Bulletin Boss v1.0 for PCB 15.2 and up -------------------------------------- By Criminal [PiL] What is it? ----------- I originally wrote Bulletin Boss because I was running a PD front, so I had to seperate the upload rules in various conferences (pd users kind of wonder when they see "First cracked working release online wins!" - heh). But since there were seperate BLT.LST files to be able to display different rules, every time a user jumped to a different conf it'd run SuperLogon again, since SL was installed in prompt 665 (scanning for new bulletins). Ugh. So I wrote Bulletin Boss to get rid of the problem. Bulletin Boss can be used to display conference specific files as outlined above, or it can be used as a random menu/stat/logon/logoff screen rotater. You can even define which users can see what random screens by security level, similar to PWA's Menu Rotater by Drew. This is my first PPE since I wrote Crimtop several months ago. I guess that would make this my second or third official PPE. I'm sure you'll find it very useful, I did. I've already installed it into 5 places on my board. :) Included files: --------------- BLTBOSS.PPE - Bulletin Boss PPE. BLTBOSS.PPS - Bulletin Boss source code for modding, serenity. BLTBOSS.DOC - Bulletin Boss documentation (this file, nimrod..) FILE_ID.DIZ - duh MENU.CFG - Example .CFG file demonstrating random menus by security level. NEWUSER. - Example New users only main menu. SYSMENU. - Example Sysops only main menu. MENU*. - 7 Example Main menus to be randomly displayed. ULRULES.CFG - Example .CFG demonstrating conference specific setup. ULRULES. - Example "General/Generic conference u/l rules" for a pd conf. ULRULES1. - Example Conf specific u/l rules for a pirate conf. N!ACCESS.COM - My BBS ad ( what the hell, I wrote the program :p ) Disclaimer: ----------- This program is packaged as-is. It works fine on the programmer's system, and should on yours also. The author is not responsible nor shall be held accountable for any damage(s) to your computer, its software, or its components rising directly or indirectly through use of this program. If you do not agree then DO NOT INSTALL IT. However, you should not have any problems. Source is included, it is small, and there should be little that can go wrong outside operator error. This ppe is not crippled nor needs registration in any way. Cripple ware SUCKS. Generic Installation: --------------------- 1) Unzip Bulletin Boss to it's own directory, say C:\PCB\PPE\BLTBOSS. You only need one copy of it on your drive, the rest is all config and your various display files. If you use it a lot the dir can become quite cluttered which is why I suggest give it it's own directory. 2) Edit/Create some .CFG files for it. (View enclosed *.CFG files for examples) Make sure security levels correspond to those in your PWRD. file. 3) Install Bulletin Boss into a display file, a script file, or a menu command. The format is: !C:\PPEPATH\BLTBOSS.PPE CFG_FILE Where C:\PPEPATH\ is the full drive and pathname to Bulletin Boss, and CFG_FILE is the filename of the config file to use ie; !C:\PCB\PPE\BLTBOSS\BLTBOSS.PPE MENU !C:\PCB\PPE\BLTBOSS\BLTBOSS.PPE ULRULES (Omit the ! if you are installing in your CMD.LST..) Note: Do not include ".CFG" on the command line, Bulletin Boss will APPEND this to the name of the file internally when looking for it. CFG files do, however need to be named *.CFG in the Bulletin Boss's directory. I built a limit on the # of conf specific display files into the source, but all you have to do is edit it and change 'conf_info(99)' to say 'conf_info(999)', or whatever number suits you. Source is included if you are so inclined. If any screens you have end up being too long and you get that annoying Continue? (y/n) prompt, just add "@POFF@" to the beginning of screens that do that. That'll turn screen pausing off. Ideas where to install Bulletin Boss.. ž To give you random main menus This one's all set up for you, I included 7 fairly good main menus and seperate sysop and new-users only menus, but you may wish to create your own. Here's how to install: 1) unzip bulletin boss into it's own directory, like c:\pcb\ppe\bltboss. 2) edit your CMD.LST file in pcbsetup and add an entry for the command "?". Make sure the path and drive is correct, of course. Example CMD.LST: ŚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄæ ³ Charges Per ³ ³ Command Sec Minute Use PPE/MNU/Keystroke Replacement ³ ³ ĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶ ĶĶĶ ĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶ ĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶĶ ³ ³ ? 