Learn what's new in the 1.6.2 version of Emerald POS software for retail customers.

Version 1.6.2

July 13, 2021

Release Overview

This release includes the following information:

• Special Notices
• New Features
• Fixes

Special Notices

There are three developments that were started this quarter, but are not ready for production and will continue in the next release:

• 505260 Emerald started working with the Aurus 3rd party EPS to enable an integration between Emerald and Aurus. This effort has not yet been completed and will continue in the next quarter.
• 497778 Verifying a CoinStar voucher by the CoinStar vendor started in this quarter but will be ready for production in the next quarter.
• 508242 The ability to change the WIC basket during the WIC payment started in this quarter but will be ready for production in the next quarter

Unused Coupon BRM The existing Coupon Type BRM was renamed to Unused Coupon BRM Type and was enhanced to act on an unused coupon. Any retailer using the previous 'Coupon' BRM should remove it and adjust their functionality to the new 'Unused Coupon' BRM.

Bottle Return Vouchers Tomra bottle return vouchers were previously validated against a hard-coded logic to extract values from the barcode, Retailers who already support Tomra Vouchers need to update their Tomra RTIs according to the new functionality. The RTIs were added to the Emerald base configuration.

New Features

REF 477862: L&P: POS to Display Price after Discount on EJ and Receipt-for Simple Promotions (Long Term Solution)

The Emerald POS, Customer Display, and Receipt display the item catalog price in the item line and the discount amount on a separate promotion line. A new configurable solution to display the actual item price and the actual reduction on the same line was added to make it clearer to the customer. The new display option is only applicable to simple promotions. A Simple promotion is a promotion which is applied at the item level (unlike a ticket level promotion) and it is applied equally on each unit of the item in the transaction. For example, a new price promotion, amount off promotion, promotion prices defined in the catalog such as 'no-card' (e.g., TPR) price, and 'card' price (set in the catalog via the promotion-type attribute). Ticket level promotions, coupon promotions and Buy One Get One promotions are not considered as Simple promotions. The retailer can now configure the POS and the Receipt to display the actual item price (after the discount amount was reduced), and the discounts that were applied on the item line. For example: An item catalog price is $15.99 and a promotion is running $2.00 Off on the Item. The POS displays the item line as follows where "Discount on item 1059" is the promotion name: Mouse $13.99 $2 Discount on Item 1059

• The solution is supported when the POS is integrated with AMS/UE or LPRO/LPE.
• The logic that determines if a promotion is a Simple promotion or not is done by the POS.
• The new display option was implemented for Sales Transactions only. Return Transactions are not part of this development and will be implemented in future developments.

REF 477862: POS and Customer Display EJ – Handle Multiple Icons
The TDM Parser Version 2.16 and 2.17 have been deployed to production.

REF 477862: Total Savings on the Receipt
The Receipt was updated with a new ability to display the Total Savings on the receipt (the sum of all rewards (discount or tender). It is not printed on the Emerald Base Configuration Receipt.

REF 477862: Totals Section on Receipt
The Totals section on the Emerald receipt was changed in the Emerald Base Configuration.

REF 500252: Cold Start - Add Ability for a Process Reset
Previously at the 'Child' level, in a case where the Cold Start tool failed in the middle of a run, e.g., due to connectivity issues the Reset was not always performed successfully, taking place only after the DMS server's new session was created. The user would need to manually change it in the DMS_ContextData table and perform a DMS service reset. At the 'Parent' level on the CCM/Store, the data was not always updated by the 'Child' Cold Start tool reset, resulting in an issue where the database backup could not be performed at the 'Parent' level. This could only be resolved by manually removing data in the DMS_ContextData table in the 'Parent' database. The Cold Start tool was enhanced with a new Hard Reset option and the existing reset option was improved.

REF 501914: White Source - Upgrade Log4Net to Latest 2.X. Version Phase 2
Phase 2 of the Log4Net update to the latest version 2.0.12. was completed.

REF 503800: Fuel – Perform POS and Fuel API Changes to Support Fuel Item Prices $0.01 Validation
Emerald was enhanced to send the maximum allowed discount amount on fuel items to the Promotion Engine, in this case the AMS (promotion application). This amount is received from the Fuel System. This enables the Promotion Engine to calculate the maximum applicable discount amount according to the Fuel Item price and the minimal allowed price, and the retailer to apply promotional discounts on fuel item prices without reducing the price below the regulatory allowed price per gallon.

