Set Up POS / Kiosk Workstations

In this process, you will be setting up the POS / Kiosk terminals.

Connected Business Touch has two main components – the POS web service application that allows connecting to the database via LAN or internet and the Connected Business POS application that is used to create and manage the POS / Kiosk terminal.

At the end of this session, users will download and install the POS web service, install Connected Business Touch and set up the first POS workstation.

Set up the POS Web Service

Install the POS Web Service

The POS web service is used in connecting and working with your company data over LAN or the internet. If you haven't done so during installation of the server components, you can modify the current installation and add the POS web service components.

To complete this task, do the following:

1. We are assuming that you have previously installed Connected Business. Run the Connected Business installer on the machine where the databases, demo or company where installed.
   
   
2. You also need to have IIS installed and running in the machine you are installing the web services onto.
   
   

   Inteprise POS currently supports IIS7 or higher. By default, Internet Information Services is not enabled in most Windows operations systems.
   
   Please refer to this article to know how to enable IIS in your system.

3. Select Modify from the options to modify the application then select the POS component and include it in the installation.
   
   
4. After installation, you will find the POS folder is added to the Connected Business installation folder containing the web service. This is usually in “C:\Program Files\Connected Business Solutions\Connected Business 7.0\POS\Web”. Take note of the location, because you will need to browse for this folder later.

Configure the Web Services

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Open the Internet Information Services. Click on Start > Run or Search then enter “inetmgr”. We are assuming you have IIS installed and running before installing the web service.
   
   
2. Click on Application Pool from the tree list. In the Feature View section, you will find several active application pools.
   
   
3. You can modify one of these or create a new application pool. Either way, you will need to give it the following properties:
• .NET Framework version: v4.0
  
  
• Allow 32-bit applications: True
  
  
• Managed Pipeline Mode: Integrated
  
  
• Identity: Network Service
  
  
4. You can modify the application pool properties by selecting the Application Pool from the list and editing the Basic Settings and Advanced Settings.
   
   
5. Modify the POS web service application properties and assign it to the application pool that was modified earlier. Make sure that the POS application points to the folder where the POS web services were installed (e.g. C:\Program Files\Interprise Solutions\Connected Business 7.0\POS\Web).

Provide Access to the POS Web Services and Database

After installing the components, a new web service application named Connected Business POS is created that point to the folder where the web service components were installed. The next step is to provide permissions to the POS web service for users in other machines.

To complete this task, do the following:

Provide Access to the POS Web Services

1. Open the Internet Information Services. Click on Start > Run or Search then enter “inetmgr”.
   
   
2. Click on Connected BusinessPOS from the tree list. On the options page, click on Authentication. The POS web service should only allow “Anonymous” authentication.
   
   
3. The POS web service may need to be accessed by different users from different workstations. To provide access to these users, the built-in Windows user account, NETWORK SERVICE must be given access rights to the web service application. You must also give the NETWORK SERVICE built-in windows user account access to your company database. To do this, open the SQL Server Management Studio.
   
   
4. First, create a server login for the NETWORK SERVICE if it is not yet included in the list of logins. Under the Security folder, right click on the Logins folder and select New Login. Enter the login name, “NT AUTHORITY\NETWORKSERVICE “, assign the database role,”db_owner” to the company or demo databases. Click Ok to apply.
   
   
5. Create new database user and assign the server login for the NETWORK SERVICE. First, click on the Security folder under the company or demo database. Then, right click and select New User. Provide a user name and assign the database login, “NT NETWORK\NETWORK SERVICE”. Assign the default schema and database role, “db_owner”. Click Ok to apply.

 

Modify the Database Connection Setting in the WEB.CONFIG

After you have provided access to users, you need to point the web service to the proper Connected Business database, in most cases, this is the company database.`

1. In this example, we will connect to the demo database. To modify the web.config file, open the Connected Business Application Configuration Tool. Click on the Open option and select, Configuration File. Look up the POS web configuration file (web.config) which is usually in C:\Program Files\Interprise Solutions\Connected Business 6.0\POS\Web.
   
   
2. You will need to provide a valid user account. You can always use the licensed user account, "admin" when not in use but we recommend you use the "webadmin" account to connect to the Connected Business database without interfering with the user license. We will also use this user account to sign in to the POS application later.
   
