Hello,

I have a client that's got a restaurant. They would like a website created for it but they want to include an online ordering system but here is what they want.

Whenever someone creates a food order through the website that on the Restaurants PC some kind of pop up or alert shows up letting them done that an order just arrived.

How can this be done ?

Tx

You'd have to have the PC at the restaurant checking for new orders on a regular basis, say, every 30 seconds. JavaScript (which is what sends popups) can't be made to respond to external messages, it can only check data, then respond. You would need to make a database entry, then program the script to query it. Once something new is found, it gets marked old.

Obviously this will take some programming, though it's pretty simple if you know how.

any ideas how can I start?

It depends on what technology you are familiar with, have available on the host, etc.

You are going to need:
1. a database.
2. a server side language (PHP, ASP, Ruby?)
3. some understanding of JavaScript and AJAX (maybe a JS framework if you like).

Although it is a relatively straightforward task, it does require a skillset.

It can be done, and the way I would do it would be without a database.

You are going to need a server side language (I'd use PHP), and you will probably need some JavaScript to check for new orders. If I have some extra time on my hands, and you give me some more info, I could real quickly code you an idea.

- Steve

Of course it could be done without a database, by writing to a flat file, but I think that would be a bad idea. What if multiple orders come in at once, and you don't have time to respond to them all? A database is going to be able to organize them in a much more efficient way. With a file system, it won't react dynamically like a database query will. Besides, a database is a lot more secure than the file system.

EDIT: Never mind what I said about databases. After I started working on a little thing for this, I realized that databases were the only way to go. It just happens that I really don't like databases. :P

- Steve

Hi, If I was you, I would just ask them to refresh the screen let's say every 5 or ten minutes to check the inbox of their e-mail that should be the way to take orders online. Just a simple idea in case it can work easily!

You could try using an email form and using a push email service to make sure you get new messages. This would be a very bootlegged way of doing it if you don't know any server side programming. If you do know some server-side the other guys ideas are much better.

Originally Posted by wayfarer07

It depends on what technology you are familiar with, have available on the host, etc.

You are going to need:
1. a database.
2. a server side language (PHP, ASP, Ruby?)
3. some understanding of JavaScript and AJAX (maybe a JS framework if you like).

Although it is a relatively straightforward task, it does require a skillset.

I think having a data base is the most important for you, specially at the beginning. Then you can also use the other options. But having a data base is always useful.