OMEN -system
Offline Message Environment
(C)1991 by Omsoft
Rev. F
Offline Message Environment -system (OMEN)
is
designed to be used with any Bulletin Board Systems
that have the capability to either pack messages
into a file and get new messages out of a file, or
use an outside program to do so. With OMEN you can
minimize the Online-time you spend in the BBSmessage boards. This is done by downloading all new
messages in a compressed file, reading and writing
replies and new messages locally at your own
computer and uploading the results next time in an
other compressed file.
OMEN is not machine or operating system dependent,
it can be implemented virtually on any current
system. The original idea for offline message
system was introduced to me by Ari Laitinen of
Arisoft and I have then been developing it into an
open structure.
The following structure is originally designed by
Olli Majander of Omsoft and hereby declared Public
Domain.
*********************************************************************
OMEN in a BBS - Overview
OMEN can be implemented into Bulletin Board Systems that comply
with the following rules:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Messageboards are numbered from 0 up to
Boardnames are up to max. 80 characters
Messages are numbered from 1 up to max.
Usernames are max. 35 characters long.
Message subjects are max. 72 characters
max. 255.
long.
65535.
long.
Longer boardnames, usernames and subjects must be truncated to the
mentioned lengths. Software compatible with earlier revisions of the
OMEN-system may not be fully compatible with these rules.
OMEN can be implemented into the code of the BBS-software or be run as
a separate program. The BBS-OMEN should pack up to maximum of 1000
messages into a file in near-ASCII-format. The text and
headerinformation of each message are pure ASCII, but some control
bytes are used to make it easier to tell header and text as well as
other messages apart. The messages should be stored into a file
called NEWMSGxy.TXT. The x and y stand for ID-characters that are
used to make sure that correct packages reach the correct BBS. They
are suggested to be aphanumerical characters. It is up to each
application to select the ID-characters.
Another file that is needed with OMEN is SYSTEMxy.BBS. The x and y
are the same as for the previous file. The systemfile should include
the name of the BBS, as well as information about all of the
messageboards on which the user has rights to read or write
messages.
Optional files that can be added to the package are:
NFILExy.BBS
BULLETxy.BBS
BNAMESxy.BBS
INFOxy.BBS
Listing of new files
System bulletin
Names of the boards in system
Additional information for the reader
All the files should be compressed with some compressing utility,
for instance PKZIP, which would result in OMENxy.ZIP. This will be
the file that is sent to the user with whatever protocol the system
allows.
If the ID-characters for the system are for example R and 7, the
corresponding filenames would then be: SYSTEMR7.BBS, NEWMSGR7.TXT,
NFILER7.BBS, BULLETR7.BBS, BNAMESR7.BBS, INFOR7.BBS and for the
complete package OMENR7.ZIP.
BBS-OMEN must be able to receive a file called RETURNxy.ZIP (or other
compressed file). Inside it will be files, that contain
the messages the user has written offline and possibly other functions
as well. The private-bit should only be used on boards that are
allowed to contain both public and private messages.
The files containing the messages will be described later in this
document.
A complete structure of the files included in OMENxy-package
follows.
*********************************************************************
NOTE: String[40] means an Pascal-style ASCII string with space for
41 bytes, where the first byte indicates the actual length of the
string to follow. Byte is an 8-bit unsigned character and word is a
16-bit unsigned integer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------SYSTEMxy.BBS :
SystemName:
BoardRights:
BrdRecord:
BrdNum:
BrdStatus:
Reserved:
String[40];
Array[0..?] of BrdRecord;
Byte;
Byte;
Byte;
/* See below */
BrdName:
(*
String[16];
BrdStatus:
Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit
Bit
0:
1:
2:
3:
4:
5 -
Write rigths
SysOp rights
Private board
Public board
NetMail board
7: Not yet implemented
*)
--------------------------------------------------------------------NEWMSGxy.TXT:
MsgBase:
EOF:
Array[0..?] of MsgRecord;
Byte = 26;
MsgRecord:
SOH:
MessageHeader:
STX:
MessageText:
ETX:
Byte = 1;
MsgHdrRecord;
Byte = 2;
MsgTxtRecord;
Byte = 3;
MsgHdrRecord:
NumSign:
MsgNum:
TwoSpace:
BoardNum:
Colon:
Brdname:
TwoSpace:
Date:
TwoSpace:
Time:
TwoSpace:
Chain:
TwoSpace:
Status:
CrLf:
WhoFrom:
Separator:
WhoTo:
CrLf:
Subject:
Byte = '#';
Messagenumber in ASCII;
" ";
/* 2 consecutive ASCII 32's */
BoardNumber in ASCII;
Byte = ':';
Name of the board in ASCII;
" ";
Creation date of the message;
" ";
Creation time of the message;
" ";
Previous and Next message in chain;
" ";
Private & Received -status;
ASCII 13 + ASCII 10;
Writer's name in ASCII;
" => ";
/* String to separate names */
Receiver's name in ASCII;
ASCII 13 + ASCII 10;;
Subject of message in ASCII;
MsgTxtRecord:
MessageText in ASCII;
Messages must be placed in the file so that messages on each board
are in sequence. The boards are recommended to follow ascending
numerical order but this is not mandatory.
