I have one of my own, but it is not very "user-friendly". I am considering implementing a stock management system in Drupal.

Would there be interest in that?

Depending on how many people are actually any skilled in running a server.

I expect there would be interest, and substantial one, but it will not gain a high prominence.

Well, the point would be that all they had to do was install Drupal (which is quite simple) and a couple of modules.

Whatever you do, though, please implement an ANS format of some sort for interoperability.

After that, they could just change prices and so on via the standard Drupal interface.

The system would also handle version updates.

On my part it is far simpler to run my current, custom code, as I do not mind directly editing SQL tables. However, this is not the general.

ANS?

See XStreet ANS and Hippo ANS. Basically, a dump of sale data with a HTTP POST in a defined format to a configurable URL.

They both have their own formats, but as long as it can be parsed, statistics systems and related things can be adapted to take it.

"ANS" does not seem to stand for anything as far as I can see.

The advantage of my SLight system is that output format is configurable and extensible anyway, so I will not worry too much about that.

"Automated Notification System" is that they say it stands for.

Yes - but can it be sent to someone else?

It _could_. But there would be little need to, since it would include a sales management and logging system within Drupal.

There would be interest, yes...and from an institution that exists to give things away...to wit, the library. How delightful!

following this thread with interest but little comprehension ...

oh good; I thought it was just me.

IMHO Drupal has a limited adoption rate; people who install it themselves are "expert" enough to whine "ewww, why did you code it this way?"

this said, I'd like it, as I welcome every free tool that acts like a gateway between virtual environments and WWW.