*** In order to qualify for support and updates you must send your registration fee of $35 to *Todd Nix* at the address below ***
Thank you for purchasing BetaBoard! I hope you and your users will enjoy the system and that you will check in with me regularly to find out about updates or make suggestions for the next version. I will try to cover all you need to know to start up your system and personalize it for your own needs, and then introduce you to the operation of the system.
Please remember that you did not buy this program from a company like Microsoft but instead purchased it directly from an individual who is offering you complete support and free updates. After much consideration I have decided to release this under the honorware program. If you use this program please send in the registration fee of $35. Only then will you be entitled to any sort of support or free updates. I believe that BetaBoard offers many more features from the sysop's and from the user's points of view, and most of all, you can get into the code and change it. Since BetaBoard is copyrighted you are forbidden from selling the program or any modified version of the program. Please help me out by sending in your registration fee and any comments or suggestions you might have regarding the program. If there is something you would like to see added let me know and I'll see how I can accomodate you.
Additional information about or copies of BetaBoard can be acquired by calling Mr. Quigman's at 713-863-1683. Other questions and registration fees should be made payable and sent to:
Todd Nix
2301 10th #5
Lubbock, Texas 79401
On to the documentation and thank you again!
*** Print these instructions out and study them before you start!!! ***
Part 0: Overview of BetaBoard
The latest version of BetaBoard offers many more features than earlier versions as well as offering more features than any other Mac BBS program currently available. One of the nicest of these features is the full word wrap offered in all the editors. This allows a message to be written off line and then sent straight to the board, unformated. The BBS will format the file to 80 columns while keeping words in tact. The same holds whenever a user is just typing a message in from the keyboard. He need not hit return at the end of the line, the program will do it for him. Another feature will prevent the board from ever crashing with memory errors. After each user logs off the program checks the available free memory and if it is below 5K the program will reset itself and recover the same amount of free memory as was available when first turned on. This will allow you to keep the board running on a permanent to semi-permanent basis without fear of out-of-memory errors. The system also has the option to set a time each day for the program to turn itself on and off. This is useful for those of you who do not plan to run a 24 HR BBS. The program will also allow full remote sysop capabilities. This takes a little preperation but it is possible and very handy. See the Remote Sysop section of the instructions. the program will also support hard disks and multiple volumes as well as RamDisks. I strongly urge you to get a copy of the Mac Memory Disk by Assimilation Process if you are going to run this program on a 512K Mac as it improves program performance astoundingly.
Part 1: Organizing Disks and Directories
You need Microsoft Basic 2.0 to run this program. Put the Binary version on the same disk as your program and system files. You need to decide the names of the disks that you are going to use for your board. The program files: Run, Main, Board, and Transfer should be on the same disk as System, Finder, and Basic. These may also be placed in a RAMDisk if you have a 512K Mac. All the other text and directory files will go on one disk, the Program Disk. This disk is the name which you must place in the quotes after PD$ at the end of the Main program listing. This disk is where the program will look for welcome messages and directories, etc. Also you will need to pick a disk for E-mail files. The name of this disk goes in the quotes after ED$ at the end of the Main program listing. Both PD$ and ED$ also need to be set at the beginning of the Sysop Utility listing so that the utility will know where to look for the Userlist files. The other disks (supposing we are ever allowed more then 2 plus a RAMDisk) should be allotted according to where you want to put the various messages and files. I suggest on a 128K Mac that you make the program disk the same as the disk where you put the sytem files and then use the second drive for storage. You now need to decide on you access structure. You can have 9 access levels with the sysop being level 9 and newusers being level 1. You are allowed 20 message directories and 20 file directories. Each directory can be limited to access level below or equal to a level (<), only equal to a level (=), or higher then or equal to a level (>). You are limited at this time to 150 files per directory. Your Mac will probably only allow about 90-120 files per volume anyway so the program will probably not be the limiting factor. Each directory will also have a disk for files associated with it. Each directory can have it's own disk or several of them can share the same one. The disk for files can even be the same as the program disk but you need to know what is what. When you have decided how many directories you will have, their access levels, checktypes (<, =, >), and disks for files you are ready to run the startup utility.
