                                 LaWho


LaWho is 3 programs in one. It replaces your current Whos online, 
and also your Page another User. It also could replace your sysop 
menu. Some of the features are:


Supports 250 nodes
Scrollable node display - 16 nodes at a time
Can scroll up or down
Automatically updates screen
Configurable update time
Colorful display
Page user without typing his/her name
See more information about user
Ability to change activity information
Sysop Broadcast message to selected nodes
Dynamic sysop menu
Views Activity log
Backs up/Deletes Activity Log
Hooks to Live Chat
Hooks to Node Management and Sysop User Editor and File Editor
Easy to install (of course)

                              Installation

Installation is easy. Unzip the program file into any folder, 
anywhere. Copy the wcx file over to your Wildcat folder. Go into
WcMenu and change the settings for Page Another user by adding your
Wildcat folder as a parameter for it. Change the Who's online, to
point at this program also. Be sure and include your Wildcat folder
in the parameter field.

That is all there is to it.

Three files will automatically be created, The first is called 
LaWho.sysop. All three files will be created in the data area
of your Wildcat folder.

This contains one word. Sysop. This is the security level for those 
who will be able to access the sysop functions built into the 
program. You can manually add names or security levels to this 
file with any text editor. Case of the names or security levels
is not important.

The second file create is called Activity.Sub

This file, upon creation will contain Four lines:

Page Another User
Checking out other users
Who is online
Checking out other users

The first and second line are related, as the third and fourth 
lines are related also. What happens is, if someone is in the Page
Another User program, instead of displaying "Page Another User", it
will display "Checking out other users" in the activity section
of my program.

If your Lord door is called "Lord", you can add the following
lines:

Lord
Legend of the Red Dragon

And the second line will be displayed. This is very handy for
those funny third party program names, such as LaVote. (:

Please note: The capitalization in the first line is NOT 
important, the second line, is, as it will be displayed EXACTLY
as it is written in the file. Also note that the maximum 
characters allowed is 27. This is due to screen size.

You are allowed up to 500 different translations. Any more and
the program will error. Note that the more you have, the slower
it will be in displaying the information. This is untested in
the speed drop. You will have to play it by ear. If 500 is too
small of a limit, please let me know. I do not envision a slow
down with a couple hundred names.

The last file that will be created is called LaMenu.dat

This file is created when the Sysop presses ! from the main menu. 
This can contain up to 100 programs that can be ran from this 
program. The first time you press !, you will be given instructions 
on how to use it. It is very easy. 

First, all your WCX files in your Wildcat folder will be listed, 
one by one. You will be asked if you want to add this one. If you 
answer no, it will move to the next one, if you answer yes, you 
will then be asked for a name. The default name (hitting enter) 
will be the actual WCX filename, less the extension.

It will then ask you for any optional parameters. If for instance, 
you was using a program called "SUPER DUPER EDITOR" and the 
parameter that was needed for this program was D:\SILLYSTUFF, 
then you would answer the questions as follows:

 Short Description:  The Super Duper Editor
Optional Parameter:  D:\SILLYSTUFF

Of course the short description can be anything you desire, while
the parameter should be whatever the program that you are calling
requires.

Now, after going through all the WCX files, your will be returned 
back to LaWho, press ! again and you will be displayed a menu with 
all of your selections. Just use the arrow key to move down and up. 
Press ENTER when you are on a program that you would like to run. 
It will run and return back here when done.

If you press @ at the LaWho program, it will let you create the 
menu over again. In future releases I will have it let you edit 
items, rather than start it over again, but since it is so EASY 
to create the menu, this will suffice for now. You can edit the 
LaMenu.dat file as you wish, just pay attention to the way the 
information is formatted. You need three lines for each item, 
even if one is a blank line.


                           Using the program

The users will be displayed nodes 1 through 16 when first entering 
the program. The screen is refreshed every 30 seconds. You can 
change the refresh rate with the + or - key. Which will increment 
or decrement the time by 5 seconds at a time. 60 seconds is the max 
and 10 seconds is the min. Note that this change only stays until
the user exits my program, then it is reset. It also just effects
his screen updates, not any other users who are in the program.

Users can press L to enter livechat, q to quit or can press enter 
on a users name to page that user. They will then be prompted to 
enter a message.

