Magnetic Strip Reader

[Papabjoe]

I'm working on a solution for a local karate school. Their students are issued ID cards that have a magnetic strip on them. The card contains the student's id#.

I am building a solution that will allow the student to swipe their card and create an attendance record. My problem is that I said this could be done assuming that there was plenty of information out their about getting it to work. As of yet, it appears that people prefer barcode scanners and don't really address strip readers.

Can anyone give me an idea of what kind of challenges I'm facing. I just ordered a cheap strip reader off of ebay for testing purposes.

I'm concerned about getting the reader to simulate a carriage return in order to keep the script moving.

Can anyone speak to this? Any information would be appreciated.

[stanley]

Papabjoe:

Barcoding is much more popular in small solutions, it's true. However, both barcoding & magstriping are essentially the same; ways to store data. The key is going to be how your magstripe reader is pulling the data.

When using a barcode, you put the cursor in a field, then wait (Pause[]) for the scan, which enters data into the field. An "enter" postamble triggers the resumption of the script. If you can do the same with the magstripe reader, you're all set.

I guess the first questions are about hardware: what's the reader, what's in the magstripe on the card, etc.

-Stanley

[Papabjoe]

I'm not quite sure about the particular scanner. I baught it off ebay and in the mean time I have been unable to locate any documentation about it. I know it's an IBM, but the part number does not register on their site, and the only websites that come up on google are in german.

I'll have more details once I actually get the hardware.

[Claus Lavendt]

I think you should look at Troi's Serial plugin. (www.troi.com)

It works great with many kinds of hardware, such as barcode readers, card readers etc. You can also consider using chip card reader. A filemaker plugin exist that support this.

Take a look at http://posdirect.com/

They sell card readers, as well as card printer with barcode or magnetic stripe.