Just because your customer has the scope of needs does not mean they are the scope Satchmo needs. What you are describing is inventory management/supply chain software, pick list software, possibly with an EDI component, and probably long term with an ERP component... all in addition to an online store.
>From http://www.satchmoproject.com/ #Have you been looking for a solid open source framework to build your online store? #Do you need a customized shopping cart built with Python? #Do you need to add a Django based shopping cart to an existing site? #If you answer Yes, to any of these, then Satchmo might be the right tool for you. Satchmo's mission is to use Django to create an open source framework for creating unique and robust online stores. To provide maximum flexibility, Satchmo is licensed under the BSD license. I'm just seeing online store/shopping cart in the description of satchmo. Stock satchmo provides some rather rich data models for products. Because those data models are created in django the SQL side is fairly platform neutral and a nice ORM is in place for automatically updating data in those models (Although it may be more beneficial to have a separate django application and model for data import and perform the update of the Satchmo product tables through an SQL upsert). Barcode reading is a mess. A lot of the barcode reading equipment is just wedged in with the keyboard and whatever is scanned just appears typed in to the PC. Other barcode equipment either attaches serially and the software has to understand what to do with a captured barcode given the current state in the user interface. And then there are headaches like the Symbol terminals which are complete with their own operating system, network protocols, and backend integration. And last, but still miserable to integrate, is image processing off of digital camera images. A quick google of "Python barcode decoding" shows a mess of people answering "Well here is how you generate barcodes," and NADA for actually decoding the barcodes. As for just open source inventory management software in general... I'm not seeing much there either, probably because writing such software isn't fun, is rather hard, and customers that need such software are very demanding. If I were faced with the task you have, I would look to see what commercial inventory management software 1) Works most closely to the existing inventory management procedures used by the customer. 2) Has the best documentation as to how it's storing that inventory data. 3) Is least painful for crafting tools to do batch extracts so data conversion and batch updates to satchmo's product related tables can be done. #1 is key because an inventory management application that expects inventory to be done while sitting in front of a PC will be a miserable fail if incoming and outgoing inventory means walking around the dock with a symbol terminal with barcode scanner. If the customer's existing inventory management system works, I'd look to see if the price goes down if you turn off the existing web store software and roll your own software to move inventory information to satchmo. On Aug 31, 12:07 pm, "Colin (Sandy) Pittendrigh" <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Aug 31, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Griffin Caprio < > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > I think that's a gross generalization. A large percentage of people > > don't even sell products with bar codes. > > > Being a major development doesn't mean it's a good one. I like > > Satchmo for what it does and the fact that it's configurable. My non- > > technical users love it for the Django Admin system that makes product > > management & order management a snap. It Just Works. > > > - Griffin > > I didn't meant to denigrate the good work that's already been done. > I'm just trying to learn what Satchmo can and can't do. > I should have waited 'til I knew more. > > I asked about customer tracking and bar code reading because I have > an outstanding request for that right now, from someone I know personally-- > a guy who has a good bricks-and-mortar store now, combined with a > poorly-performing > shopping cart. He sees online sales as his only avenue towards growth, > because although the walk-in trade is lucrative, it's been static for > several > years now. > > He wants a soup-to-nuts system, that builds an inventory database with > a bar code reader, that integrates with a shopping cart, that provides him > with point and click customer tracking and report writing.....in order to > identify his best customers, > best performing products, etc. > > The money he is (almost) prepared to spend is amazing. I don't know enough > to supply him with what he needs just yet. But it makes me think this is a > lucrative > niche that needs filling. > > -- > /* Colin (Sandy) Pittendrigh >--oO0> */ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Satchmo users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/satchmo-users?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