REF 497464|502408: Fuel Prepay-Scan Cents Off coupons - Display Unused Coupons Message in Case of Unfueled Prepay Transaction with EFT
Emerald was updated with the ability to prompt a notification of unused coupons in unfueled prepay EFT transactions. The customer returns to the store and can get back any unused coupons. For example, the customer purchases a prepay, but at the Pump decides not to fuel. The customer presses Stop and returns to the Kiosk. The Cashier recalls the transaction, the Coupons are auto-voided and the system prompts the 'Return unused coupons to the customer' message. The FuelPOS drawer opens and the cashier returns the coupons to the customer. The Coupon is unlocked on the ULP/PE. 'Return unused coupons to the customer'

REF 488760: Fuel – Add Speed Keys Amount Buttons for Prepay
Currently, on creating a Prepay transaction, the cashier is required to key in each number using the keypad. For example, a $10.00 Prepay requires 4 clicks. Speed keys, which are pre-configured amount buttons were added to the FuelPOS to make it more efficient, saving the number of cashier clicks needed to complete a Prepay transaction.

REF 411089: Fuel RIG Prepay – Cash Change to Fuel Prepay (Rest in Gas)
The Emerald FuelPOS was updated to support a feature called 'Rest In Gas' (RIG). This is a transaction in which the customer purchases an item/s, pays a fixed amount and the system assigns the change amount to a fuel prepay item, i.e., the RIG. The Pump is automatically authorized to fuel for the amount automatically calculated according to the change due. A new parameter was added to define a threshold to prevent creating prepay transactions on an amount that is too low. For example, after the cashier enters the paid amount, an error message will appear if the change is lower than the threshold.

REF 502101: Fuel: Add Indication to the ULP (Loyalty) if Additional Promotions Should be Applied to the Transaction
Emerald was updated to populate a new field in the ULP API to indicate in which flow the fuel transaction was performed. It indicates to the Promotion Engine if additional promotions should be added on top of the forced promotions that were triggered before fueling or during fueling at the pump. (I.e., as adjustments). In cases of PAP and Auto closed Prepay fuel transactions, once the fueling and payment is completed, Emerald sends indication to the Promotion Engine not to calculate any additional promotions, since the customer has left. In other scenarios, the customer enters the kiosk after fueling and may add a loyalty card to the transaction, purchase additional items, etc., and in such cases additional promotions may be applied.

REF 503827: Support Change in Additional Code Reported from Fuel Server
Previously, the Fuel Server sent Item Ids in the Promotion details under the field name PluCode. The Fuel Server version was updated and in the newer versions a new attribute called AdditionalCode was added. This attribute holds the Item Id of the discounts reported in PAP and PAK transactions. The TriggeredPromElement now includes the PluCode (which is the olaCode) and the new attribute AddtionalCode (which is the reference to the fuel Product).

REF 493369: Loyalty and Promotions - Coupons BRM Removal
Emerald included the option to configure Coupon BRMs that were inherited from R10. These BRMs did not work on Emerald, and with this version they are no longer available. The configuration for the following BRM Types was removed from the CCM Office, Store Office, and all RTIs:

• Unused Coupon (note the functionality remains, since the Coupon Type BRM was renamed to Unused Coupon, see details further on)
• Unknown Coupon
• Override Coupon

REF 412039: Loyalty and Promotions - BRM Unused Coupons
The existing Coupon Type BRM was renamed to Unused Coupon BRM Type and was enhanced to act on an unused coupon. An unused coupon is a coupon that its conditions are not met and thus it cannot be applied to the transaction. The Promotion Engine determines if a coupon in the transaction is unused and sends the response to the POS. There are three types of unused coupons:

• Permanently unused – such a coupon will always be unused regardless of the transaction/basket composition. For example, expired coupon.
• Temporarily unused- such a coupon is unused based on the transaction/basket composition. For example, a coupon that gives $0.20 discount on item 11, is unused if item 11 does not exist in the transaction. The coupon can become used once the item 11 is added to the transaction.
• Required Cashier Decision – In this case the PE cannot determine if the coupon is unused and prompts the cashier to decide. For example, when the PE approaches a 3rd party system to determine counterfeit coupons and this system sends a response 'uncertain', the cashier is prompted to decide. For each unused coupon the PE sends an Unused Reason Code and an Unused Reason Message. The BRM enables the retailer to determine if to return the unused coupons to the customer or keep them until the end of the transaction according to the response returned from the Promotion Engine. For example, the retailer can decide to reject an unused coupon which is expired or ask the cashier to decide if the coupon is fraudulent or not, and so on. Rejecting the unused coupon by setting a prohibit rule or by rejecting confirmation or manager approval will result in not keeping the coupon in the transaction until the end of the transaction, as it currently happens.

