Menu System

OxideBBS separates caller-facing screen art from safe menu actions.

Screen files draw what the caller sees. Menu config decides which single key invokes which internal action.

Terminal welcome art should stay informational: branding, system identity, and status only. Command lists belong on the active menu screen whose configured items are being routed at that prompt. Login menu screens should not clear the screen after terminal welcome art has been sent; otherwise the welcome art is loaded successfully and then immediately erased before the caller can see it.

Caller Flow

The configured starter flow is:

connect
  -> choose login screen asset for caller capabilities
  -> route login menu key
  -> after login, show optional post-login screens
  -> choose main menu screen asset
  -> route main menu key

Screen asset selection prefers the best available variant:

1. 40-column ANSI when the caller supports ANSI and width is 40 or less
2. regular ANSI when the caller supports ANSI
3. 40-column ASCII/text when the caller is plain or C64 width is 40 or less
4. ASCII
5. plain text

C64 and C64 Ultimate callers use the c64 terminal profile. They should be able to navigate without ANSI art or 80-column assumptions. Login, main menu, message list, message reader, file list, help text, and logoff paths should have a 40-column-safe rendering path or a plain fallback.

Display Codes

Caller display files and prompts may include OxideBBS display codes. These are expanded while the BBS streams the file to the caller, after the correct ANSI, ASCII, or text asset variant is selected.

Display-code expansion is byte-oriented. ANSI escape sequences and CP437 art are not decoded as Unicode before being sent to the caller.

Syntax:

@CODE@
@CODE:WIDTH@
@CODE:0WIDTH@
@CODE:-WIDTH@
@@

Formatting:

• @CODE@ renders the value as-is.
• @CODE:3@ left-pads the value with spaces to at least 3 bytes.
• @CODE:03@ left-pads the value with zeroes to at least 3 bytes.
• @CODE:-20@ right-pads the value with spaces to at least 20 bytes.
• Values longer than the requested width are truncated to fit fixed-width art.
• @@ renders a literal @.

Supported codes:

Code	Aliases	Value
@NODE@	@ND@	Current caller node number
@NODES@	@NT@	Configured node count
@BBS@	@BN@	Board name
@SYSOP@	@SN@	Sysop name
@USER@	@ALIAS@, @UH@	Caller alias, or Guest before login
@SECURITY@	@SEC@, @SL@	Caller security level, or 0 before login

Examples:

Node: @NODE:03@ / @NODES:03@
User: @USER:-20@  Sec: @SECURITY:03@
BBS : @BBS@

Unknown or malformed @...@ sequences are left unchanged. Existing bundled art that still contains legacy 001 / 004, NNN / TTT, or NODE 001 node markers is rewritten at runtime for compatibility, but new art should use display codes.

Config Shape

[flow]
login_screen = "login"
login_menu = "login"
post_login_screens = ["screen1", "screen2"]
main_menu = "main"

[screens.login]
ansi = "login/login.ans"
ansi_40 = "login/login-40.ans"
ascii_40 = "login/login.asc"
ascii = "login/login.asc"
text_40 = "login/login.asc"
text = "login/login.txt"

[menus.login]
screen = "login"
prompt = "Login? "

[[menus.login.items]]
key = "L"
label = "Logon"
action = "login"

Menu actions are safe internal actions, not shell commands. Supported starter actions include login, new_user, doors, messages, logoff, noop, show_screen, and submenu.

submenu actions are now runtime-capable: when selected, the caller moves into the referenced menu and continues from that menu context.

Menu items may set min_security_level. Runtime routing rejects inaccessible keys with an access-denied line before executing the action. The starter main menu uses this for the S Sysop submenu entry, which requires level 255.

See the Caller Command Reference for the current sysop-facing list of default caller keys, prompt commands, and future/reserved command notes.

Asset Layout

Starter caller screens live under assets/screens/:

assets/screens/
├── login/
├── info/
└── menus/
    ├── main/
    └── sysop/

This keeps login screens, post-login information screens, and menu graphics separate from legacy/general ANSI files in assets/ansi/.