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Text File | 1996-03-10 | 15.9 KB | 352 lines

-= R A T S =- RemoteAccess TimeBank System Version 3.00 Copyright 1995 - 1996 SoftNet All Rights Reserved Co-Owners' of SoftNet David Smart Peter Kling Space Station Info System Technology, Inc. FidoNet: 1:324/285 1:374/169 Phone BBS/FAX: 1-508-454-0356 1-407-729-9166 ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ LICENSING INFORMATION ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ This is a licence agreement between you, the end user, and SoftNet RATS, including any Screen, Executable, documentation, etc are the property of SoftNet. Please read the terms and conditions of this licence agreement carefully before using the software. If you for any reason, whatsoever, cannot accept the conditions in this agreement, you are not permitted to use RATS. You acknowledge and agree that RATS is a proprietary product of SoftNet protected by applicable copyright laws and international treaty provisions. You further acknowledge and agree that all rights, title, and interest in, and to RATS are and shall remain with SoftNet RATS may be used for a period of thirty (30) days on a trial basis to allow you to determine its suitability for your particular application. After this period you MUST register RATS, or remove it from your system. Registration entitles you to use RATS and any future versions of RATS for as long as you wish, subject to any special licensing conditions and/or applicable upgrade fees attached to future versions. In the event that you are in violation of this licence agreement, you agree and accept that SoftNet may cancel your registration and any rights to use RATS that you may have. In the case of a dispute over the licence agreement, you further agree and accept to fully reimburse SoftNet for legal and other expenses resulting from the dispute. RATS is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, or fitness for a particular purpose, either expressed or implied, all of are hereby explicitly disclaimed. SoftNet only guarantees that RATS will occupy disk space. SoftNet liability resulting from your use or inability to use RATS is limited to the amount that the affected party has paid for it, or in the event that RATS was registered with a third party for payment to SoftNet, liability is limited to the amount that was received by SoftNet from that third party. Neither SoftNet nor any of its employees, agents, or other representatives are in any way obligated to provide future versions of, or support for, RATS. You may freely distribute and copy RATS provided that no fee is charged and the RATS distribution archive contains unmodified copies of the original files as produced by SoftNet Pay Bulletin Board Systems may, however, charge their normal fee provided that no additional charge for RATS is levied No part of RATS may be modified, altered, reverse engineered, sold, or distributed in any form what so ever which would involve some sort of trade without prior written permission from SoftNet ╒════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ INTRODUCTION ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ The RemoteAccess TimeBank System (henceforth known as RATS) is a user time- banking system for RemoteAccess and QuickBBS. It has many features for the user and Sysop alike and allows users to bank online time and download kilobytes for use at a later date. RATS also supports programs which automatically deposit minutes in user accounts using the THEBANK.EXT external support file (see External Game Support). At the time of this release, RATS works with RemoteAccess versions 1.00 through 2.50 and QuickBBS 2.75 through 2.80. RATS will automatically detect and support the format of these packages' EXITINFO.BBS files. If RATS finds a QBBS exitinfo, it refers to itself as RATS - The QuickBBS TimeBank System RATS has a separate maintenance program called RMU (RATS Maintenance Utility) which takes care of the RATS data file RATS.DAT. It performs tasks ranging from deleting zero-balance accounts and users who are no longer in the USERS.BBS file to sorting accounts in last name order. RATS provides hot-key support. If the user is familiar with the commands, the current screen output can be interrupted when a command key is pressed. This can really speed things along! RATS has a graphic transaction screen and uses Sysop-definable colors for most fields and prompts. RATS recognizes the Sysop when he/she logs in and affords the <S>ysop Admin. command which basically allows the Sysop to make balance changes or delete certain user accounts. RATS assumes that the user is the Sysop if the current user name is equal to that of the Sysop name as defined by your BBS. RATS also supports allowing another user access to the Sysop menu. This is for a co-sysop etc. RATS allows the Sysop to define values for maximum time deposit, withdrawal, and balance, as well as maximum kilobyte deposit, withdrawal, and balance. You can also set the maximum time transfer and maximum purchaseable kilobytes as well as default prompt foreground, prompt background, and prompt highlight colors to be used. You may also allow your users to borrow time or K-Bytes from the bank. You may specify a one time interest charge. RATS will support Multi-Line Systems. You can have more than one user in the bank at the same time. You MUST be running SHARE.EXE for multi-node support. Full RECORD LOCKING is supported, and support is included to handle up to 99 nodes. ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ INSTALLATION ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ VERY IMPORTANT!!! If you are running a version of RATS prior to 1.20 then you will be required to completely re-install this new version. Version 1.50 IS compatable with 1.21 and 1.20 data files although you will be required to go through RatsCfg and add in the new information required for this version. *** If You are Installing RATS For The FIRST Time *** Unpack the distribution archive into the directory you'll run RATS in. RATS can be run in any subdirectory as long as paths are setup properly in RATSCFG.EXE. We recommend creating a RATS subdirectory off your main BBS directory. Run the RATSCFG.EXE program to create/edit the RATS configuration file. PLEASE READ RATSCFG.DOC for information on configuring RATS. Now you will need to create the batch files needed to run RATS. This is straight forward, and beyond the scope of this document. A sample RATS.BAT is included with the distribution archive. That's all there is to it! RATS is easy to install and to use. ╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ RATS accepts the following command line parameters: /E - This tells RATS not to read any upcoming system event information. Some systems do not define any events within the BBS and RATS doesn't like finding no events. If you don't have any events defined within your BBS, pass this parameter to RATS. I would recommend having at least one event defined within your BBS as RATS thinks this is an ideal configuration and loves the heck out of