windows 7 (tablet) odbc

[Steve Denney]

Hi, I've got a tablet running windows 7 32bit. It is a tablet, but as far as I can tell the operating system is standard.

I'm trying to put our ordering app on it. This app gets data (i.e. product & client details) from a local MS Access database via odbc, works fine on desktop pcs... but, it doesn't work on the tablet.

I've set up the database as an odbc data source.

The windows odbc drivers are all much newer versions than those the app has worked with in the past.

Do livecode's database drivers no longer work with the shipped odbc drivers?

Is there something I'm missing?

Any help much appreciated.
Steve

[Steve Denney]

Hi, ok fixed. I simply had to remove the file extension from the DSN name (so both connection string & odbc data source names exactly matched). Oh, was so worried for a while, we're commited to buying. So sorry if reading this has wasted anyone's time.

The good news is livecode seems to work well with these windows 7 tablets, which you can find here...
http://www.motioncomputing.com.au/

I made a keyboard & num pad in anticipation but I don't think I'll need them. The ones that came with the comp actually work with my lc app. You can't write freehand into the lc fields (with the stylus) but you can touch a lc field, up pops the pc's keyboard with a field beside it, you write into that field, it gets turned into text & you hit insert to put it into the lc app. Or you can just type with the virtual keyboard.
Nifty.
Rotate it & the screen changes from landscape to portrait
Also nifty.
Kind of like how I hoped the ipad would be--a real computer (NB we did get a docking station, otherwise no usb).
Steve

[Bernard]

Thanks for drawing my attention to these windows tablets. Sounds like a device that I could imagine being useful to customers (especially with the bar-code reader).

[Steve Denney]

Hi, I've realised a couple of the things in my previous post (the tablet ad ) weren't 100% correct.

The tablet's built-in keyboard does not open automatically on openField (or focusin), although this does occur with some (all?) windows apps. It requires an extra user-click on the keyboard icon to open it, at which point the tablet does recognize the currently selected object (so it's no real biggie, but a little annoying--an extra click). I imagine this could be changed if you knew a little VB (which I can't be bothered learning, I'm going with my own pop-up custom keyboard which works just fine).

And there is a usb on the tablet (just not a network card, this, along with further usbs, you can get on a docking station).

I'm looking forward to trying the barcode reader, the plan is to use it for stocktaking.

I'm really impressed with the tablet, especially the handwriting recognition (it's like magic, or stolen alien technolgy).
Steve

[bangkok]

What about Anroid tablets ?

You can now developp for Android with LiveCode. Many models, different screen sizes etc.

I'm looking into it, like you, for a "portable barcode reader station" for inventory tasks... linked to a servern throught wifi.

Big advantage : it's cheap.

The portable barcode readers are insanely (and stupidely) expensive.

I believe Android tablet + Wifi + LiveCode + regular USB barcode readers is the perfect recipe for small businesses.

[Steve Denney]

Hi Bangkok
We did consider android & ipad tablets (which were also quite a bit cheaper) but went with windows for several reasons.
The biggest being these tablets could run a local database i.e. mysql, ms sql, ms access so the user could have full functionality even if not connected to the web.
Other considerations were that the reps (and boss) could have them in lieu of the away-from-base laptops they already use (again with full functionality. They are a bit fiddly to work with, but they're much, much smaller & lighter).
And I hoped they'd work with our current software pretty much as is--especially lc, which has turned out to be the case. I've only had to do some re-sizing on start up, triggered by screen rez (oh, and the keyboards).
As to the barcode readers, in this case they have to be portable. The reps visit client's businesses. BTW for our purposes the barcode idea is 2ndry, while in-store the reps do a quick stock take of the products we supply but mainly they're there to showcase products (which they can now display on-screen while walking around the store) and take orders (ditto for walking around).
Barcode reading is attractive though since the rep could wave the tablet at the shelf & up would pop the product on-screen (which might speed up ordering), but we probably won't get around to this for some time.
Steve