All,

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (text)
file?

Thanks

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On 09 Jan 2019, KrUpTiOn said the following...

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (text) file?

Yes, I just edit the file to whatever order I want it to be imported in. The user mutil to do the deed dirt cheap.

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On 09 Jan 2019, KrUpTiOn pondered and said...

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (text) file?

No, there was a util that used to exist called mbbsutil that did offer some export functionality. But as far as I know that has not been carried over to MUTIL. MUTIL was slowly being expanded with functions as mbbsustil was being retired.


ÄÄÄÄ Eùavon@bbs.nz ÄÄÄÄÄÄ Wùbbs.nz ÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄ Kùkeybase.io/avon ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

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On 01/11/19, Avon said the following...

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (t file?

No, there was a util that used to exist called mbbsutil that did offer some export functionality. But as far as I know that has not been
carried over to MUTIL. MUTIL was slowly being expanded with functions as mbbsustil was being retired.

Would you happen to know the name of that utility??

Thanks

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Linux/64)
* Origin: theamiga.frontierbbs.net:2023 (Ohio) (21:2/105)

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (text) file?

There is an import but I don't think I ever made an export.

This is something that I could add with very little effort if the general consensus is that it'd be useful. I'd also like to get Avon's opinion on
this as well because I know he does a lot of HUB stuff.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2019/01/23 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (21:1/108)

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (t file?

There is an import but I don't think I ever made an export.

This is something that I could add with very little effort if the general consensus is that it'd be useful. I'd also like to get Avon's opinion on this as well because I know he does a lot of HUB stuff.

I'd like to say that this would be pretty handy for any HUB. If I do decide
to put together an ftn net myself, or get into a net that needs a HUB, I can see this being very useful.

Fireball

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A41 2018/12/27 (Linux/64)
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On 24 Jan 2019, g00r00 pondered and said...

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (t file?

There is an import but I don't think I ever made an export.

This is something that I could add with very little effort if the general consensus is that it'd be useful. I'd also like to get Avon's opinion on this as well because I know he does a lot of HUB stuff.

Yep pondering now. Will respond tonight when I am home and have time to get some thoughts together. I think it a good idea but have some ideas also that
I may have posted to you / feature requested you about in the past? Anyhoo
will be in touch soon.

Best, Paul

--- E:avon@bbs.nz ------ W:bbs.nz ---
--- K:keybase.io/avon --------------

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/30 (Windows/32)
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On 24 Jan 2019, g00r00 pondered and said...

Is there a way to export my file areas into a filegate/filebone.na (t file?

There is an import but I don't think I ever made an export.

For NA files, no, I'm not aware of anything you did, if you did, it was
before my Mystic usage.

You did create an areas.bbs tool for MBBSUTIL that I'm not 100% sure created the correct output when I tested it way back when.

This is something that I could add with very little effort if the general consensus is that it'd be useful. I'd also like to get Avon's opinion on this as well because I know he does a lot of HUB stuff.

I've been pondering and I'm thinking big so feel free to cherry pick ideas
but in my ideal world there would be ways to export and import config data
for message bases, message groups, file bases, file groups, echomail
addresses, echomail nodes, echomail groups.

Some of this stuff seems to have been standardized to help shift data between systems and other seems to be proprietary.

I'm going to share some examples of what I see my FastEcho tosser (used at present for 3:770/1) creates in this space.

AREAS.BBS

seems to be a nice way to export/import basic config for message bases and which echonodes are linked to them. This file would be useful if say I moved from Fastecho to Mystic. Ran the MUTIL stanza to import the JAM bases then wanted a quick way to assign each base to echonodes. I guess Mystic would
have to create echonode records in doing so.

[snip]

!C:\MSGS\FIDO\FEF181BB ENTHRAL 1:267/800 393/68 !C:\MSGS\FIDO\FEF64EE2 ESPOMEN 1:267/800 393/68 !C:\MSGS\FIDO\FED70275 ESSNASA 1:153/250 267/800 317/2

[snip]

ECHOMAIL.NA file

Fastecho allows you to export it with what ever file name you choose. It then allows you to select the echomail groups you want to export then creates a
file with echomail tag and description.

[snip]

10TH_AMD 10th Amendments Issues
4DOS 4DOS Support
ABLED disABLED Users Information Exchange
ADEPT_SYSOP AdeptXBBS Sysop-Only Help and Discussion
ADSL ADSL Modem Technology Support
AFTERSHOCK AfterShock and Android Talk Echo

[snip]

This would be useful again to be able to run after a mass import of JAM bases using MUTIL as it would save *a lot* of time typing in echomail base names.

