Need a script for emergency closiings

eschamp

I'm a volunteer webmaster for a (non-profit) soup kitchen. We're looking for a way that volunteers (different each day) and staff can find out if the soup kitchen is closed.

I was thinking that the responsible person could sent an email to the owner of the website with a message such as "The soup kitchen is closed today Nov 25th".

A script could check the email directory for the presence of a file containing the string "soup kitchen is closed" and then create a pop-up message, triggered when a visitor reaches the home page, that says "The soup kitchen is closed today Nov 25th" (if today is Nov 25th.

Is that doable? I'm a PHP newbie although -- a long time ago -- I implemented something like this in perl. In that, the responsible person ftp'd a message to her home directory.

Thanks.

laserlight

It may be easier to provide a web based interface, then designated users can login and toggle a soup kitchen open/closed setting.

eschamp

laserlight wrote:
It may be easier to provide a web based interface, then designated users can login and toggle a soup kitchen open/closed setting.

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't think that toggling would work as they would like the date of the closing to be included in the pop-up.

How can I find out more about setting up a web-based interface? And what would it be an interface to?

laserlight

I don't think that toggling would work as they would like the date of the closing to be included in the pop-up.

That can be arranged as well.

How can I find out more about setting up a web-based interface? And what would it be an interface to?

Consider this message board system (vBulletin). It is basically a web based interface to a database. You create a thread, and stuff gets recorded in the database. I view this thread, stuff gets retrieved from the database.

In your case, this "stuff" is just the information on whether the soup kitchen is closed, and if so, when will it be open, or if it is open, when will it be closed.

eschamp

laserlight wrote:
That can be arranged as well.

Consider this message board system (vBulletin). It is basically a web based interface to a database. You create a thread, and stuff gets recorded in the database. I view this thread, stuff gets retrieved from the database.

In your case, this "stuff" is just the information on whether the soup kitchen is closed, and if so, when will it be open, or if it is open, when will it be closed.

OK, but surely I don't need anything as complex as a full BBS program, do I? And how would I get it to pop-up when a closing message has been posted?

Thanks.

laserlight

OK, but surely I don't need anything as complex as a full BBS program, do I?

Of course.

And how would I get it to pop-up when a closing message has been posted?

I would not advise that. Instead when visitors view your soup kitchen website, your PHP script will check the database, retrieve the details. If there is a recent closing message, it will then prominently show it to the user.

eschamp

laserlight wrote:
I would not advise that. Instead when visitors view your soup kitchen website, your PHP script will check the database, retrieve the details. If there is a recent closing message, it will then prominently show it to the user.

OK.

You've hinted at the solution. Do you know fo any scripts that will do what I want? Or that I can hack into doing what I want? (I think I know enough PHP to modify an existing script, as long as it's not too complex or if it's well-documented.)

Thanks.

laserlight

You've hinted at the solution. Do you know fo any scripts that will do what I want? Or that I can hack into doing what I want? (I think I know enough PHP to modify an existing script, as long as it's not too complex or if it's well-documented.)

I usually write my own scripts for relatively simple tasks such as this. Chances are, to modify an existing script with so specific a task in mind would be as much work as designing and implementing it yourself.