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USERMAN.DOC - ARES/Data Remote Packet User Information Be sure to also read QUIKREF.DOC - Packet Operator Quick Reference Version 1.5 OVERVIEW OF ARES/Data Briefly, ARES/Data may be regarded as a specialized multiple-port, multiple-connect database with a specific command set tailored to the handling of information input, search, listing, and summary requests. In addition, the system provides a full-featured conference bridge so that all connected stations may converse conveniently with one another. The ARES/Data network is a star network with the ARES/Data database machine at the hub. It looks something like this: _______ARES/Data Database Machine_______ | | | | Port A Port B Port C Port D | | | | radio radio radio radio .. ... ... .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P Each "P" represents a remotely-connected packet station which is connected to the ARES/Data database machine. All the remotely-connected stations have shared access to the data in the system. In particular, the packet operators can utilize two groups of functions provided by ARES/Data which are described in detail in this file: I. send/receive status requests and current information to/from the ARES/Data database station II. send/receive short messages to/from other remotely connected stations or the sysop (Conference Bridge) A. CONNECTING TO THE ARES/Data DATABASE STATION TNC SETTINGS FOR REMOTELY CONNECTED PACKET STATIONS: These are quite inportant for efficient operation of the network! Use the commands appropriate for your type of TNC: TAPR, AEA, PACCOMM: WA8DED: DWAIT 25 (250 MS) * W 25 (250 MS) MAXFRAME 1 * O 1 FRACK 10 (10 SEC) * F 10 (10 SEC) RETRY 10 * N 10 AX25L2V2 ON * V 2 RESPTIME 10 (1.0 SEC) * @T2 100 TXDELAY 40 (400 ms) * T 40 (400 ms) NOTE: Set paclen larger than the longest input line you expect to use. For example, if you will have 4 20-character fields plus an 80 char. message, then to include four commas use PACLEN 164 Next, using the ARES/Data callsign that has been chosen by the sysop, simply initiate a connection. (Note: if the sysop is running a G8BPQ switch at the main database station, this first connect will be to the switch. Usual commands like NODES, ROUTES, etc. are available. In addition, a new command, ARESDATA, will connect you to the ARES/Data application.) After a successful connect, acknowledged by "ARES/Data System Online", you may begin to interact with the database or use the conference bridge. By the way, always be patient in waiting for a response from the system - as you can see from the diagram above, there may be a large number of operators using the system, and at 1200 baud, you may have to wait for responses at times. If you are collecting information from a group of voice operators (see Section D.4), activate your voice net on the designated simplex frequency if needed. Note that in this case the packet operator needs two antennas (one for packet and one for voice) with the antennas arranged to eliminate de-sense (unless the packet portion is set up on an alternate band, which is preferable). B. WHAT INFORMATION IS STORED IN THE DATABASE ARES/Data organizes the incoming data into "records", which you can view as a group of pieces of information about some particular person, place, or thing. Each record is given a unique "record number" by the program. Here is what can be stored in each record: field1,field2,field3,field4,message where each of fields 1-4 can be a 20-character string, and the message string can be 80 characters long. The distinction between the "fields" and the "message" is that the "fields" are organized internally by the program so that the packet operator can request searches and summaries on the information in any one of the four fields. Searches and summaries cannot be performed on the information in the message field. If this sounds a little abstract, don't worry. It is one of the major virtues of the system that the meaning of the stored information is not defined in advance. In this manner, ARES/Data can be used in a variety of ways, depending upon the particular disaster or emergency at hand. In a given event, the sysop can issue a "labels" command that gives particular meaning to each of the fields and the message, so that all know how ARES/Data is being used for that event. For example, in an evacuation, you may want to keep track of evacuees at shelters. Then you may want the fields to mean: Name, Shelter, Status, PhoneNumber, Contact person. On the other hand, if there is a multiple-casualty incident, you may want the fields to mean: Triage