Net::Pager, version 2.00 Copyright (c) 2000 SimpleWire. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. Written By: Joe Lauer For further documentation and support, please check out www.simplewire.com Description ----------- Net::Pager is a pure perl, global numeric and alphanumeric paging interface via the Internet. We're bringing you the first and only way to interface any brand or type of pager through one consistent protocol without using the telephone network. Our purpose is to define a paging standard and make numerous tools available for developer's use so paging technology can be better utilized. The module interacts with SimpleWire's Remote Procedure Calls. This new standard, and subsequently this Perl module, has a great deal of development energy behind it and will have full development support through an online support forum. Pager has built-in redundancy to create a fail-safe system. For futher support or questions, you should visit Pager's website at *www.simplewire.com* where you can visit our developer support forum, faq, or download the most recent documentation. SimpleWire's site has more example code and perl client tools. New Features in 2.00 -------------------- * The module was totally re-written since XML has been introduced as the language for all client/server communication between this client tool and the SimpleWire network. * Support for asynchronous sending of pages has been added. This means that network delays are now handled by the SimpleWire servers rather than the client tools. This has eliminated any timeout bugs that might occur, since SimpleWire can now respond immediately. * Object oriented design following the HTTP::Response and HTTP::Request methodology. Clients now construct Net::Pager::Request objects, submit various requests through this object, and use the Net::Pager::Response object to analyze the response from the SimpleWire servers. This resulted in three more objects: Net::Pager::Common, Net::Pager::Request, and Net::Pager::Response. * SimpleWire now captures more error messages from each paging service. A good example is the attempt to send pages to Sprint PCS phones even though text messaging costs extra and most users don't have it. SimpleWire now catches this kind of error. * Added new services: Verizon, VoiceStream/OmniPoint Bell Mobility, and Weblink Wireless Two-Way. * Introduction of a ticket system where a TICKET ID is assigned to every sendpage transaction. This allows clients to check on the status of pages sent asynchronously or to check up on older pages sent through our system. * Added support for sending a page to a simplewire alias. This means clients can now send pages to an alias instead of a pin and service id, provided that the alias is setup and registered on the SimpleWire network. * Improved documentation on error codes and tapping into our protocol. Please refer to www.simplewire.com to download these helpful documents. * Fixed small issue with clients entering pins that contain a dash or a period. Our servers will now filter out this garbage to ensure proper formatting of the pin. * Added support for Subscriber IDs and Subscriber passwords. * Added an optional delimiter parameter to be passed along with a page so that client tools can override our default delimiter to seperate the from, callback, and text fields in messages. * Fixed timeout bugs by using LWP::UserAgent instead of our own networking code. * SimpleWire can now support proxy servers via the LWP::UserAgent module. However, this will take custom tweaking of our Net::Pager moduele until native support is added. * Revised the system for remotely retrieving our service list. Many new options have been added so that the list comes back sorted or filtered in whatever way you like. * Improved functions to use with the service list. New functions include DBI-like interface for retrieval and looping. Such functions are fetchrow_service, fetchall_services, and fetchrow_rewind. * Fixed small bug that was related to timeouts where 2 or 3 duplicated pages would be sent off. This was solved via LWP and smarter error checking before moving onto the next simplewire server. Archive Location ---------------- . The newest release/extensive help/faq/exaples on www.simplewire.com . In the CPAN directory: modules/by-module/Net/ . To find a CPAN site near you see http://cpan.perl.org/SITES.html Prerequisites ------------- . Perl Version 5.002 or later . A Windows 95/NT machine requires Perl version 5.003_07 or later Documentation ------------- User documentation in POD format is contained within the module source (i.e. the .pm file). Installing using "make install" places this documentation in a man page in the perl library under the directory "man/man3". However, the best documentation is the example code in the /eg directory form the tar.gz file or on www.simplewire.com. Installation ------------ These notes work on Unix based systems and there are some changes if you are using Windows NT/95/98. See the special notes below. To install, cd to the directory containing the unpacked distribution and do one of the following: a. Create a makefile by running Makefile.PL using the perl program into whose library you want to install and then run make three times: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install b. To install into a private library, for example your home directory: perl Makefile.PL INSTALLSITELIB=$HOME/lib INSTALLMAN3DIR=$HOME/man make make test make pure_install c. Alternatively, you can just copy or move Pager.pm from the distribution into a directory named Net/ in the Perl library. You can then manually build the documentation using pod2man or pod2html. d. At the time of printing this, there should be more ways to install Net::Pager. Please go to www.simplewire.com and visit our Developers section for the easiest ways. There should be a CPAN install and a ppm install. Windows NT/95/98 Installation ----------------------------- Windows does not come with the make program. Instead, you will have to use a similar program called 'nmake'. If you have happened to install Microsoft's Visual Studio then 'nmake' is already installed on your computer and you can fun the following instructions. If you don't have 'nmake' then please visit http://www.simplewire.com/clienttools/perl.epl for instructions on how to get 'nmake'. Once you have 'nmake.exe' then you can replicate the instructions laid out in the previous a, b, and c subpoint above except replace the 'make' command with 'nmake'. So (a) would be now perl Makefile.PL nmake nmake test nmake install Some Common Problems -------------------- You most likely have to logged in as root on any machine to be able to successfully install either module. If you cannot log in as root then follow choice c. above and just make a directory called Net where your programs will run and then copy Pager.pm into it. If you have any other questions please visit SimpleWire's FAQ or online support forum for anwers. ------------ SimpleWire 743 Beaubien Suite 300 Detroit, MI 48226 313.961.4407 Released: 08/28/2000 Coded By: Joe Lauer Contact: John Lauer