13000 item stock table BETA test

[Dale Harris]

The "History" feature has been upgraded to 15000 different items and 14 digit stock numbers. However "pieces" will still be rounded off to 2 decimal places when looking at the raw history file.

Since the history file is now 15000 items I had to make some big changes in the way the program access it after the sale to speed it up. It was taking way too long to store new items if many items not yet in the history file were rung up in one sale. So it needs a lot of testing.

Remember that the "Reports" feature has not yet been converted (it is next) so you cannot use "Reports" to view the history, you must use the "Sale history" feature in the POSCONFG.EXE program and then press [F4] to view the raw history file.

Also you can now set the "Vendor" number up to 13000 for searches of the "Vendor stock number" during a sale.

http://keyhut.com/beta.htm

[Guest]

The "History" feature has been upgraded to 15000 different items and 14 digit stock numbers. However "pieces" will still be rounded off to 2 decimal places when looking at the raw history file.

Wasn't 13,000 was the absolute limit?

How did it get to 15,000?

Baz.

[Dale Harris]

Barry,

The history file was always larger than the stock table. The old stock table had a limit of 5000 items and the old history file had a limit of 6000. This allows for new items to replace discontinued items over the course of a year. The discontinued items would be removed from the stock table once they were sold out but the history file had to keep track of them for a year after they were sold out.

The stock table has a theoretical limit of 16000 items without drastically changing the way the program works (and making it much slower) but that assumes that all string space in the program is used only for the index and obviously there are other strings in the program than the index. The history file uses a different, slower method to find the items that does not use quite as much space per item.

[Dale Harris]

Well it has been a while since I last posted an update on the "13000" beta test version of the POS program so here is what's happening.

There were a couple of problems with the "history" feature updating the history file after a sale. I think that I have that all fixed.

I then started working on the "Reports" feature to be able to handle 15000 items. (Remember that if you want to make a "History" report that the history file will keep track of more items than the stock table.)

The old "reports" sort routines had to sort only 5000 items and since each number to be sorted contained a possible 3 digit vendor/category number + a 13 digit stock number + a 4 digit index (20 digits) I could stuff it all into a currency array and sort it all at once. Now I have to deal with a 3 digit vendor/category number + a 14 digit stock number + a 5 digit index (22 digits) which will not fit into a currency array so I was going to split it up between 2 double precision arrays. Well guess what, the largest double precission array you can dimension is 8191 cells, far short of 15000. so I broke it up into 2 long interger arrays and a interger array and had no problem dimensioning the arrays but ran out of memory. Gee, this is fun

So to make room I took the "stock table" feature out of the FILEINFO.EXE program and stuffed it into the CF2.EXE program and spent the last two days re-debugging CF2.EXE. So now I have enough memory in the FILEINFO.EXE program to store the arrays that I need to sort for the "Reports" feature. Wee!!!!

After doing all this I have come up with the POS 13000 beta test version 6.0F which you can download here http://keyhut.com/beta.htm This time I need you to test the "history" feature and all parts of the "stock table" feature.

I will start whacking on the "Reports" feature until I get it to work.

[Dale Harris]

The "Reports" feature is now finished. Download the latest here http://keyhut.com/beta.htm

All that is left is to upgrade the receive/inventory and purchase programs.

[Dale Harris]

The "Receive / Inventory" program (RECEIVE.EXE) is now finished. Download the latest here http://keyhut.com/13000h.zip

Since there is now a whole lot more stuff that can now be in your store (13000 different items) I have increased the number of allowable inventory count slips from 500 to 910.

Why 910? Because that will drive Chris Kraus nuts, that's why.

All that is left is to upgrade the purchase program.

And then the user's guides.

[Bobby]

Hello Dale,

I noticed that in posconfig, when you scroll through the functions, the description for stock table still says 5000 items. Also, in the vendor list function, it has been changed to incorporate the 13000 items, but it still says 5000 items.

Also, just noticed that from posconfig, i cannot access the inventory or receiving functions. It gives me this error:

Out of string space in line 1 of module POSFIG3 at address 1E60:7A42.

It does this in both pos and posconfg.

Thanks Dale,
Bobby

[Dale Harris]

Version BETA 6.0J

Well finally. This is the complete beta test of POS version 6.0. All features have been added to all of the program files.

WARNING! This version will rewrite your stock table files so that they will no longer be able to be used by the current release version 5.0? of the POS program. Therefore you MUST create a new folder on your hard drive, copy all the files in your current POS folder to the new folder, then download http://keyhut.com/beta.htm to the NEW folder and then unzip / extract the files. This will leave everything in your current folder intact, both the program files and the data files.

New features to version 6.0.

13000 items.
The maximum number of different items in the stock table has been increased from 5000 to 13,000. If you keep track of your sales history the maximum number of different items that you can sell in an entire year has been increased to 15,000. Since you may be inventoring a lot more items in your store the maximum number of count slips for taking inventory has been increased from 500 to 910.

The stock table is scaleable from 0 lines (no stock table is used) to 13,000 in increments of 1000. Smaller stock tables run faster and can be copied to a floppy, larger stock tables hold more items. The stock table can be resized at any time.

SCC-14 complient stock numbers.
Starting at the beginning of 2005 the new international standard for stock numbers will be 14 digits. While this program will not check to make sure that a stock number is a valid SCC-14 number it will allow you to use any stock number from 1 to 14 digits.

3 decimal places on pieces.
You may now use up to 3 decimal places (0.000) when entering "pieces", for example pieces to being rung up, pieces sold, and inventory. So if you are selling 4 3/8 of a yard of fabric you can ring up 4.375 "pieces" of a yard. Selling potting soil? Ring up 12.378 Kg.

