Sorry if I'm late on this thread. Shortly, here's what I'm presently doing with mc cgi.
There's a rally going on in the desert of south Marocco (for more detail : http://www.tropheeaichadesgazelles.com/) Each vehicle features a GPS system. GPS data are sent via satellite, then via email (as attached data files) to 1 of our servers. When an email is received, it triggers a mc cgi script. That script decodes the GPS data (longitude / latitude / time) into x/y values, and updates the content of one of the HTML files of the website. GPS data are updated every 30 minutes, and they accumulate in the file. in french : http://www.tropheeaichadesgazelles.com/LIVE/FR/index.htm in english : http://www.tropheeaichadesgazelles.com/LIVE/FR/index.htm best with IE5+ On the other hand, one of the crew members (in charge of security), is in the desert in a 4WD with a laptop and a satellite cellular phone. Since he needs to keep track of the position of each vehicule in real time, and since connecting to the web would be too slow & too expensive, we have set up the following system : his laptop HD features a duplicate of the website. The mc script on our server, when receiving GPS positions via email, also generates a small txt file (about 500 bytes) featuring the latest positions (X/Y pixels values). On the laptop HD I have also installed a small app (made with MC of course) that : - opens the connection through the cellular phone - downloads the small txt file (with a simple get URL) - updates the HTML file on the HD (just like the script does on the server) - launches the default browser - opens the updated file in the browser window, - converts the XY pixel values into longitude / latitude format and saves it on the HD as a separate HTML table file that can be openened in a pop-up window inside the page automatically opened in the browser. In other words, with nothing more than a double-click and a few seconds of waiting, the guy gets the latest positions of all vehicles on a graphic interface in the middle of the desert. of course, this small app uses a very similar script as the one on the server, and it didn't take more than a few hrs to make it. Needless to say that being able to use the same code for both purposes was really apreciated !!! Cheers JB _______________________________________________ metacard mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/metacard
