ARA Controlstrip Module is a control strip module for Apple Remote Access (ARA) users. It lets you connect to or disconnect from an ARA server. It also indicates whether an ARA connection is established or not by its icon.
How to Install it
Drop ARA Controlstrip Module into your Control Strip Modules folder, which is within your System Folder, and restart your Mac. If ARA isn’t installed on your Mac or Appletalk is off, ARA Controlstrip Module will refuse to load. After the first restart ARA Controlstrip Module will create a folder named 'ARA Documents' inside the System Folder. Into this folder, put the ARA connection documents you use to establish ARA connections. Such documents can be created using the 'Remote Access Personal' application which comes with the ARA distribution disk.
Requirements
ARA Controlstrip Module needs the Control Strip control panel, and Apple remote Access. Obviously it therefore needs System 7.0 or better. It was developed and tested with version 1 of Apple Remote Access and System 7.5 on a Powerbook 145, using Think Pascal 4.02. It should also work with ARA version 2. Appletalk has to be on during start-up, otherwise ARA will not work, and the module will not load.
How to Use it
Click the ARA control strip button and select a connection document from the pop-up menu. The pop-up menu displays all documents created by 'Remote Access Personal' which ARA Controlstrip Module finds inside the ARA Documents folder.
(ARA Controlstrip Module does not let you configure a ARA connection for the first time - uses Remote Access Personal for this purpose. It assumes that your connection document works, and that ARA is well configured)
It shows this icon when ARA is idle:
(no connection established)
this one when ARA is connecting:
(connection is starting up)
and this one when ARA is active:
(an ARA connection is established)
During the start-up of the connection, the pop-up menu displays information on the connection status. When connected, information about the connection: which machine ARA is connected to, the connection time and, if a time limit is set the remaining time. Both during start-up and connection, the only active item on the pop-up menu is the 'Disconnect' item which allows to terminate the connection.
Additional Features
ARA Controlstrip Module keeps track of the state of AppleTalk. If AppleTalk is off, ARA Controlstrip Module will turn it on before trying to establish a connection and turn it back off after it disconnects. This is useful for Powerbook users who are usually not connected to a network and keep AppleTalk turned off, to avoid the annoying extra couple of seconds AppleTalk takes when waking up the Powerbook.
ARA Controlstrip Module has a few features which can be configured, using ResEdit. The relevant resources are located in STR#128. String number 1 gives the location and name of the folder which contain the ARA Documents, inside the System Folder. By default it is set to ':ARA Documents' (the colons are required). String number 2 is not used and String number 3 contains the Balloon Help Message (don't touch this one), and String number 4 must contain a number from 0 to 255. This number is translated into flags which set the behavior of ARA Controlstrip Module . Currently only two numbers are supported: 0 (default) and 128. If set to 0, the connection process takes place in the background (asynchronously) and only the icon on the Control Strip informs you that something is going on. If set to 128, the connection process is synchronously and a dialog box is displayed during the connection process.
Known Limitations
ARA Controlstrip Module has only a rather rudimentary response to errors which may occur during an ARA connection. In fact it tells you explicitly only about the most common error conditions (Modem not responding, no dial tone, the modems could not connect, busy, no answer, damaged CCL file). If a different error occurs, try to use the Remote Access Personal application to eliminate the problem.
Known Bugs
This is only a development version of ARA Controlstrip Module and has therefore still some minor bugs (and maybe mayor unknown ones). The dialog box which is supposed to come up to indicate that an connection attempt has failed does not always come up and ARA Controlstrip Module terminates the connection quietly - just try again if this occurs. Please report all bugs to: BPSTEIN@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL (Ullrich.Steiner@uni-konstanz.de (from 1. 5.96))
If you like the ARA Controlstrip Module, send me an e-mail at:
BPSTEIN@WEIZMANN.WEIZMANN.AC.IL
Ullrich.Steiner@uni-konstanz.de (from 1. 5.96)
Suggestions and bug reports are welcome.
ARA Controlstrip Module is distributed as is - I hope you find it useful. It is a development version and I believe it to be safe, but I accept no responsibility for any loss or damage caused by its use.
All trademarks acknowledged.
Ullrich Steiner hereby disclaims all warranties relating to this software, whether express or implied, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Ullrich Steiner will not be liable for any special, incidental, consequential, indirect or similar damages due to loss of data or any other reason, even if Ullrich Steiner or an agent of his has been advised of the possibility of such damages. In no event shall Ullrich Steiner be liable for any damages, regardless of the form of the claim. The person using the software bears all risk as to the quality and performance of the software.
Version History
1.0d1 Initial public release.
1.0d2 The 'ARA Documents' folder is now in the System Folder. This solves a incompatibility with the
'Desktop Strip' (thanks to Andrew Fragen for pointing this out to me).
1.0d3 Recompiled with 68000 code for compatibility with e.g. Powerbook 100.
1.0d4 some minor bug fixes - never released.
1.0d5 Code was ported to Code Warrior. Several bug fixes to make the CSM more stable on fast Macs.