number, Sex/Age, Ambulance, Hospital, Condition. See the paper on ARES/Data in the 7th ARRL Computer Networking Conference Proceedings (1988) for more examples. C. GENERAL RULES FOR CURRENT INFORMATION INPUT Enter the four fields and any message, in order, with separators between the fields. The only valid separator is the comma. Within a field, leading and trailing blanks are ignored, but imbedded blanks ARE significant. If no value is desired for a particular field, just skip the field by adding an extra comma. The database will fill that field with ten blank characters. D. SYNTAX FOR CURRENT INFORMATION INPUT: field1,field2,field3,field4,message<cr> (<cr> means carriage return) 1. FIELD1 - FIELD4 The four fields are very general. Each can have up to 20 characters, with imbedded blanks. Entries can be in upper or lower case, or a mixture, but are converted to UPPER case before being stored in the database. The meaning of each field is defined in real-time by the ARES officials, depending upon the nature of the event. The sysop can issue a "labels" command that will give specific names to each of the four fields to help the operators remember what they mean. Similarly, the remote packet operator can type "labels<cr>" to see the current label definitions. 2. MESSAGE MESSAGE is a free-form field that can be up to 80 characters long. It could contain a message, a phone number, an address, or other information deemed useful for the incident. AUTOMATIC ORIGIN FEATURE: When a record is initially entered into ARES/Data, the callsign of the originating station is automatically added to the beginning of the message field in the format "<W1AW> rest of message here ". This origin identifier automatically changes if another station alters the record later. As a result of this, the effective length of the message field is 80 minus the number of characters in the origin identifier, which is usually more like 72 characters. 3. EXAMPLES OF DATA INPUT 4085553195,joe,12,sj34<cr> Johnson,mary,93445,sj13, home 2333 Alsace Ln SJ 617-555-1212<cr> All of the input information is stored in the database as a record of the status and location of a particular person, place, or thing at a particular time and date. The time and date are added automatically by the ARES/Data program. Further STATUS INPUT packets for the same person, place, or thing will also be saved in the database. The time and date will identify the most recent information. 4. DETAILED EXAMPLE INPUT TO THE ARES/Data DATABASE Suppose that the four fields have been defined to be: LAST NAME, FIRST NAME, SHELTER NUMBER, and basic physical CONDITION. This example also assumes that a voice operator is telling the packet operator what to type in. If voice operators are not in use, the packet operator simply types the information in directly. Voice Operator says: Packet Operator types: This is current info, (nothing) The last name is Johnson Johnson, The first name is Joe Joe, The shelter is RS03 (Riverside Shelter 3) RS03, The condition is "okay" ok, (optional) The message is "came with dog" came with dog which should look like this on your terminal: Johnson,Joe,RS03,ok,came with dog<CR> The ARES/Data Database will acknowledge your input, for example, by "1450: data input accepted, #234." or, by sending an error message requiring a re-entry. The acknowledgment contains the current time and the record number for that person's entry in the database. Note that the program adds the actual time and date to each entry, which you can see when you list the record (see below). If you later enter more information for the same person, you would re-enter the same last and first names, and then enter new values for any other fields that have changed. BOTH entries will be kept as a sort of "audit trail" of what has happened to that person. Alternatively, you can just change the value in the specific field that has changed (see the next section). E. CORRECTING AND/OR UPDATING INFORMATION If you accidentally enter incorrect information into the database, or if the information in a particular record has changed, you have several options. You can delete the entire record, or you can change the value in a specific field of a specific record. 1. DELETING A BAD RECORD: You can ask the sysop to delete the bad entry by typing: tell sysop ooops, typo. pse delete #234.