Did you ever wish that you could simply fill requests for information about your BBS, FirstClass, modem settings or why the sky is blue by telling people to "send an email addressed to ...."?
Now you can.
Introducing RoboReply - a simple, easy-to-install Quickey macro that will provide you with a pseudo-information-server requiring nothing more than anetwork user ID and one conference with an alias. It will work on any message regardless of whether it is sent from within FirstClass or via a gateway -- including Internet -- because it uses the "Reply" function to send the full text of the requested document back to the sender.
It couldn't be more simple for the user: they simply put the title of the document (or "message", in FirstClass terminology) that they want in the "Subject" line of an email addressed to:
"roboreply@yourdomain.com"
(or just "roboreply" if the message is sent from within FirstClass)
That's it. No index numbers, no cryptic text in the message section (it can be blank, in fact) or anything else. Just the name/title of the document they want.
RoboReply has very few requirements:
- You should be *reasonably* familiar with Quickeys. You DO NOT have to be an expert, but a fundamental understanding will help your installation and troubleshooting.
- You MUST be using Quickeys 3.0 (or later)
- You MUST be using the FirstClass Macintosh client v2.51 (or later)
- All documents that you would like to be able to send automatically upon request must be stored in the same conference, although it doesn't matter where that conference is.
- The macro searches for the first three words of the "Subject:" line, so each article must have a sufficiently different title to keep more than one from appearing in a search.
- At least THE FIRST THREE WORDS OF THE TITLE OF THE DOCUMENT MUST BE VISIBLE when you view the list of articles, otherwise FirstClass won't see it -- it doesn't recognize partial words.
- I recommend that you post an "Index" document so that someone can send email addressed to roboreply with the word "Index" in the Subject line whereupon they will receive a document listing all of the other available documents.
- The macro processes about one request per minute due to a limitation in the FirstClass software; there is no definitive change in the program's environment upon a Search being completed (menus don't change, windows don't disappear or change order, etc., just a little system beep which Quickeys won't recognize) so I have had to allow 20 seconds for the search process for each document even though it may only take 2 seconds to find it (I had to build this for peak loading time when it may *occasionally* take up to 20 seconds to do a "find"). But you can change this parameter by editing the Quickey if you find the delay annoying.
Getting the macro into your system...
If you are unfamiliar with copying a macro from somewhere else into your Quickeys Universal set, follow these instructions:
1. Open the Quickeys editor window.
2. Select “Open Set” from File pulldown menu within the Quickeys editor window.
3. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the QK/RoboReply file that you downloaded and open it.
4. When it’s open, you will see two macros in the Window, "RoboReply" and "Clear Mailbox". Select them both and choose “Copy” from the Edit menu (or Cmd.-C) - still within the QK editor window.
5. Select “Universal” from the Sets pulldown menu in the Quickeys editor window.
6. Select Paste (or Cmd.-V). The two macros will now appear in your Universal set.
The copying of the macros is finished.
Setting up your system
1. Drag the items from the downloaded files in the “For QK "Clipboards" Folder” into the folder INSIDE your Quickeys Preferences folder marked “Clipboards”. It should be in the following path:
System Folder:Preferences:Quickeys Folder:Clipboards
2. Sign on as the admin and create a new Network user ID (although you could conceiveably use a modem connection for this macro, it’s not recommended or set up that way) that will be your Robot. Give the User ID admin privileges and make the User ID and Password both Robot. Make the first name blank and the last name RoboReply.
3. Drag the RoboReply settings file into your "Settings" folder, which is inside the FirstClass folder. Launch that setting by double-clicking on it to make sure that it is set it up to log in automatically. It is set up that way initially, but you can make sure by checking the “Log In Automatically” checkbox.
* I recommend using this setting because it is specifically set up WITHOUT any graphics, sounds, etc., as speed is of the essence here, not aesthetics.
