On HandOn HandVersion 3.6
May 2004
On Hand is a powerful tool for performing inventories using a Palm Computing platform handheld device. Inventories can be taken manually on a standard unit, such as a Palm III, and can also be taken using the built-in barcode scanner of the Symbol SPT 15xx/17xx/18xx, the plug-in barcodes scanners available for the Handspring Visor (the Symbol CSM150 and the PSC Momentum), or the Socket Communications SDIO scanner which plugs into any Palm handheld with an SDIO slot, including most current Zire, Tungsten, and Treo models, as well as some earlier models like the m500 and m505. The software is designed to be entirely button driven, so that a complete inventory can be taken not only without requiring knowledge of Graffiti (tm), but without even using a stylus; this allows the user to hold the device in one hand while positioning items to be inventoried with the other hand. Inventories can be taken using a catalog of items which has been downloaded into the handheld device, in which case the items will be identified by name as seen at the left, or they can be taken "from scratch," collecting barcodes (and quantities) of any items at hand. In either case, the resulting information is then HotSync'ed back to the desktop, creating a simple text file (tab-delimited or comma-separated) which can be easily imported into any existing desktop database, spreadsheet, or other business management software.
The complete software package consists of the following items:
For Windows, the following two additional files are used:
For Macintosh, the following one additional file is used:
Windows:
If you should ever wish to deinstall the conduit, you'll find a program named SCS Conduit Uninstaller.exe inside the On Hand folder which contains the conduit. Run (by double-clicking) the uninstaller and the conduit will be uninstalled.
Macintosh:
Verify that the standard Palm desktop software, including the "HotSync Manager" software, is installed on your computer. If HotSync Manager is not installed or running, do not proceed, but return to the manual that accompanied your Palm, Symbol, or Handspring handheld unit, and follow the instructions there to properly install the desktop software.
Drag the file On Hand Conduit into the Conduits folder inside your Palm folder (or wherever your Palm software is stored). Now start the HotSync Manager application (most typically using the "instant Palm menu" on the right end of your menu bar). In HotSync Manager, select Conduit Settings under the HotSync menu. You should now see the conduit named "On Hand" listed. Double-click on it to bring up the settings window. We'll discuss the settings for the On Hand conduit below. Verify at this time that the "Install" conduit is set to "Install files". Close the Conduit Settings window by clicking on the close box in the upper left corner.
Now select Install from the HotSync menu, click on the Add To List button, and use the file browser to locate the file OnHand.prc, and click on Add File. Close the Install Handheld Files window by clicking on the close box in the upper left corner.
The next time you HotSync your handheld unit, two things will happen. First, the On Hand software will be installed into the handheld unit. Next, a folder named On Hand will be created in your user directory (see below for a diagram of where this folder is located). It is in that On Hand folder that subsequent actions (uploading inventories and downloading new catalogs) will occur. Each handheld unit into which you install On Hand software will have its own user name, its own user folder, and its own On Hand sub-folder. After you install the software and the conduit and this folder has been created by the HotSync, then you'll be able to set up a "catalog" to be installed into the software as described below.
To de-install the conduit, simply drag it out of the Conduits folder.
If your software is not licensed, the handheld software is completely functional,
but, when you HotSync the data, only the first five items on the list will be HotSynced
back to your desktop. To license your software, select About On Hand from
the Configure Menu in the On Hand software. In the screen which appears (below),
enter your serial number (SN). If you enter the correct number, your software will
be licensed (and you'll see this indicated if you return to the "About"
screen).
Once the software (and, optionally, the catalog) is installed on your handheld unit, go to the Applications window of your handheld and look for the On Hand icon:
Tapping on the icon will start the application, and you'll see a screen like the one shown below. Let's review the basic controls:
In the upper right is a popup list which controls which items are displayed on screen. You select an option by tapping on the list.
The main part of the screen shows the list of items. At the very left edge may be a right-facing "highlight arrow"; if present, this arrow indicates the "active" item which will be modified by the quantity buttons. In the next column appears the quantity of the item; zeroes are omitted (all quantities will be omitted in Barcodes Only mode, and instead are replaced by a simple item or index number so you can see how many barcodes you have collected). The rightmost 3/4 of each line shows the name of the item (if known), or the barcode (if the name is not known).
Below the list of items are a series of buttons labelled 0 through 9 and C (for Clear) and + (for Addition). Tapping on one or more of these buttons will adjust the number of the active (highlighted) item, but as we'll see in a second, you'll rarely need to do this.
At the bottom of the screen are four buttons and two scroll arrows. Each of these buttons and the scroll arrows are "tied" to the physical (hardware) buttons which appear directly below them on the handheld unit. The "+10", "-1", and "+1" buttons, which change the quantity of the active item by +10, -1, or +1, respectively, can either be tapped on (like a normal button in the Palm operating system), or you can simply press the Datebook, Address Book, or ToDo List buttons on the case. The rightmost button is a "scan" button, which triggers the barcode scanner if the handheld has a scanner, or allows manual entry of a barcode on non-scanning handhelds. Like the other buttons you can either tap it directly, or push the MemoPad button immediately below it on the case to trigger its action. Use of the scan button is essential if you are using a Handspring Visor with the plug-in Symbol CSM150 scanner, or a Palm device with the Socket Communications SDIO scanner, neither of which have a dedicated trigger button. If you are using a Symbol SPT15xx, SPT17xx, or SPT18xx, there are two dedicated trigger buttons on the case of the unit itself, but you may find the placement of the MemoPad button on the lower right hand corner of the case provides an even easier way to trigger the scanner.
The scroll arrows (or the hardware rocker switch below them) scroll items on the screen up and down one "screen's worth". You can also use Graffiti and enter "t" (for "top") or "b" (for "bottom") to scroll to the top and bottom of the list quickly, as long as the database is NOT sorted alphabetically.
