When you press the Portable Devices button in Retail Pro V8 or V9 or the Barcode button in Retail Pro V8, or the Upload Items button in Retail Pro V9, the Scan Sessions window should automatically pop-up to allow you to select a session for use with Retail Pro.
The Session Chooser should pop-up almost immediately, so if it is not displayed (check if Mobile Manager is flashing in the Windows tool bar, too!), then the workstation number is configured incorrectly or something is preventing the interface from working correctly.
Typical resolutions:
- Check the Workstation configured in Mobile Manager matches the Workstation used in Retail Pro.
- If the Workstation number is correct, but still not working, try setting the Workstation number to -X in the Retail Mobile Manager, where X is the correct workstation number. (The – enables a workaround for bugs in Retail Pro.) E.g, if the Workstation is 4, try using -4.
Other Issues
“Retail Pro is not ready to accept items”
This problem is encountered by selecting a session in Retail Mobile Manager without first initiating the session import in Retail Pro first. To initiate a session import in V8, press either the Barcode or Portable Device buttons. To initiate a session import in V9, press either the Upload Items or Portable Device buttons.
“Error Creating Rpro Files.”
This rather unhelpful error message is displayed by Retail Pro V9 when it times-out waiting for a response. You can adjust Retail Pro’s timeout by going to WS Preferences > Peripherals > Inventory Scanner > Configure > Plugin Timeout.
Typical causes of this error:
- Users takes too long to select a session.
- Session Chooser fails to pop-up, which doesn’t give the user a chance to select a session.
- In rare cases, the permissions of the Retail Pro user and the Mobile Manager user are inconsistent and won’t allow Retail Pro to read from Retail Mobile Manager. Try using a local admin account for both to see if that resolves the issue.
“Download not completed. Please check device status and try again.”
This error occurs when Retail Pro V9 looks for session files in the wrong workstation directory (see below). Try setting the workstation number in Retail Mobile Manager to -X where X is the actual workstation number.
General Troubleshooting
- Find the Palm directory within your Retail Pro installation directory and delete any files ending with .req contained within that directory or any sub-directory and try again.
- If the Session Chooser does not automatically pop-up, please check if the Scan Session window is simply hidden. Generally it will popup, but sometimes it doesn’t and simply flashes in the Windows tool bar instead.
- If the Session Chooser pops up, but doesn’t show your sessions, make sure that the session names contain only letters, digits, underscore and dash characters. Rename any sessions that contain any of the following characters and resend: # ? \ & * $ ! @ | < > / ‘ ” [ ] { } ~ ` : ; % ^
Advanced Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting the Retail Pro Palm interface further requires a bit of understanding about how the interface works. Retail Pro requests data by writing a request file with the name WSXX001.req, where XX is the workstation number, into one of the following locations depending on the release of Retail Pro:
V9 (latest): the <Rpro9 install dir>\Palm\WSXX
V9 (older): <Rpro9 install dir>\Palm\
V8: <Rpro8 install dir>\Rpro\Palm
Check that the working for the short cut used to launch Retail Pro. If set incorrectly, the Palm directory may not be found under the Retail Pro installation directory.
If the workstation number in the file name do not match the workstation number configured in Retail Mobile Suite, then Retail Mobile Suite will not respond.
To see what Retail Pro is writing, press either the Portable Terminal, Upload Items or Barcode button, then look in the Palm directory for your version of Retail Pro and find the request file it just created within that directory or sub-directory.
Update Retail Mobile Suite to correspond to the values you see in the filename and be sure that Retail Mobile Suite is configured with the correct Rpro installation directory.
Some recent releases of V9 creates the request file with the name WS01.req regardless of the workstation number. It may or may not also write other files to WSXX (where XX is the expected workstation number). This is caused by a bug in Retail Pro v9. You can try the following:
- Re-register InvnPalmScanner.dll (see below)
- Set the workstation number to -X in the Retail Mobile Manager connection information for Retail Pro, where X is the correct workstation number. (The – enables a workaround for this bug.)
- Align workstation IDs and numbers (see below)
- Update Retail Pro
Re-Register InvnPalmScanner.dll
Retail Pro tech support provided this solution for cases where Retail Pro V9 gets itself confused over the proper workstation number:
“Re-register the InvnPalmScanner.dll file located in the Retailpro9\Plugins\ folder by dropping it onto the tregsvr.exe file”
Please contact Retail Pro support for questions on this procedure.
Align Workstation IDs and Numbers
This procedure can be used to align the workstation ID and number:
E.g., if you start with this configuration:
WS # 1 -> WS ID 2
WS # 2 -> WS ID 1
Add an temporary WS # 3 and then mix and match workstation IDs around until you have them all aligned:
Step 1:
WS # 1 -> WS ID 2
WS # 2 -> WS ID 1
WS # 3 ->
Step 2:
WS # 1 ->
WS # 2 -> WS ID 1
WS # 3 -> WS ID 2
Step 3:
WS # 1 -> WS ID 1
WS # 2 ->
WS # 3 -> WS ID 2
Step 4:
WS # 1 -> WS ID 1
WS # 2 -> WS ID 2
WS # 3 ->
Step 5:
Remove the temporary workstation.