Configuration


To access the configuration window, select Preferences from the Settings menu item or press Alt+P.

i. Program
ii. Network
iii. Display
iv. Saving and Loading Configuration
v. Configuration Files

Program

There are not too many things to set for the program configuration; none of which are needed by mNews yet.  Once in the Configuration Window, click the Program tab.
 
Click the cheesy looking icons on the right side to bring up file control panels for easier use.
  • Decode Dir: the directory in which binary files will be decoded.
  • Save Dir: the directory in which all files will be saved.
  • Signature: the file that contains your 'signature' for posting.
  • Cache setting: the number of days that mNews will store cached articles for. The cache is cleared on startup. For now, the maximum is 60 days. Set it to -1 to never have the cache cleared. If you do this, you are responsible for keeping the cache clear. It will fill up your hard drive.
  • Get 100 article headings This is the setting for the number of article headings downloaded at one time when the Get Range button is used.

Network

There are several items that need to be set here in order for mNews to work at all.

Once in the Configuration window, click the Network tab.  This brings up two other tabs, User and Connect. The User tab contains information about you.
 
  • Username: this can be anything, but if you want people to respond to you by email, use your email name.
  • Real Name: take a bit of guess.
  • Domain: if your email address is skillet@mail.chowder.com, the domain is chowder.com.

The Network tab contains information pertinent to connect to the news server.
 
  • NNTP Host: the name of your news server.  Ask your Internet Provider for this information.  It must be the full name of the server, not just news, unless it is specified that way in your ISP's Domain Name Server.
  • Login:  The login name, if needed, which will be supplied by your provider.  Most likely this WILL NOT be the login for your internet account.
  • Password: If needed, it will be supplied by your provider as well.  Again, it most likely WILL NOT be the password for your internet account.
  • Sockets:  Number of socket connections to the news server.  Can be set between 1 and 8 for now.
  • Auto Connect: Select if you want mNews to connect to the server on startup.
  • Auto Send: Select if you want mNews to send your login informatio to the news server once connection has been established.

Display

So far there are only three extra items that can be displayed.
Click on the Settings menu and drag the selector below the horizontal dividing line.
 
  • Author: Displays the Author of the article.
  • Date: Displays the date the article was posted.
  • Size: Displays the size of the article in bytes.

Saving and Loading Configuration

There are two ways to save the configuration,.  The first way is through the settings menu.  Selecting Save will save the current configuration as the last name saved or loaded, default if none have been.  Save As will bring up a file requester for you to select the file to save to.  Save As Default will save the configuration as the default configuration that will be loaded on startup.

Loading a configuration is very similar.  By selecting Load, the default configuration is loaded.  Load As will bring up another file requester for you to select which confiuration file you want.  NOTE: To set a different configuration file as default, use Load As and then select Save As Default.

The other way is on the Configuration Window. Here you can only Save, not Load.

Also on the Configuration Window, if you change something and press OK, the changes are entered in to memory, but not saved.  Pressing Cancel will not enter the changes into memory.  If the changes work, you can save them through either the window or the Settings menu. Keep in mind that when you quit mNews, the configuration file is saved to the last name selected.

Configuration Files

All the files needed by mNews are located in ./home/config/settings/mNews.

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