Door First Aid for GAP Communications Bulletin Board System ----------------------------------------------------------- First and foremost, let me say that this is not intended to be an end all/be all text on running doors with GAP! Consider it a starting place, a reference to use to glean some insite as to how the critters operate. This is a small sampling of the many doors available to you as a GAP sysop. The choices are limitless! In choosing GAP as your bulletin board software you've equipped yourself with a VERY versatile system that is well supported by utilities that will allow you to run nearly any door you please! What's in here? --------------- Included in this archive are numerous files. All of the files without extensions are the actual batch files that run the doors. Each batch file includes as its first line a remark that indicates which door it will run and what BBS software the door is to be configured for. (ie. If the remark indicates PCBoard 14 then that is how you will configure the door according to it's own instructions) Also included are several utilities that will supplement GAPDOOR that came with your software and allow you to run Wildcat doors, another means to run RBBS doors and some QBBS doors. I did not write these utilities! I have merely included the original archives to help you start your arsenal of conversion software. NOT included in this archive but most assuredly needed are all the BRUN runtime libraries and DORPTCH modules you can get your hands on! These are generally in the form of BRUNXX.EXE and DORPTCHXX. EXE... there are several versions of each and what you need for a particular door will differ depending on when and with what the door was compiled. Your best bet is to dump all of them in a single subdirectory and then include that subdirectory in your PATH statement. Let the door figure out what it needs I always say! For the DORPTCH files you will also need to make modifications to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You need only add the following two statements to it: SET LIB= SET DOORPCH=PCB About the Batch Files --------------------- Now I don't claim to be the worlds most efficient writer of batch files so you can probably make some major improvements to these samples! I can only say that they work as-is on my own bulletin board. Some explaining of how I do things is probably in order here. First thing is that I use MS-DOS 3.3 and cannot guarantee that they will work with all versions of DOS. Second the doors are pretty much divided into two categories. PCBoard 14 Doors and everything else. That is because the data file structures are different between PCBoard 14 and PCBoard 12 and a door written for one will not read the files for the other. To simplify things I keep a PCBoard 12 PCBOARD.DAT file in my GAP directory and create PCBOARD. SYS there as well when running a PCBoard 12 door. On my own board I put a PCBoard 14 PCBOARD.DAT in each PCBoard 14 door directory and copy the PCBoard 14 PCBOARD.SYS file there when the door is run. This keeps things from getting crossed up. If I had to install them all from scratch I'd probably just create two directories, one called PCB12 and one called PCB14 and put the respective PCBOARD.DAT files in each and copy the PCBOARD.SYS files there as well. And then just configure each door to look to the proper directory for it's data. But I was well along installing all this junk by the time I figured that out and being basically lazy never revised my own layout! Installing A Door ----------------- Ok, here we go! The part you really want to know! Now obviously I can't tell you here how to install every door out there. But I can give you some general outlines on how to go about it! First thing you need to do is get familiar with your tools. Put GAPDOOR.EXE and the utilities I've included with this archive in your GAP directory. Print the docs for each and give them a good looking over. Some of them, like GAP2WILD, require a configuration file so you'll need to create that. Included with GAPDOOR is a sample PCBOARD.DAT file for both PCBoard 12 and PCBoard 14, and also files for RBBS. Get them out and modified to match your own bulletin board, then stick them somewhere safe so you don't have to do it again! Something to look out for with the PCBOARD.DAT files are that some of the lines are VERY long! And if you try to edit them (and you will have to!) with EDLIN it will truncate them, and that will create problems when the door accesses it. Best thing is to use a good text editor (I use the editor in XTree Pro myself). Now grab the door you want to install. Create a subdirectory for it. On my own board to keep things straight I have a directory under my GAP directory called DOOR and then make a directory for each individual door in that one. So for Trade Wars for example my path would wind up \GAP\DOOR\TWAR or something similiar. Use whatever is easiest for you. Unarchive the door into its new home. Before you do anything else, READ THE DOCS! I can't emphasize that enough! Especially when you're new to installing doors! After you've been at it a while you'll get familiar with the formats used and will be able to do it without reading the docs but it's not a good idea to get in that habit. No telling when a door author will change formats on you! Nearly every door ever written has some kind of configuration file. This normally consists of telling it what your BBS name is, your name and the path to the door data files. Other things may include where and what you want to call a bulletin the door may generate. You can do two things in a case like that. Either go ahead and tell it what BLT number you want it to ultimately be, or if you're like me and change things around often, just have it create a BLT.TXT in it the door's directory and then have the batch file copy it to what you want. I use that method as its easier for me to change the batch file than to go back and change the door configuration. After you've hacked out the door configuration you need to write the batch file to invoke the door. That's where my samples come in. Depending on what BBS system the door was written for you'll need to use a converter to get GAP's info to a format the door can use. Sometimes you may need to convert it twice, as in the case of the QBBS version of Trade Wars! If you're lucky the door supports DOOR.SYS directly and since that's the format that GAP uses no conversion is necessary. More often than not conversion is in order. PCBoard doors are still dominate in the BBS scene so get used to them! Got all that done? Last but not least, modify your DOORS.DAT file to reflect the batch file name and add it to your menu. Most doors have a "local" mode that will let you test them out for big problems but it will take an online test to ensure the door is 100% operational. I have a self-drafted group of happy-go-lucky gamers that test my doors so I normally leave them off of the menu until one of these guys has a chance to check it remotely. Whatever works for you is fine though. In Closing ---------- Well, that about wraps it up! I hope you learned something out of all that! With any luck this will answer one or two questions you may have. Taking a look at the batch files will show you some general techniques to use with different formats. If all else fails don't be afraid to yell for help! That's what BBSing is all about I feel, computer nuts helping each other out! Feel free to contact me if you need help with a specific door. I'm pretty easy to get ahold of. I run my own BBS, CyberSpace in Seattle, Washington at (206)248-7647. I'm a member of RelayNet, NodeID - CSPACE, and will recieve a message in the RelayNet Doors conference, Sysop conference or the GAP Support conference. I call The Crow's Nest often and will recieve mail there as well. Notes ----- Included with the archive is also a utility called TL-11.ZIP... what this basically will do is provide you with a way to "lock" your doors to prevent them from running during certain hours. This is useful when running odd doors to keep users from overrunning your scheduled event times if the door does not keep track of the users time. A good example of this is the Universal Mayhem door and the batch file for that is included as MAYHEM. I'll leave it to you to read the documentation for TL and examine the MAYHEM batch file for specific implementation. Something to consider if this all seems too complex is investigating LivePro by Steve Cox. LivePro is a complete door monitor system for GAP that will greatly ease the installation and control of doors for you. The latest version of LivePro is normally on The Crow's Nest and you should be able to download it there. Parting Shots ------------- The included batch files and documentation, NOT TO INCLUDE the enclosed archives, are donated to the public domain for whomever wants them to do whatever they will with them. If they helped you in any way all I ask is that you maybe drop me a note somewhere telling me so. If you come up with a way to run a door noone else has mastered let me in on it! Or if you stumble over The Ultimate Door be sure to send a copy my way or at least tell me where to pick it up! Thanks! Michael Brunk, Sysop CyberSpace BBS