AWebNews documentation

AWebNews

The online News Reader for AWeb.
By William H. M. Parker bill@amitrix.com

Index

Requirements
Installation
Configuration
- Posting Configuration
- User Authentication
Using AWebNews

Requirements

AWebNews is an online News Reader. It requires AWeb by Yvon Rozijn and a valid 'TCP:' device. Currently Miami, AmiTCP and INET-225 all provide a 'TCP:' device. The programs 'Sort',and 'Search', should be in the C: directory. Articles may be batched to a RNEWS compatible file for offline reading by external programs.

Installation

Awebnews needs its own directory 'plugins/awebnews/' where it can build and maintains its working files . News.awebrx, Confignews.awebrx and AWebNews_doc.html should be in this directory. Put the 'awnpipe-handler' in 'L:'.Put 'awnpipe' and 'awnpipe.info' into the 'devs:dosdrivers' or 'sys:storage/dosdrivers' directory. The news.awebrx script may be called directly from the Arexx menu, as a NEWS: plugin, of from an AWeb button .

GUI Button

name AWebNews command Run AWeb3:plugins/awebnews/news.awebrx

ARexx Menu

title AWebNews macro AWeb3:plugins/awebnews/news.awebrx

News: plugin usage

command sys:rexxc/rx arguments AWeb3:plugins/awebnews/news.awebrx %a

If you don't use an Aweb3: assign you must use

arguments FullPath/news.awebrx %a macro Fullpath/news.awebrx

ARexx limits file name length so the use of the assign is preferred.

Configuration

The first time AWebNews is run it looks for its configuration file. If it is not found AWebNews alerts the user and offers to run the confignews.awebrx script.

The only information AWebNews usualy requires is the name of you NewsHost. In most cases it is news.provider .

Some NewsHosts are password protected. Enter this information ONLY if your NewsHost specificaly requires Authentication. Setting the User Name feild when it is not required will cause the connection to the NewsHost to fail.

Select save. You are now ready to read news articles. Use the Read News link at the top of the configuration page to start news reading.

Several other setting are available to customize AWebNews for your increased enjoyment. 8-D

Once you have changed settings, you must select either save or use to make the new settings active. The following three buttons are at both the top and bottom of the configuration form.

- save the configuration to disk and use the settings.

- use the settings but DO NOT save the configuration to disk.

- restore the settings to the last saved version.

The Read mode gadget tells AWebNews how many articles to retrieve when you Read' articles . This may also be control inside the main program.
Single - one article at a time.
All - all unread articles.
Many - can be set to any amount on the Options form.

This tells AWebNews what information to display. You may choose between a long or short header format and if to include a Log of the conversation with your NewsHost.

If you wish you may select the colors used on the AWebNews HTML pages. Color information is usually in the form #rrggbb but color names are supported as well. Background images must be turned on in the AWeb-II menu for this to work.

You can set default values for the filter. The preset values save typing in frequently used Filter settings. The preset values are never case sensitive and always ON when selected.

This is the default path AWebNews uses for saving articles . A file requester allows the user to override this setting .

This is the file name to use when articles are 'Batched' for offline use by GRN or similar programs. The file is created in standard RNEWS compatible format. It is not used when reading articles.

AwebNews attempts to recognize encoded files. By setting up external commands these files can be decoded directly from the news articles. '%f' represents the name of the file to be decoded.

Posting Configuration

This is the only setting required to post news. It should probably contain your Email address and/or name. Some NewsHosts may require special formats such as <emailaddress> .

The size of the text area for entering your post is controllable. You probably want to keep this small and use AWebs ability to exchange text with your favorite text editor.

You may define these header lines to be included in each of your posts. Reply to: should be an email address and should probably be used. Distribution is o.k. to be left off. It is used to limit the propagation of your posts.

If a signature is used, it is placed at the end of each post . Where else ?

Turn this on to include extra headers in your posts. AWebNews will automatically set up required headers, use this file for optional headers only. Look at a other peoples post's to what headers you might like to include.

These settings tell AWebNews which parts of a post to quote when doing a follow up (Posting a response to a post).

