Richard Lynch wrote:
Yep - but with so many different ways of doing it, which client method would be best ;)Lester Caine wrote:
At the risk of being shouted at because *I* know it's not a PHP problem!Actually, it's a client problem :-)
Actually it's not - which is part of the problem - these are all private networks and this is to replace 'reception' trying to phone the member of staff - who may already be on the phone - to tell them an appointment has arrived. So I just ant to 'queue' something on the their machine.I have a page that is being refreshed every 30 seconds or so, and displays a list of 'tickets' waiting to be dealt with on a list from a database query. No problems there, but a couple of sites now want me to add a pop-up warning when a ticket is added that has a staff ID matching the logged in user.
Your first task is to convince the client what an incredibly stupid idea this is.
And that it won't work with all the popup blockers.Have a handle on that, and the customer knows the problem, they are even willing to consider a switch to Firefox if that will help. Tabbed browsing with queue's on different tabs makes a lot of sense :)
I know all the arguments, but hopefully you can see the problem - how do we tell the 'target' that there is someone waiting - and the clock is running on performance figures :(And if it did work, it would just annoy the [bleep] out of their users.
I know I'm preaching to the choir, here, but I have to go on record with this statement.
I can drive a sounder in the target browser, but need kicking in the
A sounder? You mean like make my browser make noise? ICK!!!
Yep - and if they are on the phone they may not here it either.
As I said - we have control over machine configurations - to a certain extent, and if a user decides they want to be clever it's their performance figures that will be affected ;)right direction for a method of adding a pop-up window. Ideally it needs to be browser agnostic, which is where the problem comes given the pop-up blockers and other 'toys' that are being added to the browser end of things.
You're not going to defeat the popup blockers in the long run.
That is probably where I am at, but I was looking to see if anybody had any other ideas for passing messages. Probably should have explained better what I was trying to do, but I often see 'Did you try so and so' which provides another avenue to look at.You are better off using clean simple code in an onLoad in your body tag to open the new window. Something like: <body onLoad="window.open(URL);"> where the URL loads in that user's recently added items.
Either the users will accept the popup and whitelist it in their popup blocker, or they won't.
Already covered that, but there *IS* a need for a controlled way of passing messages from the server to the client ...And if a lot of them don't accept it, as they shouldn't, that tells you right there what a dumb idea this was. :-)
But running around to find code to "defeat" the popup blockers will be a total waste of time -- and you'll end up with something so hacked and so un-maintainable that you'll have to fix it every six months, even if the popup blockers don't find workarounds to block your workarounds that popup the windows that they don't want popped up.
Other people in a department need to be able to see who is waiting on a queue, only some callers are appointments, so a browser is left logged in with that queue selected so people can monitor things. As soon as an appointment is logged, the page changes to a staff ID specific page, and as long as it is visible in the background, it can be seen, but 'other systems' insist on being displayed full screen, which is what is being the pain. If (actually probably WHEN) we can get the applications that don't want to share to play nicely ...So can anybody point me in the right direction for a CURRENT method of achieving this, many of the bits I've found so far are somewhat antiquated, and fail in one way or another :(
Perhaps it would be better to segregate the tickets into those associated with the User logged in, and those that are not.
Or to at least sort them that way, regardless of their other sorting options.
For that matter, don't even *BOTHER* to show me items that aren't mine, unless I specifically ask for them.
Already covered - we know the person is in the office - and that they are waiting for a caller - They COULD be advised by a telephone call (and in some offices I can actually dial the number via PHP), and in some offices the telephone system has a voice mail, but the 30-60 seconds to navigate that when you have 5 - 10:30 appointments all arriving at once is what we are trying to bypass. The receptionist has the details on their screen, and should just be able to say - take a seat and Mr X will see you shortly - and go on to the next caller.Build a system that detects tickets that sit un-assigned for too long, and randomly assigns them, or, better yet, assigns them based on factors such as: Ticket features (IE, interface tickets to interface team members) Productivity (IE, don't assign as many tickets to your slow team members as your fast ones) User Status (IE, if I'm on vacation, don't assign me anything)
Have you got one :(
That way, no tickets is left sitting there "too long" but nobody has to deal with tickets that aren't assigned to them.
Just an idea.
In general, though, I only mean:
Come back at the client with more than just "That's a dumb idea" (which it is)
Come back with a "Here's a MUCH better way to do this" proposal.
The problem is how to provide an indication they they need to check the queue page - what ever is on it !
Not necessarily pop-up, but something to flag the need to do something as soon as practical. Pop-up is not right, but can at least be controlled in the environment I am working in (government/LA private networks). I am looking for some pointers to the 'smart' idea though :)"That's a dumb idea" just gets you more headaches. A solution for a better solution makes you look real smart. :-) Yes, this may turn out to be a waste of your time, because the client is REALLY dead set on these popups, and you'll end up being miserable about them not taking your proposal as well... Time to start looking for a new client. :-v
-- Lester Caine ----------------------------- L.S.Caine Electronic Services
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