旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � ---===>>> Installing BoardMaster IV <<<===--- � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 By John Schachat This demonstration package is fully functional with one exception. It will only allow you to enter 5 Message Boards. Any more than that will be deleted each time it is run. Files contained in this package: BRDMASTR.TPG - TDBS 1.2 BoardMaster Program. BRDBLDR.EXE - DOS utility program used to create an initial message board database from the TBBS Config.Ctl file and update previous BoardMaster releases. FIDO.TPG - Builds Information files and is run from BoardMaster. CONFIG.DBF - Database that stores your Configuration options. CONFIG2.DBF - Database that stores your Configuration options. BRDMASTR.DBF - Database that stores your Message Boards. COMBBRD.DBF - Database that stores users' Personal Message Groups. USERCOLR.DBF - Database of User Color Selections DEFPMG.DBF - Database which contains New User Default PMGs BRDKEY.DBF - Database which contains your specific serial number and BBS name. This should never be modified or deleted. QSO.DBF - Database which is used when building from QSO.Ctl CHANGES.DBF - Database which holds Sysop editing changes. MENUADDR.SDL - Sample SDL of a Universal Mail Menu using the ADDRESS fields MENUNOTE.SDL - Sample SDL of a Universal Mail Menu using the NOTES field HELPL.TXT - User Help Text File Menu. HELP1.TXT - User Help Text for Individual Message Boards. HELP2.TXT - User Help Text for Personal Message Groups. HELP3.TXT - User Help Text for Integrated Mail Menus. HELP4.TXT - User Help Text for Customizing Your Colors. HELP5.TXT - User Help Text for Using QSO. BORD.DES - Type 20 Description File for use with IMB Search. BORD.HDR - Type 20 Header File for use with IMB Search. FASTSTRT.TXT - An install document with instructions to get you up fast BRDMASTR.TXT - Complete Installation Instructions. FLAGREST.QAL - A QAL which needs to be modified/compiled and is used with BoardMaster's BounceBack Feature. See instructions below. RULEFILE.TXT - Generic Rule File (Should be customized for your system) FIDONET.NA - Sample FIDONET.NA file TIMS.CTL - Sample TIMS.CTL file Sample External Menu Screens: MAIL.ASC - IMB Menu for ascii users MAIL.ANS - IMB Menu for ansi users MAIN.ANS - Main Menu for ansi users MAIN.ASC - Main Menu for ascii users GROUP.ASC - PMG menu for ascii users GROUP.ANS - PMG menu for ansi users Text Files which are created: BOARDS.TXT - A text file which is created by pressing uild on the Sysop menu. This file contains a listing of all your boards in 3 column format. BORD.INX - INX file created by BRDBLDR.EXE or the uild command for the IMB Search. Used with BORD.HDR and BORD.DES BOARDLST.TXT - A text file created by BRDBLDR.EXE which contains all the boards defined in CEDIT, their Priv levels and Flags. QSOOUT.CTL - Control File in QSO.CTL format AREASOUT.BBS - Control File in AREAS.BBS format TIMSOUT.CTL - Control File in TIMS.CTL format 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 � Installation Instructions: � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 First, put all BoardMaster files in their own sub directory. If you want to get going right away, print the Fast Start document in this package, follow it's instructions, then return to this document. This is the recommended approach for installing BoardMaster. Building your Message Board Database for the first time: If you want to extract all the boards you have defined in your Config.Ctl or QSO.Ctl file run BRDBLDR.EXE. BRDBLDR will read your Config.Ctl file or QSO.Ctl file and create a database/Index containing all your message boards with their flags and the read priv level. It will also create a text file with the same information called BOARDLST.TXT and an INX file called BORD.INX and a text file called BOARDS.TXT. After you have run this utility you may run BoardMaster and edit the Board Descriptions. They will originally be the same as the CEDIT board name, but may be changed. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � EasyMail Integration: � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� If you have purchased EasyMail, place all your EasyMail files in the BoardMaster directory. Make sure to configure your BoardMaster BounceBack flags and enable EasyMail from the Tailor Menus/Global Commands menu pick on the Sysop menu. Step 1. Run BRDBLDR.EXE. Select <1> if this is a new installation or <2> if you have been using an earlier version of BoardMaster and you want to preserve/update your databases. If you select <1> accept the Initialization defaults. You will be prompted for the complete path of your CONFIG.CTL\QSO.CTL\TIMS.CTL file. If nothing is entered, the default, C:\TBBS\CONFIG.CTL, will be used. You