<CR> OR, if the sysop has enabled the remote delete feature, you can delete this entry yourself, and then re-enter the correct data. To do this, you first make sure you know the record number, then use the delete command: "d nnnn<CR>" d 234<CR> This function is always enabled at the sysop keyboard. Its use by remotely connected packet stations is controlled initially by the configuration file during program startup. Thereafter, the sysop can disable or enable this function as necessary. Be extremely careful in using this command! Always list the record first before deleting to be sure you have the right one. 2. CHANGING (UPDATING) A PARTICULAR FIELD OF A PARTICULAR RECORD: The syntax for updating fieldm of record nnnn is: #nnnn,m=new text for fieldm<cr> where m = 1-4 for the first four fields, and m = 5 for the message. For example, suppose you needed to change the value in field3 of record 235 to "shelter 9". You would type: #235,3=shelter 9<cr> Note that when you correct or update a single field like this, the time and date for the record are not changed. ARES/Data responds by showing you what the old values for record 235 were, and what the new values are according to your update command. F. INFORMATION THAT MAY BE REQUESTED FROM THE ARES/Data DATABASE The packet operator can request several types of searches of the ARES/Data database. S/he can request a search for a specific value of any one of the four main fields. In this case, the ARES/Data program sends back to the packet operator a status report listing all entries in the database having the specified value for the selected field. In addition, the operator can request a "wildcard" search, which looks for any entries in a specific field that START with a particular string. The Packet Op can also request a summary for any one of the four fields, which is a list of the number of entries in the database for each distinct value of that field (see Section H). The operator can list single records in the database by specifying the record number. For example, suppose that for a particular incident, the sysop has designated field1 to be the person's last name. Suppose the packet operator needs to find the information on all people in the system with a given last name. The operator sends a search request for field1, stating which last name s/he is interested in. The ARES/Data system will respond with all entries with the given name; one line for every entry in the database matching that name. If the operator knows only the beginning of the name or if the name is long, the wildcard search is very useful. G. SEARCH REQUESTS 1. SYNTAX FOR SEARCH REQUESTS /1,value<cr> for field 1 /2,value<cr> for field 2 /3,value<cr> for field 3 /4,value<cr> for field 4 or ?1,value<cr> for field 1 ?2,value<cr> for field 2 ?3,value<cr> for field 3 ?4,value<cr> for field 4 This type of packet instructs the database machine to look in the database for ALL entries with the same entry as "value" in the specified field. The string "value" must exactly match what was originally typed in for the selected field, with leading and trailing blanks removed, and without regard for case. The initial character of the search request can be "/" or "?" - use whichever is most convenient. The two formats are handled identically. A status report listing all information for each match is sent back to the requesting packet station. The first line gives the search value and the field number. At the end of the report, the line: "ARES/Data Search done at 1534, nn hits." is sent, which signifies no more information coming, and that "nn" matches (or hits) were found in the database. 2. WILDCARD SEARCH OR PARTIAL SEARCH The syntax for a wildcard or partial search is: /n,val*<cr> where "n" is the field number (1-4), and "val*" means that you want to search for all entries in fieldn that start with the characters "val". The response from the system is identical to that for an exact search request. This is very useful if a particular field has been defined to hold more than one piece of information. For example, suppose field 1 is defined to be "Lastname-Firstname" so that Bill Jones would be entered by the line: Jones-Bill, shelter3, OK, 444-555-1212, message<cr> Now if you did not know Mr. Jones' first name, you could still search for him in the database by typing ?1,Jone*<cr> and you would retrieve all records whose first field began with the characters "JONE". 