pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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I want the above basically, but need some help with this.
I want a line or box or area on a active desktop background so that when a user logs in it uses their username and password for AD (which is the same as their email u/n and p/w) to check if they have any emails in their inbox. Then use that text as a link to open up in IE the email log on page (just a webmail page from out ISP).
Possible?
If so, how?
Thanks in advance peoplesssssssss 
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Whittie
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Registered: 11th Aug 06
Location: North Wales Drives: BMW, Corsa & Fiat
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I'm pretty sure there's a widget for it... i'll let you klnow
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Umm, the machines are running XPP. But i'll be interested to see 
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Would be reletively simple. Would need to use a bit of PHP or whatever you use to talk to the POP3 server to get the data you need along with a bit of Javascript and/or HTML to get it to display the way you want it to.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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It's not as simple as it looks, the POP3 side is fairly straight forward but it's getting the user details that's tricky. Client side script (javascript) to get the user details and then parse that to a PHP to do the pop3 processing. Problem is, you can only retrieve the logged in Username and NOT the password.
You could get them to log in once as you can authorise to AD using PHP (look up PHP LDAP_ etc) and then store a cookie with the details but security could be an issue here.
Personally, i wouldn't bother or if you have to, download pop3 checker software that sits in the sysbar and checks a pop3 account.
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Think you could do it using ASP? Not too clued up on that, but I thought you could get an ASP page to log in using your Windows username and password with the built in authentication you get on an MS server.
[Edited on 21-07-2008 by ed]
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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PHP and ASP will both authenticate with an AD server, but the user would have to enter in logon details - it isn't possible (not to my knowledge) of getting the logged on users password (like i say you can get the logged on username using javascript, well using activeX) to make the process of logging on to the pop3 (pow said the mail accounts use the same usr/pwd's as the AD) server and retrieving the number of new emails automated.
like i say, the only way of it doing it is to get the user to enter the details and then store these details in a cookie so it can be automated there after.
But it's a lot of work just to get the number of new emails on the desktop.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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OK this is a touch OTT for me, an easy way of doing it?
Could get the users to log on, then get a promt to check their emails? But I would prefer the seemless way of doing it?
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Dan Lewis
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Registered: 31st Jan 05
Location: Leicestershire
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what pop3 server is it?
cant you use outlook?
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Nope, not going to use/cant use Outlook.
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pow
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Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Nope, not going to use/cant use Outlook.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Like i say you can get widgets that sit in your sys-status bar that check a pop3 server for new mail etc - but it means setting it up manually for every machine/user.
Just tell them to check it more often or use an email client - apart that everything else is a ballache 
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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ed
Member
Registered: 10th Sep 03
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Do your users use different computers all the time? If you really wanted it, you could have them log in to the notification script, store the credentials in some cookies (so long as you can store the password in an encrypted format) so that whenever they log into that computer the notification script will always be logged in.
Though that wouldn't work if you have it setup to delete all cookies on logout, and it would be a bit inconvenient if your users logged into different computers all the time......
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Yeah, its a school so they use different ones all of the time
Sounds like this is going to be a no go
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Hang on, how does that above email notification system work?
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Dan Lewis
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Registered: 31st Jan 05
Location: Leicestershire
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what email system is it?
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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The CS one.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by pow
Hang on, how does that above email notification system work?
authenticates with the POP3 server using your login details - but in your situation that isn't the problem (that's the piece easy bit).
Problem you have is that you can't get the logged on users password (so you could automate the process of logging into the pop3 server and retrieving the email count), unless you had them log into the computer system and the display a login box on the desktop to log into the "email checker".
Like said you could store this in a cookie, but you probably delete those when a user logs out, plus security could be an issue etc.
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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I could store their username and password in their "home areas", its' not sensitive email, just notices etc. In a textfile?
[Edited on 25-07-2008 by pow]
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ed
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Registered: 10th Sep 03
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You could indeed do that, possibly with a bit of basic encryption too. As thier home folder is password protected anyway it ought to be safe.
But it still is a bit of a security risk...
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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yeah you could do that, but you would need to use Javascript to read the local file (look at fopen) and then parse that to a php to deal with the pop3 stuff. Could also authenticate the stored details against the AD as a security measure and encrypt the local file (using blowfish, or similar, and use a key thats built around the logged on username - ie: if someone managed to copy the secret file they would have to physically log in as that user to for it to work).
Again, security issues may be a problem but aslong as things are encryted then it should be ok.
Oh, for the php Pop3 side of things, look into Sessions for storing the username and password and Sockets for communicating with the pop3 server. Javascript wise, fopen for reading the local file and google 'Javascript logged on username' or something. You use the WScript activeX component.
Any problems then give us a shout
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