Monday, 22 October 2012

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

Thursday, 11 October 2012

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.



Friday, 5 October 2012

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.


Tuesday, 28 August 2012

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!

Friday, 12 August 2011

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


Sunday, 22 May 2011

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.

Friday, 1 April 2011

SEO works! April Fool. Not.

What do you do when you want to surprise on April Fools day? (save those for the guys here in the office - heh, heh)
Well, you don't post to a blog, that's what!
Who's going to believe...? Aah, guess it's the price of success.

We didn't expect to see what we saw today a few weeks ago and I know it's a feeling you probably won't share, but our free Point of Sale uniCenta oPOS download rate is continuing to surprise, and excite us.
You know it was only a week ago we saw the number of uniCenta oPOS downloads jump through the 6000 mark - now that made us very happy - and proudly announced this news of course.  But now downloads have passed 7000 only one week later!
Now, if we were excited a week ago, it won't take you long to figure how we feel about this when we saw the latest stat's. Yep. Right. You got it.

So, what's the under-lying reason for the accelerating downloads? Easy. It's down to SEO. 
We've spent a lot of time refining  the app', and a lot of time learning, and applying, what we've learned about SEO.  The results speak for themselves, I think. 
So, you think to yourself; ooh goody. This SEO thing really works... Got to try it.  STOP!  Beware!
Before you do; just want to let you know that if you want to fry your your brain or experience slow excruciating trauma you should try it! This SEO thingy, it's a deep, deep mysterious black-art practised by shady folks who don't get much sunlight :-)

Here's our stat's.  As the saying goes "A picture speaks..." so I'll let our Sourceforge uniCenta oPOS project stat's say the rest.

You can see the effect of our previous SEO work kicking in at the beginning of the year then in March. BOOM!
If you want to know more about us visit our uniCenta main site or go directly to our dedicated uniCenta oPOS site.