it! <grin> IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT EVENTS: If you have ANY system events that require a user to be off at a specific time, you MUST have these events defined in your BBS event schedule or RATS will allow users to withdraw time that would overlap the system event time. If you just plain don't have any system events, then you should use the /E command line parameter when executing RATS (as above). /I - Causes RATS to perform an 'Inquire'. DORINFO1.DEF will be opened and the current online user's name retrieved from it. Next, RATS will search it's data file for this user and return the user's name and current account balance in the format: USER_NAME:Time_Balance USER_NAME:K_Balance Where USER_NAME is the user's full name (just as it is in DORINFO1.DEF for that matter - no underscores) and BALANCE is the user's current balance. If the user does not have an account, a balance of 0 will be returned. This information is then written to a file called RATS.TYM which is a standard ASCII text file. RATS will overwrite any existing RATS.TYM file. This file will be written in the same directory that contains RATS.EXE. Line one contains the users banked time, and line 2 is the users banked K-Bytes. This feature was added to support door programs which need to read a user's current balance. If you pass the /I parameter to RATS, the specified task will be performed and then RATS will exit to DOS. RATS will NOT come up for online use when this parameter is passed to it since its sole purpose is to allow other door programs to retrieve the current user's account balance. /NOLIST Passing this on the command line will disable the users from listing other users balances. You will still be able to list them from the sysop menu. /N This is used to pass the Node Number in a multi-node system. If you are running a single node system, ignore this. Otherwise you pass /N1 for node 1, /N2 for node 2 etc... You will be required to create a seperate configuration file for each node. See notes in RATSCFG.DOC For normal single line operation, RATS doesn't need any command line parameters passed to it. ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ EXTERNAL FILES SUPPORTED ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ RATSUSE.TXT - Minimum Usage File ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you configure RATS to require a user to use the BBS for a given amount of time before being able to make a deposit (of time or kilobytes) and a user attempts to make a deposit before using the BBS for the minimum required time, RATS will display a text file called RATSUSE.TXT, if it exits. If it does not exist, a short message will be displayed. This was added to support those Sysops who do not wish to have users logon only to deposit all of their time and then logoff. If you set the minimum usage time in RATSCFG to 5 minutes, for example, and a user logs on and attempts to make a deposit before using the BBS for 5 minutes, the file RATSUSE.TXT is displayed. Once the user has used the BBS for 5 minutes or more, the user is then allowed to make a deposit. RATS.BUM & RATSBUM.TXT -- Bummer List ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- RATS supports a 'bummer list' which is an ASCII text file list of user names that you do not want to have access to RATS. This text file must have no blank lines. Each line contains one full user name. The user name can be in upper or lower case. RATS will convert the names to upper case when it reads them. The name of the text file is RATS.BUM. If RATS finds this file upon startup, it will process it. If a user who is on the bummer list tries to fire up RATS, RATS will look for a file called RATSBUM.TXT. If found, this file will be displayed. Otherwise, a default, one-line message will be displayed. ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ EXTERNAL GAMES SUPPORT ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ RATS is compatible with programs which utilize an external, automatic time-banking file (THEBANK.EXT) in that RATS will read this file and apply deposits and/or withdrawals automatically, to user accounts. This means that RATS allows other door programs to automatically deposit or withdraw time OR K-Bytes from user accounts. This can be quite handy, especially for door programs that offer gambling or other time or k-byte manipulation features. So how does this work? In RATSCFG, you entered a path to the external time bank support file THEBANK.EXT. Whenever RATS is started, it looks for this file in the path you have set up. If found, RATS performs the following tasks: o - Reads a line from THEBANK.EXT and retrieves the user name for the transaction and the amount of the transaction. o - Searches the RATS data file for this user. If the user does not have an account, one is created. o - Applies the amount to be transacted. This amount may be a positive or a negative number. If the number is negative, then the amount is withdrawn from the user's account. If the number is positive, the amount is deposited. So, what's the format of this external support file? THEBANK.EXT is simply an ASCII text file consisting of no blank lines. Each line must contain a transaction. Here's a sample THEBANK.EXT file; we will be depositing 30 minutes in Jane Doe's account and withdrawing 30 minutes from John Doe's account: <top of file> JANE DOE:30 JOHN DOE:-30 <end of file> To Deposit or withdraw K-Bytes you simply put a K or k on front of the number. JANE DOE:K30 JOHN DOE:k-30 There is no limit to the number of transactions in THEBANK.EXT. However, the more there are to process the longer it will take RATS to load since RATS looks for and processes this file each time it is loaded. Once the file has been processed, it is removed. RATSMIN.TXT - Minimum Security to Access RATS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- If a user fires up RATS and has a security level less than the Minimum Security value defined in RATSCFG, the text file RATSMIN.TXT is displayed, if it exists in the directory containing RATS.EXE. If this file does not exist, a one-line message will be displayed. The user is then returned to the BBS. This is useful for Sysops who would like to tell users how to get access to RATS if their security level is not high enough. The Sysop can then set the security level on the menu entry that calls RATS to a lower level than what is actually required to have access to it. ╒═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕ │░░░░░░ SUPPORT ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░│ ╘═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛ All support will be handled through the SoftNet support, Please See SUPPORT.DOC for the closest Support system to you. If you have any helpful comments, suggestions or bug reports, please feel free to contact us. We also have available, a SoftNet / Info System Technology, Inc. support echo, which is carried on the Fido BackBone. Tag Name is MCSOFT or SOFTNET If you use RATS for 60 days, you are required to register it or remove it from your system. Please support us, so we may continue to support you....