* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * DoorNews Door (Version 2.0 was 2 April, 1991) Version 3.0 for OzMetro 23 Nov 94 Another Metro Door from Peter Deane * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! You must have two .bmap files on your SYS: disk before you run this door. They are the 'graphics.bmap' and 'dos.bmap' files which must be in the libs: directory of your SYS: disk (ie boot drive) These .bmap files are supplied in the distribution archive. WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! * WARNING! Revision Notes: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Version 3.0 ----------- Special new compilation for the OzMetro BBS release - docs are unchanged, really, so make some allowances for the slight difference in OzMetro door setup over Metro... Version 2.0 ----------- I HAD to jump a heap in the revision number, because of what the door now looks like. FULL 8-Colour on the SYSOP side now!! No more [35;40m's coming up all over the place! I am deeply indebted to Craig Jackson's Wall Door for the ideas on how to do this. This is the first of the conversions of the older doors I've done, and more will follow. I have COMPLETELY re-written the door routines - so much so that it's a fair bit of work to change these things over, but I thought I'd start with a simple one and get it going. I think you'll find them quite a bit faster than before, especially for output. But if the technical side is not your worry, just use this and enjoy. If it is, you'll be interested to note that finally I have been given the word that AC-BASIC does not support devices, and so our attempts to use the console.device for the ANSI output was doomed from the start. Thanks to Craig who is obviously a far better programmer than myself, I could see the inclusion of SUB Programs for the colour settings were a much better idea than what I was using before. Based on the SUBs in the WallDoor, I developed a few SUBs at the end of this which allows remote ANSI setting and local COLOR (yeah American spelling for this - cos that's what AC-BASIC likes) setting would work beautifully. I also developed a routine to allow attribute changes, which is now in its infancy, however, underlined, bold and italics are supported, although NOT combinations of them. I tried them out in this door - very sparingly. The page length now will default to that set on the BBS (it reads the userlog to do this), and for local logins will default to 22 lines - which is just what you need. Remember to also select 'YES' to the ANSI question now!! Now that I can actually see what the colours look like, I added a few more, and generally tidied up the display. Due to the fact that the title is printed up CENTERED above the text itself, the maximum length of the menu DESCRIPTIONS is now 78 characters. I doubt any of you would be exceeding this before, anyway. Your old configs will be 100% usable, noting the above condition. Note that the door opens a 640*202 pixel screen for itself. On NTSC systems you will not be able to see the lower 2 pixels (not missing much!), but the reason for doing this is so you can still get to the screen's push-to-back gadget. Try it - it's J-U-S-T clickable, and saves a lot of mucking around if you are working on the system and a user pops open the door. Version 1.1 ----------- The MAIN change to this is the use of my new FileOut routine with the Xon/Xoff arrangements. Also a text can be aborted at any time with the SPACEBAR. I also got it to change the colour each text is printed up with. Previously all the supplied texts were printed in green (unless they already did have ANSI codes), now they are printed in Green, Yellow, Cyan and Magenta, and it cycles through the 4 colours with each new text selected. The menu now prints up the time and date (in GOOD format) and the remaining time the user has. Users can set the page length on entry to the door. It defaults to what they have set on the BBS. Local, your window will display 22 lines only, and the door will default to 22 lines for local logins. Intro: ~~~~~ This is by far the shortest door I've ever done, but, like all programs it fills a need. Once a user is on the doors menu, how do you let them know about things? Well, you could put texts up in the InfoDesk - but if you are like me, you have this on a MAIN menu. (It's also a little TOO big, I now have over 1.7 Meg (190 files) in this directory). Besides, the texts I want to print out often already exist in various places, why should you have to have other copies of them? So I use this very small door for just outputting a few texts from the Doors Menu, containing info mainly about the doors themselves. It's very simple, and can actually contain as many texts as you want, BUT since there's no page pausing or anything during the menu printup, I wouldn't advise putting more than about 18 or so docs off this door, so the menu fits on your users' screens! All the usual Metro conventions apply to this door. Make sure the texts you use have the EOL character on a line by itself (easily arranged by loading the text into an editor, going down to the bottom and pressing Return once or twice - or more) ** The new FileOut routine error-checks for this, so there's no need to worry now. This door has a menu which is VERY similar to your normal menus. It's very easy to get running. To set this up: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In Doorfiles1 or Doorfiles2 or (...) create a blank directory called DoorX. (X=a spare number in accordance with the Metro Docs). Copy all the files from this archive into this directory, and then rename the file 'Door5' to 'DoorX'. Then add a command to BBSFILES/DoorCmdsX so the users can get to it. Okay, if you DO have any probs, see the Metro Docs... I suggest you put this on your first Doorfiles directory so the users will actually see it! DoorNews.config ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To get this to run you will need a file in the Door directory called DoorNews.config. I've given you a sample one, but I severely doubt it will work on your system! DoorNews.config looks very much like one of your Metro Menus, and has three lines per entry: 1. Keypress 2. Text printed up on the menu 3. Filename of the Text to print up If you don't have an even multiple of three lines per entry, the last entry will be ignored (but it won't crash). Here's what a part of my config looks like: S <--- Keypress for the cmd S - Shared Users Info From Questionaire Door <--- What's printed BBS:Doorfiles1/Door997/Answers-3 <--- Full name of the text M M - Multi Adventures Available BBS:Doorfiles2/Door67/Menu.dat The keypress can be any upper case or symbol character (just like on an ordinary menu). (EG A, T, %, (, +, [, 1, 6 etc) The info printed up can be up to 78 characters long, but keep it down for faster menus. Maybe 30 characters or so. The filename is a standard AmigaDOS filename. If the file is in another directory, you must include the full specs. If, however, the text is in the actual door directory itself, then just the filename only will suffice. If a file cannot be found, the program just tells the users this and then drops them back to the top menu. So, in your door directory, you need a copy of the door, Doornews.config, and any of the texts you want to put up, if they don't exist elsewhere. Conclusion: ~~~~~~~~~~~ Notice how this lets the users get to any of the door texts (or any other text anywhere, come to that). See how I have one of the surveys from Mark's Questionaire Door accesible to the users (originally - still am - I was copying this to a textfile in the midnight event, and letting the users know that this questionaire would be available publicly). I think this is a nifty idea. If you think of a nifty idea, please share it with us. Unfortunately, the high scores files for most games are not formatted, so they do not make practical additions as texts to this door. You could always edit them up in a text editor every so often (creating a new file of course) for display here. Copyright Status: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The copyright as a Metro Door is held by me. This program may be re-distributed electronically, provided a profit is not made by such distribution. If a profit is made, then the proceeds MUST be forwarded to me. Contact Me: ~~~~~~~~~~~ Postal: Peter Deane PO Box 228 Swansea NSW 2281 AUSTRALIA Call Inquestor BBS 24 Hours: 011-61-49-72-1647 from the USA (049) 72-1647 from within Australia