by Roger Seiler » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:36 pm
Here is how I do it.
1. I have a password security sign-on for my app that identifies the user, and refers to a members.dbf that contains the ID number assigned to each allowed user. Upon sign-on, that user ID # is copied into a file-wide static memvar.
2. Upon completion of launching the main app, the program accesses a USERS.DBF containing two fields and creates a temporary record there with the user's ID# and name. This file has only three fields, one for the ID, one for the user's name, and another for a memo field used to store any message to be sent to the user.
3. Each time the user activates a program module within the app, the program checks his/her temporary USERS.DBF record to see if there is a message waiting there.
4. The system administrator has access to a function with a dialog box that displays a list of all users currently online (by listing the people signed on from USERS.DBF). A button on this dialog box enables recording a message in the memo field of the USER.DBF record of the person selected from the list. Another button enables sending one message to all users currently on line (like "please sign-off ASAP"). Any user activity, as mentioned in #3 above, causes the user to see the message sent.
5. When a user signs off of the app, his/her temp record is blanked so it can be reused by the next person who signs on.
I hope this concept helps.
- Roger