RFID Hardware and Software integration with Filemaker

[dickiechung]

We are using Filemaker Pro 14 to develop a Staff Management and Control Access System. Each employee will be issued a RFID card as identity card.  We need to integrate RFID encoder and RFID reader with our Filemaker database. May anyone point me to the right direction how this can be done? Are there proven RFID hardware and software that will work with Filemaker Pro from encoding/writing to decoding/reading? 

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by Lee Smith
Removed bold formatting.

[Tusif Ahmad]

Following link may help you:

http://www.24usoftware.com/phidgetsremote/

Please have a look.

[Don_Macaroni]

Don't know if this is still relevant, but if you only need the UID of an rfid card than buy an HID RFID Reader on eBay ($20-$30). The unique 10 digit ID on each tag will be your reference in the DB. Make sure the scanner is HID so it works just like a keyboard (plug in and scan, id will display in Notepad). You then make a script which is triggered by the 'ENTER' of the reader (the rfid reader works just like a barcode scanner and adds an 'ENTER' after each scan). You don't have so safe anything on the rfid card it self, all is done in filemaker.

I tried too many times to write back to the card but it is too complicated.

[dickiechung]

Thank you very much for your inputs.  We have successfully build an Access Control System with the following features:

1. Access control hardware are installed in different locations for different departments.
2. Access control hardware are updated regularly the official working hours and access rights of each employee.
3. Filemaker can access and control the hardware over our internal network.

Our solution:

1. We bought a 2 in 1 (finger print recognition and smart card reading) Access Control Hardware from www.jd.com, a Chinese online retailer at around US$100. (ZKT U100)
2. The hardware came with a management software to work with the hardware. We asked the supplier to give us a .DLL file (not came with the hardware).
3. We use PowerBuilder to create a .exe file to execute the functions of a .DLL file that works with the hardware.
4. To update the records of the hardware, we use Filemaker to create a .txt file (containing info of employee names, IDs, working hours etc.) in a temporary directory and immediately call the .exe file (using Send Event) to execute the .DLL functions to update the hardware.
5. To download attendance data from the hardware, we use Filemaker to call the .exe to import data directly into Filemaker. (The .exe is created by PowerBuilder and Filemaker acts as an ODBC database of PowerBuilder when data is downloaded from hardware.)
6. The smart cards we buy have unique serial number pre-encoded so that we avoid the need of encoding smart cards.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Lee Smith
Made font readable.