I haven't been following the DBMan discussions of late, but I didn't find anything related to this by searching, so here goes.
Has anyone modified DBMan to be used for something like prediction contests? I'm pretty sure what I have in mind could be done without extensive modification, but there are a few aspects I'd rather not recreate the wheel if possible.
I currently run a free monthly contest where people fill out a form, along with their name and email address, and mail it. I then enter the predictions into an excel spreadsheet, check if they want to be added to the contest mailing list, and if they are not already listed on it, add them in. I set up the spreadsheet before hand to score the predictions (i.e. yes/no, time differences, winner's name, etc.) Pretty straight forward, but occasionally time consuming.
I would like to automate this process, and DBMan seems like a good candidate. Requiring a log in would offer the advantage of them being able to update their predictions throughout the month, avoiding the late-month rush of entries (when it's more clear who will compete in the events). Also, many people participate month-to-month, so they would already have an account set up.
I don't forsee any problems modifying DBMan's input form for each month, and I would be wiping out the database with each new contest, so the default.cfg setup would be modified to fit the questions for that month.
So far so good. Where I'm not quite sure how to approach is the issue of emails. I would like to keep it optional whether or not they are added to the list. What would be the easiest way to set it up to check, for example:
if $add_to_list = yes
then if $email_address not in list already
add $email_address to list
I'm sure this is pretty simple Perl... I imagine the list would have to be an addition to the current DBMan structure, as I would want to keep it separate from the user database.
Also, I'm somewhat competent in tinkering with Perl, but nowhere near where I would like to be in actually programming it.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dan
Has anyone modified DBMan to be used for something like prediction contests? I'm pretty sure what I have in mind could be done without extensive modification, but there are a few aspects I'd rather not recreate the wheel if possible.
I currently run a free monthly contest where people fill out a form, along with their name and email address, and mail it. I then enter the predictions into an excel spreadsheet, check if they want to be added to the contest mailing list, and if they are not already listed on it, add them in. I set up the spreadsheet before hand to score the predictions (i.e. yes/no, time differences, winner's name, etc.) Pretty straight forward, but occasionally time consuming.
I would like to automate this process, and DBMan seems like a good candidate. Requiring a log in would offer the advantage of them being able to update their predictions throughout the month, avoiding the late-month rush of entries (when it's more clear who will compete in the events). Also, many people participate month-to-month, so they would already have an account set up.
I don't forsee any problems modifying DBMan's input form for each month, and I would be wiping out the database with each new contest, so the default.cfg setup would be modified to fit the questions for that month.
So far so good. Where I'm not quite sure how to approach is the issue of emails. I would like to keep it optional whether or not they are added to the list. What would be the easiest way to set it up to check, for example:
if $add_to_list = yes
then if $email_address not in list already
add $email_address to list
I'm sure this is pretty simple Perl... I imagine the list would have to be an addition to the current DBMan structure, as I would want to keep it separate from the user database.
Also, I'm somewhat competent in tinkering with Perl, but nowhere near where I would like to be in actually programming it.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dan