Introduction

The offline POS feature allows the terminal POS to function even if the connectivity between the terminal POS and the store server is interrupted. The Offline POS feature has to be enabled via the iVend Retail Management Console.

Note: An Offline POS will always have a Database of its own. This database has to be downloaded from the Store and then restored on the Offline POS. The Offline POS is related to a Store - in the same way as a Store is related to the Enterprise. This means that the replication dashboard if accessed from the On-premises Store will list all the offline POS terminals connected to the store. 

Offline POS Installation

iVend Offline POS can be installed and configured on machines with Windows 10 OS and above with MSSQL Express preinstalled on the machine. 

The following are the steps to install Offline POS. 

Step 1 - Right click on the iVend 6.6 msi file and run it as Administrator. iVend installation shield wizard comes up with the message – “Preparing to install …” 

Step 2 - On the welcome screen, Click on Next button to continue installation.

Step 3 - On the End User License Agreement screen, select the radio button to Accept the License agreement and click Next button.

Step 4 - On the Customer Information Screen, enter the user name and organization name  and click on Next button.

Step 5 - On the Destination Folder screen, if you want to change the default destination folder for installing iVend Retail click on change button and select the destination folder. Click on Next button to Continue.

Step 6 - On Installation Mode Selection screen, click on the “Choose an Installation option”.

Figure 1.  Installation Mode Selection

Step 7 - On Choose and installation option screen, click on Custom Installation option.

Figure 2. Installation Option Selection

Step 8 - On the Customer Installation screen, uncheck all the option except Point of Sale and click on Next button.

Figure 3. Custom Installation Option Selection screen

Step 9 - On Ready to Install the Program screen, click on the Install button.

Step 10 - Please wait while the Install Shield Wizard installs iVend Retail.

Step 11 - When Install Shield Wizard completes installation successfully Login credentials for POS is displayed on the screen.

Step 12 – The Install Shield Wizard Completed screen appears. This screen displays the default Login Credentials for the Management Console and the Point of Sale. Click on Finish to exit the installation.  The iVend POS icon shortcut is  generated and pasted on the desktop.

Offline POS Database 

An Offline POS will always have a Database of its own. This Database has to be downloaded from the Store and then restored on the POS. The section below explains:

• How to take the backup of the Offline POS Database from the Store?

• How to  download and restore the dB on the Offline POS and switch on the replication service to access the replication dashboard.

Take Backup of Offline POS from iVend Cloud 

The steps are:

Step 1 - On the web browser enter the iVend Cloud URL provided in the welcome email. The URL will be https://<yourcompanyname>.ivendcloud.com

Step 2 - Log on screen gets displayed on the web browser. Enter the super user Login credentials as provided in the welcome email. 

Figure 4.  iVend Cloud Login screen

Step 3 - iVend Management Console opens. Go to Administration à IT Administration à Database Backup. Select the cut-off date and Store/Offline POS and click on Connect button.

Figure 05. Database Backup

Step 4 - On the confirm screen click yes to continue the database backup

Step 5 - On the cloud machine select or create a folder, enter the name of the database to save and click on the Save button to save the database. The database backup starts 

Figure 06. Database Backup Details

Step 6 - Once the database backup is complete the database files gets saved in the folder. Download the Database Backup File on the local machine.

• On the Top middle of the webpage click on the down arrow button 
  
  

• Menu list opens on the top of the webpage. This menu has Print, From PC to Server, Clipboard, From Server to PC, File Manager, and Full Screen buttons. 
  
  

• Click on the “From PC to Server”  button to download Database from the iVend Cloud Enterprise machine.

Figure 08. iVend Enterprise Settings

• Once the database backup file gets downloaded, it will be displayed in the
   destination folder on your local machine.

Restore Database on local machine

Step 1 - On the local machine search for iVend Configuration Manager in the run on the Task manager. Right click on iVend Configuration Manager and Run as administrator. 

Figure 09. iVend Configuration Manager

Step 2 - A Windows User Account Control pop up message gets displayed on the screen. Select “Yes” to proceed. iVend Configuration Manager icon gets added on the Taskbar tray.

Figure 10. iVend Connection Manager icon

Step 3 - Right click on the iVend Configuration Manager icon and click on Connection Manager option.

Figure 11. Connection Manager button

Step 4 - Connection Manager screen opens. Select the check-box for offline POS and click on the Update button.

Figure 12. POS/ Management Console Connection information

Step 5 - Right click on the Point of Sale icon on the desktop. Screen to restore the backup database opens. Click on the Save button to save the settings and restore the database.

Figure 13. Database connection information form

Step 6 - Enter the following information, as per the table below

Note: Once the database Restores the Replication service gets updated.

Step 7 - Once the setup process completes, the Application closes down. Click Ok on the pop-up message.

Figure 14. Database Connection Setup Complete

Step 8 - Click Ok to close the iVend Point of Sale configuration screen. 

Open Offline POS

Step 1 - Right click on the Point of Sale icon and run as Administrator. The Offline POS screen opens.

Step 2 - On the Point of Sale (OFFLINE)screen login with the credentials given by Super user of https://<yourcompany>.ivendcloud.com.

Step 3 - Click on Yes on the Business Date pop up message to proceed.

Step 4 – Voila! The POS screen opens; you can start performing Transactions using the 

Offline POS.  

Offline Sync Monitor 

An Offline POS also has its own replication screen. You may follow the steps below  to open Offline Sync Monitor: 

Step 1 - Click on the iVend Retail icon on the Offline Point of Sale Screen.

Figure 15. iVend Point Of Sale

Step 2 - On the User menu screen select the Offline Sync Monitor, and click the Ok button.

Figure 16. iVend Point of Sale Offline User Menu

Step 3 - Offline Sync Monitor Opens and displays all the transactions that have not been synchronized since the last time the POS was online.

Figure 17. Offline Sync Monitor

Note: Once the Offline POS comes online and gets connected to the store, the records gets synchronized and there remains no pending records for synchronization.

Figure 18. Offline Sync Monitor Status

Conclusion

The offline POS feature allows the terminal POS to function even if the network connectivity between the terminal POS and the store server is interrupted. It enables a business to continue processing transactions locally on the device until the connectivity is restored. Once restored, it simply re-syncs with iVend Enterprise.