The final element of the program are the menus, which contain a variety of settings, options, and actions. To access any menu option, first tap the Menu button in the lower left of the screen. Depending on which screen you are using, one or more menus will appear on the top line of the screen. In the example below, from the main screen, you see three options (Inventory, Configure, and Print). Usually, but not always, one or the other of these menus will be "opened" (in this example, the Inventory menu is opened). If the menu you want is open, just tap on the desired option. If the menu is not open, first tap on the menu title (e.g., Configure) to open the desired menu, and then tap on the desired option.
The various menu options will be discussed below, as appropriate.
The final feature of the software, which is optional, is the catalog or database of items. It isn't necessary to start with any information in the software at all; On Hand can be used to collect information "from scratch." There are several reasons, however, why you may want to start by downloading a catalog of items into the handheld:
If you do want to install a catalog into the software to start, the process for
doing so is described later in the manual.
Before you use the software for the first time, select Scanning in the Configure menu
This configuration screen will appear:
There are a number of things you can configure on this screen:
If you have a copy of ScanConfig installed on your unit, you can access it to configure the scanner parameters by selecting Scanner Setup in the Configure menu. ScanConfig will start, and you can establish the desired configuration (as described in the ScanConfig manual). When you are finished, tap Done and you'll be returned to On Hand .
When you tap the stylus icon, a special screen will appear into which you can "hand enter" a barcode, either by tapping the buttons, or by using standard Palm "Graffiti".
If you use the hand entry screen a second time, the previous hand-entered barcode will appear on the dotted line, highlighted. This is because often you might want to enter a barcode similar to the one just entered, so this way you don't need to re-enter all the digits, but instead can just change the digits you want to change. Because the old number appears highlighted, however, if you DO want to enter a completely new number, don't worry about erasing it, because as soon as you tap any of the number buttons or enter a number with Graffiti, the entire number will be replaced by your new number.
If you are using On Hand on a Palm WITHOUT a barcode scanner, "hand scanning" is ALWAYS active, regardless of the setting of this checkbox, and in that case, you access the manual entry screen by tapping the Scanner icon on the screen (there will be no stylus icon).
|
Special Configuration: AutoRepeat Keys The physical buttons on a Palm device (such as the MemoPad button) are normally "AutoRepeat" buttons, that is, holding them down is the same as pressing them repeatedly. In the standard configuration of On Hand, this feature is intentionally DISabled (just within the On Hand application, not permanently), so that holding the MemoPad button down will NOT cause the scanner to trigger repeatedly, or holding the ToDo button down will only increase the count by one, rather than causing the count in increment rapidly by ones as long as the button is held down. We believe most users find this default configuration desirable; if you really want to scan multiple times or increase the count multiple times, just press the button more than once. However, some users prefer the AutoRepeat capability. To re-enable AutoRepeat, while you are on the Configure->Scanner screen, enter an "a" (for Autorepeat) or an "r" (for Repeat) into the Graffiti area. You will see a message reading "AutoRepeat Keys have been enabled." Entering another "a" or "r" will turn this feature off again and display "AutoRepeat Keys have been disabled." |
Configuring the Note/Location in the Configure menu can also be
a critical item to do before collecting any data. The note serves many functions.
One possibility is to attach individual notes to relevant items (like "damaged"
or something like that). The more common use is to attach a fixed note to each item,
and to do this, we must select Note from the Configure menu, which
will show this screen:
The contents of the note are up to you. The note might contain fixed text which
is required by your desktop software (e.g., "PHYS" might indicate physical
inventory), it might contain the initials of the person collecting the inventory
and the date, it might contain a code representing the location of the item as discussed
in the previous section of the manual, or any other relevant information. "Copy
to all items during HotSync" means that when you perform the HotSync, the note
you enter will be added to every item that is written to the Inventory.txt
file; it will not be added to individual Note fields on the handheld database itself.
The second alternative is "Copy to items when scanned"; the use of this
feature is discussed below in the MultiLocation Inventory
Collection section. "Date stamp scanned items" and "Date,
time stamp scanned items" should be self-explanatory. The final option, "Use
scanned SNs," is discussed below in the Serial Number
Collection section. With any of the final three options, there is no need
to enter anything in the Note section of this screen, since it will be ignored and
replaced by the desired information.
Also the first time you use the program, you may want to sort the inventory to make data collection easier; this is particularly true if data are to be collected by hand. To do this, select Sort from the Inventory menu, and you'll see this screen:
Select the option you prefer, and click OK. When you download inventory catalogs into your handheld in the future, the next time you run On Hand the catalog will automatically be sorted into your preferred order, even if it wasn't in that order on the desktop. An explanation of the various sort modes:
Now you're ready to start. If you are collecting inventories via barcode scanning, simply point the unit at the barcode and press one of the two green scan buttons on the upper left and right of the unit (these aren't present on the Handspring Visor with the plug-in scanner), tap the scan button on the lower right of the screen, or press the MemoPad button immediately below that. As you do so, items which are scanned will appear on the screen (we'll assume you have selected the Greater Than 0 mode so that only scanned items appear, and set the quantity to increment when scanned, as shown at the right). If the scanned item is in your catalog, its name will appear; otherwise (or if you have no catalog), the barcode will appear (or not, depending on your configuration of what to do when an item is not found).
Once an item is scanned and highlighted, you can change the quantity in several different ways. The most convenient is to press the +1 or Address Book button (the one with the phone on it) repeatedly to increment the count (or the +10 ToDo button if the quantity is large). You can also scan the item repeatedly (note that this will drain the batteries more rapidly), use a stylus (or your fingernail) to tap the 0, +1, +10, or -1 buttons, or use a stylus (or your fingernail) to tap on the numeric buttons just below the list. These numbers act as a numeric keypad, so if you want to enter "45", just tap "4" and then "5". The only "non-standard" behavior is the C (Clear) button. If the display is in show All mode, then tapping C sets the quantity to 0, as you might expect. If the display is in Greater Than 0 mode, however, setting the quantity to 0 would cause the item to disappear from the screen, which would be unexpected, so in this case tapping C sets the quantity to 1 (you can set the quantity to 0 by tapping the 0 button). The maximum quantity that you can enter is 32767.
