Welcome Mat v1.1 Freeware PCBoard 15.0 PPE New Caller Upgrade Utility!

     What does Welcome Mat do?

     This PCBoard 15.0 PPE utility  will search a list of predefined names,
     and if a match is found it will upgrade them to the security level you
     decided on.  Why? I was in a situation recently where I knew a handful
     of specific users were going to be calling my board. I did not want to
     pre-register all of them since A) it would have been more time than it
     took to write this utility and B) I wanted them to enter complete info
     into the address areas of the user records.  But... I also wanted them
     (and only them) to be upgraded instantly  and I also wanted them to be
     displayed a screen that told them  I was "putting out the welcome mat"
     for them and that they were instantly upgraded. Well this utility will
     do all this. You select the usernames (up to 250) that you want to put
     out the welcome mat for,  you select the security level  that you want
     them upgraded to,  and you customize the display file that they'll see
     upon their upgrade. And Welcome Mat is intelligent, it can tell if the
     caller has been upgraded already and if so, it "cancels operation" and
     the caller is not shown the display all over again.

     New in version 1.1
     10 lines in the config file are for telling Welcome Mat the conference
     or conferences (up to 10) that you want to register all  "matches" in.
     If a match is found (caller is in your upgrade list) then they will be
     upgraded and registered in the defined conferences.  Welcome Mat  will
     only set the R conference flag, not the X or S or any other flags.  If
     you don't have any conferences that you want to register these matches
     in,  then leave these lines blank,  Welcome Mat will only read lines 5
     through 14 for this purpose.

     Welcome Mat Installation.

     Installation of Welcome Mat is fairly straight-forward.  Hopefully you
     are already somewhat familiar with  PPE's  so that I don't have to get
     overly verbose here. Here's how I do it...  My new caller logon script
     looks like this, just 3 lines:
!E:\PPE\WELCOMAT\WELCOMAT.PPE
!E:\PPE\APPLY\I-APPLY.PPE
!E:\PPE\UAI\ADDRESS.PPE
     The first line is Welcome Mat,  the other 2 are other PPE's I use that
     prompt the user for city & state and other settings info. This way, if
     a user calls me who is not in "the list"  then the other PPE's ask for
     the additional address and settings info anyway.  Anyway... there is a
     number of ways you can do this. You can place the WELCOMAT.PPE in your
     bulletins to upgrade name matches only when the bulletin is read. It's
     up to you as PCB's PPE feature makes it the most flexible BBS software
     ever!

     Welcome Mat Config File.

     First, remember to rename the SAMPLE.CNF file to WELCOMAT.CNF! This is
     very important!  The other files,  the listing and display file can be
     any valid DOS filename that you decide upon, just make sure the config
     file reflects these new names. Here's an expanation of the SAMPLE.CNF:

     Line 1 = The listing of user names that you want to upgrade.
     Line 2 = Path/Filename of file you want displayed to upgraded callers
     Line 3 = The new caller security level as defined in PCBSetup
     Line 4 = The security level you want "name matches" upgraded to
     Lines 5 through 14 = conferences that you want "matches" Registered in.


     Welcome Mat Listing File.

     Here's an explanation of the sample list file included. Line 1 must be
     the total number of NAMES (one name per line) in the listing file, for
     Welcome Mat to function properly. Then lines 2 through 251 (if you are
     upgrading that many users, bless your heart!) will be the names of the
     users who will be upgraded by Welcome Mat. See my "sample list" below:
                                5
                                Meg Ryan
                                Melanie Griffith
                                Marisa Tomei
                                Mel Brooks
                                Michael Ontkean

     Notes

     Just a reminder to rename the SAMPLE.CNF to WELCOMAT.CNF.  This config
     file must be in the same directory as the  WELCOMAT.PPE  file.  That's
     about it....

     Freeware

     This is freeware (always happy to see donations though <g>) so use it
     at your own risk. I will not be responsible for lost data or any kind
     of damage  the use of this program may cause.  It has been thoroughly
     tested on my system and works flawlessly here, but I am just covering
     my assets.

     Well that's about it, if you use it, enjoy it!  If you have any ideas
     or suggestions to improve on it,  let me know in Intelec's PPL forum.
     If I get enough suggestions on it  I would be happy to make even more
     enhancements or improvements to Welcome Mat!

     And check out our MsgQuest PPE, a freeware PCBoard 15.0 PPE to insert
     script questionnaire answer files into your message bases, it's fully
     configurable.

     And check out our CJoin PPE,  a freeware PCBoard 15.0 PPE to make the
     J command in PCBoard more organized. Define the conferences by either
     conference type OR network.

     And thanks to Clark Development for coming out with the PPL compiler!
     It is  undeniably  the greatest piece of work since PCBoard software!

                                                 Cliff Watkins
                                                 P.O. Box 212
                                                 Baldwin, NY 11510

                                                 Intelec Online
                                                 (516) 868-0662 (D/S 16.8)