ProfitPress Mega CDROM2 …eeware (MSDOS)(1992)(Eng)/ProfitPress-MegaCDROM2.B6I/MISC/NETWORK/NOTICE15.ZIP/README15.TXT

Text File | 1991-07-28 | 11.9 KB | 258 lines

       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
       │        Notice.exe: a system noticeboard for        │
       │         use in Novell NetWare (tm) Systems.        │
       │               Version 1.5, July 1991               │
       │    (c) 1991, David Harris, all rights reserved.    │
       └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Notes about version 1.5              │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘

Notice v1.5 adds a number of enhancements to previous versions of
notice, in particular the following:

*  You can now specify both groups and users as message targets.
*  Expired messages are shown with an 'E' in Admin mode, and can be
   deleted with a single keypress. 'Unborn' messages are shown with
   a '~' in the browser.
*  Printing: you can now print messages while you read them. Printing
   direct to NetWare queues is supported, as are PostScript printers.
   Notice will remember each user's print selections from invocation
   to invocation.
*  Full online help: make sure you copy the file NOTICE.HLP to the
   same directory as NOTICE.EXE. The online help includes a full
   editor reference as well.
*  Notice no longer clears the screen if there are no new notices.

NOTE: Do NOT press <Ctrl-Break> while running Notice: this will lock
any machine with a Phoenix BIOS, and perhaps other types as well.


┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ i:  What Notice.exe IS:              │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
* Notice.exe is a programmable noticeboard for NetWare systems: it
allows notices to be posted by supervisors or designated managers and
to be read by individual users or NetWare user groups. Notices can be
set to "come alive" on a certain date, and to "live" only for a set
number of days from that date. Notices can be flagged for particular
NetWare user groups, and only members of those groups will have
access to them.

* Notice.exe is designed to be called from the system login script,
Net$log.dat, to display new messages. It remembers the messages a
user has already read, and does not bother him with them again.

* Alternate noticeboards can be set up on the same fileserver: this
allows workgroups within an environment to have their own notice
boards.


┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ii: What Notice.exe is NOT:          │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
* Notice.exe is NOT a conferencing system: it does not employ
sophisticated locking strategies, and only one user can have the
ability to post messages at a time.

* Notice.exe is NOT a bulletin board system: it has no file
download capabilities, and there is no threading between messages.

With these distinctions clearly in mind, you are ready to start using
Notice.exe on your system.


┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Installation:                        │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
To install Notice.exe, copy the files NOTICE.EXE and NOTICE.HLP to a
publicly-mapped subdirectory on your fileserver. You may rename
NOTICE.EXE, or set it to eXecute-only if you wish.


┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Setting up a noticeboard:            │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
Before a noticeboard can be used, it must be initialized: this can
only be done by SUPERVISOR-equivalent users.

1: Create a directory in a public location where the notices and
notice system files will be stored: internally, Notice.exe defaults
to SYS:PUBLIC/NOTICES, but you can place the directory anywhere.
Grant at least ROSWCD rights (RFWCD under NW386) to users who are to
administer and post notices on the directory; grant ROS (RF under
NW386) to all others.

2: In the same directory as Notice.exe, create a file called
NOTICE.CFG. This should be a text file consisting of one line - the
name of the notice directory. You can also specify the name of the
directory on the command line if you prefer, in which case you do not
need to create this file. The name of the directory should be
specified in NetWare format (VOL:PATH/PATH) rather than DOS format.
If you are happy to accept SYS:PUBLIC/NOTICES as a default notice
directory, then do not create Notice.cfg (but do make sure that the
directory exists!).

3: Type "NOTICE /I" at the DOS command prompt; if you did not create
Notice.cfg at step 2, type "NOTICE /F <path> /I" instead, replacing
<path> with the name of the directory you created. Notice.exe will
prompt you for a new starting message number, and the name of a user
record file. The user record file is the name of the file notice.exe
will create in each user's SYS:MAIL directory to record the messages
he/she has already read. If you are going to run multiple notice
boards on your server, you will need to use a different user record
name for each noticeboard. There is NO default user record name.

4: Type "NOTICE /A" (or "NOTICE /F <path> /A") at the command prompt
to enter Administrator mode. Only one user can access administrator
mode for a noticeboard at any time. You can now create messages as
you wish. Creating and editing messages is discussed below.

4a:  Repeat the above steps for as many noticeboards as you wish:
note that to use noticeboards other than the default system board,
you must start Notice.exe with the /F switch to specify the directory
path (you would normally do this from a batch file). Each noticeboard
must have its own directory.

5: Modify SYS:PUBLIC/NET$LOG.DAT either with a text editor, or by
using the "Alter System Login Script" option in SYSCON; at an
appropriate stage in the system login AFTER the drive holding
Notice.exe has been mapped, place the command:

    "#notice /n"
or  "#notice /f <path> /n" if you did not create Notice.cfg.

This modification will check for messages unread by each user when
he/she logs in, and will display only new messages then exit.

