Need free, web based in out board

January 2, 2008 11:35 AM

Where can I find a simple, free web based in out board?

Yes, I searched and found two other questions, but they don't deal with free or web based. We are a small, less than 10 people, IT support team. We need a way to update a webpage quickly with our current status.

We use a wiki, so I thought adding a table to update if you are in, out, away from your desk, etc. Since you're still reading you know how long that took, which is way too hard for what it's worth.

I need a free solution of some sort. A way to send an email to a script that tosses the status into a webpage that is laid out? A simple program? Twitter for the intranet?

Any ideas would be great. A URL with a perfect solution would be awesome.

posted by zymurgy to computers & internet (8 comments total)

If you could drop the web-based requirement, just set everyone up with AIM or something and make a common buddy list.
posted by XMLicious at 11:45 AM on January 2

XML ... yep, I thought about that as setting yourself away in IM is one click, but I need it to be a website so our customers on the floor can scan the list quickly to see where we are.
posted by zymurgy at 11:52 AM on January 2

Why not just make a webpage which queries everyones aim status?

Here is how you do can do it in php

Here is a php class that does it

You can probably put some scripting logic in it to only display that they are away, not their message (unless you make sure everyone uses sfw messages), and to display their real name instead of their username.
posted by mrzarquon at 12:18 PM on January 2

Do you care about authentication? We have an outboard at work where you just put in your e-mail address and specify when you will be out and click "submit". If that's all you're interested in, such a site could be created very quickly with ruby on rails or similar.
posted by yellowbkpk at 12:19 PM on January 2

Why is the intranet part so important? Do you regularly lose your pipe to the rest of the world? If not, why not just use Twitter?
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:08 PM on January 2

MRZ ... do you know if there is a way to get their away message? If that is possible we could grab that and use it. They will be online, but away from their desks, so a simple online/offline check wouldn't worl.

yellow ... no rails experience, but no, authentication isn't necessary.

tomorrow ... Don't lose the pipe, but this is for a small group inside a large company. The security teams don't allow access to services such as twitter.

Thanks for the responses so far everyone.
posted by zymurgy at 1:22 PM on January 2

If you have access to a server you can put code on, and your security people will let outsiders see the site on same, you can try this project on Freshmeat. If you require people to be authenticated to change status however, this may not be for you. Maybe you could put an Apache auth and a set of username/password on the whole site, with a landing page first that shows the logged IP to dissuade random (authorized) people from jerking around with it if their login and IP is logged?

Disclaimer: I have no idea how well it works, I just did a search on FM and found it. My experience with FM stuff is that about 80% of it is junk or half finished, the other 20% works rather well. I do not know which category this one falls in.
posted by barc0001 at 1:58 PM on January 2

Second for ryansiob. I had it up in 30 minutes. Ultra simple, runs on a flat file.
posted by cmdnc0 at 2:29 PM on January 3