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.

i18n

There is an internationalized version of POS. The purpose is primarily for demo but everyone has to begin ;o)
See i10n of POS application

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.

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.

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.

Jira issue with patch for new buttons:
http://jira.undersunconsulting.com/browse/OFBIZ-619
Ray Barlow 05/12/05
This patch is now committed. Jacques Le Roux 24/5/6

Great Ray,
I will have a look at Till manual. Maybe you can submit your patch in Jira and I will see for i18n interactions or problem, etc. I will look this week for the Enter key problem on Windows...
Jacques Le Roux 28/8/5

Ray,
I will translate (french) and adapt your Till manual and use it, thanks. There is no Enter key problem on Windows. It's because you can't use the Enter key before be logged on (on Linux too). After it works well. So there is no Enter key problem except when login and typing password!
Jacques Le Roux 05/12/5

Alternative to this is an external POS system