Is there a way to have a text file or an excel file and in it list
dates and a message, then having my web page reference that file and
pop up with the message if the current date matches a date in my file.
There are many ways to skin this cat. If the file is huge, I would do
it with a file of strings written with DataOutputStream.writeUTF, one
after the other.
You create an in RAM lookup table that indexes by message number to
get the offset in the RandomAccessFile, then do a
DataInputStream.readUTF to get your string back.
Alternatively use a HashMap to index by message code string to get the
offset.
If the file were smaller, I would use a ResourceBundle. See
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/resourcebundle.html
If it were no internationalisation concerns, I might just use a
Properties file which turns into a RAM-based Hashtable.
see
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/properties.html