Set up view groups (PLU buttons)

This topic is primarily for administrators and other people who manage a Fiftytwo solution

In 52ViKING (previously also known as 52RETAIL), view groups are used to display articles in a grid view in which shop assistants can tap required articles to add them to the journal and sell them.

You typically use view groups (also known as PLU buttons) for articles that don't have barcodes, such as bread, fruit, and vegetables. However, hardware and DIY stores, garden centers, etc. sometimes also use view groups because some of their articles can be so bulky that they're difficult to scan, even though they do have barcodes. Also, many quick service restaurants use view groups on customer-facing self-service displays.

The buttons in a view group are often grouped by article type, and may contain several levels of groups and subgroups. Example of a view group with articles arranged in a multilevel hierarchy (click thumbnail to view image in full size):

This topic describes view groups for displays that are based on 52ViKING Web POS UI. If you need information about how to add view groups on old 52ViKING solutions that don't use web-based displays, contact Fiftytwo.

In order to use view groups on your till displays, including self-service displays, you must add a view group component to the display layout. The component defines the position, size, and look of your view groups. When you've set up the view group component, you can then add actual view groups with articles and use them on your displays.

Add view group component to till display layout

Open 52ViKING POS Designer.
In the left side of 52ViKING POS Designer, select Explorer.
In the Diagram menu, select the required diagram.

What's a diagram? A diagram is a user interface design that supports all the workflows that your target groups need. You'll typically only have one diagram, but if your organization owns several chains of stores, you may design separate diagrams for each chain to reflect each chain's workflows, branding, etc.
In the Layout menu, select the layout that you want to add the view group to. It's typically the journal layout.

What's a layout? A diagram (see the previous) consists of a number of layouts. A layout contains what's required for a particular workflow. You may, for example, create a layout for logging in to a till, a layout for selling articles and accepting payment, etc. You'll typically end up with a number of layouts in your diagram, and the layouts can then refer to each other so that you can transparently offer even complex combinations of workflows. If required, you can design the same layout in different variants for use on mobile phones, tablets as well as 4:3 and 16:9 POS screens.
In the right side of POS Designer, select Toolox, and expand the Advanced menu.
Drag the ViewGroup component to the required position on the layout.

The view group component has some dummy content. The dummy content will not appear on actual displays, but it's helpful when you're going to edit the view group's look in one of the following steps.
On the layout, select the view group component (so that it gets a narrow, blue dotted border around it). Then select Properties in the right side of POS Designer.
Use the menus Basic, Grid settings, Tab settings, Size, Padding & margin, and Border to edit the view group's colors, button sizes, etc. to suit your organization's needs.

The view group component reflects your changes in real time, so it's easy to view the effect of your changes.
When you're ready, click in the top bar to save your changes.

Your diagram now contains a layout with a view group component that matches your organization's needs. The view group component that you've added will act as a placeholder that determines your actual view groups' position, size, colors, etc.

You can now add an actual view group and add articles to it (see the following).

If you plan to use the view group for many articles, so that you need to create a hierarchy with several levels of groups and subgroups (like the illustration in the previous), you can also create that hierarchy in the following.

Add actual view groups and articles

You can add articles to view groups in two ways. Either in 52ViKING Store Administration or in ViKING Client.

What's 52ViKING Store Administration? 52ViKING Store Administration is the latest browser-based management interface for 52ViKING.

What's ViKING Client? 52ViKING Client is an older desktop application for managing a 52ViKING system as an alternative to the very old way of managing 52ViKING servers through writing commands on a blue screen.

Use 52ViKING Store Administration to add view groups and articles

Open a browser, connect to the IP address or hostname of the required 52ViKING store controller (for single store management) or enterprise server (for multistore management), and log in.
In the 52ViKING Store Administration top ribbon, select View Groups.

Example only: Options in top ribbon depend on your user rights
To add a new actual view group, click in the top right part of the page.
Enter an ID number and a descriptive Name for the view group.

Optionally, enter a Description.

To add an image, click the button. The image will appear on buttons that represent the view group.

How, and if, images will appear on buttons is determined by the properties of your view group component (set up in 52ViKING POS Designer), notably the properties Grid settings > Thumbnail width and Thumbnail height.