   
3. Next, we will point the POS web configuration file to the database. In the Connection field, click on the ellipsis button to bring up the Database Connection window. Enter the SQL Server Instance where the database is contained. Then, enter the full Database Name. Then, select the Authentication Method to use. Provide a password if connecting via SQL Server Authentication.

Test Run the POS Web Services

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Go back to Internet Information Services. Launch the web service by right-clicking on ConnectedBusinessPOS and selecting Manage Application > Browse. The web service will open in your default web browser.
   
   
2. You will be prompted to log in before opening the POS web service application. You can login with any domain or machine user account so long as the account has access to the web service folder. Upon logging in, the POS web service will be displayed in the default web browser.
   
   
3. Take note of the URL displayed in the address bar. We will use this we service URL later when connecting the POS application to the database.

 

Install and Configure the POS Interface

Download and Install the Connected Business Touch App

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Download the Connected Business Touch application. There are two ways to do this:
• Open your browser and go to http://downloads.interprisesolutions.com/connectedtouch/
  
  
• Double-click on the Connected Business Touch (BETA) icon you see on your desktop.
  
  
2. You may be prompted to install the latest version of Microsoft Silverlight if this component is found missing on your machine. Just allow the prompt to download and install this prerequisite first.
   
   
3. There are two ways to install the Connected Business Touch application.
• Download and install the Connected Business Touch itapp application.
  
  
• Open the download URL in Connected Business Touch to install the application.
  
  
4. After installing, a folder Connected Business Touch will be created in your Documents library.
   
   
5. Run Connected Business Touch. On the toolbar, click on the Open option. You will find 2 options to open the itapp application.
• Open from disk - Specify the location of the downloaded itapp file. This is usually in C:\Users\(username)\Documents\Connected Business Touch
  
  
• Install and open from URL - Enter the download location (http://downloads.interprisesolutions.com/connectedtouch/) to download and install the itapp file if you haven't done so before you opened Connected Business Touch.
  
  
6. The Connected Business Touch app will open in “Edit Mode”. From the toolbar, click Run to open the screen of Connected Business Touch.

Connect to the Database using the POS Web Service

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Upon opening Connected Business Touch, the login screen is displayed.
   
   
2. Before signing in, tap on the Settings button. The Connected Business POS Connection Setting window will display.
   
   
3. In the Server field, enter the POS web service URL. This is usually http://localhost/ConnectedBusinessPOS.
   
   
4. In the Application field, select the type of screen you want to display for the current workstation. The options are: POS and Kiosk.
• POS Screen - choose this application type for standard POS terminals/cash registers.
  
  
• Kiosk Screen - choose this application type for self-serve virtual terminals.
  
  
5. You may need to use the licensed user name, “Admin” to access the POS Preferences and other settings needed to set up the workstation properly. For good measure, sign out the admin user account first before signing in to Connected Business Touch. Enter the user name and password either through a keyboard or the onscreen keyboard.

Create the First Workstation

To complete this task, do the following:

1. When signing in to Connected Business POS for the first time, the POS Preferences window will display prompting you to create the Workstation ID and specify your preferences for the current workstation. You may fill in just the required fields for now and return to the POS Preferences whenever you need to by tapping on the F5 button on the screen.
   
   
2. After closing the POS Preferences, the POS screen will appear. You can alternately use the touch screen interface and tap on the options or still use the mouse and keyboard.
   
   
3. You will find that the item selection section is empty. The next step is to select categories to show in this section. To do this, tap the F6 button. The Category Master List window will display. Click on the Add button to display all the item categories you have created in Connected Business. Highlight the categories you want show in the item selection screen then tap Select.
   
   
4. You will be brought back to the Category Master List window. To set a default category to show, highlight the category in the list and tap, Set to Default. Tap Ok when done.
   
   
5. Next, assign managers or administrators to the current workstation. Tap F7 button to bring up the Administrator list. Tap Add to bring up the list of user roles in Connected Business. User roles refer to the collective user settings (e.g. "administrator") assigned to user accounts (e.g. "Mgr. John"). This means that all users assigned with the "administrator" user account will be considered a manager or administrator in the current workstation and would be able to perform manager overrides or run Connected Business POS on "Edit Mode".