Over Local Network Integration

Introduction

Over local network communication with the Fresh Kitchen Display System (KDS) relies on the TCP/UDP protocol and a small group of structured entities, enabling a simple, customizable integration with the KDS application. How serialization of message data into protocol-appropriate, Hexadecimal notation is accomplished is up to you, the integrator; the Fresh KDS application’s only expectation is that those messages are communicated over TCP/UDP, to the appropriate port, and that the TCP/UDP message content adheres to a particular structure (defined later in this documentation).

Is Local Network Communication Offline?

Yes and no. Sending TCP messages over the local network to the Fresh KDS application does not rely on the availibility of a public network; however, some features within the Fresh KDS application still do rely on that public network.

Fresh KDS will function properly without a public network connection if integrating over the local network; however, some advanced features - such as SMS messaging - will be unavailable.

Baseline Knowledge For TCP-based Integrations

If you haven’t worked with TCP/UDP prior to integrating with KDS, it is important to know there is a steep, but relatively small learning curve to first overcome. This documentation will do its best to address any significant concepts where applicable; however, the primary purpose of this documentation is not to function as a TCP/UDP primer.

To learn more about TCP/UDP protocal transmissions, it is helpful to be familiar with concepts such as Network Maximum Transmission Units (MTU) and the distinction between a packet and a message. Remember: all protocols are standards; not implementations. It is up to the implementation to adhere to a protocol’s standards.

For this reason - and depending upon the technology with which you are working - Fresh recommends the use of often built-in, language-native networking communication wrappers.

Development Environment Setup

Contact Fresh Technology

To begin an integration with Fresh KDS, please first contact partnerships@freshtechnology.com. There is more than one way to integrate with the Fresh KDS application; we want to make sure your integration choice meets your needs.

Getting Started

1. As mentioned above in Contact Fresh Technology, contact the Fresh Team and request access to the sandbox environment.
2. Sideload the Fresh-supplied version of the Fresh KDS application onto your device.
3. Login to the Sandbox registration environment using your Fresh-supplied credentials; this will enable you to register the device onto which you have sideloaded your copy of the Fresh KDS application.
4. During the login process, select KdsSDK from the list of Point-of-Sale (POS) integration options.

Setup Table of Contents

Integrating with KDS is simple. The below topics cover all you need to know in order to get your application’s integration up and running.

After Setup

Once your registration is complete, contact Fresh Technology for approval. After review, Fresh will add your POS’ integration to the list of officially available options to your customers.