This Monday we release 1.3.21

Update : version just released

This will be the last 1.3 release, the next one will be the first 1.4 version, flat as earth before the days of Columbus. Also better for climate change as we will not use cow skin anymore during compilation of our code 😉

flat-earth-society1

In this version, 1.3.21, we have done the following :

### Changed
– Name on order from button will copy the name of the button if it is empty
– Support log file in settings -> about -> support is now compressed, making it smaller would mean that we have lesser problems sending big log files with email
– Added ticket number in json sales structure

### Fixed
– Bug when printing out sales on an Epson ePOS-Print printer
– Buttons redraw when characteristics were changed in the settings (like font, size, …)
– Bug when selecting a new font, old selection didn’t disappear
– Order of the pages was not working correctly. Should be solved now
– Bug when setting of the printers were empty, app crashes no more

Version 1.3.19 waiting for approval

BREAKING : App has just been approved by Apple!

What’s new :
• Payment printer in settings

Bugs :
• Discount bug, also possible now to discount on line level (create an open price with modifier switch activated)
• Button font size bug

Also added the cloud bug fix to it. Some people will be happy with this …

Payment printer

We have something new in the next version of WaiterOne. I thought I’ll write it down here as a lot of users still have troubles with the printers logic. A lot of you guys think that printers in WaiterOne are physical printers. The printers in WaiterOne aren’t physical printers but logical printers. If you only have one printer in your business don’t start deleting all the printers in WaiterOne. Imagine if you have a small restaurant and you want to start small with WaiterOne. 1 iPad running WaiterOne, a nice stand (to protect your iPad), your own iPhone running the remote to order at the client’s table (as it is free and as you own an iPhone) and 1 printer. That one printer will be used as order printer to print out the bar tickets, the kitchen tickets and to print out the bill for your clients.  Maybe later you can install an extra kitchen printer or even a kitchen display, but for now, all works just fine. So in WaiterOne, in the data tab -> printers you really should configure 3 printers, not 1. Configure a bar printer, a kitchen printer and the bill printer. Actually, when you install WaiterOne for the first time, these printers should already be there. No need to delete them! Just use the same ‘host address’ for your 3 printers. Why you should do this? Because there is so much more to configure when you use separate logical printers. You could set the numbers of copies, you could set the layout of your tickets, you can have different numbering, …

So what has been changed? We have added a new configuration in WaiterOne, one who makes it possible to select a different logical printer to print out the payment tickets (VAT/TAX receipt).

Start by adding a payment printer in the printers data, lets call it ‘Payment’ :

printers

So instead of 3 logical printers we will have 4 logical printers now. This is of course only of you want to make a distinction between the pro forma ticket (bill printer) and the VAT/TAX receipt (payment printer).

To continue we now also have a new parameter in the settings -> general -> bill : called payment printer :

paymentprinter

Select here the printer to be used for printing out the VAT/TAX receipt. This ticket will be printed as soon as the client has paid his bill.

Why could you use this? Imagine if you don’t want a pro forma invoice but you do want a VAT/TAX receipt. Just set you bill printer to 0 copies and your payment printer to 1. Imagine if you want the VAT/TAX receipt to be printed on a different printer, one closer to you so you can control the payment a little bit more. Just select another physical printer, easy!

WaiterOne 1.3.17 sent to Apple, waiting for approval!

This is a big update. Please do the update when your business is closed for service. Make a backup before you start (settings -> data -> data -> backup).

64 bit conversion done … pfff heavy stuff, only ‘testable’ in 64 bit if you have a newer iPad. This should run normal in 32 bit mode if you have an older iPad. To help us out, please activate crash reports, so we can see what is going (wr)on(g) : settings -> privacy -> diagnostics & usage -> automatically send -> share with app developer (in your iPads settings).

Please also accept push notification in WaiterOne. We have some nice updates ready for the near future and push notifications will be needed to work optimal with WaiterOne. Don’t be scared, we will not send you publicity! Also fill in your licensee data and click on the ‘update location’ button. The future will be fun, believe me!

Important notice : this version of WaiterOne will not work on the iPad 1. Sorry guys, but the latest version of iOS has so much to offer, that we can’t support the old (5 years) iPad anymore (running iOS 5.1.1). If you still want to upgrade to the latest version of WaiterOne, replace your iPad with a newer one.

What’s new :
• Sound switch added. Now you can shut up WaiterOne, handy if you use your iPad also as muzak device
• Added 3 new switches to the users :
– user can close a table/tab/cheque
– user can delete a table
– user can move a button
As always, the boss is in control of everything. If there is no boss, everybody becomes boss!!
• Open drawer switch added to payment methods, e.g. open the cash drawer if cash payment was used, do not open it when a card was used
• Copies field added to payment methods, e.g. print 2 tickets instead of one if card payment was used
• Payment method added to sales and to copy of ticket, some people will be glad with this I guess?
• Payment now has some fields to make it possible to open another app when payment method is used, e.g. open payment card company app to let your client pay with his credit card
• Number of days visible on the dashboard now set as a parameter in the settings
• Number of last openend tables/tabs on table/tab list now set as a parameter in the settings
• Log file added to sharing folder in iTunes and to the support email you send to us. Remember if you want to send us a support email from within WaiterOne, then just go to : settings -> about -> support
• Backup will be made from now on when database is changed after an update, you can see the backup files in your iTunes FileSharing folder
• New printer driver for Star Line printers, also as bluetooth printer!!
• New report added : Day -> Payment methods, print your payment methods in a report, summarised day by day

