Making A menu item appear only at a specific time

Version 4 V4 Question
18

@kendash How soon is soon do you know? Because If v5 takes about 1-2 weeks. Then I could advise my client and if she is willing to wait then that’s all good. Otherwise If it takes longer than that, then at this stage I may not want to update her system until a month after it’s release for the sake of testing and exploring additional features, setting them up for each client, implementing new features, doing database transfers without affecting any data already within the system, and a lot of other explorations and testing so that I can update that Instructions manual booklet I’m working on to give to the samba community which can be freely edited and monitored in the future.

I’m also working on a way where I can apply OTG(On The Go) updates to sambaPOS on each client I have.

19

In the meantime @sukasem I will explore that feature and see If i can set up those triggers and rules on specific menu items. I have already implemented the auto happy hour in the software, Im waiting to test it in the next coming days, and if it works great! If it doesn’t then I’ll try figure something out and update you guys.

I’m not sure if my explanation of what the client wants is quite clear. Ill post some screenshots later, once I have time during my work break and explain what ideally the client is looking for or wanting. Luckily she’s a very easy going client so, as long as everything works, she doesn’t mind work arounds. But since my business is quite new and fresh, It’s best I give and show her the best of my skills and work so that client is happy and I have more word of mouth advertising :stuck_out_tongue:

20

This is already supported with Database Tools module and export function.

21

You mean the database import export module yeah? this works for sql compact that comes with samba during installation yeah?

22

Dont use SQL Compact its slower and cant handle multi user systems. You should install SQL Express and use that it also gives you much more flexibility and control. CE is horrible honestly.

SQL Express will also give you greater ability to correct problems if they should ever come up. You have better management and control of the database. Furthermore its more efficient and can handle more complex setups much faster than CE.

23

Some info below.

1 Like
24

@Peter_Cijsouw Thanks Pete. I saw this tutorial. I will be migrating the client server today to sql 2014 express. Ill then work on finding a work around and update you guys. Thanks for all the help.

25

Here is a post I did a while back, except my pop up question only shows when the special is activated on specific day. So works well with free items given away with a special meal, you could add a order tag with a negative amount say -$5 so when option is chosen on a special day the price will be reduced.

It works very well and I use it every day. remember to add to printer template also!

1 Like
26

@stephanhenning Thanks for that link. I looked through it and tested. It works great! I have been getting an idea on which could possibly work for me. Though I could use some input whether its possible.

Normally there has to be a category made before it shows up in the POS screen, and any item found within the category normally shows up there. If you delete the category, and start a new work period, the category is no longer shown in the POS screen. Now I’m thinking whether it would be possible to control that. Manually this is possible, and it’s easy to remove and create categories with linked items, so I could easily just remove the category, start a new work period and the category is no longer listed, then when the day I want the category to appear, I could just make a new category and link its items to it , start a new work period and it’s there again.

I’m not so sure how possible this would be within v4 using rules, actions and triggers, however what if we could create a script which does that for us. This is an idea I haven’t quite tested yet as I’m not quite familiar with scripting, but I don’t see how it could not be possible for this type of scenario.

Have a script which is triggered on any day, or time of choice to create a category, link specific items to that category, create a new work period, and have it show, then right before the happy hour is complete, the script triggers a popup advising the employee/manager or whoever is at the till, that happy hour will end in 10minutes, and that they should take and finalize any orders taken within that time, then have the script remove the category the minute it goes over the specific time period and then its back to normal.

Could we incorporate this with a trigger which changes menu item cost to say “HH” columns and then once Happy hour is finished, it brings it back to normal prices. Or even have it add and remove the column for prices as well as category before and after the period of time?

Just a thought as there is scripts integrated into samba, so I thought maybe it’s possible?

27

maybe @QMcKay could have some ideas? I believe his got some good knowledge on scripting and incorporating that into sambapos. hmmm

28

Scripting is available in V5 but then you don’t need to write scripts to switch menu. There is action for that

29

@sukasem I’m aware of that buddy. That will be awesome, I can’t wait to test it out and implement it for this client and future client of mine. In the meantime I know we can create a different menu for my case, However I just want to see whether this can be possible through scripting without the need of changing menus.

Though I do believe your method of changing menus would be quite effective.

30

That won’t be possible in v4. V4 does not have the scripting capability like v5 does. Categories are not dictated by work period, you simply log out and back in for changes to show.

