Overview

BeInformed is an offline newsclient for BeOS PR2. It is fully multithreaded and uses the index functions provided by the BFS. This version is something like a PreviewRelease, too. It has all the functionality, an offline newsclient should have, but shows some lacks in the UI. I don't think that it is bad, but there's still a lot to do. Please keep this in mind, when using BeInformed. Don't be too cruel and expect that it will handle all the users wishes. But I encourage you to make any suggestions to BeInformed.
This document will be no manual and you won't find one in this package. I hope the most things are clear, when you see them right before you. The other ones are shortly described below...

First Steps

When BeInformed is started for the first time, a new directory is created in your local settings and also one to hold your articles (/boot/home/articles). See the section Technical for the indices, that are created, too.

Enter your name and eMail in the Settings-Window.
Create a new host
Subscribe groups from this host
Choose "Connect to server" from the File-Menu.

Now the subscribed groups are contaced and hole articles or just the headers are being downloaded. You now can either use the filters or the newsgroups to look at your articles. You mark a header by clicking left beside its entry in the list. A checkmark will show you, that this article will be retrieved the next time you connect to the server.
You also can "lock" an retrieved article from being removed when deleting old ones. Just click left from its entry. A red bullet will tell you, that it's locked.
To write new articles, you either choose the menu or click the right mouse button in the listview that shows the headers and articles.

Hints

Use the right mouse button ! Some things can just be done with the right mouse button. For instance to remove an article to be posted.
Play around with the column list view. If you click on the headers, you will sort the list according to the header you choosed.
You can add more than one host and subscribe groups from the. They all will be fetched with one step when choosing "Connect to server".

Known Bugs/Limitations

The queries for newsgroups and filters are not live.
You have to change groups or filters to see the changes.
You cannot download articles with a slash ( / ) in its Message-ID.
Although it is recommended not to use slashes in Message-IDs, it use sometimes used. I figured out this problem only once, so I hope it will not be a real limitation.
Articles must be downloaded to /boot/home/articles.
You cannot change the directory yet.
Articles must be found on the boot volume.
If you move some articles to other volumes, they will not be found from BeInformed.
BeInformed does not recognize its position, windows size, etc.
Yes, I know this is ugly...
When the grouplist is retrieved at startup, the articles body is not shown properly.
I just don't know, why...
Changing between groups and articles may dure some time.
This is, because it takes so much time to delete the items. I will see, if there's some other way to do it.
Authorization is implemented, but not tested.
I do not have any access to a newsserver, that offers authorization. I hope I implemented it the right way...

Technical

Every article or header is saved in a single file with its Message-ID as name. To every file, there are added several attributes. To all this attributes BeInformed will create an index:

NEWS:from
NEWS:subject
NEWS:newsgroup
NEWS:date
NEWS:state
- unread
  An unread article.
- read
  A read article.
- readL
  An article that is locked from being removed.
- unmarked
  An unmarked articel. This will be the state of retrieved headers.
- marked
  A marked article. Only headers can be marked.
- queued
  This article is queued for posting.
NEWS:poll

Misc

I'd like to thank Brian Tietz (btietz@biomail.ucsd.edu), who brought us the great Santa's gift bag . BeInformed uses his ColumnListView and BufferedFile.
Please report any bugs and suggestions to olbertz@do.isst.fhg.de. I plan to release V1.0 in march. Also have a look to my homepage for further releases.