[pct-l] Updating Websites

[pj at pelorus-jack.com (Matt & Heather Squires)]

We solved this problem by writing our own software in Perl.  We originally 
wrote it for updating a blog and a map of our sailboat travels via extremely 
low bandwidth HF email (~50 bytes/second!), but we adapted it to the PCT and 
pocketmail for this year's adventure.

We can email properly formatted trail notes to a special email address, and 
our program will process them and update our website automatically.  It 
stuffs the text of the email message into the "backside" of an e-postcard, 
and it also retrieves a map of the appropriate section of the PCT to put on 
the front (picture) side of the e-postcard.  You can see the results at

    http://www.pelorus-jack.com/pct

Of course we are not actually hiking yet, so all of the postcards thus far 
have a generic picture of our Seattle training area.  You can see an example 
of a genuine trail map picture (Cascade Locks region) at

    http://www.pelorus-jack.com/pct/maps/sectionG2.gif

Perl provides many modules for creating this type of program, modules to 
read email, modules to create web pages from templates, modules to save and 
recall information in a database.  PHP does too, and most people find PHP a 
lot easier to use than Perl.  The most difficult problem I had was 
scheduling the email scanner portion to run on a regular basis.

Some ISPs allow their customers to run a scheduling program called 'cron'. 
Sadly, many ISPs disallow cron, but there are a number of web based cron 
solutions out there, both for free and for pay, hosted either remotely or 
locally.  A google search on "web based cron" returns lots of ideas.

Matt & Heather Squires
s/v Pelorus Jack