*************************** UNeedA Stats v1.4 Released February 5, 1990 Written by Clint Dimick *************************** About UNeedA Stats ------------------ UNeedA Stats is a statistical textfile generation program written for Paragon BBS Sysops. It will analyze your Paragon_.LOG file and generate a graph which displays the percentage of activity during the hours of the day. Output can be in either normal text, or in the IBM character-set font. The latter produces much nicer looking displays and can be viewed in Paragon on the local screen even if this font is not installed in your system. Changes from v1.3 ----------------- New additions! ANSI color graphs can now be created via the newly added "-a" switch. Also, multiple line logs can be read an processed via the "*" flag. See the new description below. For those of you who missed v1.3, this one includes the fixes from that version. Basically, v1.3 had better error-handling for those "garbage log entries" which sometimes appear because of line-noise, etc. There is a less likely chance that your report will get garbled. How to Use UNeedA Stats ----------------------- Usage is quite straightforward. Simply copy "Stats" to your "c:" directory, "CD" to the directory which contains your Paragon_.LOG files, and issue the command: NEW COMMAND LINE SWITCHES AND FLAGS FOR VERSION 1.4! **************************************************** 1> Stats [-i] [-a] is the BBS line that you wish to generate a report on. The newly added "*" flag can be used instead of an individual line number. If chosen, a multiple-line graph will be generated for all existing Paragon_.LOG files. If you have lines 0, 1, 2, and 5, for example, a graph will be generated which reflects the TOTAL usage from these 4 lines. A new header in the graph will specify for how many lines the report was generated. The "-i" switch toggles IBM graphs instead of normal text graphs. The "-a" switch toggles ANSI color to be used or not in your graphs. If this flag is selected, the usage bars will appear in a color representing the activity for this time period. The colors are: green for 35% or less, yellow for 70% or less, and red for anything over 70% in usage. specifies the name of the output file for the graph. You may include any legal filename up to 40 characters in length. To create UNeedA Stats bulletin files, simply add the proper path and filename. For example, you could set up a stats graph as bulletin #4 as follows: Stats 1 -i Paragon/Bulletins/Bul4.TXT This would create a graph for log file 1, with the IBM character set, and place it in your bulletins directory with the name of "Bul4.TXT". Users could now view it as a regular bulletin file. Should you forget the proper syntax for UNeedA Stats, simply enter: 1> Stats ? They will be repeated for you. :) ** Please note that I am using a log verbosity level of 3 on my board. This ** may be necessary for proper graph generations on your system. What UNeedA Stats Does ---------------------- After entry of the command, UNeedA Stats will generate a report file using the name you specified in the command line argument. Data is taken from your Paragon_.LOG file and processed in the following manner: logon sessions are calculated from the beginning of a log entry with a "Norm. logon," "Local logon, " or "New user" description. Logon sessions are considered terminated from the beginning of a log entry with a "Logged out normally," "Idled time out," "Exceeded time limit," or "Post-Download disconnect" description. The time the user was on during this session is then calculated, and broken up into two hour slots if indeed this happened (a logon at 10:47am and logoff at 11:16am, for example, would cause this). A suggested use of the graph file is a bulletin for all your users to view. It is a great way to answer the all too familiar question, "When is a good time for me to get on the board?" To do this, add the Stats command to one of your script files which Paragon executes and give it a proper path and filename for the bulletin number to generate. Final Notes ----------- I'd like to thank everyone who has given me suggestions and bug reports for all versions of UNeedA Stats. Your continued interest in the program is what makes me go for new version releases! If you have any suggestions or questions, please address them to me at FidoNet address 1:135/66, or on my BBS: UNeedA Medical Supply (305-232-7993). Enjoy! - Clint Dimick