How to: Set the Kitchen Service Configuration

In this article

To set/modify the Kitchen Service configuration

Command action buttons

The Kitchen Service Configuration defines the connection configuration for the KDS, for example which web service it connects to and various other essential parameters.

When opened for the first time, this function sets default values in the fields. The current server, running the Business Central service tier, and a Business Central KDS Web Service are set as starting values. The default values should cover most of the scenarios.

To set/modify the Kitchen Service configuration

  • Go to the Kitchen Service Configuration page.

The General FastTab

Time Style Settings An option field to calculate when the time style is supposed to appear on the chits. If you select Percentage of Cook Time, the time style is calculated by percentage of the item cook time. If you select Time Overdue, you decide a fixed time (seconds) that starts ticking after the normal cook time of the chit or line. You specify the percentage and seconds in the Time Style Profile.
Default Cook Time If Time Style Settings is Percentage of Cook Time and items have no cooking time, the KDS will calculate the time style with this default cook time.

The Connections FastTab

JSON for KDS Utility This field contains the related field data, from the How to: Set Up LS Central to Use OAuth page, formatted into a JSON string. It can be copied and pasted to the WS Info field in the KDS Utility. You can also enter the data manually in the fields.
Interval to poll Web service from KDS This value is used by the Kitchen Service to set how frequently it checks if there are new KOTs which need to be sent to the Display Stations. This value must be greater than zero.  Recommended values are 2 - 5 seconds.

The Web Service Settings FastTab

Debug Logging Select this check box, if you want the Web Service to log its activities. You can see the results in the KDS WS Log list in the Kitchen Display System menu. The Kitchen Service activities are logged, for example the fetching of the KDS Setup, and the fetching of unsent orders. Some error messages are also logged, for example if an error occurs when KDS sends to printers. The activity for theExpeditor Bump Printing is also logged in case it has to be debugged.
Log KDS Order Status Updates Select this check box, if you want the Web Service to log the KOT statuses coming from the Kitchen Service. For example, when a bump occurs. You can see the result in the Kitchen Order Status Log list in the Kitchen Display System menu.

The Settings FastTab

Debug level Here you can choose how much information is logged in the log files that are located in the C:\ProgramData\LS Retail\Kitchen\Log\ folder. The possible values are:
  • None - Nothing is written.
  • Error - Only error messages are logged.
  • Main - Minimum information and error messages are logged.
  • Detail - Detailed information and error messages are logged.
  • Verbose - Extra detailed information and error messages are logged. This is especially good for troubleshooting.
    When you specify this setting, the KOTs json files are also saved in the C:\ProgramData\LS Retail\Kitchen\Debug\ folder.
    Note: It can come in handy to analyze the data that the KDS receives from the the WebService.

For normal operation the Error or Main setting should be sufficient.
Days to keep debug files in folder The number of days until the log files are deleted from the C:\ProgramData\LS Retail\Kitchen\Log\ folder.
Hours to keep order files in folder The number of hours to keep the order alive in the KDS. The orders/KOTs are stored in xml files in the C:\ProgramData\LS Retail\Kitchen\Work\ folder, as well as in memory. If, by any chance, the order is still "alive" in the system after the X number of hours, it is removed forcefully, as it is not sensible to keep it in the system for hours.
Log KDS data (no. of days) The KDS stores data about the KOT activity in an SQL log table. To minimize space taken up by that table, all data older than X days is deleted once every day.
No. of debug files (rotating) When a log files reaches the maximum size, it is closed and a new one is started. To limit the number of log files, the number of log files to create is set here.
Debug file size in Bytes The maximum size of the log files. When maximum is reached, a new file is started. The default size is 5 MB.
Log print buffer to KDS log file Select this check box to write the output to the Kitchen Service log file instead of to the printer (for debugging purposes).

Command action buttons

There are two command actions on this page:

Refresh WS Info This command creates, or refreshes, the OData information for the KDSodataAPI web service in the Web Services List. It also refreshes the information in the JSON information field.
Reset KDS Configuration This action resets the values in the page to default values. It also recalculates the JSON data.
Reset KDS Related Tables and Info Cleans up all KDS related data in the system. All transactions must be posted/voided before this can be done.

See Starting Over in Hospitality – Resetting KDS Tables and Information for detailed information.

Note: Use this action with care, because you will loose all KOT related data in the LS Central system.