Coloured Boxes

Hi all
I want to create a web page that shows traffic light type boxes depending on a trigger in an input file. In a directory on the server will be 1 file per process. The page needs to create a box that is coloured dependant on a string if found in the file.

so directory would look like \status\  .In status we would have    \status\processa.txt status\processb.txt  processa.txt and \status\processb.txt would contain on line 1 the name of the process, line 2 the time of the update line 3 the status, running, failed, completed, dependant upon the status, I then want to colour the box.
Where do i start ?
Thanks
Gary