Assist with the development of a new application in Delphi with Microsoft SQL 2008 database.
## Deliverables
Delphi Project.
Richard Harvey spent many years developing retail systems in a private
language writen with a asesembler based program loader. I want to start again. Having used Pascal originally all
be it a long time ago, I have decided to look at delphi as a language. In order to start on the new project i
want to start with a base program and "enviroment" as an example. I want to mimic the overall design of my original
programs. However some of the old designs need bringing into the 20th century and then maybe the 21st.
The start point will be a program loader (main application menu). The purpose of this is a uniform enviroment where all applications will be
loaded from. In the orginal system the configuration of this was read from a text file on the client machine, however
now i feel it should be loaded from a configuration file in the data base. So the only config that will be held on the
client is how to connect to the database.
The main menu should have the same style as windwos Notepad. With menu options etc along the top. Attached inthe menu zip is the data from our current text based menu
This will be an ongoing project with the right developer. You will help and guide me thorugh the development cycle.
You will document and assist where necessary. You will quote for each piece of work as it is requested. It would
be helpful if you are in India possibly in the Bangalore area as i currently have another chap working with me in
this area makes visiting easier, however this is not mandatory. We will be using the microsoft SQL 2008 database.
Project 1.
Produce a main menu that looks like Windows Notepad. Will want background graphics etc. The menu will be built from a
database table. The system will employ a username password option. You will create a menu entry called "manage Menu" this inital program will
allow the user to create more menu items. Each menu item will have a security level allocated to it from 1 - 9 where
1 is the bottom and 9 is the admin user. In the menu item you will have a indicator of what letter will be used to select
that menu item. i.e. ALT + P. Also a field for the menu item Description, both "short" for the menu and "long" that will be displayed on
the bottom of the menu window. i.e. Amend Customer / Amend a customer Record / A / 2 Modal Y/[login to view URL] will create a menu entry called "manage users" in this you will be able
setup modify and amend users with their security level, contact details email address etc. The main menu will have
a secret admin user that will be configured in the code i.e. sysadmin and 1234
Each of the programs in the menu will be seperate programs, they will either be passed the database conection details
as they run, or they will have the ability to define within the program. You will also make availabel the facility
to pass to the program a string of data etc, to be used in the new launched program. For example if we have a program
that prints invoices, you will pass through the invoice number that needs to be printed. You will also produce a program
that will print the details for the user. This will either print to the default printer, allow you to choose printer, produce
a PDF file to be saved or send the report as a PDF file to an email address, that may have been passed to it. All the
options may be passed from teh sending program, i.e if we were looking at a customer record, we could have a button that
says send copy of invoice, the new program would be told the email address etc and it would send it as a pdf attachement.
We need to be able to modify and change the prgrams for our clients and then email the files to them, for them to copy
into the correct folder etc. We have tried VB etc however everything is far to BIG.
When you move between fields on a screen you must support the use of the enter key, TAB is not acceptable. When you
get to the "comit point" you will pop up a box that says "comit Y/N" Y will save the record etc, No will return back
to the program etc. At this point no other key should be acceptable. So it the user is entering an address, it will start
at the first field and everytime enter is presed it will go to the next field. finally ending up on a defined button. Each
field will need validator on it, that will popup when the user attemtps to go to the next field. Also masks to say upper / mixed
number only, length of allowed data etc.
Project 2
We have to import / exportlarge amounts of data, to do this we end up writing different import programs for each type of data file.
I want to produce a simple data importer, it will work on both formatted text and csv data. You will produce a program that will
import data from a file in a folder. once you have imported the data you will move the file to a "backup" folder. You will produce
both on screen a summary of number of rows imported, any errors received etc and in a text file. You will provide an export
program that will export a set of data from the database, there will be obviuolsy a SQL query that will produce the data set
you will then write the data to a file in the order specified either as CSV or Formatted text. Again you will show a summary on screen
and in a text file for the data exported.
This will be a long term ongoing project. For the right person it will be a reliable form of income. It is important
that the right person understand that they will take the role of a teacher, however may not have the final word on
how things should be done. They will be an expert in both Delphi and MS SQL stored procedures, however if this is not
possible expert in Delphi and we will find a SQL resource. I have over 22 years of design and development knowledge, some
of the ways i do things are very "old school" however this is the way i like it. I have used Vworker for many years and find
it to be very good, however i often find that people dont read the specification and requirements properly. I have decided
in this instance to ask you the coder to use the sentence "I have read the specification to the very end" as the first
sentance in your bid. Obviulsy if you dont use that sentence i will know you have not read the specification to the end.
On a final note, Yahoo is my chat program of choice. I have a terrible sence of humor. I am 42 years old. I am British living in the UK.
* * *This broadcast message was sent to all bidders on Monday Jan 31, 2011 8:10:25 AM:
I have added a file [login to view URL] this contains the existing menu structure for the current programs. it has a detailed description at the top of the file of how it works, i wnat to recreate this functionality within the new application