will also be prompted for board spacing. This is used by BoardMaster to create Board ID numbers. A spacing of 10, the default, will create ID numbers of 10, 20, 30, etc. If everything is correct, type ENTER. BoardBuilder will build it's databases as well as a text file called BOARDLST.TXT, an INX file called BORD.INX which is used for BoardMaster's integrated Type 20 search, and a text file called BOARDS.TXT which may be downloaded by your users for a complete listing of your system's boards. It is a good idea to print out BOARDLST.TXT as it will make it easier later as you Edit/Add Boards. You will note on the BoardBuilder screen that there are several Initialize options. During normal operation, accept the default entries. If, however, you want to initialize your PMGs and Color Selections, say "Y" to the prompts. BoardBuilder may also be run as a nightly event to reconcile your PMGs. to do this, run BoardBuilder with a -R paramater. Reconciliation insures that when you change Board ID numbers in the Main BoardMaster database, that those changes are carried over to user's Personal Message Groups. How it Works: Whenever you change a board's ID number, that change is stored in a database. When you invoke the reconciliation feature, those changes are compared against your users' PMGs and your new user default PMGs. Any board that is found in a PMG which matches the ID number of a board which has been changed is updated to the new ID number you have assigned. If you have deleted boards which were in a PMG, they will be permanently removed from that PMG. Reconciliation will process all editing changes you have made since it's last run. However, it should be run as soon as possible after ID number changes to insure consistency between PMGs and the main database. Failure to run Reconciliation will NOT result in anything catastrophic and will NOT affect the actual PMG functions. BoardMaster is very forgiving in this way. When a user edits a PMG, however, he will still see the old ID number associated with the Board that you changed/deleted without that board's description. Now, add the TBBS Menu Command line for BoardMaster into one of your menus. Example: Entry: Mail and Messaging System Priv=0 A1=-------- A2=-------- A3=-------- A4=-------- Key=M Type=200 Opt Data=C:\TBBS\BRDMASTR\BRDMASTR /Q && (Switches) Switches are space separated and may be: [4 CHARACTER TBBS MENU NAME] [-CAT] or [-CAT -B:] or [-CAT -B:ALL] or [-CAT -C:] Where: TBBS MENU NAME is the 4 character name of your TBBS universal message menu where the user will be sent to after he/she selects a board, IF YOU ARE NOT USING Internal Mail Commands. You may also offer users a choice of Categories, under which you may group message boards. You may have up to 999 categories defined. Direct Category access is implemented by adding -CAT to the opt data line. Like: C:\TBBS\BRDMASTR\BRDMASTR /Q && -CAT If BoardMaster detects this switch it will not display the main menu. Instead it will display a list of Categories which you have defined. When a user selects a category, only the boards identified with that category will be displayed. The second mode of category operation allows you to jump to the boards in a specific category without the category listing. To use this mode, configure the opt data using -CAT and -B:. like: C:\TBBS\BRDMASTR\BRDMASTR /Q && -CAT -B: The actual Opt Data call might look like: C:\TBBS\BRDMASTR\BRDMASTR /Q && -CAT -B:Adult Category If you use the ALL keyword instead of a Category Name, then BoardMaster will jump immediately to a listing of all boards, regardless of category. Like: C:\TBBS\BRDMASTR\BRDMASTR /Q && -CAT -B:ALL Finally, you may tell BoardMaster to do a partial match on the category name. And only display the categories which begin with that name. So if you have categories named: Adult Chat Adult Couples Adult Swingers Only BoardMaster will let you use the -C parameter to only display those categories that begin with the word 'Adult'. Like: C:\TBBS\BRDMASTR\BRDMASTR /Q && -CAT -C:Adult If no switches are detected, BoardMaster will bring the user directly to it's main menu. * Key Concept -> BoardMaster has 3 ways of dealing with mail commands. It can use it's own internal suite of commands which include ALL TBBS mail commands or it can use one of your external menus after an Individual Message Board has been selected. There is a setting in each board definition which defines which method will be used. The default is to use the Internal Command Set. If you are ONLY using the Internal Commands it is not necessary to include a TBBS menu name in the Opt Data command line or the optional NOTES keyword. If you are mixing internal and external methods or if all your selections will use an external menu you MUST include the TBBS Menu name. The