In article <G%UAd.15464$jn.15167@lakeread06>,
"Ray Paseur" <ray@earplugsnon-aol.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> We broadcast email messages with PHP scripts, but sometimes email is not
> timely and we would like to send something that could get there faster.
>
> Can anyone tell me about how to send Instant Messages (Y, AOL, MSN,
> Trillian, etc.) or SMS from within a script?
>
> Please copy your reply off group to "access (a) NatPresCh .org" - hopefully
> I will see your message there sooner. And thanks for any ideas.
>
> ~Ray[/color]
Since the IM interfaces aren't standard and they keep changing because
the vendor wants to control the client that can send/receive messages
from them, you're probably limited on what you can do from a php script.
Many cell phone vendors allow sending email messages through their
gateway to cell phones. All I had to do with eBay was give them the
email address for my cell to get SMS notification.
Even if you manage to get the IM network protocol figured out, it could
change at any time and stop working. With multiple vendors doing that
to you, I ask you "do you really want to go there?" Is the PHB that's
asking for this aware of the volatility of these applications? How much
time and money are they willing to spend to implement and maintain this
feature?
I think you can do SMS using the mail() function without a problem.
There's already stuff in CPAN on AIM:
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=...ssage&mode=all
Unless you've built php as a CLI, php applications are tied to a web
page through mod_php. If you write it in perl, it can be run as as CLI
script via cron. If this paragraph doesn't mean anything to you, hire a
consultant.
--
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