** Finished! Not that hard, really, was it! **


┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Using the noticeboard                │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
Users wishing to re-read notices can run the notice program at any
time simply by typing "notice" at the command prompt. Note that if
they are browsing an alternate noticeboard, or if you did not create
Notice.cfg or use SYS:PUBLIC/NOTICES, they will have to start
Notice.exe using the /F switch to specify the directory contain the
notice system files they want to use.


┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Creating and manipulating notices    │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
A noticeboard is not excessively useful without notices, so
Notice.exe provides tools internally for creating and modifying
notices and bulletins: to use these tools, you must start Notice.exe
in Administrator mode, by typing "NOTICE /A"  (or "NOTICE /F <path>
/A" if you are not using Notice.cfg or SYS:PUBLIC/NOTICES).

Only users with at least RWOCD rights in the notice directory can use
Administrator mode, and Notice.exe allows only one user to be in
Administrator mode for a noticeboard at any time. If another user is
in administrator mode when you attempt to run "NOTICE /A", you will
receive a message suggesting that you try again later. Users logging
in should not be affected by a user in Administrator mode.

Users who inadvertently leave Notice.exe running in Administrator
mode when they go for a cup of coffee will not cause too much
inconvenience, since Notice.exe will terminate normally after two
minutes without a keypress.

In administrator mode, there are some options available which are
not available in user mode:  add a message (press <Ins>) delete a
message (press <Del>), modify a message (press <F3>) and Purge
expired messages (press <F4>. Users who are not SUPERVISOR-equiv-
alent can only modify or delete notices which they themselves have
posted. SUPERVISOR-equivalent users can affect any message.

When you choose to add a notice, it will be given the next message
number, and you will be placed in the message editing screen: enter
the following information:

   * Description: a brief précis of the contents of the message.
   * A group list: a list of groups whose members are permitted to
     read the message, separated by commas. Entering nothing here is
     considered the same as entering EVERYONE.
   * A starting date (default is today's date) in the format DD/MM/YY
     if you are using a European country setting in your CONFIG.SYS,
     or MM/DD/YY if you have no country setting, or use US date
     conventions. Note that the virgule (/) is the only valid date
     delimiter.
   * A lifetime: the number of days after the starting date for which
     the notice is valid. A value of 0 is taken to mean that the
     notice is immortal (lucky thing).

While editing the notice, commands a bit like WordStar are available,
and a full search-and-replace facility is implemented. To see the
available block and quick commands, type either ^K or ^Q and wait
half a second: a small window will open listing the valid keys. When
you have finished editing the message to your satisfaction, press
<Ctrl-Enter>. To abandon editing the message, press <Esc>. For those
of you who use Pegasus Mail (my NetWare mailer) the editing commands
are identical to the editing commands in Pmail (funny that, it's the
same editor unit...). The following table details the available
editing commands:

  <Left>, <Right>, <Up>, <Down>  Move a character at a time
  <^D>, <^S>, <^E>, <^X>         Move a character at a time
  <^Left>, <^Right>              Move a word at a time
  <^A>, <^F>                     Move a word at a time
  <Home>, <End>                  Start/End of line
  <^Q,S>, <^Q,D>                 Start/End of line
  <PgUp>, <PgDn>                 Move a screen at a time
  <^R>, <^C>                     Move a screen at a time
  <^PgUp>, <^PgDn>               Top/End of message
  <^Q,R>, <^Q,C>                 Top/End of message
  <^Z>, <^W>                     Scroll Up/Down one line.
  <^End>                         Delete to end of line
  <^T>                           Delete word right of cursor
  <^Y>                           Delete line
  <^N>                           Insert blank line at cursor
  <^Q,F>                         Find string,
  <^Q,A>                         Find and Replace string
  <^L>                           Repeat last search
  <^K,B>                         Mark block
  <^K,H>                         Finish marking block
  <^K,C>, <^K,V>                 Copy/cut block to buffer
  <^K,I>                         Insert buffer
  <^K,M>                         Comment block out
  <^K,R>, <^K,W>                 Read/Write block to/from file
  <^Q,M>                         Set right margin for wordwrap
  <^Q,G>                         Goto specific line in message
  <Tab>, <Shift-Tab>             Indent/Outdent marked block
  <^V>, <Alt-D>, <F12>           Form digraph
  <^P>                           Insert next character


About Notice.exe:

Notice.exe is free software. It is written using Turbo-C++ v1.01
(Borland International Inc), and the Novell C Interface Libraries.
Feel free to distribute it, but do not sell it, either on its own,
or as part of any other package.

The author is grateful for any financial support offered by users -
any donation is guaranteed to go towards either hardware or software
for the development of further such programs.

If you have queries or bug reports, please email [e-mail]
via Internet, or dave_h at BIX (Byte Information Exchange). From
CompuServe, I can be mailed as internet:[e-mail].

Send slowmail, donations, razoos, valuable antiques etc. to:

      David Harris,
      P.O. Box 5451,
      Dunedin
      New Zealand.

The postal address is guaranteed to be good until the beginning of
1993, the email addresses likely also.

- David Harris -
 July 28th 1991