SubscriP New in Version 5.1 New Registration Code Routines added. Your old registration numbers are no longer valid. You will need to get a new KEY file. The information on how to obtain it is in the NEWKEY.TXT file. It is free to all existing registered sysops. Major Code Tweaking...But few major Changes. This a a major PPE and I didn't want to chance breaking it's operation before studying it in detail. Added 5 Lines of additional notes that the user can enter when placing the order. These will be placed at the bottom of the invoice. The prompt is hard-coded at the moment but should be placed in the prompt file in the next release (or and additional display file perhaps). Useful if you need additional info such as an e-mail address... Currently, the Live Credit Card Processing has a fixed 2 min wait for the "busy" file to disappear, before it times out, and also a 2 minute wait to see if the Response File is created by the Processing door. While make this configurable in the next release... Added Support for Mario Meuller's BIRTH.EXE TPA, just like our Birthday PPE has! The Downloading of orders had been hardcoded to use an external SEND.BAT Now if the file doesn't exist, the PPE with Flag the OrderInvoice and prompt to download normally. Display files must now be either in the PPE directory, or a subdirectory of the PPE. Do not give the full path to the files, only the name (and subdirectory if used). The PPE Path will be used in front of each file. Did a little work on the SPCONFIG.PPE, mainly some stream-lining. I noticed in farther down in the history, mention of an expanded Config program for the various list files. If none of the other PPE's have any major bugs, and I can find time to program it, I will work on an EXE to Manage the various files. With all the configuration that needs done to add new things, I think this would be a major advantage. Your input is welcome, as I don't want to put the effort out if nobody is interested.... All Intelec Software is now owned by John Young Support and Programming now done by Herbert Bushong ===================================================================================== New In Version 5.0 (09-16-95) Added support for LIVE credit card processing! If you're using LANtastic and TeleFlora credit card processing then you can use SubscriP to do live processing of credit card info! (Many other processors will be added as formats are made available to me). You must have a dedicated server with a phone line able to dial out and process while the user is online. Your TELEPC directory must be on a network drive so it can be accessed by SubscriP to create and read the files TelePC.EXE requires for operation. Added option to log as a door being opened in caller log. Format Change Made!!!!!!!!!!! Don't be alarmed... it's an important change but a VERY simple one! In SUBSCRIP.OPT (the subscription config file) each line must start with either a Y, N or C. If you want SubscriP to operate exactly as it did before then put a N on each line. But you will put a Y or C on every line that you want to have a specific amount of "credits" sold. Yes... SubscriP now supports the PCBoard Accounting PSA! By putting a Y there you're telling SubscriP that you're using credits and you want to set the amount. By putting a C there you're telling SubscriP that you want the user to enter how many credits he or she wants and you want SubscriP to C)alculate what the charge will be. Let me get to the format changes first: Old Format: 40 5 182 10.00 40 5 182 25.00 400 41 5 365 25.00 NEW Format: N 40 5 182 10.00 N 40 5 182 25.00 400 N 41 5 365 25.00 See? Just an N to start of each line and each line will behave just like it used to. But now the Y and C (for adding support for credits/accounting)... N 40 5 182 10.00 N 40 5 182 25.00 400 N 41 5 365 25.00 Y 45 5 32768 100.00 12500 396 397 398 399 400 C 45 5 32768 0 400 Lines 1-3 are for "normal" operation of SubscriP. Lines 4-5 supports using credits shown by starting with a Y or C. Line 4 (with Y) is a "fixed" config charging $100 for 12,500 credits. and registering them in conferences 396 through 400. Great! But what if you don't want to charge that specific amount? That's where line 5 comes in... Line 5 (with C) is a "calculated" config that will let the user enter the number of credits they want to purchase and will calculate the charge based on the number of credits they want. There's a 0 there just to keep the numbers of "fields" straight, it's not used but it must be kept there. Then after that 0 are all the conferences that you want made available with that purchase. But how does SubscriP know "how" to calculate the charges? First, that is it with the SUBSCRIP.OPT file. Now the minor changes to the SUBSCRIP.CNF file. Additions to the SUBSCRIP.CNF file: Line 23 is the MINIMUM number of credits you want sold in one clip. Line 24 is the MAXIMUM number of credits you want sold in one clip. Line 25 is the cost per credit **in cents**. On my system I don't want someone charging $2 worth of credits so I set a minimum of 1000 ($10 worth). I set a maximum of 10000 ($100). And by putting a 1 on line 25 it tells SubscriP to charge 1 penny per credit. Now... if you charge less than a panney per credit... this system will **NOT** work for you. In other words $1 for 1000 credits just won't work. So to charge $1 10 credits you will put a 10 on line 25 since 10 credits for $1 is 10 cents per credit. Lastly, another line is added to the DISPLAYS.LST file. It is line # 25 and this is the display file shown (possibly as a menu or ex- planation) for those choosing a "C" option. A sample is included. =================================================================== Added a line (#22) to the CNF file to