                              News v1.0
                   Written and (C)2005 by Sean Dennis
                   Another fine Cheepware production!
                        http://outpostbbs.net

News is a very simple BBS door that allows you to view a file during your
BBS's logon process.  It support ANSI files.  News is customizable and has
a simple two-line configuration file.

This door was primarily designed to work on EzyCom BBS systems, but should
work fine with any other BBS that can handle this type of door.
                        
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LICENSE
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This program and its associated data files are property of Sean Dennis.  You
are being granted a license to use the software only.  You are not allowed 
to reverse engineer, hex edit or in any way change the main executable or
any other files included in the archive.  You may, however, change the data
files to your liking if they are intended for that purpose.

You may copy this program freely and include it on your BBS, website, FTP
site or what-have-you as long as there is little ($5 or less) or no fee
charged to obtain the archive.  You may not tamper with the archive's
contents.  THIS INCLUDES PUTTING BBS ADS IN THE ARCHIVE.  That is expressly
forbidden under this license.

YOU MAY NOT USE THIS PROGRAM ON A PAY BBS, PERIOD.  If you charge for access,
then you can't use this program.  BBSing is a hobby and should be free.

This program is guarenteed to do nothing.  If it picks up the phone and calls
China, someone somewhere will be happy to receive the money from your bill.
This program might not even take up disk space (who knows).  All I can
guarentee is that this program worked on my system and my BBS when I put it
up for download.  I am NOT responsible for any damage that this program may
or may not do (but I don't see how)...

If you would like to port this door to another OS or proprietary BBS
scripting language (such as WCCode), please contact me and we'll 
discuss it.

                        
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 - What is News?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
News is a BBS door (but it can be run locally also) that will
work with any BBS that can support DOS doors and the following dropfile
formats:

DOOR.SYS     (Telegard, Force!, New PCBoard, GAP, Synchronet)
DORINFO#.DEF (QuickBBS, Remote Access, SuperBBS, RBBS)
INFO.BBS     (Phoenix BBS)
CALLINFO.BBS (WildCat! BBS, Genesis, Force!)
SFDOOR.DAT   (SpitFire)
CHAIN.TXT    (WWIV, Telegard, Synchronet)
PCBOARD.SYS  (PCBoard 14+)
DOBBS.BAT    (FrontDoor - this is actually not a dropfile, but you could
              use this file to load a door before the BBS actually starts)

If you have a dropfile format you'd like to see supported, please contact me
and I'll see what I can do to help you!

Some of the other features with News:

- ANSI.SYS not needed as the door has its internal ANSI routines
- No FOSSIL driver needed (it will run with one just fine, but if there's
  not a FOSSIL driver present, it will use its own internal routines)
- Multitasker aware (Windows, OS/2 DesqView, et al.)
- Supports all comports
- EASY CONFIGURATION (no configuration/control files needed!)
           
This door has been tested under EzyCom v2.00 (DOS) and Windows 2000 
Professional (SP4).


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 - How do I set it up?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thankfully, this is the easy part.  Here's the fastest way to do it:

1) I put NEWS.EXE and NEWS.CFG directly into my main Ezy system 
   directory (D:\EZY) and the file I want to display into Ezy's text
   directory (D:\EZY\TXT).  You can change this to however you want by
   editing the simple 2-line config file (NEWS.CFG):
   
   - The first line should be the full path and filename of the file
     you want to display (i.e. D:\EZY\TXT\SYSNEWS.ANS).
   - The second line is what you want displayed as a pause string as
     News will pause every twenty (20) lines.  You can use ANSI
     control codes in this line.

   You can also use ANSI in the news file to be displayed.  
    
2) Set it up in your BBS.  I'll show you how I use it in a batch file on
   my multinode BBS:
   
   @echo off
   d:
   cd\ezy
   news d:\ezy\node%1\door.sys (I prefer to use DOOR.SYS)
   
   For a single node BBS, just put your node number in manually on
   the command line.
   
   You can also just run it directly with that command line from within
   your BBS if you wish (but make sure to put the dropfile that you're
   using on the end explicitly).
   
   Since you want this to execute automatically, put a hook for News in
   where your BBS allows you to run stuff upon login.  I know in EzyCom
   there is a default menu called TOP that will allow you to run doors
   and commands before you get to the main menu.  That's where I put
   my command for my system.
   
   My setup in EzyCom:
   
   Data: *C /C SNEWS.BAT *N *M *D5
   Menu Type: 7
   Hot Key: <blank>
   Automatic: Y
   
   (The rest of the screen is set at default settings.)
   
   It's pretty easy to set up in any BBS, I'd imagine.  However, if you
   get stuck, check your BBS manual!  I don't know if all BBSes will allow
   this from the start.  However, if my memory serves me right, many BBSes
   do, such as Telegard, Shotgun Professional, AdeptXBBS and Maximus.

      
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 - Sysop-specific information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) The program looks for the semaphore file "NEWNEWS" (no extension) in the
   same directory that NEWS.EXE is in.  To create the file, just type this
   at the prompt:
   
   copy 0 > newnews
   
   The door will then ask users if they want to read the news or not.
   
   Note that the door doesn't keep track of who read the news, so all users
   will be asked to read the system news file.
   
   If "NEWNEWS" doesn't exist, the door will simply exit.

2) There are six sysop key combos you can use inside the door:
	* Alt H : Disconnects the caller and drops carrier
	* Alt X : Returns to the BBS without hanging up
	* Alt C : Enters chat mode
	* Alt J : Jumps to DOS (DOS Shell)
	* Alt + : Adds one minute to time remaining
	* Alt - : Subtracts one minute to time remaining

3) This door may misbehave slightly with CPU hogging under OS/2 systems.
   Try using an additional timeslicer (such as SLICER.COM, which can be
   found at http://dink.org/neatutils.htm [it's part of his NEATUTILS
   package]).
   

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 - Credits/Contacts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
News was written using QuickBASIC/PDS 7.1 using the Easy-Door
v2.80 doorkit (http://www.vbsoft.org/ezdoor.php) under Windows 2000
Professional.  The main executable was compressed using UPX
(http://upx.sourceforge.net/).

Contact:
You can contact me via the following:
	- Netmail: 1:18/200@Fidonet (or search a recent Fidonet nodelist)
	- Email  : hausmaus@darktech.org
	- WWW    : http://outpostbbs.net
	- BBS    : telnet://outpostbbs.net -or- 
               telnet://outpostbbs.darktech.org

I hope you enjoy using this door as much as I did creating it!  You can find
more doors, sysop utilities and other fun stuff at http://outpostbbs.net
(click on the Cheepware link).

Support your local BBS scene!

--Sean Dennis
  Cheepware Author

<EOF>  	