FooodPosWiki

Menu Designer: fill a category automatically

Let a category of a designed menu fill itself from an item category, so every new dish reaches the POS with no button to place; the Fill automatically settings, the pale cells, Leave this dish out and Pin it here, and the order the dishes fill in.

Who uses it:OwnerManagerWhere:Back officeWindows POSAndroid POS
On this page

A category of a designed menu can fill itself from one of your item categories (Menu, Categories). Every cell without a button then shows that item category's dishes, in their display order, a screenful at a time. A dish added on Items reaches the POS at its next sync, and nobody has to place a button for it.

You can still place buttons by hand in the same grid: they keep their cells, and the dishes fill the cells around them. An Auto menu does this for every tab; filling one category is how a designed menu gets the same for the tabs you choose.

Before you start

  • The menu must be Designed, and you need the right to edit menus.
  • Every POS of the restaurant must run an app new enough to draw such a category: at least 0.1.8 on Windows and 0.1.9 on Android. The back office checks this before it offers the choice.
  • Give your dishes a Display order on Items if you want them in a particular order.

Switch it on

  1. Open the category's tab in the Menu Designer, then click Category settings. (For a new tab, click + Category.)
  2. In the Fill automatically box, choose the item category, such as RICE — Rice & Noodles.
  3. Keep or untick Include the categories under Rice & Noodles.
  4. To keep a dish out, choose it in Leave out.
  5. Click Save. The grid's free cells turn pale, each with a dish marked auto.
Fill automatically, in Category settings: the item category, the ones under it, and the dishes left out.
  1. Fill automatically: the box, with what it does.
  2. The item category: the one whose dishes fill the free cells, listed by code and name; a switched-off one says (switched off). Off: only the buttons placed by hand stops the filling. Choosing another one empties the Leave out list.
  3. Include the categories under Rice & Noodles: also fills with the dishes of the item categories under it, such as Noodles under Rice & Noodles. It starts ticked.
  4. A dish left out: it never fills a cell here. Its ✕ shows it again. A dish that is no longer in the item category is struck through, and dropped from the list when you save.
  5. Pick a dish from Rice & Noodles to leave out…: adds a dish to the list. It reads Loading the dishes… while it loads. A button placed by hand still shows a dish left out.
  6. Show dish pictures: the dishes show the picture from Items above their name.
  7. A POS that is too old: the box names each POS whose app cannot draw a category that fills itself, with its app version and the version it needs. Until every POS is updated the choice is not offered; on a category that already fills itself it stays, so you can switch it off. While the POS are being checked it says Checking the POS terminals….
  8. Save: saves the settings with the category's buttons.

The pale cells

A category that fills itself: buttons placed by hand, and pale cells the item category fills.
  1. The tab: auto marks a category that fills itself. The POS does not show the word.
  2. A button placed by hand: it keeps its cell, and its dish is not placed again in a pale cell.
  3. A pale cell: a dish placed by the item category, marked auto, with a dashed edge. Rest the pointer on it: Placed automatically from Rice & Noodles. Click it for its two choices (below).
  4. Screen 1 of 2: when the dishes need more cells than are free, they go on to a second screen, as on the POS. ‹ and › step through them here.
  5. The count: the item category, how many dishes it places, how many cells are free, and how many screens that takes.
  6. What the pale cells do: click to leave out or pin; drag to change the order (see Menu Designer: drag buttons and tabs).

Which dishes, in which order

A dish fills a cell when it is:

  • in the item category, or one under it when Include the categories under … is ticked;
  • switched on, and sold on the POS;
  • not a raw material;
  • not in Leave out;
  • not already on a visible item button of this category.

The dishes go in their Display order from Items, then in the order they were added, never by name. They fill the free cells left to right, top to bottom; what does not fit goes on the next screen.

The same rule is worked out on each POS from the dishes it holds, so a POS shows exactly what the pale cells show here, even with no internet.

Leave a dish out, or pin it in its cell

  1. Click a pale cell. A window titled with the dish's name says why it is there: it is in the item category, and the cell has no button. It moves when dishes are added to the item category or left out.
  2. Choose:
    • Leave this dish out: it no longer appears here by itself, and the dishes after it move up. It joins the Leave out list.
    • Pin it here: it becomes an ordinary button in that row and column, and stays there whatever is added later.
  3. Or click Cancel.
  4. Click Save category.
A pale cell clicked: leave the dish out, or pin it where it is.
  1. Leave this dish out: adds the dish to Leave out.
  2. Pin it here: turns the pale cell into a button placed by hand. To undo it, click the button and Remove it: the dish fills a pale cell again.

Switch it off

Open Category settings, choose Off: only the buttons placed by hand in the Fill automatically box, and click Save. The pale cells go; the buttons placed by hand stay.

On the POS

  • On Windows, and on an Android POS held wide, the category shows one screenful at a time, with arrows under the grid when there is more than one.
  • An Android phone held upright shows the dishes as one list that scrolls.
  • With Show dish pictures ticked, a dish shows its picture above its name once the POS has fetched it; until then, its name.

What if…