New to POS programming 1

[majorbroncosfan]

I am currently researching different options for programming a POS for our company's stores. I am a Visual Studio (in several language) and Windows programmer by trade, so I am not well-versed in any type of POS environment. Can anybody point me in the right direction for which platform to utilize?

 

[colttaylor]

Are you looking for a packaged solution which allows customization or for some help designing a system from scratch?
Are there already databases describing your inventory items, prices and quantities-on-hand or will you be purchasing/designing an inventory control system as well?
How will items be identified/added to a sale (keyboard/barcode/touchscreen)?

 

[majorbroncosfan]

Thank you for your response.

I am currently looking to design a system from scatch, since our current POS is a custom system for our suppliers.

The database that holds all of our information resides here and I have full access to all of that information.

I would like to investigate all possible solutions to gauge the most effective plan of attack. Many of the people in our stores have problems being gentle to the touch screens and are more used to a console-based application. We would like to implement scanning if possible in addition to being able to enter information via the keyboard.

Thanks again for all of your help!!!!

 

[colttaylor]

I'm not sure how I can help you.
I'm a .net programmer mid-way through the development of a pos system. We've finished the database design and see the following issues as critical design issues prior to starting to code.

Installation Simplicity : This is our third pos system and having been burned by beautiful features which are tough to install and customize to each user site, we are approaching this product with quick/unattended install as a major goal.

Upgrade Simplicity : Again, avoiding nightmare's from our past, my company is looking to write a system which can upgrade itself over the internet with no human intervention. We looked at a .net feature which allows new versions of modules to be downloaded from a remote server, but decided to code our own. Therefore the software will be created in two parts... A thin wafer which when executed, checks for and downloads upgrades, before launching the second part which is the actual POS Software.

Peripheral Abstraction : our customers use a variety of cashdrawers, receipt printers, label printers and pole displays. We are standardizing on the bar code reader, mag-swipe reader and touch screens as quality in these areas cannot be not assumed between vendors.

As you can see, the pos-specific design issues are less significant in my project than more general issues of distribution and maintenance. My team and I have written several POS systems and what needs to go into them is pretty much intuitive now. I would be happy to answer specific questions if you have any. Post them here and I will get back to you.
Peace,
Colt

 

[majorbroncosfan]

Wow. Sounds like you have quite the team put together for your applications. I do have a specific question, however. Are you working with C# or another language to put this together? Are you utilizing the Windows Forms or some other method (like ASP.NET) to distribute your application? Do you find that a POS works better as a console application or are there benefits to putting it into a GUI?

Like you, I am also a dedicated .NET programmer who is deciding on application engineering techniques for our company. Any direction on the previous questions would be awesome!

Thanks again!

Jeff

 

[colttaylor]

Oops...
I missed majorbroncosfan's question several months ago.
A belated answer is that I am using VB.NET (higher programmer availability) and WinForms with a remote datasource setup so that if the software is running on a tablet or other portable form-factor, it can run on local XML data when its wireless network connection isn't available. (I've isolated actual database connections to the beginning and end of the business day).
As for GUI vs. Console, there are two schools... Experienced, long term employees prefer the keyboard speed advantage of a console. Untrained, temporary employees prefer the ease-of-use of a GUI touchscreen. I have never understood what advantage there is in a non-touchscreen GUI interface for a POS.
Sorry for the delay in answering.

 

[chaimUsa]

Hi colttaylor

I have 1 Question if you have a form or a dialog box on the front screen any user can Press Alt+Tab and enter the computer is this way safe?

Please Reply

Chaim

 

[colttaylor]

You are correct... but the question I was answering was how to disable the touchscreen. My software is entirely touchscreen/mag-swipe driven, so the keyboard is usually locked in a drawer below the workstation.
Also, the dialog which I was discussing is part of the application and is opened modally, so just moving it out of the way won't reactivate the other screens of the system. It must be closed, which takes either an ALT-Space or an ALT-Shift-F4 (I think) keystroke command.
You can of course also capture those keystrokes using a global keyboard hook, but I don't have the code for that.
If anyone has such code (to catch all Alt-... keystrokes and negate them) please post it here. If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid

 

[chaimUsa]

Hi colttaylor
Good point about the touch screen,

Good luck
Chaim