Door list and door groups

The door list shows a caller the doors he may play and runs the one he picks. Doors can be put into groups (Adventure, Fantasy, Puzzle and so on), the way message and file areas are, so callers can browse by kind of game. It works like the file base: the caller picks a group from a numbered list, ProBoard remembers it (in his user record) and shows it in the menu prompt, and the doors of that group are listed with numbers. A ready-made menu, PBDOORS, with ANSI, ASCII and RIP screens, ties it together.

It is an addition, not a replacement. A menu item that runs one door (function Run a door, with the door's name as its data) works exactly as before, whether or not the door is in a group. You can keep adding doors with menu items, and put only some of them in the list. Every setting on this page is optional.

All of this is in System > Door Configuration in PBConfig.

1. Groups… Add the groups you want: a name, a title and description for callers, who may see the group (level and flags) and, if you like, an ANSI screen. The order in the list is the order callers see.
2. Edit a door, then List && Access… Give the door a title and description, tick the groups it belongs to (up to eight), choose whether it appears in the list, who may play it, and how many times a day each caller may play it.
3. Add the PBDOORS menu (below), or make your own menu items for the list, and save.

Up to 200 groups can be defined.

The list is read each time a caller opens it, so no restart is needed.

PBInstall provides PBDOORS.PBM with PBDOORS.ANS, PBDOORS.ASC and PBDOORS.RIP. It is an ordinary menu, so you can change the keys and the art in PBConfig. Like the file and message menus its screen is only a header: a title box, the caller's current door group and a line of keys. ProBoard itself draws the numbered group list below it, and marks the caller's own group with *. A caller on RIP gets the RIP screen, which has the header and a row of buttons, with the list printed inside its panel. To reach it, add a menu item with function Gosub menu and the data PBDOORS.

The prompt reads like the file menu's, for example Door #2 [Adventure Games]>. Doors that belong to no group also appear in the group list as Other doors. After G the menu is drawn again, so the header shows the new group.

Function Select door group (84) takes /L (only show the list, below the menu screen), /P (only ask for the number) or nothing (clear the screen, show the list and ask). Function List / run doors (83) takes these flags in its Data, in any combination:

The caller types a door's number and presses Enter. Pressing Enter alone goes back.

A “/” command word is an ordinary menu item (see Menus and commands). Put these in GLOBAL.PBM and every menu gets them:

A caller types /adventure and Enter from any menu, or /adv while the shortened word is unique.

A ProBoard plug-in game (StreetKing, PBBlocks, Poker … a NAME.P3X in the PEX folder) can have a door block too, so it is listed, grouped, access-checked, daily-limited and logged like any other door. In PBConfig choose P3X plug-in as the Door Type and give the plug-in name and, if it needs any, its arguments. By hand:

door STREETKING
   type         p3x
   plugin       STREETKING
   pluginargs   days=30 plays=10
   title        Street King
   group        Strategy
enddoor

The plug-in runs inside ProBoard on the caller's own connection, exactly as a menu item for function 60 starts it, so a plug-in door needs no drop file, work folder, DOSBox or PBLegacy, and Time Limit is not used. If the .P3X file is missing the caller is told the door is not available, and that attempt does not count against his daily limit.

• A door's own level and flags are checked every time it starts, from a menu item or from the list. A caller who fails them is told he is not allowed to use it.
• A group's level and flags decide what the list shows. A grouped door is listed if the caller passes the door's own access and may use at least one of its groups. An ungrouped door is listed to anyone who passes its own access.
• List: no keeps a door out of the list. Its menu item still starts it.

Setting Plays per day to 3 lets each caller start that door three times a calendar day, from a menu item or the list. The count comes from the play log (below), so it is the same on every node and survives a restart. Zero means no limit.

ProBoard looks in TXTFILES for these display files (ANS, ASC or RIP, the usual language rules):

A missing file is skipped. A list of doors has no default screen above it; DOORS.ANS belongs to the old DOORS menu and is not shown there. In an ANSI screen the code ^K followed by 3 prints the caller's current door group (4 prints its number); a menu prompt can use @<CURDOORGROUP>@ and @<CURDOORGROUP#>@. The wording of the door prompts is built in (English) and is not in the language file yet.

Each time a door starts and ends, a line is added to LOGS\DOORPLAY-YYYYMM.LOG (one file a month, shared by all nodes). The fields are separated by tabs, so the file opens directly in a spreadsheet:

S  date  time  node  user-record  user-name  door-name            a play started
E  date  time  node  user-record  user-name  door-name  seconds   the same play ended

Count the S lines for plays, and add up the E seconds for time played. A door-play section in the PBDispatch Reporting panel is not built yet.

PBConfig writes these for you. By hand:

group Adventure
   title        Adventure and RPG
   description  Quests, dungeons and trading
   level        10
   flags        A
   flagsnot     C
   art          ADVENT
endgroup

door TW2002
   ... the usual lines ...
   title        Trade Wars 2002
   description  Classic space trading
   group        Adventure, Strategy
   list         yes
   dailylimit   3
enddoor

A door that names a group which has no group block is reported as an error when the file is read, so a typo never silently hides a door.