POS Point Of Sale

Hi,

That depends on the package you are considering choosing on Vend. Firstly this was written before vend introduced their own shop.
However that too has its limitations:

1. unlike zen cart which is open source and has hundreds of mods that can be added to tweak it to your companies use.
2. depending in the package you choose on vend owning a shop is $30 more expensive per month
3. again once you own a shop with them you would still need to pay for themes and there are a very limited amount of them.
4. some people already run their shops on zen cart and are very happy with it and would prefer to keep using it rather than use a newly introduced shop with many limitations.
5. you save in the long run, and I cant assume any business can say "I'm here for the short term"

I hope this helps answer your questions and you can also pm me if you need more detail.

Kind Regards,

I got a copy of OllaCart Point of Sale (ocPOS) for osCommerce over at osCommerce. It took a while of testing and making some basic changes to make it work. Helps to have a "Test Server" on you PC so you can set it up and get used to it before going live.

Uses a Barcode Scanner, Prints to a Receipt Printer and Pop's the Cash Drawer.

It works well, not perfect. Needs more tweaking but the overall function is spot on.

My site is already heavily modded but I was thinking of making his into a full "ADDON". I'll need some help with a few seemingly minor issues if anyone is interested.

I built a complete system around it for my soon to me opened shop out of almost all "USED EQUIPMENT". Not including Web Hosting the total system cost around $200.00.

I am sure you did some research before doing this yourself, but a POS that integrates with ZC is a feature that keeps cropping up.

A couple of questions - what payment integration options do you have?
What are the outstanding issues?

I think this would be a good addon to have for the community.

"what payment integration options do you have?" - This is one of those things that needs to be addressed. I use a regular C/C Processor for the Zen-Cart online processing and I'll be using Square at the store running on an old Nexus 10 Tablet. I'm not a script writer, I can read and understand code to a point, but getting the POS to use the Zen-Cart C/C Processor is well out of my comfort zone.

For me this seems like the best approach for now. This way when I do get my shop open I'll be ready to get going and get the doors open as quickly as I can.

Another issue and I think it's an issue with the Epson Printer drivers and the way Windows 10 handles the way Receipts are printed. The way the receipt script is written and the way it prints just don't seem right to me and it puts a few extra "*******'s" at the very top of the page. Also if you have a long receipt it will cut it off at and print a 2nd. page.

Also if you have a long receipt it will cut it off at and print a 2nd. page.
There are roll paper printers available

Thanks for getting back to me.

I downloaded OCPOS & had a look, so now have some different questions.

From my understanding, ocpos is just running in the browser at https://www.mysore.com/pos & all of the interaction is via the web page, so nothing needs to be installed on the POS machine - is this correct?

The physical outputs/inputs I can see from the POS are:
1/ look up product based on barcode (I understand the barcode reader just fakes a keyboard, so that should just be plug & play)
2/ signal cash drawer to open
3/ print receipt
4/ communicate with payment processor.
5/ Update core zc database.

How have you done 2 & 3? Buggering about with printer option pages every time you make a sale doesn't sound too exciting & I have no idea how the cash drawer is done.

Re 4/
I think that for a physical, permanent store, some type of card reader is necessary, IMO taking someones card and keying it in looks unprofessional & I have had people decide it wasn't safe (after I had their details). I know a card reader doesn't do much other than 'read the card number', but it is the look to the customer. Secondly here (New Zealand) most transactions are done electronically, and the dominant system (eftpos, run by the banks not credit card companies) doesn't have virtual terminal or online options. Regardless, the card payment options vary a lot from place to place, so it would need to be some type of plugin system. It seems that the systems here have the POS tell the reader "$x.xx", and then wait for the reader to say "paid", though some seem to be manual - the checkout operator keys the amount & then clicks the 'paid' button on the POS. Adds scope for error, but simple to implement.

My guess for your printer issue is that somewhere there is defined a max page length & after that point it does a 'new page' & therefore cuts, but I am pulling that out of somewhere smelly...

Running Windows 10 doesn't excite me - I am not sure that I like the idea of a POS running on an OS which constantly phones home. The security of the POS I think is a big issue. If someone managed to install a keylogger on that machine you would have a world of hurt. The POS machine should be able to be pretty light power wise, so my inclination would be for it to run on a Linux box, easy to strip out every application that is not the browser or the printer & restrict the abilities to install anything else.

How much did you have to change to translate it from OC to ZC?
How much is installed on the POS machine rather than the ZC server?

Thanks

Pat

You will need to load drivers for your printer, I have a used Epson TM-T88IV and was able to download and install the drivers and the configuration utilities from Epson. The Honeywell Barcode Reader just Plug and Played with no issues.

Again I'll be using Square on a Nexus 10 Tablet as my C/C Processor. All I have to do is manually enter the amount, the customer swipes there card thru the Square Reader, Taps OK and Sign's. If the want a receipt they can add there email or text number.

This is not a plug and play module you will need to upload it to it's own directory, edit configuration files and run install scripts.

Running v1.5.6a and would like to get a Point of Sale system up and running in my store for retail sales so that we don't have to manually adjust inventory every time a customer purchases something.

Anyone have a recommendation on an inexpensive, simple POS system that would integrate easily with ZC?

Thanks!

I use unicentapos. To link the two I have the following:
1/ An export script which creates a file of all of the new products added in zencart since it was last run - I then import this using the import products function of unicenta. In order to link the two you need the products to be identical in both systems.

2/ A cronjob on the POS which runs every 10 minutes, creates a file with new sales by product & uploads them to the zencart server.

3/ A cronjob which runs every 10 minutes but 2 minutes later which takes all of the files uploaded and creates sales from them. I have a customer called store & the orders are set to the status 'store'

Zencart is then used for all of the reporting, stock levels etc.

PatClay:

I use unicentapos. To link the two I have the following:
1/ An export script which creates a file of all of the new products added in zencart since it was last run - I then import this using the import products function of unicenta. In order to link the two you need the products to be identical in both systems.

2/ A cronjob on the POS which runs every 10 minutes, creates a file with new sales by product & uploads them to the zencart server.

3/ A cronjob which runs every 10 minutes but 2 minutes later which takes all of the files uploaded and creates sales from them. I have a customer called store & the orders are set to the status 'store'

Zencart is then used for all of the reporting, stock levels etc.

AWesome, thank you, I'll pass this on to my developer:)