If you are collecting items by hand, you will need to be in the show All mode,
as shown below. You select an item by tapping on it, then set the quantity of that
item in the ways described in the previous paragraph.
If the items are sorted alphabetically by name or main name (as described above)
the screen will look slightly different, as shown below. In this case, just below
the list of items you will see an alphabet, from A to Z. In this mode, you can scroll
very quickly to any part of your catalog simply by tapping on the appropriate letter.
For example, if you want to set the quantity for an item beginning with M, you could
repeatedly scroll down the list with the scroll buttons, or you can use our IntelliScroll
(tm) technology to just tap on "M" to go right there. Tapping other
letters within a short time (about one second) takes you to a second (and third,
and so on) level search, so if you tap "M" followed by "O" you'll
go right to the items whose names start with the letters "MO".
There is one final way in which you can change the quantity (or other information). Once an item is the active (highlighted) item, tap on it, and this screen will appear:
You can use this modify screen in many ways. First, you can enter the name of an item. This would be particularly appropriate if you scan the barcode of an item which does not appear in your catalog; entering its name would allow that information to be passed back to your desktop. Second, you can change the quantity (although you can usually do that more easily on the main screen). And third, you can add a note to the item, which again will be passed back to your desktop software during the HotSync. You can use this note for any purpose. Data can be entered into the four fields (name, barcode, quantity, note) in the "normal" Palm ways (Graffiti, pop-up keyboard) and also by barcode scanning. If you place the "focus" (the blinking cursor) in a particular field by tapping on the field and then scan information using the barcode scanner, the information will be written into that field, assuming it doesn't violate the limits of that field (for example, you can't enter a 6-digit number in the quantity field). The focus is automatically placed in the first blank field when the screen appears, and advances to the next blank field when information is scanned in.
Note that even though the Name and Note fields appear as two lines on the screen, they are really one long continuous line of text. You CANNOT enter either a "new line" or a tab character into either field. If you do, when you tap Update, the software will replace the new line or tab character with a simple space.
This feature not only allows the software to be used by personnel untrained in the use of Graffiti, but also can be used for barcode capture of known items. Let's say you have a list of items on your desktop but you don't have the barcodes in your database. Create a catalog (see above) where the barcode field is blank, and the name of the item is entered, and download it to your handheld unit. Now find (physically) each item, find the item on the list (by name), and tap on it to activate the Modify screen above. The "focus" will be automatically placed in the first blank field, which will be the barcode field. Now scan the barcode and it is captured; tap Update and then repeat for the next item. When you're done, you'll be able to upload to your desktop a list of items with matching barcodes.
Another use for this feature is when you have different kinds of information to be entered into the Note field, for example, a list of possible locations. Create a page containing barcodes (CODE39 or other) containing the names or codes of the locations. Now after you scan an item to capture it on the main screen, tap on it to bring up the Modify screen. Since the name, barcode, and quantity will be filled in, the focus will automatically appear in the Note field, so you just need to scan in the location code and tap Update to add that information to each item.
From time to time you may come to an item whose barcode will not scan, but either the item is not in your catalog or else you're not using a catalog at all. In this case, you can add the item "by hand" (or using scanned in information as described in the previous section). Tap on the Menu button, then on Inventory if it is not already highlighted, then select Add New Item, and you'll see the screen shown above, but entitled "Add Item" instead of "Modify Item." Enter the information and tap Add (or Cancel).
If there is an item which is similar or even identical to one already on your list, but for a variety of reasons you want to make a copy of that item, then you can first select the existing item by tapping on it, and then select Duplicate Item from the Inventory menu.The name and barcode of the item will be duplicated exactly, and the quantity is set to 0. The note field is set according to the setting in the Configure Note/Location menu.
At any time, you can select Show Database Info from the Inventory
menu and you will see a screen which tells you the total number of different entries
in your database ("Total Items"), the total number of items currently displayed,
the number of items whose quantity is not zero, and the total quantity of all items
in the database ("adding apples and oranges").
Whether you want to download a catalog (database) from the desktop to the Palm, or upload data from your Palm to your desktop, the first thing you must understand is the location of the HotSync folder where the data is found. To download data, you create a file and put it in that folder; when data are uploaded, they are uploaded to a different file in the same folder.
The name of the folder will always be On Hand, but the trickier question is where that file is located. First, you must locate your "Palm" folder, that is, the folder in which all the standard Palm software is stored. This may be called Palm (e.g., C:\Palm), or possibly something else. On Macintosh only, you next locate the folder named Users (this isn't present on Windows). Next, you must locate the folder within that folder which corresponds to the handheld unit to which you are installing the software.Whenever you HotSync a handheld unit to that desktop computer for the first time, a new sub-folder is created (shown here as Boris). If the name of the handheld unit is short, and has no spaces, the name of the folder will be exactly the same as that of the handheld unit, as in this example (Boris). This is also always true if you are using a Macintosh. However, if you are using Windows, and if the name is longer or if there are spaces, the name of the folder will be different. The folder for a handheld unit named "Natasha," for example, will be named Natash. The folder for a handheld unit named "John Smith" will be named SmithJ. So your first task is to identify the proper folder.
|
Macintosh Macintosh HD
Palm
Users
Boris
On Hand
Catalog/CatalogQ
Catalog (downloaded)
Inventory
Inventory01...Inventory09
|
Windows C:
Palm
Boris
On Hand
Catalog.txt/CatalogQ.txt
Catalog.bak
Inventory.txt
Inventory01.txt...Inventory09
|
If you are having any trouble locating the correct folder, or if HotSync "isn't working," use this technique. In your user folder (shown as Boris in the example above), there will always be a file named HotSync.Log (Windows) or HotSync Log (Macintosh). Use the "Find" feature of your operating system ("Find Files or Folders" on the Start button in Windows, or Sherlock on Macintosh) to search for a file by that name. If you only find one such file, the folder it is in is your user folder, and you should find a folder named On Hand in the same folder. If you find multiple HotSync Log files, check the date and time of the last update of the file; the most recently updated one will be the one which was changed at the time of your most recent HotSync, and will almost certainly be the correct file (and hence the folder it is in is the correct folder). To verify that, open the file (on Windows, open it with NotePad or WordPad; on Macintosh, it will open automatically with the Palm HotSync Manager). In that file you will find the date and time of the last HotSync, and you can verify that that is the correct file. Once you install On Hand software and begin using it, you will also find information written into this file like "On Hand - Uploaded 31 new entries" which will tell you exactly what On Hand did (or didn't do) during the HotSync.