Using AWebNews

AWebNews is intended for reading articles online. This is done through a series of forms in the AWeb window. The forms are described below.

Note that all 'Batch' functions simply save articles to disk for external use. AWebNews itself does not use the batch file.

Select Newsgroup Form

The user is presented with a list of newsgroups previously accessed and a string gadget to enter a new newsgroup name. Enter or select a newsgroup name.

- to get information about a newsgroup and select it as current. This must be done before you start to read articles.

- to post an article to a newsgroup.

- to go to the form for batching articles from several newsgroups at once.

- to go to the Master Group List form .

Master Group List

The Master Group List (MGL) contains the names of all newsgroups available from you newshost. The information can be presented in two different formats or can be searched. The link format, is a list of NewsGroup names used to enter a news group for reading. The list format presents the newsgroup names in a series of scroling lists. The list format is more versatile and displays quicker using fewer system resources.It is the prefered method for diplaying the Master Group List.

Once the MGL lists are displayed, any number of NewsGroups may be selected . The selected groups can be added to the active list of newsgroups normaly displayed by AWebNews. Alternatly a news group can be selected and imediatly entered for news reading.

- This starts the retrieval of the master group list from the News Host. This list can contain thousands of entries in many cases. It can take several minutes to retrieve and consume a considerable amount of disk space. Sorting the list can also takes several minute. AwebNews saves the sorted results so this does NOT need to be done each time you view the Master Group List. The data is stored in the AWebNews/mgl file. This file should be refreshed every few months to catch new groups as they are added. This process can take a LONG time. Be thank full that the Amiga multitasks so well !

- Stop the retrieval of the master group list.

- The complete master group list is shown, one groupname on each line. Simply click on a group name. MGL-Links.html can be a document several megs in size . This document is built the first time 'MGL as Links' is used and simply redisplayed afterwards. It is safe to delete 'AwebNews/MGL-Links.html' to free disk space.

- The master group list is displayed in several scrolling lists. This produces a smaller html file than the above method. MGL-Lists.html can be a large document but is about 40% the size of the link page . This document is built the first time 'MGL as Lists' is used and simply redisplayed afterwards. It is safe to delete 'AwebNews/MGL-Lists.html' to free disk space. If the number of newgroups to be display is large the list is broken into several shorter list with an index indicating where the list has been split.

- Redisplay the results of the last search. It is safe to delete 'AwebNews/MGL-Search.html' to free disk space.

- A single word can be entered and all news group names including this word will be displayed. Full DOS pattern matching can be used by entering in a pattern followed by the key word 'pattern'. The master group list is searched and the results shown in a list. The last search result is saved for redisplay.

- All selected news groups will be added to list of active groups maintained by AWebNews. The new groups can be read in the normal manor.
- The first selected news group will be entered for news reading. Other selected groups will be ignored.

Current Newsgroup Form

This is the form that is used to retrieve articles from, and Post articles to the NewsHost. It contains information about the articles available in the current newsgroup. The filter and Options can modify the functions on this form.

The next unread article number can be set but AWebNews usually does this by remembering the last news session.

- to retrieve articles. See next gadget

- to determine how many articles to retrieve. Single is one article. All means all unread articles. Many (set in Options) can be any amount. This controls the Batch M/S/A gadget as well.

- you may post an article to a newsgroup by selecting post.

- to stop the retrieval of articles. AWebNews aborts after it processes the article currently being retrieved.

Article Text's

This form contains the article texts that have been retrieved. It may also may contain a Log of the conversation between AwebNews and your NewsHost.

   next
- go to the next article.

   previous
- go to the previous article.

   top
- go to the first article.

   more
- go to the current newsgroup form to retrieve more articles.

   save
- save the article to disk. The entire article is saved with no added formatting. The default file name is 'newsgroup.number'.

   follow up
- post a follow up to this article.

   Decode
- Decode the file hidden in this article. You must configure an external program for this to work.

Subject List

Articles can be selected from a list of subject lines. The selected articles can be read, or the selected articles can be eliminated and then the remaining articles read. The filter and Options modify the functions on this form.

- to retrieve several subject lines.

- to retrieve all subject lines from unread article's.

