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Text File | 1995-12-25 | 26.6 KB | 684 lines

FdMsg (c) by Bob Westcott 1:147/48 Make sure you run CLIST before you run this program. See CLIST.DOC file for instructions. E-Z setup and run: This set of instructions may seem log and hard to understand, BUT all you really need to make this program work is: 1. If using Echomail make an entry in your tosser for node 9999 in your net so that it can send messages to you. 2. Make a sub-directory for FdMsg (not needed but easier for you). 3. Place FdMsg, & FdCfg in the sub-directory (do not run yet). 4. Place Clist in the sub-directory that your nodelist is in. 5. Run Clist. 6. Run FdCfg to make a configuration file (Read FdCfg Doc). 7. Run FdMsg: ie 'FDMSG AUTO' if not registered. FDMSG AUTO <Zone:Net/Node> ie 'FDMSG AUTO 1:147/48' if Registered. The 1st time you run FdMsg you will be asked questions about where some files are located etc. 8. Program should run creating NetMail or EchoMail. If you want to send the same NetMail to more than one node. Read the long docs. If you have problems with errors when using Echomail, read the docs about security... Also there is a ZIP file called TESTECHO.ZIP that will help you set up a test echo message to me if you want. LONG expanded setup (if you have problem or just want to know) What is FdMsg: FdMsg is a program that will allow you to send messages via your Mailer (FrontDoor & InterMail) in just about any time frame you wish. It allows you to have over 1000 configurations for sending netmail and Echomail message at any time frame. Why use FdMsg: Because it can be a lot more versatile then the events area of your mailer. You can send to your complete Hub with a few line configuration file. SECURITY: VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE GOING TO SEND ECHOMAIL!!!! I bring this up first because it seems that every time a new mailer comes out it increases security to prevent bogus mail from being accepted. This is not bad, but very good for us sysops. What this does is make it harder for 3rd part programmers to code software to work with mailers. Why security is a problem is because this program does NOT place echos into your message base. What it does do is place message packets in your inbound secure area. It is done this way to cover many BBS's and Mailers. Since there is a FidoNet standard for sending Packets from one mailer to another it makes it very easy to cover most mailers. So if your tosser works now it should work with this program. I am going to show some security examples using Gecho as it know best by me. 1. Gecho will NOT accept message packets from your address. CURE: Using FdCfg will automatically make the packet look like it is coming from node 9999 in your Zone:Net This address was taken because most Nets do not use that node number. Example: Your address is 1:147/48 then the packet will look like it is coming from 1:147/9999. If do not what this address than use FdCfg to change it. Remember this From address must have the same Zone:Net as the To address. It must also be know to your tosser as a node that can send messages.... 2. Gecho wants the packet to go to one of your address listed in Gecho and must have the same Zone:Net information as the sending address. CURE: Using FdCfg will force your address to be what it is in your Registration Key or FDMSG.FIL. Do not worry as this will NOT effect the Zone your echos will be going to it will only be used for security. Gecho determines Address that the echos will be sent to. 3. Gecho has security built into each echo area and it checks to see if the echos are coming from a connected address. CURE: There are 2 ways to cure this. First (and the best) is to make the sending node (1:147/9999 in my case) connected to ALL echos but set that node up so that it does NOT SEND echos to it. This is the best because security is the highest. Second way is to set Security to NO for the echos you you will be using this program for. Now this is not completely bad if you use a secure inbound directory as this will only allow password sessions to place mail in that directory. Just not as secure. 