Is there a way to specify a default display format for menu item buttons (not category buttons), and use printer formatting tags within them?
For example, if I wanted a menu item to display like this:
So I could set the display format to be:
{NAME}<linebreak/>{PRICE}
I know {NAME} doesnt work… Tried to do that to make button update if product name changed…
Yeah I tried both in the Header for a button, they don’t work.
But even if it did work in the Header, I’d much rather have a “display format” option to set default to all buttons.
What then if you need to linbreak a header for a long product name?
Button header overrides default display format?
Yeah, I think that would make sense. The main purpose is so I can set a custom format to all menu items at once. I gave my example of name and price to simplify my explanation, but actually for this specific client it would more likely be the product name plus 2 item tags (for item code and different language product name).
It’s going to be a lot of hassle to individually edit the header for every button, and I’d prefer a way for the client to be able to easily manage their menu themselves moving forward.
That was my thinking when I was trying… although on button header.
Was for ales as they changed ales regularly so changing product name would have surfaced as stock is counted for ales banded by price and was more a case of correct name on button for staff to ring in correct price. ended up using ale 1, ale 2 etc.
@emre is there any possibility to add this functionality (as in initial post) ? I’ve setup a few times with item numbers on buttons and just about to do another! Creating the buttons with the item number (from a Product Tag) is time consuming - I managed to automate slightly using SQL and Excel to update the fields with the data but it’s a one time thing for initial install then afterwards, the client needs to manually set each time. It’s also not ideal for giving new client training and explaining the whole </linebreak> thing within button headers.
I think it would be a useful feature for a number of users.
Display format would be nice. I think at least header column should be empty and only use when custom button header needed. When it is empty, use menu item name automatically.
This is two ways of doing it, being able to put {NAME} as header would be more powerful than just doing it automatically if no header set. Ideal solution is oprder/product level tags would work for button headers in menu id say.
Double that up with setting header as {NAME} by default gives the equivalent of what happens now with auto update.
Potentially update-able application would be to compare header to product name and if different leave as is, if same overwrite header with {NAME} meaning nothing changes while applying new method…
Here’s a little SQL script I created to automatically generate Menu Button Header values using “Item Number” Product Tag.
It expects the Product Tag to be called “Item Number” and will only change the header value for those products that have an item number set. It will create menu buttons like this:
UPDATE SMI
SET Header = '#' + SUBSTRING(MI.CustomTags, CHARINDEX('{"TN":"Item Number","TV":"', MI.CustomTags) + LEN('{"TN":"Item Number","TV":"'), CHARINDEX('"', MI.CustomTags, CHARINDEX('{"TN":"Item Number","TV":"', MI.CustomTags) + LEN('{"TN":"Item Number","TV":"')) - LEN('{"TN":"Item Number","TV":"') - 2) + '<linebreak/>' + SMI.Name
FROM ScreenMenuItems SMI
INNER JOIN MenuItems MI ON MI.Id = SMI.MenuItemId
WHERE MI.CustomTags LIKE '%"TN":"Item Number"%'
GO
I have added this into Database Tasks so it can be re-run at any time in the future when adding new products to re-generate the header values again.
I am using SQL Server 2014 right now, however if using SQL Server 2016 there is probably an easier way to do this because it natively supports JSON data within fields.
Script to set the Header to contain the Price for the default Portion:
UPDATE mi SET [Header]= REPLACE(mi.[Name],'\r','<br/>') + '<br/>' + convert(varchar(50),p.[Price])
FROM [ScreenMenuItems] mi
JOIN [MenuItems] pr on pr.[Id] = mi.[MenuItemId]
JOIN [MenuItemPortions] po on po.[MenuItemId] = pr.[Id] and po.[Id]=(SELECT min(po2.[Id]) FROM [MenuItemPortions] po2 WHERE po2.[MenuItemId]=pr.[Id])
JOIN [MenuItemPrices] p on p.[MenuItemPortionId] = po.[Id]
Result:
How do I run this script?
Use SSMS or create a DB Task…
Create a file that contains the script, and save it as [CBL]Update Menu Button Prices.sql in:
[Docmuents]\SambaPOS5\Database Tasks\
NOTE: FYI, the
[CBL]prefix on the file name is optional, but they are “flags” that indicate what is supposed to happen when the Task is executed:
- C = Prompt for Confirm before execution
- B = Backup DB before execution
- L = Logout (and since you are altering the DB, a logout is required to refresh the Cache)
Run the Task in Manage > Settings > Database Tools > Database Tasks …
Or use the Execute Database Task action and attach it to an Automation Command …
Thanks for that :D.
One other quick question, would it be better to use execute task action so I could use it in a config task? Or is there another method which I could use the script in a config task?
I am not very familiar with Config Tasks myself, but I think executing the DB Task via the Action is probably the way to go.
What does the Arguments section in the execute database task do? What is it used for?
I don’t think the Arguments field applies to SQL tasks. It probably applies to BAT and/or VBS tasks.
The tasks can be SQL, BAT, or VBS …
Someone else asked about the Arguments parameter, and there was no definitive answer given to indicate the Arguments parameter worked with SQL tasks, so …
Thanks for the clarification 
For next .61 I added comma separated arguments support. However parameter handling for database tasks is different.
In the script text parameters can be referenced by index as {0}, {1}, etc…
For example when SELECT {0} from {1} script called with *,Tickets argument first parameter (*) will replace {0} and second (Tickets) will replace {1}.
I understand the terminology but how does that work in an actual scenario?
Could you give an example of how that argument section could be used?
