Hello Everyone,

Has anyone used RFID technology in their Xbase apps? I'm new to RFID...just 
trying to understand how the communication will take place between my app 
and the reader. Do I poll each reader to see what rfid tags are within its 
area? Or can the reader just export data to some format that I can read to 
see what is where? Im looking for very high level advice at this point just 
to understand some general concepts.

Thanks,

Scott

Hi Scott,

with one customer I use RFID technology. The readers work are attached 
via USB and work like a keyboard. So there is no difference getting the 
data wether they come in from tge keyboard or the RFID reader.

Jan

Am 05.03.2020 um 21:19 schrieb Scott Krise:
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> Has anyone used RFID technology in their Xbase apps? I'm new to 
> RFID...just trying to understand how the communication will take place 
> between my app and the reader. Do I poll each reader to see what rfid 
> tags are within its area? Or can the reader just export data to some 
> format that I can read to see what is where? Im looking for very high 
> level advice at this point just to understand some general concepts.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Scott

Scott,

>Has anyone used RFID technology in their Xbase apps? I'm new to RFID...just 
>trying to understand how the communication will take place between my app 
>and the reader. Do I poll each reader to see what rfid tags are within its 
>area? Or can the reader just export data to some format that I can read to 
>see what is where? Im looking for very high level advice at this point just 
>to understand some general concepts.

It depends on what RFID reader you are using. It might have a serial, USB, 
or possibly an Ethernet connection. RFID readers usually work the same as 
(credit) card readers or bar-code scanners. That means that they usually 
inject alphanumeric characters directly into the keyboard buffer, as if you 
type them on a keyboard.

There are also RFID scanner devices that can host embedded applications, but 
those are usually larger, fixed readers, rather that hand-held devices.

Hope that helps,

Andreas

Andreas Gehrs-Pahl
Absolute Software, LLC

phone: (989) 723-9927
email: Andreas@AbsoluteSoftwareLLC.com
web:   http://www.AbsoluteSoftwareLLC.com
[F]:   https://www.facebook.com/AbsoluteSoftwareLLC

Thanks Jan and Andreas for the responses. My reply is intended for both of 
you.

So, I will be using a fixed scanner not a handheld.  In my particular 
application, I simply want to know when RFID tags enter and leave a room 
where the reader and antennas are placed.

So are you both saying that if I had one of my xbase apps running and 
connected to the reader via a USB cable for example, the reader would just 
pass data to whatever field in my app that is being displayed when something 
enters or leaves the field of view? No different than if someone just typed 
the information into the field using the keyboard?

I was under the impression that the reader somehow manages a list of tags 
that are within its field of view, then my App would need to read those 
transactions?

"Andreas Gehrs-Pahl" wrote in message 
news:g4940646x9wk$.37hi3ivekzpt$.dlg@40tude.net...

Scott,

>Has anyone used RFID technology in their Xbase apps? I'm new to RFID...just
>trying to understand how the communication will take place between my app
>and the reader. Do I poll each reader to see what rfid tags are within its
>area? Or can the reader just export data to some format that I can read to
>see what is where? Im looking for very high level advice at this point just
>to understand some general concepts.

It depends on what RFID reader you are using. It might have a serial, USB,
or possibly an Ethernet connection. RFID readers usually work the same as
(credit) card readers or bar-code scanners. That means that they usually
inject alphanumeric characters directly into the keyboard buffer, as if you
type them on a keyboard.

There are also RFID scanner devices that can host embedded applications, but
those are usually larger, fixed readers, rather that hand-held devices.

Hope that helps,

Andreas

Andreas Gehrs-Pahl
Absolute Software, LLC

phone: (989) 723-9927
email: Andreas@AbsoluteSoftwareLLC.com
web:   http://www.AbsoluteSoftwareLLC.com
[F]:   https://www.facebook.com/AbsoluteSoftwareLLC

Scott,

>I was under the impression that the reader somehow manages a list of tags 
>that are within its field of view, then my App would need to read those 
>transactions?

This use-case scenario is a distinct possibly, especially with larger and 
permanently installed devices. Your scanner (or the embedded software 
running on it) might have an API or agents (small apps) that run on your 
computer, or it might connect (via Ethernet) to a server, where the data is 
stored and a service collects the data from (possibly multiple) scanners.

You probably need to find out the exact scanner model and any software 
associated with it. The manuals (possibly available on the Internet) should 
give you a better idea about the architecture you are dealing with, and what 
the possible connection options and requirements are.

Hope that helps,

Andreas

Andreas Gehrs-Pahl
Absolute Software, LLC

phone: (989) 723-9927
email: Andreas@AbsoluteSoftwareLLC.com
web:   http://www.AbsoluteSoftwareLLC.com
[F]:   https://www.facebook.com/AbsoluteSoftwareLLC