4. Squish wants all message coming in to have a SEEN-BY & Path: line on all messages with information filled in by sender. Programs like WildMail and Gecho do not required this information. CURE: The 1st time FdMsg is run one of the questions will be "Are you running something OTHER THAN Gecho or WildMail" answer this 'Y' if you run Squish. You answer 'N' if you are running Gecho or WildMail. If you not not running any of the above try 'N' 1st and if your tosser gives a error stating BAD-MSG then use an ASCII text editor and change the file FDMSG.FIL and put in 'Yes'. How does FdMsg work: FdMsg takes a configuration file you set up and waits for the time (day, date, month, time, etc.) you have selected, then automatically formats a outbound netmail/Echomail message for all the configurations you requested. How does FdMsg work sending echos: It works just like it does when sending NetMail. It uses a configuration file to determine when to send the echo. It then creates a packet type message and places it in your secure inbound directory (as per your FDMSG.FIL). Then your tosser takes the packet and processes it and forwards the echo to the required address. What is required to run FdMsg: The requirements are the same as for Frontdoor/InterMail. CLIST.EXE must be run before this program will work. How do I setup the configuration file: You can setup configuration files manually or use the program FdCfg. FdCfg makes it a lot easier, but isn't always 100% foolproof. So use the following instructions if you have problems with a file made by FdCfg. A file comes with the program called TEMPLATE.CFG. This file is a configuration file with information on how to setup your configuration file. It can be copied to make a usable file if you do not use FdCfg. First is naming the configuration file it must begin with 'FDMSG'. The last three characters can be any legal file naming ones you wish and the extension must be '.CFG'. When naming this file it is best to make the 3 available characters something that will help identify this file. For instance if you were going to poll Bob Westcott on a monthly basis, you could use the characters PB for 'Poll Bob' thus the file name you could use would be 'FDMSGPB.CFG' or you could use PBW meaning 'Poll Bob Westcott' and have a file name of FDMSGPBW.CFG. You may using any combination you like using 1, 2, or all three characters available to you. ';' and spaces in the 1st column are ignored in the configuration file and are considered comment lines. Next are the Keywords that are used in the configuration file and they are described as follows: Note all keywords must end with a ':'!!! Case of keywords is not important. The program will handle case. In these instructions I will use uppercase to make reading easier. TYPE: This keyword determines if this message is NetMail or EchoMail. Default is NetMail The parameters are Echo Net WHEN: This keyword determines how often this messages is to be sent. The legal setting are 'for now': D - Daily W - Weekly M - Monthly Q - Quarterly, starting this month then every 3 months S - Semi-Annual, starting this month then every 6 months A - Annual, starting this month then every 12 months. 1 - Quarterly, every Mar, Jun, Sep, and Dec. 2 - Semi-Annual, every Jun and Dec. 3 - Annual, every Dec. 4 - Every odd month. 5 - Every even month. 6 - 1st and 3rd week of each month 7 - 2nd and 4th week of each month 8 - Any date, but only ONE time. YEAR: This keyword is used only in messages when 'When:' is set to 8. It MUST be the complete 4 digits ie. 1995. Default is the current year. MONTH: This keyword is used only in messages when 'When:' is set to 8. You use then numbers 1 to 12. Default is current month. DATE: The input for this keyword is the numbers 1 to 31. It is best for months not 31 days long not to use 31. ;-) If you do use a date that is more than is in that month it will automatically change to the last date in that month. Default is current date. DAY: This is used when a day-of-the-week is required. The acceptable inputs are: SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT Default is SUN. TIME: This is the time of day you wish the message to go out. Use a 24 hour clock for the time!! ie. 1715 will equal 5:15pm. The message will go out the NEXT time FdMsg is called after 5:15pm. Default is 0001. SUBJECT: See below Message subject. Filename including path if needed, when sending files If EchoMail then: Can only be text. Limited to 72 charactors. EchoMail does not allow files to be attach at this time. ADDRESS: Where to send to. Format is zone:net/node.p Zone is only required if different than your address. Point is only required if the receiver is a point. @filename You can state a filename (with a @ in front of it) to send to more than one address. One address per line in the file. To send to complete net place an "*" in place of node. To send to the complete hub of 147 you would put: 1:147/* Exceptions are allow see elsewhere in