Transmit reports

[daleadmin]

Jon and I are coming up with a new feature.

As you know you can set up the POS program to generate automatic reports when the register is
closed. The new feature will allow the program to transmit those files over the internet by email
attachments or FTP. You will be able to select which files to transmit and after they are sent if you
want them deleted from the sending computer. Gift card reports cannot be transmitted.

Since the files can be in text or data (.CSV) format you can load the files into either your word
processing or spreadsheet software. But a more useful idea would be for the corporation to create
their own software to automatically load the data into their accounting software. Or load the data into inventory
software to restock the shops automatically.

This would be especially useful for chain stores with many shops. The file names of the files will
identify which shop transmitted the files (shop ID) what type of file it is, and the date the file was
created.

Do you have an idea for this feature. Well don't just sit there staring at the screen. Post it in a
reply. I have given up mind reading at the present time.

Dale

[roxy99]

Dale,

Wow I completely missed that post. That would be fantastic! This will help me tremendously with my project. Thanks for your email by the way regarging the IDX file format. I think I have it all figured out now.

This feature your doing would be really useful. Let me explain my scenario which motivated me to incorporate a python gui.

My wife operates a Pet shop and has enjoyed using your software. One of the critical features lacking was she needed a database to track sales by customer. So I starting asking her to do a sales slip reprint for our frequent buyer customers and I would reenter them into an MS Access database sortred by customer ID so that I could track individual custumers' buying trends within Access. Obviously not very automated- double entry quickly became a bore.

So I rolled up my sleeves and wrote a python script that could parse the daily sales journal, a txt file. As you know this txt file is basically looking like a text dump of the printed sales slip like this

Code: Select all

---------------------------------------
0009   0                          13:24
---------------------------------------
  STOCK NUMBER DESCRIPTION        PRICE
     100012554 item 1                  
 T     1    at     2.50ea.         2.50
                  TOTAL            2.50
---------------------------------------
     GIFT CARD TENDERED            2.50
             CHANGE DUE            0.00

REMAINING GIFT CARD VALUE
  1234XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX        27.50
               01-07-2009
---------------------------------------
 CLOSE  CLOSE  CLOSE  CLOSE  CLOSE 

So my Python script had a lot of work to do to parse that into columns based on the type of info per line and then export the data into Access. It wasn't easy but I did it and it works. I'm still skeptical that its 100% bug free because there is alot of string operations to find key substrings and slice and dice everything. Its rather complicated but finally done. If you can do a properly formated csv dump then I could simplify my code considerably and improve the processing speed dramatically. The result would be I would be much more confident in my program achieving a reliable interface.

I'll make some suggestions later on what format the csv could be...

[roxy99]

A csv file to be useful to me should report the sales information so that each row in the csv file represents an individual line item.

For instance suppose I have a daily close (its a really slow day - only 2 sales). Each sale is for 2 items as follows

Code: Select all

Trans # 1000
Customer ID: 55
=================================================================
Item :9998   desc: "some stuff"        Qty:  2    Unit price:  5.25      Ext:  10.50
Item:9999              "other stuff                3                        3.10              9.30   
Total Before Tax                                                                                   19.80
Tax 1                                                                                                    2.00
Tax 2                                                                                                    3.00
Total                                                                                                   24.80
Cash rendered                                                                                      25.00
Change                                                                                                  .20

===============================================================
Trans # 1001
Customer ID: 85
================================================================
Item :8888   desc: "some stuff"        Qty:  1   Unit price:  6.00      Ext: 6.00
Reduce by 10% line above                         1                   -0.60             -0.60
Total Before Tax                                                                                5.40
Tax 1                                                                                                1.00
Tax 2                                                                                                  .60
Total                                                                                                   7.00
Credit tendered                                                                                 7.00
Change                                                                                               0.00

=============================================================

I would want 2 csv files: 1 with detail information like this:

Trans#,Item#,Item Descrit, Quantity, Unit price, Extended price


There would thus be 4 rows:

Code: Select all

 1000,9998,some stuff, 2, 5.25,10.50
1000,9999,some other stuff, 3, 3.10,9.30
1001,8888,some stuff,1,6.00,6.00
1001,8888,reduction item 10%,1,-0.60,-.60

A second csv file is also needed to track the transaction information

Code: Select all

Tran#,Tran Date, Tran Time, Cust#,Sub Total,Tax 1, Tax2, Grand Total,Payment type,Discount%,Discount Amount,Total paid,Change rendered
1000,01/01/2009,13:00:00,55,19.80,2.00,3.00,24.80,Cash,0,0,25.00,0.20
1001,01/01/2009,16:00:00,85,5.40,1.00, 0.60,7.00,Credit,0,0,7.00,0.00

The key is that the csv file needs to capture in consistent columns all possible information. For instance, even though there may not be a discount after the subtotal, we should still have a column reserved for this posible data and just export 0 to the column when not applicable.