determine a packout date for all messages posted by SubscriP. =================================================================== Fixed a bug where the information files were not properly displayed. Added the HELP and/or HELPG files as line 25 of the DISPLAYS.LST. =================================================================== Fixed bug where if an invalid card number was entered, the total was not cleared but appended to. Thanks to Rick Wadowski for finding it! Fixed bug where if second (or more) items were ordered they were not added to the invoice. Must have broke this during the beta as nobody even noticed this . I'll be more careful... New In Version 4.9 (07-02-95) Fixed bug where it was looking for PROMPTS.EXT even if EXT didn't exist Fixed docs that did not properly explain adding paths to the DISPLAYS.LST file. Fixed bug where security level showed too high to purchase via credit card (when it really wasn't too high). RE-corrected bug that miscalculated the handling fee. New In Version 4.8 Recompile. New Reg Codes Needed - See NEW-REG.NUM file. Added an option to make SubscriP operate in a "subscription only" manner. Many of you may not have "products" online and only want to accept checks or CC's for subscriptions. See the "Subscriptions Only" section of the SUBSCRIP.DOC file for details. Added a way for for current subscribers to renew without the renewal having any effect on their current subscription. As I'm sure you know this can be quite tricky. If a user subscribes before their current subscription has expired, it will let them renew and will not adjust them to their new security level until the previous subscription expires. Also, Subscrip behaves smartly in this operation unlike some other "cheap imitations". Conference registrations may vary from one subscription to another so SubscriP removes any and all subscriber conferences before re-registering conferences for the renewal level. When a user expires he must have enough security to go into the PPE. you can set this whether installed as a door or in the CMD.LST file. This level can even be below the "min/max security levels" and it will still allow them to upgrade themselves. The user just needs to go into SubscriP and use the "R" command to activate the renewal. And they can only do this when the previous subscription has expired. Fixed SubscriP so it will only flag a file for users who make a "subscription" purchase. it was flagging the file upon exit even if nothing was purchased at all. Now it's more ideal for NEWUSER files. Also added capability to define your setup as having just one of any or all of these: Categories, Shipping Methods, Payment Options. If you only use one shipping method (for example) then SubscriP will skip the menu portion for that item. SubscriP now utilizes TPA technology so you can use the same CWPPE TPA as my other PPE's. Or you can still use the User Notes or Verification PSA's as was supported before. This is to define the location of the user's date of birth. See this section of SUBSCRIP.DOC file. An update to the PROMPTS.SP file. It is now called PROMPTS, like our other PPE programs to better support multilingual files such as French prompts in PROMPTS.FRE, etc. We realize this is the same name format as our other PPE's but I KNOW nobody would be foolish enough to run several different PPE's in the very same directory... New In Version 4.7 Minor code tweaking and recompile under PPLC 3.1 for PCBoard v15.21 New In Version 4.6 Reduced code size dramatically. To help do this we had to add the full path to each of the display files in the DISPLAYS.LST file. You must edit your DISPLAYS.LST file to reflect complete paths as well. For example, if line 1 in DISPLAYS.LST looked like this: DSPWEL then you must change it this: D:\PPE\SP\GRAPH\DSPWEL or whatever your actual paths to these files are. Added several new items in this version. 1) Added a help screen as an "H)elp" option from main SubscriP menu. This file is called HELP and should be located in the GRAPH sub- directory. 2) Added a "message to user" option where if the file exists it will be sent to the user as a message upon any subscription or product purchase. It is Receiver Only, from SYSOP, subject of Thank You and posted on Main. You define this file in the DISPLAYS.LST file file (see SUBSCRIP.DOC file). 3) Added an external prompt file called PROMPTS.SP (same way we do it for our other PPE's) so you can now modify MOST prompts as you see fit, even RIP displays (use PROMPTS.SPR for RIP). PROMPTS.SP (and PROMPTS.SPR if used) must be located in the main SubscriP directory. New In Version 4.5 We're sorry, a line was accidently left out of the docs. And naturally it would cause a problem with all subsequent lines in the config file being offset by one. Sorry about the error of leaving this out of the docs. See line 8 of the SUBSCRIP.CNF section of the doc file for info. Added capability to restrict users under a certain age from being able to make purchases. We did this by combining the functionality of our Birthday PPE which puts the user's date of birth into the user record where Subscrip can read it. You define the minimum age required to make a purchase and which notes line (or which verification field) that SubscriP should check for this date. A new display file is added to the DISPLAYS.LST so you can display a screen to anyone declined due to age. But be forewarned!! If there is NO date in the field, as in the user did not fill this in yet, or that you may not be using Birthday PPE, then SubscriP will totally ignore this feature. We have to do it this way so those not using this feature will not be "messed up" by it. Also added, an SPCONFIG.PPE (and SPCONFIG.BAT) to aid in creating an accurate