this doc. IF ECHOMAIL than: Can only be a Zone:Net/Node as the echomail is only going to you. This address MUST be one of YOUR ADDRESSES that is KNOWN by your tosser. TEXT: ASCII file which contains the text information for the message. Path information IS required if text file is not in the same dir/subdirectory as the FDMSG.EXE program. '@' is required in front of path/file information. If you wish a single line Text then just enter text to send without a '@' in front of it. If there is no text this message will be considered a Poll message and so state in the subject. FLAGS: Message status flags c = Crash h = Hold p = Private d = Direct k = Kill f = Send file r = File request u = Update Request e = Receipt request IF ECHOMAIL than FdMsg set NO flags. At this time I believe no flags are used in Echomail (except for internal to the tosser). NAMETO: Name of the person to whom this messages is going. Default is Sysop. If you say "yes" to nodelist or send to more than one address the name in the nodelist will be used. NAMEFROM: Name of the person who is sending the message. If you are sending a message to yourself (as a reminder) of something the "From" will be "FdMsg [with version number or Demo]". Otherwise the default is Owners name (you..). ALIAS: This allows you to enter a alias name that will over ride the name entered in the FDMSG.FIL for this one configuration. Alias should ONLY BE USED in echos that allow a Alias!!! FROM: This will show the address this message is from. To be used ONLY when dealing with a another Net other than your normal FidoNet address. IF ECHOMAIL than: Must be the same Zone:Net as the Address. This is required by security of most tossers, not a requirement of FdMsg. LOG: How to keep the log. (Log file name is FdMsg.LOG) Default is no log for this configuration. Yes = Complete log. every time you call FdMsg a log entry will be made. Could get big VERY fast. Yes1 = Only make a log entry when a message is created. You must use Yes or Yes1 to get errors place in log. REMEMBER that this keyword is for this configuration file only. In other words if you have more than one configuration the log could be kept differently for each configuration. FORCE: This will force this configuration Each time this configuration is called it will cause a message to be put out. Very Good way to debug a configuration. The folloing are used by EchoMail ONLY! PASSREQ: Set to "Yes" or "No". This is reference to a Packet password NOT a session Password. PASSWORD: Packet Password not Session password. AREA: Area/Tag name of the Echo that this message is for. ORIGIN: What you would like for the Origin line information it is limited to 55 charactors. Fear not, there are many keywords, BUT only a few are needed for each message. Daily message only needs: WHEN: TIME: SUBJECT: ADDRESS: FLAGS: (if NetMail) TEXT: (If not a poll message) AREA (if Echomail) Any weekly messages only needs: WHEN: TIME: DAY: SUBJECT: ADDRESS: FLAGS: (if NetMail) TEXT: (If not a poll message) AREA: (if echomail) Any monthly messages (this includes quarterly/semi-annual/annual) only needs: WHEN: TIME: DATE: SUBJECT: ADDRESS: FLAGS: (if netmail) TEXT: (If not a poll message) AREA (if echomail) The Anytime message needs the most. WHEN: TIME: DATE: MONTH: YEAR: SUBJECT: ADDRESS: FLAGS: (if netmail) TEXT: (If not a poll message) AREA: (if echomail) Using FdMsg Language: What is FdMsg language, well if you use a file for Text then you can use parameters that will insert information into your text file for you. i.e %ToName% will insert the name of the person to whom this messages is for. Say you are sending to your complete Net and you start off your text file "Hi %ToName%:" and you set the Nodelist to yes. FdMsg will take the name for each node and place it in the message. If the message was to me than %Hi %ToName%:" would be changed to "Hi Bob Westcott:" Parameters: %ToName% Complete Name of person to whom the message is for. %ToFName% First name of person to whom this message is for. %ToLName% Last name of person to whom this message is for. %FromName% Complete Name of person to whom the message is from. %FromFName% First name of person to whom this message is from. %FromLName% Last name of person to whom this message is from. %Month% It will insert 11 for November. %Month1% It will insert Nov for November. %Day% It will insert a 2 digit day, 01 for the first. %Year% It will insert the last 2 digits of the year i.e. 95. %Date% Will insert the date in this format 11/28/95. %Date1% Will insert the date in this format Nov 28, 1995. %Time% Time