Microsoft's Retail Management System - Extensibility

[togatown]

I have a customer whom wishes to add a considerable amount of data to his existing RMS database. All of this data is customer related.

If I add a table, will this data be available to him on his POS machines?

He wants, among other things, to add several people from the same household to one account and to be able to view all of the customer names form the POS screen. he aslo wants to be asked for this new data when setting up a new account.

I considered adding the data to the existing customer table but didn't know if there would be a negative effect of doing this....

Any help appreciated...

Toga

 

[Golom]

There is very little chance that new data ... either new tables or new fields in an existing table ... will be available through RMS.

The basic reason is that neither RMS (nor any other system) will "understand" the new data added to its database without corresponding changes to the code.

I strongly advise against making any structural changes to existing RMS tables. I suspect that Microsoft would take the view that any functionality or performance warranties for RMS are null and void if you mess with their defined database structure.

 

[trvlace]

With out a com add in it won't work. I don't advise adding tables. I would think that custom job would cost roughly $2000 to have written.

 

[RITE1]

Golom hit the name on the head.

Adding the data to the existing tables would be the only way to make the information available directly through RMS and if you don't understand what other tables should be affected by this addition of data, I wouldn’t mess with it.

An example could be that if you add a customer RMS may add information about that customer to other related tables in the db - if you make the same types of entries when you force data in, the program will become unstable.

Instability is the last thing you need when you have a line of 10 people at the cash register!

Whatever you do, good luck!

Rick Feuling

http://www.rite.us

 

[RITE1]

To update my post above...

An example could be when you add a customer through RMS it adds the entry to the customer table and other information about that customer in related tables - if you don't make the same EXACT types of entries when you force data programmatically, RMS will become unstable.


its late ...