These docs are really just notes to accompany the beta release.  If you
have questions send them to keford@magicbbs.com or keford@GCM.  Thanks!


The NORMAL key is required to access WorldGrouper at this time.
This will become a configurable option in the future.


When running as a DEMO you will restricted to one Box with two keys.


WorldGrouper is sold as WorldGrouper Plus and WorldGrouper Lite.  The
functionality of both packages is similar.  This document will often
refer to just WorldGrouper where the information applies to both
packages.

Box refers to the combo-box menu item on the C/S interface.  Boxes are
numbered 0 thru 9.  Some planning must take place before your start
using the Boxes as the Box number must be the first character of the
locks you use.  When these locks are checked, the Box number prefix
tells WorldGrouper which Box to check to determine if the user has
selected that key or grouping.

WorldGrouper Lite is limited to 1 Box with up to 10 keys.

WorldGrouper Plus allows up to 10 Boxes with up to 25 keys each.  Plus,
there are a set of tools included that allow you to quickly modify the
access keys for file libraries and message forums.  Or you can edit each
library and forum by hand.  (yuck)


Some of you may be using the PAGENAME key from Magic Keys.  If so, you
will want to change the PageName key tag specifier (PNTAG) in CNF to a
value that will keep it from being used.  I suggest using "_NOTUSED" or
something similar.  A future version of Magic Keys will allow you to
completely disable the PAGENAME key.  The PageName tag is now shared
with the WorldGrouper tag.  You can use the same tag in order to
maintain compatibility with your Magic Keys setup.  That is make WGTAG
equal to what PNTAG used to be.


If you are using WorldGrouper only for Client/Server users or only for
Ascii/Ansi users, then you do not need to read the following section. 
However, it may be a good idea to do so to gain a better understanding
of how WorldGrouper works and what you can do to enhance your system


If you are using WorldGrouper Lite or choose to only use one "Box" then
read the following.  

Lets say you want to group your message forums and file libraries into
common subsets.  The first level menu will allow the user to choose
either forums or libraries.  The second level menu will allow them to
choose from Fidonet, Internet, Local, etc.  The menu tree would look
something like this.


TOP _____ FORUMS _____ FIDO            <--- each of these
      |            |__ INET            <--- call the message
      |            |__ LOCAL           <--- forum module
      |            |__ ETC             <--- 
      |
      |__ LIBS _______ FIDO            <--- each of these
                   |__ INET            <--- call the file
                   |__ LOCAL           <--- library module
                   |__ ETC             <--- 

However, we now have two pages name FIDO, which is not allowed.  INET,
LOCAL, and ETC are also duplicated.  To get around this we will need to
rename the manu pages.  The following fixes our duplicates problem. 
Note that we added exactly three characters to the beginning of each
lower level page name.  It could have been any number of characters, the
important thing is that it was the same number for all pages.  More on
that in a second.

TOP _____ FORUMS _____ MSGFIDO
      |            |__ MSGINET
      |            |__ MSGLOCAL
      |            |__ MSGETC
      |
      |__ LIBS _______ LIBFIDO
                   |__ LIBINET
                   |__ LIBLOCAL
                   |__ LIBETC

Now we have unique page names, but how do we make the grouping happen. 
Assume WGTAG is set to "_pn" in CNF4.  To accomplish this for the
Fidonet related items we must change the non-privileged access on all
Fidonet forums to ZERO and set the privileged key to _pn0FIDO.  For all
Fidonet libraries set the visibility locks on all Fidonet To accomplish
this we change the visibility lock to _pn0FIDO.

You will notice that we added a '0' between the "_pn" tag and the "FIDO"
key name.  This will be explained in a following paragraph when we talk
about C/S users.

Now, set IGNOREN in CNF4 to 3, which matches the number of characters we
prepended to each lower level page name.  Those being "MSG" and "LIB".

When the A/A user selects the MSGFIDO page, have them go into the
message forum module.  When they enter 'S' to select another forum, they
will only see those that have the _pn0FIDO lock.  That is because the
page name is MSGFIDO and we ignore the first IGNOREN characters.  Which
in this case is three, making MSGFIDO just FIDO.


Now for the C/S users, all you need to do is create a Box key named FIDO
in the key list.  When they select that key then only the _pn0FIDO
locked libraries and forums will be selectable from the C/S modules. 
The '0' is to indicate which Box is to be checked for key validation. 
Box 0 is the first Box, and the only Box available to WorldGrouper Lite
customers.







You may want to allow access to forums or libraries without grouping. 
Such would be the case to allow for offline message downloads or
searches of all the file libraries.  To do this simply create a page
name and/or Box key with a question mark (?) as the first character.  In
our example the A/A menu true would look like this:


TOP _____ FORUMS _____ MSGFIDO
      |            |__ MSGINET
      |            |__ MSGLOCAL
      |            |__ MSGETC
      |            |__ MSG?MSG
      |
      |__ LIBS _______ LIBFIDO
                   |__ LIBINET
                   |__ LIBLOCAL
                   |__ LIBETC
                   |__ LIB?LIB

The question mark tells WorldGrouper to allow access to all grouped
items.  In other words, if the user selects page LIB?LIB, then
WorldGrouper will allow access to locks _pn0FIDO, _pn0INET, _pn0LOCAL,
and _pn0ETC. 

For C/S create a Box key with a key name "?ALL".  In both C/S and A/A
the characters after the question mark are never utilized.




Release History

1.00  initial release
1.01  sysop can customize the help screen
      added a topmost toggle button
1.02  fixed problem with initial key settings
1.03  option to select default key assigned at connect time
      added option to remove Hide and Top buttons
      added option to make menu close upon select

