writing a DB checker / Notification application

[Mort]

Sorry this is a bit vague, just asking for a rough idea of how to achieve my goal so I can research into it.

Basically want to make a message board type system, but have a desktop application that when running will check the db every minute or whatever, and if there are any new messages to sprout a popup.

Would this be easiest in java or any other ideas? I am a PHP / mySQL dev, with some C and Java experience from uni days so I know my way about + google for the win

Any tips would be great

 

[Visage]

Sorry this is a bit vague, just asking for a rough idea of how to achieve my goal so I can research into it.

Basically want to make a message board type system, but have a desktop application that when running will check the db every minute or whatever, and if there are any new messages to sprout a popup.

Would this be easiest in java or any other ideas? I am a PHP / mySQL dev, with some C and Java experience from uni days so I know my way about + google for the win

Any tips would be great

You could probably throw together a simple java client app using SOAP without too much bother. Simply send a request saying 'how many messages have there been since (time of last request) and a simple server app responds with a number.

 

[psyr33n]

Creating an XML file on the server containing changes and reading that could save some overhead rather than if you were to connect and check the db externally. That's probably how I'd do it, seeing as XML is so easily interpreted by most languages out there - it would be a snap.