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                         Mys Tic File Announce                               Ver 2.0.0.0

• Black Panther(RCS)
• aka Dan Richter
• Sysop - Castle Rock BBS
• telnet://bbs.castlerockbbs.com
• http://www.castlerockbbs.com
• The sparrows are flying again...

This version has a major change! The name of the config file has changed toa more generic name. The reason for this, is the config file will be used formultiple programs in the near future. The only change that needs to take placeat this time, is rename the mtafile.ini to rcs.ini. Simple enough, right? ;)Please take a look at the new rcs.ini file, as there have been many additionsmade to it. Not all of them are for MTAFile, but as this config file will beused by multiple programs, it's easier to have all of it in one file.

Please take a look at the new rcs.ini file, to make sure that you have all ofthe current information included. The file has been slightly re-arranged intosections. The general section includes basic information like BBS name, Sysopname. The MTAFile specific section includes the location of the .tic files.The other sections can be ignored until these programs are released. If you dorun these programs, just update the rcs.ini file at that time.

Mys Tic File Announce is a very simple TIC file announcement generator. Otherprograms that create new file announcements require a lengthy config programwhich require all file echos and BBS file areas to be set up. This program willtake all the information from the TIC files, and generate a report that can beposted in message bases.

While this program was written for use with Mystic BBS, running underDOS/Windows or Linux, it can be used with any BBS software. Again, there is nointeraction between the BBS software and this program. It is completelyindependent of the BBS.

While every effort is made to make sure this program does what it is designedto, and not harm your computer, the only warranty you have, is this programwill take up space on your hard drive. Other than that, I assume noreponsibility for what happens to your computer due to the use of thissoftware.

If you do notice a bug in the program, or have a suggestion on how it couldbe improved, please feel free to let me know.

• mtafile.exe - The main program
• mtafile.txt - The file your reading right now :)
• mtafile.rpt - File created by the program in Mystic directory
• mtafile.log - File created by the program in logs directory
• rcs.ini - Configuration file read by the program
• mtafile.dat - File created by the program to hold overall stats
• final.txt - File created by the program in Mystic directory

MTAFile now has a config file which allows you, the Sysop, to define a fewoptions, instead of including them on the command line. This file must existfor the program to run. A sample config file is included with this archive.

The format of the config will be very familiar to you. All lines that startwith the ';', are considered comments and will be ignored. The remaining linesinclude:

TicPath=c:\path\to\incoming\tic\files\BBS=Another Awesome BBSSysop=Exaulted RulerLogPath=c:\path\to\log\files\

Please note, the trailing slash/backslash is required in the paths. There willbe better error checking for this in future versions.

The EXE file should be placed in your \mystic directory. It will create a logfile that will be placed in the directory assigned in the config, calledmtafile.log. This log contains, when the program was run, which files wereannounced, and from which file echo area. Right now, the log file does growquickly, as there is still quite a bit of debugging information beingincluded.

MTAFile creates a file in the \mystic directory called mtafile.rpt. This filecan have a header and/or footer file attached to it, before being posted tothe message echos. (Instructions will be shown below)

If the files 'header.txt' or 'footer.txt' are in the directory, MTAFile willcombine them with the 'mtafile.rpt' to create the 'final.txt'.

This program can be run with two different setups. It can be called whenevernew files are received, for those Sysops who post multiple new fileannouncements per day.Keep in mind, the mtafile.rpt is overwritten each timethe program in run. The other way to set this up, is to copy the TIC filesinto an announcement sub-directory. Then, when the nightly maintenance is run,this program will process all of the TICs received, and generate one fileannouncement per day. I will give examples below of how I have this set up atCastle Rock BBS.

The following instructions show installation on a Windows system. I think itis safe to assume if you are running the Linux/Ubuntu version, you should beable to figure the commands out. :) If not, contact me, and I'll provide moreinformation on the Linux installation.

Command line parameters:-a - Announce mode-r - Report mode-h - Help screen?  - Help screen

mtafile.exe -a

or

./mtafile -a

This will process any .tic files that are located in the directory given inthe config file. It will generate the mtafile.rpt file, and combine theheader.txt and footer.txt files, if they exist, to create the final.txt.

mtafile.exe -r #

or

./mtafile -r #

This will generate a report using the information in the mtafile.dat file, forthe last # number of runs. For example, if you run MTAFile once per day, as Ithink most of us do, and you run ./mtafile -r 7, the report generated willshow the incoming file stats for the last 7 days. If you would like this toshow only one day, just run ./mtafile -r 1, etc.

Here is a sample of my mailin.bat file that runs whenever incoming mail/filesare received:

-=>snip<=-

c:cd\bbs\mystic\:startif exist c:\bbs\mystic\echomail\in\*.tic goto filegotoin:filecd\bbs\mystic\echomail\in\copy*.tic\bbs\mystic\echomail\in\announce\/ycd\bbs\mystic\mutil fileimportgotoin:incd\bbs\mystic\mutil mailin.inigoto end:endcd\bbs\mystic\

-=>snip<=-

(In case your wondering, this is only a portion of the complete batch fileused at Castle Rock BBS. The actual file is about five times as long, butthis should give you the idea)

Then, in your nightly maintenance, you would include something like thefollowing:

-=>snip<=-

c:cd\bbs\mystic\del mtafile.rptdel final.txtmtafile -acd\bbs\mystic\mutil fileannounce.ini

-=>snip<=-

The 'del mtafile.rpt' and 'del final.txt' lines will ensure that old postings

do not get posted again. These files will be generated on the 'mtafile' line

which follows. The program should now delete old copies of mtafile.rpt, but I

would still leave this in, just to be safe. :)

The program will take the output file of MTAFILE.RPT, and combine it with

HEADER.TXT and FOOTER.TXT files, if they exist. These files would need to be

located in the \mystic directory. The final output file name is FINAL.TXT.

The last line is telling MUTIL to post the text file to different message

areas on the BBS.

The FILEANNOUNCE.INI file that I am using looks like this:

-=>snip<=-

[General]PostTextFiles      = truelogfile=mutil.logloglevel=3; ==========================================================================; ==========================================================================; ==========================================================================[PostTextFiles]totalfiles = 8file1_name    = c:\mystic\final.txt        file1_baseidx = 2file1_from    = CRBBS File Botfile1_to      = Allfile1_subj    = New Files at Castle Rock BBSfile1_addr    = 1:317/3file1_delfile = false

-=>snip<=-

This .INI file is very well documented, so there shouldn't be any problemswith figuring out how to set it up.

                          -=-= Credits =-=-

I would like to give sincere thanks to the following people

(in no particular order):

g00r00 - for making, and maintaning an awesome BBS package

Avon - for having an great network which provides great support

         and for testing this program during pre-release

GaryCrunk - for answering some rookie pascal questions

Apam - for showing us all that BBS programming is still alive

fsxNet - for putting up with my stupid questions and test posts

Cmech - for making great looking programs look easy to do :)

Gryphon - for porting some awesome games into MPL which got me

         interested in learning Pascal again

xqtr - for making some great MPLs - even if most of them won't work

         on Windows :) (I ran Windows at the time)

fabian - for helping me figure out better functions to use

tiny - for giving me his string compare functions to use

I know I'm forgetting people here. It is not intentional. :)

                         -=-= Known bugs: =-=-

• None at this time - If you find something, please let me know

                          -=-= ToDo List: =-=-

• Experiment with adding ANSI capability to output file

• Would like to be able to add something to announce hatched files