Creating Item Tree groups
While the DCI list is organized primarily for reporting, the Item Tree activity is used to create the menus that appear at various POSes. In order to have items configured within the DCI list show up within the menu at a salespoint, they must be added to the Item Tree.
1. Open up the entire Item Tree. (Only one administrator at a time is allowed to edit the entire Item Tree, so administrators have to take turns creating their top-level Item Trees.) You do this by clicking on the Item Tree button (or by selecting Activities > Item Tree) and then clicking on *** ENTIRE ITEM TREE ***.
Warning: Never manually release a lock on an Item Tree (by clicking the Release Lock button on the Item Tree dialog) and proceed to edit an Item tree that is in fact still being edited by another user. This can cause parent nodes in the tree to “break” and you need to run special maintenance programs to fix the tree. The Release Lock button is used only if SysManager crashes or the workstation that is editing the Item Tree is unexpectedly shut down and that Item Tree branch is still marked as in-use.
2. Make sure that you do not have any folders selected on the Item Tree dialog and click on the Create Group button.
3. You may name the new group and give it the appropriate restrictions and security by clicking once on the New Item Group folder just created and editing its values on the right-hand side of the dialog within the Restrictions section.
4. If you want to take advantage of role-based security for this New Item Group make sure to assign a Role membership required to edit this item tree: located on the lower right-hand corner of the dialog. Now only those operators who have the selected role may edit this particular tree.
5. You can:
a. Drag and drop entire DCIs from the DCI List window into the New Item Group on the Item Tree dialog, or you can drag individual Items.
b. You may also copy Items already contained within other Item Tree folders (groups) to your new group.
c. You can even edit the actual DCI (with appropriate security) by clicking on the Item on the Item Tree dialog and clicking on the Edit button.
d. You can create unlimited subgroups within your main group by selecting the New Item Group you just created and clicking the Create Group button.
e. Arrange the folders or Items in any order necessary by simply dragging folders/Items above or below other folders/Items (or even into other folders).
f. Make the same Item show up multiple times within your Item Tree for popular Items. This makes the Item available to your operators numerous places within the Item menu in Sales.
g. Display Override check box, when checked, allows items or folders to display even if current operator does not have a sufficient security level. If the security check fails, the operator will be presented with the standard Security Override dialog.
h. Specify text and button colors, or add pictures to the buttons.
Note: Graphics for item buttons are available from the Siriusware Information Portal. Log in and navigate to Downloads > Bitmaps.
Important: Images must be in .BMP format. If an image is downloaded in any other format, you must first open the image in photo editing software, and then save as .BMP in order for Sales to recognize it. Simply renaming the image extension to .BMP does not work.
Note: Graphics can be fairly large (i.e., 1024 x 768) and are auto-sized as needed. This is in contrast to guest mug shots, which are small (320 x 200) because there are so many of them. Once they are imported into SysManager, the images are directly stored in the SiriusSQL database tables, so the image file doesn’t need to be also stored somewhere. There are plenty of free graphic editing tools available. For example, see
http://www.gimp.org or
http://www.irfanview.com/. You can also use Paint in the Accessories folder on Windows operation systems.
i. Define top-level groups with the Always Top check box. This stands for “always on top level item tree groups.” This check box allows you to; for example, define top level groups that are present on all F&B menus regardless of level. Examples are Entrees, Appetizers, Children’s Menu, Desserts and Beverages. Buttons representing these menu sub-groups are available on the screen at all times. Selecting the button takes the operator to the top level items of that group. This allows operators to rapidly move from one group of items to another.
j. Set restrictions specific to the Items as they appear within the Item Tree (this is in addition to the restrictions enforced on the item itself within the DCI).
k. You can multiselect items in ItemTree and perform changes en masse (except for the Picture). Multi-select drag-and-drop is not possible, but not necessary.
Note: Think of the Item Tree products as shortcuts to the real item. You can put these Item shortcuts wherever necessary and they always link to the same DCI.
6. The final step is to ensure that the correct salespoints use the new Item Tree. Do this by editing your salespoints within the SysManager > Activities > System Lists > Salespoints > New/Edit > Item Tree tab and selecting your new group (in this case, Call Center) for the salespoints’ Item Tree.
Note: Sales updates immediately, and correctly, when changes are made to the item tree, whether or not items have been removed. Previously, if an item was added to an item tree, the salespoint updated with it, and then the item was removed from the item tree, changes could then be made to the item (or modifiers) which would not get to the salespoint (but it would consider itself up-to-date if it updated those files during that time). Then, if the item was re-added to the item tree, the salespoint wouldn’t get the updated item record or the dci_mods. This is now fixed by re-checking those tables when an item is added to the item tree.
In an effort to prevent slowdown at the salespoints when item tree edits are being done in SysManager and to make item tree editing easier, the following changes have been made to SysManager program.
• The re-ordering method of the item tree has been simplified
• A warning message now displays when attempting to save changes to the item tree if the number of changes that need to be made to update the item tree exceeds 400, thus allowing the user to cancel out of the process
• The ability to delete multiple items and item tree groups has been added. This is done by selecting multiple items and/or groups while holding the Ctrl key down and selecting with the left mouse button, then clicking on the Delete button. The user is prompted to confirm each deletion.
