Importing echoes from an echolist
A network publishes its list of echoes as a text file, usually ELIST.NA or something close to it. PBConfig reads that list and creates the message areas for you, so you do not type fifty areas by hand. It does the work in two steps: you describe the network once in a profile, then you import any number of lists through that profile.
The two screens
| Screen | What for |
|---|---|
| Areas > Echo Networks | One profile per network: its message group, the folder for its message bases, origin line, AKA, uplink and the echo defaults every new area starts from. |
| Areas > Message Areas > Import from Echolist… | Picks an echolist, shows what is in it, and creates the areas you tick. (Echo Networks has an Import echolist… button that opens the same window.) |
An echolist is a plain text file with one echo per line: the tag, then a description. A line that starts with ; is a comment.
FSX_GEN General chat FSX_BBS BBS talk and gossip ; a comment LISTS.CISA-ADVISORIES Security advisories
Step 1. Set up the network (Areas > Echo Networks)
The page lists the profiles you have. Use New, Edit, Copy and Delete. A profile is saved when you press Save in its window; each one is a small file in Configs\EchoNets.
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Name | The profile's name and its file name, for example fsxnet. |
| Network, Domain, Zone | Which network this is. Network is the display name (for example fsxNet). Domain is a drop-down of the domains your own AKAs use, then the well-known networks; you can still type your own. Zone is a drop-down of the zones your AKAs sit in, then the well-known networks' zones. Picking a domain fills an empty Zone for you. They are shown in the import window and used in the AreaFix request. |
| Message group | The group the new areas go into. Pick one, or type a new name and it is created. |
| Base folder / path | Where the message bases go. See “Folders” below. |
| Origin line | Written on messages posted in these echoes. |
| AKA | Which of your AKAs belongs to this network (from Network AKA Addresses). |
| Uplink (PBToss) | The PBToss link that sends and receives this network's mail. A link name or one of its addresses. |
| Imported areas are | Hidden until you tick Active on the PBToss page (the safe choice), or visible at once. |
| File names | How an echo tag becomes a file name: upper case or not, what odd characters turn into, and the longest name allowed. |
| Area name | What callers see in the area list: the description, the tag and description, or the network and description. |
| Rules | One rule per line, matched on the echo tag (* and ?); later lines win. skip LISTS.* leaves matching echoes unticked, hide *ADMIN imports them hidden, show FSX_GEN imports them visible, level 100 100 SYSOP* sets the read and write level. |
| Echo defaults… | The same window as the message-area (echo) editor, used as the starting point for every area. See below. |
Echo defaults
Click Echo defaults… and you get the familiar echo editor: area type, name mode, read, write and sysop levels and flags, how long messages are kept, the maximum number of messages, the minimum age, the area's sysop and the group setting. Whatever you set there is copied into every echo imported through this profile. The line next to the button shows a short summary, for example read 10, write 10, sysop 100 - kill 30 / 14 days - 500 messages max.
You can also copy the settings from an area you already have: choose it in Copy from area and click Copy settings.
Some things are never defaults, because they are different for every echo: the area's name, tag, path, QWK name and message group. The import fills those in.
Folders
The Base folder / path decides where each echo's message base files go. The echo tag is turned into a safe file name (WHAT'S_HOT! becomes WHATS_HOT, FIDONET.TELEGRAM becomes FIDONET_TELEGRAM), and:
- With a plain folder, the file name is added to it:
C:\PB\MSGBASE\FSXNETgivesC:\PB\MSGBASE\FSXNET\FSX_GEN. - Write
{TAG}where the file name belongs and you get your own layout.C:\PB\MSGBASE\FSXNET\{TAG}\{TAG}gives one folder per echo:C:\PB\MSGBASE\FSXNET\FSX_GEN\FSX_GEN.
If two tags would give the same name, the second gets _2, the next _3 and so on. The whole path has to fit in 80 characters; an echo that does not fit is left out and the import window says so.
Step 2. Import (Areas > Message Areas > Import from Echolist...)
- Choose the echolist file and the profile. A list remembers its profile.
- The window shows every echo with a tick. Echoes you already have are not ticked, and nothing you already have is ever changed. Rules in the profile decide the other ticks.
- Change the folder, group, origin, AKA or uplink if you need to for this import. Profile settings… opens the full profile editor, and Save profile keeps what you changed.
- In the template list choose the profile's echo defaults (the default for a profile that has them). You can still pick an existing area as the template instead, and the profile goes back to using that area.
- Click Import.
Before anything is written, PBConfig makes a backup of MESSAGES.PB, MGROUPS.PB and PBTOSS.CFG. Each new area is a JAM echo area, in the profile's group, with the origin line and AKA of the network, and a matching area with its uplink in the PBToss setup.
New areas are hidden (level 65535 and not active in PBToss) until you tick Active on the PBToss configuration page, so callers never see an echo that is not receiving mail yet.
Importing the same list again later shows what is new and what has gone since last time (Tick new since last import). Nothing is ever deleted for you.
Step 3. Ask the uplink for the echoes
Creating an area does not make your uplink send it. After the import the window offers an AreaFix request: a text file in Configs\EchoNets with a +TAG line for every new echo, 40 to a message. Send it as netmail to your uplink's AreaFix (the subject is your AreaFix password). When the mail starts to arrive, tick Active for those echoes on the PBToss page.
PBToss does not send AreaFix requests by itself yet.
If something goes wrong
- “Fill in the message base folder” - the profile has no folder. Open Areas > Echo Networks, edit the profile and fill it in.
- An echo is missing from the list of ticked areas - it is already in your message areas, a rule says
skip, or its path would be longer than 80 characters. - The uplink is not added - the name or address in the profile is not a PBToss link. Check it on the PBToss page.
- The AKA is not used - it is not in your AKA list; the template's AKA is used instead.
Deleting a profile removes only its file. The areas it created stay exactly as they are.
See also FidoNet mail, AKA domains and PBConfig.