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PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 > 12.0 PHOENIX MENU SYSTEM PLUS (tm) The Phoenix menu system is by far the most powerful menu system available to sysops anywhere. A proper understanding of this menu system will allow you to make your board have its own personality. You may virtually call any command from any menu and have as many menus as your memory will allow, up to 25! You may create your own commands and make them do almost whatever you want: send any text file to the user's screen, run online programs, create questionnaires and "voting booths", place message and files commands anywhere, create a special new user menu that will not allow him to enter the regular bbs, and have user level sensitive bulletins. At the end of this file is a Quick Reference Chart listing every Phoenix Menu command and what it means. In ADVANCED USES AND OPTIONS, we will tell you how to have your menus look anyway you wish them to and how to mix ansi color menus and special text menus in with your Phoenix command menus. Please read and understand the menu tutorial, and create some menus to see how they work first, before going on to the more artistic menus. 12.1 A MENU EXAMPLE Main Menu,main.hlp,n M,[M]ESSAGE SECTION,1,4,z F,[F]ILES SECTION,2,4,z B,[B]ulletins,,4,R C,[C]omments to the sysop,,4,S #,[#] List active users,,4,Y L,[L]ocate a User,,4,T I,[I]initial welcome message,welcome1,4,d Q,[Q]uestionnaire,newuser,4,q S,[S]tatistics,,4,W N,[N]ews about Phoenix,news,4,d P,[P]age the Sysop,,4,U G,[G]oodbye and logoff,,4,G X,[X]pert toggle,,4,X !,[!] Change User Status,,4,Z U,[U]tilities for the Sysop,3,25,z ?,[?] HELP WITH COMMANDS,,4,? Above is the MENU0.MNU which we supply. An explanation of what each type of command does is in the quick reference. We will cover only the Menu "Syntax", certain "classes" of menu calls, and the necessary items to make your Phoenix system the best you can make it. If you noticed, you actually have up to 26 menus available to you, but only 25 (1 thru 25) are optional. MENU0.MNU MUST exist or Phoenix will refuse to run, giving you a message that the menu is missing. Name your menus like this: MENUxx.MNU where xx is a menu number from 1 to 25. Do not put leading zeros in the menu name! You may define menus that are not in sequential order. Example: In your system you might want to have menu0.mnu, menu1.mnu, menu10.mnu, menu15.mnu and menu21.mnu. You may do so, Phoenix will know what to do with them. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 12.2 SPECIAL MENUS Phoenix Menu System Plus allows you to create special menus like Questionnaire menus, or User level sensitive bulletin menus, or just about anything. We will give some one line examples below, but the detailed explanation of what each menu command field means will be given in the menu tutorial (see 12.3). V,[V]oting Booth,10,5,z this line will call menu10.mnu which, in this example is dedicated to questionnaires. Menu10 might contain something like this: S,[S]urprise questionnaire,surprise,5,q B,[B]eta tester application,Beta,5,q M,[M]ovie votes,movies,5,q Each one of those selections calls a different questionnaire. B,[B]eta bulletin,beta.txt,17,d N,[N]ewuser bulletin,new.txt,3,d C,[C]lub bulletin,club,20,d R,[R]egular users bulletins,22,10,z In the first 3 lines, we have a mini level-sensitive bulletin menu. These will follow the DUMPFILE CLASS of identifiers which is explained below. The fourth line calls a regular users bulletin menu (also level sensitive). 12.3 A MENU TUTORIAL MENU TITLES: The top line of each menu tells Phoenix what the name of that menu is, what its associated help file is, and the MENU ACTIVITY IDENTIFIER which tells Phoenix how to behave within that menu. This line MUST exist. In the discussion below, we will expand the menu lines for clarity, but in real life you MUST NOT PUT SPACES IN. menu title menu help file activity identifier ---------- -------------- ------------------- Main Menu , main.hlp , n The menu title is the name of the menu that Phoenix will send to the user along with a line known as a "command line". You may name this anything you wish, like "Voting Booth", "Games", "Messages", etc (with or without the quotes). You should pick a title that is descriptive with what commands the menu has in it. In this case, Main Menu, or Menu0.mnu is the menu that Phoenix will look for to send the user right after login is completed. Only menu0 will be looked for after login. To get to another menu from this one you must call it. More on that later. