Auto update timeline idea.

[d3adc0d3 186]

Just a thought...

If a person puts in their Receipt number, you could make a form that will automatically fetch the USCIS results directly to the website.

It's a form and it uses the following link:
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/Dashboard/CaseStatus.do

and it posts the following information:

appReceiptNum: EAC1390263XXX
submit.x: 69
submit.y: 8

Armed with this knowledge you can create a function that runs at a certain time every day to pull in status checks, or you can set it up to update whenever someone checks that user's timeline page.

The post back response will likely have to be parsed to make it useful but it would prevent the issue of people not updating their timelines.

[d3adc0d3 186]

Side note, I'll spend some time on this over the weekend and provide you all with the script.

[Darnell 8,478]

I would not want this site to store my receipt # at all.

otoh, folk that want to participate, actually update their timelines.

sure, it's a PITA to update a timeline from a handphone or pad, but if'n there was a monthly email mentioning to update via pc, that MIGHT solve a lot of dead space.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Darnell

[d3adc0d3 186]

What would the security risk be to have R#s stored? Especially if they're MD5 encrypted?

As far as I know, the R# in and by itself is useless, when you call the USCIS Cust Svc line, they always ask you a bunch of questions to verify your identity...

Maybe I'm missing something.

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

I am happy to implement this if we can manage the security. md5 is reasonable. Let's chat. We can do it on this thread to keep it public . Thanks for the help!!

[d3adc0d3 186]

No problem. I'm glad to help. PHP has a built in MD5 function, if you're not looking for something extra secure. If you want a custom MD5 encryption I can see about working something out as a script. I believe I have one sitting about.

I didn't start working on the form post and parsing and because I wasn't sure it was something that would be implemented. I'll start in on it, is there any values you'd like me to use when parsing responses from the post response to use? Such as NoA1 have a Status of 0, RFE have a Status of 1, Transfer a Status of 3, etc. Can always be used in conjunction with an array then, when posting visual feedback frontend.

I was thinking a class that passes in the R# (encoded), decodes it, makes the form post, takes the response, parses the date and status and returns the parsed values so whatever function you need to drop it into your system can capture it. I'm not your developer and just a user so I would try to make the script completely modular and separate so you can implement it when and how you want.

[Captain Ewok 1,891]

All of your ideas seem amazing. I'll PM you as well so we can go over any details including security items, as needed.

Thanks tons!