This is an application written in Ruby v2.0.0 that reads a barcode by using a barcode scanner or from the keyboard by typing the numeric representation of the barcode. Once a barcode is read into the application, the database file will be searched. If found the information for the item will be given in the following format:
Barcode 9780321545893 found in the database. Details are given below: Item Name: Artificial Intelligence Item Category: Book Quantity: 2 Price: 129.00 Description: Addison Wesley Publ.
If the item is not found in the database, then the user is given the option to add the information for the specified item into the database.
The user may also update the database file using the contents of a comma-separated-values (.csv) file that they specify. This is performed by running the application with the -u flag with a specified .csv file after it. The .csv file must have quotes around each field, as shown in the sample update.csv file provided.
The contents of the database can also be printed out using the -o flag. This will print out all information for all records in the database file. If the user uses the -z flag instead of the -o flag, only the records with a zero quantity will be displayed. The information for the -o or the -z flags can be output to a file by specifying a .tsv file after the argument.
By default, the database file is located in the same directory as the program, but it can be changed to a different filename or an absolute file path using the global variable at the beginning of the inventory.rb file.
Included in the mysql folder is the exact implementation of this application but using a MySQL database instead of the database file. One option is added, the -d flag gives the user the option to delete an item from the database.
The mysql ruby gem is required for this implementation to work properly, and by default connects to a localhost mysql instance, with the username root, password root. Included is a SQL file with the imports to populate the database.
Included in the access folder is the implementation of the application using an Access Database file. This is pretty much the same as the other two, with the -d option as well. No additional gems are needed, but it is used in Windows instead of a Unix environment. The ODBC driver used to connect to the database is Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0.