Morning childs!

I've got an upcoming project, and one of the things I'm wanting to do is to input data into a database via email.

i.e.: Send an email to some address, somehow parse the email for certain commands and such, and input certain data into a database.

I've no idea how to do this at all, any pointers anyone?

Many shoes,

Jamez/SiliconFuRy

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Many shoes,

Jamez/SiliconFuRy

I suppose the biggest question would be What was the mail server?

Much of what you are suggesting would be very dependant on HOW you are getting this mail. If you do not have access to the Mail Server directly and would be using a program such as Outlook to retrieve and then some other script to further process it... then you could have some issues.

If, on the other hand, you are using something like qmail or sendmail or something using the maildir or mbox format, the data is typically stored in a plain text file on the server (until retrieved that is) and from there you could create a scheduled task to check for what you are looking for (in the specific account), and then procees what it finds appropriately.



Paul Gardner
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Well, the problem is the mail server is an exchange server (I'm in a corporate environment, I've gotta just deal with it :/).

I've had a couple of ideas, like having a script just look at the mailbox every x seconds, using an infinite loop and the sleep (or similiar) command.

Many shoes,

Jamez/SiliconFuRy

Question is, is it mathematically :D possible to access an exchange server mailbox through PHP?

Also thinking about just using a thirdparty cheap POP providor, and have exchange forward emails to that mailbox. Would simplify things somewhat.

Many shoes,

Jamez/SiliconFuRy

Well I am not 100% sure, but I don't think Exchange stores email in a plain text fromat which would mean you would likely have to do some other (possibly intense) coding to gain access to the mail box. I wanted to do something similar using the Outlook Client (even though it was also a POP account) and I would have needed to download (and pay for) all these other utilities.

Also tried to use the Rules Wizard in Outlook to achieve the same type of thing..... Again, I needed another utility to launch an external script.

Finally, I would be very weary of using an Infinite loop. I have done this in the past for other projects..... Even in the SLEEP mode, you still use up CPU Cycles and you may potentially take a huge performance hit. If anything, you would be better to use the scheduler (in windows) or a Cron Job (in nix).

Good luck

Paul Gardner
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