

SAMPLE JOB DOOR NEWS FILE USING DOCS:




          

                        THE ELECTRONIC JOB FAIR - Version 1.1

                                    Documentation.

                               By Charles H. Crawford.

          1:  Introduction.

               Finding employment in an increasingly skills and knowledge
          base driven economy is no easy task.  In fact, the likelihood of
          having to repeat the task many more times than people in the past
          is both real and difficult.  Job seekers must therefore have more
          than skills and knowledge to market, they must also be informed
          about interview skills, job trends, legal rights and
          responsibilities, career options, and much more.

               If all of this is not enough, now add the appearance of a
          disability and some form of assistance to advantage the job
          seeker becomes very helpful if not necessary.  Enter the
          electronic job fair!

               Almost four years ago the Massachusetts Commission for the
          Blind initiated an electronic bulletin board to assist people
          without vision to access information and stimulate their use of
          computers.  The service has been very successful, but providing
          extensive job opportunity listings has been a challenge of
          enormous proportions.  Having a jobs database in one area, text
          file listings in another, job related files in another and so on
          kept the information scattered and less useful.  Now that becomes
          history with this new software package that can be run on any
          BBS, or in stand-alone dial up environments.

          2:  System requirements.

               To operate the electronic job fair, you only need to have an
          IBM compatible personal computer with a starting 640 K of memory
          and a modem.  We suggest that a 386 or 486 processor running at a
          decent megahertz speed be used and that a high speed modem is
          preferable because of file transfers that will occur.  The
          software is network compatible and you can feel free to run as
          many copies at one time as you can manage.

               The real important consideration with running this software
          is memory constraints.  With DOS memory managers there should be
          no reason not to be able to free at least 110 K of memory to make
          available to the application.  At the Massachusetts Commission
          for the Blind we have it running on two computers.  Each of them
          have DOS and network software running without destroying the
          ability of the software to access sufficient memory.

          3:  What files are in this package.















               Heres a listing of the files that come with the electronic
          job fair and what they do:

          * Clipjbbs.exe is the main executable program that commands all
          other files in the system.

          * Dwry222.zip contains many files that control the communications
          ports of the computers that run the job fair.  These ports are
          addressed either as doors on a bulletin board or can be accessed
          directly by the job fair as a stand alone program using the
          doorway host software contained in the package.  You should read
          the documentation contained within the zip file for these
          programs, but some discussion of them will be done in this
          documentation so you can get up and running quickly.

          * DSZ?.zip is a zip file of the ZMODEM file transfer protocol
          from Omen Technologies.  It is called by the electronic job fair
          for file uploads and downloads from your system.  Like
          Doorway.exe mentioned above, this is shareware and should be
          registered for the small cost charged.  The use of the question
          mark in the file name is due to evolving versions of the software
          and the numbers in the file name will change over time.

          * Uns.dbf is the users (callers) database that keeps track of who
          has called etc.

          * Post.dbf is the database of job listings kept at the
          Massachusetts Commission for the Blind and can be downloaded from
          the Commission computers to keep your data current.

          * Fedclass.dbf is a database of categories of jobs which is
          accessed by the electronic jobs fair to give folks a chance to
          pick a category to search.

          * FN.dbf is the database of file names that is accessed to
          display what files are available for reading or downloading from
          the job fair.

          * Se.exe is the system operator program to add, edit or delete
          files or caller listings.

          * CJ.bat is a sample batch file that you can edit to match your
          system if you want to run the job fair as a stand alone
          application.

          4:  Getting started.

               A. Unzip or copy if you have already unzipped all the files
          into a directory on a hard disk called whatever you want.

               B. type "Clipjbbs" and press enter when in the subdirectory
          you just created.  This brings up the program and you can add
          your first and last name to the users database.  Feel free to
          look around at the menu options although there is nothing in the














          databases yet.

               C. After leaving "Clipjbbs.exe" now type "Se" and press
          enter.  You will be in the system operator program will where you
          should edit the user records to give yourself a security level of
          at least 50, but we recommend 100.

               D. Read the documentation for doorway, DSZ and DWHost
          products.  While you can run the electronic job fair like any
          other DOS program, to get it to run over a modem; you need to use
          Doorway.exe or a similar program.  DSZ is the ZMODEM file
          transfer called by the program and it can be registered from Omen
          Technologies in Oregon where they will send you a diskette with
          your own registered copy.  The cost of all of this is not
          expensive.

