Event Calendar 1.1 January 8, 1995 (C) 1994, 1995 by K. W. Risser Heap-O-Cats Collection OVERVIEW This software maintains public & private event calendars for users of TBBS systems. It allows the sysop to create calendars for various uses, such as cinema & concert schedules, BBS activi- ties, niteclub acts, college & vocational training schedules, etc. It allows users to view one or more event calendars, with search criteria highlighted if desired. Users may download a text file containing the events for a calendar, wholly or accord- ing to user specified selection criteria, if permitted by the sysop on a per-calendar basis. Users may also be allowed to add events to a calendar if that calendar is so designated. FEATURES The software features a full-screen ANSI interface. ANSI capability is required. Should incongruities arise during opera- tion and/or installation, try to consider that this program was written, tested and developed in and around a heap o' cats. A month calendar appears on the right part of the screen when the program is run. Users can use the arrow keys to move from day to day. Days having events are highlighted and indicated with a small square marker. Users pausing for a moment on a day having events will see a summary list of events for that day on the left part of the screen. Calendars may be designated as public, available to all users; or private, available to specified users only. Each calendar may have one or more Keepers assigned to it. Keepers may maintain their calendar(s) online, adding, editing & deleting events as needed. If a calendar is designated as public, the sysop may choose to allow users to add events or not. The sysop may also designate whether or not users may download a calendar as an ASCII text. Users may specify event selection criteria by using the Find command. When specified, days whose entries are highlighted with color and an asterisk contain matches for the criteria. Users may elect to move the day selector to the first matching entry, the next matching entry, or not move the day selector. INSTALLATION Create or choose a subdirectory for the Event Calendar files to reside. It is best, but not absolutely necessary, to make a separate subdirectory for the program to use exclusively. Make a menu selection in a TBBS .SDL file, for example: Entry: @Cpos(6,50)[E] Event Calendar Type=200 Key=E Opt Data=d:\tbbs\ecal\ec /q && %BPS% If you wish to put the user exclusively into a specific calen- dar, first find the calendar ID code for that calendar. In maintenance mode, choose S to select a celndar, position the highlight bar on the desired calendar, and press E to edit/review the calendar specification. The calendar ID will be displayed. Note this ID, and use it in this fashion when invoking: Entry: @Cpos(6,50)[V] Vogue Theatre Calendar Type=200 Key=V Opt Data=d:\tbbs\ecal\ec /q && %BPS% "P0007" where P0007 is the calendar ID as shown when editing. Users will not be able to select other calendars. Recompile the .SDL file and place all the program files into the subdirectory that you are going to use. Note the use of the TBBS %BPS% parameter at the end of the Type=200 line. This allows the Event Calendar to behave a little differently for users of slower modems (2400 and under). OPERATION The Event Calendar has two primary 'modes' of operation: View and Maintanence. Users who are not designated as calendar keep- ers or clients may only use the View mode. Priveledged users may access the Maintenance mode. Users change mode by pressing M for Maintanence or V for View mode, depending upon which mode they are currently using. One or more users may be designated as Keepers of a specific calendar. These users may enter Maintenance mode for the calen- dar(s) for which they are designated as Keepers. If a calendar has been designated as private when it is de- fined, then only users who are designated as Clients (or Keepers) may access that calendar. Users may move from one calendar to another by choosing Select, as long as there are other calendars that the user is authorized to select. Keepers in Maintenance mode may edit the calendar definition by pressing S to Select, highlighting the desired calendar, and pressing E to edit. Calendar Attributes Calendars may be designated as public or private. If public, another option specifies whether users are allowed to add events. A help text file may be named which will be shown for the given calendar as a help screen when the user types a question mark. This may be left blank. Calendars may be designated as having 12 hour time. The time will be displayed in AM/PM format if this is set on, 24 hour format if off. The Title prompt may be specified, if a word other than "Event" should be used as the event prompt when entering events for this calendar. One usage example is "Movie" as the title prompt for a cinema calendar. You may choose to allow or not allow users to download a text file containing calendar events. None, one or two lines of text may be provided for display at the top of the screen when this calendar is being viewed. If you leave the second line blank, your BBS name will be