It would be nice to see a web deployable POS implementation of OFBiz, unfortunately it's only a wish for me to see it as I have no time/paid development to do it. I know the current POS can be setup to work remotely for a central system providing extra resilience by being self contained, so if the server or connection etc go down it can continue to run and hook up again later which is all excellent.
But it would be great to be able to run a POS terminal from a central server without having to do much more than plug in the hardware and tell the server what the hardware spec is for that terminal. And this is probably where several questions come in such as are you thinking of running multiple POS terminals each with their own peripherals like receipt printer, card read, cash drawer etc. The JavaPOS hardware API uses java (no surprise!) so the client needs to be running java not just html are you thinking of running an applet? or some other ePOS hardware API? Then you're heading back round to if using an applet maybe you can use a non HTML UI module as well to make sure it responds fast enough for local requests by doing local validation and such. Any thoughts out there as to whether the XUI layer could be bundled through a browser and us something like RPC for the server calls? Then you could re-use or adjust the existing POS module saving you time. If you have no terminal hardware requirements then it sounds like you're just dealing with a UI customisation, a much simpler task and probably only of interest to others if you devise a similar customisable screen system like the existing POS, simple XML file with button titles and events etc. sounds like a widget! Re orders, seems like a lot of effort to control lots of orders for a table. You can apply multiple payments to an order, although that is not specifically related to ship groups at the moment, if you choose that route you could easily make that association. About speed I'd be suspicious about the order editing code as it exists today because as it has evolved over time it has lost it's way little and is already ear marked for a rewrite (when someone has the time/effort/investment to do it), it pretty much recreates the order and that could be to costly for your environment. Ray Bilgin Ibryam wrote: > Hi everybody, > sorry for the long post, but please read ahead and tell me your opinion. > I have to implement a web based pos system for a restaurant. > Before start coding i will be glad to hear your opinions and advices. > > First of all i decided to go web-based instead of using existing ofbiz POS > because it does not cover all my needs. In the restaurant i need: > 1) To enter the registered customers for order payments. > 2) To edit orders. > 3) To do Returns. > 4) To visualize tables, seats, to do table reservations... > > I decided to do a new ofbiz component, with UI similar to pos (but html, not > swing) for easy using with touch screens, that allows order entering in a > fast way (similar to order manger but with possibility to enter orders in > lesser clicks). > > Is there someone that has experience in this kind of things that can give me > some advice? Do you see any possible difficulties and drawbacks in doing a > web based pos system? > > About the implementation: > The other thing that i have to care are the tables and people setting there. > For tables i can use Fixed assets, but i cannot decide how to handle/group > customer orders. > 1) One way to go is to create a separate sales order for every person, so > everyone can pay only for his/her products. > Then i can group the orders for the table with a work effort. I need to > group the orders, because i need all the time to calculate the total for the > table, the total product list and the complete all the orders for the table > with one click, if needed. > Do you think that manipulating lots of orders could work fast enough, > because for example the order creation in ofbiz is heavy_weight/slower than > other operations? > > 2) The other way to go is to create only one order per table at a time and > to create separate ship groups for every person. This way i can assign > parties to ship groups, but it is NOT possible these parties to pay only for > their products in the ship group. Is it possible somehow? This way i have to > create, edit , complete only one order for all the people setting around a > table at moment. > > (In general my questions are: is it a good idea to do a web based pos and to > manipulate lots of orders at the same time (like one order) regarding fast > working needs of a pos system ?) > > Please advise and thanks in advance. > Bilgin Ibryam >
