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Historical Background
UnifiedPOS was initiated by a consortium of retailers, and is led by the
National Retail Federation. Beginning with release 1.5, both OPOS and JavaPOS
have delegated ownership of language- and operating system-independent POS device
interfaces to UnifiedPOS. OPOS then maps these interfaces to COM
within Windows, and JavaPOS maps them to Java.
Significant Dates and Releases
1998/06 |
Initial concept meeting. |
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1998/08 |
Organizational meeting. |
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1999/02 |
UnifiedPOS 1.4 |
- First release of UnifiedPOS.
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2000/09 |
UnifiedPOS
1.5 |
- New device categories: Point Card Reader/Writer, POS Power.
- Significant enhancements: POS Printer, Cash Changer.
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2001/07 |
UnifiedPOS
1.6 |
- Enhancements: Fiscal Printer, Line Display.
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2002/07 |
UnifiedPOS
1.7 |
- New device categories: Check Scanner, Motion Sensor.
- Enhancements: Line Display, MICR,
Point Card Reader/Writer, POS Printer, Remote Order Display.
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2004/01 |
UnifiedPOS 1.8 |
- New device category: Smart Card Reader/Writer.
- All: Added support for device
statistics.
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2005/01 |
UnifiedPOS 1.9 |
- Enhancements:
- POS Power: Added battery powered device support.
- POS Printer: Added page mode printing support.
- Scale: Added "live weight" reporting support.
- CAT: Added Electronic Money support.
- All: Added support for firmware updates.
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2006/02 |
UnifiedPOS 1.10
ZIP file also includes
the "Defined Device
Statistics" document plus XML & XSD files. |
- New device categories: Biometrics, Electronic Journal.
- POS for .NET: Add appendix describing this third implementation of
UnifiedPOS.
- All device categories that maintain sensitive input data (such as the MSR's credit
card information): Add clearInputProperties API.
- Enhancements:
- MSR: Added APIs to support writing track data.
- POSPrinter: Added escape sequences to print barcodes and
to unset individual a previous sequence individually. Added printMemoryBitmap
API.
- LineDisplay, POSPrinter, RemoteOrderDisplay: Clarified the "Mapping of
CharacterSet" sections.
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2007/01 |
UnifiedPOS 1.11
ZIP file also includes
the "Defined Device
Statistics" document plus XML & XSD files. |
- New device categories: BillAcceptor, BillDispenser, CoinAcceptor, ImageScanner.
- Enhancements:
- CashChanger, CoinDispenser: Updated to facilitate integration of the new cash handling device categories.
- FiscalPrinter: Additions, updates to aid support in new countries.
- Keylock:
Added support for an electronic KeyLock.
- Biometrics (identify & identifyMatch) and MSR (writeTracks):
Changes to method parameter types to facilitate reasonable implementations.
- POS for .NET: Completed mapping to match the current release of the UnifiedPOS specification.
- Other:
- Description/discussion of Hydra devices and their operational considerations.
- Guidelines on the open/claim/enable processing.
- Introduction of the concept of deprecation of properties, methods, constants, etc., in the Introduction chapter.
- Added support for new data types to support the Biometrics and MSR method parameter requirements.
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2008/01 |
UnifiedPOS 1.12
ZIP file also includes
the "Support Files" ZIP. |
- New device categories: Belt, Electronic Value
Reader/Writer, Gate, ItemDispenser, Lights, and
RFIDScanner.
- New appendices describing the XMLPOS Mapping Reference, Systems Management Information, and
Device Statistics
(previously a separate document).
- Enhancements:
- General: Clarifications of the handling of FreezeEvents, DataEventEnabled, and Asynchronous Output processing.
- FiscalPrinter: Added new methods, plus support for Sweden
and Swedish Krona.
- MSR: Added support for AAMVA. Added support for data encryption, card authentication, and device
authentication.
- POSPrinter and Scanner: Replaced RSS constants with GS1 constants.
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2009/07 |
UnifiedPOS 1.13 |
- Enhancements:
- POSPrinter: Added support for drawing ruled lines.
- Scale: Added ability for application to specify whether zero is a
good settled weight.
- ToneIndicator: Added support for "melody".
- XMLPOS and Systems Management: Extensive changes and enhancements
were made.
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2013/07 |
UnifiedPOS 1.14 |
- Enhancements:
- Electronic Value Reader/Writer: Significant updates.
- Scale: Added support for more sophisticated price calculating
scales.
- Scanner: Added symbologies.
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2014/10 |
UnifiedPOS 1.14.1 |
- Enhancements:
- Electronic Value Reader/Writer.
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Downloadable Files and Additional Information
The most recent UnifiedPOS release is available by clicking on the link
above. This ZIP file contains the release's "UnifiedPOS Retail Peripheral Architecture"
document.
For further details, see:
- The official UnifiedPOS site.
here
It is hosted by the National Retail Federation's Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS).
here
- The web sites of participating UnifiedPOS vendors.
Last updated:
2015-02-10
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