












                                       FRONTDOOR

                                  Route file optimizer

                                       User Guide




         FRONTDOOR

         Route file optimizer

         User Guide

         Copyright 1998 Definite Solutions HB; All rights reserved.



         All Definite Solutions products and trademarks are trademarks or
         registered trademarks of Definite Solutions HB; with the exception
         of FrontDoor, which is a registered trademark of Joaquim
         Homrighausen. Other brands and product names are trademarks or
         registered trademarks of their respective holders.



          This publication is protected by international copyright laws and
              treaty provisions. It may only be distributed and used in
                  accordance with those laws and treaty provisions.



         DEF-E-FDROPT-Z-980100-EP

         Produced in Sweden.


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       TABLE OF CONTENTS


         Table of contents                                   3


         1. Introduction                                     4

           1.1 Legal notice                                  4
           1.2 What is FDROPT?                               4
           1.3 Requirements                                  5
           1.4 Operating system versions                     5

         2. Program usage                                    7

           2.1 Installation                                  7
           2.2 Command line format                           7
           2.3 Optimized ROUTE*.FD file                      7

         3. The ROUTE.FDR file                               9

           3.1 FDROPT commands                               9
           3.2 Region, net and hub expansion                12

         Appendix A: Version history                        14

           A.1 FDROPT 2.00                                  14
           A.2 FDROPT 1.01                                  14
           A.3 FDROPT 1.00                                  15

         Appendix B: Contact information                    16


         Index                                              17


















     Table of contents                                             Page 3


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       1. INTRODUCTION


       1.1 LEGAL NOTICE

         FDROPT is provided to you "as is", without warranties of any kind.
         In no event shall Definite Solutions HB be liable to you or anyone
         else for any damages or costs arising from the use or inability to
         use this program.

         FDROPT is protected by copyright laws, and may not be modified,
         reversed engineered, sold or distributed in any way that would
         involve some sort of trade, without written permission from Definite
         Solutions HB.

         FDROPT may be used without charge by anyone that is running a
         registered copy of the shareware version of FrontDoor, or the
         commercial version of FrontDoor.

         FDROPT may also be used during the 30-day trial/evaluation period of
         the shareware version of FrontDoor. After this period, FrontDoor
         must be registered if you want to continue using this program (or
         FrontDoor).


       1.2 WHAT IS FDROPT?

         FDROPT is a utility that simplifies the managing of complex
         FrontDoor mailer, "FD" hereafter, route files (ROUTE*.FD).

         What it does:





















     Introduction                                                  Page 4


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

         o It "optimizes" your ROUTE.FD file; i.e. makes it smaller, which
           will decrease the time FD needs to process the netmail folder.
           This is particularly an advantage with versions of FD prior to
           2.25, since 2.25 and later uses a compiled route file.

         o It verifies ROUTE.FD, and will let you know if it finds any
           errors.

         o For multiline users, it makes it possible to have one route file
           for all lines, since it is possible to include task-specific
           sections in the FDROPT route file. This makes it easier to
           maintain your routing.

         o It adds macro capabilities; i.e. you can define macros and use
           them instead of node numbers, flags, or anything else.

         o It adds support for ? in node numbers. A ? will be expanded to
           all digits (0-9).

         o For FD version 2.25 and later, FDROPT makes it possible to use
           region and hub routing. Just specify a region or hub number, and
           FDROPT will expand it to all nets in the region, or nodes that
           belongs to the hub.

         o If you also are using the program Mail2Dir, FDROPT can create the
           route file that Mail2Dir uses.

         o All these things put together will hopefully make your routing
           life easier.

       * The term FD 2.25+ in this document refers to version 2.25 and above
         of FD.


       1.3 REQUIREMENTS

         FDROPT requires the following to run:

         o FD version 2.11 or later

         o The environment variable FD pointing to the directory where
           SETUP.FD is located, or SETUP.FD in the current directory

         o For multiline users, the environment variable TASK containing the
           task number.


       1.4 OPERATING SYSTEM VERSIONS

         FDROPT comes in three different versions, one version for DOS,
         another one for OS/2 2.x and Warp, and one for Win32 (Windows 95 and
         NT) console mode. This document uses the name FDROPT.EXE to refer to
         all of these versions; the actual filenames are:


     Introduction                                                  Page 5


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

          DOS     FDROPT.EXE
          OS/2    FDROPT2.EXE
          Win32   FDROPW32.EXE


         If you are using the OS/2 or Win32 version, please replace any
         references to FDROPT.EXE with the correct name above.









































     Introduction                                                  Page 6


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       2. PROGRAM USAGE


       2.1 INSTALLATION

         To install FDROPT, just copy the FDROPT.EXE file to a directory, and
         then create the source routing file, which should be named ROUTE.FDR
         (note the trailing R). This file should either be located in FD's
         SYSTEM directory, as specified in SETUP.FD, in the current
         directory, or in the same directory as the FDROPT.EXE file.

