Barcode Scanning and Server Reliability

[alloyd]

I am looking at setting up a College registration system using FileMaker, were students swipe their ID card and then details (ID, Date and Time) would be recorded on a central database. My problem is that I want the FM Clients to detect when the server is down and switch recordings to a local database. I envisage a client file running a permanent loop script which pauses waiting for a swipe. The barcodes on the cards would have a <return> at the end, so that the script would continue after each swipe and transfer the details to the central registration file. The problem seems to be in the detecting when the server goes off line. Anybody any ideas?

[ February 12, 2002, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: CaptKurt ]

[LiveOak]

Why are you "Planning" to have a server that is so unreliable that you have to go to all the effort to have a backup mode? I would spend my time instead working on server reliability. FM Server should NEVER share a server with other applications or file sharing.

It can be done, however. Just trap the error in execution of a scripted "Open" and write the data to your "Opener" file. The harder part is to resync the files after the file is found. But this can be done by transferring all the data from your opener file to the remote files the next time the system is opened. If you were looking for an automatic feature that did this, sorry, your in for a bit of scripting!

I know of no barcode symbologies that allow and embeded carriage return. This is something you program the scanner to send as a postscript after the read.

-bd