Reply to: ListManager: a frontend to LISTSERVs
Dear LISTSERV Listeners,
A friend of mine forwarded a message to me. It asked for a Macintosh front end
for LISTSERVs:
"I am looking for a user-friendly "LISTSERV client" for both PC and Mac
which would take end-users by the hand and guide them through the
procedures of signing up to lists, signing off, reviewing lists, getting a
copy of the list of lists with some search string (the whole list usually
exceeds gateway limits), and so on."
This message also described a problem with QuickMail and how it inserts an
extra field into Internet messages.
I have fixed both problems.
First, the solution to the QuickMail problem is to create a new QuickMail Form
without any graphics and to make a space (" ") as the default text of the
subject line.
Second, I have created a frontend to the Bitnet ListServ program. I call it
ListManager. In short, the ListManager queries the user for what they want to
do with a ListServ. It in turn formats an SMTP mail message and sends the
message on its merry way. A few people in my library have been using this
HyperCard stack for about 1 year. It supports:
* subscribing,
* unsubscribing,
* reviewing,
* setting mail to on or off, verbose or no,...
* complete archive searching,
* file retrieval,
* and everything else (I thinkque).
It seems to work just fine. I would like to point out that this entire
proceedure is done simply by pointing, clicking, and entering keyword phases!
Below is part of an article I wrote. The article was about TCP/IP
communications. I exemplified my ideas, in part, with the ListManager.
Eric Lease Morgan, Systems Librarian
NCSU Libraries
Box 7111
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
(919) 515-6182
[log in to unmask]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Implementing TCP/IP communications with HyperCard
by Eric Lease Morgan, Systems Librarian
North Carolina State University Libraries
Introduction
This article describes how to implement TCP/IP communications with HyperCard in
three steps. First, it briefly examines the tools used to access information
resources available through the Internet. Second, it outlines the necessary
hardware and software requirements to make TCP/IP communications happen on a
Macintosh. Third, it illustrates the implementation process with two stacks:
Mini-Atlas and ListManager.
(stuff deleted)
Requirements
The necessary hardware and software requirements to implement TCP/IP
communications from within HyperCard include:
* a Macintosh with a direct connection to the Internet,
* any version of HyperCard,
* MacTCP, and
* the XCMDs from the HyperCard TCP Toolkit.
(stuff deleted)
Lastly, the HyperCard TCP Toolkit is a set of XCMDs which calls the routines
within MacTCP. XCMDs are compiled pieces of programming code usually written in
a the C or Pascal programming language. XCMDS can be added to your HyperCard
stacks. In turn, they add additional functionality to the HyperCard HyperTalk
language. The TCP Toolkit is available from APDA, America Online, and from a
number of anonymous FTP sites as well.
(stuff deleted)
ListManager
Another, more interesting application is the ListManager, a front-end to
LISTSERV programs which operate electronic lists such as PACS-L, AUTOCAT, and
LIBREF-L. ListManager automates the procedures necessary to search the
archives of these lists by keyword Boolean queries, to temporarily turn off
your mail from the list, to retrieve a list of participants of the list, or to
retrieve files from the lists. With the ListManager you can do all these
things and more simply by answering a few questions and clicking a few buttons.
In other words, the ListManager conducts a simple reference interview querying
the user about LISTSERV needs. In the process, it creates a Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol (SMTP) message. Using the XCMDs from the HyperCard TCP
Toolkit, the ListManager sends the message to the user's mail server. In turn,
the mail server forwards the message to the LISTSERV program where it processes
it and sends a reply to the user's email address.
There are two parts to the ListManager: the reference interview and the
transmission of the resulting email message.
The reference interview process asks you questions. Based on the answers to
those questions, it asks other questions. When the question-and-answer process
is complete, the result is an SMTP message. The first question is "What is your
name?" Next it asks for your email address and the name of your mail server. It
then asks you, "To what list do you want to send mail?" Then ListManager asks,
"Do you want to send mail to the server or to the participants of the list?" If
you choose "participants" then you are given the opportunity to write a
posting. On the other hand, if you choose "server" then you are presented with
the various commands that can be sent to the server like: subscribe,
unsubscribe, index, get, and review.
(Put Figure 2 here.)
Figure 2. The ListManager implements a simple reference interview. During the
interview the operator is asked, "What command(s) do you want to send the
PACS-L [selected] server?" Information about the commands can be retrieved by
clicking the question mark button.
Here are some example results of the reference interview process. If I wanted
to subscribe to PACS-L, then the resulting email message would look like this:
HELO ericmorgan.lib.ncsu.edu
MAIL FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
RCPT TO:<[log in to unmask]>
DATA
FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
TO:<[log in to unmask]>
subscribe PACS-L Eric Morgan
.
QUIT
On the other hand, if I wanted to retrieve a list of all the files available
from PACS-L, using my email address as an example, then the resulting email
message would look like:
HELO ericmorgan.lib.ncsu.edu
MAIL FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
RCPT TO:<[log in to unmask]>
DATA
FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
TO:<[log in to unmask]>
index PACS-L
.
QUIT
Then, if one wanted to query the PACS-L list for messages (records) containing
the terms "ALA" and "preconference" posted between May 1, 1990 and August 31,
1990 where the subject line sounds like "shikago" and I wanted the results sent
in a user-defined author-subject format, then the resulting email message would
look like:
HELO ericmorgan.lib.ncsu.edu
MAIL FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
RCPT TO:<[log in to unmask]>
DATA
FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
TO:<[log in to unmask]>
// JOB Echo=No
Database Search DD=Rules
//Rules DD *
S ALA preconference in PACS-L where subject sounds like shikago from 90/1/5 -
to 90/31/8
F AS: #.6R0 "Record" From.25 "Author" Subject.80 "Subject"
I AS
/*
.
QUIT
The output of a search similar to the one above looks like this:
> S 'ALA' preconference in PACS-L
--> Database PACS-L, 7 hits.
> F AS: #.6R0 "Record" From.25 "Author" Subject.80 "Subject"
> I AS
Record Author Subject
------ ------ -------
001594 [log in to unmask] ILL, Copyright and Internet Catalogs
003197 [log in to unmask] LITA Human-Machine Interface Interest Group
pl+
003468 [log in to unmask] Screen design: since you asked
003540 [log in to unmask] LITA Screen Design Preconference
003654 [log in to unmask] Screen Design
005747 [log in to unmask] Screen Design/Online Catalog project status
re+
006113 [log in to unmask] in the OPAC
Finally, if I wanted to retrieve record numbers 001594, 003468, 006113 of the
resulting set from the search above, then the resulting email message would be:
HELO ericmorgan.lib.ncsu.edu
MAIL FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
RCPT TO:<[log in to unmask]>
DATA
FROM:<[log in to unmask]>
TO:<[log in to unmask]>
// JOB Echo=No
Database Search DD=Rules
//Rules DD *
search * in PACS-L
print all of 006113 006113 006113
/*
.
QUIT
Granted, the first 7 and last 2 lines of each of these examples could be
created by my email program, but everything in between is up to me to write for
myself. With the ListManager, all I have to do is answer some simple questions.
The program does the rest.
(Put Figure 3 here.)
Figure 3. At the completion of the reference interview, the ListManager has
created an SMTP mail message waiting to be sent by clicking the "Send the
message" button with the help of XCMDs from the HyperCard TCP Toolkit.
(stuff deleted until the end of the article)
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