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

Thanks Chris: I will contact you if they decided to go with this.

Pamela

-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org
[mailto:pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Chris Travers
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2005 10:12 AM
To: pamela(at)bizwaves(dot)net
Cc: pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] new beginner to postgresql. Looking at it for a
church

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
>

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