         If you only have one ROUTE.FD file, just rename it to ROUTE.FDR. It
         is not necessary to do anything else, but you might want to edit it
         to take advantage of some of the extra features that FDROPT
         provides, such as region- and hub-routing, macros, etc.

          If you have more than one ROUTE*.FD file (e.g. ROUTE1.FD,
         ROUTE2.FD, etc.), you have to decide which one of your ROUTE*.FD
         files that should be the original source file. Rename that file to
         ROUTE.FDR. You can then modify this file so that it contains the
         specific routing commands for the other ROUTE*.FD files as well. You
         can of course also use any of the other extra features that FDROPT
         provides. See "The ROUTE.FDR file" below for more information.


       2.2 COMMAND LINE FORMAT

         When the ROUTE.FDR file has been created, all you have to do to
         create the ROUTE*.FD that FD uses is to run FDROPT.

         If you are running a multiline system, you can either run FDROPT in
         each task and let it create the ROUTE*.FD file for the current task,
         or you can specify the task numbers FDROPT should process on the
         command line. For instance, the command:


         FDROPT 1 2 3

         This example would process task 1, 2 and 3, and create the files
         ROUTE1.FD, ROUTE2.FD and ROUTE3.FD.


       2.3 OPTIMIZED ROUTE*.FD FILE

         The ROUTE*.FD file that FDROPT creates is optimized to minimize the
         time that is required for FD to process it. When optimizing the
         file, FDROPT uses the following techniques:







     Program usage                                                 Page 7


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

         o All comments and blank lines are removed.

         o Commands that do not have to be in a specific order are
           rearranged, so that the same commands are located directly after
           each other.

         o If two consecutive lines contain the same routing command, and
           the command does not have a routing target as a parameter (i.e.
           only a list of nodes), the list of nodes on the second line are
           appended to the first line.

         o By default, FDROPT writes as much data on each line as FD allows
           (which is 253 characters).




































     Program usage                                                 Page 8


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       3. THE ROUTE.FDR FILE

         The ROUTE.FDR file that FDROPT uses is a standard ROUTE.FD file,
         with a few additions:

         o There are a few FDROPT commands that can be added. All FDROPT
           commands begin with a # character. See below for information about
           these commands.

         o Macros can be used anywhere in the ROUTE.FDR file. A macro is
           defined using the FDROPT command #macro.

         o ? characters can be used in addresses. Each address that contains
           a ? character will be replaced with 10 addresses where the ?
           character has been replaced with a digit 0-9. For instance,
           2:20?/* would expand to 2:200/* 2:201/* 2:202/* 2:203/* 2:204/*
           2:205/* 2:206/* 2:207/* 2:208/* 2:209/*. If two ? characters are
           used in the same address, e.g. 2:2??/*, the address will be
           replaced with all 100 possible addresses between 2:200/* and
           2:299/*.

         The additions above are available with all versions of FD; the ones
         below are only available with FD 2.25+.

         o Regions, nets and hubs can be expanded using information from the
           nodelist. See "Region, net and hub expansion" below for
           information on how to use this.

         There is one thing in ROUTE.FD that FD 2.20c and earlier versions
         support, which is not supported by FDROPT, and this is the use of
         the keywords MYPOINTS, MYNET, and MYZONE. Since these macros do not
         work very well when being a member of multiple networks, they are
         not supported. If something similar is required, it is possible to
         define macros that can behave like these. (Please note that the
         $[MYPOINTS] macro supported by FD 2.25+ is fully supported).


       3.1 FDROPT COMMANDS

         The FDROPT commands that can be used in the ROUTE.FDR file are:


       3.1.1 #macro NAME TEXT

         Defines a macro, which can be referred to in ROUTE.FDR.


       3.1.1.1 NAME

         This is the name of the macro to define. The macro can then be used
         in the ROUTE.FDR file, and will be translated to TEXT.




     The ROUTE.FDR file                                            Page 9


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       3.1.1.2 TEXT

         Contains what NAME should be translated to.


       3.1.1.3 Notes

         A macro can be used anywhere in the ROUTE.FDR file after the point
         where it was defined. To use it, just specify $[NAME] (replace NAME
         with the macro name).


