Finally someone ( Waves in Motion) is developing a true bar code reading system for Filemaker Pro.

We have been using bar code readers at our point of sales for about 2 years now with Filemaker. This has been doing well but with a few limitations. In order to scan any bar code into Filemaker you must first tab into the field that you are scanning data for. Then you can scan the item and Filemaker will then do the lookups of data. Now this is ok for a few items but for 25 or more items, tabing into the correct field can really slow down work flow. At the grocery store we see the correct way for scanning items into a database solution (hands free scanning), but Filemaker can't do this without some help.

Waves in Motion is working on a application that will work with Filemaker Pro, so that any time anywhere someone scans a bar code the program will buffer the data and then activate a FM script of your choosing to take that data and put it into any field and then do the lookups, calculations, searches, etc. This solution can help a lot of people who use Filemaker and bar code readers in speeding up their work flow.

Right now we have three groups in splitting the costs of this. If you need something like this for your FM bar code solution, please contact Ananda Arnspiger [email protected] at Waves in Motion for details.

Thanks Guys,

Ray

Except for specifying a particular script to execute, which is easy to add as a conditional, Barcodet does this already. See the flow diagram for CheckOUT (included free with Barcodet) at www.LifeSuccess.org. Everything is preconfigured to function automatically. No need to tab into a particular field. No need to punch any keyboard keys. Simply scan barcodes to update records. As CheckOUT is intended to be a learning tool, decision points are included (e.g., validation, check an item in or out of inventory, etc.) as shown in the flow diagram, but can be eliminated in favor of totally automatic processing. CheckOUT can be modified to meet the specific needs of any solution and is completely unlocked to allow user editing.

You actually don't need a plug-in to do this. We've had solutions in place for years with this capability. All you really need is a barcode reader that is capable of appending a preamble and postscript to the scanned code. The preable is set to "Control-1" (Command-1, Mac) and the postscript to "Control-2" (Command-2, Mac) to trigger the first and second displayed scripts in scriptmaker. The only additional thing to watch out for is that FM can run a script again before the first execution completes, so you have to use semaphores (flags) to prevent the second triggering before the first is complete.

You can buy a plug-in and run off an develop a whole new approach, but we've "been there, done that" ! It really isn't too difficult to implement, as usual, error handling is the biggest part of the necessary scripting. This part is application dependent and wouldn't come with the Waves in Motion stuff in any case.

Look through this forum searching for "preamble" and "scanner", I have many posts on this topic.

-bd

(Vince, your getting plugs, need to advertise with FM Forums!)