Designing a Invoice Screen

[ArevProgrammer]

Hi,

I am developing a Point-of-Sale system in FPD2.6a. I have
designed all of the tables, and basically know how it works,
but, I am having a problem tackling how to show invoice line
items and customer info on the same screen.
As well as how to incorporate a bar code scanner to scan the items in.

Any help or direction is greatly appreciated.


Scott K. Rome was not built in a day. Be patient!

 

[rgbean]

Scott,
While you might want to display the line items in a "browse" window, you should really use a separate screen to enter or edit them. If you use a Barcode scanner that's a "keyboard wedge", the program doesn't need to know anything about it, it will appear just as though someone had typed in the information on the keyboard. These can usually be externally programmed to add a Return or Tab character at the end of the data.

I know there are always "reasons", for still coding in DOS, but you might want to consider updating to VFP 7.0 - it's much easier to work with, and you won't have to worry whether the next Windows upgrade will finally kill all hope of running your application.

Rick

 

[ArevProgrammer]

Rick,

Thank you for responding. I have VFP 7.0 and I guess I should go that way as well. Would there be any problems sending code to open the cash drawer or the like? Again thank you!


Scott K. Rome was not built in a day. Be patient!

 

[tilltek]

Yes Scott, there are. You can not directly address any i/o ports under 2000/XP, and thats where you are going with VFP7.
If you could let me know where you are I could maybe give you some tips.
I make my living from my POS so the tips may be restricted.
Ken F
mail@tilltek.com

 

[rgbean]

Actually, in VFP 7.0, you can send characters to the COM ports using MSCOMM32. Some sample code for accessing serial data in VFP using MSCOMM32 can be found in the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q140/5/25.asp

- HOWTO: Receive from the Serial Port by Using MScomm32.ocx.
Also useful may be

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q139/5/26.asp

- HOWTO: Send to the Serial Port by Using Mscomm32.ocx.
And of course,

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q154/7/41.asp

- HOWTO: Transmit and Receive Binary Data using MSCOMM32.

If MSCOMM32 doesn't provide you with enough control, you'll need to find another 3rd party control to handle the serial communication.

Rick