Running the admin tool
All OutKafe administration tasks are done with the OutKafe admin tool. To run it, just use the command: outkafe
The admin tool should come up – if this is the first time you are running it, you will be asked to set up an administrator password, on subsequent runs, it will be impossible to run it without giving this password.
Managing users
Using the buttons on the frontpage you can create new customers,Remove customers,Monitor Customers,kick customers off, reset their passwords and more. Create a customer
There is no need to set initial passwords for customers, they will be asked to set them on their first login.
The customer filter will update the list based on the options you give. If you find a view you like, tick the “lock filter” checkbox to on, and it will keep this view updated in real-time. OutKafe user manager The first thing you need to do is to create some customers with time on their accounts. Then also create usernames for your staff members, setting the “staff user” field – so that they can log in and work on any machine.
From here on in, it’s business as usual.
Settings
The next page you need to be aware of is the settings page. This page can configure any an all OutKafe configurables. The administrator password is controlled here, as is the database access details (for security reasons, only the root user can access this module), the length of time-units, their cost and your currency symbol are all controlled in the runtime-settings tab. By playing with these values, you can easily do more advanced tasks like creating a special.
For example, let’s assume that your currency is the FooDollar (symbol F$), you set your currency symbol to this. Your standard price is 5 foodollars per minute, so you set the price-per-unit field to 5 and the unit-length field to 60.
Now let’s assume you want to temporarily run a half-price special – you could cut the prices in half, but then people who walked in just before you started would not benefit during ‘happy hour’ – so instead, you can change the unit-length to 120 seconds – thus doubling the time on every account (without changing the number of units).
Plugins
The right hand side of the settings screen is where OutKafe becomes truly powerful. Here you can control installed plugins, install new plugins or remove ones you no longer want. Many of the more advanced plugins will initially install themselves, but using the tools here you can with relative ease create your own plugins for your own needs as well.
There are two types of plugins that exist for OutKafe. Server side plugins are only run on the screen where the admin-console that triggered the event is opened, they are standard linux commands and can do anything, be it graphical or text based that a command can do.
For example you could easilly create a plugin to print out a pretty “sales ticket” whenever time is added for a user.
The second type are client plugins, these are run by OutKafe clients whenever an event occurs, they are URL‘s which will be opened in the browser. So you could create an “onlogin” plugin which will automatically open your company webpage, or even more advanced tasks.
For a detailed overview on the plugin system see the online help in the program, or this page.