You won't need to create any of these folders (shown in black) yourself. When you install your Palm (or related, e.g., IBM, Franklin, Symbol) desktop software, the main directory (shown as Palm above but this name may vary on your system) will be created, and, on a Macintosh, a sub-directory (or folder) named Users will also be created. Whenever you HotSync a handheld unit to that desktop computer for the first time, a new sub-folder is then created (shown here as Boris). After you perform two HotSync operations (one on Macintosh) during the install of the software as described above, the On Hand folder is automatically created.
Downloading a catalog (database) of items into the handheld unit is optional, as noted above. If you do want to start by downloading a catalog into the handheld, this section describes how to do that.
In order to set up a catalog, you first prepare an appropriate text file containing the information on your desktop. You can create this file by simply typing it in using a simple text editor (e.g., WordPad or NotePad on Windows, SimpleText on Macintosh), or, in many cases, you can export the information from an existing database or spreadsheet which already contains the information.
The text file you create must be given the name Catalog.txt or CatalogQ.txt (Windows) or Catalog or CatalogQ (Macintosh), and it must be placed in the On Hand folder (discussed above). This file must be a simple tab-delimited or comma-separated (CSV) text file, containing two, three, or four columns of information, one line per inventory item. The two different file names (Catalog and CatalogQ) represent two different formats. Catalog contains information about barcodes, product names/descriptons, and, optionally, an additional note as well. In this format, all initial quantities are assumed to be zero. CatalogQ adds quantity information (hence the Q) to the file, so that you can download a file with initial quantities other than zero if that better meets your needs.
If you are creating a file (CatalogQ) with quantity information, the first piece of information is the initial quantity. This must be an integer (no decimal points) from 0 to 32767 (the maximum number On Hand can handle). The next piece of information (or the first piece in the Catalog file) is the barcode. The barcode must be entered without any punctuation (spaces or hyphens), just a simple series of numbers (for most barcodes) or numbers and letters (if appropriate). Check digits are optional, as will be discussed below (the check digit is the last digit in some barcode formats, e.g., UPCA). If the product in question does not have a barcode, the barcode can be left completely blank (don't use a space or spaces instead).
Following the barcode is the name (description) of the product. There are no limits on the name, other than that it cannot contain a tab character (or, if using CSV format, the name must be enclosed in double quotation marks if it contains a comma). Following the name you have an option to include a "note" to attach to the item, which might be used for informational purposes on the handheld unit, or to indicate location in asset tracking applications, or may also be used when HotSync'ing the information back to the desktop (notes will be discussed further below).
Between each of the items on the line is a comma or tab, as you prefer (but the
same format must be used throughout the file, of course!). If an item is missing,
you can leave that spot ("field") blank, but you must then have a tab (or
comma) at the beginning or end of the line, or possibly two in a row in the middle
of the line, so that the number of spaces (fields) is constant.
The length of the items other than the quantity is not limited; the database stores
the information in a variable rather than a "fixed length" format. In the
handheld unit itself, the only limitation is that the display of items may be truncated
on various screens if the lengths are too long; you'll need to decide whether that
is important or not.
So each line may look like any of these options (where
represents the tab character):
Catalog/Catalog.txt (file format without initial quantities)
1565924207PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide
Introduction
to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
1565925254Palm ProgrammingCheck for missing CD
Or, if you prefer to use CSV format:
1565924207,"PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide"
,Introduction to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
1565925254,Palm Programming,Check for missing CD
CatalogQ/CatalogQ.txt (file format with initial quantities)
141565924207PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide
2Introduction
to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
0
1565925254Palm ProgrammingCheck for missing CD
Or, if you prefer to use CSV format:
14,1565924207,"PalmPilot, The Ultimate Guide"
2,,Introduction to Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0
0, 1565925254,Palm Programming,Check for missing CD
Each line in the file does not need to be the same; for example you might have barcodes next to most items, but not next to a few.
The software determines whether this is a tab-delimited or comma-separated file based on the presence (or absence) of a tab character in the very first line. If a tab is found anywhere on the first line, the software assumes this is a tab-delimited file; otherwise it is treated as a CSV file.
The order of items in the database is up to you. As you'll see below, the On Hand software on your handheld unit will let you sort the items in three different ways - in the way in which they were setup, alphabetically, or by barcode. If you are collecting inventory with barcode scanning, the software can locate the items most quickly if the items are in barcode order If you are collecting the inventory manually, you might, for example, want to store the items on the list in the order in which they are stored on the warehouse shelves, so that the operator can simply go down the list recording quantities of each item as they walk past the shelf. Or perhaps you might want to store them alphabetically but in groups, with items in one location first, then items in another location, etc.
Whenever you HotSync, the On Hand Conduit looks for a file named Catalog or CatalogQ (to be precise, it looks for Catalog first; if it doesn't find that, it then looks for CatalogQ) in the appropriate folder. If the file is found, the contents of that file will be downloaded into your handheld unit to serve as your catalog, either replacing any existing catalog, or being appended to it, depending on how you configure the software. The file will then be renamed as Catalog.bak (Windows) or Catalog (downloaded) (Macintosh), so that subsequent HotSyncs will not reinstall the same catalog, but the file is still there in case you need it. If you later create another file named Catalog in order to install new information, when that file is renamed, the previous backup file will be deleted.
