The Pier Shareware 10/The_Pier_Shareware_Number_10_(The_Pier_Exchange)_(1996).iso/gapbbs/select.doc

Text File | 1996-08-12 | 15KB | 287 lines

                             ThePier Select
                              Version  2.0

                 Copyright (c) 1993-1995 RoboSoft Systems
                           All rights reserved.




    ThePier Select will work with a Pier Exchange Shareware CD-ROM to
    allow you to randomly add a specific number of files from the CD to
    your filebase.  New Pier Exchange CDs are released every three to
    four months.  Since each CD contains about 4000 files, you should be
    able to add about 40 files a day to your BBS on a continuous basis.
    (This assumes you'll be purchasing future editions of the Pier
    Exchange CDs when they become available.)

    The point of this, of course, is to make your BBS look like it's
    getting a _lot_ of uploads.  If you've been a sysop long, you know
    there is a bit of a catch-22 when it comes to uploads.  Callers tend
    not to upload if you don't have a lot of new files each time they
    call.  Unless you're already getting a lot of uploads, few callers
    will take the time to contribute.

    ThePier Select will allow you to add a specific number of files to
    your filebase.  You tell ThePier Select how many files to add and it
    randomly selects that many files from the CD and adds them directly
    to the filebase (if you're running GAP) or to a PCB-style file list.
    ThePier Select maintains a small database of its own so it can keep
    track of the files it has already selected.  This eliminates
    duplicate uploads.

    Note for GAP sysops: There are two versions of ThePier Select.  One
    is multi-node compatible, the other is not.  Be sure you use the
    correct version for your system.  Non-GAP sysops needn't be concerned;
    either version will work fine.

    IMPORTANT: This version of ThePier Select is compatible _only_ with
    the databases included with The Pier Shareware #4 and above.  The
    Pier Shareware #4 includes databases for all previous Pier Shareware
    CD-ROMs, so this shouldn't be a problem.

    Disclaimer
    ----------

    ThePier Select is provided AS IS without any warranty, expressed or
    implied, including, but not limited to, fitness for any purpose.
    Use of ThePier Select, and the consequences thereof, are entirely
    your risk.  In no event will RoboSoft Systems be liable for any
    damages whatsoever resulting from the use of ThePier Select.

    Registration
    ------------

    ThePier Select is being distributed as a freeware bonus to any
    sysop who owns a Pier Exchange CD-ROM.  ThePier Select is
    copyrighted software and RoboSoft Systems reserves all rights
    pertaining to that copyright, but you may use this software
    without payment of any fee.

    If you are a GAP sysop, please consider registering one or more
    of the GAP-specific utilities from RoboSoft Systems.  You'll
    find a description of these programs in the file GAP-PRO.TXT.

    Distribution
    ------------

    ThePier Select may be freely distributed on any Bulletin Board
    System (BBS), including commercial systems such as CompuServe (CIS),
    Genie, and BIX.  ThePier Select may be distributed by diskette by
    any organization or disk distributor as long as the fee for this
    distribution is no greater than $5.

    Feel free to pass around copies of ThePier Select, however, please
    distribute all of the original files and do not modify any of the
    files.

    Instructions for Use
    --------------------

    Using ThePier Select is a two-part process.  You must first build
    ThePier Select database using PRESELCT.EXE.  PRESELCT uses
    ThePier database included on the CD to build a local database.
    (There are two separate databases involved here.  What is referred
    to here as ThePier Select database is the local database built by
    PRESELCT.  It resides in the directory with the rest of ThePier
    Select files.  It's fairly small, about 35k, and contains just
    enough information to locate the files in the large database.
    ThePier database is the large database included with ThePier CD and
    used by ThePier CD-ROM Access Program.  It contains complete
    information about all the files on the CD and will normally reside
    on the CD.)  Before running PRESELCT, you need to find ThePier
    database on the CD and write down the directory path.  (It should
    be in the directory THEPIER off the root, but you should check to
    be sure.)  PRESELCT will ask for this directory path and will then
    quickly run through the files in ThePier database.  ThePier Select
    database is in the file PIERSLCT.DAT.  If you want to use ThePier
    Select on more than one CD at a time, you'll have to set up one
    directory for each CD and keep copies of ThePier Select files in
    each directory.

