POS System

OFBiz has it's own open source POS front end application. The interface utilises XUI whilst the business functionality is directly reusing the core OFBiz technology underneath. Thus the POS terminal gains all the benefits already built into the framework around products, pricing, promotions and facilities etc.

System options

Those familiar with OFBiz will understand most of these options as they already exist in the main framework.
Database - your choice as per OFBiz entity engine. Run one locally on the POS terminal, effectively standalone mode for resilience against network connection problems, or from another machine if you only want to maintain one database.
Synchronise - It should be possible to synchronise the POS database with an upstream central (or mid tier) database. This allows for all product administration to be done at the upstream level and synchronised down to the POS terminals. This process works the other way for reporting of sales back into the central system from the POS terminals.
Stock management - In simple terms the main database will have visibility on the stock levels and the POS terminals can feed updates. As always the real time argument comes into effect based on how often you synchronise and even then you will still fall foul to the customer who has picked it from a shelf but not processed through the till yet scenarios!

It would be nice to see development of a stock check against other facilities screen to ease customer enquires about other shops having it in stock. Think real time stock issues again though!

To Setup

For Windows setup of latest source version StartWinAdminSVN

To Run

java -jar ofbiz.jar -pos

Getting Started:

Login with userid "1" and password "1".
To use the "register" it must be opened, which basically involves telling the system how much cash you are starting with. It will then keep track of cash transactions so you can see if everything balances when you close the register.

To open the register click on the MGR button on the top and near the right, and then on the "Open" button on the right side of the screen near the top.

Internationalisation (I18n)

Localisation (L10n) of POS application is straightforward. You only have to provide your locale properties files in \applications\pos\config\.

Hints from:

http://lists.ofbiz.org/pipermail/users/2005-February/thread.html Search for "pos "

Tried and Tested hardware:

As with any POS system the hardware can vary dramatically, but any hardware supporting JavaPOS should be able to do the trick. It would be interesting to have some idea of hardware people have tried and tested either with or without success.

512MB of RAM is coming up as a recommended level, certainly going below that will cost you performance.

 How setup the Epson JavaPOS ADK 1.80~1.82 for OFBiz?! 

Posted by cedar at May 10, 2007 03:25 |

I am not a developer or user of OFBiz,  

On May.8, I got a inquiry about Epson JavaPOS setting problem. So I went to the customer in the afternoon, then found the end user is BERTELSMANN.

There was a guy from India. They use Apache's Open Source CRM application, called OFBiz!
It's mainly a project for CRM, ERP, or something others for business. But it also inlcudes a POS
application which could be running alone, it means it could be installed on one PC and working
without net connection.

Here I want to explain a little about how to setup the Epson JavaPOS ADK for TM printer:
On WindowsXP, and I believe the process on Linux is similiar

Step 1. Install the JavaSE which version you like. I use jdk1.5.0_09;

Step 2. Then installed the "Epson JavaPOS ADK 1.82" (or 1.81, 1.80, any version suppor jpos18-control; and copy the "epsonJposService182.jar, epsonJposServiceCommon.jar" to /ofbiz/applications/pos/lib;

Step 3. Now modified the jpos.xml file, under /ofbiz/applications/pos/config; I post a sample here:
It uses a TM-U220D on COM1 port, please remember to keep the jpos182 or 180 same as the file you using under ./pos/lib;

    <JposEntry logicalName="TM-U220D">
        <creation factoryClass="jp.co.epson.jpos182.util.EpsonJposServiceInstanceFactory"
            serviceClass="jp.co.epson.jpos182.ptr.U220D"/>
        <vendor name="SEIKO EPSON" url="http://www.epson.co.jp"/>
        <jpos category="POSPrinter" version="1.8"/>
    <product description="EPSON TM-U220D Printer Device Service"
        name="EPSON Services for JavaPOS(TM) Standard" url="http://www.epson.co.jp"/>

        <!-Other non JavaPOS required property (mostly vendor properties and bus specific properties i.e. RS232 )->
        <prop name="dataBits" type="String" value="8"/>
        <prop name="Parity" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="portName" type="String" value="COM1"/>
        <prop name="U375Compatible" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="deviceBus" type="String" value="RS232"/>
        <prop name="DataLen" type="String" value="1"/>
        <prop name="UsedJAI" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="TimeoutTime" type="String" value="5000"/>
        <prop name="baudRate" type="String" value="9600"/>
        <prop name="TwoColor" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="PortType" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="UsedNVRAM" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="StopBit" type="String" value="1"/>
        <prop name="RetryTime" type="String" value="100"/>
        <prop name="ErrorOption" type="String" value="1"/>
        <prop name="ReverseEject" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="SerialPowerWaitTime" type="String" value="500"/>
        <prop name="InputWait" type="String" value="1"/>
        <prop name="AnalysisLevel" type="String" value="1"/>
        <prop name="BufferSize" type="String" value="2"/>
        <prop name="DeviceDesc" type="String" value="EPSON TM-U220D Printer"/>
        <prop name="OutputLength" type="String" value="10"/>
        <prop name="parity" type="String" value="None"/>
        <prop name="stopBits" type="String" value="1"/>
        <prop name="PortName" type="String" value="COM1"/> <!-- Windows -->
        <!-prop name="PortName" type="String" value="/dev/ttyS0"/> <!- Linux -->
        <prop name="ReceiveTimeout" type="String" value="10"/>
        <prop name="TwoByteCharacter" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="Page254UseCode" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="PhysicalDevice" type="String" value="TM-U220D"/>
        <prop name="PaperSize" type="String" value="80"/>
        <prop name="BaudRate" type="String" value="6"/>
        <prop name="Page255UseCode" type="String" value="0"/>
        <prop name="ServiceVersion" type="String" value="1.80"/>
        <prop name="flowControl" type="String" value="None"/>
        <prop name="FlowControl" type="String" value="1"/>
    </JposEntry