Once you have created the Catalog file and placed it in the folder, you need to configure the conduit settings. Run the HotSync Manager program, and select Custom (Windows) or Conduit Settings (Macintosh). Double-click on the On Hand conduit and you'll see a window that looks like the one above (Windows and Macintosh look slightly different).
For purposes of downloading a catalog, there are two relevant settings. Download new catalog to handheld (labelled Macintosh overwrites handheld on the Macintosh) downloads your catalog as is into the handheld unit, replacing any existing catalog (and any collected inventory information!). Synchronize will append the data in your desktop file to an existing catalog on the handheld unit. If you work with very large (thousands of items) catalogs, you will undoubtedly find that appending new items to a catalog is much faster than installing an entire new catalog; with smaller catalogs it won't make much difference.
Once you have selected the proper choice and clicked on OK, the next time you perform a HotSync the catalog will be installed in your handheld unit.
When you are ready to upload inventory from the handheld unit to the desktop, you need to configure the HotSync settings. Bring up the settings window as described in the previous section. There are two settings which are relevant. Syncronize uses the standard "Palm paradigm" and uploads only the information from the handheld unit which has been changed since your last HotSync. That means, for example, if you inventory 7 items, do a HotSync, and then inventory 3 more items, only the last 3 will be uploaded when your setting is Syncronize. The alternate setting is Upload Handheld Data to Desktop. With this setting, all the data which has been collected on your handheld unit is uploaded, whether or not it has been changed since the last HotSync. Of course, if you want to temporarily disable the conduit, you can also select Do Nothing from the configuration window.
In either configuration, whenever you transfer data back to the desktop, it is written into a text file named Inventory.txt (Windows) or Inventory (Macintosh), which will be located in the On Hand folder described above. This file can then in turn be imported into your desktop inventory management software (or into any database, spreadsheet, or even word processor). Each time you HotSync, the previous file is renamed, from Inventory (or Inventory.txt) to Inventory01 to Inventory02 and so on up to Inventory09. Thus you will always have available not only the most recent inventory list but the previous nine lists as well, just for safety.
Tip: You probably will be using some other desktop software to import the information from the Inventory file and merge it with your corporate data. You may wish that the Inventory file were placed in the same folder as your other files, rather than in the On Hand folder where it is uploaded. The solution is simple. Just create a shortcut (Windows) or alias (Macintosh) and place that shortcut in the folder where you would like the information to be found. Because of the way the files are renamed (described in the previous paragraph), your alias will always point to the latest Inventory file, and you'll be able to access it as if it were in your desired folder.
Yet another feature of the conduit allows you to automatically execute a program (Windows) or AppleScript (Macintosh) following the upload of the data. On Windows, create a file named OnUpload.txt inside your On Hand folder. The contents of that file should be a single line of text, containing a typical Windows command line (such as might be entered using Run), for example, Notepad C:\Palm\Natash\On Hand\Inventory.txt (which would automatically open the newly uploaded Inventory file using the Notepad application). Of course, if you want to execute more than one command, you can simply make a batch file of commands, and use your one command to execute the batch file. On a Macintosh, the file is named OnUpload and should be an executable AppleScript file; anything you can do with AppleScript can be used in this file. The creation of suitable batch files and AppleScripts is left as an exercise for the reader.
The actual data which is sent back to the desktop is controlled by the Export item in the Configure menu. Selecting that menu will display the screen below, which will allow you to configure the exported Inventory file in exactly the way you need it for subsequent use on your desktop. In the "What to export" section, you have two choices - exporting all items (regardless of quantity), or only exporting those items whose quantity is not zero. Next, in the "Separator" section, you can choose between having items separated by tabs or commas.
The bottom of the screen offers a series of checkboxes which lets you specify up to four items per line which will be saved to the Inventory file. In the example at right, for example, the user has chosen to save the quantity, barcode, and name in that order (omitting the fourth item). Putting the checkbox in column 3 opposite the word "Blank" would export only two items per line (quantity and barcode). Putting the check in column 1 opposite "Barcode" and the check in column 2 opposite "Quantity" would save the same two items, but in the opposite order on each line. In some cases, the desktop software into which the Inventory file is later imported will be able to deal with any possibility, but if not, this screen allows you to configure the export exactly as needed.
Note that if you have the boxes checked as shown in the example above, or the box in column four opposite "Note" instead of "Blank", the Inventory file which is uploaded will be in exactly the same format as the CatalogQ file which can be downloaded later, so you can restore into the unit a previous inventory (perhaps the one taken last month) just by renaming the file.
For "normal" inventories, you'll probably only need to export the quantity and barcode (you can of course export the item name as well, but chances are that the barcode will be sufficient information for your desktop database). For serial number inventories, you'll almost certainly want to export the note which will contain the S/N (the quantity might not be necessary in this case, since it may always be 1). For multi-location inventories, the note will also be essential, since it records the location. And finally, for asset tracking, the barcode and note are probably all you want to export.
There is one additional optional item that is written into the Inventory file during the HotSync process - a "header." Select Header in the Configure Menu and you'll see this screen:
If the header is anything but blank, the information on these lines (80 characters maximum) will be written at the top of your Inventory file. This allows you to label the inventory with any information you choose - the date, the time, the operator, the location, etc. You'll notice that buttons on this screen allow you to quickly enter the date or date and time without having to write them in; any other information will need to be entered in the "normal" way (using Graffiti or the pop-up Palm keyboard). You can also fill in this field by barcode scanning. When this screen is active, any information captured by the scanner will be entered into this field. This feature allows personnel untrained in the use of Graffiti to scan "canned" barcodes to enter appropriate information.
After you perform a HotSync, and before you perform the next inventory collection, there are two options, both contained in the Inventory menu:
Reset Quantities sets the quantity of all items in the database (on your handheld unit) to zero. It also removes any notes which have been automatically added to any items in your database; these would include locations added using the "Copy to items when scanned" feature, and serial numbers added using the "Use scanned SNs" feature. Purge New Items removes any items which have been added to the database since you downloaded a database into your handheld unit from the desktop. New items are added to the database under three circumstances. First, when you scan any item whose barcode is not in the database, it is added. Second, when you perform serial number collection, the first serial number for any item is added to the original entry in the database, but if you scan a second or more SN for the same item, new items are added to the database to hold those SNs. And third, when you perform multilocation inventory collection and the same item is found in multiple locations, the second (and additional) times the same item is inventoried, an entry is added to the database. All of these added entries can be removed using Purge New Items. Alternatively, you can select Purge All Items to purge the entire catalog from your handheld unit.
