SYNCNEWS 7.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(C) Copyright 2003 by Timothy Arnold (Biohazard) & Richard Brumpton (Merlin)

Courtesy of:  Biohazardous Material      (telnet://biohazmat.ath.cx)
              Carso Information Services (carso.synchro.net)


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                    B I O H A Z A R D O U S   M A T E R I A L
                    -----------------------------------------
                           TELNET: biohazmat.ath.cx
                    Owned & Operated by: Timothy Arnold (Biohazard)
                                         Robert Westfall (Ig88)
               
              Specializing in:
                       
              + Online Games (250+)
              + Our very own Tradewars Game Server (100 Nodes)
              + Fantasy Role-Playing Games (Messge Based)
              + Messages, including Dove-NET
              + 10 active nodes
              + Running Synchronet BBS
              + Free server with INSTANT access!
              *** WARNING: Entry to this server contains
                           extremely hazardous and highly 
                           addictive material! Those 
                           exposed may not want to leave.
                           ENTER AT ONES OWN RISK!
                     
               
[1.1]  Disclaimer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Users of this program must accept the following:
                                                                              
SyncNEWS is supplied as is.  The author(s) disclaims all warranties, expressed or 
implied.  The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, 
which may result from the use of SyncNEWS.

You may NOT distribute this archive or any of it's contents without the express
permission from the Author(s) of this program.
                                                                              
You may NOT modify or disassemble this program, in whole or in part.  Use of 
decompilers, hex editors, etc on SyncNEWS is strictly forbidden.  
                                                                              
Before running this program, you must agree NOT to distrubute the registration 
in any form. Should you distribute either these, you will be held liable for any    
and all damages.

*No warranty* is provided for this product.  Timothy Arnold & Richard Brumpton, 
the author(s), are not liable for any damages incurred by use of SyncNews.
SyncNews is provided "as is" and a warranty of any kind is neither expressed nor
implied, all of are hereby explicitly disclaimed.  Any damage caused 
directly or indirectly is not the responsibility of Timothy Arnold. There
is also no guarantee that this software will continue to be updated or that
support will be offered.
                                                              

[1.2]  Registration
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presently, registration is FREE to Beta Testers ONLY. The cost to register this
program is $5 Dollars US or $10 Dollars CANADIAN, made payable to 
biohazardousmaterial@msn.com or richard@internetsol.co.uk on the paypal.com website.


[1.3]  Multinode
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SyncNews is NOT multi-node aware at this time. However, we are presently working
on a multi-node aware version.


[1.4]  Archive Contents
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The following are the archive contents which is all that is required in order to
run SyncNews:

SYNCNW#.ASC       <--- Main SyncNews Screen.
BIONEWS.BIN        <--- SyncNews program.
SYNCNEWS.CFG        <--- SyncNews configuration.
SYNCNEWS.VIP        <--- SyncNews VIP file for users you'd like to be able to post.
SYNCNO#.ASC       <--- SyncNews screen when there is no more news!
FILE_ID.DIZ        <--- SyncNews Description File.
SYSOP.TXT          <--- SyncNews Set-up & Instructions Documentation.
WHATSNEW.TXT       <--- SyncNews version history Documentation.


[1.5]  Setting Up SyncNews
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STEP ONE: Create a directory called SYNCNEWS off of your SBBS\XTRN directory.

STEP TWO: Copy bionews.bin into your SBBS\EXEC directory and the rest into your
          BIONEWS directory.

STEP THREE: Edit your SYNCNEWS.CFG to reflect your BBS information and liking.

That's it!


[1.6]  Setting Up SyncNews with Synchronet
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To set up SyncNews with Synchronet is quite simple. Simply go into your
SCFG->External Programs->Online Programs (Doors). Once you are in this menu, 
select a category from your listing to place the SyncNews door.

