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Trion BBS System V1.10 Copyright (C) 1994-1998 by Paul Spijkerman Software and documentation written by Paul Spijkerman All rights reserved All information in this documentation is subject to change without prior notice ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Main features: Multi node BBS controlled by menus. Local displaying of ANSI and RIPscrip V1.54 graphics. Controllable through scripts and cron tab. CliDoors and ParagonDoors are useable. Buildin FrontEnd for mail EMSI connections IEMSI logins and Fax or Voice programs spawnable, MailProcessor for fido mail with dupecheck. TickProcessor. Areafix program with FileFix commands. Offline GUI editors for files, echomail, users, maintenance etc. It uses it's own small and fast GUI render code. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- List of some of the implemented features of the trion BBS system: ========( General : )================================================ A ResourceManager for multi node usage (10 nodes at the moment). With buildin Filebuffers/cache for file and message sections. A GUI monitor window with state and actions of 1-10 nodes, lastcallers information, number of messages and files online and other statistics. Also the monitor contains the neccesary buttons to start editors, view logs and other commands. All nodes and the monitor are iconizable. Option to DeIconize or 'ScreenToFront' with a hotkey or from a button in the monitor or via a shell command. In the monitor and icons you can see who paged for the sysop, even if it was from a PageSysop door. Trion BBS uses it's own small and fast code to render and handle GUI's dynamically, so you don't need external products like MUI. This code makes it possible to resize windows, and makes the GUI's font insensitive. Fonts, screendepth, screensize, screentype and colors are configurable. You can resize windows and they render themselfs using all the space in the window. The lists becomes shorter or longer and the space between buttons and other GUI elements changes. Also GUI elements like buttons can change size to better use the window space .. This depends on what is usefull in Utilities. Each node is in waiting mode controlled by a GUI interface with buttons, instead of the buttons you can use the Function keys. There are buttons to toggle 'serial on/off', 'sysop available' and accept callers, other buttons are to login or iconize etc.. Also there is a button for a 'sysop login'. When logged in or in the terminal you can use de function keys or Pulldown menus for certain actions. Each node can be configured to use 1-4 bitplanes. In 4 bitplane mode the 16 ANSI colors are used, in 3 bitplane mode the 8 less bright ANSI colors are used, in 2 bitplane mode 3 bright colors are used, and in 1 color mode black and green are used, in modes with few bitplanes colors are so chosen that text is always visible on background colors. ANSI emulating supports type styles. RIPscrip BBS graphics system V1.54 in local screens. Possebility to draw in the chat mode with RIPscrip graphics. Simple C example door code to write RipScrip doors. A simple door with C source to generate RipScrip menus. Tilde codes to display all sorts of information on the users or the system in screens, logs and doors. Fully controllable by scripts through utilities which send commands to the BBS executables to change it's state or call out for example. The whole BBS or just a node can be started or removed from memory by simple scripts. All logs are bufferd (options to switchs off buffering). A log with outgoing mail calls and terminal calls and the time they took (like Term) for calcullating the costs. All paths are configurable.. There is a little checkstart program that is started before actually starting up the BBS with which you can stop the BBS from starting up. Logout scripts, incoming scripts, and Shell startup script. Capture mode (with ANSI filter). IFF Audio Samples for Paging and Ctrl-G (Beep) configurable. A lot of lists in the BBS are interruptable with Ctrl-C All "Yes/No" (hotkey) questions can also be answered by "Oui" and "Ja" (the characters O and J function as hotkeys). Chatmode with different colors for sysop and users, the chatmode has WordWarp except when cursor control keys are used on the same line. Disactivity notice after one and a half minute, if there is no activity after that for a minute a Disactivity Disconnect is taking place. (times are configurable). ========( Mailer : )================================================= The system has a buildin mailer. The mailer has the possebility to exchange files and mail with other BBSes by using the EMSI protocol. Hydra, ZedZap and Zmodem (and other) file transfer protocols are supported with EMSI by using the HydraCom, XPRZedzap.library and XPRZmodem.library. You can configure which of the mentioned protocols you support, this can be usefull because the V3.5 Zedzap/Zmodem libararies don't seem to work on a 68000, so you have to disable ZedZap. Also the mailer has the IEMSI protocol buildin so users can logon fully autamatically .. a (new) user doesn't have to fill in any information .. this is done by the terminal program. The mailer has an option to synchronize the clock of the system with other systems. The BBS should be spawnable from a mailer like Trapdoor, but there is no need