Part 2: The StartUp Utility
This utility is simple enough to use but very important. It sets up all your directories and data files and puts in your sysop name and password. Just run it and answer with your name and password at the prompts, then fill in the information about the directories for you message and transfer sections. Remember that you can have 9 access levels, checktypes are either < for less then or equal to, = for equal to, > for greater then or equal to. After it is finished you should quit to the finder and put all the directories and textfiles on your program disk. You should also go ahead and name your disks for files.
Part 3: Personalizing "Main"
At the very end of the main program listing you will find some string variables declared. These are for customizing the operation of your board.
MI$- This is the string that the program sends out to the modem to tell it to start answering calls. If you have a 300 baud modem you should remove the X1.
*** Make sure you can alter the S registers on your modem, see your modem's manual to be sure. If not you will have to remove the S commands that do not apply to your modem. ***
LI$- This is the string that the program sends out to the modem so that it does not echo back everything when you are running in local mode.
EC$- This is the escape code for your modem. I use a control character because it is more secure and invisible to the user. If you can not change the escape code on your modem then replace CHR$(27) with "+". See your modem's manual to find out if this is possible to change. *** Many people ask me about this so be sure and read the manual for your modem, that is what it is for.***
ED$- This is the disk where all the E-Mail messages will be stored
PD$- This is the disk where all the program directories and welcome messages and userlists, etc. are stored.
PF$- See Part 15: Printer Log
BR, BP, XU, XD - See Part 16: Minimum Access Levels.
TH, TM, QH, QM - See Part 17: Running The Board
Part 4: More of Personalizing "MAIN"
If you have a 300 baud modem then you will have to change the 1200 in the open statement near the beginning of the program to a 300. Look for the REM statement and it will show you where this is located. The Welcome Mat and Goodbye messages need to be personalized for your system but you may or may not want to personalize the main menu, these are all located near the end of the Main listing. I suggest copying the section you want to edit and paste it into some word processing program using Monaco 9 so that you can see what it will look like online, then pasting the edited text back into the program listing.
Part 5: Menu Editor
When this is ready it will enable you to change the structure of you menus but right now you will have to run the startup utility again and then copy the contents of the old directories into the new ones, and move the new ones onto the program disk, along with the two files: Board.Menu and Transfer.Menu. For now I will explain the structure of the menus. Board.Menu and Transfer.Menu are "directories of directories", they list the access levels and disks for the various directories for the message base and fiel tranfers section. Each individual directory holds the actual titles of the files which are stored on the disks. The structure of these directories can be found elsewhere in this documentation.
Part 6: Text Files
The text files are created with the Sysop's utility but they need to be filled up. The various files can be edited most easily in MockWrite since they will appear as they will online. You can also edit them in Word or MacWrite but change to Monaco 9 first. Welcome.txt is the daily bulletin presented after logging on. About.txt presents technical info about your system. Other.txt is for listing other BBS numbers. NewUser.txt is a briefing for new users who are applying for a password and ID#. Intro.txt is an instruction file for first time users. Transfer.txt is an instruction file for downloading programs from the BBS.
Part 7: Modem Settings
The BetaBoard program was written to run on a Prometheus Promodem but it will run perfectly well with any Hayes-compatible modem including the Apple, Hayes, Anchor, Novation, etc. The modem initializing strings are found at the beginning of the RUN file. For a 300 baud modem use "AT E0 Q0 V1 M0 S0=1 S2=27". For a 1200 baud modem add "X1" to the end so that the program will know whether there is a 300 or 1200 baud connection. The program will also recognize the response "CONNECT 2400" and switch to 2400 baud. The sysop modem string tells the modem not to answer the phone or echo commands or result codes until told otherwise. This is so the modem can be left on while running the program locally. It is very important that you check your modem manual to make sure that S register 2 can be set to 27. This is the code used as the escape code for hanging up. If you can not set this code then you must use another. The S12 register is the wait time for the escape code. The smaller it is then the faster the modem can hangup.
Part 8: Time Outs and Hang Ups
The user has three minutes to respond to a prompt. If he does not respond in this time the program will log him off automatically. This is a check against people who hang up without logging off. the program also checks for a "NO CARRIER" response from the modem but sometimes it slips by. Time limits for users are included in their userlist record and can be changed while in chat or with the sysop utility.