REF 412039: Loyalty and Promotions - BRM Coupon Limit
The existing Coupon Limit BRM Type was corrected and enhanced with new options. The following limits are now supported

• Line Quantity (existing option) - limit the maximum quantity/multiplier of adding a coupon. For example, if the maximum is 3, then the cashier scans 2X, 3X but will be rejected on scanning 4X, etc.

• Quantity (existing option) – limit on the maximum number of coupons that can be in a transaction (used and unused). For example, if the limit is 4, then on scanning the 5th coupon, will be rejected.

• Single Monetary Reward (New) – limit the maximum reward of a coupon per coupon type. For example, if the limit for an MFR coupon is $1.50, then applying an MFR coupon higher than $1.50 will be rejected. The Rule can be set on a one/many/any coupon type.

• Total Monetary Reward (New) – limit on the maximum total of rewards from the coupons in a transaction. For example, if the limit for all coupon rewards in a transaction is $5.00, then applying a coupon that increases the total coupons reward beyond $5.00 will be rejected. The Rule can be set on a one/many/any coupon type.

REF 412039: Loyalty and Promotions - BRM Tool Tip Change
Currently, in the CCM under Business Rules, all Business Rule types support a field in the Action tab called Trigger as delayed. The tooltip linked to the field was updated to make the options to which a delayed BRM can be applied clearer.

REF 478383: BRM - Manager Explicit Override
Until now, when a BRM action was defined to prompt for Manager Approval, Emerald prompted the BRM only in case the cashier had no manager role. Emerald was updated to explicitly request that a user with a manager role (either the cashier or a different user) can approve/reject a certain business rule. For example, a retailer can now configure that a price override that reduces the item price by more than 50% will prompt for manager approval if the cashier has no manager role and if the cashier has a manager role.

REF 497779: Loyalty and Promotions - TPR/Card Promotions Emerald to Determine the Promotion Description
Till now, discounts applied on items through the catalog (where the item's price is defined as a promotion price) did not show any promotion descriptions for the discount on the POS touchpoint. For example, the price of a single item promotion, e.g., a club price is returned from the Promotion Engine (PE) in a special prices field without a description. The price for an item in a Temporary Price Reduction is returned from the PE in an adjustment type 'promotional discount' field also without a description. Emerald was updated with the ability to set the Promotion Description in these cases.

REF 508242: WIC EBT – Change the Abv of Nevada from NV to NZ
The StateIdentifierCode for the Nevada WIC State Agency was changed from NV to NZ as per instructions of the US FNS organization.

REF 495705: Sale Receipt – Add the Ability to Print a Result of a Predefined Formula
There are retailers that calculate the amount the customer saves by shopping in their stores by the following formula ('Transaction Total' / 'Decimal Value') - 'Transaction Total'. Emerald was updated with the ability to display the result of the above formula on the receipt so that such retailers will be able to notify the customer on the amount they saved in this transaction.

REF 502897: Tender: Do Not Block Paying Non-FSA Items with FSA Card
The FSA card industry started producing payment cards, which can also be used to pay for regular items, and not only FSA items. Emerald was updated to enable FSA cards to be used for payments of 'Non FSA' items. Emerald will no longer block the option to pay for 'Non FSA' items with an FSA card. It will send the authorization request to the EPS and will act according to the decision of the FSA host/provider that will flow back to the POS. This option is controlled by configuration of the FSA tender Item Restriction. FSA Item Restrictions can only be done via the RTI: ProductPaymentRestrictionMaintenanceFSA RTI.

REF 434032: Tender – Enhance Verification for 3rd Party Barcode Vouchers such as Coinstar, Bottle Deposit
Emerald handles barcode vouchers such as Bottle Deposit vouchers or CoinStar vouchers as tenders. In addition, when the voucher is a Tomra voucher, which is a certain Bottle Deposit recycling vendor, Emerald supports some in house redemption verification to determine if to accept the payment or not. Emerald enhanced its Tomra in house redemption verification to support payment with any barcode voucher. The verification is done for purchase transactions and tender exchanges against the Emerald voucher database by new configuration in the Voucher Tender Type and the Bottle Return Data Pattern. For example, verify if the 3rd party voucher barcode was already redeemed in the store. This is to prevent a customer from trying to redeem the same voucher more than once in the same store. Since Tomra bottle return vouchers were previously validated against a hard-coded logic to extract values from the barcode, Retailers who already support Tomra Vouchers need to update their Tomra RTIs according to the new functionality. The RTIs were added to the Emerald base configuration.

