Frequently asked questions (Related to this sync tool and ERPNext attendance integration in general)

Which devices are supported by this script?

Any device that is base on ZKTeco devices. i.e. devices that support ZKProtocol.

Devices that fall under this category are as follows:

1. Probably all ZKTeco Devices. (duh, ZKTeco developed this, so I guess they would have it in most of their devices)

   • verified devices:
     • please add devices that you have verified here.

2. Most Devices from ESSL. (They seem to be sourcing their devices from ZKTeco with just a change in branding)

   • verified devices(while this is in no means an exhaustive list, it is given so that people who just want a device name can fetch one from here.):
     • K20
     • K30 or K30 Pro
     • X990
     • please add devices that you have verified here.

Why this script works only over LAN?

Umm, technically this script/GUI can be installed anywhere as long it can access your biometric device over TCP/IP. So, for most people who do not have some kind of advanced networking setup, this would mean that they can only install this script/GUI on a computer on their LAN. Also, if this answer does not make sense to you, then it is safe to assume that you do not have any advanced networking setup and that you should only install this script on a computer that is on the same LAN network as your biometric device.

Just to add a note here. You can explore bridging your LAN networks using zerotier.

Why not add device support to ERPNext directly rather than leaving the integration up to the end-user/implementor?

As mentioned in the above answer, most people would have their biometric/time tracking system on their local network, with no access to it from an outside network. Hence, there will always be a part of the integration that needs to be set up on some computers on their local network.

So, at least as it stands now, it makes sense to separate all the mess of everyone's biometric systems from ERPNext with the following reasoning:

1. People can have whatever time-tracking/access-control system they want (biometric or otherwise), it mostly boils down to IN time and OUT time Logs.
2. This IN/OUT Log can be imported and stored in ERPNext as an Employee Checkin Document. Everything that needs to be done with these IN/OUT Logs is currently ((or) can/should be developed to be) handled inside of ERPNext. As most operations that are done after acquiring these IN/OUT logs should common for most people irrespective of their time-tracking/access-control system's implementation.

What is the use of last_sync_timestamp field in Shift Type Document in ERPNext?

Please refer to this entire discussion until someone feels like phrasing out the answer here.