In many circumstances, you will want to do both of these operations, but they are not linked, so that you may wish to first select Purge New Items, and then Reset Quantities (or vice versa, the order doesn't matter).
Both Reset Quantities and Purge New Items will require that you confirm your request, in order to give you an opportunity to change your mind.
The alternative to manually resetting the data (either resetting the quantities or purging the entries) is to do so automatically at the end of the HotSync process (that is, after the collected information has been safely uploaded to the desktop). At the bottom of the Configure Export screen (shown above) are two checkboxes in the "After Export" section of the screen: Reset Quantities and Purge All.Checking the first box will automatically set all quantities back to zero after the upload; checking the second will remove all the items from the handheld unit after upload.
There is one more important aspect associated with the Reset Quantities checkbox. When this box is checked, after uploading the data to the desktop, the quantities are first reset to zero. But then, if there is a CatalogQ.bak file (CatalogQ (downloaded) on Macintosh), it will then be renamed as CatalogQ.txt (CatalogQ on Macintosh). If the conduit is set to Synchronize, one more thing will happen, which is that the catalog will be purged (not just reset) on the handheld. The result of this will be that the catalog will be re-downloaded to the handheld unit, thus resetting the quantities not to zero but to some "standard" quantity contained in the CatalogQ file. The next section describes an important application for this feature.
One common need is to use On Hand to generate
an order for re-stocking. Here's how to do that: First, use the CatalogQ.txt
file to download into the handheld unit a list of all items with quantities; the
quantities being the desired stock level of that particular item. Next, use the Configure
Scanning screen to configure the software to Decrement the count when
you scan an item. This means that if you start with a count of 5, and scan the 2
items left on the shelf, the count shown will be 3, which is the correct re-order
amount. Next configure the Configure Export screen to upload Non-Zero Only.
After you collect, and upload the data, the Inventory.txt file on your desktop
will contain a list of items which need to be reordered, along with the correct re-order
quantity. To reload the handheld unit immediately, select Reset Quantities
after Export on the Configure Export screen and set the conduit to Synchronize.
Now after uploading the collected data, the catalog will first be reset, then purged
from the handheld unit, and then immediately replaced with new data taken from the
old CatalogQ.txt file (which was renamed CatalogQ.bak after the
previous download, but will be automatically renamed), ready for the next reorder
process.
In some situations your inventory is in one place, or perhaps any particular item is in one place. In other situations, however, you may be taking inventory in multiple locations of the SAME item. On Hand can handle this situation, as described here. First select Note from the Configure menu as shown above. Select "Copy to items when scanned," and enter a note which describes the first location, for example STORE1 (note that this can be done with Graffiti or the pop-up keyboard, but also can be done by scanning in the information from a printed card, making it more suitable for use by personnel untrained in the use of Graffiti). Now every time you scan an item, STORE1 will be inserted in the Note field of that item. After you're done with the first inventory, select Note from the Configure menu again, and change the note to STORE2. If you now scan an item which was not found in the first location (STORE1), STORE2 will simply be inserted in the Note field of that item. If you scan an item which was found in the first location, On Hand will add a copy of that item to the database, and mark it as STORE2 in the Note field. There is no limit to the number of locations you can inventory at once in this way.
If you use the CatalogQ format to download data into your Palm with starting quantities, it's perfectly ok to download multiple instances of the same item, each with the same barcode but a different note field (STORE1, STORE2, etc. in this example). Now when you scan the item, the software will require a match in both the barcode field and the note field, as you might expect.
There is a way you can change the location (the fixed note) which is completely barcode-controlled, not requiring use of menus, buttons, or Graffiti. First create barcodes which read LOC_XXX (if using CODE128 barcodes) or LOC-XXX (if using CODE39 barcodes), where "XXX" is the actual location. For example, if you were using On Hand to capture items on a loading dock, some of which were being shipped and others received, you could have two printed barcodes, LOC_SHIP and LOC_RCV. Now when you want to capture an item to be shipped, first scan the LOC_SHIP barcode and the location will be changed to SHIP. You'll know this because "SHIP" will appear on the upper left of the screen in place of the words "On Hand" (if you scan a long location name, only the first 7 characters will appear in the upper left, but all of them will be part of the location). You can scan as many of these as you like, there is no need to scan the LOC_SHIP for each item. Only when you need to switch to "receive" mode do you scan LOC_RCV and the note (location) will be changed accordingly. If you are taking inventory in multiple stores, or multiple departments of the same store, just prepare a series of these LOC_XXX barcodes and put them in a convenient place (a laminated plastic sheet works great), ready to use when you start collecting inventory at a new location.
When the software is in "Copy [note] to items when scanned" mode, the Greater Than 0, Less Than 0, Not Equal 0, and Equal 0 display modes work in conjunction with the note. That is, if the fixed note (location) is STORE1, the Greater Than 0 mode will display only those items whose quantities are greater than one AND whose note fields reads STORE1; the Equal 0 mode will display only those items whose quantities are equal to zero AND whose note fields reads STORE1.
There are two ways to collect serial numbers, which might be appropriate when taking inventories of items such as PalmPilots or cellular phones where each individual serial number is to be recorded. The first alternative is appropriate when you are collecting a SINGLE type of item, and only need to record the serial numbers (SNs) themselves, not the associated barcode. To do this, you simply take advantage of the fact that when you scan a barcode, if that barcode is not found in your catalog (which it presumably won't be if it's a serial number code), then a new item is added corresponding to the new barcode. So if you simply scan in fifty serial number barcodes, you'll end up with 50 items in your catalog, each with quantity one.