You need to also consider returns, payments by gift card. Speaking about gift cards, if a customer uses a gift card then the csv file should have the gift card number applied.

You could even do another CSV for the closing totals for the day.

If you can do all this that would be fantastic!

[daleadmin]

Ok, I guess this means that I am not fantastic.

This particular feature I am working on is to transmit report files that the program already creates.

What you are asking for would be an entirly different feature.

Dale

[roxy99]

Sorry I misunderstood you. Anyway my Python utility does the job for me and is available to anyone who wants it. I'm still testing it though but the csv reporting format would be awesome if you could add that feature it would be useful (to me anyway)

[daleadmin]

Well a lot of work has gone into this feature and it is done except for Jon's part of actually transmitting the files.

Here are the instruction http://www.dhpos.com/send.pdf

And this is a full program download (.EXE files only) with the new feature. http://www.dhpos.com/pos701b2.ex
Remember after downloading the program file to change .EX to .EXE then run the file to pop out all the program files.

Dale

[roxy99]

Too bad you're not making a csv export option : ( .. However I have one tiny tiny request that would make parsing of the journal easier for everyone and would not require an overhaul on your part.

Regarding the dividing lines between each receipt. You are using dashes like this to separate one receipt from another.

Code: Select all

---------------------------------------

The problem is the program also uses the same dashes between the transaction # header and the body detail and again between the customer information header. Therefor my parser has to jump through a few extra hoops to figure out where a new receipt begins.

Can you use a different character to define receipt breaks such as

Code: Select all

==========================

or

Code: Select all

+++++++++++++++++++++++

Ideally you could also use '~' tilde to designate where the transaction details begin: such as

Code: Select all

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.

Thanks in advance

[daleadmin]

Jon has told me that I had to add 3 fields to the parameters for transmitting file. I have done so and you can download the BETA 2 test version from this link. This is a full program download (.EXE files only) with the new feature. http://www.dhpos.com/pos701b2.ex
Remember after downloading the program file to change .EX to .EXE then run the file to pop out all the program files. If you want to test this program you can see what files end up in the SEND folder.

If you used the previous beta test version YOU MUST delete the current SEND.DAT file in your POS folder.

New fields means that the instructions have changed http://www.dhpos.com/send.pdf

Jon is still working on the program file that will actually transmit the files. However he is taking a break until Monday to be with the family. I will post here when there is more progress,

Dale

[daleadmin]

roxy99,

The problem with changing the lines on the printout is that there is only one line of code that prints all the lines. Then the program uses CALL LN from various parts of the program to print the line. This means that I would have to add code for each different line to the program.

However I have given some thought to the concept of a CSV file for the journal. What could be done is when the program closes out is to put code into the MALLFILE.EXE program that would read all the transactions from the .REC file for the day and from that make the CSV file. That way all the code goes into MALLFILE.EXE (which has piles of free code space) and not POS.EXE (which has almost no free code space left.)

I hope that you are not in a hurry for this because I have plenty of stuff in the pipeline before I could begin to work on this and once I do start it is going to take a while to code this.

Dale

[roxy99]

Dale,

No hurries since I've already developed my parser to workaround the limitation and it creates its own csv file for me. The main benefit for me is my code would be more efficient if you had the feature but its not the end of the world for me.

However for other users' sake I feel it will be extremely useful. Its logical to assume that people who will be transmitting reports electronically will at some point want to be able to easily import the data electronically into as spreadsheet. Therefore csv export of sales data is the next logical upgrade once you finalize the ftp upload feature.

I think your POS system is fantastic by the way. One of these days I'm hopeing to develop a commercial accounting POS system with an integrated general ledger feature. I've learned alot about how a good pos system should work by working with yours.

[lsunw]

Hi,

I think this is a very useful function for DHPOS to be able to export CSV file of details journal. This will very help for import DHPOS transaction into other Accounting software.

looking forward for this function

[billremnant]

Did this ability to export the Journal to a csv file ever get implemented?

I didn't see anything about it in the online instructions.

[daleadmin]

Nope