enigma-bbs/docs/art/mci.md

layout	title
page	MCI Codes

ENiGMA½ supports a variety of MCI codes. Some predefined codes produce information about the current user, system, or other statistics while others are used to instantiate a View. MCI codes are two characters in length and are prefixed with a percent (%) symbol. Some MCI codes have additional options that may be set directly from the code itself while others -- and more advanced options -- are controlled via the current theme. Standard (non-focus) and focus colors are set by placing duplicate codes back to back in art files.

Predefined MCI Codes

There are many predefined MCI codes that can be used anywhere on the system (placed in any art file). More are added all the time so also check out core/predefined_mci.js for a full listing. Many codes attempt to pay homage to Oblivion/2, iNiQUiTY, etc.

Code	Description
BN	Board Name
VL	Version label, e.g. "ENiGMA½ v0.0.3-alpha"
VN	Version number, eg.. "0.0.3-alpha"
SN	SysOp username
SR	SysOp real name
SL	SysOp location
SA	SysOp affiliations
SS	SysOp sex
SE	SysOp email address
UN	Current user's username
UI	Current user's user ID
UG	Current user's group membership(s)
UR	Current user's real name
LO	Current user's location
UA	Current user's age
BD	Current user's birthdate (using theme date format)
US	Current user's sex
UE	Current user's email address
UW	Current user's web address
UF	Current user's affiliations
UT	Current user's theme ID (e.g. "luciano_blocktronics")
UC	Current user's login/call count
ND	Current user's connected node number
IP	Current user's IP address
ST	Current user's connected server name (e.g. "Telnet" or "SSH")
FN	Current user's active file base filter name
DN	Current user's number of downloads
DK	Current user's download amount (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)
UP	Current user's number of uploads
UK	Current user's upload amount (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)
NR	Current user's upload/download ratio
KR	Current user's upload/download bytes ratio
MS	Current user's account creation date (using theme date format)
PS	Current user's post count
PC	Current user's post/call ratio
MD	Current user's status/viewing menu/activity
MA	Current user's active message area name
MC	Current user's active message conference name
ML	Current user's active message area description
CM	Current user's active message conference description
SH	Current user's term height
SW	Current user's term width
DT	Current date (using theme date format)
CT	Current time (using theme time format)
OS	System OS (Linux, Windows, etc.)
OA	System architecture (x86, x86_64, arm, etc.)
SC	System CPU model
NV	System underlying Node.js version
AN	Current active node count
TC	Total login/calls to system
RR	Displays a random rumor
SD	Total downloads, system wide
SO	Total downloaded amount, system wide (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)
SU	Total uploads, system wide
SP	Total uploaded amount, system wide (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)

Some additional special case codes also exist:

Code	Description
CF##	Moves the cursor position forward ## characters
CB##	Moves the cursor position back ## characters
CU##	Moves the cursor position up ## characters
CD##	Moves the cursor position down ## characters
XY	A special code that may be utilized for placement identification when creating menus or to extend an otherwise empty space in an art file down the screen.

Views

A View is a control placed on a form that can display variable data or collect input. One example of a View is a Vertical Menu (%VM): Old-school BBSers may recognize this as a lightbar menu.

Code	Name	Description
TL	Text Label	Displays text
ET	Edit Text	Collect user input
ME	Masked Edit Text	Collect user input using a mask
MT	Multi Line Text Edit	Multi line edit control
BT	Button	A button
VM	Vertical Menu	A vertical menu aka a vertical lightbar
HM	Horizontal Menu	A horizontal menu aka a horizontal lightbar
SM	Spinner Menu	A spinner input control
TM	Toggle Menu	A toggle menu commonly used for Yes/No style input
KE	Key Entry	A single key input control

Peek at /core/mci_view_factory.js to see additional information.

Properties & Theming

Predefined MCI codes and other Views can have properties set via menu.hjson and further themed via theme.hjson. See Themes for more information on this subject.

Common Properties

Property	Description
textStyle	Sets the standard (non-focus) text style. See Text Styles below
focusTextStyle	Sets focus text style. See Text Styles below.
itemSpacing	Used to separate items in menus such as Vertical Menu and Horizontal Menu Views.
height	Sets the height of views such as menus that may be > 1 character in height
width	Sets the width of a view
focus	If set to true, establishes initial focus
text	(initial) text of a view
submit	If set to true any accept action upon this view will submit the encompassing form
itemFormat	Sets the format for a list entry. See Entry Formatting below
focusItemFormat	Sets the format for a focused list entry. See Entry Formatting below

These are just a few of the properties set on various views. Use the source Luke, as well as taking a look at the default menu.hjson and theme.hjson files!

Custom Properties

Often a module will provide custom properties that receive format objects (See Entry Formatting below). Custom property formatting can be declared in the config block. For example, browseInfoFormat10...N (where N is up to 99) in the file_area_list module received a fairly extensive format object that contains {fileName}, {estReleaseYear}, etc.

Text Styles

Standard style types available for textStyle and focusTextStyle:

Style	Description
normal	Leaves text as-is. This is the default.
upper	ENIGMA BULLETIN BOARD SOFTWARE
lower	enigma bulletin board software
title	Enigma Bulletin Board Software
first lower	eNIGMA bULLETIN bOARD sOFTWARE
small vowels	eNiGMa BuLLeTiN BoaRD SoFTWaRe
big vowels	EniGMa bUllEtIn bOArd sOftwArE
small i	ENiGMA BULLETiN BOARD SOFTWARE
mixed	EnIGma BUlLEtIn BoaRd SOfTWarE (randomly assigned)
l33t	3n1gm4 bull371n b04rd 50f7w4r3

Entry Fromatting

Various strings can be formatted using a syntax that allows width & precision specifiers, text styling, etc. Depending on the context, various elements can be referenced by {name}. Additional text styles can be supplied as well. The syntax is largely modeled after Python's string format mini language.

Additional Text Styles

Additional text styles are available for numbers:

Style	Description
sizeWithAbbr	File size (converted from bytes) with abbreviation such as 1 MB, 2.2 GB, 34 KB, etc.
sizeWithoutAbbr	Just the file size (converted from bytes) without the abbreviation. For example: 1024 becomes 1.
sizeAbbr	Just the abbreviation given a file size (converted from bytes) such as MB or GB.
countWithAbbr	Count with abbreviation such as 100 K, 4.3 B, etc.
countWithoutAbbr	Just the count
countAbbr	Just the abbreviation such as M for millions.

Examples

Suppose a format object contains the following elements: userName and affils. We could create a itemFormat entry that builds a item to our specifications: |04{userName!styleFirstLower} |08- |13{affils}. This may produce a string such as "eVIL cURRENT - Razor 1911".

Remember that a Python string format mini language style syntax is available for widths, alignment, number prevision, etc. as well. A number can be made to be more human readable for example: {byteSize:,} may yield "1,123,456".