will be inserted in this format 11:23:58. %Hour% The hour will be inserted using 2 digits 24 hour format. %Minute% The minute will be inserted using 2 digits. %Second% The seconds will be inserted using 2 digits. %FileName% Will insert FileName IF sending a file. %NetNode% When sending NetMail this will insert the "From' address When sending EchoMail it will insert your Registration key or FDSMS.FIL Address %Version% The version number of FdMsg will inserted your message. %File <filename>% This will change the date and time of the file to current date and time. Example if you wish to insert the date using the day/month/year format you could use: %Day%/%Month%/%Year% and you would get 28/11/95. Note: All parameters must have a % both before and after the keyword and no spaces are allowed (except File which must have a space between File & filename). Case is NOT important and can be any mix you wish. --If you need other parameters please send NetMail to me at 1:147/48-- --and if possible the new parameter will be inserted in the next-- --release.-- How do we call FdMsg: Since this software works with more than one mailer I have decided to not use the configuration files of mailers to get needed information. This also makes it much easier to include any new mailers. THEREFORE the 1st time you run FDMSG.EXE you will be asked some questions and a configuration file for FdMsg will be created automatically and it is called FDMSG.FIL. If any of the information needs to be changed you can do it with any ASCII editor or erase the file and run FdMsg and it will be created again. I will assume that you have InterMail in a directory called IM. Also that you have made a subdirectory called MSG under IM that holds the program FdMsg and your configuration files. I will also assume you have 2 configuration files one called FDMSGPB.CFG & the other is called FDMSGWB.CFG. Lets say your batch file that calls InterMail looks like: Start: cd\im im . . . Goto Start You can call FdMsg one of TWO ways. First way would be to change it to: Start: cd\im\msg FdMsg pp FdMsg wb cd\im im . . . Goto Start Second way would be to change it to: Start: cd\im\msg FdMsg auto cd\im im . . . Goto Start Note the difference is in the first parameter. The parameter after the program name is the characters in the configuration filename AFTER FdMsg. In other words if the configuration filename was FDMSGYZ.CFG then in the batch file you would put FDMSG XYZ. OR The parameter after the program name is 'AUTO' and now the program will look for and run ALL configuration files it finds in the same sub-directory as the program. Your call would now be FDMSG AUTO. Exceptions when needed: There could be problems calling all your configuration with auto. I have a configuration file named FDMSGP06.CFG. I only use this configuration file when I want to send a special poll to my echo hub. To correct this problem you make a file called FDMSGNO.FIL and put the configuration file names in it in ASCII. Any file names that are found in the file FDMSGNO.FIL will NOT be processed when using "AUTO". Remember only one file name per line. The other time you could want an exception is when you are sending to a complete Hub/Region and you want to remove a few. Create a file called FDMSGNO.HUB. Place the Zone, Net, Node of every node you do not want to send to. REMEMBER if you send to a complete Hub no message will goto the Host ,node 0, (normally has another node number in the nodelist), any Private node, any Down node, or your own Node. If Registered If you have registered FdMsg you will need a 2nd parameter and this would be your registration key code. The registration key code will be you Zone:Net/Node ie mine is 1:147/48. Example call if registered: FDMSG auto 1:147/48 Lets look at some examples: Say you want to request the new NODEDIFF file from Bob Westcott each week. Set up the configuration as follows: WHEN: W DAY: sat TIME: 1715 ADDRESS: 1:147/48 SUBJECT: NODEDIFF FLAGS: CDRK NODELIST: yes The above configuration states to send a weekly file request (on Saturday) message to Bob Westcott at address 1:147/48 with status flags of Crash, Direct, Kill, File request at or after 5:15pm (save some toll cost here). The subject line states you want the latest version of NODEDIFF (my case this is the magic name). In this case the nodelist will supply my name. If you left the keyword NODELIST: out it would have been sent to Sysop at 1:147/48 or you could have used the keyword NAMETO: Bob Westcott and it would have had my name on the message. You say why not used the