Not to needlessly push vendor products, but have you considered LibAnswers
from Springshare?  We're using it with a similar workflow to what you
describe (all emails to a queue, people claim messages and answer them).

Pat


On Wed, May 8, 2013 at 7:57 AM, scott bacon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Just curious if anyone has any thoughts about this possibility (I already
> know it's not practical): Can I automatically forward to a database all
> emails sent to a specific email address? I've seen proprietary things like
> Email2DB, but is there a simple open source alternative?
>
>
> Background: At MPOW there is an admin site where employees periodically
> login and check for unanswered patron emails. Patrons submit a PHP email
> form, the form data is saved in a SQL database, and the admin site queries
> that database, which populates the tables in the admin site. Yes, this is
> convoluted, but just imagine that I'm not able to change this system to
> something more streamlined.
>
>
> This system was made by a previous employee I think in order to alleviate
> all emails going to an email alias, which creates issues with one email
> being answered twice by two different employees.
>
>
> So I would create a simple email address (say, [log in to unmask]) to give to
> patrons (vs. pushing them to a site to fill out a PHP form), but I want to
> avoid using an email alias that will push all new emails into all alias
> members' email boxes. The admin site method then would allows loggers-in to
> claim new emails and others then to see them as 'read'.
>
>
> Any thoughts, advice, threats?
>
>
> -Scott
>