I have a sort of crazy idea for a desktop widget and was wondering if it would work, or is there already a way to do this that is a million times easier. Here's the idea. We have 50+ customers in 4 different regions. When they have a problem, they email one of 6 account managers. The problem is there's currently no way for all account managers to see across the board, in real time, what customers are sending a message. OK, here's where the idea gets a little goofy (but could it work?). What if I created 50+ free, Wordpress.com blogs and assigned one to each customer. They can post to Wordpress via an email address, so it's no more effort than sending a regular email. I create an RSS feed for each of the Wordpress blogs. I create a widget in Dashcode that pulls the RSS feed from each of the blogs. The account managers can have the widget and at anytime see what customers are posting a problem. Crazy? Do-able? Thanks for any advice.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
macOS Goofy dashcode widget idea, will it work?
- Thread starter SharY
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That's an idea. I liked the idea of a desktop widget, it seems like it'd be cooler than checking email and with dashcode it could pull in the message (or part of the message) the user could also click to the "about" tab in the blog. I could create it to include website link, account number, customer info, map, so employee wouldn't have to ask client for that info. Now I'm wondering if there's a way to create an rss feed from the customers emails coming into one email address and create a widget (I'm really stuck on this widget idea). Is what I'm imagining sort of a news reader made up of my customers emails? But I do want to have that instant access to customer background info too. Thanks for the suggestion.
Won't someone think of the poor account managers?
They might not be as enamored of widgets as you are. I know I wouldn't be. Anything that requires me to use a widget would fall under "Clueless Developer Decisions".
Besides, if you make a single email account, you could probably still do a widget. It's just implemented differently.
Forcing something to be more compex than necessary, especially if there's a simple and flexible approach instead, is almost always a recipe for failure.
They might not be as enamored of widgets as you are. I know I wouldn't be. Anything that requires me to use a widget would fall under "Clueless Developer Decisions".
Besides, if you make a single email account, you could probably still do a widget. It's just implemented differently.
Forcing something to be more compex than necessary, especially if there's a simple and flexible approach instead, is almost always a recipe for failure.
It really is to help out the employees. I just didn't do a very good job of describing it. Rather than having to check another email account and then open another file to find info about the customer, the widget would pull in the email/post and display it next to a button to click to find all the info about the company. I'm not a fan of gadgets for the sake of gadgets, but I think this one could really help. Thanks anyway.
Sharepoint
Get one of the cheap Sharepoint accounts, add all of the customers, and then you have a comprehensive, use-anywhere type of solution that's very inexpensive.
Get one of the cheap Sharepoint accounts, add all of the customers, and then you have a comprehensive, use-anywhere type of solution that's very inexpensive.
We use Sharepoint at work. It does a good job overall. We're actually using Sharepoint 2003 so if you have a small budget for this you might be able to find a discounted copy of an older version. Also there is Sharepoint Foundation edition which is free.
It seems like you're trying to use a hammer to paint a wall. You can use it to get the paint on there, but it's not going to be pretty. As others have suggested, focus on a tool that is designed for solving your particular problem instead of trying to get too creative with tools designed for other tasks.
LOL. We're about the retire out SharePoint server, and replace it with Liferay. This could also work for the OP.
