
                           -=( The UserDoes idea )=-


This is a little documentationfile about the UserDoes and the
SysDoes files used by my UserOn door and by HandyMan.


History and Why??
=================

The idea for the UserOn door was born after RA threw in the
status field for the "Who's online" menu type. Users on the other
lines could see what the other users were doing.. or.. could
they? Well, actually, as long as the other user stayed in RA,
everything wasn't to bad.. But when the uses started a door, RA
was only telling that the user was "External" Who cares..

So I dreamed up UserOn. Every door can post information for
UserOn to display. If the door doesn't do it, the SysOp can do it
himself from batch. So there's no longer any excuse for just
"External"....


UserDoes:
=========

UserDoes.<Node> is the info file created by the door. It's a
textfile with a single line of text of max. 75 characters.

The extension of the UserDoes file is the node of the program who
created the UserDoes file.

So USERDOES.1 is a legal name. (USERDOES.001 is NOT!)

This UserDoes file can contain a simple line like:

     Is playing multi-line tradewars 3001.. Return of the
     klingons!

Or can be continuously be updated to show the users score.

F.e. 

     Is playing Tetra. Score 100 Lines 35


it is the responsibility of the door or batchfile to clean up its
own mess and delete the UserDoes again.

SysDoes:
========

Ok, the UserDoes tells the world what the users are doing, but
what if the system is processing mail.. And you want to tell the
world why everything is so slow.. SysDoes is a file shown in
UserOn (and HandyMan) when there's no user on line. You can use
it for occasions like thisone, or to tell everybody that Line 3
is just a local line waiting for the sysop.

Example:

Let's say that Node 1 is processing mail and node 3 is a local
node. Create a SysDoes.3 with the line:

     * Local node, just waiting for the SysOp *

and put it into your semaphore directory. From that point on,
whenever you're  not logged on to node 3, this line is shown in
UserOn. It's never deleted  unless you delete it yourself..

At the beginning of your incoming mail batch you write a line:

     Echo Node is processing mail. > G:\SEMAPHORE\SYSDOES.1

and at the end of the mailbatch

     Del G:\SEMAPHORE\SYSDOES.1

And everybody who logs on to the other lines can see why node one
is down.

Tech info:
==========

     þ    SYSDOES and USERDOES files are posted through the
          SEMAPHORE directory. (The semaphorepath in the
          RAConfig)

     þ    SYSDOES is never deleted. It's overruled by a user
          logging in. Or you have to delete it yourself.

     þ    USERDOES is created when necessary and it's the
          creators responsibility to clean up!

     þ    Both the SysDoes and the UserDoes can contain a single
          line of ascii text. Maximal length 75 printable
          characters. Don't put ansi or avatar codes in those
          strings..


Doors supporting UserDoes files:

 þ All the LiveSystems Doors and the RADoor door writers toolbox. 
   (Pong, Trivia, UserOn itself, News, ShowFile, Vote, etc.)

 þ Richard Faasen's Tetra and his toolbox RADU

 þ Jos Bergman's RAStock

 þ Ron Huiskes RA_New, RA_Files and his toolbox.