3. DETAILED EXAMPLE OF SEARCH REQUEST Assume that the label definitions are the same as in D.4 above. This example applies to a last name search request (field1). Voice Operator says: Packet Operator types: This is a request for last name search /1, The name is johnson johnson which should look like this on your terminal: /1,johnson<CR> The ARES/Data database will acknowledge your request by either stating that there are no entries in the database for that value for field1, or by sending a status report which looks like: Exact Search for value "JOHNSON" in Last name Recno DT/Time Last name, First name, Shelter, Condition, Msg 234 23/1124 JOHNSON,JOE,RS03,OK,<W6ABC> CAME WITH DOG ARES/Data Search done at 1530, 1 hits. Some versions of ARES/Data may have disabled the search features for certain fields to save disk(ette) space and speed access. (And for some situations, it won't make sense to be able to search on any field). If searches have been disabled, you will get a message like this one: Cannot search on this field, index file not in use. H. SUMMARY REQUESTS $1<cr> produces a list of all distinct values for field1, with the number of entries in the database for each $2<cr> similar, except summarize on field 2 $3<cr> similar, except summarize on field 3 $4<cr> similar, except summarize on field 4 For example, suppose field 3 were defined to be the shelter name. After the packet operator types "$3<cr>", ARES/Data sends a summary on field 3, which may be interpreted as a list of shelters, with the number of people that have checked in to each shelter. I. LISTING SPECIFIC ENTRIES (RECORDS) IN THE DATABASE l nnnn<cr> Lists record nnnn The response will be a short header showing the labels for the various fields, and then the complete information for record nnnn. l nnn,mmm<cr> Lists records numbered from nnn to mmm l all<cr> List ALL records in the database. WARNING: be careful with this command, as it may cause a large number of packets to be sent on the channel. You can stop an undesired "list all" by simply disconnecting from the ARES/Data machine. This will cause no harm. Then just reconnect. J. DOWNLOADING FILES You may download a file from a special public directory on the database machine by typing: get filename<cr> This facility is intended to be used and controlled by the sysop in the sense that s/he controls what is in the public subdirectory and whether this feature is on or off. One file that is currently provided with ARES/Data is an "info" file, which gives more information of interest to general users. If the sysop has copied this file to the public subdirectory, you can download it by typing: get info<cr> If the sysop deems that it is useful, this complete documentation file can be downloaded by typing "get userman.doc<cr>", but please remember that a lot of packets will be generated by this operation. To get a listing of the files available for downloading from the public area, type dir<cr> K. CONFERENCE BRIDGE (roundtable - "users" and "tell" commands) This feature allows any connected station to send messages to other connected stations or to the sysop. 1. Users command: The users command, in the form "users<cr>" or "u<cr>", returns a list of the callsigns of currently logged-on packet stations. The response is of the form: Users at WN6I-1 (AX0): N6KL W6BB-3 W6XYZ WB6MRQ-7 Users at WN6I-4 (DR0): 0:N6KL-3 1:N5BZK 3:AA4RE-12 Note that there is one line for each port defined in the ARES/Data system, so that you can see who is using which port. The callsigns used by ARES/Data for the verious defined ports do not have to be identical. After the database callsign, the port name defined by the sysop during startup is shown in parentheses. Note also that for the DRSI packet adapter, several radios and even several boards can be attached to the database machine. All the users connecting to the DRSI adapters are treated as being on one port of the ARES/Data network. You can refer specifically to the user on DRSI sub-port 1 by putting a "1:" in front of the callsign: "1:N5BZK". In general, however, this is not really necessary, since as far as ARES/Data is concerned, "N5BZK" or "BZK" will do just as well (see below). 2. Tell command: The Tell command allows connected packet stations to use ARES/Data as a conference bridge, or roundtable. The general format is: tell callsign message<cr> or: t callsign message<cr> For example: tell w6bb-3 The food truck just arrived at SJ12<cr> The message "The food truck just arrived at SJ12" is sent to the connected station W6BB-3 prefaced by a time stamp and the call of the station originating the tell command. In this case, if the tell command was sent by W6XYX, W6BB-3 sees: 1230 W6XYZ> The food truck just arrived at SJ12 It is not necessary to enter the entire callsign - just the suffix or some other substring will do. If several connected callsigns contain the substring, each station will get the message. The special callsign "*" or "all" is used to send a message to all connected stations. The special callsign "sysop" sends the message to the sysop at the ARES/Data database station. END USERMAN.DOC