The message header should not contain more than 3 lines. Recommended
maximum lenght for the name of the board in the header is 30
characters. Longer names may result in the line exceeding 80
characters and this may cause problems with some of the readers.
The Date-string should follow the format of dd-mmm-yy, where dd is
the date, mmm is 3 character abbreviation of the month (e.g. Jan,
Feb...) and yy is the 2 last digits of the year.
The Time should have the format hh:mm where hh is the hour in
24-hour format and mm is the minutes.
Chain consists of the number of the previous and the next message in
reply chain in parenthesis separated by slash. If no previous or
next message exist, the number must be replaced by dash. For exapmle
a message with a previous message but a reply would have this kind
of chain-indicator: (-/2653).
Status consists of indicators for the private and received -status
of the message. Private message is indicated by an uppercase P and
received message by uppercase R in parenthesis.
Possible combinations are: (PR), (P), (R) and ().
An examplary header follows:
<01>#12345 5:Communication Board
John Doe => Archibald Leach
Subj: What's cooking Cary?
12-Aug-92
21:15
(12340/12352)
(PR)
With NetMail messages the matrix address of the writer may be added
after the name of the receiver as From: (xx:xxx/xxx) separated from
the name by a single space.
The end of the subject, the STX-byte, the actual text of the message
and the ETX-byte should follow each other immediately. The text
itself must not contain any other characters below ASCII 32 except
TAB, LF and CR (09, 10, 13).
--------------------------------------------------------------------NFILExy.BBS:
This file should contain the names, sizes and descriptions of the
new files in the system. The file must be pure ASCII. This file is
optional.
--------------------------------------------------------------------BULLETxy.BBS:
This file contains any bulletins the operator of the system wants
the users to read. The file must be pure ASCII. This file is
optional.
--------------------------------------------------------------------BNAMESxy.BBS:
This file contains the names of each board reprisented in the
SYSTEMxy-file. The names are presented with the number of each board
followed by a colon followed by the name of the board in ASCII. The
names must be presented in the same order as they appear in the
SYSTEMxy-file.
Example:
1:General
2:Private Mail
3:SysOp Only
Each name can be up to 80 characters long. NOTE: Some of the
reader-software may not support longer than 16-characters long
boardnames. This file is optional and needed only in systems with
longer boardnames than 16 characters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------INFOxy.BBS:
This file contains additional information for the reader software.
The file must be pure ASCII. The overall format of the file is:
<label>:<option>
The following labels has been currently defined:
Labels:
Options:
Description:
ORIGIN
-
Name of the program that created the
messagefile
SYSOP
-
Name of the system operator
C_SET
{IBM|ISO|SF7}
Preferred character set in the system
MSGNUM
{BOARD|BASE}
Indicates whether the system
numbers the messages board by board
or the whole base in one sequence
CHAINS
{ON|OFF}
Indicates whether the messages in
the file are packed following the
reply chain (ON) or in numerical
order (OFF).
This file is optional and all of the reader software do not use the
information provided in this file.
--------------------------------------------------------------------*********************************************************************
OMEN at home - Overview
The offline-OMEN can be implemented into the terminal software or be
used as a separate program. The program should provide an interface
for the user to read the new messages sent by BBS-OMEN. Replying to
these messages, writing completely new messages and possibly
performing some additional functions should be made available for the
user.
The functions and information of the message affected by each function
are saved in a file called HEADERxy.BBS. The x and y characters should
be taken from the OMENxy.ZIP-file (or other compressed file) that was
sent by BBS-OMEN.
