FLIPCAT! 3.0 Copyright (c) 1991,93 - Triad Solutions, Inc. * What is FLIPCAT? Flipcat is a versitile screen rotation system for use with any Bulletin Board System (BBS). It allows for a complex rotation definitions to be assigned to a given set of screens. These options include Date/Time ranges, Days of Weeks, Every Year, Active Set, Rotation Type, and Set priorities. * Why is FLIPCAT different from other rotation programs? Flipcat 3.0 allows for many options that other programs do not. It Allows a user to create a multitude of sets, each with up to 100 screens in them, and store them in a database. This is an advantage because it allows for Multiple nodes to access the same data. With Multiple nodes, screen locking becomes a problem, so Flipcat checks a lock on a screen before attempting to copy it. If the screen is locked, it will make several passes, as defined be the user, to try and rotate that screen. The complex definition options allow a sysop to customize any given set to rotate at given times, dates, and days of the week. A set can be defined to rotate a file from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm on Monday, Thursday, and Friday, July 1st to July 21 of every year. With this range of definition, a sysop can plan a wide range of events to display over a long period of time. * What makes FLIPCAT easy to use? Flipcat 3.0 contains a easy to use interface for creating and defining sets to rotate. This interface contains File Pick/Tag options to point to files that you want to include in your sets, saving you hours of data entry to customize your sets. Once your database is created, FLIPDATA can be used to make quick modifications to you database. The Ansi/BBS Screen browse options make it easy for identifying screens to add to your sets. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FLIPDATA! v1.0 FLIPDATA is the backbone to FLIPCAT. It creates the database which will hold all the sreen set defination information. It will allow you to define up to 1000 sets, each holding up to 100 screen names. This will give you the ability to rotate up to 1,000 screens from a choice of 100,000. It is the potion of FLIPCAT taht you, the sysop, will interface with. The screen : 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� SCREEN SET ROTATION DEFINITION 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � Destination Screen Name : Set Number : 1 � � Destination Path : � � 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � � Screens To Rotate : NONE � Active : Y 넴 � � � Theme Rotation : N 넴 � � Start Rotation Date : 01/31/94 � Rotation Type : 1 넴 � � End Rotation Date : 12/31/99 � Priority : 1 넴 � � Start Rotation Time : 00:00:00 � Rotate Yearly : Y 넴 � � End Rotation Time : 23:59:59 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸� � � 賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽 � � 旼횯ays To Rotate컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � � � ALL[Y] MON[Y] TUE[Y] WED[Y] THU[Y] FRI[Y] SAT[Y] SUN[Y] 넴 � � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸� � � 賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽賽 � � EXIT 컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� ADD � From the top, DESTINATION SCREEN NAME : This is the name to where your selected files will be rotated to. Examples: HELLO1.BBS, FILE5.RIP, MSG10.ANS, etc. This field is required. It is possible to have multiple sets with the same destination name. These sets will be identified by the Set number in the upper right. If two sets have the same name, Flipcat will check Dates/Times/Days/ and priorities to see which set will be rotated to the destination location. DESTINATION PATH : Basically, this is where the file is copied to. The key will prompt you for a drive letter, and the produce a directory tree for you to pick the destination path. The path tree is not sorted, it is in the format in which dos stores it. It may be easier to enter the data manually in some cases. If a path is invalid, FLIPDATA will let you know when you try to add or update the record. SCREENS TO ROTATE : This option is a PICK LIST option. You must press to pick the screens that you wish to rotate. It will then prompt you for a drive letter. This is the drive where your screens reside. After entering a letter, you will be placed on that drive with a list of files and directories before you. The spacebar serves as a method of tagging/untagging the files that that you wish to include in that set. The ENTER key serves dual purposes. First, it allows you to enter into and out of a directory. This happens when you have a directory highlighted, and you press enter. Second, it ends your selection process if you have a file highlighted. It will then take all the selected files and store them in the selected set. This ENTER key concept is awkward, but easy to work with once the concept is grasped. The key will allow you to preview a screen. It the screen ends with an extention of .BBS, the screen will be displayed as a COLOR @-Code screen. Any other extension is treated as ANSI or TXT. For Ansi colors, ansi.sys or similar ansi driver should be loaded. The entry field will display the total number of screens selected after the selection process is complete. START/END Dates and Times : These fields will allow you to specify a range of dates and times for a set to be active. A range of 01/01/94 to 01/31/94 and 13:00:00 to 18:00:00 would rotate a screen all of January from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Different sets can then be defined with the same destination name, but rotate on different dates or time or both. The Year field could be any year if the YEARLY flag option is selected. This will allow a set to rotate on the same date range every year. This is handy for holidays and special occations. If a End Date is left as 12/31/99, it will be active every day until that stop date. This means that a general set