       3.1.2 #addmacro NAME TEXT

         Adds more text to an already defined macro (which should have been
         defined with #macro, see above). For example:


         #macro       POINT 2:201/329.1
         #addmacro    POINT 2:201/329.11

         This would result in POINT containing "2:201/329.1 2:201/329.11".


       3.1.3 #task TASK [TASK [TASK [...]]]

         Defines a section of ROUTE.FDR that should only be included for
         certain tasks.


       3.1.3.1 TASK

         The number of the task, which should have the following lines
         included. To return to normal mode, i.e. include lines for all
         tasks, enter a 0 for TASK. More than one TASK number can be
         specified, with a space between each number; e.g. #task 1 2 3.


       3.1.3.2 Notes

         If this command is used, FDROPT will create ROUTE%TASK%.FD files,
         instead of the normal ROUTE.FD file.


       3.1.4 #expandaddress

         Instructs FDROPT that it should expand all short form addresses that
         follows in the ROUTE.FDR file.

         This setting is the default for FD 2.25+; it has to be specifically
         enabled (by using #expandaddress) for previous versions of FD.




     The ROUTE.FDR file                                           Page 10


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

         FDROPT will expand short form addresses using the same method as FD
         2.25+. When an address is expanded, any missing parts are taken from
         the previous address specified in ROUTE.FDR. Versions prior to FD
         2.25 took any missing parts from the main address instead of the
         previous address in the route file. Since most users assume that
         short form addresses are expanded using the previous address in the
         route file, it is recommended that this command be used.

       * Only addresses processed after the line containing this command
         will be expanded, i.e. it should be placed near the beginning of the
         ROUTE.FDR file.


       3.1.5 #noexpandaddress

         The opposite to the above. If used, FDROPT will leave all short-form
         addresses as they are specified in the ROUTE.FDR file.


       3.1.6 #noexpandnodelist

         When FDROPT is used with FD 2.25+, it does region expansion
         (ZZ:RR/region), net expansion (ZZ:NN/net) and hub expansion
         (ZZ:NN/HH/hub) by default (see below).

         If this is not the desired behavior, the #noexpandnodelist command
         should be placed somewhere near the beginning of the ROUTE.FDR file.


       3.1.7 #linelength LENGTH

         FDROPT writes lines that are up to 253 characters long by default,
         which is the maximum line length that FD supports.

         If you use this command, FDROPT will limit the maximum length of a
         line to the number that you specify.


       3.1.7.1 LENGTH

         The maximum line length allowed. Valid values are any number between
         40 and 253.


       3.1.8 #mail2dir [TASK]

         The program Mail2Dir can use a route file similar to FD's route file
         when it is used. FDROPT does not create this file (ROUTE.M2D) by
         default. However, if you use this command in the ROUTE.FDR file, the
         ROUTE.M2D file will be created.

       * Only a subset of all of the routing commands that FD understands is
         supported by Mail2Dir. FDROPT knows which commands it does support,
         and will only include them. For more information, see the Mail2Dir
         documentation.

     The ROUTE.FDR file                                           Page 11


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       3.1.8.1 TASK

         If you specify the optional parameter TASK on the #mail2dir line,
         the ROUTE.M2D file will only be created when FDROPT creates the
         routing file for the specified task, containing the same routing
         commands as the ROUTE*.FD file contains.


       3.2 REGION, NET AND HUB EXPANSION

         When FDROPT is used with FD 2.25+, it is able to do region, net and
         hub expansion when processing the ROUTE.FDR file. Regions are
         expanded to all nets in the region, and nets and hubs can be
         expanded to a list of nodes.

         To do this expansion, FDROPT uses the nodelist as defined in
         SETUP.FD.

       * If you use region, net or hub expansion, you probably need to run
         FDROPT to update the information each time the nodelist have been
         updated.


       3.2.1 Region expansion

         Regions can be specified, and FDROPT will expand a region to all
         nets that exist in the region. To specify a region, use the format:


         ZZ:RR/r or ZZ:RR/region

         where ZZ is the zone number, RR the region number, and r and region
         the literal text r and region.

         For instance, to specify region 20 in zone 2, use


         2:20/r or 2:20/region

         FDROPT will expand this to a list of nets that exists in the region,
         for instance:


         2:20/* 2:200/* 2:201/* 2:203/* 2:204/* 2:205/* 2:206/*


       3.2.2 Net expansion

         Nets can be specified, and FDROPT will expand a net to all nodes
         that exist in the net. To specify a net, use the format:





     The ROUTE.FDR file                                           Page 12


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

         ZZ:NN/n or ZZ:NN/net

         where ZZ is the zone number, NN the net number, and n and net the
         literal text n and net.