The actual text of a reply or a new message should be pure ASCII,
lines not longer than 70 characters and terminated with a CrLfsequence. The text is saved in a file called MSGxynn.TXT. The nn is
the number of message relative to the headerblock position starting
from zero. Single digit numbers will be padded with a leading zero. Up
to 100 new messages can be transmitted to the BBS-OMEN at one
connection, numbered as MSGxy00.TXT - MSGxy99.TXT. Any additional
messages should be rejected.
Only one function should be permitted to be operated on single
message. Unused command-bits, other unused portions of headerblock
and the ExtraSpace-bytes should be set to zero.
Optional files that can be added to the package are:
SKIPxy.PST
TRASHxy.PST
Unwanted subjects
Names of unwanted writers
The HEADERxy.BBS, optional SKIPxy.PST and TRASHxy.PST-files, and all
of the MSGxynn.TXT-files must be compressed with PKZIP or alike to a
file called RETURNxy.ZIP (extension varies), which will then be sent
back to the BBS-OMEN.
A structure of the files follows:
--------------------------------------------------------------------HEADERxy.BBS:
Array[1..?] of ActionRecord;
ActionRecord:
Command:
CurBoard:
MoveBoard:
MsgNumber:
WhoTo:
Subject:
DestZone:
DestNet:
DestNode:
NetAttrib:
ExtraSpace:
(*
Byte;
/* See below! */
Byte;
/* Original board of message */
Byte;
/* Board to move message */
word;
/* Message to operate on */
String[35];
String[72];
word;
/* Destination NetMail Zone */
word;
/* Destination NetMail Net */
word;
/* Destination NetMail Node */
Byte;
/* See below! */
Array[1..29] of Byte;
Command:
Bit 0:
Bit 1:
Bit 2:
Save Message
Delete Message
Toggle Private/Public
Bit 3: Move message
Bit 4: Make message private
Bit 5 - 7: Not yet implemented
Only bits 0 & 4 and 3 & 4 can be combined allowing the message to be
made private when written on a board which is both for public- and
private messages as well as when a message is moved to another
board.
*)
(*
NetAttrib:
Bit 0: Kill after sent
Bit 1: CrashMail
Bit 2 - 7: Not yet implemented
*)
Information placed in the headerblock in each operation:
New messages: Bit 0 of the Command byte must be set. If the message
is written on a board that contains both public and private
messages, Bit 4 of the Command byte must be set according to the
status of the message. WhoTo-field must contain the name of the
receiver or "All" if message is not addressed to anyone perticular.
Subject-field must contain the subject of the message. DestZone,
DestNet and DestNode must contain the matrix address of the receiver
if the message is written on a NetMail-board.
Replies: as above, but MsgNumber must contain the number of the
message to which this is a reply.
Deleting: Bit 1 of the Command byte must be set. CurBoard must
contain the number of the board the deleted message is on. MsgNumber
must contain the number of the deleted message. WhoTo-field must
contain the name of the writer of the deleted message. No
corresponding MSG-file should be made for the headerblock.
Pri/Pub Toggle: as above but Bit 2 of the Command byte must be set
instead.
Moving: as above, but Bit 3 of the Command byte must be set instead.
MoveBoard must contain the number of the board on which the message
is to be moved. Bit 4 of the Command byte must be set if the message
is to be private after moving. Subject-field may contain a new
subject for the message.
--------------------------------------------------------------------MSGxynn.TXT
Each file contains the ASCII-text of a message. The number nn is the
number of the headerblock relative to the message, starting from
zero and padded with a leading zero for the first 10 messages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SKIPxy.PST
Array[1..?] of Subject;
This file contains the subjects that the user does not wish to be
packed in the next messagefile. The subjects must be in the
string[72] format without the "Subj: "-pretext. Recommended maximum
amount of subjects is 100. Subject skipping can only be done if the
RETURNxy-file is uploaded to the BBS-OMEN immediately before
messagepacking.
NOTE: All the BBS-OMENs may not support the message skipping by
subjects.
--------------------------------------------------------------------TRASHxy.PST
This file contains the names of the users whose messages are not
wanted to be packed in the messagefile. The names must be in pure
ASCII followed by CrLf, one name on each line. Recommended maximum
amount of names is 50. Subject skipping can only be done if the
RETURNxy-file is uploaded to the BBS-OMEN immediately before
messagepacking.
NOTE: All the BBS-OMENs may not support the message skipping by
writers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------*********************************************************************