HS: Digital Dining 7.4.3 and Setup for HS Integration

The following steps will give you the installation and setup procedures needed to successfully export initial staff information and daily time clock transactions to HotSchedules. It will also give instructions on importing new schedules created by HotSchedules directly into Digital Dining’s Labor Schedule program.

1. You will need the Digital Dining XML Windows Service to properly run these transactions.  This is automatically installed on every machine that has Digital Dining installed on it.  To make sure that you have the service, go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services and please make sure that the ‘Digital Dining XML Windows Service’ is present.

2. Create a folder called XML in the main data folder. Create a folder called EXPORT in the XML folder that you just created.

3. For the daily time clock transactions and sales information from Digital Dining to get created, please go to the following area:  Load DDSetup / Misc / Additional System POS Setup / XML / XML Transaction Export

4. Fill in the appropriate Path and Filename entries into the form as shown below:

• The Export File Type should be setup per day, which means the XML data will be placed in a single output file per day. Each new transaction will be appended to this file. The naming convention will be TRmmddyy.xml.  Inform HotSchedules of what time to expect the export to be completed each day.

• The Export Time should be real-time which will create a new transaction every time new XML data is available. In this scenario we are looking for sales information, so every time a check is closed, the new XML data will be appended to the daily xml file previously created.

    5.  For the Staff Export information from Digital Dining and the Schedule import information from                 HotSchedules, please go to the following form: Load DDSetup/Misc/Additional System POS     Setup/XML/XML Misc Import and Export.

• The Schedule XML Import File is standard for HotSchedules and should be configured as: C:\Program Files\HotSchedules\HSConnect\files\Schedule.xml.  This is the file received from HotSchedules and is imported into Digital Dining.
• The Schedule XML Export Path and Filename only needs to have a path, no filename is necessary. The default filename used for the HotSchedules export is StaffData.xml. This is the Staff export information from Digital Dining
• Please make sure that the Schedule Format is set to ‘HotSchedules’.

HotSchedules will need to know the path and naming convention of your xml export to properly pull this information and send to itself for the advanced purposes. HotSchedules will install a stand-alone polling application to look for and automatically send this information. Please speak with HotSchedules for this application and its configuration.

6. Load DDSetup -> Miscellaneous -> Servers area. Scroll to the bottom and find the XML Export Server path as shown below. Path out your XML Export server to your root DDWin folder as with your other applications and hit exit.

7. The system is looking to use the DDXMLWindowsService.exe for Real-Time XML exports. When this service is running, it takes transactions and writes them real-time to the daily TRmmddyy.xml.

8. Ensure the Digital Dining XML Windows service is installed by going directly to services within Windows Computer Management or by going to DDSetup / Misc / Additional System POS Setup / XML / XML Transaction Export and hitting the Services button on the bottom command bar.

9. When in services, find “Digital Dining XML Windows Service” service and right-click and select the properties section.

10. Within Startup Type ensure in the drop down you select Automatic and hit apply. When the system is shutdown and restarted this service will start on boot up.

11. Once the above steps are completed the Digital Dining system will begin its XML export of daily file information that HotSchedules can use each time the DD XML Windows Service is started. To test load the POS and close out a few checks with sales information, start the DD XML Service and in the destination path denoted a TRmmddyy.xml file will appear. HotSchedules will be responsible for locating and sending those export files to itself for processing.

   12. Load DDWin / Staff / Staff Utilities and you will find two new utilities:

13. The Export Staff Data to XML utility is used to create an initial XML file to send to HotSchedules. This includes specific staff and staff department information used to create the schedule on their end. They will then send back to the site an XML file that includes the scheduling data.

*When successfully completed, the system will show a box Staff data export completed.

**Please note that the next steps are for importing the schedules created in HotSchedules into the Digital Dining Labor Scheduler. If you do not have the Labor Scheduler, you do NOT need to continue.**

14. The Import Staff XML to LS Files utility is used to grab the HotSchedules XML file and build Digital Dining’s LS daily files with the scheduling information. Once this is completed the entire new schedule will be imported into the Digital Dining Labor Schedule program.

15. Create a Utility Task called HotSchedules Import. Select Staff XML Import from the Utility pull-down list. Schedule this to run at 6:05am every day.

16. We have created two new task utilities to allow this process to be done in an automatic fashion named Staff Data Export and Staff XML Import.

•  Staff Data Export is not necessary since this procedure is accomplished when the DD_XML          service is started.

NOTE:  Both of these processes will need to be done on a regular basis to keep the flow of staff information to HotSchedules and the actual schedules back to Digital Dining.