Has anyone done something like this? How?
I'm just starting a project that will have a browser based web application (using PHP and possibly an Ajax framework like Dojo or JQuery) that is presented to the user from within a kiosk unit. It's basically a survey in a browser but will need to id the user via the id card swipe reader on the unit.
I don't even know what exact unit this is (sorry for lack of h/w information!) as I have just learned about the project yesterday. I'm waiting to see if the unit came with some sort of software to help me out, but my sense is not from the initial meeting I had. They will be initially running some flavor of Windows though they may decide to switch to Linux later. I have no experience with kiosks so I'm just trying to get a sense of what is usually involved for this sort of thing.
The main question is how to get the data input from the kiosk hardware into the web based PHP application?
When speaking with the project lead, his first guess on how to tackle this was:
- Have some sort of driver that picks up the data input to the id reader.
- Write to file.
- Use Dojo Offline to read file periodically or when needed and compare a timestamp, etc.
Not yet concerned with tackling security implications. First I just want to figure out the basics of how to get this going. I can see how the same could possibly be done with Flex/Air, Silverlight, etc., but we are a PHP shop and frankly, my boss would not consider those. Also, using a database, sockets, etc., seems like it may be overkill (but maybe not???)
Any suggestions, warnings, etc.? Thanks.