MCI Codes

ENiGMA½ supports a variety of MCI codes. Some predefined codes produce information about the current user, system, or other statistics while others are used to instantiate a View.

General Information

MCI codes are composed of two characters and are prefixed with a percent (%) symbol.

Note

To explicitly tie a MCI to a specific View ID, suffix the MCI code with a number. For example: %BN1.

Note

Standard (non-focus) and focus colors are set by placing duplicate codes back to back in art files:

Some MCI codes have additional options that may be set directly from the code itself while others — and more advanced options — are controlled via the current theme.

Relationship with Menus, Art, and Themes

A MCI code that appears in a menu.hjson entry corresponds to that found in it’s associated art file. This same MCI code can be referenced in the theme.hjson in order to apply a theme.

See Menus and Themes for more information.

Predefined Codes

There are many predefined MCI codes that can be used anywhere on the system (placed in any art file).

Code	Description
BN	Board Name
VL	Version label, e.g. “ENiGMA½ v0.0.12-beta”
VN	Version number, eg.. “0.0.12-beta”
SN	SysOp username
SR	SysOp real name
SL	SysOp location
SA	SysOp affiliations
SS	SysOp sex
SE	SysOp email address
UN	Current user’s username
UI	Current user’s user ID
UG	Current user’s group membership(s)
UR	Current user’s real name
AS	ActivityPub subject, ie: “@SomeUser@yourhost.com”, “(disabled)” if AP is not enabled for the user
LO	Current user’s location
UA	Current user’s age
BD	Current user’s birthday (using theme date format)
US	Current user’s sex
UE	Current user’s email address
UW	Current user’s web address
UF	Current user’s affiliations
UT	Current user’s theme name
UD	Current user’s theme ID (e.g. “luciano_blocktronics”)
UC	Current user’s login/call count
ND	Current user’s connected node number
IP	Current user’s IP address
ST	Current user’s connected server name (e.g. “Telnet” or “SSH”)
FN	Current user’s active file base filter name
DN	Current user’s number of downloads
DK	Current user’s download amount (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)
UP	Current user’s number of uploads
UK	Current user’s upload amount (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)
NR	Current user’s upload/download ratio
KR	Current user’s upload/download bytes ratio
MS	Current user’s account creation date (using theme date format)
PS	Current user’s post count
PC	Current user’s post/call ratio
MD	Current user’s status/viewing menu/activity
MA	Current user’s active message area name
MC	Current user’s active message conference name
ML	Current user’s active message area description
CM	Current user’s active message conference description
SH	Current user’s term height
SW	Current user’s term width
AC	Current user’s total achievements
AP	Current user’s total achievement points
DR	Current user’s number of door runs
DM	Current user’s total amount of time spent in doors
DT	Current date (using theme date format)
CT	Current time (using theme time format)
OS	System OS (Linux, Windows, etc.)
OA	System architecture (x86, x86_64, arm, etc.)
SC	System CPU model
NV	System underlying Node.js version
AN	Current active node count
TC	Total login/calls to the system ever
TT	Total login/calls to the system today
RR	Displays a random rumor
SD	Total downloads, system wide
SO	Total downloaded amount, system wide (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)
SU	Total uploads, system wide
SP	Total uploaded amount, system wide (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc.)
TF	Total number of files on the system
TB	Total file base size (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/gigs/etc.)
TP	Total messages posted/imported to the system currently
PT	Total messages posted/imported to the system today
FT	Total number of uploads to the system today
FB	Total upload amount today (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc. )
DD	Total number of downloads from the system today
DB	Total download amount today (formatted to appropriate bytes/megs/etc. )
MB	System memory
MF	System free memory
LA	System load average (e.g. 0.25) (May not be available on some platforms)
CL	System current load percentage (May not be available on some platforms)
UU	System uptime in friendly format
LC	Last caller to the system (username)
LT	Time of last caller
LD	Date of last caller
TU	Total number of users on the system
NT	Total new users today
NM	Count of new messages address to the current user across all message areas in which they have access
NP	Count of new private mail to the current user
IA	Indicator as to whether the current user is available or not. See also getStatusAvailIndicators() in Themes
IV	Indicator as to whether the current user is visible or not. See also getStatusVisibleIndicators() in Themes
PI	Ingress bytes for the current process (since ENiGMA started up)
PE	Egress bytes for the current process (since ENiGMA started up)

