>We have an order entry/inventory control program that is written in VFP for a Novell Network. Now we would like to include a point-of-sale computer on the network that includes a cash drawer, bar code reader, and receipt printer.
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>Does anyone have any information as to how to do this? I've looked through 3 years of back issues of FoxPro Advisor but can't find a single article about how this can be accomplished.
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>Thanks in advance.

I think things are made to complicated here with OLE for POS and all kinds of OCX's :

- tickterprinters :
- receipt and journal (optional)
- slipprinter (optional)
- cutter (optional, partial cut, full cut)
- connector for one or more cashdrawers
- connector for customer display
all these options can be activated using specific printercodes (model/brand specific). Mayor brands today (I believe) : Epson and Citizen
- customer display : see printer
- cash drawers : see printer
- barcode : generally connects between keyboard and computer. Scanner (whatever model) similates keyboard strokes. Advantages : keyboard and scanner can be used transparently. Disadvantage : when a scan is done when the program doesn't expect it, the program may get confused. Alternative : use a scanner on another port (probably serial port), but programming is more difficult because when a scan is expected, keyboard and scannner need to be polled (I have the impression but I may be wrong here, that in most cases keyboard connection is used) Scanners are in some way programmable (codetype that are/aren't read, etc ...) and one of the possilities eg is to let precede the barcode by a special character so the difference between keyboard strokes can be made.
Marketleader for scanning is SYMBOL (not the cheapest, but the best !), alternatives are metrologic, datalogic ...

Other hardware : IBM and Epson have PC based systems that integrate hardware parts together, eg the ITU series from epson are a ticketprinter (with journal and slip) with in the same box a pentium PC and optionally a touch screen. Add a drawer and a scanner and of you go ...

About the concept of the POS program : 1000 people ; 1000 opinions, here is mine : POS operators are usually no computer specialists so keep it simple. Generally they've never touched a computer and if for example you ask them to power off and on the PC they actually turn of the screen ...
The program I developed has a different interface from what we're used to with programming in VFP :
- no mouse used
- keep keyboard input to a minimum
- instead of having for each input (prodid, qty, payed, etc ...) a seperate field as in 99.99 % is used, I have only one inputfield and depending on the key that terminated the input, the actual input is considered as prodid, qty, payed, discount etc... . I came to this concpt when I looked to a classic cashdrawer : you have only an input field for numeric data (the display), a number is entered and them a key for every action ....

Another conceptual thing that you should think of ; suppose you have your server and/or network down ; can you accept that you POS computers aren't usable anymore due to the fact the server can't be reached anymore ? My solution : every POS computer has it's copy of the essential data needed to work (productfile) and saves the sales on it's local disc. Only on demand data is exchanged with the server. This system has other advantages and of course also disadvantages ...

I'll stop for now but while writing, I think of different other things you must consider, fire you're questions ...