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Text File | 1995-08-16 | 24.4 KB | 619 lines

Silver Xpress Mail System Addendum File (c) copyright 1988-1995 by Santronics Software This document contains last minutes changes and extra information possibly excluded in the official V5.00 documentation. You should also read the HISTORY.DOC file for DOC: parts of the files. Additional Information A.1 Installing Xpress For Wildcat! A.2 Installing Xpress For PCBoard. A.3 Alias System For PCBoard, RBBS and Wildcat! A.4 PCBoard and Wildcat! Xpress Conference Selection Logic. A.5 Return Receipt User Acknowledgment. A.6 New Command Line Switches for XPADM. A.7 New Command Line for XPMAIL. A.8 New environment strings for XPMAIL. A.9 New menus for H1 model, RoboBoard/FX, ProBoard and RemoteAccess. A.10 New Packet Name System. A.11 Sysops using JAM message bases! Please read this! A.12 Sysops using SQUISH.EXE version 1.10! Please read this! A.13 Installing Xpress for TAG 2.7! Section C: Corrections to Documentation C.1 Changes to XPAREAS.CTL File (PCBoard, RBBS, Wildcat! ONLY). C.2 Additional Install Information for PCBoard. A.1 Installing Xpress For Wildcat! The install process will do everything it can to set up Silver Xpress on your system. All that remains is for you to set up the XPRESS.BAT and the method to call it from within Wildcat! FidoNet Support Silver Xpress for Wildcat! is compatible with Wildnode, the official Wildcat! Fido Nodelist System. During installation, if the WildNode files are detected, Xpress will read in Fido information to properly set up your primary netmail address. Silver Xpress will use the WildNode Nodelist to get netmail cost information for netmail tossed by Silver Xpress. Silver Xpress will also properly set origination and destination net information. This allows Wildcat! to properly display netmail information. All standard CTRL-A lines are supported such as ^aINTL, ^aMSGID and ^aREPLY lines. The Silver Xpress Reader is 100% fido compatible and is an ideal system to create netmail messages. If you wish to support a PURE *.MSG Fido NetMail directory, use the XPADM program and INSert an area while the mail conference list is displayed. Move down to the new mail area and press return to edit the new area. Please note, the access to this area is based on the user's Wildcat! menu security (the security for his Wildcat! Profile). A.2 Installing Xpress For PCBoard At various points in the documentation, we mentioned you should copy the XPRESS file over to the PCBoard directory. This is no longer necessary. The install program will assist in automatically setting up Silver Xpress by adding the proper commands to the DOORS.LST and optionally add some new PPE commands for Silver Xpress. Silver Xpress is 100% PCBoard 15.x compliant. This means all PCBoard 15.x file structures are understood by Xpress, including the new mail formats. Xpress will also work with the old or new USERS.SYS, however to implement ALIAS support in Silver Xpress, you must use the new USERS.SYS in DOORS.LST. PCBoard's USERS.SYS 15.x format will include alias information if you enable the ALIAS PSA on your system. QFRONT SUPPORT The QFRONT System is a new front end mailer system specifically designed for the PCBoard BBS package. For the first time ever, PCBoard systems are joining the FidoNet Computer Network at a growing rate. Packages such as Qfront and Silver Xpress are assisting in this movement to FIDO connectivity. Because of the way the QFRONT QSCAN.EXE program works, you will need to call QSCAN with the /FORCE switch. This is required if you want mail uploaded by Silver Xpress to be properly packed for outbound. Silver Xpress will add an ORIGIN line to the uploaded mail and QSCAN will assume mail with ORIGIN lines are imported messages (not created locally). Offline Mail Programs for FIDO systems traditionally add ORIGIN lines. Xpress will support the new QFRONT file semaphore system in V1.06b. You can set up Silver Xpress to tell QFRONT to do a MAIL RESCAN: 1) Create a batch file "CHKMAIL.BAT": @echo off cd \qfront if exist c:\xpress\$echo.sem echo >rescan.sem if exist c:\xpress\$echonet.sem echo >rescan.sem if exist c:\xpress\$net.sem echo >rescan.sem if exist