Mailing List Archive

Doug,

Why not create a mv script that runs periodically via cron(1) that
scans the "notify_me" table looking for outstanding notifications
then for each item they are interested in, check the products/
inventory tables to see if there's a quantity > zero? This would
eliminate the dependence on the admin ui upload function and
would work no matter how the quantity info was updated.

I have some sample code that does something similar, if you're
interested.

-Bill

On Jan 2, 2:49pm, Doug Alcorn wrote:
} Subject: Re: [ic] In Stock Notification
} "Thomas McAlees" <tmcalees@discgolfcentral.com> writes:
}
} > I've been working with the Construct demo and see that the In Stock
} > Notification successfully sends a confirmation email to someone
} > requesting the notification. Is there any code to actually do the
} > notification when the inventory is re-stocked?
} >
}
} No. In fact, there isn't even any code to store the user's
} information for future reference. All it does is send the email then
} forget about you. I have written one implementation of this. It
} relies on a new table called "notify_me". When you upload a new
} inventory table through the admin ui, it sends out any notifications
} as necessary. It's not a perfect solution because of the dependance
} on the upload function to trigger the notifications. However, the
} real question is "how do you plan to keep the inventory levels in IC
} accurate?"
}
} I'm not sure I actually have the code anymore. I need to take a look
} around and see if I can come up with a patch against a clean
} 'construct' demo.
} --
} (__) Doug Alcorn (mailto:doug@lathi.net http://www.lathi.net)
} oo / PGP 02B3 1E26 BCF2 9AAF 93F1 61D7 450C B264 3E63 D543
} |_/ If you're a capitalist and you have the best goods and they're
} free, you don't have to proselytize, you just have to wait.
}
}
} _______________________________________________
} Interchange-users mailing list
} Interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
} http://lists.akopia.com/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
}-- End of excerpt from Doug Alcorn

"Bill Randle" <billr@exgate.tek.com> writes:

> Why not create a mv script that runs periodically via cron(1)

Can you point me to the docs on how to run mv/ic stuff from cron? (Or
give me a quick example?).
--
(__) Doug Alcorn (mailto:doug@lathi.net http://www.lathi.net)
oo / PGP 02B3 1E26 BCF2 9AAF 93F1 61D7 450C B264 3E63 D543
|_/ If you're a capitalist and you have the best goods and they're
free, you don't have to proselytize, you just have to wait.

>Can you point me to the docs on how to run mv/ic stuff from cron? (Or
>give me a quick example?).

Maybe this creates too many dependencies, but you could use cron to hit a
page containing the desired functionality with Lynx (included with most
standard distros) or wget (more purposebuilt, but not included with most
distros.)

Steve Freitas

Doug, et. al.,

I finally got time to follow up on my previous cron suggestion with
some more details.

This method has three pieces, although the second and third could be
combined into a single page.

(1) a crontab entry for the 'interchange' user that runs periodically
(pick your time interval). For example, to run once a day at 4pm:
16 * * * * /usr/bin/GET \
http://mysite.com/cgi-bin/myshop/cron/pending >> \
/tmp/pending_log

(2) create a file "pending.html" and put in an accessable location
(in this case, a "cron" directory underneath the "pages" dir).
This file is just a wrapper for including the file that does the
"real" work. If you want multiple checks or updates to happen,
you can add additional [include] tags for them. For example:
>>>> pending.html <<<<
[include cron/check_pending]

(3) create the "check_pending" script, which lives in a different "cron"
directory, this one at the same level as the "pages" dir. I.e.:
interchange
|
-----|--------- ...
| |
cron pages
|
------------ ...
| |
cron special

You can use pretty much any directory structure you want - this just
happens to be what I have.

In "check_pending" you might have something like this:

[tag export inventory][/tag]
[tag export pending][/tag]
[mvasp tables="inventory pending"]
<%
no strict;
$Document->hot(1);
$CGI::cookie = 'CRON';
$Scratch->{mv_no_session_id} = $Scratch->{mv_no_count} = 1;
HTML("\nEntering pending/inventory update");
# open 'pending' db and grab entries for users that haven't been
# notified their requested item is now in stock
my $dbh = $Sql{pending};
my $sth = $dbh->prepare(q{ SELECT * FROM pending WHERE notified = '0'})
or return error_message("can't open pending database");
my $rc = $sth->execute()
or return HTML("\ncan't open pending database");
my $hash;
while($hash = $sth->fetchrow_hashref()) {
# $hash has all column values:
# code username email initial_date notify_date skus
notified
# "skus" is an array of out of stock items

# foreach sku, check the current inventory quantity and if > 0,
# send the user email (email address could from the 'pending'
db,
# or be looked up in the 'userdb', given the username).

# if any notification emails were sent for this user then:
# (1) update the "notified" and "notify_date" fields of
# the 'pending' db.
# (2) if this user still has outstanding requests, then
# (a) either update the "skus" field of the existing
# record, deleting the items that are now in stock, or
# (b) close the existing record and create a new record
# with those item numbers still out of stock
}
%>
[/mvasp]

Flushing out the "check_pending" script is left as an exercise to the
implementor. :-)

Finally, get and install 'GET', if you don't already have it. 'GET' is part
of the Perl LWP library.

As a final note, I'm sure there are other variations or implementations
possible. This is just an outline to get you going. Also note that this
is being used with minivend 4.04. It should be completely portable to
Interchange, but won't work with minivend 3.x without some changes.

-Bill