As an aside I did try to run the MUTIL stanza that imports and creates the bases using a file like this, and that works great. But if you're trying to then leverage the mass JAM base importer to set up all the links to
existing JAM bases you're wanting to import in to Mystic it's a no-go as
Mystic already sees the bases created. Anywhoo.. this kind of export/import tool would be a time saver.

FILE.NA

Yep this file base equivalent to export/import file base info would be good. This is a snip from the file I used for fsxNet infopack. I'm picking it's a standardized format.

[snip]

Area FSX_NODE 0 ! Weekly Nodelists (fsxNet, etc.)
Area FSX_INFO 0 ! Weekly Infopacks (fsxNet, etc.)
Area FSX_MYST 0 ! Mystic BBS Software

[snip]

ECHOMAIL ADDRESSES

Being able to export/import a Mystic systems AKAs would be helpful.

ECHOMAIL NODES

Again exporting and importing echomail nodes in/out of a Mystic system would
be very helpful for setting up fresh HUBs and/or sending another HUB an echomail nodes settings if it was being transferred between HUBs etc.

NETMAIL ROUTING

I toss this one in as I note Fastecho allows for this data to be exported/imported. I guess subject to how/if echomail node data was able to
be imported/exported it may be a moot point. Here's a snip of the data

[snip]

NetMail-Routing
===============

46:1/102 :
46:1/102.*

3:770/330 :
3:770/330.*

1:154/10 :
1:154/10.*

[snip]

The above is taken from a config file that Fastecho creates for export/import and is part of a much larger text data dump in a pre formatted layout that another FE system could ingest.

I quite like the way it covers origin lines, echomail bases etc.

[snip]

Origins
=======

A) Agency HUB | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz
B) Agency HUB | Dunedin, New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway


Areas
=====

Board Area Name Org/Grp Addresses -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 AGN_ADS A A 46:1/100 3/203
0 AGN_ART A A 46:1/100 3/203
0 AGN_BBS A A 46:1/100 3/203
0 AGN_DEV A A 46:1/100 3/203
0 10TH_AMD A B 1:153/150 250 267/800
1:317/2 393/68
[snip]

So there we go.

In sum the more that can be exported / imported in whole or part, to enable data to be shifted between Mystic systems, would be welcome and very helpful.

Apologies for delay in reply and length but wanted to do a bit of a brain dump...and it's predicated on the motivation to move 3:770/1 to Mystic and
off FastEcho but the thought of all the setup from scratch is making me weak
at the knees - ha! :)

Best, Paul

--- E:avon@bbs.nz ------ W:bbs.nz ---
--- K:keybase.io/avon --------------

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/30 (Windows/32)
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seems to be a nice way to export/import basic config for message bases
and which echonodes are linked to them. This file would be useful if say
I moved from Fastecho to Mystic. Ran the MUTIL stanza to import the JAM bases then wanted a quick way to assign each base to echonodes. I guess Mystic would have to create echonode records in doing so.

It'd be quite a process but I have been asked for this type of thing in the past from someone else who wanted to switch over to all-Mystic to run their networks (from SBBSECHO and BINKD).

Like you mentioned, the challenge is how to create the echomail nodes and all of the linkage if none of that stuff exists in a standard format. The only way to do something like that is if I were to write configuration importers for specific software like FastEcho and SBBSEcho. Thats a lot of effort for something only two people have ever asked for.

Maybe meeting halfway could work where you'd have to create the echomail
nodes yourself, and then a function could be made to import AREAS.BBS
linkage. Or...

Maybe we can come up with a better way by having "profiles" for AREAS.BBS importing similar to the auto-create of message bases, where Mystic could create the echomail nodes with default values and then link them all up. But you'd still have to go in and reset their passwords, set their hostname, etc and its still going to be a lot of work to code and for you to use it.

This would be useful again to be able to run after a mass import of JAM bases using MUTIL as it would save *a lot* of time typing in echomail
base names.

Sounds like maybe a good MUTIL process could be "Set base names by NA" which goes through a .NA file and tries to find any matching echomail bases, and when it does, it sets the name to match the name in the NA file.

Do you think something like that would be useful? For most cases, just importing a NA file to create the areas will already do this though, so really this is only useful if you're importing based on raw JAM files and when you import with raw JAM files, Mystic isn't going to know what their echotags are anyway - so it can't reliably link them. Hmm maybe this wouldn't work then.

Its going to be pretty tricky to get a system put together that works well.

Yep this file base equivalent to export/import file base info would be good. This is a snip from the file I used for fsxNet infopack. I'm
picking it's a standardized format.

Area FSX_NODE 0 ! Weekly Nodelists (fsxNet, etc.)

Yep thats the format that Mystic already imports. I'll probably make an export for this format for both msg and files and make an option to include only specific zones into the export.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2019/01/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Sector 7 [Mystic BBS WHQ] (21:1/108)

On 30 Jan 2019, g00r00 pondered and said...