SUBSCRIP.CNF file. Change the paths in this batch file to reflect the actual drives and directories on your system. Bear in mind that you need to create the LIST files yourself. Fixed a bug in the flag a file feature where if a user was not in expert mode the file would not get flagged. This is because the keyboard stuff got lost in the "Press Enter to Continue" prompt. Code optimization to improve speed of operation. Fixed a bug where only one subscription option was made available. Thanks to Dennis Bixler for that catch! Due to popular demand, SubscriP is no longer a commercial product! We have made SubscriP a shareware product as it once was in it's earliest stages. Fixed a bug where subscriptions could be re-purchased prior to the due date when paid for by check. Thanks to Clif Ware for spotting it. Added a new display file to the DISPLAYS.LST to display to the user when this attempt is made and why they cannot re-purchase. How this is now checked is this; when a check is due there is a line written to the User Notes which contains the text string: "is due". When a user sends you a check this field is supposed to be blanked. If it is not blanked then SubscriP checks for the string "is due" and if it exists it will not permit a repurchase. Fixed a bug where files were not being flagged upon exiting. How come nobody picked this one up since version 3.6?!? . Tightened up the code so that it requires less memory to run. If you experienced any "error loading PPE" errors then try this version to see if the reduced memory requirements helps you out. Added a SHELL function to the "????????.LST" files. Now by putting the word SHELL on 2nd line for an item, you can run a PPE from item menu if you need to have an "ever changing" price for the item. But the PPE you use must be able to write a one line file called SHELLAMT.### in the SubscriP directory (### is the current node number). If SubscriP reads the price as SHELL it looks for the file called SHELLAMT.### and uses that price instead. Added "Item Specific List" to the "????????.LST" files. Now by putting the full path and filename to this list on 9th line for an item, you can further define items such as colors, etc. This file is 2 lines and a sample is shown and explained below: GRAPH\CLR-CAP Please select a CAP color from the above The first line can be 79 characters of text to display *or* the subdirectory/name to another display file that could list more detailed product info such as item colors, etc. The second line is the "question" you want to ask the user based on the text or display file on line 1. Responses limited to 10 characters max. Fixed the bug that was exiting SubscriP before allowing invoices to be downloaded when "subscriptions" where purchased. Product orders were not being effected, just subscriptions. Fixed. Added a new feature where you can configure SubscriP to accept Checks, or COD's from those who are below the min sec level or above the max sec level. To do this, insert a new line at line 8 and put a Y on the line. This is now the line after the max sec level, and before the file to flag line. If you don't want to support this feature, place a N on line 8 instead of a Y. Oh sorry, the lines above refer to the SUBSCRIP.CNF file. (See docs). Added "in stock quantities" feature. If you do not want more items or- dered than you keep in stock, this will allow it. When the order is actually placed the quantity ordered is deducted from the qty you listed as in stock in that item's item listing. (See docs). Fixed a bug that was not recognizing a sec level that was too high or to low to place an order. Effected products, not subscriptions. Fixed a bug that was not correctly appending proper "shipping charges" to the invoices. It was initially displaying the proper amount, but when the order was actually placed it would reset it to the "base shipping charge". Corrected. Added invoice numbers to the invoices. These are not seen when viewing an invoice but are issued when the order is actually placed. The last used invoice number is kept in a file called INVOICE.NUM in the main PPE directory. Added two new display files to DISPLAYS.LST. They are for shipping and payment methods. If these files are defined but do NOT exist in the GRAPH subdirectory, SubscriP will display the options as it reads them from the PAYMENT.LST and SHIPPING.LST data files (as it did before). It has been added so that "detailed information" can be displayed about these options instead of just the options themselves. If you want to use this feature, create the display files, put them in the GRAPH subdirectory, add the file names to the DISPLAYS.LST file (the payment options display file is next to last and the shipping options display file is last). See the section in the SUBSCRIP.DOC pertaining to the DISPLAYS.LST file. Advisement: Also, add the name SUBSCRIP to your PCBoard TCAN file. This is because that is the "from name" of all messages posted to the SysOp. Fixed exit where if order is placed it was still showing items flagged and asking if you were sure you wanted to exit. Added check for "Address PSA". This too is required as is Notes PSA. Added check for blank address information and prompts for this info. Added option for "non-expiring" subscription (00-00-00 exp date). In the file SUBSCRIP.OPT, replace the number of days until expiration with 32768 and it will recognize this number and flag the account with a 00-00-00 expiration date. But be forewarned, if you do not get a check from the user, it will not change the expiration date, it will only change the security level and conference registrations to what they where before. Fixed display of street address information. Was broken when added address check was added.