About This Release
Released - March 5, 2020
This version is built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 15.2.
LS Central 15.2
LS Central 15.2 is based on the AL programming language. Since LS Central 15.0, all LS Central code has been converted from C/AL to AL. The conversion from C/AL to AL included refactoring and adjustments due to several reasons, such as removing dependencies to .dlls, adjusting pages to web client, and refactoring code in order not to modify the Business Central Base Application.
LS Central 15.2 is delivered as an extension with dependency on the Business Central Base App. This means that LS Central does not make any changes to the Business Central Base Application.
Business Central 15 and later, and therefore LS Central 15 and later, can only be run in web client. There is no Windows client.
The new development environment changes how LS Central releases are delivered. The release package includes both the runtime app and the source code.
LS Central AL code
The source code is delivered in AL files that can be modified by partners just as partners could modify the LS Central C/AL code before. It is, however, highly recommended to make all modifications in extensions, and if you need to alter the LS Central or Business Central behavior then do that by subscribing to events.
To develop an extension, you need to download the symbols. “You can look at the symbols as the application programming interface to the system, the application and the test objects”,
It is LS Retail's priority to make it easy for the partners to extend LS Central. Therefore, there is a special section in our Support Portal where partners can submit request for new events. These requests are given priority.
LS Central extension
The release package includes LS Central as a runtime app that can be installed as an extension. To install the extension, you first need to publish it, see Publishing and Installing an Extension v2.0. Once the extension has been published, the LS Central extension can be installed using the Extension Management page in Business Central.
The following is a list of changes and key features in LS Central 15.2.
New or Enhanced Features
Retail
BackOffice
BI Time Stamp Fields Removed
BI Timestamp field has been removed from LS Central. ObsoleteState is set to Pending.
Omni DLL Removed
OMNICLIENT DLL has been discontinued.
LS Central App
LS Central Appshell
You can now copy and paste the URL that you make in the simplified URL screen. This is useful if there are problems: you can copy and paste the URL to see if it works in a normal browser.
Inventory App Improvements
- You can now take multiple pictures of an item and send them to LS Central with a comment under each picture. Previously, you could only take one picture per item.
- You can now sort Vendor and Locations alphabetically.
- You can now create and receive POs and receive TO documents on the device. Previously, this was only possible in LS Central.
LS Central POS
Obsolete Forecourt Fields Removed
The function PosSession.ForecourtInUse now always returns False as the Forecourt functionality has not yet been implemented with LS Hardware Station. All references to the field Forecourt in use in the Hardware Profile have been changed to use this function instead.
LS Hardware Station
Changes in Hardware and Functionality Profile
Two configurations previously in the Hardware profile have been discontinued and removed from the Hardware Profile:
- Currency Symbol as ASCII: This configuration has been removed and is no longer available to the user.
- ENTER repeats last item: This configuration has been removed and is no longer available to the user.
The third configuration was moved to the Functionality Profile:
- Decimals in Entry: Has been moved from the Hardware profile to the Functionality profile, the Amount section, and is now called No. of Decimals in POS Entry. The value of the property in the Hardware profile is not migrated in an upgrade. Default value is None which means that if the user wants to enter decimals in an amount he or she must enter the decimal point as well.
IP Whitelisting Added to LS Hardware Station
IP whitelisting and blacklisting have been added to LS Hardware Station.
Serial Device Functionality Added
Serial device functionality has been added to the Hardware station. Configuration for the device has been added to the POS Hardware Profile in LS Central, and the device can be configured in the Hardware Station Management portal.
Replenishment
Retail Budgets Improvements
Assignment of Permissions and Responsibilities in Retail Budgets
You can now assign permissions to Retail Sales Budget and Retail Purchase Budget to define who has access to work with the budgets. The Budget User and Budget Owner roles have been introduced, where you can define which of these roles have access to edit, set up, lock, and unlock a budget. The Budget User and Budget Owner can either be a buyer or a buyer group, and can be assigned to individual Retail Sales and Purchase Budgets, so that the responsibilities and ownership of the budgets are delegated to the intended user group.
For more information see Budget Permissions in the LS Central Help.
Lock a Retail Budget from Editing and Deletion
The Retail Sales Budget and Retail Purchase Budget can now be locked, to protect them from unintentional changes or deletion. The budgets can be unlocked if changes are needed.
