More On Scripting

Two BulkRate users wrote this to help others with BulkRate scripts. I thought it was well done, so I've included it here.

-Greg

What are BulkRate Scripts?

A BulkRate Script is a mechanism to instruct BulkRate to exchange mail with multiple FirstClass Servers with a single instruction rather than going through the process of manually setting up each Service independently and exchanging mail from each service after it has been set up. This works great for going through multiple BBS's unattended (which is what scripting is for). For example, if you want to exchange mail with three different FirstClass Servers automatically you can create a Script which will instruct BulkRate to sequentially connect to the three Servers and exchange mail with each. When you run the Script, BulkRate will exchange mail with each of the three Servers you scripted.

How do I create a BulkRate Script?

The following steps describe how to create a BulkRate Script:

1. With BulkRate open, pull down the 'Mail' menu and select 'Script'. This will open a script window.
2. Select the appropriate option under 'Run:' ('Manually', 'Automatically When Opened' and 'Wait Until') Note: 'Wait Until' allows you to schedule the time that the Script will execute. This is the option that lets you get mail at 3 AM which is great for single line BBS's.
3. Select the appropriate option under "When finished:" ('Wait', 'Quit' or 'Shut Down')
4. Select "Add". Traverse the directory and select the FirstClass service files you want to include in the Script. This will return you to the script window each time you select a service. Repeat this step until all services you want in a script are shown in the script window
5. Select "Save as" and name and save the Script file.

How do I run a BulkRate Script?

The following steps describe how to run a BulkRate Script:

To manually run a script:

1. Open BulkRate
2. Pull down the 'Mail' menu and select 'Script'.
3. Select a script from the list shown (you may have to traverse the directory depending on where you have saved the scripts)
4. Select 'Run Now' or 'Wait until' and enter the time BulkRate is to execute.

To automatically run a script:

1. Launch the script directly from the finder. You may also create an Alias of the script and launch it from the alias. Note: The script must have been created using the 'Automatically when Opened' or 'Wait until' 'Run' option.

Courtesy of Tom Guy and Alan Templeton

I'd like to add a couple things:

If you want BulkRate to automatically log on to your favorite BBSs automatically each time you turn on your Mac, create a script to be run automatically and place it or an alias of it in your Startup Items folder.

There is a freeware Control Panel called Chron that can be used to set up far more complex scheduled exchanges than BulkRate ever could. For example, you can configure Chron to launch a BulkRate script every hour, every day, every Monday, or any combination of these. This also allows a script to run at a certain time without having BulkRate open, which you cannot do with BulkRate alone.