POS version 7.04 released 1-16-10.

[daleadmin]

POS version 7.04 released 1-16-10.

BUG FIXES
It seems that ever since I added the feature where you could have some items in the stock table with a 3 digit price (like 2.379 for gasoline) there has been a problem.
When you are in the stock table and entering a regular price or a sale price you could press [F1] to toggle between 2 or 3 digit pricing. However [F1] is also the key to search the stock table which no longer did that. Now you must press [F7] to toggle between 2 or 3 digit pricing.

In some instance if you took phone numbers for checks the program would die. This has been fixed.

GENERIC PRINTER DRIVER PROBLEMS
There are problems with using the generic printer driver. The generic printer driver is used when you must use the APRINT program to print and you do not have the printer driver for your specific printer. This will usually only occur if you are using the DOSBox software to run this program on 64 bit computers. Normally the best option for a printer attached to the parallel printer port is to send the print stream directly to the LPT1: port or to use the printer driver for your printer.
If you must use the generic printer driver it will only print 66 lines on the printer if in the “Printer setup” feature of the POSCONFG.EXE program you set “Print on a page printer or print continuously.” to “CONT.” This means that if you print a receipt or report longer than 66 lines that only 66 lines will be printed. This also applies if you print 2 or more receipts, a maximum of 66 lines will be printed.
A partial but ugly solution is to use the following settings…

PAGE Print on a page printer or print continuously.
0 Number of blank lines between receipts. (Cont.) 0 - 20
0 Number of top margin lines. (Page) 0 - 5
60 Number of printed lines per page. (Page) 50 - 70
0 Number of bottom margin lines. (Page) 0 - 5
YES Use form feed at end of page. (Page)

This will print all the lines you need but on a receipt printer will print receipts as “pages” meaning that long receipts will print be broken up into two sections. Also all receipts will be followed by blank lines to fill out the “page” to 60 lines.

NEW FEATURES

Total pieces
When ringing up a sale a running count of all the pieces rung so far will appear below the bottom of the “Pieces” column. This count will also appear at the bottom of the receipt.

64 bits
If you have a 64 bit computer or are running a 64 bit version of Windows you can now run this program under DOSBox to get it to work on your computer. Here are the instructions http://keyhut.com/64bit.htm

Full screen
DOSBox will also run the program in full screen on Windows XP, Vista, and 7 systems even if those systems are not 64 bit.

Dual Printers
The program will now support 2 printers attached to the same computer. This is so you can print receipts on a receipt printer on a roll of paper at 40 characters per line and print reports on a computer page printer at 80 characters per line. Following are the instructions for this from the manual….
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Every POS system should also print reports. As a first option this program will print reports on the printer that is used to print receipts. However if you attach a second printer to your computer you can use the first printer to print receipts and the second printer to print reports. Normally the first printer would be a 40 character wide printer that prints on a roll of paper and the second printer would be an 80 character wide computer page printer that prints on sheets of paper.
You would have to attach each printer to a different port on your computer like, LPT1: / LPT2: or LPT1: / USB or two different USB ports. Theoretically you could use a serial port but serial printers are not recommended, will not work under Windows versions after ’98, and may not work anyway.
To use the receipt printer as the report printer you need to do nothing other than set up the receipt printer using the parameter settings above.
To use a second printer to print reports from the main POS.EXE menu you must go to the “8. Reports” feature. From the “Reports” menu press [F5] and another print parameter screen will appear like this…

YES Print reports on a second printer.
PAGE Print on a page printer or print continuously.
0 Number of blank lines between receipts. (Cont.) 0 - 20
0 Number of top margin lines. (Page) 0 - 5
60 Number of printed lines per page. (Page) 50 - 70
0 Number of bottom margin lines. (Page) 0 - 5
YES Use form feed at end of page. (Page)
80 Print 40 or 80 characters wide.
NO Forced line feed.

