Two Active Server Page templates let TeleFinder generate pages for downloading and message areas on the fly. The basic TeleFinder setup includes a starting point for your BBS at /samples/bbs.spml.
Note: Like all Active Pages, links to SPML paages must be followed through the server, not from disk. The sample BBS is based on the Quick Start setup. You can add or change this to suit your own needs.
It will be easier to understand the contents of this section after you are familiar with Active Page Scripting using TeleFinder's extended server side includes.
Logging In
Access to contents of your Web/BBS is controlled via Web "Realms." Please see the Realms section for information about setting up Realms for the Web/BBS.
Account Sign-up
You can add on-line account sign-up by creating an Active Page with the SPML #register command. The default installation includes registration pages in the "reg" folder. /samples/reg/homepage.spml includes the Registration Form. The form action is /samples/reg/reg.spml. "reg.spml" includes the #register command, and then displays a page based on the registration results by checking the REGISTER_ERR variable.When the registration is successful the #mailargs command is used to send an e-mail message to the sysop account announcing the new user.
In all cases the results of registration attempts are logged to /samples/reg/log/reg.log. The URL Path "/reg/log/" is setup within the Realms as a protected area accessible only to user's with the "Sysop" Access Group.
See the description of the #register command in "Active Page Scripting" for more information scripting this page.
File Downloading
TeleFinder makes web based file downloading easy with on the fly encoding and a customizable directory listing template.The "dir.spml" Active Page uses the #dir_list SPML command to generate directory listings on the fly.
dir.spml Template
The Templates folder contains dir.spml, this file is used to fulfill directory requests if the directory lacks a default page (homepage.spml). By default dir.spml contains the #dir_list command so that the requested directory's contents are displayed.You can disable directory listings by removing dir.spml from the Templates folder, and TeleFinder will display the "Not Found" page (error.spml) instead.
Message Topics
As with File Download pages, TeleFinder uses a Active Page template to generate HTML on the fly when displaying Message Topics.The "topic..spml" Active Page uses the topic_list_msg SPML command to generate message listings on the fly.
topic.spml Template
The Templates folder contains topic.spml, and this file is used by the Topic Handler method. By default, files of Macintosh Type 'BBXF' are assigned to TeleFinder's Topic Handler method. This is a specific TeleFinder file format, and other files should not be assigned to this Handler method.You can disable message handling by removing topic.spml from the Templates folder, or by removing all Topic Handler assignments from TeleFinder's Handlers list.
Topic.spml is coded to handle four (4) specific requests:
- Display a listing of all messages in a topic.
- Display a single message, including its contents.
- Post a new message to a topic.
- Display a form to use in composing a new message.
Entry into a topic usually begins on a page generated by dir.spml. When the #dir_list command encounters a TeleFinder message topic, it generates a link includes a path to the topic and a "Search For" parameter of "which=all." It that looks like this.
http://www.domain.com/conf/sample?which=allWhen this link is followed, it is processed by the Topic handler which runs the topic.spml template. This request is tested for within topic.spml by this command:
<!-- #if which IS all -->Then the #topic_list_msg command is run to generate a link to each message within the topic.
When a specific message is requested, topic.spml generates a page like this.
See the Active Page Scripting documentation for more information on other SPML commands you can use to customize the topic.spml template.
