The PMENU menu system is made up of the following files.

 ACTION.PSH is a standard ASCII text file that resides in the SYS:LOGIN directory, and forms the hub of the menu system. It contains a listing of all the menu options that can appear on the menu, the groups that the user must belong to (or any other controlling factors - see. MACHINE.PSH) and the command line instructions that must be executed to run the option.

When the user logs on, the menu system runs through this file picking out the menu options the user should have. A menu of these options is then displayed on the user's workstation.

 In reality, there are two things to consider when deciding what applications a user should run, or under what conditions. First, as discussed before, is the matter of which groups the user is a member of ,and second, which machine the user is working on. Some options need to consider which computer the user is on as well as what rights the user has.

Example would be;

1. The option to format a floppy disk should only be given if the workstation has a floppy drive.

2. The menu should display the options to manage a tape backup system only if the user has logged into a workstation with a tape drive.

MACHINE.PSH is a standard ASCII text file which resides on the SYS:LOGIN directory and contains a list of all the machines which require special considerations, e.g. a floppy drive or a tape device etc.

These workstations are listed using the unique network address of the network card installed in each one. After this is a list of their features using key words which are used in the ACTION.PSH file in the same way as the group names to identify options linked to a specific workstation feature. One line per workstation.

The Menu System is able to determine the network card address of the workstation by two DOS variables which are set in the System Login Script and take advantage of the statements %P_STATION, which returns the network card address, and %LOGIN_NAME which returns the user's Login name.

DOS SET USERNAME="%LOGIN_NAME"

DOS SET MAC="%P_STATION"

 STARTUP.PSH is a standard ASCII text file which resides in the SYS:LOGIN directory. It contains command lines which must be actioned before the menu sets up. Which commands to action depend on the Groups the user belongs to and the computer they are working from in the same way as ACTION.PSH. Any commands that need to be run, including ones that are group/user and/or machine specific, but should not be dependant upon the user selecting a particular option , are placed here. The set up of DOS environment variables or drive mappings may be an example of commands actioned here.

See Syntax for PSH Files for more information on these files.

 All these files reside in the SYS:LOGIN directory.

 This batch file must also reside in the SYS:PUBLIC directory

 This file reloads the user's menu once the application they have been running exists. It is also used to reload the menu if the user has been working in DOS.

IF THE USER HAS GONE TO DOS THROUGH WINDOWS, THE MENU MUST NOT BE LOADED THIS WAY.

This batch file is used by the menu system to log users out of the network when they select X. It then presents a request for the user's Login name.

This batch file must also reside in the SYS:PUBLIC directory, and is used by PLOGOUT.BAT

This is the program file that actually generates the menu.

 This is the batch file that PSHELL.EXE produces once an option has been selected from the menu. It contains the instructions to run the required option, and ends with a call to PMENU.BAT. It can be found in the unique directory mapped to by the letter T (SYS:PUBLIC\TEMP\%STATION).

End Document