Index

Program Linking

  1. Overview
  2. The Links
  3. Settings up Links
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Overview

OAT needs to link to your all your TeleFinder Server programs in order to function correctly. However, you can perform a limited range of functions with just User Manager linked.

Please note that OAT really prefers to be running on the same machine as all the other programs. The processor time that OAT consumes is very little (check it out with a program like Monitor), even when performing tasks like the File Listing.

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The Links

User Manager

The most important program link that OAT makes is to User Manager. This allows OAT to find where your BBS users' mailboxes are, and what privileges they have when they ask OAT to perform any tasks. As a result, if OAT is running on a different machine from one that hosts your users' mailboxes, it is necessary to mount the volumes over AppleShare. Please note, however, that this is not reccommended.

TeleFinder Server

OAT needs to know about TeleFinder Server in order to allow the Online Assistance users to show up online. If you are running multiple TeleFinder Servers, you must link to the one that is set up as the Chat Server.

Mail Server

The link to Mail Server allows OAT to determine whether Mail Server is running at any particalar time, and also to access the Mail Server Config file (which is always in the same folder as Mail Server itself). For this reason (and others), OAT must run on the same machine as Mail Server.
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Setting the Links

Setting OAT to link to the required programs is very easy. Simply select each of the 'Link to...' items from OAT's File Menu and select the appropriate program.

Immediately after OAT is launched, if it cannot find the application it was last linked to, it will attempt to link to the first matching application it can find on the local machine. This process will only function once per launch, however, so if one of the linked applications is quit and a new one (with a different name) used in its place, you will have to relink. Incidentally, this is the same was as TeleFinder Server operates with its links to User Manager.

You will be able to see which links are currently available and which are not by looking at the Status Window. The Status Window will be empty if all the links are valid, otherwise it will list the applications that cannot be found. If the link has been established, and the linked program has only just opened then the display may take a few seconds to show the reconnected link.

Note: If you change to a new version of any of the required applications, you will probably have to relink in OAT. This is because the filename usually changes with each release. To avoid this problem, it is reccommended that you always name your current server software with generic names.
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