I'm looking for the best way to do a service countdown timer that is automated, that doesn't need to be reset for each service. In the end it would look something like the countdown timer found here - http://northchurch.tv/. In summary I'd like it to countdown to the service, then display a message while the service is live (such as "service is live watch now") and then after the service is over I want it to automatically begin counting down to the next service. Below is what I've found out so far. I'd like to see if anyone has any incite.
On Drupal.org I found a couple modules I'm considering-
- http://drupal.org/project/jstimer or
- http://drupal.org/project/jquery_countdown which is based off of the jQuery Countdown plugin - http://keith-wood.name/countdown.html
Details about option 1.
- To use option one you simply use HTML or PHP to display the countdown.
- You can find examples of what this code looks like in the documentation for the module which is found here - http://drupalcode.org/project/jstimer.git/blob_plain/refs/heads/7.x-1.x:/README.txt
Details about option 2.
- From looking at the source code on http://northchurch.tv it appears they are using the same plugin that option 2 uses (http://keith-wood.name/countdown.html).
- Northpoint.org has also used the same plugin as detailed in this post - http://insidenorthpoint.org/it/2009/08/28/counting-down-with-jquery/.
Additional Details
- My initial research indicates that I will need to use the server time not the user's time in calculating the count down. The reason for this is that potentially people from various timezones could be watching and this could cause the countdown to be incorrect.
- I'm mainly a front-end developer so I figure I can handle making the countdown look like the one found on http://northchurch.tv. Where I need help is in figuring out how to automate the countdown so the date and time doesn't need to be entered manually for each new service.
Any incite anyone can give would greatly appreciated. I'm also open to other options besides the 2 mentioned above.