Hey all -- I am a sysop running Sync v3.13. I am looking for a good external file viewer for .ZIP files. I would like for users to have the ability to
view .txt and .nfo files that are inside archives. A bonus feature would be the ability to download files that are inside the archive but that is not a necessity.

I've tried using Syncview, an app written for Sync v2 and it does work with Sync v3 but it has a bunch of nag screens and that sort of thing. I've tried some other file viewing apps but they app use PKUNZIP (v2.04g, dos APP) to extract files, and while I have pkunzip, these other programs are ruled out because they extract every file you choose to view. Optimally the file
viewing program would only read header information from the .ZIP file to determin it's contents and would not need to extract the file unless the user has chosen to view files within the archive.

If anyone has any suggestion for a good Sync v3 external file viewer I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I have thought about coding one myself in Baja but I do not know how to use Baja to read the .ZIP file format.

Re: Sync v3.x compatible external file viewer
By: Hellion to All on Sun Jun 28 2009 09:17 pm

Hey all -- I am a sysop running Sync v3.13. I am looking for a good
external file viewer for .ZIP files. I would like for users to have the ability to view .txt and .nfo files that are inside archives. A bonus feature would be the ability to download files that are inside the archive but that is not a necessity.

This functionality is already built into Synchronet (using the (T)emp file menu).

digital man

Snapple "Real Fact" #45:
Elephants are capable of swimming 20 miles per day.

Hellion wrote:

Hey all -- I am a sysop running Sync v3.13. I am looking for a good external file viewer for .ZIP files. I would like for users to have the ability to view .txt and .nfo files that are inside archives. A bonus feature would be the ability to download files that are inside the archive but that is not a necessity.

I've tried using Syncview, an app written for Sync v2 and it does work with Sync v3 but it has a bunch of nag screens and that sort of thing. I've tried some other file viewing apps but they app use PKUNZIP (v2.04g, dos APP) to extract files, and while I have pkunzip, these other programs are ruled out because they extract every file you choose to view. Optimally the file viewing program would only read header information from the .ZIP file to determin it's contents and would not need to extract the file unless the user
has chosen to view files within the archive.

If anyone has any suggestion for a good Sync v3 external file viewer I'd be interested in hearing about it.

I have thought about coding one myself in Baja but I do not know how to use Baja to read the .ZIP file format.

all you would need to do is have your baja script shell out and then
dump the pkzip file display to console and redirect to a text file and
then display it to the user.

you can do this with .diz, nfo's etc.

i made a simple one because i wanted some of the features that other bbs softwares had.

Digital Man wrote:

Re: Sync v3.x compatible external file viewer
By: Hellion to All on Sun Jun 28 2009 09:17 pm

Hey all -- I am a sysop running Sync v3.13. I am looking for a good external file viewer for .ZIP files. I would like for users to have the ability to view .txt and .nfo files that are inside archives. A bonus feature would be the ability to download files that are inside the archive but that is not a necessity.

This functionality is already built into Synchronet (using the (T)emp file menu).

digital man

i think he wants something easy for users to use, something that will
replace the external viewer that they can invoke right in the file listings.

pistolgrip made a great one but it seriously bombs on current builds, sometimes crashing sbbsctrl.

i couldnt decompile it with unbaja too.

Jas,

That is exactly what I was looking for. A program that would run from the
file listing. Optimally it would just be a baja script that you would execute when the user hits [V] to view files, or an external door app (not
necessarily baja) that would serve the same function.

I went down the route of using the temp menu. It is full-featured but it
lacks the simple elegance traditionally found in bbs archive viewing apps.

Thanks,
-hellion

-hL!

Hellion wrote:

Jas,

That is exactly what I was looking for. A program that would run from the file listing. Optimally it would just be a baja script that you would execute
when the user hits [V] to view files, or an external door app (not necessarily baja) that would serve the same function.

I went down the route of using the temp menu. It is full-featured but it lacks the simple elegance traditionally found in bbs archive viewing apps.

Thanks,
-hellion

-hL!

yeah just write a script that will extract the files to a temp dir or
file and display it to a user.

you can call it the same way you would call pkunzip,etc

i dont think such a thing would get much usage though.