DB updated via email

[mikolaj]

Is it possible? I know in some sites you can post photos to your account via an attachment in a regular email (Flickr).

We have a community site where users can log in-- but we would like to have a feature where they can send a simple email to update an event, or add a new one.

We use MySQL: is there a PHP script that can do this, or is it even possible?
(We also have to consider great security since someone can hijack the email and post/delete events. possibly the solution is a very specialised [e-mail] address)

[Ravenous]

You need something to check the email and do work based when emails arrive. The database work can be accomplished with PHP, but you'll need something else in addition to PHP to be triggered when an email arrives.

[liquorvicar]

you could write a PHP script to check a mailbox every so often and action the results using PHP's IMAP functions.

as for security, you could implement a token system whereby they get 5 tokens when they sign up, each change to the DB requires one token. after each successful change they get a new token emailed to them. something along those lines would work.

[mikolaj]

Excellent, thanks for the insights.
Very interesting.