TrueCafe. Friendly Internet Cafe Software. Documentation. Multiple Cafes

Administrator
    00. Quick Setup
    01. Terminals and Applications
    02. Rates
    03. Customers
    04. Tickets (Time Codes)
    05. Pre-Paid and Post-Paid Sessions
    06. Shifts
    07. Point-of-Sale, cash drawer
    08. Goods and Stock
    09. Instant Messenger (Chat)
    10. License Key Management
    11. Power Management
    12. Daily Report
    13. Sales Report
    14. Traffic Calculation and URL Log
    15. Point-of-Sale. Receipt
    16. Options

Client Program
Reports
Web Reports
Web Reports by Email
Printer Watcher
Web Access
NComputing and Terminal Server Support
Wi-Fi Hotspot Support (Wireless Billing)
Wi-Fi White List
PayPal and Credit Cards Support
Customize Wi-Fi Pages
Valve Steam
Bandwidth Management
Game Console Billing
Advertisement
Database Cleanup
Language Editor
Database Workshop

Multiple Cafes

Although TrueCafe doesn't have a built-in multiple cafes support, you can nevertheless do something about it.

Conception

Install and configure TrueCafe Server on your server computer as it was a single cafe with one POS/operator.

Then share the TrueCafe database on your server computer, install TrueCafe Administrators on a POS/operator computer in each cafe and connect them to the shared TrueCafe database.

TrueCafe Clients remain connected to the server computer only.

Drawbacks

1. Security issue. Since you're sharing your database across the network, security issue becomes more important. Please consider using hidden network shares (e.g. "database$") and user security if your network is domain-based.

2. Available/occupied terminals. Since TrueCafe Server and TrueCafe Admininstrator are installed on the different computers (the server computer and the POS computers correspondingly), POS computers will not be notified when a customer logs in or logs out on a Client side. This means a terminal icon in TrueCafe Administrator will remain in the same state until you manually refresh the entire terminal list pressing the "Refresh" button.

Step 1. Setup a single cafe

Install TrueCafe Server on your server computer. Add terminals to the terminal list (main menu -> Setup -> Terminals). All the terminals have to have unique IP addresses.

Install TrueCafe Clients on your terminals. Every terminal connects to the same server computer ("Server IP" option in Client).

In other words, do everything like you have a single big cafe with only one Server/POS/operator on your server computer.

Checkpoint: you can start/stop customer sessions from your server, customer can login from your terminals.

Step 2. Share the database

In order to use a few POS/operators you have to have a common shared TrueCafe database.

On the server computer find the "db" folder where TrueCafe database (TrueCafe.mdb file) is located and share it across your network. Use a hidden share name ("db$" or "database$" etc.) and user security (if you have a domain-based network) to protect your database.

Checkpoint: you can open the shared folder on your POS computers in Windows Explorer (e.g. "\\server\db$").

Step 3. Setup POS/operator computer in each cafe

Install TrueCafe Administrators on your POS computers and connect them to your central database.

Install TrueCafe Administrator. Open Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Data Sources (ODBC), switch to the "System DSN" tab and double-click on the "TrueCafe" item.

Press the "Select" button on the next window:

In the left top edit box enter the full path to your shared networking database (...\TrueCafe.mdb) and press OK:

Press the following "OK" buttons until you close the ODBC settings window. Restart the computer.

Checkpoint: you can can start/stop customer sessions, view terminal screenshots from your POS computers.

Technical detail: since you can't install TrueCafe Administrator withouth installing TrueCafe Server, you should disable TrueCafe Server service on a POS computer after installation (we recommend service statup mode = manual). Use Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Services to open your system service console.