If you're running Windows and your BBS is in the the C: DRIVE, then the command to run
bionews is  *bionews   (REVIEW WINDOWS VERSION SETUP BELOW FOR DETAILS)
 
If you're using non-windows Synchronet or your BBS is NOT in the C: DRIVE, then you need
to use *BIONEWS <path to bionews dir>  eg   *BIONEWS D:\BBS\XTRN\SYNCNEWS or on unix it would be: *BIONEWS /usr/bbs/sbbs/xtrn/bionews   (REVIEW UNIX / FREEBSD VERSION SETUP BELOW
FOR DETAILS)

Once you find a place for SyncNews, press [INS] Insert Key and make the following
settings exactly like this:


*** WINDOWS VERSION SETUP ***

 1: Name                       SyncNews
 2: Internal Code              Bionews
 3: Start-up Directory
 4: Command Line               *bionews
 5: Clean-up Command Line
 6: Execution Cost             None
 7: Access Requirements
 8: Execution Requirements
 9: Multiple Concurrent Users  Yes
10: Intercept Standard I/O     No
11: Native (32-bit) Executable No
12: Use Shell to Execute       No
13: Modify User Data           No
14: Execute on Event           Yes - Logon
15: Pause After Execution      No
16: BBS Drop File Type         None
17: Place Drop File In         Node Directory
18: Time Options...


*** UNIX / FREEBSD VERSION SETUP ***

 1: Name                       SyncNews
 2: Internal Code              Bionews
 3: Start-up Directory
 4: Command Line               *bionews <path>   eg. *bionews /usr/sbbs/syncnews
 5: Clean-up Command Line
 6: Execution Cost             None
 7: Access Requirements
 8: Execution Requirements
 9: Multiple Concurrent Users  Yes
10: Intercept Standard I/O     No
11: Native (32-bit) Executable No
12: Use Shell to Execute       No
13: Modify User Data           No
14: Execute on Event           Yes - Logon
15: Pause After Execution      No
16: BBS Drop File Type         None
17: Place Drop File In         Node Directory
18: Time Options...

NOTE TO UNIX / FREEBSD USERS: Make sure you put the PATH to the directory where you unzipped                                    XTRNDIR.ZIP on line 4 or it won't know where to find them!


The last thing you will need to check is to see if your Synchronet is converting pipecodes
into color. To do this, simply do the following:

     Go into your Synchronet Config->Message Options->Extra Attribute Codes. Make sure that
everthing in there is set to YES. Mine looks like this:

+-------------------------+
  Extra Attribute Codes  
-------------------------
 WWIV            Yes    
 PCBoard         Yes    
 Wildcat         Yes    
 Celerity        Yes    
 Renegade        Yes    
+-------------------------+                                                     


[1.7]  SyncNews Help
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SyncNEWS CONFIG (HELP):

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF BULLETINS
- SyncNews can have a minimum of 1 news bulletin up to a maximum of ...

SECURITY LEVEL REQUIRED TO ADD SyncNEWS
- This is the Security Level required to have total control over all the
  functions of SyncNews. This includes access to Editing, Changing, Resetting,
  Deleting, etc.

COLOR OF TEXT WHEN COMPOSING A NEWS MESSAGE
- This allows you to change the color of the embedded news text when composing
  a news message (review the bionews.cfg for color code chart).

DAYS BEFORE "DELETE AS OLD" (1 to 365)
- This option allows you to set the number of days you would like to keep a
  news bulletin before maintenance asks you if you want to delete it because it's
  old (1 to 365).

PROMPT TO DISPLAY WHEN A DELAY IS SET AFTER NEWS ITEMS
- This is the string you would like to use as the delay string when news messages
  have set delay times.

PROMPT TO DISPLAY WHEN A NORMAL PROMPT ISN'T SHOWN
- This is the string you would like to use as the display prompt when a normal
  prompt isn't.

HEADER/FOOTER LINE TO DISPLAY
- This is the header and footer line of the program you'd like to have displayed.

DISPLAY ORDER OF NEWS
- This option allows you to display the order of which you'd like to have the news
  displayed (A = Assending (1 to max) D= Desending (max to 1))

MESSAGE AREA TO ACCEPT COMMENTS (or NONE)
- This is the message sub you would like to accept user comments, if this option is
  activated. NOTE: ENSURE THAT YOU PUT THE INTERNAL CODE FOR THIS MESSAGE SUB, I.E.
  GENERAL MESSAGE AREA INTERNAL CODE: GENERAL

PROMPT TO DISPLAY FOR COMMENT
- This is the string you would like to use as the display prompt for adding comments
  to news.



[1.8]  Miscellaneous
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You can visit Biohazardous Material @ telnet://biohazmat.ath.cx!
