Summary
Tiki is a multi-platform mobile point-of-sale system designed to interface with a self service beer and beverage pouring hardware system. I led development of the system under Peaceful Business and later continued development as a project lead developer with E7 Systems. It has been an exciting challenge to create and maintain the system throughout its lifetime.
Tiki is now running as the primary POS for The Wall in Orange, CA, and as the self service beverage management system for The Wall Gaming Lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada. The system serves thousands of customers per month across both locations.
Tech Stack
The first version of the system was built on Node.js, Express, and CouchDB. I worked with a small startup team to develop this base system. As the needs of the software grew, I worked with E7 Systems to refactor the backend into a Rails application.
The API now runs on Rails with a MySQL database for storage. The web dashboard was built with AngularJS (Angular v1) and the mobile app with Ionic 1. Parts of the system (kitchen and tap hardware) use WebSockets for realtime communication, which is handled by ActionCable and backed by Redis. The digital signage component is built into the Rails application as a customizable view.
Accomplishments
- Designed and built version 1 system under Peaceful Business.
- Designed version 2 system architecture alongside the team at E7 Systems.
- Refactored original Node/Express/CouchDB API into a Rails/MySQL API.
- Refactored web and mobile apps to be compatible with the second generation API.
- Designed and developed new features, including but not limited to the following.
- Product Modifiers
- Menu Management
- Drink Management
- Hardware Calibration System
- Table Management
- Tab Management (including Orders and Checkout via Square)
- Dynamic Discounts
- Reporting
- Developed image processing solution for transforming drink images into versions suitable for digital signage.
- Interfaced with Untappd's APIs to obtain venue-specific beer information and images (for display on digital signage).
- Developed inventory management solution for tracking and monitoring self service beverage inventories.
- Developed NFC wristband reading/writing component for mobile apps, and server-side verification logic.
- Built employee shift management system.
- Designed web and mobile applications, as well as digital signage.
- Implemented WebSockets for real-time kitchen communication via ActionCable.
- Built checkout tab split calculation logic.
- Interfaced with Square's Android Point of Sale API to process payments.
Image Gallery
Mobile app tab list
Mobile app new order
Desktop app menu list
Desktop app product creation prompt
Digital signage slide