Removed :
• New report added : Payment methods -> VAT/TAXES (GDPdU-konform, German TAX law)

Updated :
• Bigger results possible in sales
• Location added to license (please use it)
• Socket Mobile scanner engine
• Database engine update
• Minimum rows and columns changed to 4 and 3, crazy big buttons, nice for businesses with just a few products but all goes very very (read crazy) fast, a madhouse …
• Rewritten some code so that the app works less with in memory data but more with the data in the database. More to follow …
• Table order changed, more logical! THIS IS STIL IN PROGRESS …
• Changing text in the data should be easier. The ‘click’ on a field has been improved. Never think again, I did click no?
• Smoother print outs, if you don’t believe me, compare your print outs! Also updates printer drivers in WaiterOne. Added new markup codes to print out logo’s if printer is not 100% the same as the Epson e.g. Star, Rongta Tech en Citizen printers. See our FAQ for more details if you want to put a logo on your receipt.
• Added support for Star Line mode printers, inclusive Star printers that work with bluetooth!
• Using QRCode as user/waiter login is improved. Please print out your user/waiter QRCodes in data -> users, and activate software barcode and blind mode in the settings -> barcode. Hold your QRcodes horizontal or vertical to read them, it’s blazing fast
• Improved background/foreground handling for remote/dashboard/cos. Quick reminder : remember that you can see your dashboard using a browser, surf to the ip address of your iPad on port 8081 (e.g. 192.168.192.10:8081). With clever port forwarding on your router you can access your results from outside your business
• % On open price button works now differently depending if the button is modifier or not. If it is a normal button (not a modifier) the percentage works on the total of the ticket (if you want to give your client a discount on the whole ticket). If the button is a modifier, the percentage only works on the previous selected button (if you want to give your client a discount on one item)

Bugs :
• Attachments in result email not always in the correct text encoding, some characters were unreadable. If you have troubles with printing out reports/tickets, please check for special characters, you can use them (é, à, ü, …) as long as your printer support them!!
• Visual bug when selecting default price on the tables
• When scanning a barcode, the button on the screen will also update the items now
• Disabled animation setting was activated again after restart of the app
• Open drawer on Star raster printers was giving a time out
• When putting an empty name to a button, payment or user
• App crash when creating day ->products report over a longer period
• Calculation results in reports. Computers are bad calculators, D’oh!

Waiter identification, the WaiterOne way

Since version 1.3.17 of WaiterOne, we have a new neat way to logon. Traditional cash registers (or even our POS competition) have waiter keys, (Dalles)iButtons, Kelloxx keys, magnetic or RFID keycards or other dedicated (read expensive) solutions. We don’t have anything like that, what a pity, … but … we have a solution now. The beauty about our solution is that you don’t need to buy anything, you have all you need to make it work (and I don’t talk about kitchen stuff here).

What you need, your iPad, your printer, a nice plastic badge or card holder (maybe you have some left from your last visit to a trade fair or so) and WaiterOne of course. Let’s start cooking :

  • go to the settings of WaiterOne, click on barcode, activate software barcode, use front camera and activate blind mode. You should have a screen like this when finished :
    Software barcodeYou can also work with the back camera of your iPad, but for user identification it is more convenient to use your front camera. If you should want to use barcodes for your products, maybe consider using the back camera instead (it’s faster), or go for  dedicated hardware (like the Socket Mobile scanners). It all depends on your business of course.
  • go to data -> users and select the user you want to make a badge for, next click on the QR Code button located on the right (next to code)printqrcodeMagic!! A nicely printed QRCode comes out of your ‘bill’ printer. As a reminder for whom this waiter ID is, we added the user name underneath the Quick Response Code. Here is how it looks

    cedricqr

  • Now log out. Hold your QRCode above your iPad. Keep it +/- 30 horizontal or vertical in front of the camera. Faster then lighting it will log you on. Awesome!

WaiterOne for iPad version 1.3.17 – soon ready for take off

What’s new :
• Sound switch added. Now you can shut up WaiterOne, handy if you use your iPad also as muzak device
• Added 3 new switches to the users :
– user can close a table/tab/cheque
– user can delete a table
– user can move a button
As always, the boss is in control of everything. If there is no boss, everybody becomes boss!!
• Open drawer switch added to payment methods, e.g. open the cash drawer if cash payment was used, do not open it when a card was used
• Copies field added to payment methods, e.g. print 2 tickets instead of one if card payment was used
• Payment method added to sales and to copy of ticket, some people will be glad with this I guess?
• Payment now has some fields to make it possible to open another app when payment method is used, e.g. open payment card company app to let your client pay with his credit card
• Number of days visible on the dashboard now set as a parameter in the settings
• Log file added to sharing folder in iTunes and to the support email you send to us. Remember if you want to send us a support email from within WaiterOne, then just go to : settings -> about -> support
• Backup will be made from now on when database is changed after an update, you can see the backup files in your iTunes FileSharing folder
Updated :
• Bigger results possible in sales
• Location added to license
• Socket Mobile scanner engine
Bugs :
• Attachments in result email not always in the correct text encoding, some characters were unreadable. If you have troubles with printing out reports/tickets, please check for special characters, you can use them (é, à, ü, …) as long as your print support them!!
• Visual bug when selecting default price on the tables
• When scanning a barcode, the button on the screen will also update the items now