    Once you've built ThePier Select database, you can use SELECT.EXE to
    randomly select files from the database.  SELECT uses the local
    database to select the random file and then retrieves the detailed
    information about that file from ThePier database on the CD.  So
    both the local database and the large database on the CD must be
    available when running SELECT.  If you run a GAP BBS, SELECT can add
    the selected files directly to your filebase.  If you don't run GAP,
    SELECT will add the selected files to a PCBoard-style file listing.
    It's up to you to figure out how to get the files in that listing
    into your filebase.

    SELECT is controlled via command line parameters.  Each parameter
    should be preceded by a slash (/) or a dash (-).  The parameters may
    be in either upper or lower case.  The general parameters applicable
    to both GAP and non-GAP environments are as follows.

    /S#       - Optional parameter indicating that files should be
                selected only from the specified CD-ROM subject.
                Example: "SELECT /S5" indicates that files should be
                selected only from CD-ROM subject 5.  By default, files
                are selected from all subjects on the CD-ROM.

    /D        - Optional parameter indicating the selected files should
                be marked with today's date instead of the actual file
                date.  This will ensure that the selected files show up
                in your filebase as new files.

    /N#       - Optional parameter indicating the number of files to
                select.  Example: "SELECT /N25" indicates that 25 files
                should be selected.  By default, ten files are selected
                during each run of SELECT.

    /P<path>  - Optional parameter indicating the directory containing
                ThePier database (usually on the CD-ROM).  The
                environment variable THEPIER can also be used to specify
                the path to the CD-ROM database.  If no path is
                specified, the current directory is used.  (The default
                action here is almost certainly not what you want.)
                Example: "SELECT /Px:\thepier" indicates ThePier
                database is in the directory 'X:\THEPIER'.

    /R<root>  - Required parameter that specifies the root filename used
                for ThePier database (the one on the CD).  If the
                database is in the directory X:\THEPIER and that
                directory contains files such as PIER3.D01, PIER3.D02,
                PIER3.D03, etc, the root would be PIER3.  This parameter
                _must_ be specified or SELECT will not be able to open
                the database.  Example: "SELECT /Rpier3".


    If you are running a GAP BBS, the following parameters can be used.

    /G        - Indicates the selected files should be added directly to
                a GAP filebase.  The environment variable GAPCNF should
                contain the path to the GAP default directory (where
                GAPBBS.CNF resides).

    /Vx       - Required (if /G is specified) parameter that indicates
                the drive letter of the CD-ROM containing the files
                being added.  ThePier database does not contain drive
                information, so this parameter is necessary in order to
                let GAP know the full path to the selected files.
                Example: "SELECT /G /VF" indicates that the CD-ROM is
                drive F:.

    /L        - Optional parameter indicating that existing files
                which are duplicated on the CD-ROM should be physically
                deleted.  SELECT assumes you want to use the files on
                the CD in preference to existing files which duplicate
                those on the CD.  This parameter causes SELECT to
                automatically delete the actual files when duplicates
                occur.  All duplicate files, deleted or not, will be
                logged to PIERSLCT.LOG.  If you don't use this
                parameter, you can review the log and manually delete
                the duplicate files.

    Also of interest if you're running GAP are two other text-based
    files.  KEYWORDS.XCL is a list of words, one word per line, that
    will not be indexed as keywords.  A standard KEYWORDS.XCL is
    included with ThePier Select.  You can add or delete words using any
    normal ASCII editor.

