How to set up a barcode -> database inventory system?

1

Hello fair forum members of sqlteam!

My name is Connor, and I'm a high school student. I've joined an internship with the school district and we are going 1 to 1 next year for Chrome books. Part of the internship is that we need to create a database/inventory system to store barcode values that associate with student IDs.

Everyone in the district is given a student ID with a barcode on it (unique) that I'd use for the key for the database, but then we need to store 3 bar codes after that (and possible more data thereafter).

I have done a good amount of programming in Java, and have a decent understand of different ADT's, but I have never dealt with databases and need a bit of help.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

The system would work as follows:

We populate a Microsoft SQL database with the Student ID's

Use a barcode scanner to scan the barcode from Student ID

Scan the product id barcode on the bottom of Chrome book and power brick and charger and save it to the database associated with the student ID.

I have no idea where to start, can anyone give me some places to start looking, and or what we will need to create this system?

Thanks,

Connor

2

To start, I'd download a (free) copy of SQL Server Express, except it won't run on a Chromebook, I'm afraid. So first question:

Is you school providing a SQL Server database you can connect to?

Also:

Do you have the barcode scanner and whatever software goes with it to actually scan the codes and save them to a file somewhere?

Once you populate the database with the Student ID's, what then? Will you be building reports or something to get the data out of your database?

3

While we are going 1:1 with chromebooks, we also have Windows machines, and I'm setting up a VNC so I can use a windows shell on the chrome book.

We have licenses for Microsoft SQL so we will use that, and servers as needed.

We have barcode scanners, however, I don't know what software we have... We have a library system that uses barcodes, so I can't imagine we don't have some kind of software.

Once the database is populated, it won't need to be touched, unless someone breaks a computer, at which point we will scan their ID, and we'd need a way to pull up the numbers in the system to see if it is their machine/power cable/power brick etc.

I've never played with SQL - do I need a 3rd party application to access / write the data - is the SQL simply a database with nothing else?

4

At its core, SQL Server is a Database Engine but as a system it is much more. Still,if you want to have an application to access the data, you could build a web site using tools in Visual Studio community edition (Free) assuming you have somewhere to host it, or a .NET application with the same IDE. Basically you can build what you need using free Microsoft tools.

In your place, I'd install SQL Server Express and Visual Studio 205 Community Edition on my laptop and play with them.

Lots to learn, to be sure but there are tons of examples. e.g. check out the free video course on Pluralsight Building Applications with ASP.NET MVC 4

5

hi,
did you manage to finish the project?