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 The menu help file is a text file that lists the commands in that menu and what they do. We supply help files for the menus that you received in the distribution archive. You may create your own help file and place the name of the file in the MENU HELP FILE field and wherever help is requested, that file will be dumped to the user's screen. The activity identifier tells Phoenix whether this menu will display the user's current message board selection and check for his mail, or what his current files area is, or both or neither. ONLY the following identifiers are allowed here: m : Check for user's mail and display his current message board selection when entering this menu. Also, when entering a "message class" menu with this ID, a file called MSGMSG.* (.bbs/.clr) will be looked for and if present sent to the user only once per login. f : Display the user's current files area selection while in this menu. Display the file FILEMSG.*. This file follows the same rules as msgmsg.* above. b : Behave as in BOTH above and display both message board and files area selections while in this menu. n : Do not display EITHER of the message or files area selections while in this menu. You may, of course place any message or files command in any menu with, or without, displaying the current message base or files area. These are recommended wherever you place message or files commands simply for the user's convenience. Otherwise, he will not know what his current area is. You may have the following maximum characters per field: menu title menu help file activity identifier 20 , 12 , 1 Don't forget to count any spaces you may have in the menu title! The menu help file must follow DOS file naming conventions which are a maximum of 8 characters for the first name, a period "." and a maximum of 3 characters for the extension. The 12 character field allows for a complete dos filename like: 12345678.123 or Phoenix1.bbs Only ONE character is allowed as the identifier and may ONLY BE ONE of "m,f,b,n". NO other identifiers will be allowed. There must only be ONE comma separating the fields, so again, your menu top line should look something like this: Special Menu,special.hlp,n PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 The menu help file is optional, so if you do not want a help file, do this: Special Menu,,n This tells Phoenix that the help file field is blank. In this case, do NOT place a space in the help file field! The MENU TITLE AND ACTIVITY ID ARE NOT OPTIONAL and must exist! If, after running Phoenix, you want to change a menu, you MUST quit Phoenix with the F10 key after logging off and bring Phoenix back up in order for the new menu change to be loaded into memory. GOLDEN RULE: Each Phoenix command menu (.mnu file) may have any number of command lines. However, remember that Phoenix formats these commandlines two per line when in use. Full screen mode has 23 lines, and Window mode has 18 lines available per screen, so being practical, you should limit yourself to 40 commands per menu (20 lines) if in full screen mode and 30 commands per menu (15 lines) if in window mode. This will allow for any message or files area messages plus the commandline. If more than this number of commands are used, the top commands will scroll off the screen. Simplicity is usually the best way, so you are better off using more menus and less commands per menu, but, you may place every Phoenix command into menu0.mnu and have a Pc-Board style menu if you wish. To fit more than 40 commands per menu on one screen, see advanced uses and options. THE COMMAND LINES consist of the following fields. FOR MENU CALLS: user command,description,menu number,security level,cci FOR COMMAND CALLS: user command,description,runfile,security level,cci Note that the only place the fields differ is in the runfile / menu number field. Before we discuss command calls, we should tell you how to call another menu. The command line for menu calls is very clear. user command,description,menu number,security level,cci USER COMMAND field is the one character entry that the user must press to activate the command. DESCRIPTION tells the user what the command will do. You have up to 35 characters to tell him. