Dave Baker's WebLog : WEPOS

It's not what you've got, its what you do with it! Windows Embedded in the Enterprise - Free Webinar

davbaker — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:54:56 GMT

Embedded platforms are being increasingly used as part of enterprise solutions to help improve efficiency and drive down cost. If these type of solutions are of interest to you sign up for the free webinar "Windows Embedded Opportunities in Enterprise Organizations," will be held on June 28 at 8:00PM GMT. For further details and registration go here.

WEPOS 1.1 Update

davbaker — Thu, 24 May 2007 19:40:48 GMT

Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS) was recently updated to add support for the UnifiedPOS (UPOS) 1.11 specification; which adds device classes for biometrics, electronic journal, bill acceptor, bill dispenser, coin acceptor, and image scanner peripherals; and incorporates support for UPOS 1.11's changes to the ClearInput, SmartCard, and Printer base classes.

UnifiedPOS is a software technology that separates the application from the hardware, enabling developers to create a single application that supports POS devices from different manufacturers. POS for .NET gives retailers the flexibility to use a broad range of retail peripherals and to rapidly configure systems -- as well as to reconfigure the systems in the future, when new or replacement peripherals are required.

Along with support for UPOS 1.11 WEPOS 1.1 includes enhanced language support for 33 languages: Arabic, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish.

For OEMs and Embedded Distributors you can get the new WEPOS v1.1 Update via the Mobile& Embedded Communications Extranet (ECE) site: https://ece.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/ece/ProductDownloads/TheDownloads/Embedded/WEPOS/OEMDownloads/UPD-WEPOS_POSforNETUpdatesMarch07.htm. For end users, you will need to contact your Windows Embedded Authorized Distributor for details.

New Version of Point Of Service (POS) for .NET released. Support for WEPOS, Vista and XP.

davbaker — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:57:00 GMT

For those who arn't aware of POS for .NET, it's a class library that is part of WEPOS (Windows Embedded for Point of Service). It provides .NET applications with a simple and consistent interface for communicating with POS (Point of Service) peripheral devices, such as bar code scanners, magnetic card readers, receipt printers, etc. In addition, POS for .NET includes a set of programming interfaces and base classes for vendors of POS peripheral devices, which assist with the development of software components, or service objects, for these devices.

POS for .NET V1.11 is an implementation of the industry’s UPOS (Unified Point of Service) version 1.11 standards, for .NET. It includes support for new device classes including Biometrics, Electronic Journal, Bill Acceptor, Image Scanner along with the Unified POS v1.11 specification changes for ClearInput, SmartCard and Printer base classes.

Based on the .NET Framework version 2.0, the platform is backward-compatible with existing implementations OPOS (OLE for Point of Sale) on the Windows platform. This latest version is supported on the Windows Embedded for Point of Service, Windows XP Pro and the Vista (Business and Enterprise) operating systems.

You can get more information on POS for .NET at: https://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/eval/wepos/pos.mspx

For more information about UPOS and OPOS, go to http://www.nrf-arts.org/

Windows XP Embedded, WEPOS and POS for .NET Live Chat, Jan 30th.

davbaker — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:10:00 GMT

The January chat is focused on the Point of Sale (POS) industry. This is your opportunity to give feedback and questions about Windows XP Embedded, WEPOS and POS for .NET. You will meet the Developers, Test Engineers and Program Managers, as well as some of our MVPs. I believe this month’s MVP is Sean Liming, author of Windows Embedded for Point of Service / POS for .NET Step-by-Step, so if you have any questions for Sean or the Embedded team sign up now at http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/.

Free GUI tool simplifies WEPOS POS for .NET Setup

davbaker — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:28:00 GMT

I caught this on Mike’s blog earlier this week. Sean Liming of SJJ Embedded Micro Solutions has released a free graphical utility that supports WEPOS installations greatly simplifies the configuration of peripherals in POS for .NET.

Service Object Manager (SOM) simplifies management of POS for .NET "Service Objects” on local or remote systems by providing a graphical implementation of the POS for .NET command line tool POSDM.EXE. As such it can provide all of the functionality currently delivered by the command line tool, including:

· List POS devices available to applications

· List service objects installed in the system

· List logical names for POS for .NET applications to use

· Set logical names for service objects

· Enable and Disable service objects

· Set one service object as default if two devices of the same type are present

· Add and remove Non Plug and Play devices

· Manage systems over a network

You can download the tool (And get details of Sean’s great book) for free at http://www.seanliming.com/WEPOS.html.