4. While online as RoboReply, create an alias of the conference that you want the robot to search for requested documents. (You can create a separate conference to do that if you wish, but you will only need an alias of an existing one to make the macro work.) Set the preferences so that the ONLY preference selected is “Don’t Accept Invitations” in the “Chat Preferences” section. Set the Reply Preference to read “Reply Sender.”
5. Name the alias of the conference you want the Robot to search “!Robot Storage” (no quotes). Be SURE to put the exclamation point before the name.
6. Select Search from the File pulldown menu and check ONLY the box that says “Search Subject/File Name” (it’s the first box).
7. Quit from FirstClass, saving changes to the Preferences.
Configuring the macros
1. Open the QK macro editor window and double-click on the RoboReply sequence.
2. Double-click on the first entry, “RoboReply” and then click the Change button. Navigate through your folders until you come to your Settings folder (should be inside your FirstClass folder). Click the "Select" button to re-orient Quickeys to the RoboReply setting file in your Settings folder.
3. Set the timer on each macro by selecting "Timer Options" to your preference. I run RoboReply every hour and Clear Mailbox every 48 hours.
Checking the configuration
1. Sign onto your system using any ID *other than RoboReply*.
2. Create a new message addressed to RoboReply and put the title of one of the items in the "!Robot Storage" folder in the “Subject:” line of the message - then send it.
3. Create a second new message and put some garbage characters in the “Subject:” line of the message and send it. This will test the “Sorry, your request cannot be completed” function.
4. Log off from FirstClass.
5. Select the macro named "RoboReply" from the Quickeys hierarchal menu and watch what happens. The macro should sign on as RoboReply, open the mailbox, check for unread mail, open anything unread, copy the first three words from the "Subject:" line, and then open the aliased conference named "!Robot Storage" to look for the requested document. When it finds it, it will open it, copy the text, close the document, return to the request, create a reply and paste in the text that it copied from the original document. It then sends the message back to the requestor.
6. If the macro does not work, review the instructions to make sure that certain things are *exactly* correct:
- The alias of the storage folder MUST be named “!Robot Storage” (no quotes, exclamation point before "Robot")
- The RoboReply User ID MUST have “Login Automatically” checked
- The RoboReply User ID MUST have “Show Only Unread Items” NOT checked in the preferences.
- The Search command, when used from within the RoboReply User ID MUST have ONLY the “Subject/File Name” checkbox checked.
- The RoboReply setting MUST be in your Settings folder (within your FirstClass folder)
5. If these do not work, make sure to note any error dialog boxes and AT WHAT POINT THEY APPEAR as this will be critical to troubleshooting.
6. If problems persist, email me at scott_goldman@overnet.com and I will try to assist you.
Please respect the fact that I have a business to run and am doing this in my (very limited) spare time. In other words, please DO NOT CALL. I will NOT provide any telephone support and your subsequent emails may somehow fall to the bottom of my inbox if you call first.
Thank you in advance for your understanding.
I truly hope that this macro helps take some of the drudgery out of filling out those information requests. RoboReply is happily serving OverNET subscribers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, processing over 100 requests per day without error.
THIS MACRO IS NOT SOFTWARE, SHAREWARE, FREEWARE OR VAPORWARE....
This Quickey is WabbitWare.
That’s right, folks - WabbitWare. I’m a BIG fan of “dat wascally wabbit” -- Bugs Bunny. So, in exchange for lifetime unlimited use of RoboReply, I hereby request one item with a Bugs Bunny image on it. It can be a post card, keychain, greeting card, candy bar, or, if you're feeling particularly generous, a tee shirt, baseball cap, etc., etc., .... anything will do, as long as it’s got "dat wascally wabbit’s" picture or image on it. Please send all contributions to:
Scott Goldman
The Goldman Group
P.O. Box 8551
Calabasas, CA 91372
I hope you enjoy RoboReply..., we've processed over 5000 requests on OverNET... and still counting!
