Gasboy SCII POS - Manual (Page 79)

03/07/03 Gasboy CFN Series
7. PLU merge file format
INTRODUCTION
The Gasboy PLU merge file format is designed to merge data into and out of the point-of-sale
price book. It can be used to transfer prices to the Profit Point from software packages supplied by
other vendors.
The intent is to allow updates the capability to change only the data that needs to be changed, and
not affect other data that should be left alone. The merge file format can also to be used in a
backup procedure or to transfer price books between stores.
RULES
The construction of a PLU merge file must follow the following rules:
• The file consists of variable length data record entries separated by a carriage return or
linefeed or both in any order.
• Each record entry will be divided into variable-length fields separated by the field separation
character ^ (ASCII character 94 decimal).
• The file also must contain at least one header line preceding the data record entries to describe
the fields in each data record, and tell whether they are to be merged or not. Additional header
lines may be imbedded into the file to change the handling of fields in all data records
following that header until a new header is encountered.
• There may also be comment lines.
• Null records will be ignored (that is, multiple carriage returns and/or linefeeds count as one
record separator).
• Blank spaces should not be used in the file except in the comment lines. Blank spaces are not
filtered in order to allow their use in alphanumeric fields.
HEADER RECORDS
One header record is mandatory and must precede any data records.
Header format
The first four characters of the header are the header prefix ^#01, and these characters serve to
identify the record as a header.
The remaining fields of the header line describe what fields are used in the data records and how to
merge them. This is accomplished by listing a field identifier string followed by a merge identifier
numeric digit. Additional fields are listed by adding the field separation character ^ and then
adding a field identifier and merge identifier. The field specification line is finished when the
record separator of carriage return and/or line feed is reached. The format is: