FXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFX ÛßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßÛ ² ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ ÛÛ¿ ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛ¿ ² ± ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ ÛÛ³ ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÛÛÛ¿± ° ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÚÙÛÛ³ ÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛ³ ÛÛ³° ° ÛÛÚÛÛÚÙÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÄÛÛ¿ÛÛ³ ÛÛ³ÛÛÚÄÛÛ³ÛÛÚÛÛÚÙÛÛ³ ÛÛ³° ± ÛÛ³ ÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³ÛÛ³ ÛÛ³ÛÛ³ ÛÛ¿ÛÛÛÛÛÛ³± ² ÀÄÙ ÀÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÙÀÄÙ ÀÄÙÀÄÙ ÀÄÙÀÄÄÄÄÄÙ² ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß FXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFXFX by Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. Copyright Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc., 1993 Author Seth Hamilton ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Copyright Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc., 1993 ±±±±± Page I ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The contents of this manual, the RoboBOARD/FX software, the Tel-FX Draw software, the Tel-FX Terminal software, the Tel-FX Photo software and all associated documentation included with this package are the property of Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. Any reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. RoboBOARD and Tel-FX are trademarks of Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. FXdraw, RoboFX, FXterm, and FXphoto are trademarks of Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. Trademarks, registered or otherwise used in this manual are: Microsoft, SmartDrive, MS-DOS, MS, OS/2 and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM and VGA are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. CorelDRAW is a trademark of Corel Corporation. Harvard Graphics is a trademark of Software Publishing Corporation. ATI is a trademark of ATI Technologies Inc.. DigiBoard is a trademark of DigiBoard. Paradise is a trademark of Paradise Systems Inc. Video Seven is a trademark of Video Seven Inc. QEMM, and DESQview are trademarks of Quaterdeck Office Systems, Inc. Hayes is a trademark of Hayes Microcomputer Products Inc. CompuServe and GIF are trademarks of CompuServe Incorporated. Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs, Inc. Trident, Tseng, Hyperdisk, Imail, Fmail, Gecho, are trademarks of their appropriate owners. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Table of Contents ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page II ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Introduction ................................................... 1 Hardware Requirements .......................................... 2 Getting Started ................................................ 5 Getting Help ................................................... 5 Overview of RoboBOARD/FX ....................................... 6 General ........................................................ 6 Security ....................................................... 8 Bullitens ..................................................... 11 Messaging and Echo Mail ....................................... 12 Files ......................................................... 14 Menus ......................................................... 15 The Main Menu ................................................. 16 Forums ........................................................ 16 Doors ......................................................... 17 Chat .......................................................... 17 JPEGs ......................................................... 18 Templates ..................................................... 19 RoboCFG ....................................................... 20 Introduction to RoboCFG ....................................... 20 Lets Get Started .............................................. 21 The Exit Menu ................................................. 21 The System Menu ............................................... 22 System Info ................................................... 22 Global Info ................................................... 22 The User Menu ................................................. 24 New User Profile .............................................. 25 Access Profiles ............................................... 26 User Editor ................................................... 28 Call Back Verifier ............................................ 32 The Messages Menu ............................................. 33 Forums ........................................................ 33 Message Areas ................................................. 34 The Files Menu ................................................ 36 Forums ........................................................ 36 File Areas .................................................... 36 The Display Menu .............................................. 39 Drawing Editor ................................................ 39 Menu Editor ................................................... 39 List of Menu Commands ......................................... 41 Bullitens Menu ................................................ 46 The Languages Menu ............................................ 48 The Nodes Menu ................................................ 49 Modem Configurations .......................................... 49 Events ........................................................ 50 FXdraw ........................................................ 52 An Overview of FXdraw ......................................... 52 The FXdraw Drawing Environment ................................ 56 Drawing With Fxdraw ........................................... 60 The Icon Editor ............................................... 69 Creating Menus ................................................ 72 Editing ....................................................... 75 FXterm ........................................................ 80 MultiLanguage BBSs ............................................ 81 ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Table of Contents ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page III ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Appendices .................................................... 84 ASCII Character Sets .......................................... 85 Menu Tree ..................................................... 86 File Types .................................................... 86 Inline Text Tokens ............................................ 88 System Screens................................................. 90 Templates ..................................................... 91 Multinode Operation & Optimization ............................ 96 ROBOFX.EXE Command Line Options .............................. 103 ROBOFX.EXE Errorlevel Exits .................................. 104 Trouble Shooting ............................................. 104 Hardware Notes ............................................... 106 Glossary of Online Terms ..................................... 107 ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Introduction ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 1 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Welcome to RoboBOARD/FX by Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc.. RoboBOARD/FX has grown from the shareware experience of ROBO-BOARD Pro and Plus, into a Bulletin Board System loaded with features and innovations. When Seth Hamilton introduced the original ROBO BOARD series, it sent shock waves through the BBS community. A BBS completely graphical, faster than ANSI systems, with icons, pictures and menus sent in real time? Was this possible, with every system original, and in DOS too? ROBO-BOARDs true Graphical User Interface certainly was a shock, especially at a time when many ANSI system developers were bragging about colourizing their text screens. We proudly continue the tradition of innovation in the BBS community by announcing RoboBOARD/FX, our third generation of Graphical BBS software. When we set out to create RoboBOARD/FX we studied existing graphical protocols and found they did not match our vision of a GUI based BBS package. These other protocols were either designed to port text based BBSs to graphics or they were lacking in user interface. RoboBOARD/FX is based on the lightning fast Tel-FX protocol developed by us specifically for this project. Having gained previous experience in protocol development we were able to build on our knowledge and create a protocol that is both powerful today and designed for the future. We wrote new OOPs based code for RoboBOARD/FX, in fact 100% of the code is new. OOPs code gave us the power to create Online Software similar in look and feel to windowed software seen in modern operating systems. RoboBOARD/FX boasts a familiar looking GUI for DOS, complete with dragging windows, clicking buttons, scroller bars, pop up dialogue boxes and templates. In this GUI environment RoboBOARD/FX supports graphics modes of up to 1024 x 768 in 16/256 SVGA colour. Photographic imaging is not an expensive add on that costs you or your users more money, it's built right into the RoboBOARD/FX system! We can't think of one category of BBS that will not benefit from this feature. It can be used for GIF previewing, introductions between individuals, marketing, education, newspapers just to mention a few ideas. Everyone will appreciate our message editor which takes any of the inconvenience out of messaging by letting a user print messages, upload preprepared messages and quote or write messages using the power of a built in word processor. RoboBOARD/FX has a files database that is so fast a ten thousand file search is near instantaneous under normal conditions, whether the files are on CD-Roms or not. We have included powerful, wildcard and date based searches complete with keywords highlighting. Even your least experienced BBS callers will have no trouble mastering batch uploads and downloads with our point and queue interface. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Introduction Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 2 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX was designed in part for your BBS callers without whom there would be no BBSs. With every package we include an elegant terminal package that is powerful yet light weight. There aren't menus dropping out of menus and Ctrl-Alt key combinations, just a clean interface a novice can understand and a seasoned user will appreciate. It has been brought to our attention that users want to get involved in drawing screens for their favourite RoboBOARDs and for that reason we are allowing you to distribute FXdraw, our polygon based 256 colour drawing and design package. It comes complete with splines, three point arcs, fly out side bar menus, an icon editor, and edit mode just to mention a few features. There is one little catch. You must agree to the Tel-FX Terminal and the Tel-FX Draw licence agreement found in the back of these DOCs. This is no big deal, the licence agreement just protects our trademarks and ownership, and defines your rights as SysOp. Realtime graphics for the online community have always been our goal and RoboBOARD/FX stays right on track. Our real time photographic images, icons, menus, and templates are testimonials to that. When we refer to real time we mean the images are sent by the BBS to the terminal when the user needs them. With a RoboBOARD system users DO NOT have to download icons and photos before they begin an online session, every time they log onto a different BBS or every time you make additions or changes to your BBS. We realize that users expect realtime graphics and will not tolerate less for long. If you are running a commercial BBS, a support system, a special interest group(SIG), or a hobby board, RoboBOARDs Realtime Online Graphics will make your system more accessible and more friendly to more users. Thank you for choosing RoboBOARD/FX as your Bulletin Board System. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Hardware Requirements ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ As with all graphical products RoboBOARD/FX has fairly high system expectations. Not only does RoboBOARD/FX manage a BBS it also manages the graphics traffic for each node as well. No need to worry, we have done a good job in our software design to keep it fast and efficient. These system demands are very standard for GUI based software so you probably already have the hardware to make RoboBOARD/FX perform. To use RoboBOARD/FX, you need an IBM computer or a 100% compatible Clone. A minimum of a 386SX is required. A 486 based CPU is the preferred recommendation. RoboBOARD/FX requires that you have a Microsoft or Microsoft compatible mouse. The mouse is necessary, in order to click on buttons and navigate your system. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Hardware Requirements Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 3 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX requires a 16 colour VGA or 256 colour SVGA graphics adapter and appropriate monitor. We have direct support for ATI, Paradise, Trident, Tseng 3000/4000 and Video Seven graphics adapters. If you do not have one of the these graphics adapters you can use a VESA adapter almost certainly supplied with your VGA adapter. VESA drivers are TSR (terminate and stay resident) software programs that are loaded into memory before you run RoboBOARD/FX. Check the documentation that came with your VGA adapter for information on loading your VESA driver. Some newer cards have VESA built right into them. We support four graphics modes at this time, 640x480/16, 640x480/256, 800x600/256 and 1024x768/256. RoboBOARD/FX can be run as a single node system or a multinode system in either graphics or text mode. More information is available in the Appendixe on Configuation. CD-ROM BBS operators will require an additional 12 Megs of free Hard drive space for a single node since users can mark up to 10 files for download which must be paged temporarily to the Hard drive before downloading. Multinode systems will have to determine there own minimum requirements. As a single line or one node system you will require a minimum of 2 Megs of free Hard drive space for temporary file swapping and approximately 450 Kilobytes of RAM (random access memory). If you are running RoboBOARD/FX as a multinode system we support using LANs or DesqVIEW. In a LAN situation you will be able to display SVGA graphics on every station in your network providing you have the appropriate hardware. The system requirements for each node are the same as with a single line system. If you are using DesqVIEW to multitask your BBS you will not be able to display graphics on your system unless you logon to your BBS in Local Mode. While Using DesqVIEW you will be placed in Text Log Mode, which lets you follow the activity of your users on your system as well as chat with them. This is necessary using DesqVIEW because it does not multitask multiple graphical applications with the speed we require. Under DesqVIEW you will require 450k per node plus the memory that DESQview requires to reside in. RoboBOARD/FX supports three I/O modes, UART, Fossil and DigiBoard. More information is available in the Appendix on configuring RoboBOARD/FX. DigiBoards are a super fast multiport I/O device that have their own independent processor on board. They are designed to off load work from your computers CPU, and have the added advantage of managing up to eight ports through only one DOS interrupt. The last time we checked DigiBoard supported from two to thirty-two communications ports per board. RoboBOARD/FX has been optimised to work with DigiBoards supporting the XIDOS driver and DesqVIEW. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Hardware Requirements Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 4 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX also supports Fossils like X00 by Ray Gwinn and BNU by David Nugent. Fossils are an efficient software device that offers a generic interface between RoboBOARD/FX, your computer and your modem. Fossils allow you to control settings like Transmit and Receive buffers, baud rates and Fifos (first in first out buffers). They can be downloaded from many shareware BBSs, and are probably available in your area. RoboBOARD/FX installs ready to use the standard UART (universal asynchronous receiver transmitter) found on all I/O cards. RoboBOARD/FX sets up the UART chip on your I/O card for optimum performance and essentially does away with the need to use a Fossil. It will even set up fifos for your 16550 UART if present. There will be a graphics performance improvement if you have a math coprocessor in your computer. If you have a standard 16450 UART chip it is highly recommended (almost required) that you use a 16550A UART chip. The 16450 does no data buffering, so in 1986 it was replaced by the 16550A UART to accommodate higher speed telecommunications. For 14400 bps SysOps and Users, a 16550A UART may be required to eliminate your computer missing characters. A 16550A UART chip and the support chips are not normally an expensive option. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Getting Started ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 5 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX comes with its own install program, and will make the necessary directories and subdirectories on your harddrive. Before you install RoboBOARD/FX be sure the following DOS settings are set correctly in your CONFIG.SYS file. From your 3 1/2 inch drive simply type INSTALL and follow the instructions. FILES=30 BUFFERS=25 SHELL=COMMAND.COM /e:512 /p * Multinode systems and servers should add an additional 15 file handles per node. These are minimum values for FILES and BUFFERS so if your settings are set higher do not decrease the settings. SHELL does not necessarily have to use COMMAND.COM if you use a different command interpreter. Just in case you are like most people who don't read the DOCs until they get stuck RoboBOARD/FX is run from a Batch file named RUN-ROBO.BAT. We chose DOS Batch files to drive RoboBOARD/FX because of the flexibility they provide. Using Batch files, a number of batch commands and executables can be chained together with RoboBOARD/FX creating a very flexible system. One example would be screen rotators, so that users always see a different screen every time they logon. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Getting Help ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ At Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. we are committed to providing the best possible service to you the customer. We have tried to cover all the bases in this manual but welcome your comments and suggestions, which will be considered in future publications. We have established some guide lines for you to follow in getting help if you have a problem. 1) Carefully check this manual, the answer to your question may already be answered. 2) Logon to our RoboBOARD/FX World Headquarters Support BBS. We are an Online company and we provide the large majority of our help online. We will be accumulating information regarding the use of RoboBOARD/FX with hardware and software of all types. We welcome your contributions to our information database. With time there will be files available for download on most support related topics. If you cannot find a file that a nswers your questions please leave a message addressed to us in Support, detailing your question or problem as clearly as possible. We will leave you a message on our system and an answer to your question as soon as possible. This service is also available to people who are evaluating our Test Drive version. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Getting Started ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 6 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX HQ Support BBS 1-819-682-7771 3) If you have a Fax that is capable of receiving faxes, you can fax us your questions at 1-819-685-0994 and we will return your answer by Fax. Please include your name and serial number. 4) If you are stumped you can call us at 1-819-682-6670 and ask for support. Please have your serial number ready. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Overview of RoboBOARD/FX - General ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Bulletin Board Systems have gained popularity in recent years as individuals and businesses alike begin to understand the flexibility and possibilities of Online Software. New high speed Modems and hardware have also played an important part in the diversification of Online Software. In the past Online Software has been built around security, messaging, and file areas. Today Graphical Telecommunications Software like RoboBOARD/FX is unfolding new possibilities and opportunities for the Online Community. More users than ever before own modems and with well designed GUIs, like the RoboBOARD/FX point and shoot interface, even first time callers can be comfortable on your BBS. This new generation of modems and computers along with a broader understanding of realtime compression/decompression and photographic imaging technologies has created an environment perfect for the success of RoboBOARD/FX and your Online endeavors. The emphasis throughout the RoboBOARD/FX system is a clean friendly interface, with all the power SysOps have come to expect of ANSI systems, plus more. As you try out the RoboBOARD/FX features you will see an interface so familiar in its design that there is virtually no learning curve, however just because RoboBOARD/FX s a graphical BBS does not mean that it is lacking in nongraphical features. To the contrary it has all the expected features, plus a degree of flexibility and extensibility not found in other BBS software. RoboBOARD/FX will run exactly the way it installs from your floppy drive however it is one hundred percent configurable. We have configured RoboBOARD/FX to our liking and set security levels that are very general in their purpose. Depending on your needs, you may want to change the security settings before allowing any users to logon. Configuration is done using RoboCFG, our mouse driven, windowed and templated configuration program. SysOps who use RoboCFG extensively will appreciate how quick and easy it is to navigate with its Pull down menus and pop up templates. Using RoboCFG you can, access FXdraw to create graphics and menus, manage security, edit users, define Forums, and set up message and file areas. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± General ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 7 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Much of RoboBOARD/FXs menu and language configurability is accomplished using FXdraw. As with the supplied menus, FXdraw is used to create menus and define menu buttons. FXdraw is also used to draw original art and merge photographic JPEG images, into screens and bulletins. All the graphics screens found in RoboBOARD/FX were drawn in FXdraw including the icons. When you create a menu in FXdraw you are asked to define a letter of the alphabet for each button you draw. RoboCFG uses this key letter of the alphabet to attach Menu Commands like Page SysOp and Goodbye to the menus. When a button is pressed or a key is pressed on the Terminal end the Alphabet Key is returned to the BBS, thus executing the appropriate Menu Command. There are around forty Menu Commands that can be assigned to buttons using RoboCFG. RoboBOARD/FX like most other BBS software is built around bullet proof security. Configured correctly, RoboBOARD/FX provides a very high degree of security using 1000 access levels and 26 Alphabetical Tags. All Menu Commands are given an access level, and Tags can be assigned to them also. To access a menu command a users access level must be greater than or equal to the access assigned to the menu command. The users access Tags must also match the access Tags assigned to the button. RoboBOARD/FX also allows SysOps to define up to 999 Forums numbered from 1 to 999. A reminder window is provided in RoboCFG so that Forum Names can be attached to Forum Numbers, which is a very nice touch when you are managing more than five or ten Forums. Forums are used to separate groups of users on a BBS thus limiting or grouping their access to File areas, Message bases and Bulletins. If a user does not have access to a Forum they will not know those File Areas, Message Bases and Bulletins have been defined for that Forum. Certain Menu Commands for File, Messaging and Bulletins require that a Forum number be assigned to the Menu Interface Button. When a user with sufficient access clicks on the Menu Interface Button they will gain access to message and file areas defined for that Forum Number. RoboBOARD/FX is designed to run in a multinode environment either across a Local Area Network or by using multiport I/O cards and DesqVIEW. RoboBOARD/FX can also be configured to use a combination of LAN hardware, multi I/O cards and DesqVIEW. This level of BBS system design requires special considerations and a good understanding of the hardware and software required. This section of the manual is intended as a discussion of RoboBOARD/FX and its features. It is also intended as an introduction to configuration covered in Section 2. We will cover topics like Bulletins, Messaging, Files, Menus, Forums, JPEGs and Templates. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Security ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 8 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Probably the most powerful and important underlying feature of any BBS package is security. With it you can control what your users do or see on your system. Maybe you are running a private system that does not allow new members, if so you can control whether new users can even logon to your system. Once users have logged on you can control what Main Menu a user sees based on their access. You can create Forums that separate message bases, file areas and bulletins for different groups that share your system. Every aspect of RoboBOARD/FX is affected by security. Usually this chapter is stuck in the back of most technical reference manuals, but we decided that the front of the manual was a better idea. By reading about security now, you will understand how the rest of the concepts fit together in this manual. The trick with security is to keep it simple to use without sacrificing power. Most BBS systems don't require a complex security structure, but for those who do, we have a completely powerful set of tools. RoboBOARD/FX has two different layers of security; the standard access levels ranging from 0 to 999 and alphabetical Tags from 'A' to 'Z'. With RoboBOARD/FX it is possible to completely customize your BBS. FXdraw is used to visually design menus and RoboCFG is used to configure menus plus add security to them. The basics are: 1) FXdraw is used to create menus by drawing backgrounds and assembling graphics. 2) Buttons are added to the menus. 3) Icons are placed on the buttons. 4) The buttons are labelled with words like 'N'ext and 'Q'uit. Whenever you draw a button using FXdraw you are asked to assign a letter of the alphabet to that button, like 'N' for next and 'Q' for quit. These letters of the alphabet are what FXterm sends back to the BBS when a remote user wants to activate a Menu Command. There are over thirty Menu Commands in RoboBOARD/FX which can be used to create custom menus. They are found in RoboCFG under the Display Pulldown in the menu titled Menu Editor. Menu Commands are assigned to the buttons or keys that were defined in FXdraw, using RoboCFG. Security is assigned at the same time that you are assigning menu commands to a button. Now that you know the basics of how a menu is created and how access security is attached to a menu button, the question is; how does menu security relate to users? As we mentioned in the last paragraph, security and menu commands are assigned to buttons at the same time. Now our menu buttons have a security level assigned to them, each defined by an access level and access tag(s). When a new user logs on to your system you will probably give them a starting access, and as you get to know them better, possibly you will increase their access. To give a user access settings you will use one of 1000 User Access Profiles. Access Profiles are a convenient way of managing user access settings, you can even attach names to the categories that Access Profiles represent, like 'New User' or 'Verified User'. In order for a user to access the menu command behind a button they must first have an access level that is equal to or greater than the access level of the button. Secondly the user must also match access ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Security Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 9 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Tag(s) with the button exactly to access the menu command. It should be pointed out that using both Access Levels and Access Tags for each button is not required. If you are more comfortable with one system over the other security can be well managed using only that system. RoboBOARD has additional security features that are accessed using RoboCFG. They control many things like, exactly how much time users spend on your system each day or how many files they can download per day. These security features will be explained in the section of the manual called RoboCFG. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Access Level is considered to be the first layer ³Access Levels³ of security and it provides the basic ranking and ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ permission privileges for your users. RoboBOARD/FX comes configured with the following Access Levels defined. These settings can be changed, they are only the settings we chose for our basic configuration: 999 - SysOp Access: is always the highest access level set on a system and gives you a very high daily time limit plus the ability to access any menu commands you want on your system. This is providing that you also meet the second level of security which are the access tags. 5 - Verified User: This user is given a longer daily time limit than the unverified user, and is given full access to navigate the default menu system. 4 - Unverified User: This user doesn't get any further than the main menu and only has access to the 'Leave Comment to SysOp' command and the 'Logoff' command. 0 - Locked Out User: This user just doesn't get on your system. They probably did something to annoy you, and you dropped their access level to 0, locking them out of your system. Everything RoboBOARD/FX does is defined by the menus you create or in this case the menus that were supplied. Each menu command has two fields, the first pertaining to access level and the second to access tags. Most commands on the default RoboBOARD/FX menus are set at access level 5 (Verified User), others like LOGOFF and COMMENT have been set at level 4 (Unverified User). " As an example, lets say a Sam User logs on to your system. You know Sam is a valid person, so you give Sam access level 5 (Verified User). Sam wants to talk to you and compliment you on your excellent system so Sam uses the Page Sysop Command which has been configured to access level 4 (Unverified User). RoboBOARD/FX checks to see if Sam has an Access Level greater than or equal to that of the Comment commands access level. If Sam can pass this test then RoboBOARD/FX proceeds to the second layer of security, the Access Tags. " ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Security Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 10 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The second layer of access control used by RoboBOARD ³Access Tags³ are the Access Tags. After RoboBOARD/FX has ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ confirmed that the user has cleared security on Layer 1, it will proceed with the Access Tags test. Access tags allow you to fine tune your access, or add detail to it. Tags allow you to filter users that would normally pass the layer 1 access level test for a particular feature. They also allow you to separate or group users having the same access level. Access tags are simply letters of the alphabet from 'A' and 'Z'. Each menu command has an option for Access Tags, as does every User. A menu command may have multiple Tags defined and if this is the case a user must have at least those specific tags set to access the menu command. If RoboBOARD/FX finds that a user has more tags set then required it does not care. Back to Sam. " As SysOp you have decided that not all users should be able to Page you. So you have decided to use the "P" tag on your Main Menus PAGE COMMAND as a page filter. You have found Sam to be great at conversation so you have given Sam a "P" Tag. When RoboBOARD/FX processes and passes Sam on the Layer 1 test, it proceeds to Layer 2. RoboBOARD/FX finds that Sam has all the Tags that the PAGE COMMAND has. In our example both Access Layers have passed and Sam gets to Page You. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³The Access Process³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 1) A Menu Command has been requested. 2) The Menu Command has an ACCESS LEVEL of 4. 3) The current users ACCESS LEVEL is 5. 4) If "USER ACCESS" >= "COMMAND ACCESS" then LAYER 1 of the access check has been passed. 5) If LAYER 1 has passed then check the Tags. 6) The Menu Commands Tag is "P". 7) The current users Tag is "P". 8) If the Menu Command Tags are ALL found in the USERs Tags then LAYER 2 of the access check has passed. 9) If both Layer 1 and Layer 2 security have been passed then the user has access to the Menu Command (ie: message base, file area, bulletins). ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Security Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 11 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³Examples³ ACCESS TAGS RESULT ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ USER 4 NONE COMMAND 4 NONE ACCESS GRANTED USER 4 NONE COMMAND 5 NONE ACCESS FAILED ON LAYER 1 USER 5 NONE COMMAND 4 A ACCESS FAILED ON LAYER 2 USER 99 ABCZ COMMAND 1 A ACCESS GRANTED USER 1 A COMMAND 99 A ACCESS FAILED ON LAYER 1 USER 999 ABCJLQSUVZ COMMAND 999 AJQS ACCESS GRANTED ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bulletins ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The two level Bulletin System used by RoboBOARD/FX adds a high level of flexibility to your BBS design. We provide the standard Welcome and News screens that are displayed to a user at logon. Valid graphical formats are Tel-FX graphics, colour ANSI or mono ANSI/ASCII screens. We also provide a Menu Commands for Bulletins, which if included on a menu will provide an easy interface into your bulletins. Bulletins displayed in this window can be Tel-FX graphics, colour ANSI, mono ANSI or ASCII text files. They are displayed in order from newest to oldest so that frequent callers do not have to scroll to the bottom of the list every time they call to see what new Bulletins have been added. Upon Logon users can automatically view up to 3 Welcome screens and 3 News screens. These are graphics screens created using FXdraw, so simply name them or save them as WELCOME1.TFX... WELCOME3.TFX and NEWS1.TFX...NEWS3.TFX. RoboBOARD will look in the GRAPHICS (language dependant) directory and display them in the correct sequence if they exist. Welcome screens and News screens can not be ASCII text files rather they must be created in FXdraw or an ANSI drawing package. If a Continue, button is drawn on the graphic the user will be able to view the screen until they click the Continue button or until RoboBOARD/FX times them out. ANSI/ASCII screens always wait for user response. It should be noted that RoboBOARD/FX does not care if you include a button on your graphical Bulletins. If you do not include a button the Bulletin will be displayed for five seconds. If you include a button or any number of buttons on a Bulletin screen RoboBOARD/FX does not care what that button is Named or what Key has been assigned to it, any button click is interpreted as a command to close the window and continue. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bulletins Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 12 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ If the user logs on in Colour ANSI Mode, RoboBOARD/FX will look in the GRAPHICS (language dependant) directory for WELCOME1.ANS ... WELCOME3.ANS and NEWS1.ANS ... NEWS3.ANS. If the user logs on in Mono ANSI Mode, RoboBOARD/FX will look in the GRAPHICS (language dependant) directory for WELCOME1.ASC ... WELCOME3.ASC and NEWS1.ASC ... NEWS3.ASC. RoboBOARD/FX provides two types of Direct Access menu commands that relate to Bulletins. One allows you to display a graphic and the other allows you to display a text file. These are rather generic menu commands since they have many other purposes besides just Bulletins. These types of Bulletins require that you supply a File Name, so that RoboBOARD/FX can find the file in the GRAPHICS directory for the current language. Direct Access Bulletins commands check access levels and access tags, but ignore Forums. Another type of Bulletin menu command that RoboBOARD/FX supports is Forum based. Forums are used to separate groups of users on a BBS thus limiting their access to certain Bulletins. When a user with sufficient access chooses this type of Bulletin command from a menu, they will gain access to any Bulletins, defined for that Forum Number. If a user does not have access to a particular Forum they will not know that Bulletins have been defined for that Forum. Bulletins in RoboBOARD/FX may be either textual or graphical. You can add buttons to your menus that will let users scroll through listings of the available Bulletins on your system. The list of Bulletins are presented to the user in a Lister Window. If the user picks a graphic bulletin it will be displayed in a graphics window and if they pick a text bulletin it will be displayed in a text reader window. The maximum length of a text Bulletin is 999 lines. In ANSI mode a text based equivalent interface is provided. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Messaging and Echo Mail ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX uses a Hudson messaging system which is a large database message/email system. You can have up to thirty-two thousand messages spread over 200 Message Areas. The message base is Fido Echomail compatible and supports features such as public/private, private or public only messages as well as handles and read/write accesses. Messaging is a very important part of most BBS systems. Much of the communication between you and your Users, and between other Users is done via the messaging system. Messaging has to be controllable and configurable to suit the needs of the many different types of BBSs. RoboBOARD/FX gives you a powerful set of tools to work with in the form of Menu Commands. When a message area is defined it requires that you include security settings for it and also what Forum has access to it. Messaging is based ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Messaging and Echo Mail Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 13 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ primarily on Forums using Menu Commands to access Forums. The Message Bases, Message Reader, and Message Writer windows are RoboBOARD/FX primary messaging functions and their interface can not be changed. When a user picks a Message Icon they see a window listing the Message Bases available for their access level including a scroller to roll up and down through the list. When a user chooses a Message Base or is directed to a Message Base by a Menu Command, the Message Reader window pops up and places them at the last message they read. RoboBOARD/FX uses a natural numbering system which is independent of the messages actual offset into the message base. Along the bottom of the Message Reader window is a line of icons to: Write, a new message will pop up the Message Writer window which lets the user address and write the message using RoboBOARDs word processor message editor. Reply, to a message first asks a user if they want to quote the message. If they choose yes quote tracking will be activated. Delete, will let a user delete a message only if it is addressed to them or only if they wrote it. Upload, allows a user to upload a preprepared message. We suggest for appearance sake that users keep the width of the message text to about sixty-five characters. The message must be written in a pure ASCII text editor. Download, allows a user to download a message to their hard drive. Print, allows a user to print a message to LPT1. List, pops up a Message Lister window which lets a user scroll through the messages addressed to them. Messages are normally grey in colour and personnel mail which has not been read is highlighted in Yellow. Previous, takes the user to the last message read. Next, takes a user to the next available message in the list. Exit, exits the Message Reader window and returns a user to the calling menu. Users are given control over who reads their messages by using the Public/Private radio buttons at the top of the Message Writer window. Using RoboCFG you can control whether messages will remain local to your system or if they will be sent to other systems via echo mail. RoboBOARD/FX supports echomail that is based on Fido technology like FidoNet and WorldNet. FidoNet is a echomail system unique to ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Messaging and Echo Mail Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 14 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ the BBS community, it was started in 1983 by Tom Jennings and has since grown to over twenty-two thousand nodes or member BBS systems around the world today. FidoNet is predominantly a hobby net but being very accessible, affordable and extensible is used to backbone files, send messages and exchange special interest information and ideas on a broad variety of topics. Generally speaking one or more systems in a local area will act as a HUB through which SysOps send and receive mail packets and files. Echomail is very topic specific and different topics are called Echoes. Message bases can be tagged as Local or Echo in RoboCFG. When users reply to, or enter messages that are in an Echo message base the new mail replies are packeted up using a standalone packer/scanner and sent to the HUB as a mail packet (not included). The scanning and packeting process can be run manually or as a daily time event. When the mail reaches the HUB it is repacked and sent towards its destination. Echomail requires a Fido compatible Front End that answers the phone for the BBS and manages mail for the system. A Front End determines whether an incoming call is from a 'human caller' or another echomail system. If the caller is human there call will be directed to RoboBOARD/FX and if the caller is another echomail system the Front End will take over and manage the messages. In the world of Fido Technology Echomail: 1:125/111.0 is the address of Fido Software. ZONE1:NET125/NODE111.POINT0 Zone 1 is North America and Zone 2 is Europe. For more information on how to get online with echomail talk to a Fido Hub that is local to you. If you do not know who the HUBs are in your area ask a local sysop who is doing Echomail. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Files ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX uses a super fast Database file system, which lets you query a CD Rom platter as fast as your hard drive. Files are divided into file areas and the only limit to the number of areas you can have is your hard drive space. Access levels, alphabetical access Tags and Forum number are assigned to every File Area which creates a high level of configurable security and management for you. By Using Forums you can completely cut users off from specific file areas, they will not even be aware of their existence. You can also give a specific group exclusive access to a file area which is great if you have a diversified group of users. RoboCFG provides quick and powerful tools that let you edit, create and delete file areas. RoboCFG also lets you mark, describe, orphan, copy, move and delete individual files within file areas. RoboCFG is a point and shoot environment that has pull down menus, pop up windows, scroller bars and templates. This is a very quick file management system that will free up your time for less tedious tasks. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Files Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 15 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX will read your existing FILES.BBS structure or the one off your CD-ROM directly into its database. For normal listings RoboBOARD/FX displays a one line short description, but it also supports extended descriptions for files. Complete statistics are also kept, for example, who uploaded the file, the upload date, and how many times the file has been downloaded. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Menus ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX provides you with the ability to give your users a state of the art 256 colour SVGA windowed interface. You also can support users who do not have VGA or who do not have a Tel-FX terminal, with standard colour ANSI or mono ANSI. To accomplish this degree of support you are required to have two sets of menus. When considering the extra work involved in a multilevel menu system verses a strictly ANSI system, it is important to remember that Tel-FX graphics do provide an incredibly friendly GUI interface and that graphics open up opportunities in online communications tha t an ANSI system could never provide. This chapter is designed to give you an overview of menuing. Tel-FX Graphics files that have BLB and IDX extensions are in an optimised compiled format. Colour ANSI files have an ANS extension and mono ANSI screens have an ASC extension. To provide graphics, colour ANSI and mono ANSI support RoboBOARD/FX will expect to find three different file types all having exactly the same name but different extensions. ANSI support is an option and RoboBOARD/FX will work just fine if you choose to run a graphics only BBS. In RoboCFG you have the option, under the Nodes menu to determine what level of graphics support each node will provide. Your choices are Tel-FX only, ANSI only, or Tel-FX and ANSI. If you have configured a node to support both Graphics and ANSI, you are given the option to determine what level of graphics support you want to provide on a per menu screen basis using the Menu Editor found in RoboCFG. If you choose the Graphics only option you probably have created only a graphics menu for this command and likewise if you choose the ANSI only option, you probably have created only an ANSI screen. If you are supporting ANSI you will need to create both a colour and mono version of each screen. RoboBOARD/FX does not include an ANSI drawing package so you may want to use one of the excellent shareware ANSI drawing packages. Creating a mono ANSI screen is usually not much of a problem since most ANSI drawing packages have the option to store an ANSI drawing or screen in both mono and colour formats. Note that if a graphics, colour ANSI or mono ANSI screen is not found where expected, RoboBOARD/FX ignores the request and displays nothing to the user. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Menus Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 16 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The reason that RoboBOARD/FX can easily provide both VGA Graphics and ANSI in the same BBS package is due in part to the way that menus are communicated with. As you may have noticed while using FXdraw, whenever you draw a button on the screen you are requested to attach a Letter of the alphabet to the button. When a user clicks on a menu button on their terminal end the Letter for that button is sent to your Host end. When RoboBOARD/FX receives the Letter it executes the Menu Command attached to that Letter. This allows you to give buttons Letters that have meaning like 'Q' for Quit and 'N' for Next. This Letter also gives you a common link between your SVGA Graphics screens and your ANSI screens. It is very important to remember that the same Letter must have the same meaning on each Graphic Mode Screen. RoboBOARD/FX lets you control the look and feel of your BBS by giving you a simple set of tools to create custom menus. Menu screens and buttons are drawn using FXdraw and Menu Commands are attached to buttons using the Menu Editor found in RoboCFG. RoboBOARD/FX gives you access to more then thirty Menu Commands that allow users to perform an array of useful functions like log off, change their personal info, fill in templates, go to other menus, page SysOp, access files, do messaging, read memos, enter Doors, etc. When a button is clicked the menu command that is attached to that button (letter of the alphabet) is executed. To attach Menu Commands to a Button using RoboCFG you simply scroll through the list of available Commands and select the command you want to attach to a button. In the same template you can set graphics mode, access levels and access tags for the button/menu command. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ In RoboBOARD/FX the first menu that is loaded will ³The Main Menu³ always have the name MAIN. This is the base menu ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ from which all other menus branch. This does not mean that MAIN will be the first screen a user ever sees, but it will be the first menu a user sees. It is possible for different users having different access levels to see different MAIN menus. This is accomplished using different screens. It is important to note that if no file is found with the name MAIN your system will halt with an error message and drop carrier on the user. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Forums ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD allows you to configure up to 999 numerically denoted Forums. Setting up a BBS to have Forums is not required in order to run a successful BBS, however it does provide one very interesting option. Forums allow you to setup your system in such a manner that users never see File Areas, Message Bases or Bulletins unless you give them access to that Forum number. The Forum system is very useful if you have confidential data on your system, you have groups of individuals with different interests, ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Forums Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 17 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ or you are running a pay board. Forums numbers only work on File Areas, Message Bases and Bulletins. You are required to provide a Forum number when using Menu Commands that are file, message and bulletins related. RoboBOARD/FX always requires at least one Forum defined, and it comes with Forum one (1) configured. Forum one (1) is assigned to General Mail, the default message base and New Files, the default file area. To make managing Forums easier RoboCFG gives you a special template found on both the Files and Messages pulldown menu. This template acts as a memo pad and allows you to attach names to each Forum number. The names play no role in the configuration of RoboBOARD/FX except to act as a reminder to you. Menus can be made to look very Forumed by creating a Main or Main Forums menu that provides buttons to branch to another menu (specific Forum). The user will now be in a Forum even though they reached that menu using normal security checks. At this point users can click on Message, File and Bulletin buttons that activate Forum checks providing that they have sufficient access and the correct access Tags to clear security for that button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Doors ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ DOORs are standalone software programs that are written to be used with BBS software. They cover a wide range of uses, everything from databases to games. The name DOOR comes from the analogy of stepping through a door into another room, or leaving the BBS and passing into a different area of the system. Most DOORs are written using ANSI and run well with RoboBOARD/FX. DOORs are run in a shell and handle their own I/O. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Chat ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX supports multinode chat and SysOp to User private Chat. Chat allows for live, online interaction between callers. SysOp to User chat is a split screen two way conversation. If paging is turned on users can call the SysOp with an Audible page, to engage in conversation. If a user is on the system and the SysOp wants to talk to them, they must comply, they are given no choice, the split screen chat window pops up and only the SysOp has the ability to close the window. Multiline or multinode chat has become a very popular feature of BBS systems. It has become so popular that an entire language of Emoticons has evolved. Things like :) smile, :-):-):-) guffaw: You've got the picture! In multinode chat a very large chat window is opened with a typing area along the bottom for each node. Each person in the conversation types in their comments and they are added to the chat window with their Name. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± JPEGs ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 18 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ JPEG is an acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. The JPEG group was formed and worked under the auspices of three major international standards groups: ISO (International Organization for Standardization), CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee, IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). There are only two technologies being used publicly at this time to send photographic quality images across telephone lines. Fractal Image Compression Hardware/Software systems and JPEG software solutions. We chose JPEG Imaging over Fractals mainly because much existing Fractal technology is either patented or has patents pending. We did not want your End Users, the people in the Online community to have to pay royalties to view photographic images using FXterm. JPEG technology uses algorithms that simplifies colour and images compressing them to a size which can be sent over the telephone lines using high speed modems in a reasonable length of time without a major loss in image quality. We feel that JPEGs suit the needs of the Online community very well, where transfer time is every bit as important as image quality. GIF images typically compress to 5% to 35% of their original size when using JPEG technology. Companies providing online services, SysOps with marketing ideas, special interest groups and BBSs that offer GIFs will benefit from JPEG images. RoboBOARD/FX requires that images be converted to JPEG format before they are sent over the telephone line. The compressed image will be packeted by RoboBOARD/FX and transferred to the users end. When the transfer is complete and the integrity of the image verified the photographic image will pop up as part of the window it was drawn in. JPEG images are assembled with buttons, and normal drawing entities using FXdraw to form screens. At this time JPEGs will only be displayed as a frame in FXdraw marking the perimeters of the image with the name and size placed in the middle of the frame. You can Draw overtop or underneath a JPEG image in FXdraw which is nice for annotating images. At this time we are including a standalone program called FXphoto which is used to convert GIFs to either colour or grey scale JPEG photographic images. At this time we provide direct support for the GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format). If you intend to do much image processing you will want to purchase an image converter, manager, manipulator. This way you can convert from any of the many other image formats, and crop or scale your images to an appropriate size to send them over a modem. For the most current information on processing images please refer to the supplementary digital DOCs titled FXPHOTO.DOC. JPEG Photographic images are the least efficient graphical data we support in the RoboBOARD/FX system. That does not mean they should not be used since JPEGs are also the most graphically explicit data that can be sent. We suggest for efficiency sake that whenever possible, images are kept to a small size and if possible use grey scale JPEGs which allow for higher image quality ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± JPEGs Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 19 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ retention. JPEG images provide a new level of sophistication to Online Graphics. As SysOp you have a responsibility to your low speed users to use JPEGs carefully, and not make them suffer through unnecessary slow images. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Templates ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX has a powerful set of SysOp programmable Template tools. Templates use a very small very specific command set. These templates are written using standard readable ASCII characters and English words using a program like DOS Edit. Templates allow you to create questionnaires, keep statistics, do online marketing and get any data you require from users in a controllable manner. You are given control over the prompt strings, the language of the prompts, and the colour right down to the character. You can specify that only numeric input be allowed, or you can allow alpha and numeric input. You can even include BARs to group input fields. Templates information can be appended to a file on disk, for integration with your database software or can be written to your printer, or both. All the templates seen in RoboBOARD/FX use this template system, so you have many examples to look at. They can be found in the TEMPLATE subdirectory. We strongly suggest that you do not change the templates supplied with RoboBOARD/FX and if you do want to change them make a backup of the file(s) you are planning to change first. Templates can be accessed from any menu using Menu Commands and are subject to full security checking like access level and access tag(s). ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Introduction to RoboCFG ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 20 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX gives you the SysOp a simple to use yet powerful set of BBS configuration and management tools called RoboCFG. RoboCFG uses a mouse, pull down menus and pop up templates to create a quick point and shoot environment. RoboCFG is a text mode program; that means it is very memory efficient and will perform nicely under Desqview. In RoboCFG you can, configure every node independently, define up to eight languages, set up forums, manage files, shell to DOS, build menus, set security, and manage message areas, just to mention a few features. RoboBOARD/FX uses a lightning fast database files system that lets you access a CD ROM or CD ROM platter as fast as a hard drive. No matter how many files you have RoboCFG gives you the tools you need to manage them quickly. Managing messages is made easy using RoboCFG. Using the Hudson standard you can create up to 200 different message areas. You can insert, delete and change messages or change settings on entire message areas by pressing a few keys or with the click of a button. The RoboBOARD user editor is extremely fast. You can globally change user access levels and do detailed searches on names or any other text strings associated with users. System security is a fundamental strength of RoboBOARD/FX. You have complete control over, what people see and do on your BBS. Not only do we have access levels that range from 0 to 999, we also have 'A' through 'Z' User Tags. Tags are a completely natural way to separate groups of users. Access to menus and commands can be based on access levels, tags or both. This system provides you with a highly configurable security system. RoboBOARD/FX supports up to 999 Forums defined numerically. Forums let you conveniently separate file and message areas. If a user does not belong to a Forum they never have to know that file areas and message areas exist for that Forum. RoboBOARD/FX can be operated as a full featured BBS exactly as it comes off the diskette, or it can be configured to take on a look and feel of your choice. No matter what you choose there is some personalization involved with setting up RoboBOARD/FX and periodic maintenance is part of running a BBS. Whether you are running a support system, a commercial system or are just having fun, RoboCFG will easily take care of security, users, files, and messaging with you. Don't worry about setting up a BBS if this is new to you, the concepts are not overly difficult and we have put a lot of effort into creating a system that does not sacrifice power for simplicity. In our opinion configuring RoboBOARD/FX is substantially easier than any other BBS program. This section of our manual will take you on a tour of RoboCFG, stepping through the menus and templates we will explain their use. Along the way we will use real configuration scenarios to pull the ideas and menu commands together into practical knowledge. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Lets get Started ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 21 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Lets get started! If you have installed RoboBOARD/FX, begin RoboCFG by typing ROBOCFG at the C:\ROBOFX> DOS prompt. This will start execution of ROBOCFG.EXE placing you in the RoboCFG environment. The background of your screen will be a medium blue colour, and in the centre of your screen you will see the version number, the Hamilton TeleGraphics Inc. copyright notice, the current language and the node number you are editing. If you are running a one line board give nodes no further thought, the node number always defaults to one. If you are running a single language BBS you will not have to think about language again either. Across the top of your screen is the Pull Down menu bar. The menus are named, Exit, System, User, Messages, Files, Display, Languages, and Nodes. You can use your mouse to choose a menu by clicking on the appropriate menu name or you can jump from menu to menu by typing ALT and then the letter highlighted in red. In RoboCFG your Left mouse button is used to pick menus or position the cursor in templates. You also may navigate the templates using the usual Arrow, Tab, Shift Tab, Home, End, Insert and Enter keys. To activate a template highlight the appropriate command on a pull down menu and hit Enter or click on it with your mouse. Templates and windows are the basic input tools used in RoboCFG. Information lists like users and message areas, are displayed in scrollable windows. Wherever you are required to input information from the keyboard, you will be given a template. Templates are very comfortable to use, in that they are broken into input boxes or fields. To Help there are also brief descriptions of commands and template fields listed along the bottom of your screen. You will find the Help Line is usually enough information to keep you from having to constantly refer to your DOCs. RoboBOARD/FX will install on to your system complete with a simple configuration that applies to the default menus. You can run RoboBOARD/FX exactly as it installs or you can change it completely to suit your specific needs. The configuration we made was required so that RoboBOARD/FX could function as a BBS, but it can also be used by you as an example to help you design your system. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Exit Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The Exit Menu simply provides a way out of the RoboCFG environment. You can terminate execution completely and return to DOS, and temporarily halt execution and Shell to DOS to perform another DOS task. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Exit Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 22 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The DOS Shell command allows you to execute another ³DOS Shell³ DOS program without completely leaving RoboCFG ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ environment. If you click on the DOS Shell command you will be placed outside RoboCFG at the normal DOS prompt. RoboCFG occupies about 2-1/2 kilobytes of memory in the shell so you should be able to run most of your DOS applications without any problem. To return to RoboCFG type EXIT at the DOS prompt. While you are in the shell you will see "Type [EXIT] to return to ROBOCFG", on the line above the DOS prompt. This will act as a reminder that you are in a shell, should you end up in an extended DOS session. ÚÄÄÄÄ¿ The Exit command exits RoboCFG returning you to the DOS ³Exit³ prompt. Execution of RoboCFG is terminated and any changes ÀÄÄÄÄÙ you made during a configuration session are saved. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The System Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The System Menu lets you define settings like your BBS name and your name. You can also define system settings that affect the BBS as a whole, like Keyboard Time Out and Paging Times. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ System Info affects settings that are specific to ³System Info³ your Bulletin Board System. These fields are stored ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ as Global Settings or System Variables giving other developers and yourself access to this information. From top to bottom the fields are. SysOp Name, is a field for you to type in your name or alias. BBS Name, is for the name of your BBS. Your BBS Name will be displayed to your users when they logon to your BBS as part of the RoboBOARD/FX Registration, Serial Number and Product Information Screen. Mail Directory, is the directory that your mail will be placed in for example C:\ROBOFX\MAIL\ The last back slash is required by RoboBOARD/FX. Temp Directory, is the directory that your mail will be placed in for example C:\ROBOFX\MAIL\ The last back slash is required by RoboBOARD/FX. Terminal Name, is the template field where you type the name and most recent version number of FXterm. This information is required in case a user is calling with an outdated Terminal. RoboCFG will have this field filled in when you purchase RoboBOARD/FX. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Global settings affect the entire system no matter what ³Global³ node you are configuring. From top to bottom the fields ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ are: ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The System Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 23 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ KeyBoard Time Out in seconds, controls the length of 'Idle' time a user is allowed before they are automatically logged off your system. RoboBOARD/FX begins counting idle time when it has completed the tasks a user has selected. If no input from either the mouse or the keyboard is passed to your Host (RoboBOARD/FX) by the Terminal (FXterm) before the number of seconds you specify are counted down, the users session will be terminated. This is a safety mechanism that is designed for example, to prevent a user from beginning a file download and then heading over to a neighbours to watch the game. Without this feature a user could monopolize your system without actually using it. Time Bank Maximum in minutes, is the global setting that controls the maximum number of minutes a user may have banked for a future session. Time Banking is a very popular feature with users. You will often see a user logon to your BBS, look at the message and file areas, then check their time left for the session. At that point they may decide to bank some time for a future date when they will return and download a large file or group of files. RoboBOARD/FX comes with the Time Bank Maximum set to 45 minutes in the template. If you do not want to use a time bank it is best to remove the option from your BBS menus completely or set the Menu Command to an access or tag that does not match any of your users. By setting the Time Bank Maximum to Zero and leaving the option on the menu, your users will receive a notice telling them that the Time Bank feature is not available. Time Bank Daily in minutes, simply sets the maximum amount of time a user can deposit into the Time Bank on a daily basis. If you do not want to allow for time banking on your BBS, it is best to remove the option from your menus. By setting the Time Bank Maximum to Zero and leaving the option on the menu, your users will receive a notice telling them that the Time Bank feature is not available. Maximum SysOp Pages, is the global setting that controls how many times during a session a user is allowed to page you. If a user exceeds the allowable Pages they will receive the notice "SysOp is NOT Around". You can completely eliminate the Paging feature by removing it permanently from your menus or you can disable it temporarily by setting the Maximum Pages to Zero. Page Allowed From ??:00 To ??:00 hours. These are the globals that control the hours that you are available for paging. They are based on a 24 hour clock, so noon is 12, 6:00PM is 18 and midnight is 0. This is a very useful feature if you allow users to page you but also like to sleep from time to time. You can disable Paging completely by removing the Page command from your menus. If you allow only certain individuals to page you then set the users access and the menu commands access accordingly. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 24 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The User menu allows you to edit users, define Access Profiles, do user based queries and configure the Call Back Verifier. Security is a snap using the one thousand convenient Access Profile Templates in RoboBOARD/FX. This is an excellent time to explain a little bit about RoboBOARD/FXs security system. All users in the User Base have an access level assigned to them. All commands found in the BBS have an access level assigned to them. A user can access all commands that are less than or equal to his or her access level. This is an incredibly simple system, for example if the Page Sysop command found on a menu has an access of 750 then any user who has their access set to 749 or less will NOT be able to page the SysOp. RoboBOARD/FX uses an innovative and powerful Access Profile system. You are allowed to define one thousand Access Profiles from 0 to 999. Simply put, an Access Profile lets you predefined values for Access Levels instead of filling in the appropriate template fields in the User Editor for each individual user. When a user is assigned an access level, they inherit all the information in the Access Profile for that particular access level. An Access Profile consists of the profile name, Main menu name, required file ratio, kilobyte ratio, daily files allowed, daily kilobytes allowed, and daily time for that access level. You can define as many or as few of the 1000 possible access profiles as you choose. Don't worry about trying to use all 1000 access profiles. Most Bulletin Board Systems use only a few access levels. To make managing the Access Profiles easy, you are given a scroller window to cruise through your defined profiles. For convenience sake you can even give every Access Profile a different name. The Access Profile Name is very helpful when remembering the purpose of a particular access level. When you install RoboBOARD/FX it has a number of Access Profiles already defined. You can of course change these profiles or leave them just the way they are. No matter what, if you are a little unclear on exactly how Access Profiles work, take a look at them and the concept will be much clearer. We have defined: Locked Out (access 0), Unverified User (access 4), Verified User (access 5), SysOp (access 999). In the User Editor you can view all the data that applies to a user within a clear well defined template. You will notice that the users required file ratio, kilobyte ratio, daily files allowed, daily kilobytes allowed and daily time fields are blank. These blank fields are interpreted by RoboBOARD/FX as instructions to get the value it needs from the Access Profile configuration. This is an important point to remember. If these fields are blank RoboBOARD/FX will use the Access Profile configuration. However if you type values into the fields mentioned above RoboBOARD/FX will override the Access Profile using the values you typed. This allows you to give special consideration to a user without creating a different access level for that user. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 25 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Security is an important and fundamental element of any BBS. The last few paragraphs have been enough of an introduction to RoboBOARD/FX security so that you will be able to understand how it relates to users, as we step through the User Configuration templates. RoboBOARD/FX makes security very easy using the Access Profile system we just described, while at the same time providing room for individual configurability through the User Editor template. Alphabetical Tags used in part by the menu system, provide yet another level of easy to configure security. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The New Users template allows you to define ³New User Profile³ whether new users are allowed on your BBS. If ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ new users are allowed you will want to configure these global settings. They are unique to new users and determine things like what access level and what access tags a new user is given. It is important to note that if you are using the Call Back Verifier the New User template is only intended to define unverified access(the access a user has until they verify). If you are going to use the CBV you will probably want to give new users a low access level until they verify. If you are NOT going to use the Call Back Verifier remember that this is the only place you can control global settings for new user access. In some parts of the world you may find that you may not be able to use the Call Back Verifier because local phone numbers do not fit in the template properly. You may also find that a CBV does not provide the level of security you require for your system. Possibly your security system requires that you telephone your users and verify them by voice personally. Allow New Users [YES]. This field simply determines whether new users are allowed on your system. On some support or special interest systems, new users are not allowed to logon, instead the SysOp types their name and password into the UserBase for them. The Allow New Users template field, is a toggle and instead of typing you click on the input field with your mouse to toggle between Yes and NO. If you do not want to use your mouse you also can use the Carriage Return key to toggle the setting. New User Access, is the access that a new user is set to after successful logon to your BBS. Remember: File ratio, kilobyte ratio, daily files allowed, daily kilobytes allowed and daily time are set in the Access Profile that matches New User Access. New User Tags, allows you to give new users access Tags. An Access Tag is one character long and can be used to set a users access in conjunction with access levels. Time Bank Bonus, allows you to give a new user a time bonus on your system. We felt this would be a popular feature with Boards that are pursuing new users or that charge user fees. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 26 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Expiry in Days, allows you to set the number of days before a user is expired. Note: If you leave this field blank NO expiry is set. On most boards you do not want to expire your users after a period of time, so probably this field will always be blank. Expiry Access, is the access level and access profile that a user is set to after they have been expired. If the Expiry in Days field was left blank then this one will be left blank also. Expiry Tags, are the access tags that a user is given after they have expired. If the Expiry in Days field was left blank then this one will be left blank also. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Access Profiles are a unique and innovative ³Access Profiles³ system designed to make managing security quick ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ and easy. In RoboBOARD/FX you are allowed to define one thousand Access Profiles from 0 to 999. An Access Profile lets you name, set the required file ratio, kilobyte ratio, daily files allowed, daily kilobytes allowed and daily time fields for every user on a particular Access Level instead of filling in the User Editor template fields for each individual user. It saves you typing in five fields for each user, which in itself is a substantial time savings but more importantly it lets you clearly define groups of users based on access. You can create as many or as few profiles as you like, and you can give them logical names like Locked Out, VIP, CoSysOp etc.. All Access Profiles are created and managed using the Access Profile Editor. This Editor type will be familiar to you since the same type is used for files, users, and messages. When you click on Access Profiles the Access Profile Editor will pop up on your screen. To make managing Access Profiles easy, you are given a scroller window to browse through your defined profiles, and only defined profiles are displayed. You can use your arrow keys or mouse to highlight an access profile. There are two columns, the first one is named ### which refers to the access level and the second is NAME, which displays the name you assign to an Access Profile. Whether you have customized RoboBOARD/FX to your needs or not you will see a few Access Profiles in your scroller window. You might have Locked Out (access 0), Unverified User or New (access 4), Verified User (access 5), and SysOp (access 999); these are the RoboBOARD/FX default settings. Along the right hand side of the editor are the Edit, Insert, and Delete commands, which operate on the highlighted Access Profile. They are fully described below. [ Edit ] Access Profile: Clicking on edit will pop up the Access Profile template. There are seven fields that allow you to configure an access level. These fields can be filled in entirely or partially or not at all. If a field is left blank RoboBOARD/FX interprets it as instructions to not limit the user, for thats fields function. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 27 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Profile Name. This is the name you give an access level profile for your own convenience. If you have many profiles defined this name can be used to remind you what a particular access level is intended for, like Locked Out or SysOp. Main Menu File. This is a powerful feature of RoboBOARD/FX which allows you to display a different main menu for every access profile you have defined. If this field is left blank RoboBOARD/FX will default to Main which is defined using the Menu Editor found on the Display Pulldown. File Ratio, determines what upload to download ratio a user must maintain on your BBS. RoboBOARD/FX comes with a default one to five ratio. That means that a user must upload one file for every five they download. If this field is left blank the users upload to download ratio will be unlimited. Kilo Ratio, determines what upload to download ratio a user must maintain in kilobytes on your BBS. RoboBOARD/FX comes with a default fifty to one thousand ratio set. That means that a user must upload 50 kilobytes for every one thousand they download. If this field is left blank the users upload to download ratio in kilobytes will be unlimited. Daily Files, limits the number of files a user may download on a daily basis no matter how big or small they are. Of course if the user tries to extend their time on the system by loading the download queue with a number of large files that extends them beyond their Daily Time, RoboBOARD/FX starts skipping files that are too big to send in the remaining time. If RoboBOARD/FX does not find any files that are small enough to send in the remaining time it will skip to the end and exit the queue. If this field is left blank the users Daily Files will be unlimited. Daily Kilos, limits the number of kilos a user may download on a daily basis. If this field is left blank the users Daily Files will be unlimited. Daily Time, is the length of time expressed in minutes that a user is allowed to stay online. RoboBOARD/FX comes with a default of 55 minutes. If this field is left blank the users daily time will be unlimited. [ INSert ] Access Profile: Clicking on Insert will pop up a dialogue window asking what Access Level you want to create an Access Profile for. When you choose an Access Level, RoboBOARD/FX will insert a blank line at the correct location in the Access Profile Editor. After a blank line is inserted in the editor you will have to click on the Edit button to fill in the Access Profile template. NOTE: If you Insert an empty Access Profile over top (with the same number) the contents of the original Profile will be lost. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 28 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ [ DELete] Access Profile: Clicking on DELete will delete the high lighted Access Profile template. NOTE: Be careful when using this command, after an Access Profile is DELeted it cannot be recovered. [ Quit ] Access Profile:Clicking on Quit will exit you from the Access Profile Editor and return you to the User Pulldown. Changes are saved. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The User Editor is designed to make managing your ³User Editor³ userbase easy no matter how many users you have. The ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ User Editor is the tool you will use to make changes to an individual users information, view an individual users statistics, do global userbase changes and do searches on user information. It should be noted that most of the information in the userbase is volunteered by the user, so you cannot guaranty the validity of the information unless you call the user up and verify it yourself. You can verify the users data number by using the call back verifier however many boards allow users to access and change their personnal information by using the User Settings Menu command. The User Editor is very much like the Access Profile Editor described above in the way it functions. To make managing Users easy, you are given a scroller window to browse through your userbase. You can use your arrow keys or mouse to highlight an individual user. There are three columns, the first one is ### which refers to the users position in the userbase, the second is NAME, which displays the users name and the third is ACCESS which displays a users access level/profile. If you have not configured RoboBOARD/FX you may want add your name to the userbase. Along the right hand side of the User Editor are the Edit, Global, Find, Insert, and Delete commands that all perform different operations to the userbase. They are fully described below. [ Edit ] User:Clicking on edit will pop up the User Edit template. This may very well be the most full template used by RoboBOARD/FX. All the data collected by RoboBOARD/FX regarding a user is accessible through this template. We will describe each field in the template from top to bottom. Name. The users name. If this field is not filled in the template will be considered empty. Alias. A users alias is the name that a user is otherwise known as. The RoboBOARD/FX default settings will ask a new user for their alias at logon. A user can change their alias and password if they use the "User Settings" menu. This field can be left blank. Password. The password a user types in to gain access to your BBS. This field must be filled in, for a user to logon. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 29 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Voice Phone. This is the number that a user can be reached at to carry on a voice conversation. This field can be left blank. Data Phone. The users logon telephone number. Birthday. This field is for the users date of birth. Input is expected in Month/Day/Year format. Street. A users street address. City State. What City and State a user lives in. Country. What Country a user resides in. Zip Code. A users postal code. Access. This field defines a users access level. If there is an Access Profile created for this access level, it will automatically set the users required file ratio, kilobyte ratio, daily files allowed, daily kilobytes allowed and daily time fields provided that these fields located along the right hand side of the template have not been filled in overriding Access Profile. Note: Be careful when setting your Access Level and access Tags if you are using a product that lets you access DOS remotely. You do not want to accidentally give users access to your system at the DOS level. Access Tags. A user can have up to 26 alphabetical Access Tags assigned to them. Using the Access Level system a user can access every command or menu that is less than or equal to their access level. Alpha Access Tags are very different because a users tags must match tags assigned to a command or menu exactly. For example tags are an excellent method of separating users who have paid to play a game from those who have not. User Note. The user note is a field that lets you leave yourself a private note about a user. There is no way that a user can access this information through RoboBOARD/FX other than the scenario mention under Access Level. File Ratio. NOTE: This field will almost always be blank when using Access Profiles, unless your are overriding the profile settings. The File Ratio determines what upload to download ratio a user must maintain on your BBS. Kilo Ratio. NOTE: This field will almost always be blank when using Access Profiles, unless your are overriding the profile settings. The Kilo Ratio determines what upload to download ratio a user must maintain in kilobytes on your BBS. Daily Files. NOTE: This field will almost always be blank when using Access Profiles, unless your are overriding the profile ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 30 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ settings. Daily Files, limits the number of files a user may download on a daily basis no matter how big or small they are. Of course if the user tries to extend their time on the system by loading the download queue with a number of large files that extend them beyond their Daily Time, RoboBOARD/FX starts skipping files that are too big to send in the remaining time. If RoboBOARD/FX does not find any files that are small enough to send in the time that remains it will skip to the end and exit the queue. Daily Kilos. NOTE: This field will almost always be blank when using Access Profiles, unless your are overriding the profile settings. Daily Kilos limits the number of kilobytes of data a user may download on a daily basis. Daily Time. NOTE: This field will almost always be blank when using Access Profiles, unless your are overriding the profile settings. Daily Time is the length of time expressed in minutes that a user is allowed to stay online. Time Left. This is the total time a user has left for that day in minutes. It is important for RoboBOARD/FX to keep this information in the Global Settings for users who might call more than once on a day. Time Banked. This is the total time that a user has banked in minutes. Calls Made. This is the total number of calls a user has made to your system. First Call. The first date a user logged on to your system, stored in Month/Day/Year format. Last Call. The last date a user logged on to your system, stored in Month/Day/Year format. Expiry Date. The date a users account expires on your system, stored in Month/Day/Year format. If this field is left blank a users account will not expire. Expiry Acc. This is the access level a user has after their account has expired. You may want a user to have limited access to your BBS even after their account has expired. This field is only set if the Expiry Date field is filled. Expiry Tags. These are the Tags a user is given after their account has expired. This field is only set if the Expiry Date field is filled. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 31 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ [ Global Change ] The Global Change command activates a powerful template called GLOBAL USER CHANGE that lets you modify an entire userbase in seconds flat. The Global Change command will exchange one set of access level and tags with another set of user access level for the entire userbase. One thing to remember is that these changes cannot be undone, so it is a very good idea to think your changes through before making them. You can also use the Global User Changer to change a group to a new access profile with out changing their commands. RoboCFG only operates on the fields that are filled in. CHANGE USERS WITH: These two fields, Access and Tags define what users will be changed. Only users who match both Access and Tags exactly will be changed. CHANGE USER TO: Users will be changed TO whatever values you type into the Access and Tags fields. Since user access is based on Access Profiles the user will inherit the access profile that is assigned to their new access level. If you have overridden the Access Profile settings by filling in the users required file ratio, kilobyte ratio, daily files allowed, daily kilobytes allowed and daily time fields in the User Editor, RoboBOARD/FX will not alter these overrides. If you want to change overrides you will be required to make the changes manually. [ Find ] String: The RoboBOARD/FX Find command will search through names and aliases in the userbase looking for any text string you type into the template. The search is made in a first user in userbase to newest user direction. Click on Find, and the Find Text template will pop up asking you what text to look for. Type in the whole or partial name or alias you are searching for and RoboBOARD/FX will scream through the user base looking for a match and stop if it finds one. This Find command is not case sensitive so don't worry about getting the uppercase and lowercase characters in the right sequence. [ INSert ] User: Clicking on INSert will create an empty user template directly above the one you highlighted on your screen. You will then be able to manually fill in the template by picking the Edit button. [ DELete ] User: Clicking on DELete will delete the highlighted User from the userbase. NOTE: Be careful when using this command, after a user is DELeted their information will not be recoverable. [ Quit ] User Editor. Clicking on Quit will exit you from the User Editor and return you to the User Pulldown. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The User Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 32 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ RoboBOARD/FX comes with a built in Call Back ³ Call Back Verifier³ Verifier. The Call Back Verifier ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ automatically calls an unverified user or first time caller on their data line after they fill in the new user template and possibly see bulletins that are allowed for their unverified access. The unverified user is asked to verify their password, and if they do so successfully their access will be upgraded to whatever level you have defined in the CBV. The Call Back Verifier feature is not for everyone or all types of BBS systems. If this level of security suits your needs, the CBV is a handy tool that can save you a lot of time verifying users by voice phone. The CBV is not intended to work in Europe due to the lack of a standard length for phone numbers. It should be noted that if you intend to use the Call Back Verifier the settings in this template should be used as an upgrade from the global settings set by the New Users template. Allow Call Back, is a toggle that turns the CBV off or on. If you have been using the CBV and decide to turn it off you may want to change the system settings found in the New Users template. Area Codes Dialable, are three fields that determine what area codes are dialable by the CBV. Verified User Access, is the Access Level/Profile a user is upgraded to by the CBV, if they successfully verify their password. RoboBOARD/FX is configured with the verified access value set to five. Verified User Tags, allows you to give a verified users Alpha Access Tags. Expiry in Days, allows you to set the number of days before a user is expired. Note: If you leave this field blank NO expiry is set. On most boards you do not want to expire your users after a period of time, so this field probably will always be blank. Expiry Access, is the access level and access profile that a user is set to after they have been expired. If the Expiry in Days field was left blank then this one will be left blank also. Expiry Tags, are the access tags that a user is given after they have expired. If the Expiry in Days field was left blank then this one will be left blank also. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Messages Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 33 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The Messages Menu allows you to edit, create, and delete message areas. RoboCFG makes managing your message bases a simple process with our template driven tools. RoboBOARD/FX uses a Hudson type messaging system. You can have up to thirty-two thousand messages spread over 200 Message Areas. The message base is Fido Echo Mail compatible and supports features such as public only messages as well as handles and read/write accesses. RoboBOARD/FX comes configured with a default message area titled GENERAL MAIL. This area is used as a default area for messages. Individual messages found in these message areas are not managed by RoboBOARD/FX, rather they are tossed, scanned and packed by packages such as IMAIL, FMAIL or GECHO. These are commonly found shareware utilities that are designed to manage individual messages within a Hudson message base. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ RoboBOARD allows you to configure up to 999 numerically ³Forums³ denoted Forums. The template you see when you click on ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Forums is really only there for your convenience. It is simply a way for you to keep track of what Forum is attached to what number. BBS can be easily run without ever creating Forums other than the default Main Forum. Forums are used by menu commands pertaining to Files and Messages. For that reason you can view the Forum Index on both the Messages and the Files Pulldown Menus. A Forum is used primarily to keep one group of users out of files and messages that are intended for a different group of users. The Forum manager is explained from top to bottom: [ Edit ] Forum: Clicking on Edit pops up the Editor screen which has only one field for the name of the Forum. The name field is really only a memo field since Forums are numeric, but after you get a few forums on the go this becomes a very appreciated feature. If you highlighted an existing Forum you will be able to edit that Forums name. If you highlighted a blank Forum you will be able to fill in the name field. To create a new forum you must first insert a blank Forum and then Edit it. [ INSert ] Forum: Allows you Insert an empty field into the Forum editor. When you click on the Insert button a menu pops up with one field asking what the Forum number is you want to create. A blank field is then placed at that Forums number and must be filled in using the Edit button. [ DELete ] Forum: Simply removes the highlighted Forum field. [ Quit ] Returns you to the Messages Menu. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Messages Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 34 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ In RoboBOARD/FX Message Areas are managed using ³Message Areas³ the Message Area Editor. For each Message Area ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ you have configured, the Message Area Editor displays from left to right, first the message base Number, second the Name of the message base, and thirdly the Type of message base. Along the right hand side of the Message Area list are the Edit, INSert and DELete tools. To select a Message Area for editing, scroll through the list using your arrow keys or highlight an area by clicking on it with your mouse. [ Edit ] Picking the Edit function pops up the Edit Template. This is the tool that allows you to make changes to an existing message area template or to fill in the blanks on a new template created after picking INSert. Name. This is the Descriptive Name you have chosen for the message area, and it is also the name seen by the user when selecting a message area. The message bases are defined numerically but this is the description your users will read about an area. Area Number. This refers to the message Area Number from one to two hundred within the Hudson Message Base. This message Area Number is required by RoboBOARD/FX and echo mail utilities so that messages can be placed in the correct areas on your systems. Area Type. The Area Type field is a button that toggles between LOCAL and ECHO mail. If the ECHO option is chosen, information will be attached to the message that is required by echo mail networks like Fido and Worldnet. If you have a tosser/scanner you will be able to export and import messages created in or for this area. If the Area Type toggle is set to LOCAL, messages will not be exported from your system. LOCAL messages are intended to be read and written only on your BBS. Msg Settings, is a roller button that determines if messages written in this area can be Private only, Public only or either Private or Public. Private means that the author of the message chooses the person that can read the message. Public means that the author has no control over who reads the message. If you choose the PRI/PUB option, the user will be given radio buttons in the message writer, to toggle their message between Private and Public mail. Name Style, is a roller button that decides whether a user must use their real name, if they can use a handle or if they can choose either. REAL NAME means the user has no choice, their Real Name is read from the user database when they post the message. HANDLES means that a user is given no option, their Handle (alias) is read from the user database when they post the message. NAME/HANDLES gives a user the choice between using their real name or their handle. At the time that they ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Messages Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 35 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ post their message a dialogue box will pop up and ask them to choose between Real Name or Handle Forum. This letter determines which Forum this message base can be accessed from. To access this message base from all Forums type in the number 0. Read Access. This is the minimum access a user must have to be able to Read messages from this Message Area. Read Tags. These are the tags that a user must have in order to Read messages in this Message Area. Write Access. This is the minimum access a user must have to be able to Write messages from this Message Area. Write Tags. These are the tags that a user must have in order to Write messages in this Message Area. SysOp Access. If your access is set to this level or greater you are SysOp and can read anyone elses mail. There may be legal and moral implications in reading a users private mail. We only included this feature for SysOps that live in a country, state or province where this is legal. It is up to you to make certain that reading a users private mail is legal in your locale. RoboBOARD/FX does not come out of its security envelope with this field filled in. Important: If the Sysop Access is BLANK it means that this feature is NOT ACTIVE. Msg Tag Line, This the Tag Line you want attached to your Echo Mail. System Addr, This is your ie: FidoNet or WorldNet, address as determined by them. [ INSert ] Insert will create a blank template on the line directly above the highlighted Message Area. Use the Edit command to fill in the new field. [ DELete ] Delete will delete the Message Area you have high- lighted. The Message Area complete with all its messages will be intact, only the Message Area Configuration Template will be deleted. [ Quit ] Quit simply returns you to the Messages pulldown menu. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Files Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 36 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX uses a super fast Database file system, which lets you query a CD Rom platter as fast as your hard drive. Files are divided into file areas, allowing for high level security and management. The Files Menu provides tools that allow you to quickly edit, create, and delete file areas. Individual files within file areas can also be easily managed by adding descriptions, marking, orphaning, copying and deleting files. RoboCFG packs a powerful set of file management tools into a small package and once again its all templated. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ RoboBOARD allows you to configure up to 999 numerically ³Forums³ denoted Forums. The template you see when you click on ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Forums is really only there for your convenience. It is simply a way for you to keep track of what Forum is attached to what number. BBS can be easily run without ever creating Forums other than the default Main Forum. Forums are used by menu commands pertaining to Files and Messages. For that reason you can view the Forum Index on both the Messages and the Files Pulldown Menus. A Forum is used primarily to keep one group of users out of files and messages that are intended for a different group of users. The Forum manager is explained from top to bottom: [ Edit ] Forum: Clicking on Edit pops up the Editor screen which has only one field for the name of the Forum. The name field is really only a memo field since Forums are numeric, but after you get a few forums on the go this becomes a very appreciated feature. If you highlighted an existing Forum you will be able to edit that Forums name. If you highlighted a blank Forum you will be able to fill in the name field. To create a new forum you must first insert a blank Forum and then Edit it. [ INSert ] Forum: Insert allows you Insert an empty field into the Forum editor. When you click on the Insert button a menu pops up with one field asking what the Forum number is that you want to create. A blank field is then placed at that Forums number and must be filled in using the Edit button. [ DELete ] Delete simply removes the highlighted Forum field. [ Quit ] Quit returns you to the Messages Menu. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ In RoboBOARD/FX File Areas are managed using the ³Files Areas³ File Area Editor. The File Area Editor shows from ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ left to right, first the File Area Number, and secondly the Name of the File Area. Along the right hand side of the File Area list is the Edit, Manage, INSert and DELete tools. To select a File Area for editing scroll through the list using your arrow keys or highlight the area you want to edit by clicking your mouse on it. [ Edit ] File Area: Picking the Edit function pops up the Edit Template. This is the tool that allows you to make changes to an existing file area template or to fill in the blanks on a new template created by picking INSert first. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Files Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 37 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Area Name, is the name of the file area that the user sees when they do a listing of file areas. Path To Files, is the full DOS path to all the files that are used to make up a File Area. ie, C:\ROBOBBS\GIFS\ The last back slash is required so that RoboBOARD/FX will look in the correct location on your drives. RoboBOARD/FX does NOT allow you to have a file at one physical location on the hard drive, and listed in multiple file areas. RoboBOARD/FX does not look across directories or drives when searching for a file, it only looks in the directory you type in Path To Files. Some sysops want their archivers listed at the top of every file area. What we suggest to avoid duplication of files on the harddrive is, since there is no limit to the number of File Areas you can have, simply make a File Area called Archivers. Set the Access Low on that area and do not give it a Forum so that it will be accessible by everyone. Database File, is the file name you give RoboBOARD/FX to store its database information in. Since this is a DOS file name, it cannot be more than eight characters long and RoboBOARD/FX will automatically give it a dot FBS extension. Be certain that the name you give for the Database File does not already exist since RoboBOARD/FX will overwrite that file. Another thing to keep in mind is that since files listed in File Areas will often be on CD Roms, RoboBOARD/FX stores all Database Files in the ROBODATA directory. Simply providing a different Path To Files is not good enough, the Database File name must be different. Storage Type. This is a toggle that lets you choose between HARD DRIVE and CD ROM. Storage Type is based on whether the files that make up this File Area are located on your Hard drive or on your CD Rom. Forum Number. This number determines which Forum this File Area can be accessed from. The default is 0 which allows the file area to be accessed from all Forums. View Access. This is the minimum access a user must have to be able to View Files from this File Area. View Tags. These are the tags that a user must have in order to View Files in this File Area. Download Access. This is the minimum access a user must have to Download Files from this File Area. Download Tags. These are the tags that a user must have to Download Files in this File Area. SysOp Access. The required access that a SysOp must have to access this file area. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Files Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 38 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ [ Manage ] File Area: Manage is the template that is used to manage individual files within a File Area. After you have configured a File Area using the File Area Editor, highlight that File Area and click on the Manage Button. A window will pop up containing a list of all the files found at the address you specified in the Path To Files field of the Edit File Area template. They will be listed in order form newest to oldest. From left to right the columns displayed: 1st) the file name, 2nd) the file size in bytes, 3rd) the file date MM/DD/YY, and 4th) file status. The file status is a listing of particular interest. If the File Area you chose is a new file area, all the files listed will have a "Orphan File" status. Orphan files have not been added to the File Area and will not be available for the user to download. If a file has been added to the File Area instead of being an orphan there will be a file description. Along the right side of the files window are the edit commands. They are Edit, Mark, Copy, Orphan, and Delete. These commands operate on the file you have highlighted in the files window. ( Edit ) Individual File: Edit will pop up the File Edit template. After you have filled in the File Edit template the highlighted file will loose its status as Orphan. The File Edit template is also used to modify existing file descriptions and statistics. Description, allows you to describe a file for your users to view as part of the one file listing they see. Uploaded By, is the name of the person who uploaded the file to your BBS. Times Downloaded, counts the number of times that a particular file has been downloaded. ( Mark ) File: Files are Marked in order to select them for copying to a different File Area, orphaning and deleting. The only command that does not work in conjunction with the Mark command is Edit. If you click on Mark a node will be placed to the immediate left of the highlighted file name. A move can be performed by marking files, Copying them to a new File Area, and then Deleting the marked files. ( Copy ) File: Copy is used to copy files from File Area to another. Files are copied complete with all their template fields ie, Description and Uploaded By. To copy files first mark them using the Mark command, then click on the Copy button. A window will pop up called 'Copy to Which Area?'. Use your arrow keys or the scrollers to highlight the File Area you want the marked files copied to. After you have highlighted the correct File Area click on the Copy key to complete the operation. You will notice that this window will not drop down until you click on the Quit button. This allows you to copy the files to multiple File Areas. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Files Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 39 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ ( Orphan ) File: Orphan forces marked files to become Orphans or loose their template descriptions etc. That means that the file still exists on your hard drive but the user will not be made aware of its existence. ( DELete ) File: DELete removes marked files from your hard drive. You will be prompted with the Question: Delete Marked Files? YES or NO. If you choose YES the files will not be recoverable by RoboBOARD/FX. ( Quit ) Quit exits the File Editor. [ INSert ] File Area: INSert will create a blank template on the line directly above the highlighted File Area. Use the Edit command to fill in the new field. [ DELete ] File Area: DELete will delete the File Area you have highlighted. The files in the DOS directory will be intact but the File Area database will be deleted. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX is a completely configurable 256/16 Colour VGA BBS Software System. The Display menu gives you access to the RoboBOARD/FX graphics design and graphics menu commands. You can use RoboBOARD/FX the way we configured it by modifying security to suit your needs, but for many people having a totally personalized BBS is important, necessary or fun. RoboBOARD/FX gives you a truly integrated design solution. From RoboCFG you can seamlessly design menus and graphics screens in FXdraw. Using the Menu Editor found on the Display Pulldown you can assign menu commands, access levels and access Tags to menu buttons created in FXdraw. After you have created a new menu or modified an existing menu, you can give your system a real test by logging on in Local Mode. Using the tools found on the RoboCFG pulldown menus, you can completely configure and test your system design, before users ever see it. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Clicking on the Drawing Editor button will ³Drawing Editor³ seamlessly put you in FXdraw the Tel-FX Drawing ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ and Design package. Upon exiting FXdraw you will be returned to RoboCFG. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Menu Editor is a very important tool used in the ³Menu Editor³ design of menus. The concepts used in menu design ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ are fairly simple. Under this heading we will describe the process of creating menus and at the same time detail the menu commands. Creating a menu begins in FXdraw where the menu is drawn. Buttons are also drawn in FXdraw using what else, the Button buttons. If you have tried out FXdraw you may have noticed that when you draw a button you are prompted for a Letter of the alphabet (key from ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 40 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ your keyboard). Every button you draw in FXdraw has a Letter of the alphabet attached to it. These letters are stored in the drawing database for that particular drawing. If buttons are used in a drawing, you have the basis for a displayable interactive menu. If no buttons are used you simply have a drawing. At the nuts and bolts level, FXterm returns a Keypress or Letter attached to a button when it is pressed on the users terminal end, to your host end. RoboBOARD/FX the Host, knows what menu is active and what Menu Command is attached to the key the user clicked. With this knowledge RoboBOARD/FX then executes the Menu Command the user clicked on. RoboBOARD/FX uses a rigid file structure. A menu is stored in two parts, the definition file and the graphic file. This way the same definition file can apply to a Tel-FX graphic menu (TFX), a colour ANSI menu (ANS) or a mono ANSI menu (ASC). MENUS are stored in language specific directories on multilingual BBSs and on single language systems they are stored at C:\ROBOFX\ENGLISH\MENUS\ (the language may vary even within the English langauge ie: USA, CDN, ENGLISH, AUST). Graphics for these menus are stored at C:\ROBOFX\ENGLISH\GRAPHICS\ . RoboBOARD/FX allows you to create duplicate menus many layers deep based on access level and Tags. You can have a hundred MAIN menus if you choose, one for every access level you define. This of course becomes impractical quickly, but it may be important for you to have a few different menu structures for different groups of users. The scenario is: You have invested in hardware and software and are selling time on your system to three companies that either do not have the time or personnel to manage a professional BBS. All three groups, have unique clients that logon to your system to leave messages and download information. Your clients have requested that the end user never know that this is a shared system, so security is an important matter. You choose to draw three different sets of menus to match the special needs of each group. You have decided that to keep things simple users from all three groups will share the same access level you have chosen for fully verified users. To separate the different users you have given each group a unique access Tag. You also have created a unique Forum for each group of users. When a user logs onto your system, new mail will be scanned only in their Forum and they will see only the bulletins and menus that have the same Tag set as them. This is a simple example of relationship between security, menus and Forums. Based on this example it is not difficult to envision how deeply complex or how simple you can keep menu systems and security. RoboBOARD/FX menus rely on a large group of primary BBS functions called COMMAND FUNCTIONS. Command Functions are attached to buttons, and are executed when the end user clicks on the appropriate button on their end. When you are configuring a menu you can, scroll through the list of available commands. The ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 41 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Commands Functions do everything from Log a user off your system to Download files. You don't have to know anything about how these Command Functions actually work to use them, RoboBOARD/FX takes care of it for you. All you have to know is what they do and how to attach them to a menu. The above paragraphs were written to give you enough knowledge, so that you will be able to easily understand the template system we are going to describe in the following paragraphs. [ Menu File ] When you click on the Menu Editor button a Menu File menu will pop up on your screen. The Files menu lets you Open an existing Menu file for editing or Create a New menu. The three buttons on this menu are, Open, New, and Quit. If you click on New, a template will pop up asking for a menu file name. Since this function creates a DOS file the field is eight characters in length. ( Open ) if clicked will bring up the Menu Editor screen which is used to define and configure menus. The columns in this screen are Key, Command, and Access. On the right side of the editor are the, Edit, INSert, and DELete Keys. As with all other menus the sequence follows the Insert, and then Edit approach. If you chose a menu like MAIN that comes configured with RoboBOARD/FX you will be able to see the relationship between the Hot key defined in FXdraw or labelled in an ANSI editor, the Menu Commands, and the Menu Button Access Level. { Insert } Menu Command. The insert command will bring up a window listing the available menu commands which you can scroll through and choose from. A menu command must be chosen before a key can be assigned to the command using Edit since the Edit templates are command specific. The following is a list of the available menu commands. { Edit } The Edit command is used to complete the process of creating an interface button for your users. The Edit command can not be detailed since its contents change with every Menu Command. The following is a list of the available menu commands. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³List of Menu Commands³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ < #1 Goto Menu > The GOTO MENU command branches from the calling menu to a specified target menu. The menu you specify must have been created using the RoboBOARD/FX menu editor found RoboCFG. In the case of graphical menus a Tel-FX graphic must also exist, having been created using FXdraw. If the target menu is intended to be an ANSI screen then an ANSI graphic must exist, and would probably be created in an ANSI editor such as THEDRAW. As SysOp it is your responsibility to have a GOTO MAIN MENU or GOTO MENU command so people in ANSI mode can enter and exit menus. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 42 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ < #2 Goto Main Menu > This command is very similar to the GOTO MENU command except that it automatically returns a user to the menu named MAIN. The MAIN menu is a required menu in RoboBOARD/FX and all menus originate from it. < #3 Log-Off & Show GOODBYE > Log-Off & Show GOODBYE is a command designed to let users terminate their call in a friendly fashion. This command confirms that the user wants to log-off with a YES/NO dialogue box. If the user chooses YES then the Log-Off proceeds and displays the graphic named GOODBYE, at which point it there is a five second delay and then RoboBOARD/FX issues the disconnect command. < #4 Log-Off FAST > The Log-Off FAST command is very similar to the Log-Off & Show GOODBYE command except it does not ask the user to confirm that they want to Log-Off. Log-OFF fast also does not display the graphic GOODBYE before terminating the call. This command is used if you are creating a custom goodbye menu that does not use a GOODBYE graphic. < #5 Self Delete (ZAP) > The Self Delete command will actually allow a user to completely remove themselves from your system, by having RoboBOARD/FX remove their record from your Userbase. This command is definitely not for every BBS but you may want to consider this option if you run a board that some users may not feel comfortable being on or may not want to be affiliated with. If a user is allowed to self delete they will not show up in your user lists. If you are concerned about security remember you will have the LOGFILE information about them. < #6 Read Messages (Any Area) > The Read Messages command allows a user to read mail from any of the message areas that they have access to. The user will be given a Lister Window showing all the message areas available to them, which they can scroll through and pick from. The Read Messages command is also Forum sensitive which means the list of message areas presented to the user will be access level, access Tag and Forum number filtered. < #7 Read Messages (Fixed Area) > The Read Messages command allows the user to read mail from a message area you specify. Forums are ignored because you are choosing the message area for the user. Forums are not scanned , however access levels and access Tags are still enforced. If the users access level and access Tags do not allow access to the message area, the user will be notified, and not allowed entry to the message area. < #8 Write Message (Any Area) > The Write Message command allows the user to write mail in any of the message areas they may have access to. A Lister Window will pop up on the screen complete with scroller bars allowing the user to choose an area to write messages to. The list of message areas presented to the user will be access level, access tag, and forum number filtered. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 43 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ < #9 Write Message (Fixed Area) > The Write Message command allows the user to write mail in a message area you specify. Forums are ignored because you are choosing the message area for the user. Forums are not scanned, however access levels and access Tags are still enforced. If the users access level and access Tags do not allow access to the message area, the user will be notified, and not allowed entry to the message area. < #10 Delete Messages > The delete messages command will scan the entire message base for messages that are addressed to the user and have been received by the user. The user prompted with a YES/NO dialogue window before RoboBOARD/FX proceeds with deleting the messages. < #11 List Files (Any Area) > The List Files command allows the user to List Files from any of the file areas they may have access to. A Lister Window will pop up on the screen complete with scroller bars allowing the user to choose an area to list files from. The list of file areas presented to the user will be access level, access tag, and forum number filtered. < #12 List Files (Fixed Area) > The List Files command allows the user to list files from a file area you specify. Forums are ignored because you are choosing the file area for the user. Forums are not scanned, however access levels and access Tags are still enforced. If the users access level and access Tags do not allow access to the file area, the user will be notified, and not allowed entry to the file area. < #13 File Query (Search) > The File Query command allows the user to Query Files in any of the file areas they may have access to by Wildcard & Date, Text & Date or by Date. The file areas queried by the user will be access level, access tag, and forum number filtered. < #14 New Files > The New Files command is not forum specific, it will list all new files to the user since their last call. Like all menu commands, this command is sensitive to access status, and will not list new files from areas the user doesn't have access to < #15 File Queue Edit > While listing files users are able to mark up to 10 files for download. These files are Highlighted Yellow on the users screen and placed in a list called the QUEUE. Users may edit the queue directly from the download screen, but it is often nice to add the File Queue Edit command to a file menu allowing users to edit the queue at anytime without having to enter the download command. < #16 Download Files > This command allows the user to download the files in their QUEUE. The user also has the option of removing or adding files to the queue. All files that have been successfully sent will be removed from the users file queue. If the user does not have enough time for a file it will be skipped. The time spent in the file area is automatically debited. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 44 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ < #17 Download a File > The Download a File command accepts a full DOS path to a particular file. Only the specified file may be downloaded using this command. The file specified here does not need to be part of any formal file area. < #18 Upload Files > The Upload Files command allows the user to batch upload up to 5 files at a time. A dialogue window will pop up on the users end allowing them to type in the full DOS path to each individual file they want to upload to your system. After the upload has been successfully completed the user will be prompted for descriptions of these files. Files uploaded by users will be stored in a temporary directory until the user logs off. At that point the files will be scanned and moved to the new files directory. It is up to you to use the file manager included in RoboCFG and move these scanned files to a new file area after classification and verification. < #19 User Settings (USERSET.PLT) > The User Settings command gives a user access to certain settings about themselves, such as address and phone numbers. The personal settings you allow users to change on your system can be changed by editing USERSET.PLT. If you are not familiar with the RoboBOARD/FX template system you will want to read the Appendix called Templates. < #20 Page SysOp > The Page SysOp command allows users to contact you for Chat or conversation. This Menu Commands is an option, but if you want your users to access you directly from your BBS system then this command is what you want. You have full control over paging hours using RoboCFG under System Info on the System Pulldown menu. If a users clicks a button that activates this command, they will be asked if they want to page you. If they answer YES to page you, your computer will emit a paging sound. It is your choice to either enter chat mode or ignore the users request. < #21 Leave Comment > The Leave Comment command a utomatically brings up the message editor with the TO field filled in with the SYSOPS NAME and the SUBJECT field is labelled COMMENT. The comment/message will be saved in whatever Message Area you specify. The Message Area is configured at the time that you choose the command in RoboCFG. < #22 Time Bank > The Time Bank command allows users to bank part of their daily time for future calls. This is an optional feature that is configured using the Global settings menu found on the System Pulldown. < #23 Display Template > The Display Template Command gives you access to Custom Templates you create. Templates can be used to modify or fill in RoboBOARD/FX global variables if you choose. Templates can also be used to gather statistics, do marketing, and create questionnaires which may be used to create system log files, or output data files to be integrated with other developers database software, or route data to your printer. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 45 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ < #24 List/Search Users > The List/Search command allows your users to list or search the user base. This command may be configured to list Real names or Aliases depending on the focus of your system. < #25 List Calls Today > The List Calls Today command will list the names of all the users who called that day. This command may be configured to list real names or handles depending on the focus of your system. The SysOps name will never show up in this list. < #26 Call Back Verify > If you allow Call Back Verification on your system and a user misses the opportunity to verify or cancels it during logon, you can give them a second chance at the main menu. Remember all menus route from the MAIN. RoboBOARD/FX has the special ability, of being able to display different MAIN menu files for the same MAIN menu based on the users access. Using this feature, if an unverified user gets to the main you can give them the option to verify again by displaying your lowest access MAIN. If they choose not to verify they will be exited from your system immediately and if they choose to verify they will be exited from the system and the Call Back Verifier will call them for Telephone number and Password verification. Call back verification can be set up using RoboCFG under the User Pulldown menu. < #27 Program ID > The Program ID command displays the RoboBOARD/FX program ID information, and interesting Stats about your system, such as Total Calls, Daily Calls and SysOps Name. < #28 Display ASCII File > The Display ASCII File command allows your users to read a text file directly. A full DOS path is required to use this command. The user will be given a Reader Window and will be able to scroll through the text or cancel reading at any point. < #29 Display Graphic > The Display Graphic allows a user to view a graphic directly, and is great if you have set up an Art Gallery on your system or you want to display a picture to a client. < #30 Read Bulletins > The Read Bulletins command gives the user a list of bulletins that they have access clearance to view or read. Bulletins in RoboBOARD/FX may be either textual or visual. Bulletins are sensitive to forums, as well as access level and access Tags. The list of Bulletins presented to the user in a Lister Window will be access and forum number filtered. The user will be able to scroll through the list and pick a Bulletin, graphics bulletins will be displayed in a graphic window and text bulletins will be displayed in a Reader Window. < #31 Dos Program (DOOR) > This function is intended to allow your users access to DOS programs designed to run as BBS doors. Special care should be taken when configuring DOORs, as RoboBOARD/FX has no control over the system once the door is operational. Doors are usually run through batch files as DOS SHELLs under RoboBOARD/FX. The BBS itself will swap out to less than 3K of memory allowing ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Display Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 46 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ your DOOR as much operating space as possible. RoboBOARD/FX supports a number of DOOR files formats. For a complete list see the DOS PROGRAM function. A fully qualified path and command line to the DOOR is acceptable. Here are a few example command lines to demonstrate the way some DOORs like the DOOR file passed to them: C:\SAMPLE\TESTDOOR.BAT {NODE} or if the door needs a Door file name: C:\SAMPLE\TESTDOOR.BAT C:\ROBOFX\DORINFO{NODE}.DEF Valid command line variables are: NODE - Current Node Number FNAME - First Name LNAME - Last Name NAME - Full Name (this will be passed as two separate fields) BAUD - The modem baud LOCK - The locked baud (this is the one that usually is passed) COMM - The com port DEVICE - (1=UART, 2=FOSSIL, 3=DIGI) As a further note, intended for new SysOps, it should be mentioned that when you create a DOOR that drops to DOS and runs a DOOR program, users will not be able to access your hard drive and your computer system. DOOR programs must do their own I/O (Input Output) so unless the DOOR is designed specifically to give users access to your computer system they will never access it. < #32 MultiLine Chat > This feature allows your users to partake in multiline chat. This is popular feature that allows your users to talk to each other even if they are calling at different modem speeds or are in different video modes. Users may also page each other for chat. < #33 Who is Online > The Who is Online command allows your users to see who else is online and what they are doing before entering chat. The tokens that let users know what other users are doing on your system are kept very generic. ie: downloading file, writing message. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Bullitens Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Bulletins in RoboBOARD/FX may be either textual or graphical. You can add buttons to your menus that will let users scroll through listings of the available Bulletins on your system. The available Bulletins are presented to the user in a Lister Window. If the user picks a graphic bulletin it will be displayed in a graphics window and if they pick a text bulletin it will be displayed in a text reader window. The maximum length of a text Bulletin is 999 lines. In ANSI mode a text based equivalent interface is provided. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Bullitens Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 47 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ One of the types of Bulletin menu commands that RoboBOARD/FX supports is Forum based. Forums are used to separate groups of users on a BBS thus limiting their access to certain Bulletins. When a user with sufficient access chooses this type of Bulletin command from a menu, they will gain access to any Bulletins, defined for that Forum Number. If a user does not have access to a particular Forum they will not know that Bulletins have been defined for that Forum. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ To make managing Bulletins easy, you are given a ³Bulliten Lister³ scroller window to browse through your ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Bulletins. You can use your arrow keys or mouse to highlight an individual Bulletin for editing. There is only one column in the bulletin lister for the Bulletins Name. Along the right hand side of the Bulletin Editor are the Edit, Insert, and Delete commands that all perform different operations to bullitens. They are fully described below. [ Edit ] Clicking on edit will pop up the Bulletin Edit template. All the data collected by RoboBOARD/FX regarding Bulletins is accessible through this template. From top to bottom the fields are. Name. The Bulletins name. If this field is not filled in the template will be considered empty. File Name. This field is eight characters long since this field is for the DOS file name. RoboBOARD/FX will supply the extension based on the file type you choose in the Bulletin Type field directly below this field. Bulletin Type. This is a roller button that rolls through the possible file types. They are Graphical (Tel-FX), Text (ASCII), mono ANSI and colour ANSI. Forum. The Forum number that this Bulletin can be viewed from, 0 (zero) sets it to all forums on the system. View Access. The Access level that the users access must be greater than or equal to, in order to view this Bulletin. View Tags. The access Tags that the user is required to have in order to view this Bulletin. Display Mode. The required Display mode to view this Bulletin. This is a roller button that rolls through the available choices. They are Tel-FX, colour ANSI, mono ANSI, or Tel-FX & ANSI. [ INSert ] Bulletin: Clicking on INSert will create an empty user template directly above the one you have highlighted on your screen. You will then be able to manually fill in the template by picking the Edit button. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Bullitens Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 48 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ [ DELete ] Bulletin: Clicking on DELete will delete the high- lighted Bulletin from the list of configured Bulletins. [ Quit ] Bulletin Editor: Clicking on Quit will exit you from the Bulletin Editor. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Languages Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ RoboBOARD/FX allows you to run your system as a single language, bilingual or multilingual BBS. RoboBOARD/FX will install with one Language directory named and templates will be configured for your language as demonstrated in the directory tree below. RoboBOARD/FX is very specific about its directory structure and expects to find data at a specific directory and filename. By defining the USA, Canada, Great Britain and Australia as separate languages for the purpose of installation we are able to configure unique telephone templates and postal codes for each of these countries. If you have no requirement for a multilanguage system this is about as involved as you have to get with language. You may want to take a look at the Language templates. You will notice that the Main Language is defined as USA and the background of your screen reads in a light cyan, "Current Language is American". C:\ÄÄ¿ - Root Directory ÃÄROBOFX - RoboBOARD/FX main working dir ³ ÀÄÄÂÄ ROBODATA - SubDir for config files and ³ ³ data files ³ ÃÄ CFGRES - Config Resource Script files ³ ÃÄ FILES - Files RootDir(configurable) ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄ NEWFILES - NEWFILES dir(configurable) ³ ÃÄ MAIL HUDSON MAIL dir(configurable) ³ ÃÄ USA - FRENCH LANGUAGE Root Dir ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÂÄ GRAPHICS - Menus and Bulletin pictures for ³ ³ ³ FRENCH Language ³ ³ ÃÄ MENUS - Menu Control Files ³ ³ ÃÄ RESOURCE - Bbs resources for language ³ ³ ÀÄ TEMPLATE - Input Templates for language ³ ÃÄ FXDRAW - FXDRAW operating directory ³ ³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄ ICONS - FXDRAW ICONS directory. ³ ÀÄ TEMP - Temp dir(configurable) ³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The Language Definition template allows you ³Language Definition³ to configure up to eight languages. If you ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ are only using one language it will probably be configured as American under the heading MAIN. The path will be C:\ROBOFX\USA\, the last back slash is required. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Languages Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 49 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The Language Name field is used by RoboBOARD/FX at the time of user logon. If there is more than one entry in the Language Definition template the user will be asked to select the language of their choice. It is a very good idea to input the Language Name in the language of the user it is intended for. ie: English, Fran‡ais, Deutsch, Espa¤ol. For every language you define you will have to define a DOS path. ie: C:\ROBOFX\USA\ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The change active language simply lets ³Change Active Language³ you scroll through the configured ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ languages and change the active language. After you select a different Active Language the background of the RoboCFG screen will display your choice. When you use FXdraw from within RoboCFG this field will be checked for its path and the screens you create will be placed in the Active Languages Graphics directory. The same applies for the Menu Editor, it will place menu configuration files in the correct language Menus subdirectory. Note: Multilanguage configuration is discussed more fully in the Appendix under the heading Multilanguage Configuration. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Nodes Menu ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ The nodes menu is used to configure individual nodes on your multiline system. If you are running RoboBOARD/FX as a single line system this information is not important reading for you. Timed BBS Events are also configured using the Nodes Pulldown menu. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The change node command pops up a template menu that ³Change Node³ requires a number from 1 to 255. You only have ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ access to as many nodes as you purchased. This is noted in the RoboBOARD/FX End User Licence Agreement at the back of these DOCs. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ The modem configuration template allows you ³Modem Configuration³ to set up a unique modem configuration for ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ each node. The commands are as follows. IO Device. This field is a roller button that lets you roll through the available settings. The supported devices are: Local (your local logon node or across the LAN node), UART, Fossil Driver, DigiBOARD XIDOS. Baud Rate. This field is a roller button that lets roll through the available settings. The supported bps rates are, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, and 115200. Locked Baud. This field is a roller button that lets roll through the available settings. The supported locked rates are, Not Locked, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, and 115200. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Nodes Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 50 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ IO Port. The I/O port your serial device is on. Init String (1-3). Three strings you can configure for Modem Initiation. Answer String. Your Modems Answer String. Busy String. Your Modems Busy String. Hang Up String. Your Modems Hang Up String. Dial String. Your Modems Dial String. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ Node settings allows you to set up different nodes ³Node Settings³ for different groups, set up a node as private, or ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ simply set a node up for general use. Node Settings set security and graphics support for different nodes. You might have Tel-FX & ANSI users calling a node at 2400 baud on one node and have your fast system set up for 14400 callers showing Graphics only. From top to bottom the fields are: Access for Logon. This is the required Access Level or Access Profile a user must have to logon to this node. Tags for Logon. These are the required Access Tags a user must have to logon to this node. Graphics Support. This field is a roller button that lets you roll through the available settings. The available options are Tel-FX & ANSI, ANSI Only, or Tel-FX Only. Minimum Speed. This is the minimum speed a user must be calling at to gain access to this node. Allow CBV. You can turn on Call Back Verification on a per node basis using this toggle switch. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± Events ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Often while running a bbs you will need to do some kind of regular (perhaps daily) maintenance. This is particularly necessary if you run online doors, or need to do some kind of external operation at a certain time every day (or on specific days). RoboBOARD/FX provides the ability to define any number of external events per node, and at the same time provide full hour and day of week control configuration for each event. Settings for EVENT management can be found under the NODES pulldown of ROBOCFG. Typically an event need only be run from a single node so it is likely that you will never configure more than one list of events. When RoboBOARD/FX is answering calls by ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³±±± The Events Menu Con't ±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±±± Page 51 ±±³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ itself, it will monitor pending events. When an event is due, RoboBOARD/FX will return control to DOS, exiting with the ERRORLEVEL you specify. RoboBOARD will also shorten a users time limits to maintain an events timing as closely as it can. If you run an external answering program, you must specify your events in that program instead. When RoboBOARD/FX is under the control of a call monitoring program or front end, it has no ability to drop to DOS at specific times, but can still adjust user time accordingly. Some mailers may have the ability to pass the number of minutes before an event to RoboBOARD via the -EVENT ## command line option. If this is the case you do not have to configure RoboBOARD/FX to handle any events. The following fields are configurable for any events you define: EVENT NAME. The event name field is strictly for your descriptive purposes, and will (if it is the next event) display within the RoboBOARD/FX answering screen. DOS ERROR LEVEL. This is the ERRORLEVEL RoboBOARD/FX will exit to DOS with when the current event has been triggered. Valid values are between 10 and 255. Values below 10 are reserved for use by RoboBOARD/FX. DAY OF WEEK. This set of toggles will let you specify the day(s) of the week that this event should run. HOUR OF DAY. This will let you specify the hour of the day (in 24 hour format) that your event should be triggered. Only while hours are supported.