c:\xpress\$*.sem del c:\xpress\$*.sem :end 2) Insert the line in the XPRESS batch file after the XPMAIL.EXE call: CALL CHKMAIL.BAT 3) Go into QFCONFIG and do a FILE SEMAPHORE CHECK. Define the file RESCAN.NOW. Define an ERRORLEVEL to call the QSCAN /BOTH /FORCE command. A.3 Alias System For PCBoard, RBBS and Wildcat! Xpress will now check to see if aliases are allowed for the system. It will force aliases or real names depending on the BBS setup. For PCBoard, it will also depend on whether the user has the alias status toggled. For any of this to work, you must make sure the Xpress ALIAS SYSTEM option is enabled under BBS System Information in XPADM. NOTE: As of PCBoard 15.0, we found that the ALIAS logic is not quite correct or it doesn't behave in a fashion "expected". If a user has an alias option enabled for a conference which allows it, it is very possible PCBoard will not always find "all" the new messages during a PCBoard login mail scan, if messages are available to both the real name and the alias name, or within a carbon copy. Silver Xpress will properly pick up all the user's mail and show the correct "Direct Mail" count. A.4 PCBoard and Wildcat! Xpress Conference Selection Logic In prior versions of Xpress, it was possible to have selected areas in Xpress not recorded in PCBoard/Wildcat! This allowed users to have selected areas for off-line mail that could be different from that of the BBS selected areas used for its own purposes. This behavior is now optional. If you want Xpress to match the selected areas as defined in the BBS, use the /MBC+ switch. A.5 Return Receipt User Acknowledgment New switch /ARR "show/tell user receipts were generated". Default On. Currently, this is only good for PCBoard Xpress. All receipts created are private messages and the only time the user will know via Xpress that a receipt was generated is after the mail bundling process. If you wish to "hide" this, use /ARR-. NOTE: PCBoard will also tell the user a receipt message was created. So it is not so secret from within PCBoard. We do not believe this to be egonomically or functionally correct. An author should be given the option to hide the receipt of the message. A.6 New Command Line Switches for XPADM -R force a reread of areas, files information from BBS -RC force a reread of areas information only from BBS -RF force a reread of files information only from BBS These switches are equivalent to deleting the XPAREAS.* files or the @XPFILES.* files and then doing an XPADM. The switches simply delete the files for you. examples: XPADM -R reread areas and files and begin interactive session XPADM -R -U reread areas and files and automatically compile XPADM -RC -U reread areas only and automatically compile NOTE: This is only for PCBoard, RBBS and Wildcat! For all others, the -U will automatically reread the areas and files. No need for the -R switches. A.7 New command line switches for XPMAIL /@DIGI Turn on DIGI board support. /8K Turn on 8K Zmodem. Allocates LARGE 16K buffers. /RB size change the receive buffer size. /TB size change the transmit buffer size. /TC Perform Idle Time Checker. /XNET Temporarily sets user as QWK Network Sysop. /SQ110 Corrects for bug in SQUISH V1.10 Mail Processor. See A.12 /PNxxxxxxxx Change the name of the packet the user will get. Changes to Command Line Switches /LS+- New Local Snoop Option, old switch removed. -NC Forget all about Fidonet NetMail Costing. Before it meant to skip any credit adjustments, but Xpress still tried to search the appropriate BBS NODELIST. Now this part is skipped as well. A.8 New environment strings for XPMAIL Xpress will check for the following environment strings: SET NODE=<node#> All Versions SET TASK=<node#> All Versions SET WCNODEID=<node#> WildCat Only SET PCBNODE=<node#> PCBoard Only SET BASE=<base com address> All Versions SET COMBASE=<base com address> All Versions SET IRQ=<com irq #> All Versions SET COMIRQ=<com irq #> All Versions SET PORT=<com#> All Versions A.9 New menus for H1 model, RoboBOard/fx, ProBoard and RemoteAccess. We have put together some new menus for the following BBS packages: PROBOARD 2.0 See PROBOARD.ZIP in BBSTOOLS.ZIP RoboBoard/FX See ROBOBOARD/FX.ZIP in BBSTOOLS.ZIP RemoteAccess 2.x See