PPL Conference Indexer

               From Visions Information Systems
                    1755 Courtwood Cres.,
                    Ottawa, ON, Canada
                    K2C 3J2
                    Voice  (613) 228-1726
                    Fax    (613) 228-4329
                    Telnet cancap.com

     LIMITED WARRANTY ON SOFTWARE

     Visions Information Systems disclaims all implied warranties on the
software and manuals, including without limitation, warranties of
merchantability, performance, and fitness for a particular purpose. Visions
Informations Systems will not be liable for any bug, error, omission, defect
deficiency of nonconformity in any software. As a result, the software is
sold "As Is", and the Purchaser assumes the entire risk as to its quality
and performance.

     Visions Information Systems shall in no event be liable for direct,
indirect, special, incidental, contingent, or consequential damages
resulting from any defect in the software or its documentation including
damages from loss of data, downtime, loss of goodwill, damage to or
replacement of equipment or property, and even if Visions Information
Systems has been advised of the possibility of such damage, you agree
that Visions Information Systems' liability arising out of contract,
negligence, strict liability in tort or warranty shall not exceed any
amounts paid by you for this product.



     Introductions


     This conference index allows the sysop to maintain one master list of
all available conferences on a board, while allowing the users to search the
conferences for specific topics via a keyword search, view information on
any available conference, and jump directly to any conference with one click
of a mouse button. As well, the program fully supports both ANSI and RIP
graphics.

     The program is highly configurable, in that it allows the sysop to
specify both a particular conference list data file, and a particular front
screen to be used. Thus, multiple calls can be made to the index, from different
areas on the board, and for different subsets of conferences, simply by
specifying a new data file and a new front screen.

     The program is also very low maintenance, as any updates to the conference
list can be made by updating one file. The program does not expect any
particular size of listing, so such changes can be made at any time, with no
loss of performance.

     Requirements

     To run, the program requires several data and display files, all of which
are included in the zip file with the program.

     There are fourteen "area" buttons, fourteen "information" buttons, a
"front screen" file, a "blank screen" file, and a sample conference list.
Please note that there are both ANSI and RIP versions of the front screen and
the blank screen, but that there are no ANSI versions of the area and
information buttons. As well, there are 108 "bar" files, again only for the
RIP version of the program. These contain the various side scroll bars, which
indicate the page positioning.

     Any of the display files may be altered to reflect the particular needs
of the system using the program, as long as no changes are made to the
locations of buttons or labels. All data files and display files should be
kept in the same directory as the program.

     Selection of a particular data file and front screen display file is
made using command line parameters at the time the program is called. For
instance, the call

          "g:\index\cindex.ppe conf front c:"

     would call the index from the directory "g:\index\", and tell it to
utilize the data file "conf" as its list of conferences, and to display
"front" as its front screen. As well, the file "frontb" must exist, as
the "blank screen" to be utilized. Of course, for RIP graphics, the files
"frontr" and "frontbr" must also exist. Finally, the "c:" parameter tells
the program that the local hard drive is c:, which is utilzed by the keyword
search engine.

     Structure of the data file

     The program expects to find a data file that utilizes a particular
structure to organize its information. Basically, the file is divided into
sections of 10 lines, with each 10-line block acting as a record for one
conference. The first line of the data file should contain a single integer,
which would be the number of records in the file. A sample of such a data
file is also included in this package.

     Below is a sample for a 2-record data file.

     Line 1 is the number of records in the file.

     Line 2 is the text to be displayed to the user, up to 56 characters
long.

     Line 3 is used for any sysop needed information, and has no effect on
the performance of the software.

     Line 4 is the Conference Number used by PCBoard.

     Line 5 is the drive, path and file name of an information file to be
displayed to the user when the "Information" button is clicked. Any valid
display file can be used.

     Line 6 is a list of key words to be searched, for various topics. The
Conference Index also searches line 2 for keywords.