All pages are entered in the activity log for that node, along with 
the page message.

                            Sysop Functions

As usual with my programs, I like to make it fun for SysOps to
play. Also as usual, there is a Sysop data file. This is
mentioned above. If your security level, or your name is in
this file, you will have a few more commands. 

NOTE: These are very POWERFUL sysop commands, be careful who
you give access to! 

Here are a list of the commands and a description of them.
Some commands can be executed with the cursor anywhere, while
others require them to be on a node number.

A - Activity Log

This function displays the activity log for the node that the
cursor is over. This will display it with the typical BBS
display Wildcat does. I started to write this so that it
would display it backwards, line by line. However, for two
reasons I decided not to do it. One was most people will be 
logged on locally and can then select Non-Stop and then use the
Scroll back to view it backwards. And the other reason it would
slow down the viewing of the file.

After the file is viewed, you will be asked if you want to delete
this log. If you answer yes, it will make a backup of the log
under a folder called Backup under your Wildcat folder. If
this folder does not exist, it will be created. The backup will
be based on the date and the node. If today is September 20, 1996,
and the node was 2, then the file would be called 09201996.1
Note that this is close to the way WcReports creates it, however
my way is more efficent, as it will work in the year 2000.

Note: if clear the log at 3 in the afternoon, and then do it
again on the same day later on, the new log will be merged with
the old one. Also, a new log will be created with the 
opening line showing the Current date and time.

If the cursor is over a node with no activity log, you will be
told that and asked to press enter.

B - Broadcast Message

This works the normal way the broadcast message works, unless
you have nodes marked. You mark nodes by pressing the spacebar
while the cursor is on them. If one or more nodes are marked,
then just those nodes that are marked will have the message
broadcast to them. The node number will change to white when a
node is marked. Pressing the space bar will change it back to
red and unmark it.

N - Node Management

This runs the internal program Node Management. This allows you
to take a node up or down, etc. I just allow a convenient way to
get at it. This does not matter where the cursor is located. It
will always display the node you are connect on. You can move
to the other nodes real easy.

S - SysOp User Editor

This is of course the sysop user editor. All functions are
fully implemented. This runs the internal version, unless you
have a different version in your Wildcat folder. If the cursor
is on a node that has a user online, then his/her account will
be displayed. If no one is on the node where the cursor is 
located, then the first record will be displayed. Once again, 
this just makes it easier to perform your fun sysop functions.

T- Translation Entry

This will ask you for an activity log keyword and then for the
replacement keyword. This will append to the list, press ENTER
on the blank question to exit. These are added to the ACTIVITY.SUB
file and used to display alternative information about what the
user is doing.

H - Hang up user

This will ask you for a hangup message, then hang the user who
the cursor is on up. They will get a message and then a dropped
carrier. If you press ENTER, they will not get any message, just
a dropped carrier. Do not use this on your friends. (: Or me!

The ! and the @ commands are explained above.

F - Sysop File Management

This is the sysop file manager program that allows you to change
information in your file system.

I - System Information

This displays information about your hard drive, files, users,
messages, and free space on your drives. This is a Wildcat
function.

V - View Old Activity Logs

This will display all 12 months and all the days that have 
backup logs. My program supports both format of the backups,
the normal MMDDYYYY.NODE format that I invented. And the funny
format of MSI's WcReport of MMDDYY??.NODE. I have yet to figure
out what the ?? means. My program ignores it. The way it works
is simple, hard to program, but simple in use. For January, it
looks for all 01*.* files. It then pulls the 3rd and 4th digit
out and assumes that to be the month. If more than one month/day
is there, it only displays the day one time. Then, when you
specify the month and day, it will display all of the files
that match the month and the day. You do not need to enter a
month or day with a leading zero, but if you forget, I have you
covered. Note that this will display all the years, for instance:

If you had a file called 09041996.1 and one called 09041997.1
then both will be displayed. You can cheat and specify 041997 for
the day and just the 1997 file will be displayed. I plan to 
change this one a little bit when the first of the year comes
around, so I can test it.

My thoughts on this are that this is not a function that will
be used everyday, but it is there when you need it. Also watch
for LaActivity, a yet to be written program that will create
the backups automatically during an event. This program will
be available to all registered users of LaWho.