final way is to process all commands internally, but use external text files as the display for those commands. This option does not rquire the Opt Data parameters and is configured internally with BoardMaster. When you first run BoardMaster you will be brought to a main menu. BoardMaster comes configured with 'canned' prompts and colors which may be easily changed to match your system. To access the sysop screen you will need a priv level of 255 which enables a SYSOP menu entry on the main menu. From the main menu type 'Z', which takes you to the Sysop screen. Don't be intimidated! There are a number of entries here which enable you to initially define the way BoardMaster looks and feels, and to define/manage your message boards. Once they are configured, there is very little that needs to be modified in the future. Let's run through them. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� � THE SYSOP INTERFACE � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� * Key Concept -> The word 'Board' is used to universally represent a Standard Board, Email Board, Topic Root or Sub-Topic * Key Concept -> All Boards have a unique 4 digit ID number you define as well as a 20 character description you enter. The Board's Name (not description) must be the identical to the one defined in CEDIT or match a CEDIT Topic root and it's hierarchy. ist\Edit\Add Message Boards - Shows a list of message boards that you have defined to BoardMaster. Allows you Add, Edit or Delete boards Ordered Combined Read - This is a toggle which allows you to change the way Combined Boards are accessed, either Ordered or Sequential. It does not affect PMGs, only the Combined Functions accessed from the main menu. enu to exit to after a User quits - Many times, when using an external SDL menu to drive a board's mail commands, the menu stack will repeatedly call that external menu. This command allows you to define the exit menu when a user quits from BoardMaster and should probably be the same as the menu that originally called BoardMaster. hange Menu Banners - BoardMaster presents the user with a number of different menu banners depending on the screen they are on. Although it comes with canned entries, you may change them to anything you want. By executing this command you are presented with 5 different Banners which may be modified or left as is. ailor User Prompts and Commands - Menus, prompts and commands within BoardMaster are Sysop configurable. It comes with 'canned' prompts but they may be modified to suit your needs. You will be brought to a menu which further defines which group of prompts you want to change. This is an area you will defintiely want to modify to include/exclude PostMaster, QSO and EasyMail use, modify Priv levels, and alter the terminology of the prompts. D Duplicate Checker - When manually entering Boards it is possible that you will make a mistake and define 2 different boards with the same ID number. The duplicate checker will go through all your Board ID numbers and flag any duplicates for you. If you find that you have entered duplicates you should delete/modify them and make sure you have unique numbers for each defined board. ID numbers may be modified 'on-the-fly', but Reconciliation should be run if you do. pecify Colors - BoardMaster allows you complete control over the colors it will use in Ansi mode. It is defaulted to a black background but that may be easily changed. Independent color selection may be made for virtually EVERYTHING the user sees. You must specify both a foreground and background combination which is in xbase format, i.e. Foreground color + '/' + Background color. All color combinations are possible and are defined on this menu. You may also define the Bracket style you wish to use as well as your system's default fore/back colors which are used when BoardMaster shells out to TBBS. lags and Priv Levels Master Switch - Each BoardMaster defined board may have it's own Flag and Priv level. If you do not desire any additional security you should turn this option off. This is also where you configure your BounceBack flags, which are discussed more at the end of this document. Note: BoardMaster security can seriously slow down your display of boards and is only recommended that it be applied for 'special' boards. Turning this switch on does not inherently slow the display down. It depends on the sub-switches located in each board's definition. If you are using QSO/TIMS 1.1 this is also where you will define the flags for the BounceBack feature. More on this later. ew User Default PMG - Each user may define their own Personal Message Groups. You, however, must set up a default group(s) as their first entry. They can always modify or delete them later on. The default groups should have your