Part 9: Chat Mode
When a user attempts to chat a series of bells will sound. On the screen you will see (invisible to the caller) the users name. To enter chat mode simply select "Chat" from the BetaBoard menu. The program will type "Hello" to the user to initiate conversation. If you want to edit the users time limit, access level, name or any other statistics then select "Edit Status" from the menu bar. Then you will be offered the option to change any of these options or quit. All changes will be saved to the UserList permanently. To change time left (only for the current call) simply type in the number of minutes to add. If you want to subtract time then put a minus sign in front of the number. Notice this time left is for the current call and differs from the permanent time limit. To end chat mode select "Chat" from the menu bar again. It is possible to enter chat from anywhere in the program by simply selcting chat from the menu. The same applies to Edit and Disconnect (forced log off).
Part 10: Sysop's Utility
Basically very simple but very handy. Be sure and set ED$ and PD$ to the same values as at the end of the "Main" program listing. The top window shows the stats for the current user (this is an off-line utility). The right window shows any part of the member list you might want to display. ^S to pause and ^Q to resume as in normal Basic. The bottom window is where you enter the commands. Each user's new stats are saved immediately after changing them so don't worry about finding the save key or whatever. The utility is pretty self-explanatory but the deletion needs explaining. When giving out a new ID the program looks for the first available ID# by checking for an empty password. To delete a person just set their password to nothing. That is basically what the deletion does but you can do it in the edit portion by hitting <CR> when asked for a new password. A new feature of the sysop utility is the ability to delete users who have not called since a certain date. Hit K at the main prompt and then give the program the date which you want to set as the cut-off. All users who have not called since that time will be deleted and replaced with new users. There is also an option to print a current user list on to the printer.
Part 11: Time Limits and Calls per Day
The new revision 2.0 adds the option to set the time limit and calls per day of users. the default is 3 calls per day and a time limit of 30 minutes. If you want to change the defaults of either of these you can edit the "Run" file at flag 1017. Find where it says LSET TL1$=STR$(30). Change the 30 to the default time limit for new users. Find LSET CD1$=STR$(3). Change the three to the default number of calls per day you want new users to have. If you want to change a user's calls per day or time limit in the future you can do it with the Sysop's Utility. The calls per day can be from 0-99 and the time limit can be from 0-999 minutes. ( If you have an earlier revision of BetaBoard then use Convert 2.0 to convert your old Userlist to the new format. It will give all users a time limit of 30 minutes and 3 calls per day unless you change the listing in the same way as you change the time limit and calls per day in the RUN listing.)
Part 12: Daily Maintenance
You can pretty much turn the board on and leave it running but you will need to do some maintenance once in a while depending on the number of users your system has. General maintenance will include checking new messages to be sure messages have been posted on the right boards and that nothing objectionable has been posted. You should read your feedback to see if their are any pertinent messages. When you get around 100-150 users you will probably want to go through with the sysop's utility and delete those users who have not logged on in a month. You might also want to periodically raise the access level of users who post often. The welcome message need not be changed everyday but it ought to be slightly current. Beyond these be sure to back up you disks DAILY! This will prevent any loss of programs or data. I lost a whole series of new messages by neglecting to back up the disks one day so be warned. (MacTools will recover deleted files and recover crashed disks along with most if not all of the files.)
Part 13: Ram Disks
It is possible to gain a great increase in speed by loading System,
Finder, Basic, Run, Main, Board, and Transfer onto a RAMDisk. The program directories etc. should be left on the program disk so that there is no chance of loss due to power foul-ups but just keeping the program files in RAM speeds things up considerably.
Part 14: Remote Sysop
There are four commands at the main menu prompt which are only displayed to users with access level 9 (sysop). These command are RU, EU, RF, EF which stand for Read/Erase Userlog and Read/Erase Feedback. This allows the sysop to call in frow a remote location and read all feedback as well as check the userlog and then erase these files if desired to save space on the disk. Full remote sysop capibilities are available if you want to mess around with the system a bit. You will need to set up a directory in the download section which lists the names of the program files (Welcome.txt, etc.), see the file structure section to learn how to do this. This directory's disk for files must also be the same as the program file disk. Now, since the sysop can delete download files if desired the sysop can write a new welcome message or whatever, delete the old welcome message and upload the new message using xmodem. The sysop can also validate users from remote using the same technique. download the userlist, delete the userlist from the board, edit the userlist using the sysop utility, and then upload the new userlist. The sysop can also of course delete and message from the bulletin boards or any file from the transfer section.
