Create organization structure
Organizational hierarchy must exist for Centara Server to be able to control POS devices and apply settings
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Organizational hierarchy must exist for Centara Server to be able to control POS devices and apply settings
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As an example, a license has to be unique and has to be applied to each POS entity, since it would not make sense to share that information with many tills. A store name on the other hand is an example of a property that would make sense to share. In both of these cases we have properties that are attached to a different levels of the configuration tree. An instance of the same property can be attached to many entities at the same time but only the property applied closes to the POS will actually be used. In that case the node which is on the closest level overrides the others.
The configuration tree can be constructed in any way imaginable, but the core node is always the workstation which receives the settings. Settings can be applied directly to a single workstation or else if the setting is intended to be used by many workstations, then create a workstation group and apply the setting to that group. The group can then be attached to one or more workstations.Workstations groups can then contain other workstation groups to create the most efficient tree for each corporation.
Most of the properties that can be applied in the RDM are settings that are a fixed part of the Centara framework. When plugins are activated, they can pull new properties to further configure that plugin. An example of this is a plugin that communicates with a third party EFT authorization provider. Properties containing card receipt information need to be applied on a corporate level, where as a merchant id needs to be applied on a store level while an IP address of individual pin pads needs to be applied on a workstation level.
For Centara Server to be able to control the POS devices and their settings, the organizational structure must be created. An entity must be created for each store and an entity must also be created for each POS that belongs to each store.
A new workstation cannot be published unless an existing button layout is assign to it. If creating the first store/workstation, it is better to have some layouts created and published before proceeding.
Click Setup to view the current store layout. Initially when no configuration is in place, there should only be a Add store button visible. Once the first store has been created, the first POS has automatically been created as well. An Add POS button now appears to the right of each store to create additional POS within that store.
The picture below shows when a single store containing a single POS has been created.
Settings are properties with values assigned to them. To be able to apply a setting to a POS, a POS entity must be created and properties with values assigned to that entity. Each POS, when created, is assigned to a store entity that represents the store they belong.
An example of a typical store setting is the Store address.
Click the store to enter the store setting area where the store address will be applied to.
Review the groups of settings on the right hand side of the screen and locate the Store address setting.
To apply the property to the store, click the blue arrow. Doing this only attaches the empty property, no value has yet been entered.
Locate the empty property and type in the address.
Settings that are intended to be reused, can also be grouped together and then applied to different levels. When a store is created, some initiated groups are automatically created with initial values to speed up the process of deployment. Most importantly a group is created for settings that will be common to every POS within a single store. The name of that group will be "Workstations in store [x]".
To see the full list of groups click Setup and then from the sub menu click POS Groups. The list of of groups appear beneath the section Workstation groups. To create a new group, click New workstation group. Then simply add desired properties and apply values to them.
Groups of settings need to be applied to entities for them to be applied. Groups that have been created are added to a list of groups visible at the top of the right hand side property banner.
To apply a group, click the blue arrows. If a group is shown as disabled in the view, it means the group has already been applied to the current entity.