can be defined to run until the year 2000 without the need of setting the yearly flag. DAYS TO ROTATE : This allows the set to be specific to a single or selected group of days with in a week. ALL DAYS will allow rotation on every day of the week. By selecting individual days, you can customize the set to rotate on week days, week ends, and any combination of days that you choose. Note, These fields do not over ride the Start Date and End Date fields. To achieve a WEEKEND SET for an entire year, you must define your date as 01/01/94 to 12/31/94 and select SAT and SUN in the DAYS area. To do this every year, set the YEARLY option to YES. This will allow the set to rotate every Saturday and Sunday of every week. SET TOGGLES ACTIVE SET : This toggle will allow you to disable a set and enable it without the need of removing it from the database and entering back in at a later date. THEME ROTATION : Sorry, this isn't active in this release. Setting it to yes or no will have no effect. ROTATION TYPE : This will specify the method in which the screens are to be rotated. The toggels are as follows : 1 - Random Rotation : This randomly picks a screen from the list and rotates it. 2 - Sequential Rotation : This read the last rotated screen from the database and rotate the next screen in the set. PRIORITY : This field has the greatest effect on a set. If two sets are defined with the same DESTINATION NAME and happen to be active at the same time on the same day, the priority will determine which set actually will be the one that is rotated. Prioity ranges from 1 ( the lowest ) to 9 ( the highest ). This is great for events. If you define a general rotation, you can assign a priority of 1. Then you can create special event sets that rotate to the save screen, but have a higher priority. When the specific time for the priority event arrives, the priority set will rotate in the place of the lower priority set. ROTATE YEARLY : This flag will allow a set to rotate in its same date range every year. This allows for Holiday sets and special occations. It also makes seasonal sets easier to work with by saving you need for defining each set for each year. THE FUNCTION KEYS: - HELP - PICK Screen or Directory - Edit your selected screens / - Previous/Next set in database. - Update a record in the database. - Create a NEW set. - Add a set to the database. ALT-D - Delete a record from the database. - Exit FLIPDATA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FLIPCAT This is the actual program that rotates the screens. It reads the sets from the FLIPCAT.DAT database, and generates a list of the screens that will be rotated. By default, FLIPCAT runs in a SINGLE-LINE UNREGISTERED mode. This means that it will simply copy files. If a destination file is open or locked, it is simply skipped. Also, FLIPCAT will lock the database so that no other node can access the database, log, or Config file at that time. This mode can only rotate 5 sets. The next mode is SINGLE-LINE Registered. This mode will make several attempts to rotate a screen if it is locked or open. The number of passes is defined in the FLIPCAT.CFG config file. This mode has the ability to rotate up to 1000 sets. Still, you cannot run multiple copies at the same time. Last, Multi-Line Registered Mode. This mode allows multilpe copies of Flipcat to be run at the same time. This is handy for systems where the sysop uses only one batch file for all nodes. In this mode, Flipcat supports Windows, OS/2, DesqView, Netware, and any MS-NET compatible network. Multi-Line mode also allows the sysop to use FLIPDATA while Flipcat is running. It also has the ability to rotate up to 1000 sets. These modes are activated by entering the REG KEY into the FLIPCAT.CFG. Keys are only available by registering Flipcat. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FLIPCAT.CFG - The Config File This file is a text file containing all the configuration information. If this file is not present, the defaults will be assumed. The FLIPCAT.CFG file contains information on the Sysop, BBS, Logging options, statistics, and registration key. EXAMPLE FLIPAT.CFG SYSOP Chris Grossmeier BBS Freezing Point Systems BBS. ; Purge the log to 1000 lines after running. Log Purge 1000 ; Make 3 attempts at copying a file. Passes 3 ;Stat on ; ; Register to recieve a KEY ;REG KEY Simple.. The Sysop and BBS are required for registered version. Log enables an activity log, the purge option afterwards is optional. when enabled, the log will be trimmed to 2000 lines. Fewer lines can be assigned bay adding the number of lines to the end. PASSES # tells flipcat how many attempts it should make at a locked file. The default is 10 passes. This option is only available in Registerd versions. STAT ON or STAT OFF is not active in this release. It will record run times, locked screens, number of passes, and date time stamp the data. REG KEY will be where registered users will add there key to enable Single-Line registered ot Multi-Line registered modes. Comments can be added or options can be disabled by adding a ; or : to the begining of a line. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PACKFLIP - Database repair utility. This utility serve two purposes. First, it will rebuild a database should it become damaged. Second, it packs a database after adding and removing sets. It is wise to run PACKFLIP after removing sets from your database. This will aid in the performace of FLIPCAT when it hase to build a list of sets to rotate. To run, simply place it in the directory containing the database and type PACKFLIP. It will rebuild the database in a matter of seconds. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ FLIPCAT3.EXE Copyright (c) 1994 by Triad Solutions, Inc. and Original program by Michael Wiltrout of TroutWare. FLIPDATA.EXE Copyright (c) 1994 by Triad Solutions, Inc. PACKFLIP.EXE Copyright (c) 1994 by Triad Solutions, Inc.