question

[boston4680]

There is a non-profit organization that has a computer lab. They need a web application tthat keeps track of uses the computer and for how long. What would be good for this? I was thinking about coldfusion but I also thought about a java applet. Are there already applications like this out there? This is a voluntter project - thanks for your tips.

 

[r937]

why a web application? who's going to be using this computer?


rudy

 

[boston4680]

There are about 30 computers in the lab. Most users are young (5-15). The center wants to keep track of who uses it and for how long. It doesn't have to be a web application. Everyone would have to set up a profile and login. What do you suggest? Thanks

 

[simmerdown]

you won't find the answer with ColdFusion. cf only runs on a web server, so it's impossible to have it accurately monitor usage time on a local machine ...

if you really want to keep track of what users are doing, you could go for some software like
- Watchdog:

http://www.sarna.net/watchdog/

- Logon Monitor:

http://www.greyware.com/software/logonmon/index.asp

or you could exploit
- Winddows 2000's built-in event logging (beware of highly technical articles):

http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=8056

http://www.win2000mag.net/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=16430

http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=21132

and all of this assumes you're running Windows boxes. If you've got Macs, well, I'm fresh out of ideas.

In short, you'll need to have something running locally on each machine, NOT a web application (which is what CF is).