When you're ready, click in the top right part of the page to save the view group. Your new view group is added to the View Groups page's list of view groups.
In the list, click the view group's ID number to go to the view group's settings.
In the View group details section in the lower part of the page, each row represents a button in the view group. Such a button can either represent an article or a link to another existing view group (the latter is how you create a hierarchy of view groups). There's an empty line ready for you to fill out.
- In the Reference type column, select either Article or View Group.
- In the Reference column, select the required article or existing view group.
The columns from Time Management to End time aren't currently in use.

Click in the right side of the row to add the button to the view group.

The button will inherit any image defined on the article or view group in question. To verify if an image is defined, you can click in the right side of the row.

How, and if, images will appear on buttons is determined by the properties of your view group component, notably the properties Grid settings > Thumbnail width and Thumbnail height.

View group setup with two buttons added: One article button and one view group button. A new line is automatically added when you click .
Repeat the previous step for each article button and/or view group button that you need.

When you have multiple buttons, the button that's represented by the top row will appear in the top left position on the till display, the button represented by the next row will appear in the next position, etc.

To change a button's position, click on the required row and drag it to the required position in the row sequence.

Bear in mind that the view group may appear on displays of various sizes, resolutions, shapes, etc., so a row's position in Store Administration guarantees the button a specific position in the view group's button sequence, but not a fixed position across various displays.
When you're ready, click in the top bar to save your view group settings and distribute them to relevant tills in your organization (that is tills that use the diagram that you selected when you set up the view group component to begin with).

Tills will receive your updates as long as they're not in an error state or handling an ongoing transaction (in which case they'll receive the updates when the transaction is completed).

If you want to build a hierarchy of several view groups, go back to step 3 of this procedure and create further view groups that you can then link by creating relevant buttons.

Use ViKING Client to add view groups and articles

Log in to ViKING Client
In the Functions menu in the left side of the window, expand PLU Buttons (FB) and double-click Visningsgrupper (FB09).

If you don't see the Functions menu (which isn't a menu, but a window in 52ViKING Client), select Window > Show views > Others in the menu, expand ViKING, and then select Functions menu.
Now you're going to add the actual view group itself. On the Visningsgrupper tab in the main part of the window, enter a number for your new view group in the View group field, and then press F5 on your keyboard to apply the number.

To view if a number is already in use, click the arrow in the right side of the field to view a list of any existing view groups.
In the Navn field, enter a descriptive name for your view group. Then press Enter on your keyboard to move to the next field.
In the Besk field, enter the same descriptive name as in the previous field. Then press Enter on your keyboard to move to the next field.
Don't enter anything in the Billede field. Simply press Enter on your keyboard to move to the first row in the table below the Billede field.

The Billede field is meant for adding an image to the view group button, but that's currently not possible in ViKING Client. If you want to add images to view group buttons, use Store Administration instead.
In the table, each row represents a button in the view group. Such a button can either represent an article or a link to another existing view group (the latter is how you create a hierarchy of view groups).
- In the Typ column, select either 0 or 1:
  - 0 means that the button will represent an article
  - 1 means that the button will represent a link to another existing view group
  If ViKING Client doesn't respond when you make your selection, it's because in ViKING Client you select menu items by double-clicking them.
- In the id column, select the required article (if you selected 0 in the Typ column) or existing view group (if you selected 1 in the Typ column).
- In the order column, enter a number to define the button's position in the view group's button sequence. 1 means the top left position on the till display, 2 means the next position after that, etc.
  
  Bear in mind that the view group may appear on displays of various sizes, resolutions, shapes, etc., so the number that you specify guarantees the button a specific position in the view group's button sequence, but not a fixed position across various displays.
Press Enter twice on your keyboard to move to the next row (the columns from Tidsstyring to sluttid aren't currently in use).
Repeat the previous step for each article button and/or view group button that you need.

View group setup with eight buttons added: Six article buttons (order 1-6) and two view group buttons (order 7-8).
When you're ready, verify that your view group settings match your organization's requirements.
When you're sure, press F12 twice on your keyboard to apply your view group settings and distribute them to relevant tills in your organization (that is tills that use the diagram that you selected when you set up the view group component to begin with).

Tills will receive your updates as long as they're not in an error state or handling an ongoing transaction (in which case they'll receive the updates when the transaction is completed).

If you want to build a hierarchy of several view groups, go to step 3 of this procedure and create further view groups that you can then link by creating relevant buttons.

Related: 52ViKING Web POS UI

Related: 52ViKING POS Designer