NewsCoaster now has an ARexx port (called 'NEWSCOASTER'). It's very simple at the moment, so hopefully more commands will appear here soon. Please let me know if you want particular commands to be added. If you write any ARexx scripts for NewsCoaster, you are of course free to distribute as you wish. I'd also like to hear if you write anything particularly useful (hmm, not very likely with the current set of commands I know, but anyway) - I may include them in the NewsCoaster archive, or at least put them on the NewsCoaster homepage.
Please check the 'Rexx' folder in the NewsCoaster folder for any useful ARexx scripts that may be included with the archive.
Command Summary:
(See the end for explanations of terms)
BUSY Forces NewsCoaster to go into 'busy' mode, and not accept any user input. You must call NOBUSY to allow user input again.
FOLDERINFO Returns a string giving information about the currently selected folder, in the format 'groupID name description number_of_messages_in_folder messageID_of_nextMessage subscribed max_download_limit' (subscribed is 1 if you are subscribed to that group, 0 if you are not).
HIDE Hide or Iconify NewsCoaster
IMPORTFOLDER [folder] Scans a folder for messages, and imports them into the groups appropriate for the newsgroups specified by their 'Newsgroups:' header.
IMPORTMESSAGE [message] Imports a message into the group appropriate for the newsgroup specified in the 'Newsgroup:' header.
ISONLNE Sets RC to 1 if NewsCoaster is currently doing online activity (eg, fetching or sending news), but sets RC to 0 if not.
MESSAGEFUANDR Followup and reply to the currently selected message.
MESSAGECOPY destination Copies the selected messages to the folder named 'destination'.
MESSAGEDELETE [FORCE] Deletes the currently selected messages (which means they are copied to deleted, unless they are already in deleted, in which case they ar permanently deleted). If you specify 'FORCE', then the confirmation requester is not displayed.
MESSAGEEDIT Edit the currently selected message (must be in outgoing or sent).
MESSAGEEXPORT Export (Save or Display) the currently selected message.
MESSAGEFOLLOWUP Followup the currently selected message.
MESSAGEGETHEADER [header] Returns the data in a particular header ('header' should include the colon, but is case-insensitive, eg, 'from:' or 'subject:').
MESSAGEGETPATH Gets the filename with path (NB, will make use of the NewsCoasterData: assign).
MESSAGEINFO Returns information about the selected message in the form 'messageID From Newsgroups Subject Date Content-Type'.
MESSAGEKILL [type [THISGROUP]] Sets up a killfile on the currently selected message. If you give no parameters, the user will be asked, otherwise, type can be 0 for 'Kill this author', 1 for 'Kill responses to this message', and 2 for 'Kill messages with the same subject'. By default the killfile will be for all newsgroups, but specifying THISGROUP makes it the current newsgroup only.
MESSAGEMOVE destination Moves the currently selected messages to the folder named 'destination'.
MESSAGEREPLY Reply to the currently selected message.
MESSAGESUPERSEDE Supersede the currently selected message.
NOBUSY Cancel the effect of BUSY.
SELECTMESSAGE type [ALL] Controls selection of messages in the current folder. Set type to: 1 to select, 0 to toggle, -1 to deselect. This sets the selection of the currently active message, unless you specify ALL, in which case all messages in the folder are set.
SETFOLDER pos Selects are folder, where pos is the position in the folder listing.
SETFOLDERBYID id Selects the folder whose folderID is id.
SETFOLDERBYNAME name Selects the folder whose name is name.
SETMESSAGE pos Selects the message at position pos in the message listing.
SHOW Show or un-iconify NewsCoaster.
Explanations
Folder Names When you specify a folder by name, it should be 'outgoing', 'sent', 'deleted', or if it is a newsgroup, the full newsgroup name (eg, 'comp.sys.amiga.misc').
groupID Every folder has an internal ID number. This is -1 for outgoing, -2 for sent, -3 for deleted, and a number equal or greater to 0 for newsgroup folders. The messages are kept in the folders outgoing/, sent/ or deleted/, or folder_x/ for newsgroups, where x is the groupID. These folders will be in the folder pointed to by the NewsCoasterData: assign (which, by default, is the NewsCoaster folder).
messageID Every message has an ID, which is unique for the folder it is in. The filename of the message will be news_x where x is the messageID.nextMessage A term for the next message which might be created in this folder. eg, if messageID_of_nextMessage is 14, then the next message created in that folder will have a messageID of 14.