>Morgan,
>
>If I take the approach of refreshing the page every 5 minutes, is that something that is done from the server side or the client side?
>What commands would I use to do that?

That is something done on the client side. It is a meta-refresh tag inside of the HTML. I don't know the exact syntax, but you can look it up.


>And if this isn't being triggered by the user clicking a link, then what command do I issue to tell the system to open a new browser with the reminders in it?

You would check the time in the Page Load of every page on your site, probably create some Templating system, which you could use to control the look and feel of it all.

What I would do is sub-classes the Page from System.Web.UI.Page and have every page on in my application be a sub-class of that. Inside of that base class, I would check in the Page Load or Page Init depending on how or if you are doing any two way databinding, and I would check the time, session or cookie or whereever you are storing the userid, and pop up a new window there.

>Also, what words should I use to find more information about this in the help system?

In what help system? I'm not sure what you would search for in the .NET Help, I would look at the System.Web.UI.Page class, and sub class it, and then look up Meta Refresh in some HTML documentation.

>How does the Universal Thread do it's 5 minute refresh?

I'm not sure if UT uses some Meta Refresh in the HTML or uses some other way of doing the refresh.
>
>I guess I had more than one more question that time ;-)

One thing you need to understand is that the web is a pull technology, and not a push. Unless you install some type of Client (Windows App or Windows Service, etc) on the users computer, they are going to have to come to the site and leave it open all day.

If I were you, depending on the business requirements, I might write a Windows Service or small Windows application that would poll a set of WebServices or Web pages. It would give you more control, and greater flexibility to do what you would want, but people would still have to download it and install it.

I wrote something somewhat like this to monitor and use UT Webservices to poll for messages awhile ago. But, this may not be a viable option if depending upon your business requirements.

Morgan