Importing from a hand held computer

[Guest]

I have an inventory program that we us a hand held computer to collect the data. The hand held is connected to the main computer via a wedge which lets the hand held act like a keyboard. I want to import the data from the hand held into a table in my database. There is a program in the hand held that will send the data via the wedge to the computer. In my DOS based program I would called up the windows edit program and the data would go directly into this. I would then import that into a table in the DOS database. I'm now converting the DOS system to a windows based and need to do something like that. Does anybody have any suggestions as how to do this with access?
Thanks for any help I can get

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

I would consider doing much the same things.

So, just bring up notepad, and then start the transfer.

You don't mention how many lines on average needs to get transferred. (if it
was not too many, I would consider setting up a input windows in ms-access,a
nd that eliminate the "extra" step of saving the data in notepad.

however, would get one thing done at a time. So, the idea here is to simply
bring up notepad. Do the transfer, and then save the text file.

And, ms-access like most database programs as a good deal of options to
import a text file.

So, the only 'neat' idea here is if you want to use ms-access to receive the
data directly, and skip/eliminate that capture into notepad.

 

[Guest]

Albert,

Thanks for the quick response, I was going to consider that but not to sure how to bring up notepad from within Access, how do you bring up notepad or for that mater any other program from access?

Tom

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

Albert,

Thanks for the quick response, I was going to consider that but not to

sure how to bring up notepad from within Access, how do you bring up notepad
or for that mater any other program from access?


Well, if make note:

Just put up a text box on a form. That text box can handle quite a bit of
data. Make sure the Enter key setting creates a new line. You don't need
notepad, or anything else. We can suck the data right into ms-access using
the above idea. However, the question remains:

How many lines we talking here? A few hundred, maybe a 1000 max would work
here. If it is 5000 lines, then we have to fire the stupid programmer, have
him call his kids home from college, and he must work in the salt mines for
the rest of his life! What is a great idea here for a small amount of data
is REALLY brain dead for a large amount (In one case, the developer will
look like a hero, in the other case he should be fired for incompetence).

So, how large these data transfers are is the real key. What is reasonable
for a small amount of data is really brain dead for a large amount.

So, the approach here is going to depend on the volumes of data in one
transfer (so, how big is the file, how many lines get transferred etc). If
the number as a mater of course is quite small, then you can get away doing
the transfer right inside ms-access.

Just make a nice big form,a nd place in the form a nice large text box. You
can even draw it to look as nice and large as the white space you see when
typing a email message in outlook.

As mentioned, set the enter key behavior (in the other tab) for this text
box to go to a new line.

Put your cursor in this text box..and start typing typing, or transfer.

You can now take that screen and move/parse the data right into a table.

Of course, you place a few nice looking buttons at the top to clear, and
"save" the data screen after the transfer is done..