A second alternative involve selecting Note from the Configure menu,
which will show this screen:
If you select "Use scanned SNs", you will now be able to scan in both the
regular barcode and the serial number for an item. Scan the barcode first and the
item will be located in your catalog (if it is there) and identified by name. Now
scan the serial number and the number is added to the most recent item. To scan subsequent
copies of the same item, you do NOT have to scan the barcode again, just keep scanning
the serial numbers for each item. As you do, new items will be added to your list,
each with the originally scanned barcode and the new serial number. The serial numbers
you are scanning in this way (alternative #2) are added to the "Note" field
of the database, not the barcode field, so when you configure the HotSync (see below)
you'll need to be sure to configure it to transfer the note back to the desktop.
For purposes of the "Use scanned SNs" mode, a barcode is identified as a serial number if it is a CODE128 or a CODE39 type barcode. Any other barcode type is considered a product identifying barcode, and will be used by the software to identify a new item for the inventory, rather than to add a serial number to the previously scanned item.
If items from which SNs are to be collected do not have regular product identification barcodes (e.g., UPC codes) on them, you can still select the item from your database list by hand (you'll need to be in "Show All" mode, of course), and then scan in the SN barcodes.
Pick List applications can be accomplished by combining features in a different way. Let's say you have three jobs to be picked. Create a CatalogQ file on the desktop, containing a list of items from all jobs, with the job (e.g., JOB1, JOB2, JOB3) in the note field, and download them to the handheld. Set the note/location to JOB1, the mode to Greater Than 0, and the scan mode to Decrement. The display will show everything on your list of items to be picked for JOB1. As you scan items on the list, their quantities will decrement; when the quantity goes to zero, the item will disappear from the list, and list will gradually show fewer and fewer items until all items have been picked and the list is empty. Now set the note/location to JOB2 and repeat the process.
By combining the last two features, Serial Number capture and location recording, On Hand can be used for the purpose of asset tracking in addition to its other functions. To do this, you'll be using the Note field of the software to record the location (as described in MultiLocation Inventory Collection), and the barcode field to record the serial number. There should be no need to download a catalog into On Hand. First use the Note menu to select "Copy to items when scanned." Now start at the first location, record the location using the Note menu, then scan the S/N barcode of each item at that location. Go to the next location, change the location using the Note menu, and scan the S/N barcodes of those items.
There is one more possibility for using the note field on On Hand, and that is for date and or date/time stamping collected items; this option is set by checking the appropriate box in the Configure Note screen. Note, however, that the note field can be used for only one thing, so if the note field is already going to be used to record location or serial number, it cannot also be used for date/time stamping.
If you have multiple licences for On Hand,
and want to configure multiple units identically, there is a special way provided
to do that. First, install the software on one unit, and configure it as you wish,
including any and all of the settings described above. Now, configure the conduit
on the desktop to Upload Handheld Data to Desktop, and perform a HotSync.
In the On Hand folder in the user folder for that handheld unit, you will
now find a file named Preferences (from Palm). This file contains an "image"
of the preferences. Next, install the software on all other units, and perform a
HotSync which creates the individual On Hand folders within the user folders
for each of the other handheld units. Now copy the Preferences (from Palm)
file from the original user On Hand folder into each of the other user's
On Hand folder, and rename it Preferences (removing the "(from
Palm)" part of the name). Finally, set the conduit for each of the remaining
users to Download new catalog to handheld. When the next HotSync is performed,
the preferences settings will be copied into the new handheld unit and you will be
assured that they are identical to your "standard" without having to individually
configure that unit.
For some applications you'll need to print results in the field after the information collection process is done. On Hand supports this, providing you also have a copy of Stevens Creek Software's PalmPrint or SCS Print Server application installed on your handheld unit.
If you have a copy of PalmPrint (or SCS Print Server) installed on your unit, you can access it to configure the printing parameters by selecting Printer in the Configure menu. PalmPrint (or SCS Print Server) will start, and you can establish the desired configuration (as described in the PalmPrint manual). When you are finished, tap Done and you'll be returned to On Hand .
Once you have configured PalmPrint (or SCS Print Server) for printing to your printer, you simply need to select List from the Print menu to print a list of your items.
What you print is governed by what appears on the screen. The printing format is governed by the export format, so which elements (quantity, barcode, name, and/or note) print and in what order is up to you. If the export format is set to comma-separated, printing will also use commas between elements. If the export format is set to tab-delimited, the software automatically determines the needed width for each column and prints in a "fixed-format" output of the appropriate width, truncating first the name and then the note if the necessary width is wider than the number of available columns on your printer. In all cases, if you have created a header in On Hand, it will print at the top of the inventory.
In addition to actual printing, this feature of On Hand has another use. Perhaps you wish to transfer the captured information to a computer which is not running Palm's HotSync software. This might be a customer's PC on which HotSync software is not installed, or even a Unix workstation for which HotSync software is not available. In either case, if you have some sort of terminal emulation software running on the other computer, you can connect the Palm or Symbol unit via its serial port to the serial port of the other computer, and "print" the data (you'll want to configure PalmPrint to "Plain Text" output so no special printer "control codes" are sent).
As an extra feature, On Hand allows you to print bar code labels from items in its catalog (or items it simply scans) to barcode printers (most receipt printers have barcode printing functionality, and there are also dedicated barcode printers).
Handy Label is a separately-sold program from Stevens Creek Software which takes the hard work out of generating labels. Using Handy Label, you specify the particular barcode label printer you are using, the size of the label (width/height), the size of the barcode you want to print, the text (if any) you want to print on the label along with the barcode, the number of labels, etc. If you have a registered copy of Handy Label installed on your Palm, and if the Configure Label format (see below) is blank, then when you want to print barcode labels, On Hand will work in conjunction with Handy Label to determine the exact sequence of special "control codes" that need to be sent to your printer.