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 MENU NUMBER is the menu number of the menu you are calling. In this example we will call menu 6. Simply place a 6 in the menu number field, and create a menu called menu6.mnu. SECURITY LEVEL is the minimum user level a user must have in order to even see this command line! In this example the security level is 10. CCI Is the command identifier used within Phoenix. This tells Phoenix what to do when the user command key is pressed. It means Constant Command Identifier. These are constants within Phoenix, and all command identifiers are listed in the quick reference. To call another menu, you must use a lower case "z". Upper and lower case letters are unique and mean different things to Phoenix. Lets build the command line to call a menu. user command,description,menu number,security level,cci O,[O]nline Programs,6,10,z The user with a minimum security level 10 will see: [O]nline Programs Pressing the O will tell Phoenix to activate menu # 6. IMPORTANT to note here is that the quit to calling menu command is a menu call! So, if the online example above was in menu0.mnu, the following should be in menu6.mnu or else the user will not be able to get back to menu0! You may create 'dead end' menus if you wish, but........ The quit command in menu 6 should look like this: Q,[Q]uit to Main Menu,0,4,z or M,[M]ain Menu,0,4,z Again, the maximum number of characters allowed are: user command,description,menu number,security level,cci 1 35 2 4 1 Remember that security level maximum is 9999 and menu number maximum is 25. COMMAND CALLS user command,description,runfile,security level,cci Each field follows the rules described in Menu Calls, with the exception of the RUNFILE field (menu number field in the above discussion). In command call class, the runfile field may have up to 35 characters and may contain a path as well. As the name suggests, you place the name of a file there for Phoenix to act on. What Phoenix does with this file will depend on what CCI is in the cci field. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 DUMPFILE CLASS: This will be the most used command class. You may place as many dumpfile class commands into the menu system as you wish. It displays the contents of a text file to the user. The intelligence for .BBS/.CLR extension decisions is in this routine that a LOWER CASE "d" activates. There are many examples of dumpfile class calls in the 4 menus we supply. Please study them. One very familiar command is: I,[I]nitial Welcome message,WELCOME1,5,d The maximum number of characters allowed per field are: user command,description,runfile,security level,cci 1 35 35 4 1 If your display file will follow the .bbs/.clr rules (.bbs for regular text, .clr for ansi) place only the FIRST NAME of the file in the runfile area. Phoenix will determine which file to look for and send. If the .clr file should be sent and it does not exist, then the .bbs file will be sent. You may place an extension on the filename, but that will bypass the .bbs/.clr logic inside Phoenix and the file will be treated as a text file only and only an exact match to the specified filename will be displayed. If you wish to display a file that has no extension, you simply place a period "." after the filename. Example: I,[I]nstructions,GAMEDOC.,4,d This will display the file GAMEDOC (with no extension). Note that we used all caps only for clarity. You may use lower case for the filename. Again, to follow the .bbs/.clr rules for your file, place the name of the file in the runfile area with no extension or period, and be sure your file has at least the .bbs extension on the disk. Only the user command must be different within any menu, ALL commands to send a file to the user must be of dumpfile class with a lower case "d". The exception to this rule is when you wish to send the help file associated with the menu listed on the top line. In that case, the CCI will be a "?". Phoenix will know what to do once the "?" cci is activated. For a help command that sends the menu help file, use NO filename within the command line, so: H,[H]elp,,4,? will send the menu help file when the "H" command is pressed. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 QUESTIONNAIRE CLASS: You may create as many questionnaires within the Phoenix Menu System Plus as you wish. The CCI to activate the questionnaire routine is lower case "q". Place the first name only of your questionnaire into the runfile field with NO period ".". Example: N,[N]ewuser questionnaire,NEWUSER,4,q This will activate the questionnaire command file on your disk called NEWUSER.QST. Notice that Phoenix will add the .QST extension whenever a "q" cci is activated. The corresponding answers file will be the first name plus .ANS, so, in this case, the answers file will be NEWUSER.ANS. Phoenix will create or append the file as necessary. There will NEVER be a mix-up between newuser.bbs and newuser.qst because different CCI's activate different routines which will look for different file extensions. "d" will look for .bbs/.clr, or the exact filename, while "q" will ALWAYS look for a .qst extension. SHELL CLASS: Shell programs or Online programs may be run directly from Phoenix using this class. The CCI is a lower case "s". Please see the chapter ONLINE PROGRAMS EXPLAINED for a complete tutorial on how to use executable