There are fewer options because when you print reports you will not print second copies, save to the journal, print sales checks, etc.
If “Print reports on a second printer.” Is set to “NO” then reports will be printed on printer #1, the receipt printer. If “Print receipts on a printer.” from the main print menu is also set to “NO” then neither receipts or reports will be printed.
If “Print reports on a second printer.” Is set to “YES” and “Print receipts on a printer.” from the main print menu is set to “NO” then receipts will not be printed but reports will be printed on printer #2.
For 2nd printer printing, from this screen, you will also have to select the printer port, set the cutter bar (if your printer has one) and program the printer error trap.
NOTE: If you set up a second printer it will be used to print all reports not just reports from the “Reports” feature. This includes time clock reports, printing out the stock table, etc. With a second printer set only receipts will print on printer #1.
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Of course this means that if you have a USB printer, or use the printer driver for your printer, that the APRINT program will also have to be modified to support a second printer. Therefore a new version of APRINT comes with this download. The file name is APRINT5.EXE so the new program file will not overwrite previous versions of the APRINT program. If needed, make sure that you start APRINT5.EXE and not a previous version.
The first time you start APRINT5.EXE (or if you press [S] later) it will ask you, “Do you need APRINT to manage your primary (receipt) printer? (Y/N)” Your primary printer is the one you use to print receipts, and if you only have on printer it will print the reports also. If in “Printer setup” you have set the printer port to FILE: then you will press [Y]. If you press [Y], a display your Windows printers, meaning all the printers that have had their drivers loaded into Windows will be displayed. To the left of each printer will be a number. Type in the number of the printer that you wish to use and press [ENTER].
Now you must choose a font size, 12 is standard. If you choose a size that is too large receipts will not print correctly. Depending on your printer either the right portion of each line will not print or it will be wrapped under the left portion of the line. Type in the font size you wish to use and press [ENTER].
Now you will be asked, “Do you need a separate printer for reports? (Y-N)” If you have a second printer attached to your computer AND you have gone to the “8. Reports” feature from the main POS program AND you have pressed [F5] to setup the second printer AND the second printer is setup to print to FILE: then press [Y] now to setup the APRINT program for the second printer. You will now have to choose a printer and a font size.
In addition to support for a second printer APRINT5 you may change the printer setups by pressing the [S] key.

Upgrade instructions http://keyhut.com/upgrade.htm

Download page http://keyhut.com/pos3.htm

Any problems with this version will be posed here http://www.dhpos.com/problem.htm

Dale


Dale

[small]

If you ring up a gift card and complete the sale of the gift card and then from the main menu press 5 Void Transaction and recall the sale of the gift card it displays the wrong total and tax information.

[daleadmin]

There are now three problems reported in version 7.04. Look here http://www.dhpos.com/problem.htm

Dale

[brucef2112]

DL the new version 7.04b to test.
I found a simular issue to Small's erroneous numbers on the Void screen with Gift Cards.
However this is related to the reprint of receipts.

When you go to the 5. Void Screen to reprint a receipt the receipt is different than the original. The erronious numbers are in the Tendered amount (Older version before 7.04b had erroneous numbers in the Tendered and Change amounts).

This might be related to the fact that the Void screen shows the Total Payed equal to the Total and the Void screen does not have the Change Due line shown. This also looks strange on screen with a transaction with cash back. The printed receipt shows the info better. Ohh and a Cash Back transaction's re-print seems to be the one which does print OK.

Also the customer info isn't printing on the RE-PRINT.


Original receipt:

Code: Select all

    FIFTH AVENUE, LLC
         Festival Market Place
         #4431 on Bourbon St.
---------------------------------------
TRAN     ASSOCIATE                 TIME
0033                              00:40
2-25-----------------------------------
BOB                                    
BILLY                                  
123                                    
ANYTOWN                                
123-555-5555             
---------------------------------------
  STOCK NUMBER DESCRIPTION        PRICE
        100115 Diabetic Crew  13-15    
 T1    3    at     9.99ea.        29.97
              SUB TOTAL           29.97
     TAX1  at  6.000%            1.80
              TOTAL TAX            1.80
                  TOTAL           31.77
---------------------------------------
          CASH TENDERED           40.00
             CHANGE DUE            8.23
Count     3

   Thank You For Being Our Customer!
               01-22-2010

      

The RE-PRINT reciept shows the Cash Tendered as the total sale amount, Not the $40 which was tendered.