For more information see How to: Lock and Unlock a Sales Budget and How to: Lock and Unlock a Purchase Budget in the LS Central Help.
Notification for Master-Child Budget Consolidation
A notification will be shown in the master Retail Sales Budget and Retail Purchase Budget, when one or more of their child budgets have been updated since the last consolidation. This helps to keep you informed that a recalculation of the master budget is necessary in order to retrieve the latest budget entries.
For more information see Budget Consolidation in the LS Central Help.
Improvements in Transfer Rules Calculation
Dynamic Prioritization of Locations in Replenishment Transfer Rule
The priority order of the locations in the Replenishment Transfer Rule can now be easily rearranged with the Move Up and Move Down actions. The priority order can also be calculated based on actual sales history, where a location with higher sales will be assigned with a higher priority, and this can be scheduled to run automatically with a scheduler job, if needed.
For more information see Replenishment Transfer Rule in the LS Central Help.
Hospitality
Food and Beverage
Improvements for Deal Header and Deal Lines in Journals
Five new skins and fonts have been added to improve the look of the journal lines.
By controlling the style of a deal and its items and an item and its modifiers the visual experience of the journal can be improved. The skins and fonts have fixed names: #SL_DEALHEADER, #SL_DEALLINE, #SL_MODIFIERPOS, #SL_MODIFIERNEG, #SL_MODIFIERTEXT. If these skins and fonts are not in any style, the active style's default skin and font are used instead.
Improvements for Dining Table Buttons in Graphical Layout
Dining table buttons can now have an alert border that is updated automatically on timing (no scheduler job needed). They can also have an allocated border - set when a table has a reservation within a certain time and has no alerts. The border is shown regardless of the status of the dining table (free, seated, occupied, not available ...). Both borders are set up in the service flow for the hospitality type.
The style for dining table buttons has been updated to show more clearly the information on the buttons. This was done using an upgrade process.
The dining table pop-up menu headers have been made Enabled to make sure that the pop-up closes when the header is pressed.
Kitchen Display System (KDS)
New Option to Validate Display Station Settings
A new option has been implemented to validate that Display Stations of the type Preparation station have a Next Station property set. All display stations of this type must have the Next Station property set, or else there is no end point in the station routing logic and the KOT will end up as an orphan in the Kitchen Service.
New History Panel on Displays
It is now possible to add a history panel to a Kitchen Display. This panel is twofold:
- The upper part shows a summary of items that have been bumped on the display over a History horizon (configurable in the History FastTab in the KDS Visual Profile Card).
- The lower part shows a list of the most recently bumped items on the display. This makes it easy to see what was just bumped from the display.
The history panel is configured in the KDS Visual Profile where you specify to make the panel visible on the display and configure its position, size, and history horizon.
LS Activity
Re-schedule Activity on POS
It is now possible to reschedule an activity on the POS with a new POS command, RESCHEDULE.
Only confirmed activities can be rescheduled and the following applies:
- First the system checks if rescheduling is possible without canceling and recreating activity.
- If that is not possible, that is if an activity is already paid and the price will be affected, rescheduling is done by canceling the activity and creating new one.
- Also with courses and classes, its needed to cancel and re-book, since they need to be moved to another reservation anyway.
- If a booking needs to be recreated, the original booking gets a comment stating that it has been rescheduled and is canceled.
- Its possible to have a special status assigned for this purpose, that is the status Rescheduled (which should be cancel internal status)
- If a new booking is created, deposits are transferred to the new booking.
- Rentals can NOT be rescheduled if rental units are already assigned.
- Components (in a package) can be rescheduled, as long as they do not need to re-create the booking.
LS Staff Management
New Check for Closing a Roster
When a roster in Staff Management is closed, a new check makes sure that the roster is not for the current period.
LS Insight
Release notes and help for LS Insight are now included in the LS Central Help.
New POS Command
- RESCHEDULE - Reschedule an activity on the POS.
See the LS Central Help and the corresponding Excel list with filters for a complete list of POS commands.
Fixed Issues
Retail BackOffice
Barcode Mask Containing Lot No. Fixed
Barcode mask containing Lot No. has been fixed.
Replenishment
Purchase Replenishment Journal Calculation for Items with Variants
An issue with the Purchase Replenishment Journal when calculating items (with variants) that are replenished to a warehouse using Stock Levels, has been fixed.