most popular or essential boards in them. This entry will be added to each new user's PMG selection list and will only be activated one time for each new user as they select PMG. This is one of the first things you should do. You may define up to 54 PMGs which will be used as new user defaults. uild a Text file listing of all your Boards - You can provide your users with a BoardMaster phone book of all the message Boards that are available on your system. This will build a text file with the BoardMaster 3 across format of all your boards. The file is named BOARDS.TXT. This command also builds the BORD.INX file used in the IMB type 20 search. This function also allows you to incorporate 'Information files' which provide further on each Board. Additional installation instructions for the Info Files. The information files provide your users with the ability to request additional information about a particular board. Incorporating this information may be accomplished in several ways. 1. It can be a completely manual process where you edit each board and add the new information. 2. You may use either a FIDONET.NA file or prepare a text file with the information offline and import it into the BoardMaster database. 3. You may use a combination of 1 and 2. About the FIDONET.NA file: This file is distributed through FidoNet on a regular basis and contains echo names and a brief description about each. You may use either this file or any text file which is formatted in the following manner: <64 char. max Description> Example: EMAIL Send and Receive Personal Electronic Mail AVIATION INTERNATIONAL AVIATION ECHO AVICULTURE Captive Propagation of Birds A_CAD International AutoCAD/CAD Conference A_THEIST A_Theism Education and Enlightenment Echo BAMA Odyssey Fringe Science Echo BASIC7 PDS and VB/DOS Discussions BATPOWER Batch Languages Programming This file must reside in the BoardMaster directory and must be named FIDONET.NA. This lets you create your own list of descriptive information for all your boards offline which may then be easily incorportated into BoardMaster while it is online. The second piece is that there must be a TIMS.CTL file, OR a file that contains MSGAREA information that BoardMaster can access. This is used by BoardMaster to translate FIDO echo information into CEDIT Board Names. It is formatted as follows: Example: MSGAREA EMAIL "EMAIL" MSGAREA CONNEX "Connex" MSGAREA TBBS_DEV "Developers Net" MSGAREA TBBS "TBBS SysOps Net MSGAREA TBBSTECH "TBBS Technical" MSGAREA TDBSTECH "TDBS Technical" MSGAREA PROMENU "ProMenu Support" MSGAREA GWSOFT "Software Support" MSGAREA HOME_REPAIR "Home Repair" MSGAREA INTCHNG "InterChange" MSGAREA PROBETA "ProMenu Beta" MSGAREA SNAPSUPP "SNAP Support" MSGAREA NAPLPS_GRAPHICS "NAPLPS Echo" If you are not using FIDONET or a message board does not appear in your TIMS.CTL file, simply create a text file with similar information and use that instead. An example of a board that might not appear in TIMS.CTL would be EMAIL. Note that the same name appears as both the FIDO name and the CEDIT name. The cedit name must be exactly the same as it appears in CEDIT. Adding Board Descriptions: OK, the hard part is over. Now, run BoardMaster and go into the Sysop functions. Press the uild key. You will be prompted for the ype 20 build or the idoNet Build. Select idoNet. You will now be prompted for the location of the TIMS.CTL file. Enter that path\name or, if you have made a hybrid file containing the MSGAREA information, enter the name of that file. Example: Enter Path\name of TIMS.CTL file: C:\TBBS\TIMS.CTL This will replace all existing Description Information in the BoardMaster database with that contained in the FIDONET.NA file. About the -U switch (Update) An optional switch may also be added which provides an Update only. This will only incorporate information for boards that are not already in the database. The first time you add information, do not use the -U switch. In other words, Let's say you've incorporated the FIDONET.NA file once without the switch. You've then gone in and modified some of the descriptions through the board editor. Later, you decide to receive a couple of new echoes. In order to preserve the changes that you made using the board editor, you would use the -U switch. This would only ADD new items that weren't already in the BoardMaster Database and would NOT change any existing items. Example: Enter Path\name of TIMS.CTL file: C:\TBBS\TIMS.CTL -U This will only add new information to the BoardMaster database from the FIDONET.NA file because of the -U switch. Once this is done, you then need to rebuild the Type 20 index file to incorporate the new information. Press from the Sysop menu and select ype 20.

