Okay, so today I decided to get a “next volleyball game” notification system going. I’ve got a group of friends, and we play pretty regularly, but sometimes it’s a pain to figure out when the next game is. So, I figured I’d put my slightly-rusty coding skills to work.
First, I brainstormed what I needed. Basically, a way to:
- Store game information (date, time, location).
- Check if a game is coming up soon.
- Send out a notification (probably email, because everyone checks that).
Getting Started
I dusted off my old Python skills. It’s been a while, but Python is pretty forgiving. I figured I could probably cobble something together. I started by creating a simple text file to store the game data. Just date, time, and location, separated by commas. Super basic, I know, but it’s a start.
The Core Logic
Then I wrote a little Python script to read that file. The script grabs the current date and time, then compares it to the dates in the file. If a game is within, say, 24 hours, it should trigger a notification.
The tricky part was the notification. I looked into some email libraries, and ended up using `smtplib` because it seemed the simplest. I had to fiddle around with my email settings a bit to allow “less secure apps” (which is kind of scary, but hey, it’s a personal project). Then I crafted a basic email message: “Hey, volleyball game tomorrow! Don’t forget!”.
Putting it All Together
I tested it a few times, manually changing the dates in the text file to see if it worked. The first couple of tries, nothing happened. Turns out I had a typo in the email address. Classic. But eventually, I got it working! I saw that glorious test email pop into my inbox.
Finally, to make it run automatically, I set up a cron job on my computer ( I used windows task scheduler). I told it to run the Python script every day at a specific time. Now, every day, the script checks for upcoming games and sends out emails if necessary.
It’s not super fancy, but it does the job! And it was a fun little project to get back into coding. Maybe next I’ll add a way to RSVP, or even integrate it with a group chat. Who knows!
