DEF New File Scan v1.0 Written by Drew [PWA] Last update 7-24-94 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction II. Installation III. Description of Files IV. What will happen V. Last words ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is by far the best new file scanner yet! :-) As Defcon 4 would say, "PWA's guarantee of freshness." It's main features: . Add's a "Number of days" to scan back for new files . Preserves *all* regular PCBoard options to the regular command "N" . And the best feature of them all..... users can now finally configure which areas they want scanned! Yes, that means those users who do not care for the gazillion PCBoard ppe's that are uploaded no longer have to hit 1000 return's when they reach that PPE file area. Or, if you just have users who are select about which directories they are interested in, this is for them as well. As usual, you must be running PCBoard 15.1+ to use this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Installation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Step 1 ------ Create a new directory and unzip everything into it using the "-d" flag (unzip with subdirectories): mkdir c:\pcb\djp\nfs pkunzip -d dj-nfs10 c:\pcb\djp\nfs Step 2 ------ You need to specify two ppe's to your CMD.LST file. So run PCBSETUP, go into File Locations (B), select Configuration Files (B), and edit the CMD.LST entry. Add "NCFG.PPE" as a new command (this will be the config ppe for configuring scanned areas) and you will probably want "NFS.PPE" to simply replace the regular "N" command. For example: Command Security PPE/MNU File or Keystroke Replacement ------- -------- ------------------------------------- N 20 C:\PCB\DJP\NFS\NFS.PPE NCFG 20 C:\PCB\DJP\NFS\NCFG.PPE Step 3 ------ Edit the *.cfg, *.top, *.bot files to your liking. All default values in those files now will work with no problems, but you may want to change the colors to match your board. :-) For the NCFG config file, you can also run "CONFIG.EXE" to configure all of the options (for the lazy people :-) ). This config program has default values and if you have an existing config file, it will read from that and use existing values (so you don't have to type EVERYTHING every time you run the darn thing). Be warned! -- CONFIG.EXE has no error checking. So don't be a wise-guy and enter "abcdefgh" if it asks for a PCB Color Code. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Description of Files ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- nfs.ppe The main ppe file used to replace the regular "N" command. To use a custom area configuration, one specifies "Y" for the areas to scan. For example, "N S Y" would scan all configured areas since last the last scan. nfs.cfg The config file for this ppe. Documentation for this is in the config file itself (don't worry, it's short and sweet). nfs.hlp If the user hits a "?" at the new scan prompt(s), they will see have this help file shown to them. nfs.doc This file. You are reading it now. nfs.top File first shown to the user if they hit "N" by itself (without any command line parameters). If this doesn't exist, nothing will be displayed and the user will be prompted for input. ncfg.ppe The ppe used to configure which areas to scan. Sorry, this particular ppe isn't 100% configurable. (Whoa, a configurable config ppe?) Perhaps in the next version I'll add the options. ncfg. The config file(s) for ncfg.ppe. You must name the extension with the conference you want users to be able to configure their file newscan areas. This is done this way so that you can have many conferences with different file areas and still be able to let your users configure any of the conference file areas. ncfg.hlp Help screen for ncfg.ppe ncfg.bot The "footer" displayed to the user when executing ncfg.ppe. Sorry, do not change the positioning of the text. Like I said, this part isn't 100% configurable. Make sure this is 3 lines or less in length. ncfg.top The "header" displayed to the user. This must be five lines or less in length. Otherwise, do whatever you want. ncfg.nfo A little "info" about this ppe. dirlist.### Actually, this file could be called anything, but this is the suggested naming convention. This file is specified in the ncfg.### file. It will contain all the descriptions of the file areas corresponding to the conference. See the ncfg.1 example config file for more details. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. What Will Happen ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- All behavior from NFS.PPE will be as you are probably already used to. All the normal PCBoard options to the regular command "N" will work, so you can specify "D" for flagging all the new files, "NS" for a nonstop listing, etc. For NCFG.PPE, upon executing, it will look for the config file that is associated with the current conference it is executed from. That means it will look for "NCFG.###", where ### is the current conference number. If It doesn't find this file, it will exit and nothing will will happen. Once NCFG.PPE finds this file, it will look for the file specified in line #1 of NCFG.###. This will should contain a listing of all the file area descriptions (except for the uploads directory). This information can be entered by hand (by you), or you have the ppe automatically read from your DIR.LST file to get everything. Users's configuration are stored under the subdirectory DATA under the filenames ".###", where is something similar to their user name/handle, and ### is the conference number of the configuration. Other than that, everything should be self-explanatory. The best way to find out is to try it. I am sure you will like it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- V. Last Words ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Things that make you go, "Hmm..." - Chances are, if your parents didn't have children, neither will you. I added the CONFIG.EXE program as an afterthought and did not really test it as thoroughly as I did with the PPE itself. I'm pretty confident it won't cough up a storm, but just to be sure, you will want to check the config file afterwards if you decide to use CONFIG.EXE. The CONFIG.EXE file uses commands that are present in MSDOS 6.2 (namely, it uses "cls", "del" and "rename"). If for some reason your system does not support these commands, then you cannot use CONFIG.EXE. GREETS: - Dream WEaver: Gimme a buzz sometime.. - Defcon 4: Whoa.. my shotgun hit and finished something! - Ares: Hey wait a minute, didn't I release a user lister also? :-) - Scimitar: Merp. Did you know it stands for "Middle Earth Role Playing"? - And to all other PWA programmers out there for their excellent contributions and efforts. - To anyone who has ever doubted me about anything: BITE ME. If you need to contact me for any reason, you can reach me in these ways (in order of speed): 1. Internet email: drew@xinet.com 2. My board : The Silicon Phalanx Node 1: 510-795-0200 Node 2: 510-795-0400 3. Or on any major board through Attitude Net. Peace, --Drew [PWA]