Keyword NODELIST: yes _ALL_ the time and the reason is you can, BUT it does slow down the program by a few seconds. Next you want to poll for your mail (on another Net) once a week. WHEN: W DAY: SUN TIME: 0500 NAMETO: Matt Fryett NAMEFROM: Bob Westcott ADDRESS: 1122:1600/0 FROM: 1122:1600/250 FLAGS: PCDK This configuration will send a weekly poll message to 1122:1600/0 each sunday morning the first time FdMsg is called after 5:00am. Note that I must use the FROM: keyword to show my net address. I used the NAMETO: & NAMEFROM: but it was not necessary. The status flags are private, crash, direct, kill. Now lets try to send just a reminder message to ourself about a meeting that is held on the 1st and 3rd tuesday of each month. First we will make an ASCII file (calling it MEET.DOC) with the following in it. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Hello Bob. Tonight is the meeting night for the local users group. Meeting time is 7:30pm. See ya Bob... ---------------------------------------------------------------- Configuration file: WHEN: 6 DAY: TUE TIME: 1500 TYPE: M ADDRESS: 147/48 SUBJECT: Meeting Tonight TEXT: @MEET.DOC FLAGS: P The above configuration file will send a text message the 1st & 3rd tuesday to myself at address 1:147/48 the next time FdMsg is called after 3:00pm. The TEXT: keyword holds the ASCII filename and path. Path is not required if file is in the same directory/subdirectory as the program FdMsg. The status flag is just private. In this example you wish to send to 2 Hubs except for node 3006 in hub 147 and node 88 in Hub 44. We only what to send this at certain time date/times. We will be sending a beta file for testing called FDMSG100.ZIP. This configuration file is known as FDMSGBET.CFG WHEN: d DAY: TUE TIME: 1500 ADDRESS: @C:\im\test\BETASEND.TXT SUBJECT: @c:\tp\fdmsg\make\FDMSG100.ZIP TEXT: @c:\im\msg\BETA.DOC FORCE: FLAGS: PFKD The KEY parameters WHEN: DAY: TIME: will be over ridden by the KEY parameter FORCE: In a file called BETASEND.TXT located in C:\IM\TEST\ we have 1:147/* 44:244/* This will send to All nodes in those Hubs To give us our 2 exceptions we use the file FDMSGNO.HUB: 1:147/3006 44:244/88 Since we don't want these Netmail messages to go out at unknow times and I am assumming the we are using in our Batch file FDMSG AUTO. We must stop this from going out on a regular basis we create/update the file FDMSGNO.FIL to contain: FDMSGBET.CFG As a last example I have inserted a file called FDMSGBOB.XXX. If you change the name of this file to FDMSGBOB.CFG it will send me a test message every 1st & 3rd saturday of each month. The most common errors are: Forgetting the ":" after the keywords. Not spelling the keywords correctly!!! Leaving out a needed keyword. You can not use to many different keywords If you use the same keyword more than once the last one in the configuration file will be used. Not using the @ charactor when using a file. What to do if it doesn't work, try one of the following: Read the instructions again. Send snail mail to me at: Bob Westcott Rt #1 Box 231A Macomb, Ok 74852 Send a netmail message to me at 1:147/48. Send a FAX to me at 1-405-333-2424 Call me voice at 1-405-333-2252. FdMsg creates 2 type of files. The 1st is called FDMSG.FIL and this holds configuration information and is created the first time that FdMsg is run. The 2nd are work files. There will be a work file for each configuration file you have. Example, you have a configuration file called FDMSG12.CFG. The program will create a work file called FDMSG12.WRK. These work files are to inform the program when to send the next netmail messages. If you seem to be having a problem with a certain configuration one thing to try is delete its work file. Not to worry it will create a new on, but it may also send netmail messages!! **Everytime you make a change to one of you configuration files.** *****Delete the .WRK that goes thet that configuration file.****** You can get a copy of FdMsg from: 1:147/48 1:214/22 http://www.valleynet.com/~rquinn/fdmsg/fdmsg130.zip ****************************************************************** I would like to give credit to Steve Rodgers for his help with file indexing as this was the major input that increased the speed of this programs operation. ****************************************************************** Also a large THANK YOU go to the following beta testers (Clap-Clap) Sharon & Daniel Brown, Matt Fryett, Darrell Harder, Randy Henderson Marc Herman, Al Lawrence, Tracy Molitor, David Moufarrege, and Raymond Quinn. Good Luck See ya Bob...