Sale prices.
This is the feature that everyone is going to love. The stock table has a new column for "Sale price." Enter a sale price into this new column and it will over-ride the regular price. This is true even if the "sale price" is higher than the regular price. When the sale is over all you have to do is to delete the sale price and the regular price will be reinstated, you do not have to re-enter the regular price.

There is more. You can make price changes now and store them as files to be used later. To do this first backup your current prices (regular prices and sale prices are saved as separate files.) Now make any changes in the prices you want to use later and save them as files. Reload the current price list. Important note: if you are doing this on networked computers you must do it when the store is closed. If you change prices while other registers are active then the other registers will use whatever prices are in the stock table while you are making changes.

You can use the saved sale price lists to "build a sale." Assume that you have sales on different items that start and end on different days. For example....
<pre>
PRODUCT LINE SALE STARTS SALE ENDS
CROSS PENS 5-16-2004 6-30-2004
MUSIC BOXES 5-2-2004 8-14-2004
DESK SETS 5-14-2004 5-21-2004
KEYS 5-9-2004 7-12-2004
KWIKSET LOCKS 5-21-2004 6-15-2004
</pre>


To "build a sale" for 5-14-2004 you would first backup the current sale prices, then erase sale prices from the stock table. The program will erase an entire price list from the stock table for you. Assuming that at a previous time that you had saved a sale price list for each of the sales listed above, all you have to do now is load the sale price lists for CROSS PENS, MUSIC BOXES, DESK SETS, and KEYS but not KWIKSET LOCKS because they will not be on sale until 5-21. Now save the file using the "date" filename 20040514. Don't forget to reload the price list that you
backed up.

Note that loading a new price list will not erase the current prices, it will only change the prices that are in the new list. BTW, when you save a price list any item that has a price of 0.00 will not be saved, therefore you cannot change any price to 0.00 by loading a price list.

If an item is on sale in two different price lists, the price loaded last will be in effect. For example if a clock is listed as 23.85 in the "Bulova" sale price file and the same clock is listed as 25.78 in the "Clock" sale price file then the sale price that will be used on that clock will be 23.85 if the "Bulova" sale file was loaded last but 25.78 if the "Clock" sale was loaded last.

The reason that you want to save a price list using a "date" file name is that when you start the POS.EXE program it will look for a price change that begins on today's date. If it finds one it will automatically load the new price list. This will work for both regular and sale prices, however having the POS.EXE program load a regular price list will not erase all current regular prices first, loading a sale price list WILL erase all sale prices first.

A "date" file name must be in this format YYYYMMDD where YYYY is a four digit year (2004), MM is a two digit month (03 not just 3), and DD is a two digit day (08 not just 8). Therefore a "date" filename for January, 8th, 2004 would be 20040108. Make sure that "0" are zeros and not capital letter "O".

NETWORKS.
I have not pointed this out before but it is very important that if you are using this program on a network that you start the copy of the POS.EXE program in the GLOBAL folder first thing in the morning. Only the copy of POS.EXE in the GLOBAL folder will update files that need to be updated on a timely basis like the price files and the history file. Once you see the main menu, the global copy of POS.EXE will have made any updates required and it may closed down.

[Dale Harris]

Bobby,

I fixed all the occurances of "5000" you mentioned.

I also fixed the bug when loading the inventory / receiving program.

In addition I also changed inventory / receiving program to return you to the POSCONFG.EXE program when you exit if that is where you came from.

[BarryH]

Hi Dale,

I'm testing the latest version of POS now, any bugs i'll report em!

also, can you make inventory count slips equal to exactly 1000 instead of 910? It seems such as unusual number

Barry.

[Andrew]

Initial findings in 6.0J

#1
An unlikely occurence but, if you don't run POSCONFG, and access the stock table (Stock Table / F4 key), and allow POS to convert. You will get an error when attempting to run RECEIVE.EXE

The problem went away after accessing the stock table as if to edit it, thus triggering CONVERT.

#2
If you access POSCONFG from within POS.EXE, then exit POSCONFG - it doesn't return you to POS.EXE, it just exits.

#3
POLE.DAT outputs register name incorrectly, chopping some of the first characters off - ComputerWorks became "rWorks" but appears correctly within POS, just affecting the flash pole display program etc.

Here's the complete line from POLE.DAT sitting at the main menu, this is from register B (non global):

<pre>
WELCOME TO erWorks Taranaki Ltd0 0
</pre>

[Dale Harris]

Barry,

If you remember the INVENTORY program uses a blue square to represent the each of the count slips. As you enter the data from each count slip the small part of the blue square that represents that count slip will turn purple. The old blue square was 50 x 10 so you got 500 slots. The new blue square is about as large as I can make it at 70 X 13. I could make it a little wider, at 74 X 13 that would give you 962 but that will still be an unusual number so I think that I will leave it at 910.

[Dale Harris]

Andrew,

#1, It is so unlikely that I am not going to do anything about it.

#2, I have fixed this in 6.0K

#3, Then the flash pole display progrm needs fixing.

[BarryH]

Dear dale,

Initially I thought the 910 business was deliberate to drive people nuts!

Well Now I know....

[Dale Harris]

Here is something new. In version BETA 6.0L, only from the POSCONFG.EXE program, if you press [F12] whatever text is on the screen will be printed on your printer.

Yes, you heard me correctly, on your printer. Not a graphic in your clipboard but actually on your printer.

This is great to print out instructions from the program and your settings for various functions.

Be warned, I did not spend a great amount of time on this. While it will work fine with a 80 column wide computer printer attached to the parallel printer port if you are using a USB printer (or any printer that requires the APRINT program to print) it may not print from some portions of the program. For receipt printers it will not reformat the screen to 40 characters, each line will be split in half and be printed on 2 lines on receipt printers usually splitting the word in the middle.

http://keyhut.com/beta.htm