[PLUG] web-based invoicing app suggestions

Eric Wilhelm scratchcomputing at gmail.com
Mon Oct 29 22:27:20 UTC 2007


# from Kurt Sussman
# on Monday 29 October 2007 11:53:

>So I'm looking for suggestions. We'll have 40 items for sale, and no
>inventory. I need to import about 400 names and addresses, and if it
> can capture credit card info, great. If not we can handle that
> separately.

Hi Kurt,

Why web-based?  One Linux box could have many credit-card readers, 
barcode scanners, ten-key pads and lcd displays plugged into it as long 
as you've got enough usb hubs (well, tapering-off at around 127 :-)

IMO, using the mouse on a pick-list in a web app is likely to be a slow 
and error-prone interface, especially if there are any page reloads 
required.

With libhid, you can address each keyboard-like-device separately from 
the main keyboard, even in Perl.

  http://search.cpan.org/~ewilhelm/Linux-USBKeyboard-0.01/

Of course, if you were thinking multi-user web-based, then either you 
have multiple computers or you were expecting cashiers to bring their 
own.  Assuming multiple Linux stations, you could skip the LCD display 
bit.

Using barcodes would be pretty easy if your products are already labeled 
(or you can print them if need be.)

If you decide to go with something web-based for the sake of the 
backend, maybe you can hook the input to it via a web API and lwp or 
WWW::Mechanize.

--Eric
-- 
A counterintuitive sansevieria trifasciata was once literalized 
guiltily.
--Product of Artificial Intelligence
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