hi guys/gals

I want to be able to say update the status message on my site via email. i.e i send an email to status@mysite.com then that email is used as either a template for the new html page or as an iclude in a php or asp page ( the status page ) so i can update the status page via email, any ideas...even a program that runs on my local pc that can say collect my email, read it and insdert it into an html page and upload that page....


i know it sounds crazy, but any idea

Sounds like a great idea!
Then every spammer would send you email and update your web site automatically, so that you would type http://www.mydomain.com or whatever and be taken to the latest viagra HGH pill combo homepage :D

I doubt that you will find a pre-written script to do it, but it can be done. You want to be sure to have a well written script that will prevent most of the kiddies from updating your site for you though... :)
A good script will have some method of validating the sender, will sanitize the user input, and just in general have security in mind, but once you get past that, you can do whatever you want as far as incorporating the contents of email into a web page(s).


Originally posted by tuvok
hi guys/gals

I want to be able to say update the status message on my site via email. i.e i send an email to status@mysite.com then that email is used as either a template for the new html page or as an iclude in a php or asp page ( the status page ) so i can update the status page via email, any ideas...even a program that runs on my local pc that can say collect my email, read it and insdert it into an html page and upload that page....


i know it sounds crazy, but any idea

One of the tech that works for DTH did a software like that, I take some information from emails, grep it, and create a new page with the information taked in the email.
He did it in PHP, but I guess that can be done in another languages too.

Radio Userland, a personal blogging tool, has just that feature. You set up a POP email that you'll post stories to, make it hard to guess like my_foo.stories@mydomain.com if you like; the emails are only posted to the blog if the subject contains a password such as eels+pears

Making it secure isn't too difficult. Perhaps look into Radio http://userland.com/.

Or, write your own.

Yeah, a few years ago :o I wrote a simple php script that would even update the database via email ;)

If you can setup email filters, you can look into procmail or feeding that email directly into php.

It is really unneccessary to update site through email. It's a bad idea. What if the server is down? And the mail go nowhere.

Originally posted by MxHub
It is really unneccessary to update site through email. It's a bad idea. What if the server is down? And the mail go nowhere.

If the server is down, the sender's SMTP server will queue the email for a while. If it waited for too long it will bounce the message back to its sender, but when that happens you have much bigger problem.

For security, it is better to have some sort of encryption to protect the data. PGP/GPG is sufficient. Put the private key on the server, and the public key on the updater. The updater must encrypt the data using the pub key before sending it. Then have the server decrypt it.

Using secret email address or password is too risky in my opinion, especially in email communication. If the mail didn't reach its destination for a reason, then there is some chance the message get delivered to a mail server administrator.

Hi guys

Thanks for th efeed back, the reason why i want to be able to update the site is so that i can update the status section while i am on the move....say a server goes down, i have the guys at the NOC taking care of it, i can then sms my sms-email service from my cell phone " we are currently working on server xxx" this sms is forwarded to my email and then my status page can read this and update itself.......


So this explains why i would want to upadate a site via email