Relationship
OPOS and JavaPOS
The UnifiedPOS specification will formalize and document the underlying retail device architecture, currently shared by both the JavaPOS and OPOS standards, in an operating system independent and language neutral manner. The first release of the UnifiedPOS Specification is Version 1.4. The UnifiedPOS specification has been created in such a way as to allow for future operating system dependent device participants.
Both the JavaPOS v1.4 and OPOS v1.4 standards are established as conformant platform mappings of the UnifiedPOS specification. JavaPOS will be recognized as the only UnifiedPOS conformant, operating system neutral, Java language mapping. OPOS will be recognized as the only UnifiedPOS conformant language neutral COM mapping. Future UnifiedPOS mappings to platforms other than Java and COM will not be excluded however.
This acceptance of the existing standards is based on their close conformance to a common design model. Historically, the OPOS standards provided device interfaces for Win32-based terminals using ActiveX technologies. The OPOS standard was used as the starting point for JavaPOS, due to:
- Similar purposes. Both standards involved developing
device interfaces for a segment of the software community.
- Reuse of device models. The majority of the OPOS
documentation specifies the properties, methods, events,
and constants used to model device behavior. These
behaviors are in large part independent of programming language.
- Reduced learning curve. Many application and hardware
vendors are already familiar with using and implementing the
OPOS APIs.Therefore, retail application developers and Service writers can continue to write their code in conformance with one or both of the JavaPOS or OPOS specifications, with assurance that such development meets the UnifiedPOS standard.