ScatterPeas Messenger

A pod for all of your scattered peas. Visit us at scatterpeas.com.

Overview of Functionality

The back-end of ScatterPeas is intended to support recurring reminders conforming to the iCal specification. It also allows users to be associated with multiple 'aliases,' allowing them to choose on-the-fly message delivery preferences, as well as the ability to send messages to family members and friends.

Table Contents

uuids

The uuids table is meant to track attempts at activating user accounts. Contents include:

• id
• alias id, foreign key
• uuid
• created: instantiation datetime in utc
• confirmation_state

users

A parent table linking to many aliases. Effectively the 'FROM:' of each reminder. Contents include:

• id
• first: name
• last: name
• password
• username
• dflt_medium: 1 for email, 2 for text
• timezone: local user timezone

aliases

A parent table linking to many reminders. Each alias is associated with the 'TO:' for each reminder and could potentially be linked to more than one user.

• id
• user_id, foreign key
• alias: user facing moniker -- default value is ‘ME’
• contact_info: phone or email in string form
• activation_state: 0 for unconfirmed, 1 for confirmed
• medium: indicates whether email or text; 1 for email, 2 for text
• to be added: user link (to indicate bidirectional relationships)

reminders

A parent table to track the contents to send with a reminder, and the rrule used to generate jobs. Each time a job is executed, helper methods on reminders are called to generate the next job (i.e. if there is one) and to update the reminder state appropriately. Contents include:

• id
• alias_id: foreign key
• title: the small payload that is sent for every reminder
• text_payload: an optional larger payload
• media_payload: not fully implemented; may point towards a blob or a static file
• rstate: True if jobs are still pending; False otherwise.

rrules

A table used mostly to containerize data associated with iCal. We may choose a different means of containerizing these in the future. Contents include:

• DTSTART
• TZID
• FREQ
• INTERVAL
• COUNT
• BYMONTH
• BYDAY
• WKST
• BYMONTHDAY
• BYYEARDAY
• EXDATE

jobs

Reminders to be sent out.

• id
• reminder_id: as foreign key
• job_state: 0 for awaiting execution, 1 for successful execution, 2 for failed, 3 for cancelled
• execution_time: in utc