Weighing scale integration with Progress App

[coredump]

Hi Guys

I've been a member for a few days now. Been following postings and threads for a good while now and must say that I find it to be a good source of knowledge for everybody.

Anyway to cut matters short I'm investigating the possible integration of weighing scales with Progress App. Essentially when the user weighs an item the approx. weight will be transferred to the application to be used in further processing. The client's core business focus is diamonds, gold and other precious stones. Actual weight for them is extremely important therefore they would want to eliminate where possible the potential risks of doing manual weighing by users.

I basically want to establish how feasible this is by getting a feeling for all the variables which would most probably be involved.

The current system infrastructure is as follow:
1. Linux ES 3
2. Progress v9.1D
3. Character based 4GL ..connect to app via terminal emulator
4. Would most probably need to have ± 25 scales integrated.

Much appreciated

 

[gcampbell]

If I assume your OS will be Linux (for both server and desktop), then I'd say that you'd need to find some scale software that can utilize pipes.

Later,
Gordon

 

[coredump]

Only server OS is Linux. Desktops runs XP with windows/ unix emulator to connect to Progress App. In short the environment is host based.

What I want to understand is how will the scales communicate with the application. Would a third party package really be required and why?

 

[gcampbell]

You'll need some software that can interface with the scales. The vendor should provide a mechanism because Progress can't handle it directly ... so you will need either a third-party mechanism or a vendor-supplied mechanism which you'll need to integrate to Progress (using either named pipes, OCX or some other method).

Later,
Gordon