The Newsroom ============ Copyright 1992 Gaiasys Written by Bryan D. Elliot INTRODUCTION ------------ The Newsroom is an Online Newspaper Editing and Distribution System for The MajorBBS, version 6.0 and above. Using it, Sysops and other Sysop-appointed Editors can post news articles, system announcements, and other "broadcast media"-type messages which are meant to be distributed to many users at once. Each article has its own headline, and can be as short or as lengthy as a standard E-Mail message. At your option, Editors can also imbed special ANSI codes in both the headline and the body text to create special effects such as multi-colored text and flashing. Each news article can optionally be assigned a lock, so that only users who possess the specified key will be shown the article. This allows for a virtually unlimited number of separate newspapers to be distributed to different groups, each with their own editor(s) and reader base. News articles are distributed at logon; that is to say, every time a user logs on, The Newsroom checks to see if he or she have any new articles to read. If indeed there are new articles to be read, then The Newsroom will take action, specified by a Configuration option. This action can be to Remind the user that there are new articles to read, to remind and Ask the user of he/she would like to read the article(s) presently, or to automatically Show any new articles immediately, with no questions asked. When regular users actually enter the Newsroom module, they find themselves in a "News Library", where they can step through past articles, reading them again if desired. For Editors, entering the Newsroom module brings them to the "News Editing Room", where they can also add new articles, or modify, delete, or renew old ones. After a sysop-specified number of days, news articles will be considered "old news", and will no longer be automatically displayed to users at logon. Of course, they can still enter the News Library and read them. After another sysop-specified number of days, news articles will actually be deleted from the Library, thereby freeing up disk space. INSTALLATION ------------ Installing The Newsroom is extremely easy and straightforward. Just follow these steps: 1) With the installation disk in the drive, type "A:INSTALL". Follow the instructions given in the install program to select the proper source and destination directories for installation. 2) Select "2 = Design Menu Tree" from the main MajorBBS off-line menu. Using the Menu Tree design tool, add "The Newsroom" somewhere on your menu tree so that it will be loaded into the system, and your users will be able to access it. When finished, exit the Menu Tree design tool. 3) Select "3 = Security & Accounting", and "4 = Configuration Options" to customize The Newsroom to suit your particular needs. The configuration options available to you are outlined in the next section. 4) You're finished! You can now bring up your system and begin using The Newsroom! CONFIGURING THE NEWSROOM ------------------------ Security & Accounting Options (Configuration Level 3) ACTIVATE - Your Activation Code In the space provided for this option, please enter your personalized Activation Code for the Newsroom. You should have received this Activation Code with your original Newsroom disk or via phone from the distributor from which you purchased this product. If you are upgrading from a prior version of the Newsroom, please contact the distributor from which you purchased it to obtain your Activation Code. EDITKEY - Key Required to perform Editor functions This option is the lock to be placed upon the Editor functions (add, modify, renew, and delete). In order for users to have access to these functions, they must be holders of the key specified here. Default key: EDITOR Configuration Options (Configuration Level 4) HOWLOGON - How to handle New Articles at Logon This option specifies how you would like your system to inform users at logon that they have new articles to read. Specify "SHOW" to forcibly show users any new articles when they log on. Specify "ASK" to ask users at logon whether or not they'd like to read the new news articles at that time. Specify "REMIND" to merely remind users at logon that they have new articles to read. Default: ASK PAUSBTWN - Should the Newsroom pause between each article at Logon? When displaying several news articles to users upon logon, would you like the Newsroom to pause between each message, requiring the user to press Enter? This is useful to force users to read news articles instead of allowing them to simply scroll off their screen without a second glance. DAYSLIF - How long (in days) are articles considered "Important News"? For how long should news articles be considered "important news"? Articles which are older than the specified number of days will no longer be shown to users at logon. For example, if you set this number to 90 (three months), then when a user calls who hasn't been on for a while, she/he will only be shown new articles that have been posted in the