Help with general stuff.

[fsterman]

Aghh, I did this once and it didn't post I'll try it again. I need some direction, I am new to FMP and am unsure on how to do things. I have the FMP Bible (the greatest series of computer books on earth) and have a handle on FMP, so really I don't need a step by step but an "ohh, use this..." type of answer. If I have questions I will come and ask. Okay I am making POS and Inventory software. I am having some issues with the inventory but I'm dealing with that in another post.

I need the POS software to do three things, one is that it contains a shopping list. When someone scans in a barcode or finads an item in the database I want the person to add that item to a list at the bottom of the screen. This list is a shopping list for the customer, it doesn't need to be permanent but it does need to add up the total cost with tax. I also need the list to keep a ACSII text of transactions. I also need to have variable sale prices, one for regular, one for employees, and one custom one so that the owner can give special deals. I want to select witch price from a radio button or drop down menu, but that is not an absolute.

Any help is much appreciated.

[kenneth2k1]

I missed the question.

[fsterman]

What do I use for the shopping list I described. What do I use for making the record of transactions. And does anyone know of a free equivilant of SMTPit 3.0?

[Vaughan]

There is a couple of year's development time in what you describe. It's a huge task.

It's a pretty big question. What sort of answer did you want? Yes it can be done on FMP. FMP does not natively do transaction logging, that part's going to be tricky.

[fsterman]

Is there no open source projects? How difficult would it be to use some other enviroments in conjunction with FMP (like Perl). So no suggestions on how to go about the shopping list? what about making and amending a text file? I have two things I want to use that for.

[LiveOak]

You have kind of handed us a "I want to build a skyscraper, how do I do the plumbing" question. Without more information about how you have organized your solution it is hard to give a very good answer. The answer to the shopping list, to the same order of detail as your question, is "use a portal". The only free email solution is the feature built into FM, I don't know of a free plug-in. You can ammend a text file using import, FM text functions, and export or something like the Troi File (not free) plug-in.

-bd

[Keith M. Davie]

"I have the FMP Bible (the greatest series of computer books on earth) and have a handle on FMP, so really I don't need a step by step but an "ohh, use this..." type of answer."

Well the answer is use FileMaker.

Now in order to use FileMaker to achieve the solution you desire you have two choices. Choice one, hire a FileMaker developer and use what he or she develops for you. Choice two, become a FileMaker developer.

If you desire to become a FileMaker developer you will need to create some database files in FileMaker. You will need to learn how to design solutions. You will need to learn about relational databases and relationships. You will need to learn about calculations and summaries and ScriptMaker scripts. Then if you want a browser solution you will be well advised to learn html and cdml at a minimum.

"I need the POS software to do three things, one is that it contains a shopping list"

Ok, if you want a FileMaker db with a shopping list, as the developer that is what you design and create.

"I also need to have variable sale prices, one for regular, one for employees, and one custom one so that the owner can give special deals."

Again, ok, as the developer you design and create it.

"I want to select witch price from a radio button or drop down menu, but that is not an absolute."

Fine, as a developer you must format your fields create your valuelists. This is a part of design.

You want a lot of things. I hope you want to devote a goodly amount of YOUR time to learning how to accomplish these things. Since you "have a handle on FMP", it should not be too difficult for you.

In addition to spending time actually reading the book you have, and spending some time with FileMaker learning how to use it, you should devote at least one-half hour every day to reading posts on these forums. They are filled with valuable and useful information. In fact, for your first database in FileMaker, you would be well advised to develop one into which you can save some of the information which you find on these forums. Later when you need a particular bit of code you can get it quickly because you design the way you store this data. If you cannot find at least one new and useful thing on these forums EVERY day, you already know it all. In which case I must envy you. I've been working with FMPro for a decade and I am happy to say that I am still learning new and useful approaches to data handling.

Good luck to you.

[fsterman]

Look, I'm not asking you to tell me ho to do the pluming. What I was asking is "I need toilets in my skyscraper, what do I use to make that happen?" and you would say "pluming." I am a newbie which makes me inherently stupid, I apologize for that and I have flamed quite a few in my time also. I know that experience is the only thing that can teach me, and I am working on that.

I know I have to "design and create," I'm done with the design and now all I have to do is finish creating. I already know "design solutions" at least in the sense of interface as I have been practicing Jef Raskin's design principles for a couple of years now, but your right that I do need experience in managing he data. I don't know much about relational databases and relationships but I do understand the concepts, I have done a few calculation operations with my fields and made a handful of scripts. I don't know CDML but do have HTML skills (I don't need web solutions however).

I can and I have been devoting a goodly amount of time to making this since I don't have money to hire someone to do it or expect anyone but me to do it. And I certainly don't expect anyone on this board to do it.

I am used to Open Source or at least white papers so I can borrow ideas (and code) to hack together what I am doing. Starting from scratch is never fun and if someone out there has made something similar that you can model after or use their's and change it I would just as soon do that. I'm not trying to be cheap, just practical.

I just don't know the power of FMP and it's limits and that's why i asked such a broad question. I guess I didn't phrase what I was asking well, next time I will be more careful. Thank you for the mild criticism

[Keith M. Davie]

"I also need to have variable sale prices, one for regular, one for employees, and one custom one so that the owner can give special deals."

The design can be as simple as layout access based on log-in passwords.

"I want to select witch price from a radio button or drop down menu, but that is not an absolute."

If you do not know how to format a field with a valuelist then you would be well advised to read the book. I offered that advice. If you took it as a flame or a criticism, tough. Get over it. It was meant as good advice.

When all else fails, RTFM!!!

[fsterman]

yeah your right, I am just going to prompt for a password when someone tries to give a custom price.

Well, I didn't read it as a flame but I thought you were a bit peeved. The only problem with the drop down method was that I had to label the costs also, entering the data and manipulating it was akward. I was asking for a different method and realized I was focusing on what I wanted in POS and just trying to transfer it over to the inventory. That's not good design, I made it a lot easier by just making two fields for two prices. I didn't communicate hat the problems were.

This post is useless, I really need to make sure what I say on a post makes sense, writing at 2 in the morning is bad. Sorry (the fine manual is getting thumbed a lot)

[Rigsby]

There really are a lot of points missing in your question, but I think I know basically what you want. The first thing you need is a user interface where this shopping is going on. Then you are going to need a lot of relationships to display products, prices etc. All of these are going to need to be user related, so as to deal with your different pricing. So for example, a simple case statement would link the user to the right price lists in a related file.

The shopping list idea is not as difficult as it seems. The trick here is to create a unique code for each user as he logs into the system. This code should be a mixture of USER and SESSION. So for example it might be something like BOB 110602 01, the number part representing the date plus the session number incase he has more than one on one day.

Now all you need to do is to let the user choose items that will then become single records in a related file, using the unique ID (code) above to link all of the items to that user and that session. Now you have your list. The other things you can do with this system are endless; all you need to do is use your imagination and the truly fantastic capabilities provided by FMP.

Hope this helps a bit.