FWDiscus is a "Feather Weight" serverless discussion board application. Its purpose is to provide simple text-based collaboration spaces by maintaining lists of topics and lists of replies to those topics. In a sense you might consider FWDiscus as the WordPad of discussion boards (if not perhaps the NotePad). It is simple and very lightweight.
This application is intended to be used within a local area network (LAN) and doesn't offer any form of access over the Internet. FWDiscus is a true intranet application, and it does not require a web server of any kind.
Figure 1. Home page (Topic List).
The assumptions FWDiscus makes include:
So basically if you have Windows PCs and access to shared disk over a common LAN you can communicate with your co-workers or within your household using FWDiscus.
It works like any multiuser Microsoft Access or Visual Basic application. The information is as secure as any data stored on internal file servers.
Figure 2. Network diagram.
FWDiscus has some very modest requirements. Even though this is a serverless application in a sense, it does require a file server everyone has read/write access to. This is just like a multiuser Microsoft Access application, and FWDiscus uses some of the same technology that Access does.
FWDiscus does not have a fancy installer package because it doesn't need one. You probably received it in the form of either a PKWare zip file or a self-extracting zip file (executable). Here is what you do:
If you wish to install and operate multiple FWDiscus boards (multiple topics lists for different projects or purposes) simply be sure to choose a distinct name for each one's folder at step (2.) above.
The Resource folder contains a file named FWDiscus.css that can be modified to make simple changes to the look of your FWDiscus sites if you have a little web page development background. Color, text, and layout attributes have been broken out in sections to help make changes easier.
A sample has been provided. Try renaming FWDiscus.css as FWOrig.css and then rename FWAlternate.css as FWDiscus.css. Then rerun the HTA to see the results.
You could also replace FWLogo.gif with your own 48x48 pixel image. With a little work more extensive changes to the appearance are possible.
Removing the FWDiscus.mdb lets you start clean. If FWDiscus can't find the database when it starts up it prompts you, and then on your approval creates a new empty database for you automatically.
From time to time a Jet 4.0 database (the underlying technology of FWDiscus) should be "compacted and repaired." There is a facility within FW Discus (see Site Settings) to easily invoke Microsoft's unsupported JETCOMP.exe utility to accomplish this task. The database file FWDiscus.mdb will be copied as Backup.mdb, then JETCOMP.exe is run against it to create a new, clean FWDiscus.mdb file. Please be sure to read the legal disclaimer below regarding JETCOMP.exe itself.
Some people may see repeated popup messages about "cross domain data access." This simply means you have IE's security options (see IE's Tools | Internet Options... dialog) set too strict for your Local Intranet. You will need to select "enable" for "Access data sources across domains." This is actually the default setting, and I do not believe you are exposing yourself to serious risk by using this setting.
Permission is granted to use and distribute this software without charge, provided this notice is retained. Derivative works are encouraged.
No guarantees are made, no support is promised, nor are any liabilities accepted. This material is provided for general use *as is*.
The download package for FW Discus contains a copy of Microsoft's unsupported JETCOMP.exe utility for use in maintaining your discussion databases via FWDiscus. Microsoft states:
Note The user interface of JETCOMP.exe is in English only and is not supported by Microsoft Product Support Services. However, JETCOMP.exe can compact databases in any language supported by the Microsoft Jet database engine. JETCOMP.exe is a freely distributable utility, but requires that one of the following products is installed on the computer:
- Microsoft Office 97
- Microsoft Office 2000
- Microsoft Access 97
- Microsoft Access 2000
- Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0
- Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0
- A Microsoft Office Developer Edition 97 run-time application that includes the run-time version of Microsoft Access 97
- A Microsoft Office Developer 2000 run-time application that includes the run-time version of Microsoft Access 2000
- A Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 run-time application that includes Microsoft Jet database engine 3.5
- A Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 run-time application that includes Microsoft Jet database engine 3.5 or 4.0
If you and your community of users do not qualify you may remove JETCOMP.exe after installing FWDiscus. More information and a link to an official download source may be found in Microsoft's support article number 273956 (ACC2000: Jet Compact Utility Available in Download Center).
As of this writing it can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/273956.
Ver. 1.1 17-Apr-2005
Ver. 1.2 22-Jun-2005
Ver. 1.3 23-Jun-2005
Ver. 1.4 25-Jun-2005
Ver. 1.5 26-Jun-2005
Ver. 1.6 29-Jun-2005
Ver. 1.7 04-Jul-2005
Ver. 1.8 23-Jul-2005
You can download FWDiscus here.
March 2005
Updated July 2005