               E. Now use a text editor to edit "CJ.bat".  Change the drive
          and subdirectory references to match the drive and subdirectory
          you installed the software on.

               F. Copy cj.bat to the root directory of your active logical
          drive.  That usually is C:\.

               G. Go to your root directory and type "CJ" and press enter. 
          This should run the stand-alone version if only for ten minutes
          until the registered Doorway.exe is there.

               H. You can add an standard text file to the subdirectory in
          which the program is to run.  Call it "News.txt" and the program
          will show it before running the jobs main menu.  This is good for
          news or hot job leads.


          5:  Populating your jobs database.

               The "Post.dbf" database is the primary job opportunities
          file.  It contains a number of fields where particular
          information goes and when the program is running, these fields
          are displayed to the callers.  Keeping the listings within the
          database current is critical to the viability of the program to
          its users.

               There are three ways to maintain your Post.dbf file.  First,
          you can download the "Don.zip" file from the Massachusetts
          Commission for the Blind electronic bulletin board at area code
          (617)-451-5327 which is often busy.  You can also download the
          databases zip file from the stand-alone job program at area code
          (617)-727-5898 during non-business hours.  Either way, the
          "Don.zip" file contains both the "Post.dbf" and the
          "Fedclass.dbf" files.  These files contain the job listings and
          the job classifications which can be used to filter listing
          displays according to interest.  Once you have the "Don.zip" file
          then simply use PKunzip.exe to unzip the new databases into your
          subdirectory where you will probably overwrite the existing














          databases.

               Secondly, you can add a job within the program if you have
          sufficient security to do so.  This is a process of answering a
          series of questions which allows the fields of a blank record
          within the database to be filled out.

               Thirdly, you can upload (with sufficient security) a file
          called "NewJobs.zip" with a database called "NewJobs.dbf" in it
          which the program will import into the master "Post.dbf"
          database.  The program will also allow you to upload a copy of
          "NewJobs.dbf" without the use of the.zip compression program, but
          that is unlikely to be all that productive since upload time is
          lengthened when not using compressed files.  Once the program
          receives a NewJobs file, then it will take the appropriate action
          to append the "Post.dbf" database.

               The above methods keep the data current and the callers
          coming back!

          6:  Resumes and other files.

               The program has been developed to allow callers to access
          more information than just the listings within the database. 
          Text files of job listings, resumes of people looking for a
          particular kind of job, files of information of use to the job
          seeker and software applications that can be run on a personal
          computer are all of importance to folks looking for work.  Hence,
          the program will accept uploads of files from callers with
          sufficient security and share those files with any other callers.

               Currently, there are six categories of files supported by
          the program.  These include resumes, text files of job listings,
          text files with information of relevance to job seeking, legal
          information files, software applications and an area for files
          the system operator thinks folks would like.  The amount of these
          files is completely a function of how many of them you want to
          allow to be shared and how much disk space there is to support
          them.

               Take a look at the main menu of the job fair and you will
          notice that options #6 and #8 allow for uploading of information
          and #9 allows callers to view or download files after viewing a
          menu of what is available.

          7:  The System Operator Editor.

               As the System Operator, you have a responsibility to ensure
          that the user and files databases and corresponding information
          is maintained.  Using the "SE.exe" program makes that task easy! 
          Just type "Se" when in the subdirectory and up comes the program.

               The first thing that you will see is a question asking for a
          password to be used if you want to run the SE.exe program when














          calling in.  This gives you or anyone else who knows the password
          the opportunity to edit databases remotely.  You would be
          surprised how annoying it gets if you are at home and the
          databases need editing, but you need to go into the office to do
          it.  Now that is not a problem with remote editing.

               To run the remote editing functions, simply press "S" at the
          main menu and type in the exact password you have assigned. 
          Sorry if you forget the password or type it in wrong, because
          there is no way to maintain security if you were to not have it
          the way the program sets it up.  This security is even greater
          that used to limit who can upload files.

          8:  Doorway and doorway host mode.

               Since society has not yet reached the level of technology
          where our computers are already linked to information
          distribution services automatically, we must rely upon telephone
          connections through telecommunications software.  This creates
          the need for host computers to have the ability to watch,
          activate and send/receive information over a phone line.  This is
          done through the computer communications ports which are usually
          port 1 or 2 on a standard personal computer.