31

@Jesse Maybe not dictated. Though it seems to be working that way with me. I don’t need to logout for the changes to apply to POS menu when adding or removing a category for changes to take effect. If i have a work period open, and want to remove a category, I end work period, create the category and products, save it, start a new work period, and changes are made straight away. When I want to remove it, I end work period, remove it, save it, start work period and its gone. I tested it a few times to think maybe it only happens sometimes, but it occurs everytime. any time I need to make a change to a product, category, order tag, ticket tag, ticket template, ticket creation, product cost, after ending a work period, updating, starting work period, it’s updated.

32

Yes your correct I was saying you don’t have to start or stop a work period for those changes. You will not be able to automate changing categories or products. Maybe you should explain more clearly what your need is.

33

I appreciate your help kendash. Luckily the customer is happy by just having an addition category always visible and accessible, and they just said that they would discipline the staff to only use the button on weekends. I’ve made it clear it’s only temporary till I find a good and easy solution to automate a process.

Basically what I wanted to try and achieve was was have a script which firstly warns the person at the counter that in 1 minute breakfast will begin, and all it does, is adds a new category and adds the products to that category, saves it.

Then when around lets say 2pm for instance, the script runs again, warns the person at the counter that breakfast ends in 1 minute, then after a minute, it just deletes the category, saves it, then returns to pos screen again.

I have set the group code to be the exact name of category, this way, when samba asks if it wants to auto populate, it just adds all the items that has the group code matching category name(Weirdly this works, you guys are geniuses haha), this way when the script runs, it just clicks’Yes’ when samba prompts if it wants to auto populate the category.

The process is quite straight forward. In fact manually it can be done in a matter of a minute. However I wish to try and get the client to not tamper with any of the settings as much as possible(in the case that they might mess up something, in which then I get a call out). This way I get called out less(always a good sign) and they save money :smiley:

The script probably doesn’t even have to be done within samba, but it just looks attractive if it’s done within samba. I might end up finding some tutorials to setup window’s scripts which could be run to do the work. Hmmm.

34

On-the-fly Menu switching in v5 will make this scenario fairly simple to set up.

But I came up with an idea that could work in v4 using SQL in a BAT file that is fired by a Start Process Action.

The basic idea is to switch the Menu Id for the Category.

This shows all Categories are assigned to Menu 1 (Menu) …

Pasted image1059×471 35.9 KB

Now let’s say I want to get rid of the Category called “Smokes”, but I don’t want to delete it. Instead, if I run this SQL to assign the Category to Menu 3 (MenuBackup), it should disappear from Menu 1 and show up in Menu 3 (let’s say we never really use Menu 3 - it is just a “dummy” Menu we can use as a placeholder.

UPDATE [ScreenMenuCategories] SET
[ScreenMenuId] = (SELECT [Id] FROM [ScreenMenus] WHERE [Name] = 'MenuBackup')
WHERE [Name] = 'Smokes'

Later, when we want to put the Category back into Menu 1, we run this:

UPDATE [ScreenMenuCategories] SET
[ScreenMenuId] = (SELECT [Id] FROM [ScreenMenus] WHERE [Name] = 'Menu')
WHERE [Name] = 'Smokes'

Pasted image1299×817 72 KB

I leave the rest of the details of implementation to you, but there is one thing that you will need to keep in mind: SamabPOS caches Menus in memory, so at times like when you make Menu modifications, you will need to Refresh that Cache. One method to do this is to Log Out and Log back In. Another Method is to use the Action called Refresh Cache …

35

So i could simply duplicate the menu, have two menu’s that look alike, except that one has e.g. smokes and one doesn’t and then have that switch between them? I think that method is fairly similar to what @sukasem was trying to show me. This way rather than delete and add again, it just switches between them live. Apologies if it feels like im repeating myself, but sometimes I find a few things unclear, and find it easier to understand using screen shots and proper set out instructions. hmmm.

Alright I’ve got the basic idea, I’ll see what I can do with it, and with any luck, once I find a solution, I’ll post back results :). Appreciate the help guys. Can’t wait to test out v5.

36

Using v5, a duplicate menu would be the way to go for sure, though that is not what I suggested. I proposed creating a blank “dummy” menu that you shift a single Category in and out of.

1 Like
37

Very cool idea @QMcKay.