Continuing the discussion from Gift Certificate Sales & Redemption:
Is it possible to just have a simple name like just date and value or time and value…the numbers may seem too many for simpletons like myself…just thinking out loud.
numbers are far less easy to guess.
Get a barcode scanner and print the barcode on the bottom of the gift certificate so it can be easily scanned in 
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Yes, that is possible. But what if you sell 2 GCs with the same value at the same time, or on the same day? Then there is no way to distinguish between them so that they can be “validated”.
In any case, the GC number is created in the Rule named GC Purchased & Printed via the Action named GC Create, using the following syntax:
[=Helper.GetUniqueString()][=Order.Price]
The Helper.GetUniqueString() function generates a date/time like 201610170842432 and the Order.Price is used to get the value of the GC.
When the Tutorial was written, we did not have Date or Time Tags that supported formatting like we do now… so we could theoretically change this to be something like:
[='{DATE:yyyy-MM-dd_HH.mm.ss.fff}' + '_' + '{PRICE}']
That ^ would produce something a little more readable, like: 2016-10-17_09.01.27.251_100.00
Or use whatever naming convention that you want. You could even use a Global Program Setting (a value stored in the DB) that increments by 1 every time you sell a GC, and then the naming could be something like:
[='{SETTING:GCcounter}' + '_' + '{PRICE}']
// or just ...
[='{SETTING:GCcounter}']
Or using the {RANDOM:X:X} Tag, you can generate a number on the fly that is a mix of letters and/or numbers of a fixed length.
{RANDOM:<length>:<chars>}
<length>:Length of generated string. Default 8.
<chars>: Characters used to generate string. Default ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWZYZ123456789
For example:
{RANDOM:5:1234567890}
… will generate a 5 digit random number.
That is a good point… you don’t want people just creating their own GC at home … you need a way to “validate” the authenticity of the GC, which the long number does for you because it is unique down to the millisecond and it creates a GC Entity and Account that you can match up with the printed GC.
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yh @QMcKay I figured that was the main reason behind that to make it easy and not complicated…i tried the random option on the gu create…didnt even cross my mind to include length which made it confusing. Thanks for the help as always (y)
its a shame my card programmer don’t do this.
A different topic but I wonder if the software for programming magcards could ever be integrated into samba at some point?
Hey @GreatShakesBar this would just be a printer template using the escape codes to trigger the Mag Card Printer Features. Very similar to pinging a cash draw.
Our legacy database prints to Mag Cards Printers quite a lot - in fact you can do the same by including the command sequences in a Notepad document and printing the document. Stuff like writing to Track 1,2, or 3 is all incorporated.
You just need the manual for the Mag Card printer and off you go.
Gluck.
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Hmmmm, interesting, what kind of writer do you have?
I have just a cheapy USB one which has its own basic china made app to read/write with…
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From Great Shakes post he was referring to a Printer - these are actually expensive printers that use Mag Cards as their stock (i.e. 100 Cards Stacked). The printer is designed to Print on the front of the Card things such as Photo ID, Text Details and ALSO programme the Mag strip on the back of the card.
I know for sure 1 thing, they are not cheap!
Oh I know another thing? They are temperamental and can be a big pain in the butt!
Oh, ok, I could have sworn he was talking about programming mag cards…
Yer your right, looks at getting one a couple of times but temperamental as you said put me off getting used which was only way I could ever justify the price…
Think they use ribbon type printing method, at one point had a guy I found through ebay who could print small qty for cheap but lost contact with him, plus now prefer RFID although printed RFID cards would be cool.
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You could be correct!
Mate I had a few weeks, end on end, of busy+crap+busy+moving+family+frustrated not getting my work done 
Probably should of just shut up LOL
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yeah, was on about writing them lol 
Oh well, informative anyway
PS: The Printer Writes them and also can do graphic designs at the same time…
Write as in programme lol.
Damn communication!
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Hello and thanks for QMcKay for the great detailed tutorial
I am working on it for 3 days now, I followed all steps as I need this GC very much, I will use it to give some GC for free as an advertising my restaurant also I will give employee every month a GC for their free meals. Any way I have few problems with this which I tried to fix before bothering any one, but could not. So the whole mechanism is working except when going to GC search screen I can’t create new GC.
This is the screen
and when Clicking New Gift Certificate I can’t generate a new GC and pay for it and print it.
I just can manage to create new GC from buying it through the normal POS screen and choosing GC from items
and pay for it but no print out of GC only normal invoice prints
this is the GC print template preview
so this is my problem. Another question if I need only the Admin who can create new GC, but everyone can redeem it. Thank you in advance for helping me.
Correct, you cannot do that. It is not designed to work like that.
Correct, that is the way to create a new GC.
When you Settle the Ticket, it should Print the GC. If it is not doing that then there is something wrong in your setup. No way to tell what that might be without seeing screenshots of the Print-related elements.
That could be done by constraining the Rule for Order Added to Ticket, by checking the {:CURRENTUSER} and/or {:CURRENTUSERROLE} settings.
P.S. Further in the Tutorial Topic, there is details on how to Create a GC manually using a button on the left instead of needing to Settle the Ticket. You still need to add the GC Product to the Ticket, but then you just click the button and it is created and the Order is removed from the Ticket so it does not need to be Settled.
Thank you very much for your fast reply, it clears every thing for me and thank you again. I will work on the printing issue. another quick question can we remove the two buttons Edit Gift Certificate and New Gift Certificate.
thank you very much again.
Sorry for this another question can I make the item or the category Gift Certificate only visible to admin. so only the admin can sell this item.
You cannot remove them from a default/stock Entity Screen that is configured for Search Mode.
However, if you configure your Entity Screen to be Custom or Layout Mode, then you can add an Entity Search Widget (which looks identical to a Search Mode Screen), and you will have control over the buttons that are available in that Widget, so you can configure it to not show those buttons.
When you change to Custom or Layout Mode, then when you click on the Select Gift Certificate button, you will initially see a blank screen. The following screenshot shows a screen set to Layout Mode. Right-click in the middle of the screen and select Design Mode …
Once you are in Design Mode, the border of the screen will turn RED. Right-click on the screen and choose Add Widget > Entity Search …
Now click on the Widget to highlight it, then right-click and select Settings. You can then choose which buttons appear on the Widget …
If you configure the Widget as shown above, then it will look something like the following when you exit Design Mode …
P.S. The nice thing about choosing Layout Mode over Custom Mode is that Layout Mode will automatically adjust the content of the screen to fill the entire area, no matter what resolution you are using on different Terminals …
More than excellent explanation, Can’t give the the thanks you deserve.