programs within the Phoenix environment. This is a very informative tutorial written by Jim Hood. We feel that Jim's knowledge of shelled programs qualifies him as one of the nation's leading experts on running programs remotely. When shelling a program be sure to use the ENTIRE filename (go.bat, adventure.exe, chkdsk.com). SPECIAL BULLETINS CLASS: User level sensitive bulletins are possible by simply calling a menu designated as a bulletin menu, and using the dumpfile class cci. However, Phoenix takes this one step further. You may tell Phoenix (in CONFIG) that you wish to dump one of these special bulletin menus during the login process instead of the regular bulletin system. Some special CCI's become activated when this is declared and are active only while the special bulletin system is invoked. As soon as the user quits to the main menu, these special CCI's are no longer active. They are: description cci Standard Bulletin menu * Exit bulletin menu and continue with login e LOWER CASE ONLY PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 When a menu is used in this manner as a special bulletin menu dumped at login, the user`s EXPERT level will be saved and changed to 0 (novice) so he will see the menu selections, until the user quits this menu and continues with the login sequence. Also note that you may call any of the other menus from this one so you may have almost unlimited number of level sensitive bulletins. Be sure to allow for a list menu command and a quit to main menu command. ONLY the below cci's will be active in ANY menu called from the special bulletin menu until the login sequence is completed and menu0 is active. REFERENCE for bulletins only: TYPE OF CALL MADE (class) CCI ---------------- --- DUMPFILES d LOWER CASE ONLY QUESTIONNAIRES q LOWER CASE ONLY GoodBye G UPPER CASE ONLY Quit to calling menu z CALL ANOTHER MENU List z call the same menu = Standard Bulletin menu * = Exit bulletin menu and continue with login e LOWER CASE ONLY THESE ARE THE ONLY CCI'S ACTIVE WITHIN THE SPECIAL BULLETIN MENU system! NONE of the others listed in the quick reference will work here, and to continue, you must use the "e" CCI. Calling menu0 will do no good since only dumpfiles, questionnaires, goodbye and call another menu will be valid until a "bulletin menu" activates the "e" CCI. note that the = marked classes can only be active when the menu is called in place of the standard bulletins on login. They are inactive after the user hits the main menu by the "e" cci. The "*" will allow you to call the standard BULLETIN.* bulletin system. The "Enter to continue" prompt in the standard system will return you to the calling bulletin menu only and will not continue with the login when CONFIG is told to use special bulletin menus. This changes to another cci when used within the regular Phoenix menu system. There is an interesting side-effect to using this special bulletin menu system. Remember that you may have a restriction level system which will put the user into comments, questionnaire, or nothing and will log him off immediately after, without entering him into the user log. You may also create a very restricting menu system which will not allow the new user to enter the bbs, but will allow him to do whatever you let him within the confines of the special bulletin system. After he logs off, he will be placed into the user log, so the next time he calls, after you upgrade his security level, he will have access to the main system. A skeleton menu system which will allow this is shown below. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 sample special bulletin menu7: N,[N]ew user menu,9,3,z B,[B]ulletins,8,10,z S,[S]tandard bulletins,,10,* Q,[Q]uit to main menu,,10,e assume regular user level of 10 and new user of 3. Notice that the only command the new user will see is the new user menu command! He will have no choice besides disconnecting. Regular users will see all the commands listed above and may select a special user level sensitive bulletin menu or the standard bulletins, or quit to continue login. We will deal only with new user level here. He selects "N" which is his only choice. This calls menu9 which could have in it: Q,[Q]uestionnaire,NEWUSER,3,q G,[G]oodbye,,3,G N,[N]ew user information,INFO,3,d 1,[1] Quit to previous menu,7,10,z 2,[2] Continue with login,,10,e Now the new user has 3 selections he sees. He must answer a questionnaire, read new user info, or log off. The other two commands should be placed there so if a regular level user gets curious, he can get out without saying goodbye. This type of restricted system differs in that it will allow the new user to read bulletins if you wish, answer a questionnaire and log off and Phoenix will enter