RemindMe: Programming with PHP and Mysql

Web Development with PHP and Mysql

Development of the RemindMe Service

Conclusion and Future Directions

I now have a basic reminder system to help me keep track of important annual events in my life. Altogether it took me about a day to develop the website, which illustrates how quickly a useful site can be developed with PHP and Mysql.

I'm already discovering things that I'd like to improve on and add to the site.

Include an email address, snail-mail address, and phone number with events so I can easily contact the person I'm being reminded about.
Make it possible to flag an event as a one-time event. Such an event would be deleted after all the necessary reminders were sent out, instead of recurring annually. This would be great for reminding me when my library books were due.
Make the email more intelligent. If the reminder is for a birthday and the year is known, tell me how old the person is so I can get an appropriate card.
Provide a drop-down list of event types, which would help generate the customized email mentioned in the preceding point.
Create a printable report of all current reminders, sorted by date, that I can print out and post on my fridge.

As you can see, I've just finished building the site and I already have a large wish-list. The problem with most of these changes will be keeping the site simple and uncluttered while adding in all the extra data and functionality.

I hope you've picked up a trick or two from this article that will help improve your web development efforts. Watch for future articles on this and related topics.

Jason Morris
jason@omnilogic.net