Part 15: Printer Log
An optional but very handy feature of version 2.1 and later is a printer log which will keep an excellent record of all the activity on your board. To activate this set PF$="Y" at the end of "Main". If you don't want this log running all the time then set PF$="N". This log will show the caller's name, phone, access, etc. as in the "Current User" window plus the time the person logged on, the titles of the files he uploaded and downloaded, and the messages he posted along with any feedback and the time he logged off or timed out. This feature does use alot of paper so decide for yourself if you want it. Also the disk file userlog and feedback are still active and still keep a record of the calls at the same time as the printer log. However you don't have to interrupt the operation of the bbs to check the printer log.
Part 16: Minimum Access Levels
Another set of variables to set at the begining of the run listing allow you to limit the things a user can do on his first call to the board. You can set these variables to the minimum access needed to access these functions:
BP: Minimum level needed to post
BR: Minimum level needed to read/scan/new scan messages
XD: Minimum level needed to download a file
XU: Minimum level needed to upload a file
If you want to prevent any level from using any of these functions then set the minimum level to one level above that level. (EX: First time callers cannot download so set XD=2)
Part 17: Running the board
To run the board double-click on the file Main. Then when prompted tell the program whether you want to go on locally or immediately. To turn off the board hit (CMND-.). Another feature is the ability to go into local or automatic mode at anytime by selecting "Go On Local" from the BetaBoard menu bar when the program is waiting for a caller. Automatic on and off is set permanently in the Main file by changing the values of TH, TM, QH, and QM. TH is the value of the hour that you want the board to turn on in military (24 hour) time and TM is the minute value. QH and QM are the hour and minute values for turning the board off. These variables have been put in the run file so that they will be kept when the board resets itself. To disable the automatic on and off set the value of QH and TH to any number above 24.
Part 18: For Apple Modem Owners!!!
The following changes should be made to the BetaBoard program in order for the Apple modem to work correctly.
In the Main file:
MI$="AT E0 Q0 V1 M0 S0=1 X1"
EC$="+"
These modifications will fix the problems cused by the non-standard hang up procedure used by the Apple modem.
Part 19: File Structures
If you want to add a file to the disk for downloading without transfering it throught he program you can simply copy it to the appropriate disk and add the program to the proper directory. For downloads the directory format is:
Title%ID# 40 character description of file
The "%" character is made by hitting option-8.
The structure for message directories is:
Title%MM-DD-YYYY%HH:MM:SS
Where M=month, D=Day, Y=Year, H=Hour, M=Minute, S=Seconds.
The first line of a message contains the ID# of the user who posted the message and is not transmitted over the line.
The structure for the Email list is:
Address ID#%Title
Where the address ID# is the ID# of the receiver.
The format of the ".MENU" files is
1 digit for the access level
1 digit for the checktype (<, > or =)
15 digits for the directory title (padded to the left with spaces)
15 digits for the name of the disk for files (padded to the left with spaces)
To pad to the left means to add enough spaces on the left side of the name so that there is a total of 15 characters (Ex: "----------title") where "-" stands for a space
Part 20: Extra Menu Items and Text Files
If you would like to add another menu item and associated text file such as the instructions or about.txt, etc. You can do this fairly easily. First you need to look at line 900 and see how it is done. Place the file on the program disk. Then copy and paste line 900, change the 900 to another number that has not been previously used (907 or something), change ":intro.txt" to ": followed by the name of your file and then " -> ":FILENAME". Now you need to add a menu item at line 10. Copy the check with the letter "I" and paste it then change the prompt letter (the command) and make sure it is uppercase. Also change the gosub number to the line number which calls your new text file. The last thing to do is list the command letter and the name of the command in the Main Menu at the beggining of the program listing. Now test it to make sure it works. If not check to make sure the file is named correctly, check the colon before the file name near line 900, check to make sure the file is on the right disk, check to make sure the command check is capital and is the right letter.
Part 21: CLEAR
The CLEAR statement is found at the beginning of the "RUN" file. It is set for ,22000,1024 but the 22000 should be increased if you have large directories. It can be as large as 27000. If you have a 512K Mac you can remove the Clear statement.
If you have any other questions or think of something that needs to be covered in the docs give me a call and I'll get right to typing it up for you. Be sure and send in your registration fee of $35 so that you will be entitled to the free updates and support.