him into the users log. With the standard restriction levels of 1,2,3 defined in CONFIG, the user will automatically get logged off without getting any bulletin menu, may be allowed a questionnaire or comment depending on system restriction level, and will not be placed into the users log. If you wish to enter a new user into the system with one of these restriction levels, you must take Phoenix down with the F10 key, and bring it back up with a 0 command line parameter like: phoenix 0 and this will remove the restrictions so you may enter the new users. Be sure when you do this that you re-run Phoenix without the 0 or else you will have a public system! The above described special menu suggestion is a convenient alternative to the restricted system as defined in CONFIG. The new user cannot enter the main bbs if set up in this way. However, only the restriction level 3 will not allow the new user any time on the system. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 DESCRIPTIONS OF CONSTANT COMMAND IDENTIFIERS Remember that upper and lower case are different and call different routines within Phoenix even if the letter is the same. 'A': Change Message Board This is the 'C' command in the message menu we supply which will allow the user to list available boards and change into those areas. Included in this selection is the 'all messages' selection. 'B': Enter a Message Just what it implies, This cci allows you to enter a message and save it into the message system. 'C': Text Search in Messages This will look for a word or string of words for a match in the subject or to:/from: fields. 'D': Kill a Message You may delete a message by specifying a message number without actually looking at the message. Another kill command is offered in the commandline under the message when you read it. 'E': List Your Mail This will check all of your mail from message #1 to the end of the messages and tell you what ones are for you and what ones you left. 'F': Fast Scan Messages This does a short listing of the subject field of all messages in the system that the user has access to. 'H': Read Messages Just what it implies, it allows you to read the messages in the message system. 'I': Scan Messages This does a long scan, and lists the complete message header with date, to, from, subject for every message in the system that the user is allowed to see. In special areas which do not show names, this will also not show the names. 'J': Download Files This activates the download system and allows a user to download files. 'K': Upload Files This activates the upload files system. 'L': List Files Will list the current area files.bbs or files.clr. 'M': Change Files Area This will list the available files areas to the user and allow him to change areas. 'N': File Statistics Displays user's upload and download statistics and shows the amount of free space on the current upload drive. 'O': New Files Will search the files system for any new files added to the system since the user's last login or from a certain date the user enters. A complete listing can be generated simply by entering 01-01-80 as a date. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 'P': Search for a File This will search the files system for a match of a name or part of a name. It only looks in the files.* and not to the actual disk directory, and like any other listing or search command, will show the user only areas he has access to. 'V': View Contents of an Archive file Allows you to view the contents (arc directory) of an .ARC file. 'R': Standard Bulletins Activates the standard bulletin system using BULLETIN.* as the menu listing. 'S': Leave a Comment Will allow a user to leave a message automatically saved to area #1 as a special private message to you. It will be 'tagged' with a COMMENT flag. NO ONE but you and those you give specific permission, will be able to read it. 'T': Locate a User Will search for a user by name and if found, will tell the user that this name is a valid user and display the last time he was on the system. 'U': Page the Sysop If the page flag is on, this will allow a user to page you. If the bell flag is on, it will also signal you with a series of tones. 'W': System Statistics Gives caller the start date and number of users on the system. 'Z': Change Your User Stats Allows the user to change some of his entries in the user record - Password, lines per page, etc. and will display other information about him that he may not change. '?': Help Displays the menu top line MENU HELP FILENAME. If it is not present,it will return 'Sorry help is not available'. 'q': Questionnaires Executes a questionnaire script file. 'd': Dump a text file Displays any text file or ansi file. Example is welcome1.