Beijing Paradise BBS Backup

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Beijing Paradise BBS Backup / PARADISE.ISO / software / BBSDOORW / SX54H1.ZIP / XPRIP.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-06-04 | 16.9 KB | 368 lines

------------------------------------------- RIP SUPPORT FOR SILVER XPRESS (c) copyright 1993-94 by Santronics Software All rights reserved ------------------------------------------- DRAFT DOCUMENT 5.03 This document describes the specification for RIP support in Xpress. RIP Xpress Documentation is still evolving. Please feel free to provide comments on how to better describe RIP and its usage with Silver xpress. Silver Xpress supports the new GUI system called Remote Imaging Protocol, otherwise known as RIPScript or just RIP. It was the first major off-line mail door to support RIP. For the most part, Xpress did not require any change for minimal RIP support, but Xpress was enhanced to ensure it was 100% Rippable! As a sysop of Xpress, you have two options for RIP Support: 1) You can use the built-in RIP logic in Xpress, or 2) You can totally customize your own RIP screens or scenes. We made it easy for you, and Xpress is RIP-Ready right out of the BOX!! Simply enable Xpress to use the BUILT-IN RIP options and you are ready to RIP! If you want to use the built-in mode and still paint some of the screens, you can do so! If you want to paint ALL of the screens, you must disable the built-in option. This document will explain the points in the Silver Xpress package where certain files will be displayed. It will help guide your RIP design for Xpress. New command line switches: -------------------------- /R- Disable RIP detection all together (default). /R+ Enable RIP detection. /R Prompt the user for RIP usage (and detection). /RLE Display RIP script at local console. /RMx Menu layout number (enable built-in RIP logic). /RKM Keep menus from clearing. Note: RA 2.00. PROBOARD, PCBOARD, WILDCAT! passe the RIP ON flag in the Door Drop File. No switch required. RIP Detection ------------- Silver Xpress is designed to detect a RIP terminal if RIP detection is enabled in XPADM or if the /R+ or /R is used. If the BBS tells Xpress RIP is enabled, Xpress will try to detect RIP. If the environment string RIP=ON is available, Xpress will try to detect RIP. If the user has set his "NO RIP GRAPHICS" to YES, Xpress will not bother at all with RIP and RIP detection. New menu commands (macros) for users to use while in Xpress. ------------------------------------------------------------ \RIPON disable RIP \RIPOFF enable RIP General discussion about using Xpress in RIP Mode ------------------------------------------------- If you don't understand what RIP is, let me try to sum it up in so many words: Under normal situations, like ANSI mode, Xpress displays files to color your screen locally and sends the same ANSI information to your remote user. The user who has an ANSI terminal program, will see color because their terminal program is interpreting the ANSI codes. The same logic applies to RIP. If the user has a RIP terminal, RIP codes will instruct it to paint and draw pretty pictures in graphic mode! However, please note, the Xpress mail door is not graphical and, hence, the local screen on your machine will not be graphical. If the /RLE switch is used, you will see the "junk" rip codes on your local screen, otherwise, all you see is the normal Xpress screens. Now here lies the major or key technology in RIP (in my opinion). Normally, under ANSI or just plain TTY mode, the user's terminal program will accept any keyboard input and simply send it to the remote host (Xpress). The terminal does no interpretation, no translation, nothing. It just sends it. Xpress will read the input and act on it. In RIP mode, it is possible to PAINT a picture with MOUSE buttons for each option available to Xpress. The key feature is that you can instruct the RIP terminal what to send to the HOST when the BUTTON is clicked!!! If you don't understand this, it is best that you study this important and key technology feature in RIP if your plan to customize Xpress. Once you understand this, creating RIP screen logic for your system will become easier. How RIP is implemented in Silver Xpress --------------------------------------- All Xpress VCC display files can now have a RIP file counterpart with the extension RIP. For example, WELCOME.VCC and WELCOME.RIP. This includes all the HLP files in the HELP directory. In RIP mode, if a corresponding RIP file is found, it will be send to the RIP terminal for RIP interpretation. Both the VCC information and the RIP information is sent to the RIP terminal. It is up to your RIP design to decide if you want the user to see the text information (turning off or on Rip Text Windows). The default, out-of-the-box, RIP design in Xpress has text windows normally turned off at the terminal side. This means the user does not see the VCC information. Each menu that is defined for Silver Xpress has a HELP keyword to