Interacting with POS systems

[rrhandle8]

I have no experience with POS systems, but my client wants me to built a system that will read a bar code off a card, mix that information with the information from the sale, and send the whole package to his server via the internet. The client wants to sell this solution to retailers who already have POS systems, and I am sure each client will have a different POS system.
Any ideas or resources you know of that could help me understand how to have our hardware (the barcode reader) interact with POS systems?

 

[Circle9]

OPOS is a standard of interacting with POS periphals. Read all about it here.

 

[DTSMAN]

Can you be more specific why the barcode interaction?

Different softwares will work differently. Relational databases like SQL and Sybase, you may be able to monitor an open port and capture data that way. The security camera guys almost always intercept the data going to the receipt printer using an inline device to capture the data and return it to their interface.

Bo

Remember,
If the women don't find you handsome,
they should at least find you handy.
(Red Green)

http://www.redgreen.com

 

[DriveByCheckmate]

We've done some things like this and all I have to say is good luck .

It really depends on how you need to interact with the system that you're building for - could be by way of accessing their database, through some type of SDK, screen scrapping, etc.

OPOS is a standard but I don't think it applies to what you're trying to do.

You're almost certainly going to have to build software adapters for any system you'd be working with.