Feature · Offline mode

When the restaurant's Wi-Fi drops, the waiters' rounds wait and then go by themselves

A table of six orders at the moment the router gives up. In Slotina's app the waiter sends the round as usual; it waits on their phone or tablet, and when the connection is back it goes to the kitchen by itself — in the sequence the rounds were sent, and each one once. Nobody keeps a list of what to re-enter, and the kitchen is spared the same starters twice.

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The waiting rounds are kept by Slotina's app on the waiter's device. Below is what else needs the connection.

The five minutes the connection is gone

The waiter carries on
The round goes in at the table with the seat, the course and any note, exactly as on any other night. The waiter taps send and moves to the next table.
The round waits on the device
While the phone or tablet is cut off, the rounds sent from it stay on it, one after another, in the sequence they were sent.
The connection comes back
The waiting rounds go by themselves. Nobody has to open them again, find them or press anything: the first round sent is the first to arrive.
Each round arrives once
Every round carries its own key from the device. If it goes twice — a retry on a weak signal, a double tap while the screen hung — the second is answered with the round already made, so the kitchen gets a single round, not two.

The app keeps the rounds; a browser keeps trying

Slotina runs in a web browser and in Slotina's app on an iPad, an Android tablet or a phone. For the waiters on the floor, the difference matters on the night the Wi-Fi goes.

In Slotina's app

The rounds are kept on the device itself. A phone that loses the signal in the garden, or a tablet whose screen goes dark in an apron pocket, still has them, and sends them once it is back online.

In a web browser

A browser retries a round only while the page stays open. Closing the tab, or letting the phone throw the page away, ends the retry. A browser is fine at the host stand and on the office laptop; for taking rounds at the table, use the app.

What needs the connection

Offline mode is for the waiters' rounds. Everything else Slotina does runs through the internet, and it is better to know which parts before the night it matters.

The kitchen display needs the connection. It shows a round once the round has reached Slotina, so for as long as the internet is down the pass hears the round from the waiter, the way kitchens always have.
Card payments need the connection: a card taken with Tap to Pay on a phone, and a guest paying a check from the table's QR code, both go through online.
Guests ordering from the table's QR code use their own phone's data or your Wi-Fi to reach Slotina, so they need a connection of their own.
Other screens catch up when the device is back online. Several tablets and phones see the same floor because each change travels through the internet to the others.

A plan for the night the router gives up

Offline mode stops the rounds getting lost. These four habits keep the service moving around it.

Have a second way online: a mobile-data router, or one phone on a good contract that can share its connection with the tablets for half an hour.
Agree one house rule with the pass: if the connection drops, the waiter also calls each round at the pass until the screen is back.
Use Slotina's app on every phone and tablet that takes rounds at the table, and sign each one in with that person's own login before service.
Decide in advance how a table pays if the connection is still down at the end of the night: cash, or the bank's card machine you keep for the purpose.

Why each round arrives once

The worst outcome of a dropped connection is a round made twice: two steaks on the grill, one of them for the bin. So every round leaves the waiter's device with a key of its own, and Slotina keeps the first round that arrives with that key. A retry, a double tap or a device sending everything it held at once after an outage meets the round already made. A waiter who builds the same round again on purpose sends a new one; a manager voids or changes a dish already sent, with a reason.

Offline mode: what owners ask

What happens to a round if our Wi-Fi drops mid-service?

In Slotina's app it waits on the waiter's phone or tablet and goes to the kitchen by itself once the connection is back, in the sequence the rounds were sent and each once.

Will the kitchen get the same round twice when the connection returns?

Once. Each round carries its own key from the device, and a second copy of it is answered with the round already made.

Does the kitchen screen keep working during an outage?

It needs the connection. It shows each round once that round reaches Slotina, so during an outage the waiter calls the round at the pass as well.

Can we take a card payment while the internet is down?

Card payments go through online, with Tap to Pay on a phone or from the table's QR code, so they need a connection. Keep cash or your bank's card machine as the fallback.

Do the waiters need the app, or will a browser do?

For taking rounds at the table, the app. It keeps the rounds on the device; a browser retries only while the page stays open.

Read alongside

A dropped connection, and the starters still arrive

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