RA2.ZIP in BBSTOOLS.ZIP A.10 New Packet Name System If the switch /@PNxxxxxxxx is passed to XPMAIL or if a @PKTNAME.xxx file is found in the Xpress directory, the packet name defined in the first line is used for the eventual file name the user will download. The packet file extension is still controlled by Silver Xpress. This new feature will allow some sysops to control the packet name (by area group) sent to users without conflicting with registration system in Silver Xpress. example: XPMAIL .............. /Parea200 or --PKTNAME.1-- AREA200 Xpmail will read the first line and append the user's calculated file extension to it to produce a packet name, i.e., AREA200.OPX We see this as a brand new feature which will grow in future versions once we see the true value behind it. Thanks Larry Smith A.11 Sysops using JAM message bases! Please read this! Please download or File Request FIXJAMLR.ZIP The FIXJAMLR.EXE program corrects a last read pointer conflict between the Silver Xpress Mail Door versions prior to V5.03 and JAM bases. The conflict appears mostly with RemoteAccess and possibly RoboBoard but never with Tag 2.7 and ProBoard. However, we suggest you run this program if you are sysop of any of the mentioned BBSs and are running Silver Xpress. Use this FIX program to adjust the JAM message bases. Once you run it, you do not need to run it again. No harm is done if re-run. Run this program passing the PATH to your JAM databases. Example: FIXJAMLR C:\RA\JAMFILES Conflict Description: If a new user selected a JAM base for downloading, but has never joined this JAM message base through the BBS, Xpress will put a new record in the JAM last read file as it should normally. However, if the user later "joined" this message base via the BBS on-line, it is very possible the BBS (RA in particular) will not find this record and, thus, add a new record for the user. Hence, two records are created for the user. Xpress used one record, RA the other. This is a BUG with RA, which is easily corrected for Silver Xpress V5.03. This bug in RA will be corrected in the next release of RemoteAccess V2.02. Running FIXJAMLR will allow for RA to find the record Xpress already created in the past and delete the one RA created. Technical Description: JAM Specification indicates the *.JLR files have the following structure per record: LastRead: ulong UserCRC; // CRC-32 of user name (lowercase) ulong UserID; // Unique UserID ulong LastReadMsg; // Last read message number ulong HighReadMsg; // Highest read message number end; Xpress correctly stored the user's 32 bit CRC for the UserCRC field, and mistakenly assumed the UserID to be a Unique UserID as known by the BBS. Since there was no documentation for exactly what a Unique UserID for the user was, Silver Xpress stored the user's record number passed by the BBS. This should not cause any harm because the BBS should be looking for the user's record using the UserCRC field. However, RA was not. It was looking for the CRC in the UserID field instead. Xpress creates a new record, if and only if, the user never joined the area via the BBS. If the user already had a record in the file created by the BBS, Xpress would find it and all would be fine. However, if Xpress created it, and the user later attempted to read the mail on-line, only RemoteAccess searched the file using the UserID, and not the UserCRC, as done by ProBoard, Tag 2.7. Thus, only RemoteAccess would add a new record for the user. Remote Access should be searching the file using the UserCRC field like the others do. Currently, all the BBSes store the same CRC for the UserID field, making this field totally useless. Because RA 2.0 incorrectly expects a CRC in the UserID field, the FIXJAMLR will read each record and put a copy of the UserCRC in the UserID. If a duplicate CRC is found (The user's second record created by RA), it is marked for deletion. Silver Xpress V5.03 will now also store the CRC in both fields. A.12 Sysops using SQUISH.EXE version 1.10! Please read this! SQUISH 1.10 has a bug which was confirmed by Scott Dudley. When QWK echo mail is uploaded to the Silver Xpress Mail Door, SQUISH 1.10 creates grunge AREA: lines when creating outbound mail packets. SQUISH 1.10 requires