         For instance, to specify net 201 in zone 2, use


         2:201/n or 2:201/net.

         FDROPT will expand this to a list of all nodes that exist in the
         net.

       * Please note that you actually get the same functionality from using
         2:201/* in the route file. This expansion mostly exists for
         completeness.


       3.2.3 Hub expansion

         Hubs can be specified, and FDROPT will expand it to all nodes that
         belong to the specified hub. To specify a net, use the format:


         ZZ:NN/HH/h or ZZ:NN/HH/hub

         where ZZ is the zone number, NN is the net number, HH is the node
         number of the hub, and h and hub the literal text h and hub.

         For instance, to specify all nodes under the hub 2:201/100, use


         2:201/100/hub

         FDROPT will expand this to a list of all nodes that belong to the
         hub, for instance:


         2:201/103 2:201/111 2:201/116 2:201/125 2:201/128














     The ROUTE.FDR file                                           Page 13


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       APPENDIX A: VERSION HISTORY


       A.1 FDROPT 2.00


       A.1.1 New features:

         Added OS/2 and Win32 versions of the program.

         Added support for FrontDoor 2.25+.

         Added possibility to specify which tasks that should be processed on
         the command line. (See "Command line format" above).

         Added region, net and hub expansion. (See "Region, net and hub
         expansion" above).

         Added FDROPT command '#linelength'. (See "#linelength LENGTH"
         above).

         Added FDROPT command '#mail2dir'. (See "#mail2dir [TASK]" above).


       A.1.2 Changes:

         All macros should now be specified as $[MACRO] instead of the old
         format %[MACRO], to be more compatible with FD's way of writing
         this.


       A.1.3 Bug fixes:

         Route-Files should be treated the same way as all other routing
         commands, and never be moved to a block of its own, as it has been
         in earlier versions.

         Fixed incorrect error message when SETUP.FD was not found.


       A.2 FDROPT 1.01


       A.2.1 New features:

         Added FDROPT command '#addmacro'. (See "#addmacro NAME TEXT" above).


       A.2.2 Changes:

         FDROPT will now search for the ROUTE.FDR file in the current
         directory. If it is not found there, it searches the directory where
         FDROPT.EXE is located, and if not find there either, it searches
         FrontDoor's system directory.


     Version history                                              Page 14


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       A.3 FDROPT 1.00

         Initial version












































     Version history                                              Page 15


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       APPENDIX B: CONTACT INFORMATION

         Definite Solutions can be reached at:

          Postal address:   Definite Solutions HB
                            Frskottsvgen 11
                            S-129 32  Hgersten
                            SWEDEN

               Telephone:   +46 8 6456495       (0800-1800 CET, Mon-Fri)

                     Fax:   +46 8 55630102

                     BBS:   +46 8 55630102      (V.34 8N1, X.75 ISDN)
                            +46 8 55630103      (V.34 8N1, X.75 ISDN)

                 FidoNet:   2:201/329
                            2:201/330

                Internet:   sales@defsol.se
                            http://www.defsol.se/


        Please refer to our website (above) for additional information such
        as the FrontDoor Developer's Kit (FDDEV), the FrontDoor Frequently
        Asked Questions (FDFAQ) document, and more.

























     Contact information                                          Page 16


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

       INDEX


        ?

         ? characters                                        9

        A

         Acrobat Reader                                      4

        C

         Command line                                        7
         Commands                                            9
           #addmacro                                        10
           #linelength                                      11
           #macro                                            9
           #mail2dir                                        11
           #noexpandaddress                                 11
           #noexpandnodelist                                11
           #task                                            10
           expandaddress                                    10
         Contact information                                16

        D

         Definite Solutions                                 16

        F

         Filenames                                           5

        H

         Hub expansion                                      13

        I

         Installation                                        7

        L

         Legal notice                                        4

        N

         Net expansion                                      12

        O

         Operating system versions                           5
         Optimizing                                          7


     Index                                                        Page 17


     FDROPT                                                    User Guide

        R

         Region expansion                                   12
         Requirements                                        5
         ROUTE.FDR                                           9

        V

         Version history                                    14
           FDROPT 1.00                                      15
           FDROPT 1.01                                      14
           FDROPT 2.00                                      14





































     Index                                                        Page 18
