                             Mys Tic File Announce 
                                   Ver 1.1a

								 
Black Panther
aka Dan Richter
RCS
Sysop - Castle Rock BBS
telnet://castlerockbbs.com
The sparrows are flying again...


                             -=-= Description =-=-

Mys Tic File Announce is a very simple TIC file announcement generator. Other 
programs that create new file announcements require a lengthy config program
which require all file echos and BBS file areas to be set up. This program will 
take all the information from the TIC files, and generate a report that can be 
posted in message bases.

While this program was written for use with Mystic BBS, running under 
DOS/Windows, it can be used with any BBS software. Again, there is no 
interaction between the BBS software and this program. It is completely 
independent of the BBS.

                       -=-= Warranties and Guarantees =-=-

While every effort is made to make sure this program does what it is designed
to, and not harm your computer, the only warranty you have, is this program 
will take up space on your hard drive. Other than that, I assume no 
reponsibility for what happens to your computer due to the use of this 
software. 

If you do notice a bug in the program, or have a suggestion on how it could
be improved, please feel free to let me know.

                               -=-= Files =-=-
							   
mtafile.exe		-	The main program
mtafile.txt		-	The file your reading right now :)
mtafile.rpt		-	File created by the program in Mystic directory		
mtafile.log		-	File created by the program in Mystic Logs directory				   

                            -=-= Installation =-=-

The EXE file should be placed in your \mystic directory. It will create a log
file that will be placed in the typical \mystic\logs directory, called 
mtafile.log. This log contains, when the program was run, which files were 
announced, and from which file echo area.

MTAFile creates a file in the \mystic directory called mtafile.rpt. This file
can have a header and/or footer file attached to it, before being posted to 
the message echos. (Instructions will be shown below)

This program can be run with two different setups. It can be called whenever
new files are received, for those Sysops who post multiple new file 
announcements per day. *Keep in mind, the mtafile.rpt is overwritten each time 
the program in run.* The other way to set this up, is to copy the TIC files
into an announcement sub-directory. Then, when the nightly maintenance is run,
this program will process all of the TICs received, and generate one file
announcement per day. I will give examples below of how I have this set up at
Castle Rock BBS.

The program takes two command line parameters. The first, is the complete path
to where the TIC files are located. The second parameter is the name of your
BBS. For example:

mtafile.exe c:\bbs\mystic\echomail\in\announce\ Castle Rock BBS

Here is a sample of my mailin.bat file that runs whenever incoming mail/files
are received:

c:
cd \bbs\mystic\

:start
if exist c:\bbs\mystic\echomail\in\*.tic goto file
goto in

:file
cd \bbs\mystic\echomail\in\
copy *.tic \bbs\mystic\echomail\in\announce\ /y
cd \bbs\mystic\
mutil fileimport
goto in

:in
cd \bbs\mystic\
mutil mailin.ini
goto end

:end
cd \bbs\mystic\

(In case your wondering, this is only a portion of the complete batch file 
used at Castle Rock BBS. The actual file is about three times as long, but 
this should give you the idea)

Then, in your nightly maintenance, you would include something like the 
following:

c:
cd \bbs\mystic\

del mtafile.rpt
del final.txt
mtafile c:\bbs\mystic\echomail\in\announce\ Castle Rock BBS
if exist mtafile.rpt copy header.txt+mtafile.rpt final.txt

cd \bbs\mystic\
mutil fileannounce1.ini
timeout /T 2
mutil fileannounce2.ini
timeout /T 2
mutil fileannounce3.ini
timeout /T 2
mutil fileannounce4.ini
timeout /T 2
mutil fileannounce5.ini
timeout /T 2
mutil fileannounce6.ini
timeout /T 2
mutil fileannounce7.ini
timeout /T 2
mutil fileannounce8.ini


The 'del mtafile.rpt' and 'del final.txt' lines will ensure that old postings 
do not get posted again. These files will be generated on the 'mtafile' line 
which follows. The program should not delete old copies of mtafile.rpt, but I
would still leave this in, just to be safe. :)

The 'if exist' line, takes the report, adds a text header file to the top of 
it, and creates the file 'final.txt'. It is this file that is posted into the
message areas. (Take a look at recent new files postings made from Castle Rock
BBS, and you will see where the header.txt file and the mtafile.rpt file 
start) The reason for the 'if exist' on this command line, is to keep from
creating a blank report, if no files have been received.

Also, if you wish to add a footer to the end of the final.txt, you could 
change the command line to read:

if exist mtafile.rpt copy header.txt+mtafile.rpt+footer.txt final.txt

The lower half of this batch file needs to be updated... :) This area is where
Mystic is posting the text file into different message echos, in different
networks. (With the new version of Mystic, and Mutil, the need for having the 
seperate entries with seperate INI files is no longer needed. I've just been
so busy working on coding this, and haven't had a chance to update it yet)

                              -=-= Credits =-=-

I would like to give sincere thanks to the following people
(in no particular order):

g00r00 	  - 	for making, and maintaning an awesome BBS package
Avon 	  - 	for having an great network which provides great support
				and for testing this program during pre-release
GaryCrunk - 	for answering some rookie pascal questions
Apam 	  - 	for showing us all that BBS programming is still alive
fsxNet 	  -  	for putting up with my stupid questions and test posts
Cmech 	  - 	for making great looking programs look easy to do :)
Gryphon   - 	for porting some awesome games into MPL which got me 
				interested in learning Pascal again
xqtr 	  - 	for making some great MPLs - even if most of them won't work 
				on Windows :)

I know I'm forgetting people here. It is not intentional. :)

                            -=-= Change Log =-=-
							
1.00a -=> First pre-release
1.00b -=> Output modifications
1.00c -=> Changed code to not create empty .RPT file if no TICs are present
1.00d -=> Fixed bug created in 1.0c of not placing report file in correct 
		  directory
1.00e -=> Adjusted output to utilize more of the screen. Added code to ensure
		  report file would end up in correct directory
1.00f -=> Fixed many bugs - main bug was not deleting the old report before 
		  creating new one.
1.01a -=> Cleaned up code - Made sure it was ready for public release

