Quick memos

Although most of my job description involves managing our web site, I often have to write memos telling certain sections of the staff about updates on the site. While some of them are only sent out to 2-3 people, some have to be sent out to 70+. Changing a memo 70 times can be an excruciating task. So, to control my sanity, I wrote a combo javascript/perl script that generates memos. The admin page uses javascript to dynamically add recipients to a list, while the perl script retrieves the list of names from the mySQL database and generates the memos. I used a css property to force a page break after each memo after the document is printed. See it in action

The source code is easily modifyible; it could easily be changed to read from a text database, or be changed into a mass-emailer. Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, the source code:

memo.shtml The Admin Page

<html>
<head>
<title>Memo Maker</title>
</head>
<body>
<script>
var items = new Array(0);

function additem()
{
 var temp = document.combowithtext.addoption.options[document.combowit
+htext.addoption.selectedIndex].text;
 var temp1 = document.combowithtext.text.value;
 var breakcheck=1;
 for (i=0; i<items.length; i++)
 {
  if (items[i] == temp) breakcheck=0;
 }
 if (breakcheck) items[items.length] = temp;
 temp1=items[0];
 for (i=1; i<items.length; i++)
 {
  temp1=+","+items[i];
 }
 var y=0;
 for (i=0; i<document.combowithtext.remove.length+y; i++)
 {
  if (typeof items[i] != "undefined" && items[i] != "")
  {
   document.combowithtext.remove.options[i-y].text=items[i];
  }
  else if (items[i] == "")
  {
   y++;
  }
  else
  {
   document.combowithtext.remove.options[i-y].text="";
  }
  // else y++;
 }
 document.combowithtext.text.value=items;
}

function addall()
{
 removeall();
 for (i=0; i<document.combowithtext.addoption.length; i++)
 {
  items[i]=document.combowithtext.addoption.options[i].text;
  document.combowithtext.text.value+=","+items[i];
 }
 for (i=0; i<document.combowithtext.addoption.length; i++)
 {
  document.combowithtext.remove.options[i].text=document.combowithtext
+.addoption.options[i].text;
 }
 document.combowithtext.text.value=items;
}
  
function removeitem()
{
 var temp = document.combowithtext.remove.options[document.combowithte
+xt.remove.selectedIndex].text;
 for (i=0; i<items.length; i++)
 {
  if (items[i] == temp)
  {
   items[i] = "";
  }
 }
 var y=0;
 for (i=0; i<document.combowithtext.remove.length+y; i++)
 {
  if (typeof items[i] != "undefined" && items[i] != "")
  {
   document.combowithtext.remove.options[i-y].text=items[i];
  }
  else if (items[i] == "")
  {
   y++;
  }
  else
  {
   document.combowithtext.remove.options[i-y].text="";
  }
  // else y++;
 }
 document.combowithtext.text.value=items;
}

function removeall()
{
 items.length=0;
 document.combowithtext.text.value = "";
 for (i=0; i<document.combowithtext.addoption.length; i++)
 {
  document.combowithtext.remove.options[i].text="";
 }
}
</script>

<form name="combowithtext" action="/cgi-bin/memo/make.pl" method="post
+">
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
 <td>
  Subject:&nbsp;<input type="text" name="subject" size="30">
 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>
 <table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0">
 <tr>
 <td>
  To:<br>
  <select name="addoption" size="6">
   <!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/memo/fill.pl?blank=0"-->
  </select>
 </td>
 <td>
  <input type="button" value="ADD -->" onClick="additem()"><br>
  <input type="button" value="ADD ALL" onClick="addall()"><br>
  <input type="button" value="<-- REMOVE" onClick="removeitem()"><br>
  <input type="button" value="REMOVE ALL" onClick="removeall()">
 </td>
 <td>
   <input type="hidden" name="text">
  <select name="remove" size="6">
   <!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/memo/fill.pl?blank=1"-->
  </select>
 </td>
 </tr>
 </table>
 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>
  From:&nbsp;<input type="text" name="from" size="30">
 </td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>
  <textarea name="body" rows="8" cols="80">
The body of the message.
<!-- after you download, change thetextarea to textarea
this was necessary to get the perlmonks preview page to let me submit 
+this :) -->
  </thetextarea>
 </td>
</tr>
</table><br>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>
[download]

fill.pl Fills the drop down select boxes in memo.shtml

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use CGI;
use DBI;

my $query = CGI::new();
my $blank = $query->param("blank");
my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:news", "root", "");
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("select * from newspw");
$sth->execute();
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
# filled options
if (!$blank)
{
 
 while (my @data = $sth->fetchrow_array())
 {
  my $username=$data[1];
  # format name; optional, only here because I have usernames
  # stored as email addresses in the form: joe_ryan
  my ($username1)=$username; my ($username2)=$username;
  $username1 =~ s/([a-z])([a-z]+)_([a-z])([a-z]+)/$1/;
  $username2 =~ s/([a-z])([a-z]+)_([a-z])([a-z]+)/$3/;
  $username1 =~ tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/;
  $username2 =~ tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/;
  $username =~ s/([a-z])([a-z]+)_([a-z])([a-z]+)/$username1$2 $usernam
+e2$4/;
  print "<option>$username</option>\n";
 }
}
# for the blank options
else
{
 while (my @data = $sth->fetchrow_array())
 {
  print "<option></option>\n";
 }
}
$dbh = $dbh->disconnect();
[download]

make.pl Builds the memo

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use CGI;

my $query = CGI::new();

my $subject = $query->param("subject");
my $text = $query->param("text");
my $body = $query->param("body");
my $from = $query->param("from");

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "<html><head><title>Memo</title>\n";
print "<style>span { page-break-after: always; }</style>\n";
print "<body bgcolor=\"#FFFFFF\">";

my @splittext = split (/\,/, $text);
for (my $i=0; $i<@splittext; $i++)
{  
  my $username=$splittext[$i];
  # format name; optional, only here because I have usernames
  # stored as email addresses in the form: joe_ryan
  my ($username1)=$username; my ($username2)=$username;
  $username1 =~ s/([a-z])([a-z]+)_([a-z])([a-z]+)/$1/;
  $username2 =~ s/([a-z])([a-z]+)_([a-z])([a-z]+)/$3/;
  $username1 =~ tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/;
  $username2 =~ tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/;
  $username =~ s/([a-z])([a-z]+)_([a-z])([a-z]+)/$username1$2 $usernam
+e2$4/;
  
  my $thetime = localtime;
  my @entry = split(' ', $thetime);
  my $thedate=$entry[1]." ".$entry[2]." ".$entry[4];
  print "<font size=\"+3\">";
  print "<b>Subject:&nbsp;$subject</b><br>\n";
  print "<b>To:&nbsp;$username</b><br>\n";
  print "<b>From:&nbsp;$from</b><br>\n";
  print "<b>Date:&nbsp;$thedate</b><br>\n";
  print "<br>\n$body\n<br>\n";
  print "<br>\n" x 2;
  print "</font><span></span>";
}
print "\n</body></html>";
[download]

Edit: Petruchio Sun Sep 2 05:30:22 UTC 2001 - Added READMORE tag.

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