All wrote to Me about

        Notice for OLR and 3rd-party developers.

Howdy All

Anyone coding a 3rd-party program for any OLR must have come up against
problems getting certain information from it. Especially programs such
as reformatters, tagline managers, sig adders, etc. To make the whole
thing easier, I've drafted this little proposal. I apologise for the
layout, it's my first attempt at such a document. Currently, the only
OLR that supports this is the (as yet, unreleased version) of Termail.
Tag-O-Matic is the only 3rd-party util as yet that implements this.

If you are the author of a currently-supported OLR, please consider
using this. It could feasibly mean a more/better supported program.
I don't need to tell the 3rd-party developers of the benefits. ')

Anyway, enough babble. Here it be. 

-!begin!-

A message to all OLR and 3rd-party developers for FTSC Echomail/Netmail
developers.


Proposed format for MSGINFO.SYS file. V.1

Proposer: Simon Avery
Address:  2:250/410.31
Email: savery{at}mail.zynet.co.uk
Date: 10 January 1997

Purpose:
--------

        To pass information from OLR's to 3rd-party software. 
There has been, up to now, no convenient way of transferring certain details 
out from such OLR's to 3rd-party software. The usual way of passing this 
information is to adapt the OLR's header to include the information in the 
message body, which is kludgy and difficult both for the programmer of the 
3rd-party software, and for the user configuring it.

General Outline:
----------------

        When the user replies to, or creates a new message, a text drop-file
is also created with certain information that can be used by the 3rd-party
program. 


Proposed Format for MSGINFO.SYS
-------------------------------
Each entry on its own line, the total line length no longer that 80 chars.


-Begin MSGINFO.SYS-
MessageFile=
ToName=
FromName=
Subject=
OrigDate=
OrigTime=
EchoID=
FromAddr=
ToAddr=
GroupID=
-End File-


Explanation of each entry
-------------------------

MessageFile=

        This is the fully qualified path to the text file containing the 
        message.

ToName=

        The name in the "To" field of the message.

FromName=

        The name in the "From" field of the message.

Subject=

        The text in the "Subject" field of the message.

OrigDate=

        The date of the message being replied to. (Blank if a new msg)
        Format is: DD/MM/YYYY

OrigTime=

        The time of the message being replied to. (Blank if a new msg)
        Format is: HH:MM.SS

EchoID=

        The echotag of the currently-selected echo, or NETMAIL

FromAddr=

        The Fidonet (or equiv) address of the user in the "From" field.

ToAddr=

        The Fidonet (or equiv) address of the user in the "To" field.

GroupID=

        The Group (if applic). 


Example
-------

 An example of a MSGINFO.SYS file. The user "Fred Bloggs" was replying to
a message by "John Doe" with the subject "Stuff". The
time of the original
message was 17:30 on the 2nd Jan, 1997. Fred replied in the echo "NET_DEV"
which was configured in the OLR under the group "Fidonet". He was using
Termail. Fred's Address was 2:123/456, and John's address 1:789/123

-Begin MSGINFO.SYS-
MessageFile=TM.MSG
ToName=John Doe
FromName=Fred Bloggs
Subject=Stuff
OrigDate=02/01/1997
OrigTime=17:30.00
EchoID=NET_DEV
FromAddr=2:123/456
ToAddr=1:789/123
GroupID=FIDONET
-End file-


Notes for the OLR developer
---------------------------

The only constant is the filename of the info file; MSGINFO.SYS. You can omit 
any entry or entries if you don't have the information for that specific 
message. Any new entries should be forwarded to me, so I can distribute 
details to the other 3rd-party developers. If you use this proposal, please
mention MSGINFO.SYS in the documentation, and let me know so I can inform
the 3rd-party developers. Whether you utilise a switch or do this as default
is your perogative. The file should be overwritten every time.
 OLR Benefits:
 3rd-party programs can greatly increase the user satisfaction of your 
program. For example, if they do not like one aspect of your message (like
one fixed header), they can use a 3rd-party program to use a specially
or randomly chosen header. If your program doesn't support taglines, then
3rd-party programs can add this function to your program. If there was no
such support from other programmers, the user might decide to move to another
OLR. Symbiosis. This proposal means more work for you, but not much.

Example 'C' Code:

FILE *fp;

if ((fp=fopen("MSGINFO.SYS","wt"))==NULL)        {
//unable to write file }

fprintf(fp,"MessageFile=%s\n",msgfile);
fprintf(fp,"ToName=%s\n",to.username);
..etc..

Notes for the 3rd-party developer
---------------------------------

Your program MUST be able to handle these entries in any order, handle 
missing entries, entries with no value, non-existence of this file or
any such other contingencies. It should be able to parse date and time
information, and split full names into first and last if required. If
you have a new entry, please inform me and I will pass the information
onto the OLR developers.
 3rd-party benefits:
 There can't be a developer of 3rd-party OLR programs that haven't cursed
the inability to gain certain information. The benefits are, hopefully,
clear. I have a PD library in 'C' for various routines to read this kind
of INI file, which is freely available if you contact me.


Glossary:
---------

OLR = Offline Reader. For this purpose; any FTSC-compliant software that
        has the ability to create or reply to echomail or netmail messages.
3rd-party software = Any program designed to be run in conjunction with
        OLR software. This would include any tagline manager, reformatter,
        sig-adder, requoter etc.


 
Yours sincerely, 
                Simon Avery

... When I left this ship. It was in one piece. - Picard
-!- Tag-O-Matic V.12b (100619 Taglines) (Tagfile: TAGS.TAG)
--- Terminate 4.00/Pro