define the help file to be displayed if the user hits the question mark. In RIP mode, if a corresponding RIP file is found, it will be displayed as well. This RIP help file must be in the HELP directory. The HELP keyword also defines the VVC, hence RIP, file that can be displayed as a replacement for the current menu. These files are located in the MISC directory. So it is possible to have two files with the same name, but in separate directories. Keep that in mind. Remember, if a VCC menu file is found, Xpress will not use the menu ITEMS defined in XPMENU.CTL for that particular menu for display. It will display the VCC menu file instead. If a corresponding RIP file is found, it will be used for RIP graphics (note: this is good when you don't have the built-in menu system enabled). There are new RIP keywords in the XPMENU.CTL control file: RIPTITLE defines the title for the built-in menu system. RIP is used for each menu item which defines the words to use for the built-in menu RIP controls in Xpress. Each menu option in Xpress has a unique menu code (see documentation). If a RIP file is found for a menu code, it is sent to the RIP terminal. For example, the menu action code for the GOODBYE option is 134. Xpress will display the RIP file 134.RIP (if found) when this option is hit. At various points in Silver Xpress, there is built-in logic to display RIP commands (only if enabled). You will find if you change options around alot, you would want Xpress to have full control of what is displayed to the user, including menu options, pick list options, etc. You may have some Xpress menu options with high security values. If you use static screens, users will see the options but still not have access to them. With the built-in menu RIP control, Xpress will only show the right options to the user. As you can see, Xpress has layed down the groundwork for you to design a very powerful Xpress RIP application. You can use any of these display logic combinations to get the most effective RIP screen design. The section called RIP XPRESS LAYOUT explains all the files and special cases for RIP at all the key points in Silver Xpress. It will help guide your design if you intend to customize RIP in Xpress. RIP Initialization in Silver Xpress Before the INIT.VCC/RIP file is displayed, a RIP detection is performed. The very first string written, "Initializing Silver Xpress...." was removed from the language file and put into the INIT.VCC display file, THE RIP XPRESS LAYOUT --------------------- Each and every MENU ACTION CODE in Silver Xpress (SEE XPMENU.CTL) has a check for a RIP file. In otherwords, when a user selects a Xpress menu command, the corresponding action code is checked for a RIP file. For Example: To display the user list, the action code 101 is executed in Silver Xpress. If a 101.RIP file is found, it will be sent to the RIP Terminal. This logic permits you to do almost anything you want. The standard 1??.RIP files which came with Silver Xpress are used mostly to switched to TERMINAL mode in tight situations where RIP was difficult to implement at this time. In fact, this method is used to display the HLP files at each menu. The action code 132 is used to display the help file. The 132.RIP file is used to switch the user into terminal mode. The following table below shows the files Xpress expects (by default) to display to the user. For each VCC file display, a corresponding RIP file can be displayed. There are also some points in the program where RIP files are displayed, and no VCC file. The files listed below without an extension are VCC files, which means a corresponding RIP file can be displayed. If the file has a RIP extension, no normal VCC is available at that point. Xpress has built-in RIP logic at various points. If the built-in column indicates the option is built-in, no RIP file will be displayed for that section. It will override the RIP file (but not the VCC file). (!! you may want to allow the display as it !!) FILE BUILT-IN -------------------------- Initial Start Up INIT Welcoming User WELCOME * Asking User for Door Password DOORPWD.RIP * Bad Password Entered BADPWD New User Information NEWUSER News NEWS Scanning Mail Retry an abort download RETRYDL.RIP vacation mail check (see below) * No Areas Selected, Abort NOAREAS.RIP beginning scan/dl process BEGSCAN.RIP summary table top MSTOP.RIP summary table bot MSBOT.RIP flex prompt FLEX.RIP User Aborted Download After Scan UPDATELR.RIP end of scan/dl process ENDSCAN.RIP Uploading Mail begining of mail upload session BEGUPLD.RIP beginning of upload/receiving file BEGRCVD.RIP end of upload/receiving file ENDRCVD.RIP End of mail upload session BEGUPLD.RIP Download a file(s) beginning of dnload process BEGDNLD.RIP download prompt DLPROMPT.RIP and built-in end of dnload process ENDDNLD.RIP Vacation Saver Toggle Vacation Saver XPVSAVER No Mail NOVAC Mail available VACPAC.RIP Picking an Archiver ARCHIVER.RIP or built-in Picking an Protocol PROTOCOL.RIP or built-in File Requesting INITFREQ.RIP Area