               The Disk Operating System (DOS) does not manage
          communications port activities particularly well and so
          telecommunications software at the user end and a program like
          Doorway.exe at the host end must talk to each other to allow the
          information to pass back and forth.

               Doorway.exe was written by Marshall Dudley to allow a
          bulletin board to remove itself from memory and run a regular DOS
          application for a remote caller.  Some folks use Doorway.exe to
          access DOS applications from their homes to the officer to access
          specific DOS programs remotely.  Here is where Doorway works best
          for the job fair.  Using "DWHOST" you can set up your computer to
          monitor the communications port and when a call is detected, run
          doorway.exe and the job fair over the phone.

               Simply look at the documentation associated with the doorway
          host program and you should be up and running quickly.  Again,
          "CJ.bat" has been included for your convenience and we suggest
          you use a text editor to modify the information in the file to
          match your computers communications port being used and
          subdirectory and path accessed.

               The host door program (DWHOST.exe" does need to be
          configured and folks who rely upon speech programs to access
          screen information may want to run the host program once and then
          use a text editor to edit the configuration file.

          9:  DSZ.

               DSZ or ZModem file transfer protocol is the industry














          standard for high speed file transfers.  Hence, the job fair has
          been written to support ZMODEM transfers.  All the necessary
          software coding to run DSZ in either send or receive mode has
          been done in the code.  Even the potential problems that could
          occur with the so called "16550 high speed first in first out"
          communications port have been addressed in the job fair software.

               All you need to do is to install a copy of "DSZ.exe" in the
          subdirectory where the job fair has been placed to run the
          transfers.  You should register this software since it is the
          product of much work at Omen technologies and the author (like
          Marshall Dudley of Doorways) deserves to receive payment for his
          work.

               Please note that if you are going to run your modem off of
          communications port 2, then you should place in your
          "Autoexec.bat" file the line "Set DSZPORT=2" in order to ensure
          that the DSZ program properly addresses the port.

               10:  Security levels.

               Uploading files to the job fair is an important function of
          the program.  This allows for many sources of information to be
          used rather than having to make the system operator always
          responsible for file additions.  Of course, allowing anyone to
          upload files would be foolish and so a security level is
          required.

               The System Operator can assign a security level of 50 or
          above which opens uploading privileges to callers.  This security
          assignment is done through the system editor program either
          locally or by remote.  Thus use the users editing menu option to
          browse the users database and make any security assignments you
          desire.  Please note that the job fair will ask folks who try to
          upload if they would like to have sufficient security to make
          uploads and if the answer is yes, then the system places a 49 in
          the security field.  If you see a 49 in the security field then
          you should consider allowing the caller making the request to
          have enough security.

               Uploading a resume is not security restricted since the
          premise of that upload is to advertise oneself for potential
          employers to view online.

          11:  Problems and considerations.

               * The program may sometimes appear slow in running.  This
          usually is a function of a database be accessed by more than one
          user.  It should speed up when either other folks are not
          accessing the same database or the caller switches to other
          program options which do not require the use of a particular
          database.

               * There are no graphical user interfaces or other screen














          enhancement features to the program since it was written
          particularly to meet the needs of folks using synthetic speech to
          access information.  While there are access packages to make
          graphics work, they are not as quick or reliable as the text
          based programming done for this program.

               * It is recommended that at least a 9,600 bps modem be used
          with this program.  Using slower modems would increase file
          transfer time to probably unacceptable levels for most callers.

          12:  Help!

               If you are stuck on installing or running this software,
          then call me (Charlie Crawford) at area (617)-727-5550 extension
          4503 during eastern standard time business hours and i'll be glad
          to commiserate or help you in any way I can.

          13:  Whose responsible for this mess anyway?

               In short, nobody!  This is public domain software that you
          did not need to pay for and so if anything goes wrong; All that
          can be guaranteed is that the software will take up space on your
          hard disk.

          14:  Closing remarks.

               Well, I pretty much said everything I wanted to say, but
          everyone has these nice closing remarks.  If you are interested
          in other software of use to folks with little or no vision then
          call the MCB BBS for a view of what may be helpful!  Everything
          from a talking checkbook to Supreme Court decisions.

          July 16, 1994 - Charlie Crawford.




