at least 1 control line (Kludge line). Technically, there is a field in the SQUISH header which defines how large the control block (kludge lines) can be. When Xpress uploads OPX mail, our reader creates kludges lines, so the problems does not show up. When QWK mail is uploaded, by tradition, QWK does not have kludge lines, so none are added. Hence this field in the SQUISH header is set to zero. Squish 1.01 had no problem with that. However, the SQUISH 1.10 bug requires that field to be at least 1 byte. If it is zero, the above problem occurs. If you are using SQUISH 1.10, Silver Xpress V5.03 has a new temporarily switch, /SQ110, which will tell Xpress to add fake kludge information in uploaded QWK mail. This will keep SQUISH 1.10 from creating grunged outbound mail packets. Scott Dudley will be correcting this SQUISH 1.10 bug in his next SQUISH.EXE update. A.13 Installing Xpress for TAG 2.7! The following description will help you install a TAG menu for Silver Xpress which will have the following menu options: Silver Xpress Mail Menu Version 5.03 (X)press Manual Mode (Good for first time users) (D)ownload Mail Automatically (U)pload Mail Automatically (G)oodbye - Log off System (Q)uit to Main Menu This will give your users an interactively and some options to perform auto-downloading and auto-uploading. Calling Silver Xpress via TAG menus ─────────────────────────────────── Silver Xpress can use the DOOR.SYS or the DORINFx.DEF file, whichever you tell Xpress to use. By default, the install program will define DORINFx.DEF. The Tag Menu definitions given here are based on using DORINF#.DEF. However, if you want to use DOOR.SYS here is a short description Using DOOR.SYS: ─────────────── The best way to call Xpress is with a "=" pkey because this will create a DOOR.SYS file. The DOOR.SYS will give Xpress everything it needs to know about the user for a single line or multi-line setup. If you have a single node setup or you followed the multinode description has discussed in the TAG documentation exactly, it is recommended you use the "=" pkey and door.sys Single Line Line Setup, \tag <-------- Tag.EXE/OVR is here and DOOR.SYS is put here by Tag. Ideally in a multi-line setup, \tag---\bbs1 <─┐ | ├─ Tag will put DOOR.SYS for NODE here. -\bbs2 <─┘ If you follow this method, then in the Xpress Administration program, XPADM.EXE, under "Directories/Files for Each Node" define the line: single line: DOOR.SYS or DORINFO#.DEF : C:\TAG\DOOR.SYS multi line: DOOR.SYS or DORINFO#.DEF : C:\TAG\BBS#\DOOR.SYS By doing this, Xpress does not need to read any parameters and simple batch file XPRESS.BAT for Xpress can be: ---XPRESS.BAT--- CD \XPRESS XPMAIL %1 The %1 will then be the XPRESS paramater that you can pass from TAG to do various operations, like auto-download or up-load. The remaining part of this discussion, along with the example TAG menus will use DORINFx.def Using DOFINFOx.DEF: ─────────────────── If you wish to use DORINFx.DEF, use the TAG ":" pkey will create a DORINFx.DEF file. TAG will create this file in the TAG directory as describe above for single line or multi-line. Combining this file with TAG parameters passed to Xpress, you should be able to use a single batch file for all your needs. In the Xpress Administration program, XPADM.EXE, under "Directories/Files for Each Node" define the line: single line: DOOR.SYS or DORINFO#.DEF : C:\TAG\DORINF1.SYS multi line: DOOR.SYS or DORINFO#.DEF : C:\TAG\BBS#\DORINF#.SYS or multi line: DOOR.SYS or DORINFO#.DEF : C:\TAG\DORINF#.SYS whichever matches your system. Now, create 3 batch files for your XPRESS batch file: XPRESS.BAT file. For normal interactive session with Xpress. Doesn't pass command line parameters. CD \XPRESS XPMAIL -LB%1 -T%9 -P%8 XPAUTO.BAT file. For passing command line parameters to Xpress for the automatic upload and download menu options. CD \XPRESS XPMAIL %1 -LB%2 -T%10 -P%9 Setting up the Tag Menus ──────────────────────── Command from Main Menu to call Xpress Menu: Menu name : << MAIN SYSTEM MENU >> #1 Command number : 31 1. Long desc. : (X)press Mail Menu Version 5.03 2. Short desc. : (X)press Menu 3. Key : X 4. General SL : 30 5. AR flag : @ 6. Program key : ^ 7. Program data : "17" F. Flags : SL