Some additional special case codes also exist:

Code	Description
CF##	Moves the cursor position forward ## characters
CB##	Moves the cursor position back ## characters
CU##	Moves the cursor position up ## characters
CD##	Moves the cursor position down ## characters
XY	A special code that may be utilized for placement identification when creating menus or to extend an otherwise empty space in an art file down the screen.

Note

More are added all the time so also check out core/predefined_mci.js for a full listing.

Note

Many codes attempt to pay homage to Oblivion/2, iNiQUiTY, etc.

Views

A View is a control placed on a form that can display variable data or collect input. One example of a View is a Vertical Menu (%VM): Old-school BBSers may recognize this as a lightbar menu.

Code	Name	Description	Notes
TL	Text Label	Displays text	Static content. See Text View
ET	Edit Text	Collect user input	Single line entry. See Edit Text
ME	Masked Edit Text	Collect user input using a mask	See Masked Edit and Mask Edits below.
MT	Multi Line Text Edit	Multi line edit control	Used for FSE, display of FILE_ID.DIZ, etc. See Multiline Text Edit
BT	Button	A button	…it’s a button. See Button
VM	Vertical Menu	A vertical menu	AKA a vertical lightbar; Useful for lists. See Vertical Menu
HM	Horizontal Menu	A horizontal menu	AKA a horizontal lightbar. See Horizontal Menu
FM	Full Menu	A menu that can go both vertical and horizontal.	See Full Menu
SM	Spinner Menu	A spinner input control	Select one from multiple options. See Spinner Menu
TM	Toggle Menu	A toggle menu	Commonly used for Yes/No style input. See Toggle Menu
KE	Key Entry	A single key input control	Think hotkeys
TK	Ticker	A continuously scrolling marquee	Scrolls text left or right in a fixed-width window. See Ticker View
SB	Status Bar	An auto-refreshing text label	Re-renders MCI format codes on a timer. See Status Bar View

Note

Peek at /core/mci_view_factory.js to see additional information.

Mask Edits

Mask Edits (%ME) use the special maskPattern property to control a mask. This can be useful for gathering dates, phone numbers, so on.

maskPattern’s can be composed of the following characters:

• #: Numeric 0-9
• A: Alpha a-z, A-Z
• @: Alphanumeric (combination of the previous patterns)
• &: Any “printable” character

Any other characters are literals.

An example of a mask for a date may look like this: ##/##/####.

Additionally, the following theme stylers can be applied:

• styleSGR1: Controls literal character colors for non-focused controls
• styleSGR2: Controls literal character colors for focused controls
• styleSGR3: Controls fill colors (characters that have not yet received input).

All of the style properties can take pipe codes such as |00|08.

View Identifiers

As mentioned above, MCI codes can (and often should) be explicitly tied to a View Identifier. Simply speaking this is a number representing the particular view. These can be useful to reference in code, apply themes, etc.

A view ID is tied to a MCI code by specifying it after the code. For example: %VM1 or %SM10.

Properties & Theming

Predefined MCI codes and other Views can have properties set via menu.hjson and further themed via theme.hjson. See Themes for more information on this subject.

Common Properties

Property	Description
textStyle	Sets the standard (non-focus) text style. See Text Styles below
focusTextStyle	Sets focus text style. See Text Styles below
itemSpacing	Used to separate items in menus such as Vertical Menu and Horizontal Menu Views.
height	Sets the height of views such as menus that may be > 1 character in height
width	Sets the width of a view
focus	If set to true, establishes initial focus
text	Set’s the view’s text if applicable, such as a TextView or EditTextView amongst others. See MCI Formatting below for advanced formatting options using the
submit	If set to true any accept action upon this view will submit the encompassing form
itemFormat	Sets the format for a list entry. See Entry Formatting below
focusItemFormat	Sets the format for a focused list entry. See Entry Formatting below

These are just a few of the properties set on various views. Use the source Luke, as well as taking a look at the default menu.hjson and theme.hjson files!

