Updating a website from an email?

what i really want to do is interact with my website via text messages, the only way i see to do that is to send a text message to an email, with a pop3 or imap account. this would allow me to pick it up with php and do SOMETHING with it, so for example lets say i want my website to take my message i email or text message to it, and forward it to _______@imblindfolded.com . does anyone have any insight as to where i should begin? i know i can pick up the email with the imap_*() functions in PHP, but thats only if i view the webpage, is there anyway i can set it up so that as soon as it receives the email, it triggers it to do something?

 

I think if you need to approximate "real time" it could be difficult - is certainly beyond my ability level.
But if not, then you should be able to set a task that runs at a set interval. That task could check the mailbox, and if a new message exists, read it and take action accordingly. Then it could send a copy of that message to an archive mailbox, just in case you ever need/want verification or historical info. After sending the message to archive and verifying that it was received, delete the message in the "work" mailbox. In that manner, only "to do" messages would ever be in the "work" mailbox.
My host allows scheduled tasks to run (most that I looked at do). Just make sure the task is designed such that it can not hog resources.
Good luck with it.

 

thanks for the insight, i'll start to poke around my provider