[DarkCrystal]

To s/he who reads this:

Its been a while since I last wrote me a DOS batch (*.BAT) program. So, here's my request. I would like it very much if someone could write me a BAT program that will do the following:
1. User enters the the number of the computer (alphanumeric, up to 4 characters) s/he would like to send a message
2. User enters message to send.
3. the 2 entered values should be put into the following DOS command: NET SEND th-2156-number message
4. Option to send or cancel.

So pretty much, it looks like this:

Send to: mm12
Message: Testing...123...Testing
NET SEND th-2156-mm12 Testing...123...Testing
Press [ENTER] to send this message, [ESC] to cancel.

Many thanks to s/he who helps me.
(Don't be afraid to put you name and what not in the coding, after all, it is your work.)

[MacFromOK]

Hey DarkCrystal,

Unless the MS DOS utility "choice.com" (or some other similiar util) is available, there's no way to accept user input in a batch file.

You can however make a simple command line batch file that can be called by the batch file name, the computer number, and the message. Here's a simple example you can save as "NS.bat" (or whatever):

@ECHO OFF
rem -- %1 is the first (computer number) parameter, %2 is the second (message)
rem -- parameter. The message should be quoted so each word won't be counted as
rem -- separate parameters. %0 displays the name user typed to run the batch file.
if "%1"=="" goto ERROR
if "%2"=="" goto ERROR
NET SEND th-2156-%1 %2
goto END

:ERROR
  cls
  echo.
  echo.
  echo     Usage: [this batch file name] [computer number] [message (in quotes)]
  echo.
  echo     Example: %0 100a "this is a test"
  echo.
  echo.

:END

If "choice.com" is available, let me know and we can do a batch file more like you asked for.

Cheers, Mac

[DarkCrystal]

Mac:

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for my delayed reply. Your help was fantastic, but I have already created a batch file (a few hours of reading involved). It is rather efficient as well. For your use, if you so desire, the code is below:

@ECHO OFF
set name=%1
set msg=%2
net send th-2156-mm%name% %msg%

All one would do is set the PATH to the folder MSG.BAT is located in, and then one can just type "msg 4 Testing msg.bat program." where "msg" is the .BAT file, "4" is the %name% value, and "Testing..." is the %msg% value.

However, if you can provide assistance in making it so that one can enter a time to NET SEND, or multiple times to NET SEND, that would be excellent. The command format to do this would be:
AT hh:mm NET SEND %name% %msg%

Sorry for any inconvience this made, and thanks again.
DarkCrystal

[MacFromOK]

Originally Posted by DarkCrystal

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for my delayed reply. Your help was fantastic, but I have already created a batch file (a few hours of reading involved). It is rather efficient as well. For your use, if you so desire, the code is below:

@ECHO OFF
set name=%1
set msg=%2
net send th-2156-mm%name% %msg%

Actually you could skip the var assignment and just use %1 and %2.

However, if you can provide assistance in making it so that one can enter a time to NET SEND, or multiple times to NET SEND, that would be excellent. The command format to do this would be:
AT hh:mm NET SEND %name% %msg%

Unfortunately this is not possible without another utility.

You can however make this easier to use if you send more than one message to the same recipient. Just use the message as the first parameter, and make it so the %name% var is only reset when a second parameter is used. This does assume you keep the DOS session open though, otherwise the %name% var will be lost.

@ECHO OFF
if not "%2"=="" set name=%2
net send th-2156-mm%name% %1

Lol, just make sure ya don't send something embarrassing to the wrong person...

Cheers, Mac

[DarkCrystal]

Awesome! Thanks you very much. And now for my final request. I have found a slight bug in this system, but I'm pretty sure there's a way around. Just haven't read up to it yet...lol.

So here it is:
If I were to type "msg 4 this is a test", computer 4 would only get "this"
in order to send a full message, i must type "msg 4 this.is.a.test" and computer 4 will then recieve "this.is.a.test" Is there any way around this where I can use spaces, rather than using a JavaScript imitation? If not, its no big deal, just a little inconvienence. I can adapt.

Thanks again.
DarkCrystal

[MacFromOK]

Enclose the message sent in quotes when you type it:

msg 4 "this is a test"

Without quotes, DOS splits the parameters by spaces as follows:

%0 = msg
%1 = 4
%2 = this
%3 = is
%4 = a
%5 = test

You could send the message (in the batch file) as:

%2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

but your messages would have to be short since params only go to %9.

Cheers, Mac

[DarkCrystal]

geez. such simple remedy. I have this habit of overlooking the easy solutions. lol. thanks so much. this is why i love this site. there's always an answer out there.

Thanks again,
DarkCrystal