too , because the Trion mailer supports Hydra now. ========( Serial : )================================================= The BBS works with serial cards like multiface III. The BBS works with ISDN terminal adapters which give their connect responses very quick. The BBS works with the nullmodem.device , so it can be called from the same system with emulated modems. The BBS is useable in a NullModem mode, where it is connected with a NullModem cable to a terminal instead of a modem. The number of 'RINGS' after which the modem is answered can be configured. When answering the modem, CallerID is ignored by the answering logic but is written to the log. Possebility to spawn Fax or Voice programs after detecting FAX of VOICE connect strings. Download report after sending files with serial speeds. There is a "ModemCommand" menu command which puts the modem temporary in command mode .. gives the modem a command .. displays the output in the BBS node and continues. The sound of the modem can be switched of while the BBS is online, this is done by a little program which commands the BBS. Is you use this command in the scheduler you can schedule when the BBS should answer silent and when not. ========( Terminal : )=============================================== Terminal mode with RIPscrip graphics , a simple phone book and Zmodem file transfers with Auto start. ========( Menus : )================================================= Unlimited expandable menu system with it's own language and compiler. To make a menu is very easy , they consist of readable text files with commands and a pascal like structure. You can protect commands so they can only be started with certain levels or only local or remote. In a menu, effects doors can be used, FX doors add stationary or animated effects to menu's like blinking, scrolling or random lines. They can also be used to make RIPScrip drawings or buttons to control the BBS. ========( Maintenance : )============================================ The system has an offline GUI Maintenance editor in which events are listed which may need attention. When you click on a new file or new user the offline GUI file or user editor with that file or user is started. The sort of events that are shown are: New user logged in. Mailer pasword error Freq password error Unknown echomail area No route address found for netmail Bad mail archive Bad mail packet New upload Unknow tick area used No file with a tick file CRC error in file send with tick Ticked file already in filebase ========( Users : )================================================== Users online can be edited online with an ANSI style editor, users can be edited by logging in and starting an offline ANSI style editor. And users can be edited Offline with a GUI editor, which can be started from shell or by clicking on a button in the monitor. The editors have options to view the answers to the questionair the users answered. Selected answers can be removed so they have to be answered again on a next login. (The actual Questionair is a door program) Multiple users can be selected in the GUI-offline usereditor and be edited or deleted. This editor has an option to show 'last on date' and place name in the userlist. You can view information about the user online in the title bar of the screen by pressing F9. Menu commands to list users (with wildcards to search). There is a shell tool to delete users that have not called for a number of days. Users can only login at one node at a time. At midnight the allowed online time of users is increased. There is a BadNames filter file with wildcards, so users can only used approved names. ========( Mail : )=================================================== There are 65535 different Message areas possible. These can be either Local, echomail or netmail. Optional Group support to select of read new mail in groups of sections. The Trion BBS system includes a Mail processor wich supports echomail, routed netmail, file attaches, points (fully 4D) Nodelists with points and a pointlist etc.. Echomail feeds can be edited with a GUI editor. Tagnames can take up to 79 characters so newsgroups with very long names can be used. (From release V1.10) Build in E-mail support to handle kludges and gate addresses. Mail processor (script) is startable with a hotkey. (Default right-amiga-escape) The mail processor can use any Archiver program to compress (pack or unpack) mail. There is a text file where you can configure how an archiver is to be used for packing and unpacking per archiver and how archive types are to be recognized. You can configure an archive methode for each node number. There is an option to archive Netmail which makes starting the AmiGate program through an Archiver type very easy. The mail processor has an option to not touch ARJ and ARC packets for security reasons. Damaged messages can optionally be moved to a 'bad' section. If there is no matching section for echomail messages, then they are moved to a 'bad' section. The mail processor uses (optional) dupe checking to prevent duplicate being send on. Duplicate messages are moved to a 'dupes' section. There is an option to check if a node exists before exporting received netmail further. The mail processor has an option to decode UUencoded and Base64 coded files while unpacking mail. The mail processor has an option to backup all archives and