Re: new beginner to postgresql. Looking at it for a church

Hello:

I was wondering if anyone has setup a point-of-sale system with postgresql.
Also, I will have to create a database for a church that requires lots of
tables and subcategories. They have 4 different locations and wish to be
interconnected amongst each other, yet remain distinct and autonomous. They
have lots different categories (women's group, kid's group, seminars, etc.)
and funds within funds. Any suggestions/examples of how someone could go
about the data-modeling for this. Also, was thinking of using .php and ruby
to connect them via the net. I will also, require setting up a general
ledger and a full accounting system for them. Inventory for books, cds. I
am looking at multiple sources for them including MySQL, Microsoft.Net
(really, really don't want to go there) and any other suggestions
individuals may have.

Thanks and help is much appreciated.

Pamela

I have one customer running a point of sale system using PostgreSQL and
SQL-Ledger with a fairly heavy set of modifications in SQL-Ledger. Feel
free to contact me off-list if you need any pointers. SQL-Ledger can be
found at http://www.sql-ledger.org. An unofficial wiki with lots of
developer documentation can be found at
http://www.metatrontech.com/sql-ledger-wiki/. A patch file containing
the changes I have made for POS capability enhancements can be found at
http://www.metatrontech.com/projects/ (these enhancements include pole
display support, some printing enhancements, an open drawer button, and
a few other things).

The four location requirement is going to be possibly tricky. You could
do it with one schema per location and then use Slony-I to replicate the
changes back and forth. You could then have a reporting schema that
would be used for your GL reports. This could be done using SQL-Ledger
with some modification and a simple interface in Perl, PHP, Ruby or
another language. With a little work it would probably even be possible
to have a separate instance of SL for reporting the GL activities but
this poses some unique problems, particularly because the data model of
SL doesn't do a good job of protecting the integrity of the data (this
is a particular problem when you are looking at integrating third-party
apps with it). This is not an insoluble problem and it can be solved on
the RDBMS level-- I have a beta patch which alters the schema to protect
the data but it is relatively untested and for this type of app, I don't
want to destribute publically until it has more testing, though if you
want to test it please let me know. At any rate it shows what can be
accomplished within PostgreSQL without even touching the application.

HTH,
Chris Travers
Pamela wrote:

> Hello:
>
> I was wondering if anyone has setup a point-of-sale system with
> postgresql. Also, I will have to create a database for a church that
> requires lots of tables and subcategories. They have 4 different
> locations and wish to be interconnected amongst each other, yet remain
> distinct and autonomous. They have lots different categories (women’s
> group, kid’s group, seminars, etc.) and funds within funds. Any
> suggestions/examples of how someone could go about the data-modeling
> for this. Also, was thinking of using .php and ruby to connect them
> via the net. I will also, require setting up a general ledger and a
> full accounting system for them. Inventory for books, cds. I am
> looking at multiple sources for them including MySQL, Microsoft.Net
> (really, really don’t want to go there) and any other suggestions
> individuals may have.
>
> Thanks and help is much appreciated.
>
> Pamela
>

On Dec 27, 2005, at 7:31 PM, Pamela wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone has setup a point-of-sale system with
> postgresql. Also, I will have to create a database for a church
> that requires lots of tables and subcategories. They have 4
> different locations and wish to be interconnected amongst each
> other, yet remain distinct and autonomous. They have lots different
> categories (women’s group, kid’s group, seminars, etc.) and funds
> within funds. Any suggestions/examples of how someone could go
> about the data-modeling for this. Also, was thinking of using .php
> and ruby to connect them via the net. I will also, require setting
> up a general ledger and a full accounting system for them.
> Inventory for books, cds. I am looking at multiple sources for
> them including MySQL, Microsoft.Net (really, really don’t want to
> go there) and any other suggestions individuals may have.

You might want to consider Drupal/PostgreSQL for the web interface
(Drupal is written in PHP). Each location could have their own "site"
from a single database in different schemas. Common tables for use
with all sites could be managed in another schema. You could create a
Drupal module to provide an interface to the accounting functions.

John DeSoi, Ph.D.
http://pgedit.com/
Power Tools for PostgreSQL

Pamela wrote:
> Hello:
>
>
>
> I was wondering if anyone has setup a point-of-sale system with
> postgresql. Also, I will have to create a database for a church that
> requires lots of tables and subcategories. They have 4 different
> locations and wish to be interconnected amongst each other,

Postgresql can handle such a task, and should make things a little
easier for you if you use schemas to organize your tables etc.

You also have the option to use replication and dblink to do cross
database queries etc.

Don't know about the point of sale question though.

(You mentioned you where new to Postgres)

If you are a windows user be sure to check out PG Lightning Admin, it's
much easier to use than PG Admin III (my opinion, no flames please) and
it priced very inexpensively.

AM Software Design
http://www.amsoftwaredesign.com
Home of PG Lightning Admin for Postgresql