In my limited experience with programming languages, and some information
regarding similar projects, I think this might be best done with PHP and
MySQL - but please use whatever method will ensure optimum performance and
will handle a large load of information.
*What we are trying to do:
We operate an emergency information dispatching service. Some of the
subscribers to our service are chosen as "information dispatchers" that
would have access to a form to send a message to all subscribers to our
service. Most subscribers will be receiving these messages on their
alpha-numeric pagers that have email addresses. So the content of the
messages have to be sent as ASCII text, with no more than 250 characters.
To ensure that the message consists of all the necessary information, the
sending (dispatcher) form has individual fields for each required piece of
information to be sent. Here is an explanation of the fields on the
Dispatcher Form:
State (required, drop-down select menu of options)
County (required, drop-down select menu of options)
City (optional, text input)
Frequency (required, text input) this is for inputting a radio frequency
Incident Type: (required, drop-down select menu of options)
Details: (required, text input)
Mutual Aid: (optional, drop-down menu of options) this is for inputting the
County that emergency assistance is coming from
Dispatcher ID: (required, text input validated against a list of authorized
user IDs)
The subscriber can choose which incidents they want to receive alerts about.
They can choose what States, Counties and Incidents they want. This could
be accessed through a protected "subscriber control panel". When the form
(above) is sent, then it would have to be sent to only the applicable
subscribers. If the MUTUAL AID field is utilized by the user choosing the
applicable County, then any subscribers that are subscribed to the County
chosen would receive that message as well. At this point the States would
only consist of 3 States, with their Counties. We plan on expanding this
coverage in the future, so it is important that be easy to add/edit States
and Counties when necessary. This would be necessary for the Incidents
field as well, we would need to be able to add/edit the Incident Types as
necessary.
We would need the subscriber to be able to login and access their own
control panel to change their settings. The Dispatcher form would need to
be password protected. Access would only be granted to subscribers that
have authorization from the administrators - administrators would be able to
turn subscriber's dispatch access on and off through a Administration
Control Panel or through another way that serves the same purpose. I am
thinking this could be achieved with an htaccess file some how.
We would like to see this done as soon as feasibly possible. But it is not
urgent, no concrete deadlines. Please let me know what the approximate time
would be for completion.
I hope I have made this clear enough for you. I know this is very complex.
You can visit the following website to get an idea of what type of service
this is www.incidentpage.net I can send you copies of the pages that are
used in the password protected subscriber and dispatcher areas to see how
they built their forms and pages, maybe it will help.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this.