REF 406914: FLSCO – GoToPOS Phase 2 – Allow FL to Use POS Transaction Functionality by Moving to POS UI
In the FLSCO-GoToPOS phase 1 feature, Emerald enabled the FastLane SCO attendant to move to the Emerald POS touchpoint via the Go To POS functionality to handle interventions, perform actions on items and handle issues which may not be resolved in FastLane SCO mode. In Phase 2 additional features were added and enhancements were made:

• The 'IsCluster' touchpoint field was added to the Store Office UI
• Allow to change 'IsClustered' flag while touchpoint is Registered/Not registered
• Ability to log in to POS mode via Go To POS using a cashier barcode was added
• Receive an encrypted password sent from FLSCO to Emerald when moving from SCO mode to POS mode was added
• Void, Suspend, and Resume transactions when moving to POS mode from SCO mode are supported
• Capture Go To POS and Go To SCO actions in the Retail and Control Transaction logs accordingly
• Support the FLSCO printer devices (OPOS-10)

REF 488588: Tips - Balance EOD TLog where Tips are Included
Currently, 'Tips' that are added to a transaction in Emerald are added as a Tender and not part of the sales data. This caused the EOD Tlog to be unbalanced. The Emerald EOD TLog was updated with a new attribute called 'Total Tip Amount' to capture all sales transaction data when tips are included in the sales transaction. The Tip Amounts will no longer be captured in the Tip Tender attribute as part of the Tender Summary.

REF 477980: Receipt - Improve Logo Display Quality
Emerald improved the display quality of Receipt Logos. The option to configure high resolution logos for receipts in the Device Manager was added.

REF 478383: Tender, Check Retail Authorization: POS to Get Manager Approval when instructed by 'Check Validation' Service
When a check payment is authorized by the retailer Check Validation service, Emerald was updated with the ability to prompt for Manager Approval if the Check Validation service returns a request that a manager must approve the payment.

• If the manager does not approve, the payment is not accepted.
• The POS does not send the manager decision back to the Retailer service. The option is supported as a Soft decline response of the retailer service and the prompt for manager approval is supported via a new BRM type called Tender Soft Decline. For Backward Compatibility, when a soft decline response is received from the external service and the Tender Soft Decline BRM is not configured, the POS accepts the response as a hard decline and the tender is declined.

REF 492804: Catalog - Enhance the Export of the Emerald Catalog
A new Emerald Catalog export was added with the ability to export the following additional new fields.

• Group id ( name)
• Link
• linkType
• ManufacturerCode
• Additionalhierarchy

Resolved Issues

The following defects were fixed in this version:

• Fixed TFS 501621: Before Fueling, a Prepay transaction finalization failed, and prompted an Un handled Exception.

• Fixed TFS 502214: CCM Rabbit MQ Outage - The child server CCMDmsClient service multiplied the number of active consumers.

• Fixed TFS 502216: The default value was missing for the application pool recycle time.

• Fixed TFS 502550: Fuel POS – In a Tender Exchange using the MTX simulator, when using an EFT card which was converted to a non existing EFT card, a General Error message was displayed.

• Fixed TFS 502911: There was an Unexpected '$' Sign that appeared in the Receipts.

• Fixed TFS 503877: A BRM where the cashier had to select a Reason Code upon Tax Exemption was prompted twice.

• Fixed TFS 503981: The customer was charged twice due to a PIN-pad Cashback question.

• Fixed TFS 504589: Tlog : the Name was masked inconsistently.

• Fixed TFS 504742: The Tare selection screen was cut.

• Fixed TFS 504897: An unhandled exception occurred in an Extended Price Override flow.

• Fixed TFS 505011: After performing a Tender Exchange and paying with a credit card, the system did not display the message for the Digital Receipt: 'How would you like to receive your receipt?' when the system was set to ON DEMAND.

• Fixed TFS 505515: WIC: A business error needed to be added in case of a wrong agency identifier code.

• Fixed TFS 505527: The Trunk Installation failed in the CCM (Test: CCMRtiBasic)

• Fixed TFS 506139: Balanced cash prepay transactions were not closed.

• Fixed TFS 506514: Pharmacy - Pickup Person : the Ok button functionality was not working as designed in the Driver's license view.

• Fixed TFS 507843: Test CheckGeneralExceptionLayoutPattern failed: the Remote logger did not send messages.

• Fixed TFS 507947: An item that could be weighed with a box did not receive a confirmation pop up when there was a BRM.

• Fixed TFS 507984: In a Return for an online item, you could not return the online item.

• Fixed TFS 507985: A new setting was made in the CCM that caused the tax exemption screen to display 2 options.

