VIII. The Aladdin Main Screen VIII. The Aladdin Main Screen VIII. The Aladdin Main Screen The Library Menu From this menu you can access all of the features of the RoundTable's Software Library, from searching for files by keywords, uploader or upload date to browsing the long descriptions of each file and performing multiple batch downloads, automatically and with a minimum amount of involvement on your part. 1. Check For New Files 1. Check For New Files 1. Check For New Files Clicking Check For New Files from the Library Menu will tell Aladdin to immediately log on to GEnie, go to the RoundTable's Software Library, and check to see if there are any new files available for downloading. For those of you that are familiar with GEnie, Aladdin issues a command to display all files in the library. You don't have to worry about Aladdin spending hours checking for new files, though. Aladdin keeps track of the last time it checked that specific library for new files. As soon as it finds a file with an upload date which is equal to or earlier than the date Aladdin knows was the last time it checked for new files, it sends GEnie a "break", which stops the file listing. Aladdin will then log off and return you to the Software Library section of the RoundTable. If there are any new files available, Aladdin will display a triangle mark next to the option in the menu, indicating to you that there are new files available on the RoundTable's Software Library. This option is covered in detail a little further on in this section of the manual. Aladdin will also display the same marker next to that RoundTable's entry in the Aladdin main menu. This marker will remain until you access the Check Library for New Files option. 2. Do Pending Operation 2. Do Pending Operation 2. Do Pending Operation This option is exactly the same as the corresponding option in the RoundTable Menu. Refer to the previous section for more information on this command. 3. Upload File 3. Upload File 3. Upload File The Upload file option is used to upload files from your personal computer into the selected RoundTable's Software Library area. Clicking on this option will cause a standard GEM file selector box to be displayed on your screen. Copyright 1990 by General Electric Page 52 To upload a file, the first thing you have to do is tell Aladdin the name of the file that you want to upload. For example, if you want to upload the file MYFILE.TXT, and the file is located in your C:\DOCUMENT directory. you would type "C:\DOCUMENT\MYFILE.TXT" into the first field. You must enter a filename in this field; if you do not, Aladdin will discard the entire upload request when you try to save it by clicking on OK. The "Name for GEnie" field corresponds to the filename that you want to have GEnie store the file as. For example, if your MYFILE.TXT file should be displayed as TECHINFO.TXT in the RoundTable's Software Library file directory, you would type "TECHINFO.TXT" into this field. Do not enter a path or directory in this field, only the GEnie filename should be entered here. The "Software Library" field defines which library the file will be uploaded to. All Software Libraries are divided into categories, such as "Utilities", "Games", "Demonstration Programs", etc. You should enter the proper library number in this field. If you are not sure which library to use, upload the file to library 1. The Sysop will then move the file to the proper library during file verification. The next two fields are "Keyword" fields. These fields are used to perform file searches in the RoundTable's Software Library. There are two fields with the same name, just in case you run out of room in the first field. The keywords should be entered in capital letters, with a comma separating each keyword. You should choose keywords which will make it easy to find your program in a search. For example, if you are uploading a file directory display utility, you might want to use keywords such as "FILE,DIRECTORY,DISPLAY,UTILITY" instead of "FILE,PROGRAM". Make sure you do not repeat any keywords, this wastes space and is unnecessary because the GEnie search algorithm checks all keywords once to try and find a match. The "Short Description" field is used to enter a short, one- line file description which is displayed with the filename during searches, directory displays, etc. This should be a concise but clear one-line message which tells the next person to see that file entry what the file is or does. For example, for the file directory display utility, a good short description would be "File Directory Display Utility V99.9". Don't be too verbose on this short description, just be concise and to the point. Aladdin ST Manual Page 53 Once you have filled out the top part of the screen, the cursor will jump down to the bottom window. This window is where you will enter a long description for the file which should not exceed 10 lines of text. Here's where you will list the complete description for the file, including any information which you think will give the user a very detailed idea of what's in the file. For programs, you should include version numbers, whether the program is shareware or not, who makes it and your opinion of it as well. Text files should include good descriptions of the contents and subject of the file. When you are finished entering the information for the upload, press [Esc]. This will save your upload information and return you to the Software Library section menu. If you wish to abort the upload process, press [Ctrl-A]. Aladdin will prompt you to see if you really want to abort the process. Click on "YES" to abort, "NO" to continue with the upload. 