ack the database - This will pack and re-index all your BoardMaster databases. eturn to the BoardMaster User Screens - Brings you back to the BoardMaster Main Menu. uit BoardMaster - Returns you to the TBBS menu that called BoardMaster. * Key Concept -> If you ever hopelessly destroy your system settings, just drop the original CONFIG.DBF file that was contained in the BoardMaster package onto the one in your BoardMaster Directory. It will not interfere with your Board definitions, or user PMGs, only your command prompts, colors and menu selections, which will be returned to the original defaults. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� 쿟HE USER INTERFACE � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� BoardMaster allows users to use any type of TBBS Message Board or to 'Group' boards for reads, scans, etc. On the main menu you will see several key functions: Individual Message Boards Personal Message Groups (PMGs) PostMaster Access QSO - Optional TIMS - Optional and limited to users with a priv of 255 Combined Board Operations Open Unread Mail Select a Personal Color Scheme - Optional Help Individual Message Boards: Every system has a number of different Message Boards (Bases, Conferences, Echoes, etc). When you select ndividual Message Boards, these are displayed for you and you have the opportunity to select one to read, enter a message into, etc. After you have selected a board by typing in it's ID number (the 4 digit number to the left of the board's name) and hitting the ENTER key, you will be brought to a menu of functions you may perform on that particular Message Board. You may read messages, Enter a message, Delete one of the messages you have sent, reset your 'Last Message Read' Pointer or exit back to the Message Board Display. Upon exiting you will be returned to the display of available Message boards where you may select another or uit back to the Main Menu. Categories: Categories are a powerful capability which allows you to group boards by a specific category. Users may then vselect a specific category and view/access al the boards within that category. Categories are defined in each board definition and invoked either from the main menu or by using one of the category switches on the Opt Data line when BoardMaster is run. Personal Message Groups: One of BoardMaster's most unique features is it's ability to allow users to 'Group Together' up to 42 individual Message boards that may be read all at once without having to return to the selection menu. AND each user may have up to 54 such groups! Most people will group together boards that have something in common or that are most frequently accessed. For example, he might group together the LOUNGE, EMAIL, GAME DISCUSSIONS, C++ PROGRAMMING....Anything the user wants. Then, when your user selects a Group, he will be taken to a menu which will allow him to perform mail functions (read, scan, etc.) on all the message boards he specified without having to return to a menu. Using Personal Message Groups (PMG): After selecting PMG from the main menu the user will be taken to a display which allows him to dd a PMG, emove one, dit an existing Group, ist all available boards which could be added to a group, or select an ID number for message processing. Adding a PMG: Hit the dd key and then ENTER. You will be prompted for a name for this group and an ID number. The name may be up to 20 characters in length and the ID number may be from 1 to 9999. Before you assign an ID number you should look at your existing PMGs and make sure that you are not duplicating one that already exists. After hitting ENTER you will be brought to a display which allows you to enter the boards that you want in this group. To see a listing of the available boards, just type ist. Once you have decided which boards you want, just type dd and the board's ID number, hitting ENTER after each one. If you make a mistake, no problem. Just emove it. As you add boards they will automatically fill any vacant slots that appear. You may always return later and modify your selections by selecting the dit a Group option from the main PMG display. After you're done defining your Group, you're ready to go! You may uit from the Group editor back to the PMG display where you will see the group you have just defined. You may then select it by typing in it's number and hitting ENTER, after which you will be brought to a menu of message commands you may perform on that PMG. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 쿍oardMaster Sysop Notes � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 You can use any ID number you want from 1 to 9999 for any board(s) and there is no prescribed order to the way you add Board numbers. They will be sorted automatically for you in ascending order. They may also be changed at any time. If you want to take a board off-line, delete it or give it a very high priv level. The board will remain in the database but will not be visible to users. If it has been deleted, it may be undeleted at any time, unless you pack the database or run Reconciliation, in which case any deleted boards will be permanently removed. Defining Boards is very simple. Just use the dd function and give the board an ID number. Next, type in a description of the Board, which may be anything you want and type in the Board's CEDIT name and/or topic path. Now determine if the board will use BoardMaster's Internal mail commands (recommended) or go to an external SDL menu. Also determine if you will use Security for that board, or rely on CEDIT security. * Key Concept --> It is advised that you only use BoardMaster security for Special Boards. Doing security checks on a lot of boards can slow down BoardMaster's IMB Display considerably. TBBS security, as defined in Board Definitions in CEDIT, is always enforced regardless of this setting and, in fact, takes precedence over this setting if TBBS has a higher security level than you have defined in BoardMaster. BoardMaster also has the ability to provide a menu item which allows the display of a unique 'Rules and Regulations' Text File for each defined Message Board. This menu item will appear in the Individual Message Board Command Menu if it is active. If you select to have this item you may then enter the path/name of a text file which contains rules and regulations for that conference. If you leave the name file name field blank, BoardMaster will display a generic file, located in it's home directory, called RULEFILE.TXT Finally, you may add any switch information that is appropriate for that Board. These switches are only active if the board is using BoardMaster's internal Mail Commands. For Example: You want to set up a MSG to SYSOP Board but you do not want the user to logoff after he has sent a message, which your normal MSG to SYSOP board is configured for. First, define the board in CEDIT and give it a read priv of 255 and a write priv of 0. You would then set up the Board in BoardMaster as follows: Board ID Number : 100 (Can be anything you want) Category: Local Mail (Associates the board with a category) Board Description: MSG to SYSOP (Can be anything you want) Board Name/Topic Path: SYSMAIL (CEDIT Email Board Name you just defined) Use Integrated Mail (y/n): Y (For use with Integrated Mail Commands) Use Flags & Privileges (y/n): N (Not using BoardMaster Security) Privilege Level: 0 A1 Flag: -------- A2 Flag: -------- A3 Flag: -------- A4 Flag: -------- Do you want Rules for this Conference (y/n): N Rules File Name (Empty for Generic Rules): Switches for Reading Msgs: Switches for Entering Msgs: /F:"SYSOP" (Force the mail to the Sysop) Switches for Scanning Msgs: Switches for Deleting Msgs: BoardMaster PhoneBook: When BoardBuilder created your database of boards it also Built a file called Boards.TXT. Now, do a local upload to one of your DIRs, but don't move the file. This will allow your users to grab a formatted listing of your boards and their ID Numbers for easy navigation. By not moving it, in the future all you have to do is use the Build option to rebuild that file and make it automatically available without having to upload it again. Whenever you change your Boards, you should hit the uild key on the Sysop menu. SDL & Topics : One of BoardMaster's strengths is that, once installed, you NEVER have to change your SDL files again when you Add/Delete/or Change a Board. The only changes that are ever needed are in CEDIT to define a board or a topic root and adding an entry in BoardMaster. In fact, for topics, once the root is established in CEDIT, you can add subtopics in BoardMaster at will. If you use this method, you, the SYSOP, will have to be the first to use the Topic in order to establish the Hierarchy. * Key Concept --> When Defining a topic in BoardMaster, it is usuall necessary to add the /S switch when the switches prompt appears or when running BRDBLDR. Topic Size Limitation using Internal Mail Commands: There is one circumstance where you may HAVE to use an external menu for your mail commands. It will only occur with extremely large Topic Hierarchies. TDBS is only able to pass a 64 character parameter to TBBS when you use one of the mail commands (read, scan, etc). If you have a topic hierarchy which is longer than 64 characters you will have to use an external mail menu and the ADDR fields in the Userlog to store the board's name and topic hierarchy. The NOTES field may not be used since it, too, is limited to a size of 64 characters. The actual field size in BoardMaster is 128 bytes long and a marker is placed at the 64 character limit in the Edit/Add display for your