SO MANY CD's (tm) 1. INTRODUCTION Do you have more CD-ROMs for your BBS callers than drives? If so, this package contains a pair of PCBoard (tm) PPE's that let users request files from offline CD's! Later, when the Sysop logs in, he is notified of any pending requests. If logged in at the local console, the Sysop is prompted to load the necessary CD's one at a time. Each requested file is posted as an attachment to a message addressed to the requesting caller and left in the corresponding CD-ROM conference. These messages are marked with an automatic expiration (pack-out) date so that the message (and the attached file) will be automatically deleted after a sysop-defined number of days. 2. REQUIREMENTS There are two PPE's: RQSTFILE and POSTFILE. RQSTFILE allows callers to leave requests for files from offline CD's; POSTFILE is used by the Sysop to respond to those requests. These PPE's require that: o There must be a separate PCBoard conference for each CD-ROM diskette. o Each CD-ROM conference must be configured with a directory for file attachments to messages. Callers must be able to read, kill, and download messages in the conference; although it is not required, you may also wish to let them leave messages as well. o The display file for the list of file directories must be stored on the hard disk, not the CD-ROM. o The display files for the individual file directories must be stored on the hard disk, not the CD-ROM. o There must be a PCBoard v15.x index (IDX) file for accelerating access to the CD-ROM files, and it must be stored on the hard disk, not the CD-ROM. o "Caller Notes Support" must be installed, and at least one of the five note fields must be available. You can install Caller Notes by going to the main menu of the PCBoard System Manager (PCBSysMgr) and selecting option "D" (User Info File Maintenance), then selecting option "C" (Add Copyright (C) 1990-94, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved SO MANY CD's (tm) PCBoard Supported Allocations), and then option "F" (Caller Notes Support). 3. INSTALLING THE PPE's The following assumes that you have unpacked the contents of the distribution file into a directory called C:\PPE\SOMANYCD. The minimum set of files required for operation are: RQSTFILE.PPE POSTFILE.PPE RQSTFILE.TXT POSTFILE.TXT PENDING POSTED OFFLINE The two files RQSTFILE.TXT and POSTFILE.TXT contain the text of various one-line prompt messages used by the two PPE's. They may be edited in order to translate the prompts to another language if desired. 3.1 Optional Configuration File If your CD ROM conference numbers are not assigned to adjacent conference numbers, then you should use a configuration file. The configuration file must be called SOMANYCD.CFG and must be located in the same directory with RQSTFILE.PPE and POSTFILE.PPE. The configuration file is a text file consisting of one entry per line. Line 1: Which of the caller notes in the PCBoard user database is to be used keep track of how many requests each user has pending. Valid entries for this parameter are 0 through 4; you must select a note field not already in use. Line 2: The maximum number of pending requests for offline files allowed per user. (See access key next.) Line 3: An eight character access key. Without a valid access key, your callers will be limited to a single pending request, regardless of the parameter specified on line 2. The access key is a sequence of eight Copyright (C) 1990-94, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved SO MANY CD's (tm) hexadecimal characters derived from the name of your BBS as specified in PCBSETUP. A key MUST be specified; unregistered users may use a dummy key like 12345678. Line 4: The minimum caller's security level required to use RQSTFILE. If you want all callers to be able to use RQSTFILE, enter 0. Line 5: The number of days before the posted file and associated message to the requesting user are deleted. Line 6: The total number of CD-ROM conferences. If this number is 5 (for example), then lines 7-11 of the configuration file should contain the conference numbers of these five CD-ROM conferences. 3.2 Installing RQSTFILE.PPE RQSTFILE.PPE allows callers to request files from off-line CD-ROMs. If you choose to create a configuration file, use MKPCBTXT to change prompt #326 to simply: !C:\PPE\SOMANYCD\RQSTFILE.PPE @OPTEXT@ Otherwise, change prompt #326 to: !C:\PPE\SOMANYCD\RQSTFILE.PPE @OPTEXT@ 9 12 1 10 12345678 20 The six numeric parameters at the end of this line must be changed to correspond to your particular PCBoard configuration as follows: o The first two parameters ("9" and "12" in the example above) should be replaced by the numbers of your first and last CD-ROM conferences. o The third parameter ("1" in the example above) selects which of the caller notes in the PCBoard user database is used to keep track of how many requests each user has pending. Valid entries for this parameter are 0 through 4; you must select a note field not already in use. o The fourth parameter ("10" in the example above) is the maximum number of pending requests for offline files allowed per user. (See access key next.) Copyright (C) 1990-94, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved SO MANY CD's (tm) o The fifth parameter ("12345678" in the example above) is an access key, and is optional. Without a valid access key, your callers will be limited to a single pending request, regardless of the fourth parameter specified above. The access key is a sequence of eight hexadecimal characters derived from the name of your BBS as specified in PCBSETUP. o The sixth parameter ("20" in the example above) is the minimum caller's security level required to use RQSTFILE. If not specified, then all callers will be able to use RQSTFILE. 