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Building POS systems with A5

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    Building POS systems with A5

    I built my POS system(barcode type) with V6. (4 years ago)
    I have a 7-11 type concession store + cafeteria feeding 1,000+ /day.
    Running multiple stations at high volumes on all of them.
    Now I'm rebuilding it with V9
    I thought I'd try using a MySql backend.
    I'm running into a lot of bugs...and it seems a bit slow.

    Should I just build the system on A5 dbf?

    This is a very important question for me.
    And a urgent one..

    #2
    Re: Building POS systems with A5

    Originally posted by mschoi View Post
    I built my POS system(barcode type) with V6. (4 years ago)
    I have a 7-11 type concession store + cafeteria feeding 1,000+ /day.
    Running multiple stations at high volumes on all of them.
    Now I'm rebuilding it with V9
    I thought I'd try using a MySql backend.
    I'm running into a lot of bugs...and it seems a bit slow.

    Should I just build the system on A5 dbf?

    This is a very important question for me.
    And a urgent one..
    we have addressed every one of the bugs you have brought to our attention.

    the last 'bug' you told us about was not a bug.

    you had a form that was based on an active-link table. then using another form, you edited or added new records to the active-link table.
    in order to get the original form that you have open to see the new records (that were added after it was opened), you must refresh the active-link table.

    the menu command to do this is form/refresh all rows
    or browse/refresh all rows

    the keyboard shortcut is shift+F5

    the xbasic is <layout>.serversiderefreshall()

    e.g. to refresh an embedded browse that is based on an active-link, (assuming the embedded browse object name was 'browse1')

    browse1.ServerSideRefreshAll()

    to refresh a form:

    topparent.ServerSideRefreshAll()

    Because ServerSideRefreshAll() is important, I have added this as a new action in Action Scripting.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Building POS systems with A5

      Thanks Selwyn:

      I will try that immediately.

      The question remains...
      Should I just use dbf ....or use sql?

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Building POS systems with A5

        Originally posted by mschoi View Post
        Thanks Selwyn:

        I will try that immediately.

        The question remains...
        Should I just use dbf ....or use sql?

        i can't answer that question for you.

        a properly designed application using a server database can perform very well.

        however, when you switch from local tables to active-link tables, you do need to understand that there are significant differences and you need to design for this.


        trying to use an active-link table blindly as if it were a local table is not realistic.

        it takes time to move data from the server to the client (i.e. from the server into the active-link table). this is a fact of life that all client/server applications have to deal with (not just alpha five).


        you have to think differently when using active-link tables. things that are easy or efficient to do with local tables may not be so with active-link tables.
        when you switch from local tables, to active-link tables, you give some things up and you gain some other things.
        what you give up is instantaneous access to all of your data.
        what you get is a more robust data store that can be scaled.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Building POS systems with A5

          Is it possible to perform a .ServerSideRefreshAll() on a grid on a .a5w page?

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Building POS systems with A5

            Originally posted by cphelps View Post
            Is it possible to perform a .ServerSideRefreshAll() on a grid on a .a5w page?
            I am not clear why you would want to do this. Active Link tables should not be used in web applications. You can go against the sql data directly. No need for intermediate active-link tables.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Building POS systems with A5

              Is there a way to connect to multiple sql data sources in one grid? I can't figure out how to do it. For starters, we are looking to perform some simple QA by comparing information from our store versus information from our ebay listings. We have connected both those data sources, and I am using sets to match information from our store listings against their corresponding ebay listings to check for price, warranty, dispatch time accuracy, and more. We want to replicate the process for different ads and for our inventory. Seems like this would be a common problem. Is this not something we can do using Alpha 5?

              The way I have it set up now is with active link tables for the tables we need from the various sources. Then I have defined sets to show the relationships between tables from different sources. Then I have created copy operations to move data from sets into .dbf tables. My vision was to create the grids off of this table so I am looking for a way for a user on the web site to refresh the active link tables and run the copy operation. Also, I have created a post operation to replace data in the active link table when a condition is true, such as if the ebay price is incorrect it replaces it with the correct store price for the corresponding product. Ideally, the user on the web would be able to run this operation too. Does that make sense? Is it possible to refresh active link tables and run operations from the .a5w page? Or is there a way to pull in data from multiple sql connection strings?
              Last edited by cphelps; 05-30-2012, 09:17 AM.

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