packets it processes. Attached files are stored in a separate directory and only deleted when the message wich there are attached too are scrolled from the system. Users can attach files to messages by uploading them. Files can be attached local by typeing the path and name. When a new message adressed to a user online becomes available (written by user on other node, or unpacked by mail processor or written by an utility) the user is notified that there is a new message adressed to him. To be able to read waiting mail very quickly the system checks if there are messages for your users while processing mail. If there are waiting messages for your users the information to find them very quickly is stored in a file for each user. This information includes the Message ID's , this is to make sure it is indeed the message found earlier while processing mail. There is a WaitingMail Menu command which gives an immediate scan of the messages per section addressed to the user online with an indication which messages are already read and which are not. This can be done because the mail processor adds messages to a users waitingmail file when a message is imported. There is also a command to scan all messages and make a waitingmail file for a user, so new users can also look for messages addressed to them. But this is slower then the WaitingMail command. In local nodes messages can be written with a configurable text editor (for instance Cygnus Editor). For remote use there is a line editor to write messages and a full screen editor to write messages. Optional support for adding Signatures to messages. Optional support for adding Taglines to messages. Possibility to read or scan message with search patterns on 'to' or/and 'from' name or/and the 'subject' line. Or read or scan messages addressed to the user online. When reading mail you can toggle between showing control-lines or hiding control-lines. Type style codes are interpreted while reading mail, currently build in are: *word* - bold /word/ - italic _word_ - underline $word$ - shine #word# - fill ^word^ - highlight Replied lines in messages are presented in a lower intensity then other lines in the message. Under messages info about replies, the original message and attached files is presented. Areafix program to let nodes connect or disconnect areas or to query which areas are available to them. There are different list modes available and options to make 'short' or 'long' lists. The areafix program has commands to change compression methodes, change passwords and to pause or resume all sections. Sections can be 'locked' so they can't be disconnected with areafix. Areafix has an optional bounce netmail function. ========( Files : )================================================== There are 65535 different File areas possible. Optional Group support to select of find files in groups of sections. File transfers by means of XPR file transfer library's. In local nodes files can be Uploaded with a file requester. Files can be uploaded to a fixed area or the user can be presented with a selection of areas available for upload. Files can be edited online, or offline in the GUI editor. In the GUI-offline file editor multiple files can be selected and moved to other sections, edited or deleted. When files are removed from the BBS by the sysop or a utility they are moved to a backup directory. Sections can be configured to only accept uploads with 8.3 names like under MS-dos systems. A system to mark files by number or a (part of) the name with wildcards. When a user is logging out the marked files are stored in a file, so he doesn't have to look for the same files after a 'lost carrier' disconnect or something like that. After a download only the succesfull transfered files are removed from the marked file list. Also after a download there is a full report of transfers succeses and transfer speeds. Chronological or Alphabetical listing and browsing of files. Listing and browsing per area or global on different conditions like newfiles, reverse, unvalidated or searching on name. Newfiles scan date is changeable by entering a date or the numbers of days to scan back. Support for FILE_ID.DIZ file descriptions. The layout and colors of file lists are configurable. In marked file lists the estimated transfer time is shown. When downloading files you can download a text with the description of the send files. Users can view the archives before they download files. Users are rewarded for their uploads by giving the time back it took to upload. An optional Byte/File ratio system. Possibilities to make files or areas (or areas to certain levels) 'freedownload', thus files are available outside of the ratios. Option to log off automatically after a download. The system is configurable to skip existing files during uploads, they can also be accepted and a new name will be asked after the Upload. A BulkUpload program to start or build a filebase, the file comments of the files are used as a description. As an option the original dates of the files can be used. Bulkupload can process one section or all sections. An Allfiles program to Upload compressed lists with 'all files' or 'new files' lists on the system to your BBS. Only the sections with files will be listed. Files can be downloaded from dos directories (by priviledged users). Files from the filecatalog can be requested