3.3 Installing POSTFILE.PPE POSTFILE.PPE allows the Sysop to process requests left by callers for files from offline CD-ROM's. To install it, you must create a LOGIN security file corresponding to the security level equal to or below the level assigned to the sysop. (POSTFILE compares the caller's security level against that of a sysop and only runs if they match.) The directory containing login security files is specified in PCBSetup. From the main menu, select option "B" (File Locations), then option "A" (System Files & Directories). The proper entry appears near the end of the entries of that page. If you have chosen to create a configuration file (see section 3.1), and if (for example) the sysop security level is 110, you should create a file called simply "110" (no extension) containing the following line of text: !C:\PPE\POSTFILE.PPE If you do not have a configuration file, then four command line parameters must be added to the end of the line as in: !C:\PPE\POSTFILE.PPE 9 12 1 7 The four numeric parameters at the end of the line must be changed to correspond to your particular PCBoard configuration as follows: o The first two parameters ("9" and "12" in the example above) should be replaced by the numbers of your first and last CD-ROM conferences. Copyright (C) 1990-94, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved SO MANY CD's (tm) o The third parameter ("1" in the example above) selects which of the caller notes in the PCBoard user database is used to keep track of how many requests each user has pending. Valid entries for this parameter are 0 through 4; you must select a note field not already in use. o The fourth parameter ("7" in the example above) is the number of days before the posted file and associated message to the requesting user are deleted. To have the "expired" messages and their attached files deleted automatically, it is necessary to pack the message base in a PCBoard event that runs once each day. A simple batch command for doing this in the event is: PCBPACK /AREA:ALL /FAST /NOCALLER 4. HOW TO REACH US The Key Software Products BBS/FAX number (415-364-9847) operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Software at our end automatically determines whether an incoming call is data or FAX and will operate accordingly. If you have access to electronic mail, you can send us a message via any of the following: On COMPUSERVE, send mail to: >Internet:tech.support@ksp.com On PRODIGY, send mail to: VGDC59A On Internet, UUCP, or Bitnet, send mail to: tech.support@ksp.com On Fidonet, address mail to "UUCP" at nearest fidonet site which provides a gateway to Internet, such as 1:105/42. 1st line of message: To: tech.support@ksp.com Copyright (C) 1990-94, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved SO MANY CD's (tm) APPENDIX 1 - GETTING UPDATES VIA THE INTERNET The main distribution file is SOMANY??.ZIP, where "??" is the version number. This file is available from the KSP BBS, either by calling in and downloading, or via e-mail using the "LISTSERV" capabilities of the BBS; we do NOT have "real" FTP capability in case you were wondering. To use LISTSERV, you must send a message addressed to the Internet address listserv@ksp.com. The message must contain an LISTSERV command entered as a single line of text, and it must be the first line in the message. The LISTSERV commands that are supported include: Command: HELP tlbmm-l Purpose: Returns an text file with help information about LISTSERV. Command: DIR tlbmm-l Purpose: Returns an e-mail message listing all of the file directories on the BBS by number and description. Command: LIST tlbmm-l 1 Purpose: Returns an e-mail message listing all of the files in directory #1 of the BBS. Command: GET tlbmm-l SOMANY24.ZIP Purpose: Returns an e-mail message containing a uuencoded version of the file SOMANY24.ZIP. To extract the file, you must save the message as a file on your system, edit out the e-mail header at the beginning of the file, and then use a program called UUDECODE (commonly available on Unix) to convert the uuencoded version back to the original ZIP format, and then (finally) use PKUNZIP to extract the contents of the file. 5. LIMITED WARRANTY This software is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusions may not apply to you. This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state. Copyright (C) 1990-94, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved SO MANY CD's (tm) Key Software Products has taken due care in preparing the documentation and software included in So Many CD's to ascertain their correctness and effectiveness. However, Key Software Products does not warrant that operation of this software will be uninterrupted or error free. In no event shall Key Software Products be liable for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the furnishing, performance, or use of this software. LICENSE You MAY use this software on any computer or computers in your possession, but on no more than one computer at any given time. You MAY copy this software into any machine readable or printed form for backup or modification purposes in support of your use of the software. You MAY distribute the original unmodified, unlicensed version of this software, but you may not charge a fee exceeding $5.00 to cover the cost of duplicating, shipping, and handling. You may NOT distribute a licensed version of this software. You may NOT use, copy, modify, sublicense, assign or transfer this software and its license, or any copy or modification, in whole or in part, except as expressly provided for in this license. Copyright (C) 1990-94, Key Software Products. All Rights Reserved