• Fixed TFS 508094: List of disabled tests in the Trunk handled.

• Fixed TFS 508144: Tender not available error.

• Fixed TFS 508362: R10WebClient failed to Start at the Store level.

• Fixed TFS 508406: The Retalix.Client.POS.Shell crashed on starting after a build from the Build.cmd.

• Fixed TFS 508452: The "RIG amount is below configured threshold" message should have included the threshold value.

• Fixed TFS 508612: The Default Configuration Builds were failing due to 2 RTI Failures in the CCM.

• Fixed TFS 508714: Cold start was failing when running - CCM to the Store Server.

• Fixed TFS 508819: The Cold Start Tool was getting stuck.

• Fixed TFS 509038: Fuel POS – In a Cash Office Paid In, you could not exit without entering an amount.

• Fixed TFS 509046: At the CCM tier logs exploded with ERRORs for the RetentionPolicyJobScheduler – you could not get the scheduling configuration. It was running with default configurations Interval=Daily time=23:00:00 duration=100.

• Fixed TFS 509047: The Store Tier failed to load the assembly from C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\R10ServerShadowCopy\1zlge2iy.to0\Newtonsoft.Json.dllSystem.IO.FileLoadException: API restriction: The assembly 'file:///C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\R10ServerShadowCopy\1zlge2iy.to0\Newtonsoft.Json.dll'.

• Fixed TFS 509551: Fuel POS Tender Menu – the paging down button looked like it was disabled even there though there were more tenders to display.

• Fixed TFS 509562: The Project Ncr.PriceCheckerClient could not be built.

• Fixed TFS 509714: WebLoggerConfig.xml – an incorrect log4net syntax was identified.

• Fixed TFS 509734: Incorrect Forecourt client logger configuration was fixed.

• Fixed TFS 509806: DMSCLIENT - duplicate logs were handled.

• Fixed TFS 510069: Updated the logical name of the SCO printer with the default RTI set.

• Fixed TFS 510170: Fuel – In a PAP with loyalty ULP-UE and a Void Transaction BRM, after cancelling, the Fueling Tlog was not created.

• Fixed TFS 510269: An Unused coupon BRM was triggering for used coupon.

• Fixed TFS 510300: Simple Promotions – the Fuel POS - Weighted MSU information was not aligned properly in the Action zone.

• Fixed TFS 510427: A list of unused coupon codes and item descriptions were not displayed in an Unused BRM message and Coupon limit BRM message.

• Fixed TFS 510454: Action types were displayed incorrectly in the Coupon limit BRM.

• Fixed TFS 510506: Simple Promotions – it was not possible to check the TPR promotion.

• Fixed TFS 510609: It was not possible to complete the transaction with a Coin Star Voucher when the POS was offline to the Store & Coin Star API.

• Fixed TFS 510736: Fuel – a promotion on dry items was not triggered in an Unbalanced cash transaction after fueling if the same promotion was already triggered before fueling.

• Fixed TFS 510737: UI Automation – there was a syntax error on the accepted receipt text.

• Fixed TFS 510743: A duplicate copy of the Ncr.R10STS.NR1.Integration.CustomerSimulator.dll file fails GPosWebServer at runtime was identified.

• Fixed TFS 510748: V1.6.200 -Office Client login failed. It failed to communicate with the Emerald Server in an attempt to connect to the Store server via the Spooky tool.

• Fixed TFS 510863: Fuel - on scanning a customer card in Tender mode in a Fillup transaction - the customer was not added, and when paying by visa, the notification message that was prompted displayed: 'Swiped card was used for payment. Scanned data was not processed'.

• Fixed TFS 510929: Fuel POS – the RIG button and messages to close the transaction on the POS displayed as Missing.

• Fixed TFS 511105: Fuel POS – There was an Unhandled exception when trying to recall 2 transactions of type PAP2PAK in the same transaction at the POS.

• Fixed TFS 511154: Simple Promotions – The Sale icon was partially displayed when a line item already had two icons (Delayed Manager and Gift Receipt icons).

• Fixed TFS 511168: The Unused coupon BRM was triggering for unselected reason codes.

• Fixed TFS 511424: Fuel – changing the price of a fuel item was only applied to the Prepay after reloading it to the POS.

• Fixed TFS 511452: The User could not log in to the POS – the following message was prompted: 'An unhandled exception has occurred, please see the log for'.

• Fixed TFS 511513: There was a UI. The Long Item description was not displaying correctly in the Ticket Zone.

• Fixed TFS 511731: The DMS did not download a message to the store.