Hi,
I might hire a developer to make some changes to sambapos, but I understand v4 is not opensource so may have to downgrade to v3. I was just wondering what the big differences between the 2 versions are?
Thanks,
Alex
Ive never used v3 but from what ive heard v4 can do so much more that youll be limiting yourself to what you can do, even more so now as V5 is soon to be released and theres even more things happening there such as twitter orders, cloud based stuff further into the future, and much more
Youd be better to read up, learn what you can, teach yourself and ask the forum questions and for help so yoy can build yourself a truely unique system personalised how you want, thats what we all do and the help on here really is amazing!!
Id say forget a developer, move past V3 and work with V4 and upgrade to V5 when released 
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What changes do you need made? Most everything can be done in v4 without needing source changes.
Hi Rick,
Thanks, I understand that, but we’ll need one or two things that might require some programming in v4 as well as v3 which is why I ask.
Can anyone shed some light on this? On what the big differences are?
Regards,
Alex
give us examples of what you want, as like @Jesse said almost anything can be done. Even things the developers didnt think were possible we have made happen
What things? If you can answer that I can give you a better answer. Without knowing what things there is a VERY big list of differences and it would be more beneficial if we did not attempt to list them all.
The reason @emre decided to go close source is because he is using some libraries and few other things that are closed source to provide a better more feature rich product. It is designed extremely flexible so many people think they need to change source code to accomplish some things and reality is they dont.
PS. Version 5 is being beta tested right now with a small invite only team. Many new and exciting features will be possible with this including integration with other third party API’s.
Here is a link explaining the GPL license better.
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Basically it would be hard to explain to you exactly what is different because those differences are not documented in one place. But there are considerable differences including how expressions are read, used, and several actions are not available as well as rule events. V3 is severely limited to what it can do even if it is open source.
@emre did not make it closed source to limit how you use it in your business however. If you have something you find that you think you might need a developer for then please by all means ask it and let us know in detail. @emre may just find a way for it to be done for you without you paying for expensive development on v3.
Or as in most cases we may be able to show you how to do it without needing hardcoded changes.
Hi Kendesh, RickH,
Thanks for your replies.
One thing for example will be a cloud-based system. We’ll be looking at integrating it with PHP/MySQL for reporting.
As far as I can see, this wouldn’t be possible apart from by editing the source?
Thanks,
Alex
Everything can be possible. For example I have my system integrated with TimeTrex which is a third party payroll system that tracks punches, scheduling etc.
I will show some screenshots as examples.
Here is my Third Party software running on a local webserver.
Here is SambaPos Time Clock I implemented. When an employee chooses clock in from SambaPOS it automatically adds that same punch into TimeTrex which is running on the local web server.
Ah Ok thanks! and how were you able to do that?
Well in v4 it was more complex I had to use .bat files and php scripts.
V5 which is due out soon its simply a jscript that is called within SambaPOS. The Jscript pushes and pulls from the PHP based website.
Here is the script I used for the punch. V5 ONLY
function punch(employee){
if (employee == 'Jesse'){
var user = 2;
}
else if (employee == 'Melissa'){
var user = 12;
}
var url = 'http://localhost:8085/api/soap/punch.php?user='+user;
web.Download(url);
}
V4 I used the Start Process action to launch a series of .bat files.
Some actions to look at in v4 for more advanced inegrations are:
Start Process
Execute HTML Widget Action
Execute Script
Look at this discussion for more ideas:
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Hi Kendesh,
Thanks, what we would have to do I guess is sync in both directions.
Another thing we will be doing is making fairly large changes to the layout and design, would this be possible?
Can you explain this?
It can go both directions.
BTW This is very advanced use of SambaPOS I am not going to lie it takes a good knowledge of it. However that said… its infinitely more simple than altering source code. By using v3 you are severely limiting what you can do and in order to do some things that are basic for v4 or v5 you would have to write it yourself via source.
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Hi Kendesh,
Thanks again!
Could you give an example of something that might be very difficulty to do in v3?
I do not have much experience with v3. I do know that every feature added to v4 as new feature from point v4 was first developed is not in v3. That is a LOT of features. You can go down the line reading in General forum category where @emre posted many different changes during v4 development.
Just because it is open source really should not be your focus as far as features. @emre listens to the community and adds features constantly based off community feedback. If you choose to use v3 because you want to change a few things that really do not impact your business like cosmetic changes thats one thing but to be honest your using old software that is not actively being developed and you will be stuck with very expensive developer fees trying to stay relevant.
V5 is due out soon and is the currently developed version. It sounds simple to just hire developer and use v3 because of the open source. But remember that v4 became closed source not to limit what you can configure it really expanded it.
If you have ideas for layout or cosmetic changes please share them.
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Hi Kendash,
Back on the topic of design, two things we’re looking to do are perhaps change the skin and perhaps move the buttons to the left and receipt to the right, would this be possible?
Thanks!
V5 will have a dark theme you can see it in some of my screenshots but moving ticket view is not currently possible. Can you explain your reason for moving it? Just for looks or is there a function reason?
Hi!
A bit of both, it’s what my waiters will be more used to! Can I do it from modifying the code in v3?
Thanks!
is it for left handed people? or RTL languages? Unlike most POS designs I’ve intentionally put menu buttons to right so your hand does not cover ticket while adding orders.
This is an old trick. Do you remember how controls placed on old TV sets?
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Hi Emre,
In part yes, and in general, it’s just what my staff are more used to around here. It’s just an idea, but would it be possible if I get a good programmer?
No I don’t remember about the TV sets, please expand?
Thanks!