Code: Select all

      
SALE REPRINT

         FIFTH AVENUE, LLC
         Festival Market Place
         #4431 on Bourbon St.
---------------------------------------
TRAN     ASSOCIATE                 TIME
0033                              00:40
2-26-----------------------------------
---------------------------------------
  STOCK NUMBER DESCRIPTION        PRICE
        100115 Diabetic Crew  13-15    
 T1    3    at     9.99ea.        29.97
              SUB TOTAL           29.97
     TAX1  at  6.000%            1.80
              TOTAL TAX            1.80
                  TOTAL           31.77
---------------------------------------
          CASH TENDERED           31.77
             CHANGE DUE            8.23
Count     3

   Thank You For Being Our Customer!
               01-22-2010

[digicafe]

Mesage for Jon

APRINT4.EXE not work at all with Windows 7

thx

[daleadmin]

How about APRINT5.EXE?

Do you use the 64 bit install of Windows 7?

Dale

[digicafe]

OK with APRINT5.EXE

[simonaus]

I am having trouble on 64bit windows 7 computer using dox box backing up to a zip file (or zip stick). Each time I suggest that the program back up at register close it will kick me out saying error in dos box, and close the register program. However if I back up to c:\ drive it is all fine. (but you then need to go into the c:\ and copy and paste files), which with staff at night close can get a little tricky! Leaving it like this there is bound to be a stuff up with night staff accidently deleteing a file and loosing valuable data.

I have checked all files and it is a new 8GB zip stick so there are no other doc's on here. I have also checked the setting in the "backup sectio"n of POSCONFIG and the correct USB drive letter is entered here too.

Any suggestions???

Thanks
Simonaus

[daleadmin]

simonaus,

Reading the DOSBox site it states that there are somethings that you have to do to access a CD dive. I have no idea if this also applies to a RAM drive. However they have a forum here http://vogons.zetafleet.com/index.php?c=7 where you can ask them for help.

Until then you can just use the Windows "My Computer" feature and just copy the whole POS folder (and subfolders) to the RAM drive.

dale

[daleadmin]

Lots of stuff happened in the chatroom http://keyhut.com/chat.htm tonight. In fact we went way beyond the usual quit time.

One of the things was Alex asked for a text reader for DOS only computers to be able to read and print reports files. He also wanted to use it on windows machines if the program would not be able to edit the files. (He does not trust his clerks.) This did not seem like too much of a project so I told him I would look into it.

I got to staring out the window for a while and thought, "Didn't I do something like this a while back?" So I looked around the C: drive and it turns out I did! It was for something else and needed only a little work to make it into what Alex wanted. About 2 hours worth of effort.

The program is named TEXTREAD.EXE and can be downloaded from http://www.dhpos.com/textread.exe and if you also download http://www.dhpos.com/nextfile.dat you will be able to press the [F4] key from the main menu of the POS.EXE program to launch TEXTREAD.EXE. Do not download the NEXTFILE.DAT file if you are using [F4] for something else.

The Textread program will read any .TXT file in your POS folder. You can then scroll through it to read it. If you press [TAB] you will be able to print, copy, or delete the file. It will print to the "report" printer or the receipt printer if you did not setup a "report" printer. If you launch the TEXTREAD.EXE program directly is will ask you to choose the POS file to get the proper printer settings. If you press [F4] it will use the current printer settings. There are no instructions in the program.

So try this out and report back. (Sure, like that is going to happen. )

Dale

[small]

Dale,


The Textread program works fine, the only thing I had noticed is when running it in fullscreen the text will scroll for a few seconds. If it is a large file it scrolls the screen for about 20 seconds before stopping. Not a problem Though.

[daleadmin]

I have a final version of the TEXTREAD.EXE program that can be downloaded from here http://keyhut.com/textread.exe

It does have the following instructions...
=====================================================
This program will read any text (.TXT) file in the main POS folder or the sub-folder. When listing files you may switch between folders by pressing [F3] or [F4]. Note, automatic reports are stored in the sub-folder.
If you start this program directly you must choose the register file you wish to use. If you start this program by pressing [F4] from the POS.EXE program main menu you will use the current register file.
When you select a text file it will be displayed and you may scroll through it. If you press [TAB] you will be able print it, copy it to another drive, or delete it. Files cannot be edited.
If you choose to print the file it will print to the “report” printer or the receipt printer if you did not setup a “report” printer.
IMPORTANT! This program exists only to print reports generated by the Cash Register program which creates .TXT files no wider than 80 characters. If you load other .TXT files only the first 80 characters of each line will be read.
====================================================

However by pressing the [F4] key from the main POS.EXE menu you can only run one other program, whatever program name is in the NEXTFILE.DAT file. And all register files must share this program meaning that no matter which register file you are using, KEYSHOP.POS, PORTAGE.POS, MYSTORE.POS, pressing [F4] will take you to the same other program. This sort of limits things.

