I have sent back the MSSBA program to MS (they have a 30day guarantee on all of thier products...thats kinda nice Bill)

I finished the install of sql-ledger and am pleasantly shocked at how easy it is to use! I should have this fully integrated with my online OSCommerce website byt Dec 1st at the latest.

The install was a bitch, mostly because I use SuSE Linux, most other flavors install much easier. Here is a list of what I had to do:
-Installed Apache - most flavors of linux already have it installed!
-Installed LWP, DBI, and a few other modules from cpan - the auto-install works great from cpan, dont do it manually!
-Installed Postgres, but Oracle can also be installed for free now ... trying to decide if I want to do that, but the Postgres is working so nice....
-Modified my $ENV variables as SuSE has stuff in strange places, and putting stuff in rc files to kick off Apache and Postgres on boot.
-Currently modifying my Intranet wifi deelie to allow me to hit the server with my wifi from my laptops and etc.
-Replaced the SQL-Ledger grafixs with my own, on invoices etc and anywhere in the scripts I see them... it gets these grafix from the SL website and it slows things down so you might as well use your own!

The interface is SUPER easy to use, and I modified the invoices etc in minutes so they look great, right from the interface.
I am writing an export program to update the inventory online from the SL. Basically I am adding a SELL_ONLINE field to the database, and by clicking a button, the software will hit the site for the product to make sure that the product is listed, or will crawl the site after 1am and check to make sure all products are listed and the inventory/pricing is up to date online.

Twice a day, the software will go to the site and dump down transactions and put them in a queue to process. I will have a list of all sales and can select "Process Credit Card" to send the transaction to my processor and reveal the approval status... if all is okay, I just hit a SHIP button and it goes to UPS, and out comes the UPS label, packing slips, and invoice (and customs form if exporting) The interface also shows Paypal payments or "Mailing payment" status etc.
It also updates the online status to "Waiting for UPS pickup", so the customer can see that status if they log on.
Future mods will be a multi-box shipping feature, as many of my items have to be in a box of thier own... that will automagically figure the weight for each box and take care of sending those to UPS, and split the items across packing slips.

John
midwesttent.com