UnifiedPOS is the acronym for Unified Point of Service. It is an architectural specification for application interfaces to point-of-service devices that are used in the retail environment. This standard is both operating system independent and language neutral and defines:
- An architecture for application interface to retail devices.
- A set of retail device behaviors sufficient to support a range of POS solutions.
The UnifiedPOS standard will include:
- The UnifiedPOS Retail Peripheral Architecture overview.
- Text descriptions of the interface to the functions of the device.
- UML terminology and diagrams for each new device category, to describe:
- Relationships between classes/interfaces and objects in the system.
- Basis for creating C++, Java, IDL or other OO technology to implement the UML design.
The UnifiedPOS standard will not include:
- Specific language API specifications.
- Complete software components. Hardware providers or third-party providers who develop and distribute these components.
- Certification mechanism; will be provided in the near future. Compliance will be measured to OPOS and JavaPOS and conformance to UnifiedPOS.