Customization assistance, please. reddit / bbs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tyrex420 · 2017-10-16 01:51 I have synchronet running, and I can connect using syncterm and stuff, but I can't figure out how to customize the menus and splash screen (if available) Assistance would be greatly appreciated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FozzTexx · 2017-10-16 18:30 It's a major pain in the ass. You have to not only change some text files but you'll also have to rewrite the shells to handle your new menu structure. It's not a simple configuration change. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tyrex420 · 2017-10-16 19:48 Greeeeaaaattt.... I thought so. Thanks for letting me know that the struggle is real. If you have any suggestions for a middle point software (Easy to set up, AND easy to customize), please don't hesitate to let me know. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2017-10-16 23:58 Did you just want to change the menus themselves or the actual commands as well? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tyrex420 · 2017-10-17 01:14 Just the look of the menus. I found that the type of menu I choose (Term Emulator) also seems to change appearance, but I just wanted to change the colors and style of the menus and names for the commands. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2017-10-17 02:04 Use an ansi editor and look through the menu folders, they're just text files with ansi codes. Edit them and save as .ans - should be fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tyrex420 · 2017-10-17 04:36 Thanks! I kinda figured with all of the .ans files. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2017-10-17 14:46 Here's the wiki page for menu customization: http://wiki.synchro.net/custom:menu_files Keep in mind also that some menu sets use the .asc extension. Those files use sychronet's Ctrl-A codes for coloring and cursor placement which, although more compatible with different dialers, isn't as editor friendly. There is a set of utility programs that can convert them to and files though... /exec/asc2ans.exe and ans2asc.exe I believe. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tyrex420 · 2017-10-18 00:50 Cool, thanks! By chance, if my logic serves correct, would I be able to transfer .ans files I customize for another software, to the newer software using ANS2ASC? I would suppose that would work in some circumstances, right? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2017-10-18 01:03 Yep. Open the ansi files, make your changes and then rename them to match the filenames for your menuset in synchronet. Note that if you have two filenames with different extensions then synchronet will use .ans first (if caller supports ANSI graphics) if not it will look for the same file with .asc. If you *just* have .asc files it will use it for both and will automatically strip out ansi colors and things for the simpler terminal. The downside is that asc files can be a pain to edit. Best practice is to edit them as ansi files, convert them to asc and move them to your menu director - keeping the ans versions in another directory so you can edit them later. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tyrex420 · 2017-10-18 03:38 Thanks for the insight, but now I don't know how to open the ANS2ASC program... I've tried to drag the ans to the program to "open it", and I've tried to straight up open the converter, both methods proving fruitless. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2017-10-18 17:40 It's a dos program, so at the command line, to convert an existing file you'd run this: ans2asc *filename.ans* *filename.asc* where *filename.ans* is an existing ansi file that you've created or edited in an ansi editor, like pablodraw... and *filename.asc* is the new file you're creating. *ex:* ans2asc main.ans main.asc You can read more here: http://wiki.synchro.net/util:ans2asc ...and pablodraw can be found here: http://picoe.ca/products/pablodraw/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2017-10-23 03:17 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2017-10-23 03:19 it's all in the documentation. http://synchro.net/docs/customization.html http://i.imgur.com/U1YlpGh.png ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2017-10-23 03:20 you dont even have to use ans2asc. you can just use the ansi files. you dont have to over complicate things. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2017-10-23 03:24 if people connect and ansi is not detected, they are shown .asc files if there are .ans files and nothing else, those will be displayed to everyone. usually someone has an ansi capable client. there is no reason to convert your .ans files using ans2asc for files to be displayed to your ansi client users. pretty much what you need to do is copy over your old ansi files and then edit your command shell which is a .src file and change the command keys. than you run baja.exe filename.src and it compiles it into a .bin dont be scared... it's not THAT complicated. only sounds complicated. with synchronet you can pretty much make your bbs look and act any way you want. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nolageek · 2017-10-23 20:32 Correct - just using the ans file will work, but I had a weird string of users tell me they were not getting any menus... and it was because I just had ans files and they were using their terminal software (one was a Mac, and a few were Linux.. I think there was an atari or something else wackadoo) - it was because their terminal didn't support ansi and since I had no asc files synchronet didn't send them anything. converting my menus to asc files fixed that. Sure, it didn't happen often.. but it's nice to have those fringe situations accounted for. :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mro_1337 · 2017-10-26 22:58 yeah i guess that comes in handy. best thing to do is get them on the correct track and use a good terminal program. syncterm is good for most commonly used ones, as you know. i think people should have real ansi for the .ans files and then in their drawer save it as .asc for serving up to the people with the poor terminals.