Selection Section Enter Section BEGAREA.RIP Exiting Section BEGAREA.RIP Hanging Up From Xpress GOODBYE Exiting Xpress RIPDONE.RIP User activated RIP OFF TURNROFF.RIP User activated RIP ON TURNRON.RIP * Abnormal Exit/Abort from Xpress ABORT.RIP * Critical Error Abort CRITICAL.RIP ViewLog Prompt VIEWLOG.RIP * Display Macros MACROLST.RIP * - Inplemented in Version 5.03 Other RIP or VCC files. Xpress Dynamic Menus Start of Menu System BEGMNUx.RIP Each menu (dynamic names) dynamically displayed. clearing a menu CLRMENU.RIP End of Menuing System ENDMNUx.RIP Continue Prompts ON HITKEY1.RIP OFF HITKEY0.RIP Generic MoreYN Prompt ON MOREYN1.RIP OFF MOREYN0.RIP Goodbye prompt ASKBYE.RIP Final Exiting of Xpress RIPDONE.RIP No Access to Option NOACCESS.RIP Changing Last Read Pointers CLRPDATE.VCC Getting User Door Password SETDPWD.RIP Getting User Reader Password SETRPWD.RIP CHAT ON CHATON.RIP CHAT OFF CHATOFF.RIP NOTES: RIPDONE.RIP is normally required to make sure RIP graphics are turned off before returning to the non-ripping BBS. Your EXIT RIP file may get erased quickly so it's probably not a good idea to use an EXIT RIP. Also, your BBS, which has limited RIP support, may require that an external DOOR does not turn off RIP. If this is the case, either remove this file or change the logic. (Version 5.03 now has option to Call to his file. No need to delete). --------------------------------------- USING THE BUILT-IN RIP SYSTEM IN XPRESS --------------------------------------- Each Xpress menu defined in XPMENU.CTL can have a corresponding RIP file displayed when each menu is activated. The name of the RIP file is also the name of the HELP file defined for the menu. So you have the option to create a RIP file for each menu defined. However, please note, if you change your menu, you will have to modify the corresponding RIP file. One of the flaws with this logic is that scenes or screen menus will not be alike from user to user. Such is the case with menus. Silver Xpress has a security system for menu options. It is possible some menu options will not be available to the user based on their security. If we stayed with static RIP scenes, the menu options would be shown but not really available to the user. You should realize this pretty fast even with your own BBS menus. The solution is to utilize the information in Xpress's menu database and allow the system to dynamically redraw the menus for you. With this unique, built-in RIP menuing system in Silver Xpress, the menu RIP files will not be displayed. Instead, only a few RIP files are used to draw an outline of the menu and Xpress will handle the rest of the drawing for the menu options, titles, etc., thus assuring valid menu options are shown to the user. The basic goal here is to minimize any work you have to do with RIP scenes or scripts. Let Xpress do the job for you! The scenes may not be fancy, but at least you won't have to be changing menus screens around every time you modify the Xpress menus. To offer you some flexibility, Xpress allows you the ability to define the the menu layout. One is supplied, and others will be released as they come. MENU LAYOUT #1 ENABLED: ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ <-- BEGMNU1.RIP │ Silver Xpress/RIP (copyright)│ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ <-- NEWMNU1.RIP │ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ MENU TITLE │ │ │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │ │ O menu option O menu option O menu option │ <-- normal │ O menu option O menu option O menu option │ buttons │ O menu option O menu option O menu option │ │ O menu option O menu option O menu option │ │ O menu option O menu option O menu option │ │ O menu option O menu option O menu option │ │ ================================================= │ │ QUIT GOODBYE HELP │ <-- special │ ================================================= │ buttons │ status line │ ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤ │RIP TERMINAL STATUS LINE │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ BEGMNUx.RIP Displayed at the start of the menu system. This is used as the Basic Screen outline. It should have a RIP reset and No Text Windows. ENDMNUx.RIP Displayed at the end of the menu system. Usually isn't necessary since, by then, other displays will take over, such as goodbye or exit. For each menu, the following files are displayed: NEWMNUx.RIP This display is basically for clearing the menu system. It draws the menu title bar and the horizontal lines. CLRMNUx.RIP You can define this but it does nothing for now. You can use it to clear the menu area if you like. As Xpress loops thru its menu options, it will calculate the display positions for the options and create buttons for each menu. These normal buttons are displayed in the middle section of the screen. Special buttons are also displayed. Special buttons are _QUIT, _GOODBYE and _HELP. The status line is used to display any one line messages that need to be displayed. Xpress does this automatically.