4. Edit-Delete Uploads 4. Edit-Delete Uploads 4. Edit-Delete Uploads Clicking on Edit-Delete Uploads will bring up a window titled Edit/Delete Uploads, which will list all mail which is on your system. You can then select each item by clicking on it then click on the Edit or Delete buttons at the bottom of the window to select the desired action. When you are finished click on the Done button to return to the Aladdin main screen. 5. Choose Download-Browse 5. Choose Download-Browse 5. Choose Download-Browse This option tells Aladdin that you want to view any files which Aladdin has found that have recently become available. These are "new" files that just became visible in the Software Library listing and whose descriptions were retrieved either through an AutoPass 1. This option will only work if there is a marker next to the option on the menu. It will also work if you previously used the Browse option but have not instructed Aladdin to do either an AutoPass 1 or 2 or another check of the library for new files. In essence, it retains the list until it has to check again. The following display shows a typical download/browse display screen. Each file is listed on two lines. The first line lists the file name, the type (X for Xmodem/Binary, 7 for 7- bit text), the date when it was uploaded, in YYMMDD format, the size of the file in bytes, how many times it has been accessed or downloaded since it was uploaded, and which library it is located in. The second line of the file display shows the status (Keep/Browse/DownLoad), of the file within Copyright 1990 by General Electric Page 54 the Aladdin queue and the short description of the file which the uploader put on it when the file was posted to the Software Library. File Edit GEmail RoundTable Library Terminal ------------------------------------------------------------- Browsing SL Library ------------------------------------------------------------- 888 MSCAN101.LZH X ANDY 900909 46620 KEEP Desc: GEnie mail to Internet mail tool 886 GENIE.AOL X ANDY 900903 6300 BROWSE Desc: Initial comments from America/OnLine 884 NEWGENIE.LZH X TOM.ROBINSON 900830 8820 DOWNLOAD Desc:Service info for BBS distribution Clicking on the word KEEP will toggle to BROWSE, clicking again will toggle DOWNLOAD. Pressing the [Esc] key will return you to the RoundTable Software Library section menu. The other options available are: "K" - "Keep" the file. In other words, do nothing with this file entry. This is the default condition of the file entries which are added to your main list. "B" - Browse the file's long description. This tells Aladdin that the next time it logs on you want it to download the full description of the file instead of just the short, one- line description. Aladdin will mark the status field next to the description with an "*". This is useful for when the short description is either too terse, not descriptive enough, or for when you want to see more information about a large file before you spend money downloading it. When you select this option and Aladdin gets the long description for you, you will see a full description of the files you asked to browse. "D" - This option tells Aladdin that you want to download the file to your personal computer. The next time you issue an AutoPass 1 or 2 command, Aladdin will download the file for you and place it in the directory specified in the RoundTable Setup screen for the selected RoundTable. When this option is selected, Aladdin will mark the status field with a "DOWNLOAD" message. "S" - This option is used to search for a file within the files on this screen. When you press "S", Aladdin prompts you with a search dialog box, with the fields KEYWORD, UPLOADER and DAYS BACK. The KEYWORD field is used to search the files Aladdin ST Manual Page 55 by a specific keyword, such as the possible name of the file you are looking for. The UPLOADER field is used to search for a file by the name of the person who uploaded it (using that person's GEmail address). The DAYS BACK field is used to limit the search to a specific number of days back from today's date. For example, if you enter a number 30 in this field, Aladdin will only search for files that have been uploaded in the last 30 days. Pressing [Esc] will abort the search operation, pressing [Ctrl-S] will begin the search. If the search is successful, Aladdin will move the cursor to the listing for the first file that matched the search parameters. If the search is not successful, the cursor will stay where it was when you began the search operation. 6. Choose From Main List 6. Choose From Main List 6. Choose From Main List Works the same as Download-Browse except that it works on the Archived list rather than the list made during your last Check For New Messages. 7. Search For Files 7. Search For Files 7. Search For Files Clicking Search For Files pops up the Software Library search dialog box. You now have the following three (3) fields in which to insert information. Keywords, Uploader and Days old. In the Keywords field you would insert a search word ie. "postscript", "clip art" which will instruct Aladdin to search files with those words in their Keyword lists. In the Uploader field you would insert the name of the person that you think has uploaded files that you would be interested in. The Days old field will instruct Aladdin how far back to go in it's search for files that match the above two criteria. When you are satisfied with what you have entered click on the OK button, if you change your mind click the Cancel button. 8. Log on to the RT Library 8. Log on to the RT Library 8. Log on to the RT Library The selection tells Aladdin to immediately log on to GEnie and take you directly to the Software Library of the selected RoundTable. Aladdin then puts you into terminal mode, where you can perform manual commands. Copyright 1990 by General Electric Page 56