access check, GSL and AR, Normal Command, No Linking Number 7 (Program data) varies based upon what menu number then Xpress menu is assigned to. Substitute the 17 with what is appropriate for your board. Entry for Menu option: Menu list number: 17 1. Menu number : 17 2. Menu name : Silver Xpress Mail Menu Version 5.03 3. Prompt : Xpress Mail Menu: 4. General SL : 30 5. AR flag : @ 6. Help file ID : "" 7. Password : "" 8. Fallback menu : 0 9. Start help lvl: 0 <User Default> L. Menu location : Main System F. Flags : SL access check, GSL and AR, Time/Help ON Board NORMAL, Menu name NORMAL Command for running Xpress in the Interactive mode. Suggested for first time users! Menu name : Silver Xpress Mail Menu Version 5.03 #17 Command number : 1 1. Long desc. : (X)press Manual Mode (Good for first time users) 2. Short desc. : (X)press Manual 3. Key : X 4. General SL : 30 5. AR flag : @ 6. Program key : : 7. Program data : "XPRESS" F. Flags : SL access check, GSL and AR, Normal Command, No Linking Command for running Xpress and automatically downloading your mail packet instead of an interactive session. Starts bundling all the mail in your selected areas. Menu name : Silver Xpress Mail Menu Version 5.03 #17 Command number : 2 1. Long desc. : (D)ownload Mail Automatically 2. Short desc. : (D)ownload Mail 3. Key : D 4. General SL : 30 5. AR flag : @ 6. Program key : : 7. Program data : "XPAUTO -DA" F. Flags : SL access check, GSL and AR, Normal Command, No Linking Command for running Xpress and automatically uploading your reply packet instead of an interactive session. Prompts you to upload your replies. Menu name : Silver Xpress Mail Menu Version 5.03 #17 Command number : 3 1. Long desc. : (U)pload Mail Automatically 2. Short desc. : (U)pload Mail 3. Key : U 4. General SL : 30 5. AR flag : @ 6. Program key : : 7. Program data : "XPAUTO -U" F. Flags : SL access check, GSL and AR, Normal Command, No Linking Standard logoff of you board command. Use whatever you normally use. Menu name : Silver Xpress Mail Menu Version 5.03 #17 Command number : 4 1. Long desc. : (G)oodbye - Log off System 2. Short desc. : (G)oodbye 3. Key : G 4. General SL : 30 5. AR flag : @ 6. Program key : * 7. Program data : "1" F. Flags : SL access check, GSL and AR, Normal Command, No Linking Return to your Main Menu from the Xpress Menu. Menu name : Silver Xpress Mail Menu Version 5.03 #17 Command number : 5 1. Long desc. : (Q)uit to Main Menu 2. Short desc. : (Q)uit to Main 3. Key : Q 4. General SL : 10 5. AR flag : @ 6. Program key : ^ 7. Program data : "1" F. Flags : SL access check, GSL and AR, Normal Command, No Linking Note: In order for Silver Xpress to handle your private message areas properly you must set the following in the MESSAGE BOARD EDITOR: 4. PrivateMsgs: Follow Flag / Force Private Restricted 9. Mail Flags: Private You can also set 4. PrivateMsgs: Follow Flag / Ask User (if you want to give the user a choice of wether a message is to be public or private in any area.) You MUST set the private flag to keep private messages from being scanned and received by everyone. Section C: Corrections to Documentation C.1 Changes to XPAREAS.CTL File (PCBoard, RBBS, Wildcat! ONLY) The following changes where made to the XPAREAS.CTL control file. VOLUMEID removed DOMAIN removed MATRIX removed, see address ADDRESS FidoNet Address, domain can be part of address NETWORK Network conference belongs too POSTCCMAIL Security required to post carbon copies POSTRECREQ Security required to post a return request LONGTONAME Long names allowed in ToWhom Field FATPATH Location of File Attach directory ALLOWALIAS Force Alias if user wants alias for conference C.2 Additional Install Information for PCBoard To update the Xpress forums when you make changes to your BBS mail area setup, perform an XPADM -U. For PCBoard, you can manually edit the XPAREAS.CTL file or delete XPAREAS.CTL and then do an XPADM -U. When installing Xpress for PCBoard, the quick setup program will give the sysop the option to automatically update the PCBoard Doors.Lst file. When installing Xpress for PCBoard, the quick setup program will give the sysop the option to automatically add new PCBoard 15.0 PPE menu commands, called XPMENU and XPHELP.