Receipt Formats Refuse to Change

You may want to check your setting for PATHS in SOA for the POS machine and make sure it is pointed to the same file you are editing. For example, if you are setting the reciept up on a server machine, make sure the POS machine's paths are set to the server receipt files, not a local copy.

Marc

1) What change are you trying to make? 2) I think when you "open", you are reselecting the template file with it's default settings. "Save as" is just saving your current property settings to a new Template file. Reselecting the file you saved is just reapplying your saved property settings. 3) Where there is an "OK" button available, make sure you use that to close the properties window - NOT the red "X" to close the window. It looks like you are doing that, but I got a little lost in the middle there...

It looks like you may be constantly resetting the default values, but it's hard to tell for sure.

Glenn Adams Tiber Creek C> I have looked high and low for a solution on this one to no avail: >

Thanks Glenn,

I'll take your points one-by-one:

1) My goal is to reduce the font size of the footer, among other things, but let's start with that. 2) I think I see what you're saying here... When I "Open" a template, if I get you, I'm actually opening the properties of the "Sales:" template, not actually editing the .xml file at all? What I'm doing is clicking on the "Properties" button to the right of the "Sales:" field. It sounds like I'm missing the mark and I should be editing that .xml document directly? I can't figure out why, if I'm seeing the results that I want in the "preview" pane, I'm not seeing something different come off of the printer.

I just noticed that if you edit the fields and then click OK then, for some reason, they appear to save in the "receipt properties" window (the one with the preview pane) but not in the .xml document. I verified this by changing the author field from "nameA" to "nameB" then clicking the button. When I exited out of Manager all the way and then went back to the properties window the value shows "nameB", but when I open the .xml document it still says "nameA". Then if I click rather than it resaves the document and the .xml is updated and now reads "nameB". It would appear that by doing a I'm editing the .xml and by doing I'm editing... SOMETHING ELSE?!?!

If I'm going about this in the wrong way could someone, ever so briefly, explain the correct method for changing the footer font to a smaller size?

3) I definitely understand the importance of using the correct buttons, but I find myself reiterating the point so many times to our staff that I know EXACTLY why you mention it :)

Your help is VERY MUCH appreciated folks,

Brandon

Thanks Marc,

Definitely a good pointer. I checked the paths and found that one was in fact incorrect on the database machine. We use all local templates on our machines, so we don't map anything, but I went ahead and verified the correct paths and checked to make sure that the same .xml file was in each folder. Then I ran through the whole process again, thinking that you must have hit the nail on the head, but with the same results. What I'm wondering now is how could I have been editing the file locally on the DB machine which had the wrong path AT ALL since it didn't know where to find it?

I am convinced even more that there is something here that I am simply not getting. Something is saving the data to the database maybe? And therefore I can see the same template on all systems? If that is the case then I've definitely been chasing a red herring.

I appreciate your help,

Brandon

A basic task that you may have already addressed. Remember for receipt template changes to be picked up, all POS stations need to be recycled.

OPOS drivers don't allow much (if Any) font selection. That's probably your trouble - you may be making the correct changes, but the printer is not capable of rendering them through OPOS. You should be able to differentiate between a "small" and "large" text size, but not much more than that. I don't remember the exact settings, you may actually have to edit the xml file in a text editor to change which of the sizes the footer users.

If you search this group, especially through Google Groups, you will see many posts from Jeff that recommend using Windows drivers with Star printers. The Windows drivers send the receipt to the printer as an Image - this lets it use any font that your system has installed. OPOS does some sort of translation to raw printer commands - it can only use fonts that the printer supports natively. Windows drivers are typically somewhat slower than OPOS, but you get much more control of the look. OPOS allows you to control a Cash Drawer connected through the printer - with Windows drivers the drawer will pop every time a receipt prints, and not at any other time. There are other differences, but those are the highlights...

When you Open a template, you are loading a saved format. This includes the layout of the receipt as well as any property settings.

When you Save a template, you are overwriting an existing Template with your changes - essentially saving your current property values as the new defaults.

When you "Save As" a template, you are creating a new XML file that includes the current layout and property settings. This is better than a straight Save, as it does not overwrite the original file.

The only reason that you would need to do a Save or Save As would be if you wanted to share your property settings, or back them up outside of the database. If you have database backups, the property settings are included there, but if you wanted to be able to restore your settings after a Recipt Format had been Deleted, this saved Template would let you do it.

The properties you set in the Receipt Format properties editor are the ones that count. If you Open a file, you are loading the values as they existed when that TEMPLATE was saved and entering them into the current FORMAT.

When you click OK on the Receipt Format Properties, the template and property settings are basically "Compiled" and stored to the database. The XML files are not actually used at run time when you print a run a transaction and a receipt is produced. The POS actually loads the compiled Receipt Format from the database when it opens and uses it each time a receipt is printed. This is why you don't need the XML files on each register and why you must restart the POS for changes to take effect.

Glenn Adams Tiber Creek C> Thanks Glenn,

Thanks to all for their input, particularly Marc and Glenn.

I have dug far deeper into this than I had expected to and am now becoming overly familiar with the .xml receipt format.

I am going to close out this thread with a wrap-up of the highlights for future reference once I get my head all of the way around it. There is a lot to the .xml document but not all that much that the average user will want to deal with. I'm going to put together my own document for reference and will paste it in this thread.

As it turns out, and as I should have expected, there are several reasons you may want to edit the .xml directly rather than use the RMS "wizard doohickey". I'll illustrate why in the wrap-up.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed,

Brandon