Therefore my next project, which I think I will finish today, will be to write a menu program that will allow you to setup up to 9 different programs and those 9 different programs can be different for each register file. What do you think about that?

Dale

[peewee3ie]

Hi Dale,

Now that sounds good the menu I mean.


PS how is the customer accounts comming along. Any idea when it will be gone

[daleadmin]

No idea on customer accounts.

Dale

[daleadmin]

I deleted the former posts about the PROGRAMS.EXE program because it was confusing. Below are the instructions for this feature from the manual. The PROGRAMS.EXE and the TEXTREAD.EXE programs have been added to the program in Version 7.04c that has been uploaded. Or you can download only the specific file at...
http://www.dhpos.com/programs.exe
http://www.dhpos.com/textread.exe

You can also download the whole thing the usual way at http://www.dhpos.com/pos3.htm

====================================================================================================

Start other programs from POS
It is possible from the main menu of the POS.EXE program to press [F4] to exit the POS program, run the other program, then return to the main menu of the POS.EXE program. This can be used to accomplish some task that the POS program will not do. The other software file must be in the POS folder with the POS program files.
However only other programs written for this procedure will perform it. The other software to be run must be DOS software. Trying to run non-DOS software using the [F4] method will usually exit the POS program but not start the program you are trying to run. In effect the POS program will just quit with no error.
All DOS software will start, however when you exit the other software you will not be returned to the POS program at all, the other program will just quit. To return to the POS program the other program must terminate by calling the POS program using the command RUN “POS” This is completely unlikely for software not written specifically to be used with my POS software. This means that either I will have to write the software for you, you will have to write it yourself, or a 3rd party will have to create it. Currently there is the program file TEXTREAD.EXE that will work with the [F4] key. This file comes with the rest of the POS software and will be in your POS software folder. TEXTREAD.EXE allows you to open any text report in the folder, and then read, print, copy, or delete it. It will not allow you to edit the report.
If you have an application in mind, and you cannot write it, and know no one to write it for you, then you can ask me to create it. If the application is something that I believe a large proportion of users would want then you may be in luck and I will do it as soon as I have time, and do it for free. If it is something that I think only you would want then you can make me an offer. However if I do write the program for you, you will have to pay for it. The program will be uploaded onto the “3rd party” page of my website and anyone will be able to download it for free.
To setup the POS program to use the [F4] key to run other software there are two methods. You can create a NEXTFILE.DAT file in the POS folder that only contains the name of the program you want to run. When [F4] is pressed from the POS menu the program will search for the file name in NEXTFILE.DAT and then run the program. NOTE: do not include the extension .EXE in the file name contained in NEXTFILE.DAT. NEXTFILE.DAT must be a plain text file.
Well that is fine but what if you have two or more programs that you want to run? In that case start the PROGRAMS.EXE program. This program will allow you to enter the file names and program names / descriptions for up to 9 different programs. It will also write the NEXTFILE.DAT file for you with the filename of PROGRAMS. Now when you press [F4] from the POS menu the PROGRAMS program will start. NOTE: Whenever you want to edit the program names and descriptions that have previously been entered, or enter new ones, you must run the PROGRAMS program directly, not by using the [F4] key.
When you press the [F4] key from the main POS menu if you have entered no filenames PROGRAMS will return you to the POS menu. If you have entered only one filename PROGRAMS will run that program. If you have entered 2 or more filenames PROGRAMS will let you pick the program you want to run or press [ESC] to return to the POS menu.
NOTE: If you are running multiple register files you can use PROGRAMS to setup a different set of programs to run for each register file. However if you put the name of the program you want to run into the NEXTFILE.DAT file then all register files will share that program.