FORKEEPS 2.5 MAIL & MESSAGE ARCHIVER April 1, 1997 This application has been included on the Clarion for Windows installation CD for two reasons: It can serve as an example of a real world commercial application developed with Clarion for Windows. ForKeeps is a shareware program sold via CompuServe to CompuServe members throughout the world, and is by far the market leader in it's specific market niche. It can hopefully serve as an appetizer for non CompuServe members to explore the vital and extremely useful TopSpeed Forum on CompuServe as a source for developer support on Clarion for Windows. To this end some sample Forum message files downloaded from the TopSpeed Forum have been included. These files can be imported to ForKeeps using the OzWin file format. INTRODUCTION A new version of the popular ForKeeps Mail & Message Archiver has now been released. This is the 7th version since September 30, 1996, which reflects the amount of development that has been going on and that is still going on for this program. ForKeeps is a generic database program for intelligent storage and retrieval of CompuServe Forum messages and mail messages. It is an add-on tool for people using online or offline browsers like WinCIM, OzWin, NavCIS, VirtualAccess or TAPCIS to download messages and mail via CompuServe, and it should be ideal for anyone who would like to keep and utilize all the invaluable information provided on their favourite Forums. It has been recognized for it's high quality by many users and it has twice been chosen WUGNET Pick of the Week Shareware program - first on the WINUTIL Forum in October 1996 (version 1.3) and then again on the WINUSER Forum in December 1997 (version 2.0). WHO NEEDS FORKEEPS? CompuServe Forums contain a wealth of information, and you can potentially turn this information into a great source of knowledge for yourself and your company. If you are using CompuServe browsers and readers like WinCIM, OzWin, NavCIS or similar to download Forum messages and mail you may have noticed that they seem to be optimized for CompuServe connection and Forum and mail message retrieval and response handling, but not for long time archival of downloaded messages. ForKeeps will not bother with CompuServe connection, Forum and mail message retrieval or response handling. It will concentrate solely on the apparent weak spot of all CompuServe browsers and readers - long time storage and information retrieval! In other words - you can now - at long last - transform your huge message pile of practically worthless data into useful information and knowledge that you can easily tap into whenever the need arises! Perhaps you are one of those persons that would really, really like to switch from your present on-line browser to an off-line reader (normally to minimize CompuServe on-line time), or from one off-line reader to another because you have finally realized your reader is not quite state-of-the-art? Only problem is - what should you do with all those Forum and mail message files of the old reader? Normal solution (if you dare to switch) - put the old files on a backup in some dusty cabinet (and forget about them)! What a shame! Perhaps you are already using more than one tool to download Forum and mail messages so your downloads are scattered over several medias - at the office, in your home, on a desk top or a lap top? The problem is the same - incompatible file formats and other problems means that you cannot find the information you need when you need it! We have a much better solution! Import the files - old and new - to ForKeeps. It doesn't matter whether they are WinCIM, CSNav, DOSCIM, OzCIS, OzWin, NavCIS, TAPCIS, CISCOMM, AUTOSIG, GoldenCompass or VirtualAccess files: ForKeeps can handle them all! Granted, there are other Archivers on the market as well, but none that does what ForKeeps does - transforms your plain Forum message files into a fully relational database, with separate but related files for Forums, Sections, Threads, Messages and Forum Members and your mail files to separate but related files for MailBoxes, MailPartners and Messages. This means that ForKeeps can organize your messages in a way that gives you the overview you need to find and use the golden nuggets buried deep down there in your message heap. Read ahead to find out how you can best utilize this wonderful tool to organize and find your information, whether it be in Forum or mail messages! BASIC FEATURES ForKeeps imports messages and mail from all common CIS browsers into a separate relational database for each Forum and for Mail. The import is completely automatic, once you have selected the message files to import. Forum messages can be browsed by msgnumber, msgdate, thread, section, sender, receiver and key word. A thread tree window can be used in parallell with the message listbox, and you can navigate between messages on either as both are synchronized. Switching between views is context sensitive, i.e. the highlight stays on the same message, and you can show the complete list or filter on thread, section, sender, receiver or key word. Mail messages can be browsed by maildate, subject, mailpartner, sender and receiver. Switching between views is context sensitive, i.e. the highlight stays on the same mail message, and you can show the complete list or filter on mailpartner, sender or receiver. There is a FindText function (with CASE, WORD and Date range options) for both Forum messages and mail, which searches the subject only or subject/message text. FindText is also context sensitive, so you can limit the search volume by filtering on thread, section, sender, receiver or key word for Forum messages and on mailpartner, sender or receiver for mail messages. You can enter your own key words for Forum messages, index the entire Forum database on theses key words and then browse a list of messages containing theses key words. Forum messages are counted by Forum, section, thread, sender, receiver and key word and mail by mailpartner, sender and receiver. These counts are shown on the window title bar, so you will always know how many messages there are in a certain filtered view for example. You can copy single messages or threads of messages to the clipboard, to an ASCII file or send them to a printer. You can easily single out messages, threads, sections or entire Forums and stamp them for deletion or keep. ForKeeps automatically creates a Member datafile of all senders and receivers in each Forum and a MailPartner datafile of all the people you have sent mail to or received mail from. This datafile can be sorted on Lastname, Firstname or by address. The graphical interface is very user friendly: there are incremental locators and look up lists on all browses and many parameters are user defineable. Window sizes and locations as well as list box column widths are saved and restored. A splitter can be used on the Forum and mail message browses to adjust the relative size of the listbox versus the message text box. TRIAL OUT VERSION The version you now have in your hands is a 30-day trial out version of ForKeeps. It will work with full functionality during 30 days from the installation date. There are no limitations in the trial out version other than the time limit. You can import 100.000+ messages if you want and try it out under heavy load. After 30 days you can no longer get at your messages, but they will be available again once you register the program. If you want to install it again and don't care for the imported messages you will get a new 30 day trial out period. You can however not reinstall and keep the previously imported messages. 16-BIT AND 32-BIT ForKeeps is also available as a 32-bit program with identical features. REGISTERING Registering is through CompuServe SWREG. ForKeeps can be registered as a Mail, a Message or a Mail & Message Archiver depending on your needs.
Kot_Maciek