Custom Properties

Often a module will provide custom properties that receive format objects (See Entry Formatting below). Custom property formatting can be declared in the config block. For example, browseInfoFormat10…N (where N is up to 99) in the file_area_list module received a fairly extensive format object that contains {fileName}, {estReleaseYear}, etc.

Text Styles

Standard style types available for textStyle and focusTextStyle:

Style	Description
normal	Leaves text as-is. This is the default.
upper	ENIGMA BULLETIN BOARD SOFTWARE
lower	enigma bulletin board software
title	Enigma Bulletin Board Software
first lower	eNIGMA bULLETIN bOARD sOFTWARE
small vowels	eNiGMa BuLLeTiN BoaRD SoFTWaRe
big vowels	EniGMa bUllEtIn bOArd sOftwArE
small i	ENiGMA BULLETiN BOARD SOFTWARE
mixed	EnIGma BUlLEtIn BoaRd SOfTWarE (randomly assigned)
l33t	3n1gm4 bull371n b04rd 50f7w4r3

Entry Formatting

Various strings can be formatted using a syntax that allows width & precision specifiers, text styling, etc. Depending on the context, various elements can be referenced by {name}. Additional text styles can be supplied as well. The syntax is largely modeled after Python’s string format mini language.

MCI Formatting

For more advanced layouts, you may want to apply formatting to MCI codes. In this case, an alternative syntax is supported similar to standard Entry Formatting.

MCI codes can be surrounded by { and } in the text field in your theme.hjson for a Text Label (%TL aka Text View). Some examples:

text: "|00|07{BN!stylel33t}" // render board name in "l33t" text

// MCI codes that produce a number can use appropriate stylers as well
text: "|00|07{SD:,}"
// ...or perhaps
text: "|00:07{SD!countWithAbbr}"

Tip

MCI formatting also applies when programmatically calling setText() of TextView’s and derived views.

Additional Text Styles

Some of the text styles mentioned above are also available in the mini format language:

Style	Description
normal	Leaves text as-is. This is the default.
toUpperCase or styleUpper	ENIGMA BULLETIN BOARD SOFTWARE
toLowerCase or styleLower	enigma bulletin board software
styleTitle	Enigma Bulletin Board Software
styleFirstLower	eNIGMA bULLETIN bOARD sOFTWARE
styleSmallVowels	eNiGMa BuLLeTiN BoaRD SoFTWaRe
styleBigVowels	EniGMa bUllEtIn bOArd sOftwArE
styleSmallI	ENiGMA BULLETiN BOARD SOFTWARE
styleMixed	EnIGma BUlLEtIn BoaRd SOfTWarE (randomly assigned)
styleL33t	3n1gm4 bull371n b04rd 50f7w4r3

Additional text styles are available for numbers:

Style	Description
sizeWithAbbr	File size (converted from bytes) with abbreviation such as 1 MB, 2.2 GB, 34 KB, etc.
sizeWithoutAbbr	Just the file size (converted from bytes) without the abbreviation. For example: 1024 becomes 1.
sizeAbbr	Just the abbreviation given a file size (converted from bytes) such as MB or GB.
countWithAbbr	Count with abbreviation such as 100 K, 4.3 B, etc.
countWithoutAbbr	Just the count
countAbbr	Just the abbreviation such as M for millions.
durationHours	Converts the provided hours value to something friendly such as 4 hours, or 4 days.
durationMinutes	Converts the provided minutes to something friendly such as 10 minutes or 2 hours
durationSeconds	Converts the provided seconds to something friendly such as 23 seconds or 2 minutes

Examples

Suppose a format object contains the following elements: userName and affils. We could create a itemFormat entry that builds a item to our specifications: |04{userName!styleFirstLower} |08- |13{affils}. This may produce a string such as this:

Tip

Remember that a Python string format mini language style syntax is available for widths, alignment, number prevision, etc. as well. A number can be made to be more human readable for example: {byteSize:,} may yield “1,123,456”.