convenience. If you are not using Internal Mail Commands: Two samples of SDL that make a Universal Message Menu are included and provide all Mail Functions for any Board that is selected in BoardMaster. The ADDR1 field is used to pass the CEDIT board name to the mail commands or the Topic Root + Subtopic path. The Addr2 field contains the name of the Board you defined in BoardMaster as the description of the Board and is what the user selected. It serves to remind the user of what board they selected in BoardMaster. This menu is the one defined in the BoardMaster Command line when invoking the program. If you are using the NOTES field for board storage, only the board's CEDIT name, or topic hierarchy is passed to the menu, not the Board's Description. If you are Using Internal Mail Commands No additional menus are necessary and you will not use any userlog fields. This is the recommended approach. About Menu and Color Customization: BoardMaster let's you customize it's colors, menu entries, prompts and bracket styles. These functions are all located on the SYSOP menu and are located in 3 menu entries: Select System Colors - Allows you to modify BoardMaster Colors, Bracket Style and your system's default colors. Tailor Menus, Prompts and Commands - Allows you to customize menu text and commands as well as determine if the TIMS and QSO entries will be available. TIMS is never available to users with a priv. level less than 255. The user's ability to modify his color scheme is also determined here. Change Menu Banners - BoardMaster will display 5 Banners, depending on the screen the user is on. This entry will display each and allow you to customize the text that is displayed, i.e. you might want to add your BBS name to the main menu Banner, use a different language, etc. System Colors: BoardMaster deals with colors in 2 ways. You are able to set-up the system's default colors and bracket styles and the user is then able to customize them. The user will originally see your default selections. If he then changes them, they are saved and will be used for his display from that time forward, regardless of any changes you might make in the future. The user does, however, have the ability to reset his color selections to the system defaults, as defined by you, at any time. You also have the ability to change any user's color selections by selecting that option from the main BoardMaster menu and typing in the user's name. Bracket Style is also defined in this area. You may choose any of 5 different styles or no brackets at all. When the Sysop picks this selection, he is allowed to change any individual user's color selections as well as his own. Tailoring Menus: BoardMaster lets you choose menu text as well as prompts and command keys for any of its menus and displays. The format for menus is: Command Key - Description. For example: CMD Description I Individual Message Boards On the Main menu this would appear as: Individual Message Boards The command you choose is the key you expect the user to press to invoke that function and will be surrounded by the bracket style you choose. On the main menu you may also determine if there is to be a QSO entry, TIMS entry (sysop only) and user color selections. For QSO and TIMS this is toggled with an on/off switch. For User Color Selections, leaving the description blank will remove it from the main menu. On the PMG and Individual Board displays, commands are handled a little differently. Here, you enter the complete command line that will be seen at the bottom of the display and the command keys that correspond to the functions. The command functions are pre-defined but the command line wording and actual command keys may be anything you want. For example, you could change uit to [E]xit by changing the command line text and the corresponding command key. Global Commands: These are the commands/descriptions that will appear on the PMG, IMB and Combined Board integrated mail screens. They are defined in the same manner as the main menu commands with 2 exceptions. The Enter a Message and Delete a Message commands are sensitive to user Privilege level. For example, you might not want unregistered users to be able to enter messages, only to read them. So, when you define the Enter Message Command, assign a privilege level that is higher than an unregistered user. The Enter Message Prompt and Command will then not even appear to any user with a priv level less than what you have assigned. Likewise for Delete Messages. You might only want yourself and co-sysops to be able to delete messages from your conferences. By assigning a high privilege level, the Delete menu item will only appear to users with a Priv Level >= the level you define. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴커 쿢sing BoardMaster's BounceBack Feature when running QSO, TIMS 1.1, � 쿛ostMaster or EasyMail: � 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴켸 If you are NOT using QSO or TIMS 1.1, PostMaster or EasyMail this is the end of the installation instructions. Otherwise, please proceed. BoardMaster BounceBack lets a user select QSO from your Main menu, or you can select TIMS, and upon completion of QSO/TIMS activities, returns them to the BoardMaster Main menu. To use this feature, BoardMaster will need to use one of your flags. In this example, we'll assume you have designated A4(4) as the flag that BoardMaster will use. There are three things you must do in order to use this feature in addition to creating your normal BoardMaster menu entry: 1. In BoardMaster, go to the Sysop screen. Hit . You will see, at the bottom, the flag setting which will trip an autoexecute that we'll talk about next. Right now, they should all be set to "-". Change A4(4) to "X". 2. Put an auto-execute in the same Menu/Macro that calls BoardMaster. Entry: Transfer control to a Dummy menu to clear the autoexecute stack. Key = ^@ Type= 5 PRIV= 0 A1 = -------- A2 = -------- A3 = -------- A4 = ---X---- OPT DATA = dumy (this is the name of a dummy menu you need to create) 3. Change the QAL that was supplied in this package, FLAGREST.QAL, so that CHANGE: A4 = ---.---- Compile it and put the QAF file in any menu that precedes the menu that calls BoardMaster. MENU0000 is a good choice. This QAL is just a precaution and is only activated if the user went to QSO from BoardMaster, then used oodbye from QSO and was immediately logged off. If the user exits this way, BoardMaster never has a chance to reset his flag, so the QAL will do it the next time he logs on to prevent the autoexec in step 2. from activating. The menu that calls the QAL should look like: Entry: Activates a QAL to reset a user flag if he logged off within QSO Key = ^@ Type= 32 PRIV= 0 A1 = -------- A2 = -------- A3 = -------- A4 = ---X---- OPT DATA = C:\tbbs\BoardMaster\FLAGREST 4. Now create a dummy menu in you SDL file. It will only have 1 entry and will be totally invisible (This is a necessary step! Don't leave it out.). It should look like this: Menu: Dumy Entry: Autoexecute to return to the BoardMaster menu Key = ^@ Type= 12 PRIV= 0 A1 = -------- A2 = -------- A3 = -------- A4 = ---X---- OPT DATA = 1 Endmenu: How it Works: Scenario 1 The user goes through your menus and selects BoardMaster. Once in BoardMaster, the user selects QSO. BoardMaster changes the A4(4) flag to "X" and runs QSO. After running QSO, the user exits using uit on the QSO menu. This returns the user to the menu that originally called BoardMaster. When the user returns to that menu, the autoexec you placed there is tripped, due to the state of the user's A4(4) flag setting, invokes the Dummy menu, returns and runs BoardMaster again. As the user enters BoardMaster, the state of his A4(4) flag is sensed and BoardMaster returns it to ".", the normal state. Unless the user runs QSO again, in which case the same sequence is repeated, neither the QAL or the autoexec will be activated again. Scenario 2 The user goes through your menus and selects BoardMaster. Once in BoardMaster, the user selects QSO. BoardMaster changes the A4(4) flag to "X" and runs QSO. After using QSO, the user exits using oodbye on the QSO menu and is logged off. At this point his A4(4) flag is still set to "X" The next day the user logs on again. At the first menu, he hits the autoexec QAL entry. Since his flag was never able to be reset by BoardMaster, because he logged off directly from QSO, the autoexec is tripped and the QAL changes the A4(4) flag back to the normal state, "." That's it. Really simple to implement and works for both TIMS and QSO. Nothing else is needed. There are other ways to do it if you are using BoardMaster in a global macro: Take the autoexec menu entry that calls BoardMaster and the autoexec that sends you to the dummy menu and put them in your Global macro. Leave the autoexec that calls the QAL in your top menu, before the global macro is hit. How it works: The User activates the Global menu and is taken to BoardMaster. He then selects QSO, flags are changed and QSO is run. The User exits QSO using uit, the autoexec in the global macro is activated, the user is sent to the dummy menu, returned, and BoardMaster is run. Flags are changed back to the 'normal' state so after exiting BoardMaster normally the autoexec in your global menu is not activated. or Same thing, except the user quits QSO, using oodbye. Next time the user logs on he hits the Autoexec QAL which changes his flag to 'normal' and prevents the autoexec in the global macro from activating. -----------------> End of Installation Document <------------------