    PIERSLCT.XLT is used to automatically translate CD-ROM subjects to
    specific area/subjects in your filebase.  This allows you to add
    CD-ROM files to your existing filebase structure without creating
    new subjects specifically for the CD-ROM.  Each line of PIERSLCT.XLT
    should contain three numbers separated by spaces.  The first number
    is the CD-ROM subject number, the second number is the GAP filebase
    area, and the third number is the GAP filebase subject within that
    area.  So, if you want subject 1 from the CD to map to Area 0,
    Subject 13 in your GAP filebase, add the line "1 0 13" to
    PIERSLCT.XLT.  Each CD-ROM subject should appear in PIERSLCT.XLT
    only once.  A default PIERSLCT.XLT is included with ThePier Select,
    but it is not designed with a particular CD or system in mind, so
    you should edit it to fit your system and the CD you're using prior
    to running SELECT.  A GAP filebase subject of 0 will cause files
    in the associated CD-ROM subject to be completely skipped.  (This
    may be of use if you want to exclude one or more subjects on the
    CD-ROM.)

    A good way to do the mapping is to automatically map those subjects
    on the CD that obviously correspond directly to subjects you've
    already established and to map the rest of the CD-ROM subjects to
    your upload directory.  You can then review the uploads individually
    and place them in the appropriate subject in your GAP filebase.  For
    instance, if you already have a Communications subject in your
    filebase and the CD contains a Communications subject, you'll want
    to map the CD subject directly to your filebase subject.  But if the
    CD contains a single Windows subject and you have multiple Windows
    subjects in your filebase, you'll probably want to review the files
    individually to decide in which of your Windows subjects they belong.
    In this case, you can map the CD Windows subject to your upload
    subject and then review the files along with the rest of your normal
    uploads.

    If you import directly into a GAP filebase, SELECT will maintain a
    log (PIERSLCT.LOG) detailing its operation.  The log will list the
    files imported by SELECT and will identify any collisions with
    existing files.

    ThePier Select can also randomly select an uploader name from a
    list of names in the file PIERSLCT.NAM.  Uploader names should be
    entered one per line in this file.  You can create a list of
    completely fake names or use some of your real users' names if you
    like.  (It is recommended you use fake names since you may need to
    determine the source of a file and it will lead to confusion if you
    use real user names.)  The "uploader" will not receive any real
    credit for the file other than getting his/her name listed as
    uploader.  There is no switch to control this feature.  If
    PIERSLCT.NAM exists, the names contained therein will be used.  If
    the file doesn't exist, all uploads will be credited to SYSOP.  You
    can put an asterisk in front of the names in PIERSLCT.NAM if you
    don't want to deal with updating the uploaders credits when the file
    is eventually deleted.


    If you are running any system other than GAP, the following
    parameters can be used.  (These parameters can be used on GAP boards
    too, but they have no effect if the /G parameter is specified.)

    /A        - Optional paramater indicating the selected files should
                be appended to an existing file list.  The default
                behavior is to create a new listing file with each run
                of SELECT.

    /F<file>  - Optional parameter specifying the name of the output
                file.  By default, the file list is output to
                PIERSLCT.LST.  Example: "SELECT /Fmy_list.out" will
                write the data for the selected files to the file
                MY_LIST.OUT.

    /Cc       - Optional parameter specifying a character used to mark
                continuation lines within the generated listing.  If
                this parameter is not specified, no continuation line
                marker will be used.  Example: "SELECT /C#" causes
                SELECT to use '#' as the continuation line marker.
                Since the vertical bar commonly used to mark
                continuation lines can not be properly specified on the
                command line, the /C parameter without a following
                character can be used to specify the use of a vertical
                bar as the continuation line marker.  Example: "SELECT
                /C" causes SELECT to use '|' as the continuation line
                marker.



    Limitations
    -----------

    ThePier Select will only work with CD-ROMs from The Pier Exchange
    that contain the RoboROM database used by ThePier CD-ROM Access
    Program version 3.x.  This database is available on ThePier CD-ROM
    #4 and above.  Databases for previous Pier Shareware CD-ROMs are
    included on CD-ROM #4. They may also be obtained from The Pier
    Exchange.  The databases are fairly large so a nominal disk and
    handling charge may apply.


    If you have several Pier Exchange CD-ROMs and want to use ThePier
    Select on more than one of them you will need to create a separate
    directory for each and copy all ThePier Select files into each
    directory.  ThePier Select database names are hardcoded and can not
    be shared between CD-ROMs, so the files have to be segregated.