How To Configure Unicenta oPOS with MySQL Database Server

Guide to Unicenta oPOS, that will teach how you would configure or set it up with a MySQL Database Server on MS Windows. It’s a very easy to follow guide and all procedures are written step-by-step with reference images. So if you’re looking for such guide, then jump in to read the rest of the tutorial. You could use this guide for Windows or Linux based installation.

Purpose & Advantage

Unicenta’s default configuration when freshly installed is set to use the Derby Database Server. A database server embedded inside of Unicenta. This is only good for testing and experimental purposes. But when you’re ready to deploy your Unicenta box, you should be using it with an external Database Server like MySQL.

So the main purpose of this guide is to configure Unicenta with MySQL Database Server.

With this kind of setup, your Unicenta terminal should be able to access the database server whether it be online based server or locally deployed within your premises.

The advantages of this are; You have a separate database server where you store all your data and keep them safe in case your Unicenta box or terminal crashed or broke, you could also reinstall Unicenta for as many as you want while keeping your data safe and maintained from the database server, you could setup a multiple Unicenta terminal while maintaining a single database server which unify all your data and configurations and no need for a separate server for each terminal, you could also use a remote or online MySQL database server and connect any Unicenta terminal from different parts of the world and unify them using a single instance of database server, you as ADMIN could remotely login to Unicenta and check transaction logs, total sales and other managerial functions for a store or restaurant.

So for this guide, you’ll be taking advantage of those mentioned above after you successfully configured the MySQL database with Unicenta.

To follow this guide, you must have the following.

Requirements

These are the things you need before starting off with this guide.

• An instance of Unicenta installation
• A separate machine/computer if you want a separate database server.
• USB Web Server software for Windows based database server (if you want to use. Windows)
• MySQL and LAMP Stack
• PuTTy if using Windows for configuration
• Some knowledge of Linux
• A lot of patience

Note: I’ll be using DB and DBS here to refer to Database and Database Server.

Installation Options

There are different options and setups to configure a Database Server with your POS System.

Some options are:

• Option 1 – DBS on the same machine where Unicenta is installed.
• Option 2 – DBS on another separate or dedicated machine.

Option 1: MySQL DBS and Unicenta on the same computer.

Before you start with the initial step, make sure that you already have a working Unicenta instance.

Windows Based

In this part of the guide, we’ll configure a MySQL DBS for a Windows-based Unicenta terminal.

Both Unicenta and MySQL are on the same Windows machine.

Procedures

• Step 1 – Download, extract and run USBWebserver.
  You know why I recommend this portable software? It’s because I’ve already tried and tested it and had used it several times for test purposes.
  But if we’re talking about multiple nodes or terminals, we should use a dedicated machine for the DBS.
  To continue, just download the software, extract it to a permanent directory of your choice. Say for instance, Drive D or any drive partition other than drive C:.
• Step 2 – Run the software.
  Since this software is a portable server, you don’t have to configure or install any additional software, just run it.
  Click on the the usbwebserver.exe file, the software should launch.
  Now choose your preferred language from the drop-down menu and click OK to continue.
  You should see the dashboard now.
  Reference Image: USBWebserver Dashboard.

USB Web Server Dashboard

• Step 3 – Configure MySQL Port.
  You may or may not configure this further. But with this software, MySQL is bound to listen to port: 3307 whereas MySQL’s default listening port is 3306.
  If you want to change it back to the default port, then configure it from the dashboard.
  Click on Settings tab and then change port number under Port MySQL field.
  Click save button.

• Step 4 – Create a database for Unicenta.
  Launch PHPMyAdmin using the dashboard, you could click on the the button or directly access the page using your favorite browser (Firefox or Chrome).
  To access the page using a browser, browse to:

  http://localhost:8080/phpmyadmin/
  

  Reference Image:
  
  

  PHPMyAdmin on Local Host
  Then login using root as the username while usbw for the password. You should see a page similar to this image.
  Click on Databases menu to create a new DB for Unicenta. Enter a DB name under the Create database field, and then click on the create button. You should now have a DB for your POS. See reference image here.
  Now let’s create a new user for the DB. The easiest way to do this is to create a new user with the same name as the DB name.
  Click on User from the top navigation menu, then click on the Add user text link. A new page should open, now fill-up the following fields like so.
  • User Name – unicenta
  • Host – localhost
  • Password – your-password

  NOTE: if you wanted to have a stronger password, use the Generate password button to create a longer and difficult password. When you click on the button, it will automatically fill the password field, plus it will show you the generated password on a separate field. You should copy and save this password and keep it somewhere safe.

  Let’s continue, browse a further down and click/tick:
  • Create database with same name and grant all privileges
  • Grant all privileges on wildcard name
  Then click Check All text link for the Global Privileges to select all options under this. Finally, click Go button from the bottom-right of the page.
  And that’s it! You’ve created a Database for Unicenta. The next step would be to configure Unicenta to connect to the server.

• Step 5 – Connect Unicenta to the DBS.
  Go to the folder where Unicenta is installed, and then find and click the file configure.bat.
  A configuration screen should pop-up like the one shown in this image.
  Configure the settings like so;
  • From the Database dropdown menu, choose MySQL.
  • For the URL, jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/unicenta
  • For User, unicenta
  • For Passwrd, your-password
  Now, click the Test button to test your connection. If all is well, then you should receive a You’re Connected! pop-up message. Reference image below.
  
  

  MySQL Connection Success!
  Click OK and then finally save the settings. You’re now ready to launch and connect Unicenta to your database.
• Step 6 – Fire up Unicenta.
  Click on your shortcut to open Unicenta, a pop-up notice saying…

  A working database cannot be detected. 
  A default database will be created. 
  
  Do you want to continue?
  

  This is not an error, but a notice. It’s just natural that your newly created DB has no tables yet. So you need to hit Continue to create the tables.
  Once you clicked OK you should be redirected to your Unicenta screen. If you’ve gotten this far, then congratulations you did it!

Tags: POS Software Software

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