New Book on WEPOS

davbaker — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:04:00 GMT

SJJ Embedded Micro Solutions has just released a new book by Sean Liming that focuses on Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS). The book covers installation topics for OEMs installing WEPOS and provides application and service object examples for POS for .NET developers.

The 238-page book, titled Windows Embedded for Point of Service / POS for .NET Step-By-Step, consists of nine chapters with 18 different step-by-step exercises. Topics include:

Windows Embedded for Point of Service Unattended Installation, Remote Installation, and Remote Boot
Customizing the WEPOS Platform
POS for .NET Architecture
Creating and Managing Service Objects
Several POS for .NET applications written in VB .NET and using a few POS devices such as bar code scanner, MSR, line display, cash drawer, and receipt printer.

More details can be found at: http://ct.enews.deviceforge.com/rd/cts?d=207-155-3-29-4355-13453-0-0-0-1

MEDC Europe - EMB320 Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS). Slides and Materials

davbaker — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 14:53:00 GMT

For those of you who attended my WEPOS session in Nice I hope you found it useful. For those of you who weren't, where were you?

The session presentation and Visual Studio demo project areat tached along with my demo notes and the XML File for the Symbol scanner I used (Not 1.6MB, most of which is presentation). If you were at the conference you can also access the slides at www.microsoft.com/europe/medc/ along with presentations for all the other sessions.

The XML configuration contains the scanner hardware ID (You can substitute this for your own scanner - Use Device properties to get the ID) and by default should be put in the "Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Point Of Service\Configuration folder". Search folders can be added and amended through the WEPOS registry configuration at "HKLM/Software/Pos for .NET".

The Scanner Service Object by default should be placed in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Point Of Service\Statistics", however search folders can be added and amended through the registry in the same way as the configuration.

The demo is complete with the exception of the HidReader module which contains proprietary information - you will need to add your own driver to complete this part of the demo. It is hoped that we will be able to distribute this module in the future possibly as a POS for .NET update.

I'd welcome your feedback on these materials and the session in general - What you liked, displiked and would like to see covered in the future. Let me know how it goes...

* FREE * Windows Embedded Technical Event in Reading. April 11th & 12th

davbaker — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 08:46:00 GMT

Would you like to attend a Windows Embedded technical Event for Free? If so, pop along to https://ssl.kundenserver.de/ssl.emea-distributor.com/roadshow/roadshow.htm and register. The two day event will cover Windows CE 5.0, XP Embedded, Windows Embedded for Point of Service (WEPOS) and the Windows Embedded Server Products.

As if that wasn't enough there will be CE, XPe and WEPOS labs, to practice your skills (and ask awkward questions...), and you will receive free evaluation packs for Windows CE and XP Embedded.

I'll be around the Event on the 11th (Who knows you may get subjected to one of my presentations !). Please stop by and have a chat...

For those of you outside the UK, there will be a further Windows Embedded Technical Event in Munich, on the 25th & 26th April - Just follow the above link and select Munich.

What's WEPOS?

davbaker — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 22:03:00 GMT

Did you know that whenever you take a trip through the checkout lane your probably having a close encounter of the embedded kind - and those checkouts are undoubtedly running an OS.

Windows XP Embedded is a good choice for POS devices, delivering the robustness, security and manageability demanded by this environment. However, given the high level of commonality between Till applications it makes sense to define a specific Till OS and thus Windows Embedded for Point Of Service (WEPOS) was born.

The WEPOS platform is a "Standard" build that provides the functionality commonly required for a Point of Service platform along with an API for integrating Industry Standard OPOS peripherals. This provides the benefits of XP Embedded with the added advantage of a common build to ease maintenance and management.

Anyway, the important point is that a New Version (1.1) has just been release, which adds the following features:

Support for the updated version of the Unified Point of Service (UPOS) industry standard
Expanded support for legacy retail peripherals
Support for the latest version of the Microsoft .NET Framework version 2.0

· Updates to the Windows Embedded for Point of Service platform including pre-post setup command file functionality and expanded support for mass storage devices

More details on WEPOS can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/embedded/wepos/default.mspx

And Version 1.1: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/03/06/76121_HNmspointofservice_1.html