displayed. NOTE: This feature does not function in the demonstration version of this program. After the calendar has been defined, it is best to exit the program and re-enter it. This is not essential, but events which are subsequently added to the calendar will not appear on the screen as added for this session unless this is done. This, of course happens only once for each calendar after it is defined. This is not a design specification, but rather is due to the intervention of one or more cats from the heap whose keyboard pouncing has damaged the source code, which is, as yet, unre- solved. Events Events may be added, edited or deleted by sysops, owners and keepers (and users, if so designated) for each or any day. This is done using maintenance mode. If you hesitate as the cursor is moved from day to day, any events for that day are summarized in a list on the left. If you press ENTER while the cursor is on a day, one of the following will happen. If there are no events for that day, an empty new event record is created and shown so you may add an event. If more than one event is recorded for the day, a selec- tion list is displayed. You can move through the list, highlight & press ENTER to select an event. The event is then displayed for editing. If only one event is recorded for that day, the event will be displayed for editing immediately, bypassing the selection list as used when there are multiple events. At this point, an action can be picked from the command bar at the bottom of the screen. The options are E to edit, allowing changes to be made to the event record; D to delete the event; M to move the event to a different date; C to duplicate the event record and subsequently edit the duplicate; Q when done, or ENTER to continue adding or to quit editing. SYSOP FUNCTIONS Users with a high enough access level may access the sysop functions by pressing an exclamation mark. Clean & Pack Databases This performs the obligatory removal of deleted records from the databases. It ALSO removes all non-priveleged users who have not used the software in the past 30 days, thereby losing their most recent session selected calendar and any Find selection criteria. Priveleged users are those who are designated as Keepers, Owners (creators), or Clients of calendars. Clients are only assigned for private calendars. Remove All Expired Events All events prior to today's (system) date will be removed from the database, even if the auto-delete flag has been set to false in the event records. Remove A Calendar ...will remove all the records and file(s) associated with a specified calendar. Specify Maintenance Access Level Any user with an access level equal to or greater than this value will have full access to all parts of the event calendar program. Usually this should be set high enough that only sysops may use these functions. FUTURE FEATURES The following features will be available in an upcoming re- lease: * Offline events maintanence for keepers & sysops. * Multicalendar view. View events across more than one calen- dar at once. * Repeating events * Private calendar access controlled by TBBS user flags. NOTES The program requires the presence of ECUSERS, ECHDR, CDET & ECSETS. If the .NDX files are not present or have been deleted, the program will re-create them. In fact, if the index files are damaged due to unexpected system or power failure, they can be deleted. If you do delete the index files, make sure no one else is using the program at the same time. All the indices have the .NDX extension. ORDERING INFORMATION The Event Calendar 1.0 is available for $79.00 from the from The Dance of Shiva BBS, at (502) 893-6360. VISA & MasterCard holders may purchase and receive products online from the SUPPORT MENU. Just press '^' from our Main Menu to access this area. You may also send a check or money order to the address below. Checks take 5 days to clear. Registered users can always download an update or a replacement. Or you may contact the author directly at (502) 636-1460 (voice). Other titles in the Heap O' Cats collection are The Internet Mailer, The Online Purity Test, and the PIQUE internet .BAG file preprocessor. ___________ ____ _ _ ____ _ _ ____ ___________ (___________ ( __)| |_| (_ _) \ / ) _ | ___________) (_________ \__ \| _ |_||_ \ `.' / _ | _________) (_______ (_____|_| |_(____) \_/ |_| |_| _______) BBSing on the Bleeding Edge! Shiva Systems, Inc. The Dance of Shiva BBS 6111 Regal Springs Dr. Louisville, KY 40205 Sysop by Internet Email: Chuck@shivasys.com Data: 502.899.7773 Voice: 502.897.1494 -= OTHER SHIVA PRODUCTS =- Product Audience ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pique - .BAG file processor Pagesat/Planet Connect systems The Online Purity Test TBBS systems The Internet Mailer TBBS systems The CIA World Factbook TBBS systems The 'Ultimate' Event Calendar TBBS Systems PCM Online Magazine -ALL- systems ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Note: More information and a demonstration of all products is available online on the Dance of Shiva BBS. When logging on just choose '^' from the Main Menu, this will take you to PRODUCT SUPPORT.