* 's': Shell a program Allows running another program from within Phoenix. Also called ONLINE programs. 'G': GoodBye Activates the goodbye.* file and logs user off the system. 'X': Xpert Toggle Changes his expert mode which affects the menu prompt. 'z': Call another Menu Will allow you to call another menu within the system. 'e': exit to system menu (special bulletin menu call only) Will allow a continuation of the login process after bulletins are dumped when a special bulletin menu is used. This is NOT active after entering the main menu. '*': Read Standard Bulletins (special bulletin menu call only) Activates the standard bulletin system using bulletin.* only from within special bulletin menus. Not active after entering main menu. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 'a': List Active Events (sysop stuff) Will display your event entries. 'b': Change Events Allows you to create events. 'c': Update Events Allows you to enable a disabled event, disable an event or remove an event permanently. 'f': Modify Users Log This will enter the users log, display all the users info to you and allow you to change many things within his record. 'g': Dump Callers Log Displays the callers.log in 'last-first' order. This is a special command. The callers.log should never be used in a dumpfile class command (d) as the file is not a text file. 'h': Users Pack Removes deleted records from users.bbs and allows you to make decisions about automatically deleting users who are below a certain user level, or users who have not called within a certain time period. Removing records tightens up the file and makes it smaller. 'i': message pack Removes deleted messages and tightens up the file. Also it tracks all users' last message read number and adjusts it to the new message number after packing. 'j': Update Files System This utility lets you create, modify or delete files areas. You may also password protect areas. It contains a remove area utility and packing command to keep the file small. 'k': Erase callers log Will delete callers.log and create a new one. 'l': Print Users Log Print users log to printer. Select one or all to print. 'm': Remote Drop To DOS Allows remote sysop level users to drop to dos and have full access to your disk system. Unless you have a driver like IBMAUX installed, you will not see what the user is doing until he returns to Phoenix. 'u': Update Message System Offers much of the same as update files system but is for message system. Passwords do not apply in messages. PHOENIX REMOTE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM DECEMBER 4, 1987 QUICK REFERENCE EVERY collie command cci is listed below. Please note that upper and lower case are VERY DIFFERENT and are NOT interchangable! CCI WHAT IT DOES 'A': Change Message Board (message stuff) 'B': Enter a Message 'C': Text Search in Messages 'D': Kill a Message 'E': List Your Mail 'F': Fast Scan Messages 'H': Read Messages 'I': Scan Messages (files stuff) 'J': Download Files 'K': Upload Files 'L': List Files (list current area files.bbs or files.clr) 'M': Change Files Area 'N': File Statistics 'O': New Files 'P': Search for a File (match a filename) 'V': View Contents of an Archive file (main menu stuff) 'R': Standard Bulletins (as called from main menu) 'S': Leave a Comment 'T': Locate a User 'U': Page the Sysop 'W': System Statistics 'Z': Change Your User Stats ('!' command in main menu) '?': Help (display menu top line help file) = 'q': Questionnaires (executes a questionnaire file) = 'd': Dump a text file (display a file) 's': Shell a program (online program) = 'G': GoodBye 'X': Xpert Toggle = 'z': Call another Menu => 'e': exit to system menu (special bulletin menu call only) => '*': Read Standard Bulletins (special bulletin menu call only) 'a': List Active Events (sysop stuff) 'b': Change Events 'c': Update Events 'f': Modify Users Log 'g': Dump Callers Log 'h': Users Pack 'i': message pack 'j': Update Files System (sysop '6' command) 'k': Erase callers log 'l': Print Users Log 'm': Remote Drop To DOS (sysop 'D' command) 'u': Update Message System (sysop '4' command) ANY cci is usable in any menu with the exception of any menus defined to be used in the special bulletin system. Then ONLY the cci's marked with a "=" are active. Those marked with "=>" are special bulletin menu calls and are inactive within the normal Phoenix menu system. An "R" is used to call standard bulletins from within the regular menu system. Study this tutorial carefully, and create some experimental menus to learn first hand what Phoenix is capable of. When you are confident that you know how to create menus, then read the advanced options section to discover how to create your own unique look text menus and ansi color menus.