It's been a busy November!

If you haven't already noticed there's been a flurry of activity with uniCenta oPOS in last few weeks. Reason is because I finished an 18 month full-time gig in mid-October as Head Of Development, for a company that specialised in online payment services, which meant suddenly I had some spare time on my hands... Good time to get cracking with all the backlog stuff on the uniCenta oPOS spike!

With a major release (v3.0) in October and the latest dot release (v3.02) going up on the uniCenta oPOS Sourceforge project site yesterday means that nearly 100 Bug Fixes, Enhancements and Improvements have been included in the last month or so (hope you're impressed) and there's more to come.
It's not gone un-noticed by you guys out there either as downloads continue to amaze - October saw over 6,000 and November was absolutely incredible with 8,000+  - Now, let's see if we can get to 10,000 for December!  I wonder.

In 2013 you're going to see additional enhancements and really useful plug-ins to uniCenta oPOS like eCommerce Connectors, digital email receipts as well as global 24/7 support options.  That's not all that's on the road-map, but it will have to do you for now.
Just want to let you know the commitment and impetus behind-the-scenes to make uniCenta oPOS the #1 free open source Point Of Sale app' goes on unabated.

Hey, uniCenta oPOS Developers! Over here!

Preparing a new website www.unicenta.com for all you uniCenta oPOS followers. It's not going to be long before it is at the “heart” of all things uniCenta.
I've decided to publish before it's finished to help those wanting to get involved in the development of uniCenta oPOS.
There's several reasons why I've just gone ahead and I won't cover them all here right now, but one of them is the amazing rise-and-rise of uniCenta's popularity.

This popularity of course comes at a price which is that it created a bottleneck in responding to requests for uniCenta oPOS source code..., it was starting to take far too long as far as I was concerned and I needed to sort it out.

Snapshot taken this morning of uniCenta oPOS Downloads

For the keen eyed amongst you, you will see that downloads are triple what they were this time 2011 - that's also true of other uniCenta oPOS download sources.

So, just for you developers out I've introduced a simple 3 step way to the full uniCenta oPOS source code.

1. Go to the new website www.unicenta.com and Register in the Developer Area (not much in there yet, but there will be in time)
2. On the Registration page; ensure you enter a valid email address and tick the Developer checkbox
3. Check your email Inbox and Verify your Registration

Done in minutes, and you get instant access to the download link for the uniCenta oPOS source code!

Enjoy!


Jack

Update for uniCenta oPOS v3 already?

Oh, oh.  Released v3.00 a bit too early methinks...  I caused a bit of bother for some people out there that's for sure.

I'll take this one squarely on the chin and there's no one else to blame but myself for this hiccough, though I think Netbeans cacheing and it running out of stack space should get a bit of a mention (there you go just mentioned it).

Reason for the extra quick follow with another release so soon was because v3.00's SQL upgrade scripts just didn't do the job properly. uniCenta oPOS v3.01 resolves this.

Got to give A Big Thanks from me to a selected few uniCenta oPOS Community Members; Hugh, Bob Neil and Amar who kindly volunteered and tested uniCenta oPOS v3.01 before putting out there for general release.

uniCenta oPOS v3 + Openbravo POS Upgrades

Hi


There's been a real surge in emails being received with upgrade issues, from (Openbravo POS>uniCenta oPOS, since the release of uniCenta oPOS v3, and they appear to be firmly rooted back in Openbravo POS 2.30.2

It’s become such an issue that I've had to reconsider how much time I'm prepared to get involved.

This is what I have decided I have to do:

It's really not worthwhile overall, nor is it where I want to be, spending time fixing legacy Openbravo POS related upgrade issues when that time could be spent concentrating on improving and moving uniCenta oPOS forward. (Openbravo users wanting to transition to uniCenta oPOS – see the Tip below)

So, sorry folks; Support for Openbravo POS versions, from me personally, being upgraded to uniCenta oPOS is being withdrawn as of now.

Of course I'm not saying you shouldn’t post on any of the forums here, absolutely not, the uniCenta oPOS Community welcomes everyone left high and dry by Openbravo's withdrawal from the market as much as it does uniCenta oPOS users. I’ll still dip into the forums though and keep an eye on the posts from time-to-time.

And, let’s face it, if you had a little spare time wouldn’t you feel really good if you could help someone with an Openbravo POS>uniCenta oPOS upgrade issue. That would be a really great thing to do. Right?

For me; Taking this stance doesn’t mean I will ever forget where uniCenta oPOS sprang from - the ashes of Openbravo POS - it's just that with over 60,000 downloads of uniCenta oPOS so far, and over 7,000 downloads in the last 30 days, it brings certain responsibilities and, well, time is a precious thing and I have to use it wisely.

Right now improving uniCenta oPOS, moving forward, adding more features and functionality is my focus. I’m sure you understand.

Jack

p.s.:

Tip: If you want to upgrade from Openbravo POS - install a fresh version of uniCenta oPOS and then transfer your Openbravo POS data across.
This is a great tool: www.sql-workbench.net - and it'll get the job done for you in double-quick time!

p.p.s.:
Please don't ask for uniCenta oPOS v3.00 source code. You can't have it... yet!
The reason is simple; I've allowed two weeks for feedback after the release so I can gather up any issues that couldn't be tested here (there are just too many variables), get them sorted and then let you have the as-good-as-it-gets solid core code.

uniCenta oPOS v3Beta1 Preview

upcoming new version of uniCenta oPOS

August 28, 2012 - London

uniCenta oPOS v3.0Beta will hit the streets in first week of September 2012

 This is just 1 of 38 Look and Feel skins!

See the Preview!

uniCenta oPOS v3Beta Preview

Now we've done it...

uniCenta oPOS v2.0 beta is available with Linux installer.

Whilst we've always been Linux friendly, and Mac come to that, we never had a Linux installer....

Until now!

You can get it here: uniCenta oPOS Linux

uniCenta oPOS Windows version is still available, of course and

...for all those Android - we're working on it

Missed it - 10,000 uniCenta oPOS Downloads!

Wasn't paying attention this last week so when I checked, had a big surprise...,

10,230 uniCenta oPOS Downloads!

Also had an email from a downloader that they had installed in four restaurants as well as an auto-parts retailer; in just one week! As well as hearing from a mobile bar business owner that using uniCenta oPOS instead of a Cash Register has had a big positive impact on the way he runs his business.

Love stories like this.

When we first set out had set a target to hit 10k downloads and then release version 3.0, which was to be a significant uplift in functionality to the current version 2.30, but deviated a bit by adding extra functionalities in the interim releases.
Along the way, over the past year, uniCenta oPOS has a few of the original planned enhancements included that we were saving for version 3 and there's a whole lot more to come pretty soon when version 3.0 officially hits the streets.