NAME

OurNet::BBS - Component Object Model for BBS systems

VERSION

This document describes version 1.66 of OurNet::BBS, released October 30, 2003.

SYNOPSIS

    use strict;
    use OurNet::BBS;
    # use OurNet::BBS 'big5'; # use unicode strings internally

    my $BBS = OurNet::BBS->new({
        backend => 'MELIX',             # use the Melix BBS backend
        bbsroot => '/home/melix',       # where to find the BBS data
    });

    my $brd = $BBS->{boards}{sysop};    # the sysop board
    my $mtime;

    printf (
        "This BBS has %d boards, %d groups.\n",
        scalar keys(%{$BBS->{boards}}),
        scalar keys(%{$BBS->{groups}}),
    );

    eval { $mtime = $brd->{articles}->mtime };
    die "Error: cannot read board $board -- $@\n" if $@;

    printf (
        "The $board board has %d articles, %d top-level archive entries.\n",
        $#{$brd->{articles}}, $#{$brd->{archives}},
    );

    # A simple Sysop board article monitor
    print "Watching for new articles...\n";

    while (1) {
        print "=== wait here ($mtime) ===\n";
        sleep 5 until ($brd->{articles}->refresh);

        foreach my $article (@{$brd->{articles}}) {
            print "Found article: $article->{title}\n" 
                if $article->btime > $mtime;
        }

        $mtime = $brd->{articles}->mtime;
    }

DESCRIPTION

OurNet-BBS is a cross-protocol distributed network, built as an abstraction layer over telnet BBS-based systems used in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. It implements a flexible object model for different BBS backends, along with an asymmetric authentication and remote procedure call protocol.

This project aims to become a protocol agnostic middle-ware solution for identity-based information storage & retrieval, much like the Project Jabber's goal toward instant messaging, or Project JXTA's aim toward distributed services.

If you are new to the telnet-bbs platform, please download a copy of Melix BBS software (in English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese) at <http://melix.elixus.org/>.

For some of its practical uses, search for OurNet::BBSApp on CPAN, and the sample scripts in the eg/ directory in this module's distribution.

HISTORY

This section has been moved to the ChangeLog file in the source distribution.

AUTHORS

Chia-Liang Kao <clkao@clkao.org>, Autrijus Tang <autrijus@autrijus.org>

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>