Comments on: How to Schedule Weekly Email Reports to Staff? http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2008/01/02/how-to-schedule-weekly-email-reports-to-staff/ David Szpunar: Network & Systems Manager, Lakeview Church Tue, 6 Jan 2009 06:42:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: David Szpunar http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2008/01/02/how-to-schedule-weekly-email-reports-to-staff/comment-page-1/#comment-2092 David Szpunar Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:29:53 +0000 http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2008/01/02/how-to-schedule-weekly-email-reports-to-staff/#comment-2092 Thanks for all your comments and links, Pete! And Matthew, that's my first instinct as well...just throw up some Perl in a cron job and call it done. But that creates more work for someone...namely me! I don't mind a bit more work up front to get the functionality without me being involved any more. However, I also don't want to get too complex and implement a full-blown...anything...just to send emails! Unless it's a part of something bigger (like an intranet). So...a bit more thinking to do I think. Thanks again to both of you. Thanks for all your comments and links, Pete! And Matthew, that’s my first instinct as well…just throw up some Perl in a cron job and call it done. But that creates more work for someone…namely me! I don’t mind a bit more work up front to get the functionality without me being involved any more. However, I also don’t want to get too complex and implement a full-blown…anything…just to send emails! Unless it’s a part of something bigger (like an intranet). So…a bit more thinking to do I think. Thanks again to both of you.

]]> By: Matthew Irvine http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2008/01/02/how-to-schedule-weekly-email-reports-to-staff/comment-page-1/#comment-2090 Matthew Irvine Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:01:14 +0000 http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2008/01/02/how-to-schedule-weekly-email-reports-to-staff/#comment-2090 Not that I'm much help here, but everytime I've needed to do something like this, I would just hardcode a Perl script to do it. Not so glamorous, and you have to change it everytime positions change, but it worked for me. Good luck in your search. Not that I’m much help here, but everytime I’ve needed to do something like this, I would just hardcode a Perl script to do it. Not so glamorous, and you have to change it everytime positions change, but it worked for me. Good luck in your search.

]]> By: Peter http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2008/01/02/how-to-schedule-weekly-email-reports-to-staff/comment-page-1/#comment-2054 Peter Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:22:23 +0000 http://infotech.lakeviewchurch.org/2008/01/02/how-to-schedule-weekly-email-reports-to-staff/#comment-2054 Well, I'm partial to SQL Server Reporting Services myself, but this takes time to actually set up the reports and would cost money to purchase a copy of SQL Server 2005. You'd also need to write the reports. However, permissions and scheduling are relatively painless and web-based. Without knowing what sort of reports you're trying to send, it's hard to say what will work best for you. Are the reports simply files that need to be attached to an e-mail on some regular basis? Is it a form that someone will fill out and send to someone? Ultimately, this sounds like a job for a CMS system - those meet your requirements of Web-Based, runs on Linux/Apache (and MySQL), and would allow you to have people submit their entries and summarize. I know that WebEmpoweredChurch.com has a compilation of TYPO3, but Drupal and Joomla also have a pretty big presence in the CMS world. The great thing is that you can either take an existing extension that will handle these sorts of forms or tack on your own using PHP for the most part. A Cron job on the server can check for your schedules periodically. (WEC uses a concept called Gabriel to handle all of its requests - Gabriel needs to be scheduled, but extensions using it do not.) Having investigated these to some extent, you may want to install/download one and give it a try. Most of these have some form of "sampler" package in a WAMP format that will let you install it in a sort of virtual environment that is only available while you run the app. So for what I'd suggest: Reminders set up on a schedule to all "front-end" users (aka Staff). Send this out with a link to your page to fill out the form. A Page on the CMS with a form. Set this up with the appropriate scripts and you can either have the "Reply-to" set automatically or have them set the reply-to. Perhaps using something like "DirectMail" in Typo3 - http://typo3.org/documentation/document-library/extension-manuals/direct_mail/2.5.2/view/toc/0/ could work for you as well. I'm sure that similar items exist in other CMS systems. -Pete Well, I’m partial to SQL Server Reporting Services myself, but this takes time to actually set up the reports and would cost money to purchase a copy of SQL Server 2005. You’d also need to write the reports. However, permissions and scheduling are relatively painless and web-based.

Without knowing what sort of reports you’re trying to send, it’s hard to say what will work best for you. Are the reports simply files that need to be attached to an e-mail on some regular basis? Is it a form that someone will fill out and send to someone?

Ultimately, this sounds like a job for a CMS system - those meet your requirements of Web-Based, runs on Linux/Apache (and MySQL), and would allow you to have people submit their entries and summarize. I know that WebEmpoweredChurch.com has a compilation of TYPO3, but Drupal and Joomla also have a pretty big presence in the CMS world.

The great thing is that you can either take an existing extension that will handle these sorts of forms or tack on your own using PHP for the most part. A Cron job on the server can check for your schedules periodically. (WEC uses a concept called Gabriel to handle all of its requests - Gabriel needs to be scheduled, but extensions using it do not.)

Having investigated these to some extent, you may want to install/download one and give it a try. Most of these have some form of “sampler” package in a WAMP format that will let you install it in a sort of virtual environment that is only available while you run the app.

So for what I’d suggest:
Reminders set up on a schedule to all “front-end” users (aka Staff). Send this out with a link to your page to fill out the form.

A Page on the CMS with a form. Set this up with the appropriate scripts and you can either have the “Reply-to” set automatically or have them set the reply-to.

Perhaps using something like “DirectMail” in Typo3 - http://typo3.org/documentation/document-library/extension-manuals/direct_mail/2.5.2/view/toc/0/
could work for you as well. I’m sure that similar items exist in other CMS systems.

-Pete

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