Step 4. Install Java CommAPI 2.0, copy the comm.jar to j2se or j2re 's /lib/ext folder.
and copy the javax.comm.properties to j2se or j2re's /lib folder;
and copy the win32com.dll to /windows/system32.

Step 5. Modifiy the pos-containers.xml, which under /framework/base/config:
to make the <property name="Receipt" value="TM-U220D" /> value same as you defined in jpos.xml file.

Now java -jar ofbiz.jar -pos, enjoy it!

Epson JavaPOS ADK 1.82 support these product

DM-D110 DM-D210 DM-D500 DM-Z460/DM-Z461

TM-H5000II TM-H5200 TM-H6000 TM-H6000II TM-H6000II Photo ID TM-H6000II Validation
TM-H6000II with Scanner TM-H6000III TM-J2000/TM-J2100

TM-J7000/TM-J7100 TM-J7500/TM-J7600

TM-L90 TM-P60 TM-T88II TM-T88III TM-T88IIR TM-T90
TM-U210A TM-U220 w/Black Mark Sensor TM-U220A TM-U220B TM-U220D TM-U230 TM-U950

Advice

Never load/mix 2 instances of ADK (eg 1.8x and 1.92) on the same machine

Areas for thought/investigation

For UK receipts the VAT needs to be shown as the amount made up in the gross price. The system can handle multiple VAT codes/values i.e. books have 0% VAT and books with tapes have 13% and pretty much everything else has 17.5%. The till functions correctly in applying the different amounts when the data is configured but need to look into the receipt reporting as we need a sub total listing the amounts for each VAT code separately. Plus if we store gross amounts then the VAT should not be added, just show how much it is!
How to run the POS terminal at the same time as an instance of OFBiz on the same machine? It's a real pain shutting down POS and starting OFBiz and vice-versa to make changes!

You must launch 2 instances with different port numbers. I did not did it yet but I think it's the only way. Jacques Le Roux 18/5/5

Success, just needed to turn off the BeanShell ports in the ofbiz-containers.xml file. I haven't tried but you might be able to overide this port on the command line, in which case you should be able to continue to run the BeanShell access on different ports. Ray Barlow 25/05/05

There is even a better way to do that. Running it in 2 Java instances is fine but just not as efficient because (depending on your JVM) Java won't be able to share resources that are sharable, like jar file in memory and such. You can run both in the same instance. The easiest way to do this is to add the catalina section of ofbiz-containers.xml to the pos-container.xml
Jacques Le Roux 28/8/5, thanks to David and Andy recommendations.

Individual stores require control of "their" product database in terms of store X can add and sell a product that store Y doesn't. Also store X should be able to add and sell a product that store Y might take on later, so the product data should also be transferable if desired. Again individual stores require control of pricing for a product although it will be standard for 95% of products. Ditto promotions!

Price enquiries - A quick (bar)code price check that does not make any changes to or need an existing transaction.

Find products by code, name and or descriptions!

Can you park customer transactions for later recall? If yes and using a central store database it should allow you to pick up again from any till Just seen on the screen the save/restore buttons are ghosted so there is positive intent but time has not permitted completion yet. Note : This is now in the POS, I (Jacques Le Roux) add it, Ray (Barlow) sponsored it.

Unfortunately the keyword "POS" is often found in other words and this wiki search engine does not search by whole word so it is quite possible to get results about postgresSQL and proposed proposals etc rather than achieve the positive result for a "POS" keyword search. Many people postulate that only the apostles of higher beings can have a positive influence on search engines, but we all like to think we can achieve the impossible and challenge such statements as preposterous!

Ray Barlow 13/07/05 Attached is the document we have written for users of the POS system (Till Manual_V2.0). It may be a little bit specific to us in areas and it does have a little customisation i.e. we have added two functional buttons that we thought useful, you can see them on the screenshots.
1) DEL : If you are typing a number on screen and you make a typo this saves pulling the keyboard out to correct it.
2) - (minus) : We use this for quantity corrections, price mods etc.