Introduction

To redeem ProxiPasses by scanning the barcode / QR code on the pass, you can either use our SophatarScanner mobile app or use a standard barcode reader (BCR) connected to a Star printer.

This article covers how to redeem via the barcode reader.

There are 2 steps for this:

1. setup the printer to communicate with Sophatar when a pass is scanned, and print a confirmation coupon of a redeem
2. setup the Sophatar system so it will validate the scan as a redeem for one of your ProxiPass campaigns

Setting up the printer

We use a feature on Star printers that allows to send scans from a BCR to our backend and trigger a printout from our server. To configure this, do the following:

• Connect the printer to your network and determine its IP address
• Access the printer's built-in web server by opening a browser and entering this IP address
• Click the login button and enter your printer's username / password. The default username/password for Star printers is: 'root' / 'public'
• Click on 'CloudPRNT' in the left menu and enter the following URL: http://ww1.sophatar.com/api/v1/integrations/pos/printer/starcloudprint
  • we advise to use http for intiial setup and once this is working, switch to https in production. This is to avoid possible issues with SSL certificates.
• Set the polling time to 2 seconds or more. This is a trade-off between network traffic and latency: a lower polling time will cause more traffic; a longer polling time will increase the delay between scanning a pass and printing a confirmation stub. If you don't need a printed confirmation stub, you can set the polling time to a high value.
• Click 'Submit' to save the configuration and reboot the printer.

Setting up the Sophatar backend

We need to:

1/ identify the printer as a device belonging to you, and

2/ validate that the scanned code from the pass is from a valid pass of one your ProxiPass campaigns

Identifying the printer

A printer is assigned to a kiosk on the Sophatar network. This allows us to link certain actions on displays to printer actions (eg. print coupons you select on a touchscreen).

Even if you don't use our digital signage you still configure a 'kiosk' to be able to assign the printer. In the 'receipt printer' dialog box, select 'Star printer' and enter is MAC address under 'code'. The MAC adddress of Star printers always starts with 00:11:62

Now a communication with this printer will be assigned uniquely to this 'kiosk'.

Recording a redeem

When you scan a barcode/QR code on a pass, we need to identify which campaign this pass belongs to, and make sure the pass is still valid (not expired), before recording the redeem. Then when we record the redeem, we also may want to print a confirmation print stub so that the customer can take this to the point-of-sale to record the credit.

This is configured by setting up a 'flow' on the Sophatar web console. A flow consists of a trigger and one or more actions that result when the trigger is detected.

In this case the trigger will be a wallet pass scan detection and the action will be redeem wallet pass which will both record the redeem and print a confirmation stub.

You enter the campaign type and campaign for which the redeem will be recorded, as well as the contents to print on the confirmation stub: claim code type (type of barcode), claim code (contents of barcode), the claim timezone (to print a local time on the stub), and the textlines for the stub. See the example below.

Note that this solution converts a unique validated code for each pass into a single code that can get scanned at the POS. Customers present the confirmation stub which shows the local time so the retailer can verify the printed confirmation.

On the POS you simply setup a single SKU with the value of the coupon, so that when the barcode of the stub gets scanned, it will provide the credit to the customer. All the while the Sophatar backend keeps track of all redeems with their timestamp, store location (from the printer's ID when the redeem happens), and the individual customer who did the redeem (from the unique barcode on each pass that was scanned)