by mailers calling you. The areas wich area available voor file-requests are configured in a configuration file. Also in this file you can configure MAGIC files to be requested. A 'Tick' processing program to take part in file nets. File sections can be connected or disconnected remotely with the FileFix commands in the 'Areafix' program. The tick processor can handle archived packets with files and '.tic' files. It can send netmail messages to receivers of files with file section, name, size and description. A checkfilebase program to correct the filebase if date or size is not correct or the fysical file is not available, or to remove files older than a number of days etc.. Options to remake globalindex files and keyfiles of the file catalogue. Options to rescan the file catalogue description files. ========( Doors : )=================================================== The Trion BBS can run Cli-Doors, Arexx-Doors and ParagonDoors and has a Remote shell with Ctrl-c support. The cli-door interface has support for special modes used in TrionDoors like downloading files from dos in a door. Also there is an extended ParagonDoor mode to run Max's BBS doors, this was implemented to be able to use the Max's BBS CD-Door. Some of the doors distributed with the Trion BBS system: A simple PageSysop door, which asks for a chat reason and than displays this reason in a window on the Workbench and sends it to the log file. Also this door is able to play the IFF audio samples to page the sysop. From this door it is possible to deIconize a node and start a chat mode or chat door. A CDrom door. A split screen Chat door. A line chat door with initials of each chatter on the beginning of the line and a default log file wich logs the chat with all the corrections made to the text. A conference door for chatting between 10 nodes with 10 conferences. A door to send simple messages to other nodes. A listnodes Utility/door. A Questionair door system. A Tetris clone game door. A TeleText type door. A little door to show how much Upload space is available with a simple graph. A number or effects doors. The effects (or short FX) doors are doors to give certain effects or animations to Menu's. -Scroller This door displays a scrolling text over the screen. -Random This door adds Random lines to the screen. -Blink This door shows a blinking line on the screen without the need of special ANSI codes which the Amiga doesn't support. -Text This door displays lines from a source file one at a time at the same place using the different grey and white colors to produce an effect of a slowly appearing and disappearing lines. There is also a door to add new lines to the config so you can use it as a 'Wall' or 'rumor-base'. Or just use it to make the live of the sysop easier. -Select With this door you can make a menu where the items are selected with the cursor keys or numerical pad. But still be able to use the hotkeys. ========( Utilities : )=============================================== A program to make BBS text files from BBS text configurations. (for every language a configuration file). A program to send commands to BBS nodes. - Command to show a line of text to the user online. - Command to remove a node from memory. - Commands to toggle, sysop available, accept calls, serial on/off. - Commands to make (crash) mail calls to other BBSes. - Command to DeIconize. etc... A program that commands a BBS node to call/poll a BBS a number of times for mail until succesfull. Some 'ClickIt' programs to controll the system with buttons from the workbench. A fully programmable button window to the TrionRM GUI for starting shell tools or third party GUI tools. A GUI system to show what goes on in shell scripts. It consists of a viewer program that can be started manually or with a program that is added to scripts and sends lines to the viewer. A program to send commands to the resource manager. A cron-like scheduler with an optional window with the time and the next scheduled events. A program to keep the logs on a certain configurable size. A program to handle outgoing calls, it is configurable to call a number off times until a connect was made. A program to freq files from other systems and to check if a system is in a nodelist. A program that waits until all nodes are free of callers to be used in scripts. Configurable lastcallers programs with a number of different configurations to produce ANSI lastcaller screens. A program that makes an ANSI graph with 'busy' statistics A simple log-off police program A system to show a top 15 of things like Download/upload bytes/files, top number of calls, top minutes online, top messages written. With or without users with sysop level. There is a 'TopDL' program which can show these stats directly from the userbase (which can be a little slow). Or there is a 'scan' that scans the userbase and make a data file that can be presented with a 'show' program. A program to delete mail that is more than xxx days in your outbound directory. A program to check if there is anything in the Inbound directory for a mail process script. A program to view packets. A universal Unpack program to list or unpack every archive (wich is in the config) without you checking what type it is. A simple program to compare files. Utilities for installation: A program to change the number of calls. A program to generate a sysop account.