Suggestions for opening a cash drawer
Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 2:30 pm
Hi,
My company is currently in the process of re-writing our Point of Sale application. Currently, we have a desktop app written in VB.NET for walk-in purchases and an internet counterpart written in PHP (v5.0.4) so customers can do online shopping. We want to move to a fully web-based solution (either hosted on our servers or a server at their office). Our issue, however, is that we need to find a way to open the cash drawer when a sale is completed as well as when an authorized user clicks the 'Open cash drawer' button.
I've found information on using the exec() command to open a local batch file, but since the application will be installed on a server and accessed via the clients browser, I don't see how that would work.
We are also open to other non-php solutions, such as writing a browser plugin that adds a 'cash drawer' button, but we're not sure how to authenticate a user that way. We are also open to using a flash-based application to handle it, if we find that it is able to communicate to the drawer. Additionally, we could create a background service on the clients computer that we can communicate with to kick the drawer open.
The solution isn't limited to drawers that operate through printers, as some clients use drawers with a USB interface.
If anyone has any experience with web-based cash drawer solutions, I would greatly appreciate any assistance.
Thanks.
My company is currently in the process of re-writing our Point of Sale application. Currently, we have a desktop app written in VB.NET for walk-in purchases and an internet counterpart written in PHP (v5.0.4) so customers can do online shopping. We want to move to a fully web-based solution (either hosted on our servers or a server at their office). Our issue, however, is that we need to find a way to open the cash drawer when a sale is completed as well as when an authorized user clicks the 'Open cash drawer' button.
I've found information on using the exec() command to open a local batch file, but since the application will be installed on a server and accessed via the clients browser, I don't see how that would work.
We are also open to other non-php solutions, such as writing a browser plugin that adds a 'cash drawer' button, but we're not sure how to authenticate a user that way. We are also open to using a flash-based application to handle it, if we find that it is able to communicate to the drawer. Additionally, we could create a background service on the clients computer that we can communicate with to kick the drawer open.
The solution isn't limited to drawers that operate through printers, as some clients use drawers with a USB interface.
If anyone has any experience with web-based cash drawer solutions, I would greatly appreciate any assistance.
Thanks.