     Lines 7 through 11 are currently blank. They are to be utilized in
future updates to this index program. They also act to make the data file
easier to read.

     Lines 12 through 21 duplicate this structure for record #2, and so on
for additional records.


line1:  2
line2:  Bakers Street Coffee & Grill             (613) 231-4089
line3:  399 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario
line4:  1008
line5:  p:\pcb\re\3\bak\text\map
line6:  resaurant food coffee
line7:
line8:
line9:
line10:
line11:
line12: Buffet Charbonneau Inc.                  (613) 232-3707
line13: 337 Catherine St. Ottawa, Ontario
line14: 1039
line15: p:\pcb\re\15\bch\text\about
line16: restaurant food buffet
line17:
line18:
line19:
line20:
line21:

     Data File Maintenance

     Updating the data file, as new conferences are added or old ones are
deleted, is designed to be very easy. To add a conference, simply insert
the new record in between any two existing records, and change the number
in line 1 to reflect the new number of conferences in the data file.
Similarly, to delete a record, just remove its 10-line block, and alter
the value in line 1 once again.

     In addition to adding or deleting whole records, it is possible to add
and delete sections of records. It is not necessary to have a complete record
for every conference. Thus, the index can be utilized right away, even if the
sysop does not yet have an information screen available for every conference.
New screens can be added at any time, simply by adding the drive, path and
file name to the appropriate line in the conference list data file. When
using an incomplete record, the missing lines should be replaced by blank
lines, so as to maintain the standard 10-line record format. The Conference
Index program looks for the needed information at a particular spot, and sets
the appropriate flags if no data is found in that location, so program
performance is not affected.

     Keyword searching

     Currently, keyword searches can be made for one keyword at a time.
However, it is possible to narrow your search parameters by doing several
consecutive searches, as the keyword search engine searches on the currently
active data file.

     The keyword search creates a temporary file, search.dat, on the local
hard drive specified in the command line parameters. This becomes the default
data file for the main body of the program. A button has been included to
allow the user to return to the full directory listing with a single click.
Returning to the full listing sets a flag so that search.dat will be deleted
when the user exits the conference index, but if this flag is not set
search.dat is retained, so that the user may return directly to their keyword
search file, allowing multiple accesses to the specified subset of
conferences.

     How to Use the Index

     In RIP Graphics, the index can be controlled by "pointing and clicking"
on all the available buttons.

     To make a keyword search, click on the "keyword Search" button. A prompt
will appear in the text window at the bottom, allowing the user to input the
keyword. To returen to the full listing after a search, simply click on the
button labeled "Full Listing", no more actions are needed.

     Paging up or down is accoplished by clicking on the side scroll bar. To
move a single page, click directly on the up or down arrow. For faster
scrolling, clicking on the bar itself above or below the page marker will
move the list up or down by two pages. Clicking on the up arrow while on the
first page will take you to the last page, and clicking on the down arrow
while on the last page will take you to the first page.

     To exit from the index, click on either the "Quit" or "Main" buttons.
Quit will exit into the current conference area, and main will exit to the main
conference area. These will act the same if the index was called from the main
conference, of course.

     To enter a particular conference area, simply click on the appropriate
"Area" button. To view additional information on a conference, click on the
appropriate "Info" button. Please note, these buttons will only appear if
the corresponding data is present in the conference list data file.

     To utilize the Conference Index in ANSI mode, the user must use the
keyboard to enter commands.

     P - page up one page
     N - page down one page
     D - page up two pages
     A - page down two pages
     1 -> 14 join this conference number
     I - See information on a conference (program will prompt for conference
                                          number 1 -> 14)
     S - Keyword search (Program will prompt for keyword)
     F - Return to full listing (after keyword search)
     M - Quit to the main screen
     Q - Quit to the current conference

     All of these keyboard commands will work in RIP Graphics mode as well,
for users who do not have a mouse on their system.