Newfie -- A NEWFILES.DAT posting adjunct for Synchronet. OVERVIEW -------- Newfie is a rather simple program. It's a batch file, in fact. :-) It performs a simple task: posting a summary of NEWFILES.DAT contents to a subgroup of your choice. Here's how it works: If your Sychronet system calls other Synchronet systems to pick up QWK packets, then you can turn on a QWK option that automatically includes a file called NEWFILES.DAT in each QWK session. This file contains a list of the files that have been changed/added to the remote site's transfer section since the last time your QWK account was used. This file is normally stored in a happy place on your system and awaits someone to do something with it. If you have ever seen messages like "Received NEWFILES.DAT from XYZ" when you logged on, then you know what this is all about. If you haven't seen those messages, then you don't have that QWK option turned on. Check the "QWK Configuration" section of the Synchronet System Operator's Manual for more information. Newfie is intended to run as an event under Synchronet. It will check your system for those NEWFILES.DAT files and if they are found, will post their contents to any subgroup you want. This makes it easy to see what's new and exciting on your neighbor's system. Just read that subgroup like any other subgroup! No hassles, no fuss. Just good, clean fun. INSTALLATION ------------ Installation is quick and easy. Follow these steps: 1) COPY NEWFIE.BAT to C:\SBBS\EXEC (or wherever your EXEC directory is). 2) Make sure you have a copy of SMBUTIL.EXE in your EXEC directory. If not, download SMB_*.ZIP from VERT and extract SMBUTIL.EXE into your EXEC directory. You only need that one file in the archive. 3) Go into SCFG->External Programs->Timed Events and create a new event. Call it "NEWFIE". Here are the parameters: Internal Code NEWFIE Start-Up Directory Command Line %!newfie (More about the below) Execution Node Execution Days Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Execution Time Requires Exclusive Execution No Force Users Off-line For Event No Obviously, pick an appropriate node and time for your site. Common sense applies to setting up this event, so use your best judgement. The parameters above are for example only. Your milage may vary. 4) Create a Message Area, if you don't already have one you want to use, to hold the messages Newfie creates. On my system, I set up a new message area under my local group and called it "NEWFILES Listings". 5) Set the Message Area options appropriately. This should include a valid Internal Name, a maximum number of messages and so on. I would recommend 50 messages max, Fast Allocation, NO network flags on, and the default posting/reading options. Make it available to the users if you wish, or restrict it using ARS. That's up to you. 6) Go back to the Timed Events and update the Command Line by adding these parameters to the command: %!newfie [ ... ] Where is the *FULL* path to where you have your DATA directory. Don't use relative paths; fully qualify this path. Omit any trailing slashes. Example: D:\SBBS\DATA should be the internal name that you specified for Step #5 (or already have). It must be accurate or else you won't get any messages posted. Don't include any extensions just the name as you entered it in Step #5. Example: SYS-NEWF is one or more QWK site names that you want to check for NEWFILES.DAT files. Make sure the name is exactly as you have it defined in SCFG->Networks->QWK Networks. You can put up to about eight other sites on the command line. For the sake of nice looking postings, I suggest these site names be in ALL CAPS. This makes the Subject lines stand out and hey, it looks professional and all that. ** Example ** As an example, suppose your DATA directory is on D:, the subgroup you created has an internal name of "SYS-NEWF" and you poll two other Synchronet QWK sites called VERT and FCON. Your full command line would then look something like this: %!newfie d:\sbbs\data sys-newf VERT FCON At least three parameters are REQUIRED. Newfie will complain if haven't entered enough parameters, but it won't complain if the paths or names are invalid, so be SURE of your facts! 7) You're set to rock and roll! Save everything and await the first batch of new postings the next morning! CAVEAT EMPTOR ------------- Being as this is a simple program, it is not particularly robust. Don't try anything funny with it, lest you be disappointed. Here are some important points to be aware of: 1) Environment space will be your biggest concern. A lot of systems have just the minimum amount of environment space that they need to get by. If that's the case with your system, you may be in trouble if your command line is long. You'll know if this is going to be a problem for you when your first batch of postings don't arrive, but you still see a message like "Received NEWFILES.DAT from XYZ" upon login. In this case, remove the '@echo off' line in NEWFIE.BAT, make a QWK Network Node with the same parameters as the Timed Event NEWFIE, and then force a QWK poll to occur with 'F' at the WFC screen. This will help you debug and verify that the environment size is at fault. You can fix this problem by either adding more environment space to your CONFIG.SYS file, or by adding lines to NEWFIE.BAT that will get rid of any non-useful environment variables before it continues. I have already made Newfie temporarily get rid of SBBSCTRL, DSZLOG and SBBSNNUM variables while it runs. These aren't needed by the program and give up a few bytes here and there. Look for them near the start of the file and add more lines after them as needed. 2) Newfie automatically deletes the NEWFILES.DAT file once it has been posted to the subgroup. If you don't want this to happen, edit NEWFIE.BAT and 'rem' out the line that deletes the file. You should be able to find it without too much difficulty -- Newfie's only about a hundred lines long... Keep in mind, however, that if you DO comment that line out, Newfie will post a duplicate message every time it is told to check for new files. 3) If you want, you can create multiple timed NEWFIE events, scheduled to run after a QWK poll, several times a day, or whatever. It's pretty darn flexible. No special maintenance is required, and it should be self-sufficient, for the most part. RENUMERATION ------------ Naw, not this time, thanks. :-) Newfie's a freebie. I hope it helps make your system look better and more professional. If it does, then post a note to me in the Synchronet Sysop's subgroup on DOVE-Net. I would like to hear that people are finding it useful. That will help encourage me to keep producing nifty stuff like this. Beyond that, save your money for other things. As a Sysop, I know the millions of little shareware products that you have to register, and how FAST they add up... Obviously, you are free to use and distribute Newfie however you want. I only ask that you don't remove any of the authorship information that is in NEWFIE.BAT and this text file. And please only distribute the batch file with this accompanying text file. Keep the ZIP file name the same (currently NEWF_10A.ZIP) to help maintain consistency in tracking. The current version is v1.0a, dated 03-Sep-94. If you come up with an enhancement, send it to me. I'll see about putting it into the next release. Appropriate credit where due, of course. I'm always open to suggestions and improvements. Since this is a freebie, I am offering no warranty nor support of any kind. If it works for you, great. If not, sorry. I'll try to answer any and all questions asked of me, but that's strictly limited by time and available resources. AUTHORSHIP ---------- Newfie is an unpublished work, Copyright (c) 1994 by Bruce A. Bergman. All rights reserved. This work is placed in the public domain, however the author retains all rights to original ownership. You can reach the author at: Bruce A. Bergman Fat City BBS 11598 Windcrest Lane, Suite 1013 San Diego, California 92128-4257 Internet: bruceb@fatcity.com Fido: Bruce Bergman @1:202/504 BBS: 619/675-7027 [End of document]