look4ahouse

hi,

I am trying to think of ideas to help me implement the following
application.

The application is some kind of "barcode creator": you select a
"desktop computer"
and by specifying what is the computer made of, the

application creates a code that is unique to such computer.
The algorithm for the creation of the code (which will look something
like that:

7776A5F45we4" --> this was just an example), already exists!!! No need
to think of it.

The application should do the following:

Stage 1
The user holds a "sound card" in his hand, and now he wants to assign
a barcode to it.
From the main list of values and selects "computer":

- Computer-->
+ Main_board
Size: please click to open values table...
Price: .........
Color: .........
+ Table

Stage 2
The user must fill all the Attributes of the root node before
proceeding to
see the objects child. Attributes are always in a table --> so you

have a tree (hierarchical data) mixed with tables (tabular data) -->
PROBLEM (how do you display and store it).
Suppose I click "size", a table opens (or rather "radio buttons"), and
I highlight 20 x 20:


- Computer-->+ Main_board
Size: * 20 x 20
* 30 x 30
* 50 x 50
Price: .........
Color: .........

Stage 3

After filling ALL the "attributes" the child node opens (PCI cards)
- Computer-->
- Main_board --> PCI Cards -->+Video cards
Size: 20 x 20
Price: above 1000$
Color: black
+modems
Sound cards


If I now choose sound cards, I am prompted to fill the attributes:


- Computer--> - Main_board --> PCI Cards --> +Video cards
Size: 20 x 20 +modems
Price: above 1000$
Size: 10 x 10
Sound cards
Color: black
Price: 40$ - 80$


When I click Sound cards, it seems its the last node in the chain,
after filling its attributes the user
Receives a message box saying:

Code complete
"Generated code for this item is: 5G535T"

The user MAY choose any of the previous properties, change it and see
how this affects the code.

Now, by looking at this code and reverse engineering it (using a
barcode reader to read it), one
may realize that we are talking about:
a 10x10 black sound card, PCI connection type that fits into a 20x20
black Main board...
In this way I can describe a whole system just by using code values!!!


Have you any ideas of how to implement the interface and the data?
I am doing this on "visual basic 6".
To conclude, problems are:
1. presentation of data.
2. storage of data.


(I thought of XML to describe the data, because we are talking about
mixed hierarchical and tabular data. but I am not sure, I never used
XML before!)


Any ideas ? comments ?

pawanseth2003

I think you are complicating the issue. Presuming that the computer (
the example refered) already exists. You would have filled in the bar
code or whatever description you wish to offer, as regards the item.
The rest of the components in the body are variables. You therefore
need to have a master table to define the fixed data, and link it to
another table having varaible data like sound cards etc, using a
foreign key. The entire data could then be displayed. Pricing could be
the third table peculiar to a component.A program could be written to
sort the data associated with the master data. Try using the data
environment provided with VB6, to automatically segregate your data.