0 0 0 C:\PCB\PPE\BLTBOSS\BLTBOSS.PPE MENU ³ ĄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄŁ 3) Exit and save. 4) Edit your BRDS. and BRDM. menu files to say the same, but with a leading "!". That is.. "!C:\PCB\PPE\BLTBOSS\BLTBOSS.PPE MENU". This way if a user has expert mode on it'll still randomize the menus for them. Your users of access level 20-99 now have 7 random menus every time they hit "?". New users of access 0-19 will only see a limited menuet, and users having access 100-110 (sysops) will see the expanded sysop menu & extra sysop commands. You can add more by editing the MENU.CFG file. If you would prefer to see the random menus yourself instead of the enclosed sysop menu, simply edit MENU.CFG to reflect the following changes: 2 ; changed this from "3" to "2" -1 0 19 1 newuser. 20 110 ; changed this from "20 99" to "20 110" 7 menu1. menu2. menu3. menu4. menu5. menu6. menu7. ; deleted everything BEYOND this point If this looks confusing, read MENU.CFG first so you'll know what's going on. I'm seriously hoping you'll create some of your own menus, the ones I included were a little drab. Besides, doing that is half the fun right? :) ž In your Bulletins List (also fixes problem w/superlogon) If you have bulletins which are conference specific, but want to use the same BLT.LST file so it doesn't scan for new bulletins EVERY time a user jumps to another conference, you will definitely want to install Bulletin Boss here. To install in your bulletins list, enter PCBSETUP. Go to a conference, and edit the BLT.LST file. Hit F2 to edit it. Hit ALT-I to insert a bulletin, and then for the bulletin path put "C:\PCB\GEN\ULRULES.TXT" where c:\pcb\gen\ is the path to your bulletin, and ulrules.txt is the filename of your bulletin. Next, edit this bulletin called ulrules.txt by pressing F2. The only thing you should put in the bulletin, on the first line is "!c:\pcb\ppe\bltboss\bltboss.ppe ulrules.". Where c:\pcb\ppe\bltboss is the path to Bulletin Boss, and ulrules. is the name of the configuration file you intend to use. After that, hit alt-s and save. Edit the configuration file and create the bulletins you need for it and you're ready to go. This is handy if you have a Pirate PC files conference, and a PD conference.. or some other conference that the upload rules might be different. If you used the enclosed ulrules.cfg, ulrules., and ulrules1., when users view bulletins in conf 1 now the "pirate upload rules" will be displayed, and when they are in any conf but #1, the 'pd' rules will be displayed. ž In your Upload rules for JustDoIt.PPE or EQU.PPE, or other upload ppe's Edit the screen your upload ppe displays to callers as the 'upload rules'. (It will be EQU.PCB if you are using EQU.PPE, or will be PREUPL. if you are running Just do it). Enter the line "!c:\pcb\ppe\bltboss\bltboss.ppe ulrules.". Create the appropriate bulletins, config file, (or use mine) and you're ready to go. Again, if you used the enclosed ulrules*.* files, different upload rules will now be displayed to users depending what conference they are in when they go to upload. ž In your logon/Logoff script to give you random welcome/goodbye screens If you aren't already running something like superlogoff that randomizes goodbye screens for you, this can do it. Enter mkpcbtxt.exe and edit prompt #192 to read: %c:\pcb\ppe\logoff.txt Next, use a text editor and edit the file logoff.txt in the specified dir. Add "!c:\pcb\ppe\bltboss\bltboss.ppe goodbye." to the text file, then save. Go to your Bulletin Boss directory and create goodbye.cfg, and get some goodbye screens together and you're all done. If you are already using a 'logoff script' such as logoff.txt, just add the line into there instead of logoff.txt. If you wanted random welcome screens, edit prompt #665 in mkpcbtxt. Run a logon script by going: %c:\pcb\ppe\logon.txt, and then editing logon.txt to say: !c:\pcb\ppe\bltboss\bltboss.ppe logon. Scanning for new bulletins.. Get some welcome files together and edit logon.cfg and it's all set. That's about it, you should easily get the hang of it. It's not hard. I included a couple samples to help you out. If you need to contact me for some reason you can email me on the RACE SHOP or at hitt@rohan.sdsu.edu. If you have any suggestions or any bugs pop up, please DO contact me. --Criminal [PiL] 5/25/95