\33bFrom:\33n ${ArtUserName}  \33bSubj\33n: ${ArtSubj}

This prints the word From: in bold, followed by the user name found in the viewed article, followed by the word Subj: again in bold, followed by the article subject header field.

A variable is used in a text value. Any text of the form ${varname} is replaced by the contents of the named variable. There are several ways a variable can find its value. There is a global list of variables that applies everywhere. These variables can be seen by any object. This global list can be edited from the main editor window and may include user defined values.

Also, each group, article, or filter can potentially export a set of variables. In the previous example the variables ${ArtUserName} and ${ArtSubj} are referenced. These variables are exported by the article being viewed. When a new article is selected for reading, the article viewer title will automatically change as well.

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Article and group variables are searched first. If no definition is found, then the global variable list is searched in order. If more than one variable is defined with the same name, the results are undefined.

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• Unterminated variable name. Opening '${' not matched by closing '}'.

• Maximum variable name length (31 characters) exceeded.

• Too many variable replacements - typically when a variable recursion loop exists - i.e, the definition of variable A is ${B}, and the definition of variable B is ${A}. The limit is 32.

• No expansion found for variable name.

If a variable expansion results in a string that contains another variable reference, variable expansion happens again on the new string until either no variable references are left, or a maximum replacement count is exceeded.

For example, consider a user defined variable MyArtInfo who's definition is: ${ArtUserAbbrev} (${ArtUserName}). When the variable ${MyArtInfo} is referenced, it first yields the definition above. But the definition contains two additional variable references, one to ${ArtUserAbbrev} and another to ${ArtUserName}. These variables are in turned looked up to find their definition, and the end result might be that referencing ${MyArtInfo} yields the string: JBS (John B. Smith).

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Recursion is permitted on variable names. Consider three variables, var1=Foo, var2=Bar, and variable FooBarXYZ=test.

The reference ${${var1}${var2}XYZ} will yield the string test. Inner variables are expanded before outer.

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Variable Name	Description
ArtDate	The contents of the Date: header field.
ArtDistrib	The contents of the Distribution: header field.
ArtFollowup	The contents of the Followup-To: header field.
ArtFrom	The contents of the From: header field.
ArtGroups	The contents of the Newsgroups: header field.
ArtKeywords	The contents of the Keywords: header field.
ArtLines	The contents of the Lines: header field.
ArtMimeType	The contents of the Content-Type: header field.
ArtMimeVer	The contents of the Mime-Verseion: header field.
ArtMsgID	The contents of the Message-ID: header field.
ArtNewsRd	The contents of the X-Newsreader: header field.
ArtOrganiz	The contents of the Organization: header field.
ArtArtPath	The contents of the Path: header field.
ArtRef	The contents of the Followup-To: header field.
ArtSender	The contents of the Sender: header field.
ArtSubj	The contents of the Subject: header field.
ArtUserAbbrev	A short abbreviation for the user name. For example, if the posting user is John S. Smith, this variable would be JSS.
ArtUserEmail	The email address portion of the From: header.
ArtUserName	The user name portion of the From: header.
ArtAmPm	Similar to AmPm , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtDayNum	Similar to DayNum , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtDayNumSp	Similar to DayNumSp , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtHour12	Similar to Hour12 , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtHour12Sp	Similar to Hour12Sp , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtHour24	Similar to Hour24 , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtHour24Sp	Similar to Hour24Sp , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtMin	Similar to Min , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtMonth	Similar to Month , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtMonthNum	Similar to MonthNum , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtMonthShort	Similar to MonthShort , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtSec	Similar to Sec , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtWeekday	Similar to Weekday , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtWeekdayShort	Similar to WeekdayShort , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtYear2	Similar to Year2 , but for the article's datestamp.
ArtYear4	Similar to Year4 , but for the article's datestamp.

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Variable Name	Description
GroupAbbrev	The abbreviated group name. For example, comp.sys.amiga.misc would be c.s.a.misc.
GroupMaxArticles	The maximum number of articles to be fetched at one time.
GroupName	The full group name.
GroupNameChr	The full group name with substitution of the period (full stop) character. By default, periods are replaced with forward slashes. This is useful in, for example, SaveTxt filters to automatically create a directory hierarchy matching the group hierarchy. However, any character may be used as a replacement: Variable Group Name Expands to ${GroupNameChr} alt.foo.bar alt/foo/bar ${GroupNameChr,/} alt.foo.bar alt/foo/bar ${GroupNameChr,-} alt.foo.bar alt-foo-bar ${GroupNameChr,#} alt.foo.bar alt#foo#bar
GroupReadArticles	The number of read articles in this group.
GroupTotArticles	The total number of articles in the group.
GroupUnreadArticles	The number of unread articles in the group.
FAQFile	This variable is set to the filename of a stored FAQ file when used in a multimedia action in the FAQ Manager.

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Variable Name	Description
CacheDir	The cache directory for this project.
UserName	The user name that has been set in the configuration settings for this project.
UserEmail	The user email address that has been set in the configuration settings for this project.
UserOrg	The organization field that has been set in the configuration settings for this project.
SigFile	The signature filename that has been set in the configuration settings for this project.
Editor	The editor that has been set in the configuration settings for this project.

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Filter Type	Variable Name	Description
URL (Display Filter)	File	When used in a multimedia action for a clickable URL, this variable will be set to a filename which contains the article text. By default this is the full header and body of the article, but the following suffixies can be used: :Head - The file will contain only the header information. :Body - The file will contain only the body, but no headers. :HdBd - The file will contain both the header and the body of the article. This is the default. :Q - The body of the article will be quoted. For example, referencing the variable ${File:Body:Q} would specify a file containing the quoted body of the article, with no header. This is useful for passing the indicated text to an external program of some sort.
EMail (Display Filter)	File	The File variable in the Email display filter operates in the same manner as in the URL filter described above.
URL (Display Filter)	URL	The URL variable contains the URL that was clicked on.
EMail (Display Filter)	email	The email variable in the Email display filter contains the email address that was clicked on.
Substitute (Display Filter)	Img	This variable may be imbedded in the substitution string and is replaced with a graphic image as defined for each replacement pattern.
SaveTxt (Action Filter)	File	The File variable references a file containing the raw, unprocessed article text. This can be passed to, for example, an external decoder program.
SaveTxt (Action Filter)	Num	If more than one article has been queued to be sent to an action filter, this variable will be set to the ordinal position of the article in the queue. For example, if the filter is set to save articles to the filename RAM:Article_${Num}.Txt, then the saved files will be named RAM:Article_0001.Txt, RAM:Article_0002.Txt, and so on.
Decode (Action Filter)	File	The File variable will expand to the filename as obtained from the MIME or UUEncoded data segment, minus and MS-DOS backslash-style path information.

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Variable Name

Description

exec

This variable can be used to execute external commands and return the result in a NewsRog variable: ${exec CMD="command" ARGS="args" PRI=pri STACK=stack} This will execute command with paramters args using a task priority of pri and a stack size of stack. Only the CMD optionis required; all others are optional. Parameters which contain spaces or other special characters must be quoted. Either single or double quotes may be used. The standard output of the given command is read using an AmigaOS pipe, and the result up to the first new line or the first 80 characters, whichever comes first, is returned as the value of the variable. Take care that the given command actually produces output, and produces a finite amount of said output. NewsRog will pause during the execution of the command. Example: given the appropriate command, this will return current phase of the moon in a NewsRog variable: ${exec CMD="PhaseOfMoon" ARGS="-today"}

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