If the file doesn't exist, nothing will happen - except for GAPMENU recycling. If the file IS Present, then the FAX.BAT file can run your FAX Software to retrieve the incomming FAX transmission. YOU are responsible for creating the FAX.BAT file which will call your FAX software to retrieve the FAX. Once the FAX is received, GAPMENU will regain control and bring the BBS back up. GAPSETUP On the Subscription Configuration Screen, there is a new option where you can set the default flag for Expired Subscription users and Public Forums. This flag was previously "hard coded" to be a Yes (set Expired Users back to the Public Forums and remove them from Private Forums). You may now set the default for your New Users, yourself. Note that this field is just a Default Field. GAPBBS doesn't look here to see if an Expired User should be removed from Private Forums. It looks at the User's Record. This field is ONLY used to set the default value for this field when a New User logs on. On the Files System Options Screen, there is a new field called "Stop Clock On Free Files". If set to Yes, then if there are no Events Pending, the user isn't using an External Protocol, and the file being downloaded is a Free File, the user won't be charged for time spent downloading the file. This means if the user had 20 minutes prior to downloading the Free File, the user will have 20 minutes AFTER downloading the Free File. Note that this feature is disabled if the user's time was adjusted because of an impending event and it is disabled if the user uses an External Protocol to download the file. If you have Free Files that you would like for your users to download, totally Free of time, bytes, and files (see below) then you might consider a News or Bulletin File that tells the users to use an Internal Protocol. Sorry, but we can't keep track of time or Free Files while a user is using an external program to download those Free Files. On the 3rd Miscellaneous Screen, there is a new field called "Return To Door Menu". If set to Yes, GAP will stay at the Door Menu when a user returns from a Door. This only applies to Doors that are invoked with the Open or Door Commands. The Modem Reset, Init, and Off Hook strings were moved to a new Configuration Screen and are now called "Modem Commands". On the Port Configuration Screen (used to be Modem Configuration Screen) there are 4 new fields where you specify the Communications Port Interface GAP should use and the DigiBoard Specific options if you are using an Intelligent DigiBoard. Following is an explanation of the new fields: Interface : The Com Port Interface to use: Standard - Normal COM Interface. Same as what GAP has always used. DigiBoard - Direct DigiBoard Interface. Int14/EBIOS - DigiBoard Interface via Interrupt 14 Enhanced BIOS calls. DigiBoard Memory Window : The High Memory Address you have the DigiBoard configured to use as the communications area between the Board and the Host Computer. Must be one of: C000, C800 D000, D800. DigiBoard I/O Port : The Port you have the DigiBoard configured to use. Must be one of: 100, 110, 120, 200, 220, 300, 320. DigiBoard Channel : The Communications Port Number on the DigiBoard to use for this instance of GAP. For the DigiBoard Interface, this is normally 1 - 8. For the Int14/EBIOS Interface, this is normally 4 - 11. If you do not have a DigiBoard installed, you should select the Standard Interface. The Phone Template now allows you to enter an 'X' in the character positions. An 'X' tells GAP that anything is allowed in the field. This is necessary for some European countries. If you do decide to allow any character in a Phone Number, you need to disable 'Force Registration' so that GAP won't attempt to validate the phone number. Fixed a problem with editing the DOORS files. On the Files System Screen, there are two new options. These are: 'Copy Files From Drives' and 'To Drive'. These options enable GAP to copy files from a CD-ROM to a hard drive. This is necessary when working with very slow CDs or 'juke boxes'. Copy Files From Drives - You enter the letters of the Drives that GAP is to copy files from. You may currently enter up to 18 drive letters. If you leave this field blank, GAP will not copy any files. To Drive - This is the Hard Disk drive that GAP copies the files onto. GAP will create a work directory off of the root of this drive and copy the files into that directory. After the files are downloaded, GAP will delete the files and remove the directory. Although this feature is designed primarily for CD-ROM's, it can also be used to copy files from a slow hard drive to a faster hard drive, or from a Network drive on the Server to a local drive on a Workstation. On the 2nd Miscellaneous Info Screen, there is a new field, below the "Node Number" field, where you may tell GAP how many nodes you are actually using. This option is used during WHO and CHAT displays and when using the "Network Monitor" Window in GAPMENU. If you are running the 99 Node version and are only using 15 Nodes, you can set this field to 15 and GAP will only display 15 Nodes when showing the WHO-CHAT-NETMON screens. Similarly, if you are running the 6 Node version and are only using 4 nodes, you can set this field to 4 and GAP will only display 4 nodes while using those functions. This field needs to be set to the highest number of Nodes in your system and should be the same for ALL Nodes in that system. Meaning, you need to edit the configuration for each of your Nodes and set this field to the same number. GAPCALL Fixed a problem with GAPCALL and running from the Command Line. Seems it would sometimes (or all the times, depending upon who was running it) produce a Divide by 0 error when exiting. QWK/GAPNET/UTI Fixed a problem with messages that have lower case names in the TO and FROM fields. This was causing the New Mail flags to not be updated.