It'd be quite a process but I have been asked for this type of thing in the past from someone else who wanted to switch over to all-Mystic to
run their networks (from SBBSECHO and BINKD).

I'm at work checking messages during my lunch break, so will ponder this more fully and send a better reply later :)

Hope your work stuff is not too crazy (it sounds like it is) and you can get some time to rest etc. sooner than later.

Best, Paul

--- E:avon@bbs.nz ------ W:bbs.nz ---
--- K:keybase.io/avon --------------

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2018/12/30 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

On 30 Jan 2019 at 10:24a, g00r00 pondered and said...

seems to be a nice way to export/import basic config for message base and which echonodes are linked to them. This file would be useful if I moved from Fastecho to Mystic. Ran the MUTIL stanza to import the J bases then wanted a quick way to assign each base to echonodes. I gue Mystic would have to create echonode records in doing so.

Maybe meeting halfway could work where you'd have to create the echomail nodes yourself, and then a function could be made to import AREAS.BBS linkage. Or...

Maybe we can come up with a better way by having "profiles" for AREAS.BBS importing similar to the auto-create of message bases, where Mystic could create the echomail nodes with default values and then link them all up. But you'd still have to go in and reset their passwords, set their hostname, etc and its still going to be a lot of work to code and for
you to use it.

I like the sound of the latter suggestion. If I can get the areas.bbs file out of Fastecho and have Mystic create echonodes and link them to the areas then that would be a helpful tool. I'd seek to combine it with first using the
MUTIL [import_messagebase] function to get mystic to create the bases using
JAM files from Fasetecho. The ideally run [import_fidonet.na] to get Mystic
to add the descriptions to the newly created bases, then use something like what we're chatting about to then assign and create echomail nodes to the bases.. I'd then need to go in to each echomail node and set it up but at
least the message bases would be created, and labeled correctly, and linked to the echomail nodes..

This would be useful again to be able to run after a mass import of J bases using MUTIL as it would save *a lot* of time typing in echomail base names.

Sounds like maybe a good MUTIL process could be "Set base names by NA" which goes through a .NA file and tries to find any matching echomail bases, and when it does, it sets the name to match the name in the NA file.

Yep, that's the one... and part of what I mentioned above. I guess most of
the code is already done, it just needs a tweak to allow for Mystic to update base descriptions for bases already created.

Do you think something like that would be useful? For most cases, just importing a NA file to create the areas will already do this though, so really this is only useful if you're importing based on raw JAM files
and when you import with raw JAM files, Mystic isn't going to know what their echotags are anyway - so it can't reliably link them. Hmm maybe this wouldn't work then.

Well in my case the Fastecho system creates an areas.bbs that explicitly
links the name of the JAM base to the echomail tag and then also states the echonodes linked to it. I think it should be workable idea to just being able to use that areas.bbs file to create the bases using the known JAM file
names, using the supplied associated echomail tag, and creating echomail
nodes that are linked to the message base. What do you think?

As an aside I realised we started on this topic first then it morphed into
the hatching thread but wanted to post this reply to bring some focus on this area of request also.

I admit it's a bit of a selfish request in that I am looking for ways to migrate away from Fastecho as easily as I can without lots of manual entry of data. The areas.bbs file it creates looks to be a good option if Mystic could ingest it in a way that works for you.

Best, Paul

--- E:avon@bbs.nz ------ W:bbs.nz ---
--- K:keybase.io/avon --------------

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2019/02/01 (Windows/32)
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I admit it's a bit of a selfish request in that I am looking for ways to migrate away from Fastecho as easily as I can without lots of manual
entry of data. The areas.bbs file it creates looks to be a good option
if Mystic could ingest it in a way that works for you.

I don't see it as selfish since we're talking about a standard file format! So the end game here really is to process AREAS.BBS and pull out its node linkage and somehow get that into Mystic automatically. I can see how that'd be a huge time saver not just for you, but for anyone who wants to switch to Mystic as a tosser.

I'll add that idea to the TODO list and then anything else I can wrap around
it to make it nicer I'll try to do.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A42 2019/02/01 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Sector 7 (21:1/108)

On 04 Feb 2019 at 10:00a, g00r00 pondered and said...

I don't see it as selfish since we're talking about a standard file format! So the end game here really is to process AREAS.BBS and pull out its node linkage and somehow get that into Mystic automatically. I can see how that'd be a huge time saver not just for you, but for anyone who wants to switch to Mystic as a tosser.
I'll add that idea to the TODO list and then anything else I can wrap

Yep you've summed up the desired outcome nicely, and thank you for adding it
as a starter for the TODO list. Appreciated.

Best, Paul

--- E:avon@bbs.nz ------ W:bbs.nz ---
--- K:keybase.io/avon --------------

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