[ic] How to add a subscriber-based reminder service?

Gerry Kirk interchange-users@icdevgroup.org
Wed Jan 8 12:44:01 2003


I would like to add a piece of functionality that would invite users to
sign up for a service that would remind them when it is time to replace
worn-out parts on their vacuum. After signing up, they would receive a
message after a specified duration reminding them to replace
such-and-such, with a one-click link to buy the product on-line.

The subscription portion would record which vacuum they own, the last
time each particular part was replaced, possibly factors such as amount
of use, then calculate a replacement interval and date of first
replacement.

A cron job would run daily to check the date of the next replacement
against the current date, and send out reminders when the two are equal.
The next replacement date would then be updated.

Another idea would be to provide multiple links in the reminder email,
to assess the consumer's course of action, something like:

buy online
remind me in 7 days
no plans to buy anytime soon

which would update replacement date records. I have no idea how that
could be done yet, except that there would have to be a web page that
would process the last two options. For the first item, a purchase of a
replacement part should trigger when the next reminder should go out.

So, my questions are:
1. how to provide a means for users to sign up? this could be part of an
online account signup, but I'd also like to make it easy to sign up with
minimal info
2. how to process the sign-up?
3. how to access the db via a cron job to email out the reminders?
4. how to process the links in the reminder email?

Thanks,
Gerry

________________________________________________________________________
Gerry Kirk
IT consulting for positive change

ph 705.759.8026
fax 780.401.3517