last 90 days. Specify "0" to ALWAYS show unread articles to users, regardless of how long ago the articles were posted. Default: 0 (always) DAYSDEL - How long (in days) until articles are deleted? How long would you like news articles to "hang around" on disk before they are automatically deleted? Specify a number of days here, or specify "0" to keep articles around forever. Default: 0 (forever) XCARAT - Should the carat ("^") character be translated into the Control key? Would you like the carat symbol ("^", or shift-6) to be treated as a control character in article headlines and texts? You may use this feature to imbed ANSI color changing sequences in your articles, for example. Default: YES WRT2TXT - Should the Newsroom append newly posted articles to a text file? Would you like the Newsroom to automatically append new articles to a text file? This is useful if you want a permanent archive of your news articles. It is also useful for inclusion into QWK mail packets, if you have MjrQWK. WRT2FN - To what filename should articles be appended? Enter the filename to which you would like to append newly posted articles. You may enter a complete drive letter and pathname, if you wish. If the drive and path are omitted, the file will reside in your BBS runtime directory (usually C:\BBSV6). WRT2KY - Should the Newsroom only append articles locked to a certain key? If you only want to append news articles to the file if they are restricted by a particular key, then enter the key here. Leave this field blank if you want to write ALL news articles to the text file. USING THE NEWSROOM ------------------ Using The Newsroom, whether as the Editing room (for editors), or simply as the reference library (for regular users), is relatively straightforward. Following is a list of commands. Note that the file GSSNEWS.DOC contains a copy of this command set, which will automatically be included in the file BBSUSER.DOC (your on-line user's manual). (Commands available to all users) - Read the Current Article While browsing through the article titles, pressing by itself will read in full the currently selected article. <#> - Jump to the specified Article number If you enter a number (i.e. "54"), then you will jump right to that article, if it exists. If the specified article does not exist, then you will jump right to the first article above the given number. - Jump to article of the given date If you enter a date (i.e. "10/3", or "4/10/91"), then you will jump right to the first article posted on, or after, the given date. L - List all Articles This command will produce a brief listing of all articles in the database, in order from oldest to most recently posted. U - List all Unread Articles This command will produce a brief listing of all articles in the database, in order from the oldest article you haven't yet read, to most recently posted. N - Go to the next Article This command will step you forward to the next article in the database. If you press "N" when you're already at the "top" of the database, then you will wrap around to the oldest article posted. P - Go to the previous Article This command will step you backward to the previous article in the database. If you press "P" when you're already at the "bottom" of the database, then you will wrap around to the most recently posted article. ? - Re-display the menu If you forget what all of these commands are, then pressing "?" will re-display for you a brief menu. X - Exit the Newsroom Press "X" to leave the Newsroom and return to the main system. (Commands for Editors Only) A - Add a new article Use this command to post new articles. After writing the article, you will be asked if you'd like to "lock" the article. You will be presented with a list of "keys", and if you select one, then only users who hold the specified key will be able to read the article. If you select "0" for "no key required", then the article will be available to ALL users. As soon as you finish up and save the article, it will immediately be available for viewing by other users. M - Modify an existing article Use this command to change the body text, headline, or the lock for any article. IMPORTANT NOTE: Just modifying the article will not "renew" it to be viewed again by users; that is to say, if a user reads the article at logon, and then you modify it, then the user will not automatically see the newly modified article. To accomplish this, use the RENEW command below. R - Renew an existing article This command allows you to "refresh" old articles so that they are again displayed to all users the next time they call. This command is useful in conjunction with the Modify command, when an old news item needs to be revised and re-posted. D - Delete an article This command will irrevocably delete an article from the database. CONCLUSION ---------- That covers the usage of The Newsroom! Please feel free to call us for any technical questions regarding installation, configuration, or usage. We also welcome any comments or suggestions for future versions of The Newsroom! Bryan Elliot Gaiasys