To actually print the labels, you have two choices:
If you don't want to use Handy Label, or you want more flexibility than Handy Label provides, you have the option to enter your own "control codes" to configure the label the way you want it. Each label is printed in a format which is specified by the user using the Configure Label menu (if this format is blank, the software automatically uses Handy Label - if present - to generate its label configuration). Selecting the Configure Label menu displays this screen:
The first thing to understand about the format is the notation used. "Regular" material, to be printed as is, appears in a normal way, like the word "ITEM:" in the example above. Many of the characters which are required to print barcodes, however, are "non-printing characters" (like the "Escape" character) which you can't enter directly using Graffiti. These characters are enclosed in a special notation, surrounded by double angle brackets as shown in the figure (Note: the "«" and "»" are a SINGLE character each - ONE "double less than" or "double greater than" character, not TWO "less than" or "greater than" characters). Three of the most common non-printing characters, ESC (character 27), GS (character 29), and FF (Form feed), are inserted into the label by tapping on the corresponding button at the bottom of the window. Any other non-printing character is inserted using the # button, which inserts the beginning and end double angle brackets and leaves the insertion point in the middle of the two, where you can enter any number that is needed.
Four of the remaining buttons insert special codes into the label which substitute in pieces of information from the collected data when the label is printed. Name prints the name of the item, Note prints the contents of the note field, Barcode prints the complete barcode, and Barcode without Check Digit (Barcode w/o Check Dig.) prints the entire barcode except the last (check) digit. Since most barcode printers calculate their own check digit, they expect to be sent a barcode to print which does not include the check digit, so the second of these two barcode choices will probably be the most common.
OK, Cancel, and Clear should be self-explanatory.
Below are some examples for specific printers, showing sample text you'll want to
enter into the Label Format field for printing UPC barcodes. Note that these are
examples only. Some of the specifics in the examples control such things as the height
of the barcode, whether the barcode is centered on the page, etc. Details on how
to control each of these things can be found in the programming manual corresponding
to each printer, obtainable from the printer manufacturer (often downloadable from
their Web site).
Datamax E-3202:
«ESC»a«1»«GS»H«2»«GS»h«100» «GS»k«65»«11»«BarcodeNCD»
Monarch 6015:
«ESC»z4«12»«50»«Barcode»
Monarch 9460: (note that | is the "vertical bar" character, and that the quotation marks on the sixth line are essential)
{I,B,0,0,0,0|}
{F,1,A,R,M,254,508,"Fmt 1"|
B,1,12,F,77,254,1,4,100,8,B,0|
}
{B,1,N,1|
1,"«Barcode»"|
}
O'Neil Microflash: (note that | is the "vertical bar" character)
«ESC»EZ
{PRINT:
@0,95:UPC-A,H15,W1|«Barcode»}
{AHEAD:200}
Seiko DPU-3445:
«GS»h«100»«GS»H«2»«GS»P«1» «GS»k«0» «BarcodeNCD»«0»
Zebra Encore 4:
! U1 CENTER ! U1 BARCODE UPCA 1 1 79 0 0 «Barcode»
Zebra/Eltron (various models, e.g., P2242): [Note - this format starts and ends with a "return" and has a return (new line) after each command - these are essential. Also note that the quotation marks in the third line which are also essential.]
N JF B75,140,0,UA0,2,6,120,B,"«Barcode»" P1
There are several special things to note about the use of On Hand in conjunction with the Socket Communications SDIO scanner.
The SDIO scanner works on all Palm OS 4.1 and higher devices (through 5.x; not including the as-yet-unreleased PalmOS 6.x at this time). It requires a Palm handheld device with an SDIO slot, which include (as of this writing) the following Palm devices: Zire 31, Zire 71, Zire 72, Tungsten C, Tungsten E, Tungsten T, Tungsten T2, Tungsten T3, Tungsten W, Treo 600, m125, m130, m500, m505, m515, and i705. Some of these devices (e.g., the m-Series) were originally released with PalmOS 4.0; they must be upgraded to PalmOS 4.1 before attempting to use the SDIO scanner (this update is available at no charge from Palm).
Different Palm devices have differing orientations of the SDIO slot. In the newer devices, like the Tungsten T3 shown below on the left, the slot is "normal", and the SDIO scanner is inserted as shown in the picture, with the word "Socket" facing the user. Some of the older devices, like the m505 shown below on the right, have a "reversed" slot, so the SDIO scanner must be inserted with the word "Socket" facing away from the user. Also, depending on the physical characteristics of the individual device, it will be preferable on some (as shown on the T3 below left) to include the rubber "collar" on the SDIO scanner; on others, as on the m505 shown below right, it is essential to remove the collar, because with it in place the scanner will not fully insert into the slot.
Left: Tungsten T3 with Socket Communications SDIO scanner inserted in the
"normal" configuration
Right: Palm m505 with SDIO scanner inserted as required in the "reverse"
configuration
Here are some tips provided by Socket for obtaining the best scanning performance from the SDIO Scanner. Note in particular the non-intuitive suggestion #4.
As of this writing, our ScanConfig program does not work with the Socket
SDIO scanner. However, Socket provides a somewhat similar program (with more limited
functionality) called SocketScan. If you want to override the default barcode
choices of On Hand, use the Configure->Scanning
menu in On Hand and check the "Don't Configure
Scanner" box. In that case, the configuration you set up with SocketScan
will remain in effect when On Hand is operating.
Note, however, that regardless of the "scan trigger" you select in SocketScan,
On Hand will override that choice, because it
is "hard-coded" so that the MemoPad button is used to trigger the scan
(you can also tap the on-screen button if you prefer).
If you need technical support for On Hand, you should first check our support web page, http://www.stevenscreek.com/palm/support.html, where we have tried to assemble answers to all the most commonly encountered problems with downloading, installing, and using our software. If that doesn't solve your problem, we encourage you to do so by email at supportmail@stevenscreek.com. You can also call Stevens Creek Software technical support at 1-408-725-0424 during regular business hours (9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Pacific time, M-F).
Copyright 1999-2004 by Stevens
Creek Software
All Rights Reserved