Short: GUI for selecting files of Fidonet boxes
Type: comm/fido
Uploader: steppler@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
Author: steppler@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de

NAME

    MUI Fido File Request 1.2

DESCRIPTION

    MUI Fido File Request is a GUI for selecting files from a filelist,
    which almost every Fidonet mailbox provides for download.

    The list of selected files is written to a .REQ-file in your
    outbound directory.

    The next time you call up your Fido Boss these files are
    automatically downloaded by your Fidonet communications software.

CHANGES

    1.0 Initial release (23.01.94)

    1.1 (17.02.94)

    - clipboard support
    - 4D addressing is used for the request file
    - multiple nodes
    - download of the selected files
    - XPK support
    - appending of passwords to the selected filenames

    1.2 (16.04.94)

    - display of telephone charges, sum of sizes of all selected files
      in bytes and expected duration of transmission
      (suggested by Stefan Gybas)
    - two new environment variables MUIFFR/Outbound and MUIFFR/Config
      (suggested by Klaus Melchior)
    - bug removed: Filenames and passwords containing spaces inside of a
      .REQ file are not split in several parts any longer when loaded
      (reported by Matthias Scheler)
    - enforcer hit removed (WORD-READ), which appeared sometimes during
      startup
    - After a successful search the filelist listview gadget in automatically
      made the active object of the main window.
      (suggested by Stefan Gybas)
    - .REQ files, if present, are loaded from now on everytime the user
      selects a different alias.

HARD- AND SOFTWARE-REQUIREMENTS

    - Amiga OS 2.04
    - WB 2.1 (if you want to make use of localization)
    - Stefan Stuntz' Magic User Interface 2.0 or better
    - Fidonet mailer, e. g. Maximilian Hantsch's and Martin Laubach's TrapDoor

INSTALLATION

    Installer script supplied.

DOCUMENTATION

    MUIFFR 1.2 is pretty much self-explanatory.

    ***ATTENTION***
    The format of the configuration file has changed form 1.1 to 1.2.
    Old 1.1 configuration files can *still* be read.
    When installing 1.2 over an already installed version 1.1
    your 1.1 configuration file is *not* overwritten by the Installer script.
    You can keep on using your old 1.1 configuration. After the installation
    you only have to adapt your configuration to 1.2, i.e. enter
    transmission rate, telephone charges etc. in the empty gadgets of the
    configuration window, and save it..

    Configuration window:

    - For every node you can define an alias, a node number,
      a telephone number, a password, a filelist associated
      with this alias and a font compatible with this filelist.
      MUIFFR automatically recognizes, if this list has been
      packed with an XPK-packer, and unpacks it, when nescessary.

      Since. 1.2 you can specify the transmission rate of the
      connection to the respective mailbox, the charges per unit
      in cents and the duration of a unit in seconds. MUIFFR
      uses these data to automatically calculate telephone
      charges and display them in the main window.

    - When you press the 'Download' button of the main window,
      your Fido communications software, e. g. TrapDoor,
      is invoked. If you did not specify a phone number
      for the current node, the contents of the 'Via Node'
      string gadget (otherwise 'Via Number') are used for
      invoking your Fido software.

      Following format specifiers are recognized.

        %t  telephone number
        %n  node number
        %l  nodelist directory
        %p  password

      Examples:

      The current node has a telephone number:

        TrapDoor Call %t Boss %n Password %p

      The current node does not have a telephone number. It is
      extracted out of the nodelist by your Fido software.

        TrapDoor Call %n Password %p Nodelist %l

    - The outbound directory is the placed, where the .REQ-file is to
      be stored to.

      Since 1.2 you can specify the outbound directory via the environment
      variable MUIFFR/Outbound. The environment variable has a higher
      priority than the contents of the outbound gadget.

      Example: 1> setenv MUIFFR/Outbound Mail:outbound
                  copy env:MUIFFR envarc:MUIFFR

    - Since 1.2 you can specify the name of the configuration file via the
      environment variable MUIFFR/Config. The environment variable has a higher
      priority than the default value PROGDIR:muiffr.config.

      Example: 1> setenv MUIFFR/Config PROGDIR:muiffr.config
                  copy env:MUIFFR envarc:MUIFFR

    - Termination: Is every line of the .REQ-file to be terminated with
      a linefeed character (dec.: 10) or with an carriage return (dec.: 13)
      and a linefeed?

    - Filename position: Which word of the selected line is to be extracted
      as the filename?

    - Since 1.2 the filesize entry of a selected line is recognized, too.
      Byte position: Position of the filesize entry within the selected line.

    Main window:
    - Password: Select one or more files and then press this button.
      The password is now appended to each of them. Do not mistake
      this password, which gives you download access to certain files,
      by your personal password, with the help of which you are allowed
      to download at all.

    - Filenames can be im- or exported via the clipboard (RAmiga-C/V/X).

    - Insert: The contents of the string gadget beneath the 'selected
      files' listview gadget is appended to the list of these files.

    - Delete: One or more filenames are deleted from the list.

    - Load: The .REQ-file is loaded, if it exists.

    - Save: The .REQ-file is saved to the outbound directory using
      4D addressing. If no file has been selected, but a .REQ-file
      already exists, then this file is deleted.

DOWNLOAD

    Any Aminet site, e.g.

    USA (MO)     ftp.wustl.edu           128.252.135.4   pub/aminet/
    USA (CA)     ftp.cdrom.com           192.153.46.2    pub/aminet/
    USA (TX)     ftp.etsu.edu            192.43.199.20   pub/aminet/
    Scandinavia  ftp.luth.se             130.240.18.2    pub/aminet/
    Germany      ftp.uni-kl.de           131.246.9.95    pub/aminet/
    Germany      ftp.uni-erlangen.de     131.188.1.43    pub/aminet/
    Germany      ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de     130.149.17.7    pub/aminet/
    Germany      ftp.uni-paderborn.de    131.234.2.32    pub/aminet/
    Germany      ftp.uni-oldenburg.de    134.106.40.9    pub/aminet/
    Germany      ftp.coli.uni-sb.de      134.96.68.11    pub/aminet/
    Switzerland  ftp.eunet.ch            146.228.10.16   pub/aminet/
    Switzerland  litamiga.epfl.ch        128.178.151.32  pub/aminet/ (*)
    UK           ftp.doc.ic.ac.uk        146.169.2.1     pub/aminet/
      (*) closed 6:30am to 4pm weekdays

DIRECTORY

    comm/fido

FILE NAME

    MUIFFR12.lha

FURTHER SOURCES

    FIDO:
        Mowgli 2:242/7     +49-(0)241-40 59 49
               2:2452/107

DISTRIBUTABILITY

     Freely distributable, but copyrighted.

KNOWN BUGS

    - If you start MUIFFR from CLI or another program (e.g. Filer or DirOpus),
      reassure yourself the stack is set to at least 10000 bytes. Otherwise
      unpredictable errors might occur.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

    Thanks to

    - Klaus Melchior for suggestions and beta-testing.
    - Matthias Scheler for bug-reports and suggestions.
    - Stefan Gybas for suggestions.

AUTHOR

    Martin Steppler

    Internet: steppler@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
              steppler@dfv.rwth-aachen.de
    ADSP:     steppler@cookies.adsp.sub.org
    Fido:     2:242/7.12 steppler@mowgli.fido.de
    FidoLite: 2:2452/107.12