If the Filter is ON when subject lines are being retrieved, any subject that passes the Filter will be marked as selected.

- to read the selected articles.

- to read all articles in the subject list.

- to 'batch' the selected articles.

- Select articles by filtering the subject lines. The Filter does not need to be turned on for this function to work.

- to remove the selected articles from the subject list.

- to remove all articles from the subject list leaving it empty.

Log

The Log shows the NNTP conversation between AWebNews and your NewsHost. It also show any files that are rejected by the filter process. The Log can be turned off on the option form.

Options

- Abort the conversation with the NewsHost. AwebNews will wait until the end of an article before aborting. An attempt is still made to display the articles already retrieved. Batch operations can be stopped with out loss of data.

This tells AWebNews what information to display. You may choose between a long or short header format and if to include a Log of the conversation with your NewsHost.

- Set a count for retrieving or batching several articles at a time.

- Retrieve articles and append them to the batch file. The read mode gadget controls how many files to retrieve. M/S/A = Many/Single/All

Filter

The filter is used to eliminate articles during reading and Batching. It can also automatically select articles from the subject list.

- The filter may be turned OFF, ON, or on in CASE SENSITIVE MODE. Preset 1 and Preset 2 are defined on the Configuration page. They are always case insensitive and turned on when selected. Simple Syntax

A simple filter is just a list of phrases to look for in an article. Each phrase is separated by a comma.

amiga,HTML 3.
- Read any articles including 'amiga' or 'HTML 3.'.

If the phrase starts with a - only articles NOT containing it are read.

-$$$,-Make Money
- Read any articles that DO NOT including '$$$' or 'Make Money'.

The two types of filters can be combined. Remember to always have your -phrase(s) first for simple filtering.

-$$$,-Make Money,amiga,HTML 3.
- Read any articles including 'amiga' or 'HTML 3.' except those including '$$$' or 'Make Money'.

Advanced Syntax

Each filter command must start with - + ~ or |. Filter commands must be separated by comas when they are combined and are processed from left to right. Note that spaces are significant and commas are not allowed inside filter text. The characters - + ~ | CAN be used in filter text.

+filter text
pass only articles containing 'filter text'.

-filtertext
do not pass any articles containing 'filtertext'. In a complex filter the -phrase does not have to be at the start.

|
Try another set of filter checks if the previous one failed. This allows an article to be checked against any number of filter settings. Any text after | is ignored.

~
Reverse the filter decision. Passed articles become filtered out and the opposite also applies.

+amiga,+HTML
- pass only articles including both 'amiga' and 'HTML'.

+happiness,-money
- pass only articles including 'happiness' and not 'money'.

+amiga,+HTML,|,+happiness,-money
- pass articles including both 'amiga' and 'HTML'. Also pass articles including 'happiness' and not 'money'.

+ARexx,+wparker,+bug,~
- do not pass articles that including all three words 'ARexx', 'wparker', and 'bug'.

Posting Form

A basic article is built from the users Configuration settings and placed in a textarea. The user can type his article text in directly or use an external editor. The editor is linked to the small button on the bottom right hand corner of the text area.
The first blank line defines the end of the header so place the article text below the '--'. Many NewsHost's require that the subject header be filled in before allowing an article to be posted.

- attempts to post the article. After posting is completed AWebNews will respond with a conformation or error report.

Batch newsgroups form

A list of all visited news groups is produced. All unread articles from all selected newsgroups may be retrieved. The filter can be be used as the articles are collected. When batching is completed a Log of the session with your NewsHost is shown. AWebNews will remember which news groups you like to batch. 8-D

- After you have selected the news groups you wish to batch.

- to stop the retrieval of articles.

The filter control's are also available on this form. It is possible to search hundreds of news groups for specific information. This is the most powerful feature of AWebNews.
Create a complex filter using the following pattern...

+news.group.name,-don't want,+keep this,|,+news.group.name2,-don't...

Delete newsgroup form

This form is actually at the end of the Configuration page, but can be reached by links on the main forms. A list of all visited news groups is Shown. This function can not be undone.

- After you have selected the news groups you wish to delete from the list.

Distribution:	use
Reply-To:	use