Point of Sale (POS) Application

[eluser]salbertson[/eluser]

I would definitely develop an iPhone version. Mobile POS via iPhone would be wonderful.

A mobile version would be very handy.

Is it going to interface with physical cash registers?

Eventually I would like to interface with different hardware like cash drawers, receipt printers, and barcode scanners. Most cash drawers are triggered on print, so when the receipt is sent to print the cash drawer pops open. So that should be possible.

What kind of crazy PHP tweakery are you doing to interface with the system outside the browser sandbox? If you have a cash drawer, you’ll need a way to send the signal to open it. If you have a credit card device, you’ll need to interface with that. I think barcode readers work as a standard HID, so that wouldn’t be a problem… I guess I don’t see this as something that PHP is particularly suited to.

The credit card processing could use a third party scanner and run the transaction through a payment gateway such as authorize.net using the point of sale application. For the initial phase a stand-alone credit card terminal, which most small businesses already use, would be sufficient. The point of sale application would just record if payment was made and how much.

What do you think?

The reason I would use PHP and CI is rapid development and rapid distribution that would be impossible for traditional POS systems. Not to mention any store owner anywhere could access their point of sale application from any computer.

Keep em coming, thanks.