Build and publish a Menu Board

These instructions describe FECForge 1.32.35. If a control is missing, check your role and installed version before continuing.

1. Prepare your account and source information

   Open Menu Boards as a manager or owner. Prepare the catalog before the board. Staff can change sold-out availability, but managers publish names, prices, photos, and layout.

1. Open Settings → Catalog options

   As a manager or owner, find Categories and Item types. These reusable choices are shared by catalog items.

2. Add one category

   Enter its name and choose Add. Expect it in the list. Use operational groupings such as Food, Drinks, or Specials.

3. Add or review an item type

   Choose the appropriate display behavior, such as Food or Beer / cider. Alcohol-designated types/categories expose beverage measurements; unrelated food should not need those fields.

4. Open Catalog → Add item

   Enter Name, Item type, Category, Description, price, and optional image. Save the item and expect it in its category. This alone does not put it on a published TV board.

5. Add quantities and price options

   Use separate options for sizes or counts, such as 6 wings and 12 wings, so quantity appears beside its price.

6. Add alcohol details where relevant

   Alcohol-designated items can carry brewer, ABV, IBU, and other beverage details without showing those fields on unrelated food items.

1. Open Studio → Create menu board

   Enter Board name and an optional Guest-facing subtitle. Choose Create board. Expect a draft board in Studio.

2. Choose Automatic for a first board

   Start from a Theme or upload a background. Use the linked custom-designer guide when you need freely positioned panels, images, text, or category layers.

3. Add category sections

   Add a whole category as a section, then filter and reorder the included items.

4. Size each section

   Give a short section less vertical space and a long section more space. Overflowing content shrinks to stay visible; increase the section height or reduce text size if it is too small at guest viewing distance. Use the pencil to rename a section and the arrows to reorder it.

5. Tune the typography

   Show or hide the board title and scale section headings, item names, prices, and descriptions independently from 10 to 200 percent.

1. Install the TV player

   Use the FECForge Menu Boards player on the supported Fire TV or Android TV device.

2. Enter the pairing code

   Use the code shown by the TV player to attach that screen to the correct venue display.

3. Review all preview pages

   Use Landscape/Portrait and Expand, then the page arrows. Check text and prices before publishing. The preview does not update the TV.

4. Choose Publish to screens

   Expect the published revision to update. A paired screen must use that board as its default or active schedule before it will show it. See the TV setup guide for exact pairing steps.

1. Choose the venue timezone

   Open Settings → TV playback. Set the venue timezone explicitly, especially with Docker. Choose 5–300 seconds per menu page, then Save playback settings.

2. Schedule a published board

   Open Schedule, select a screen and published board, and choose days and times. Overnight windows belong to the day they start; equal start and end times mean all day. Higher priority wins overlapping schedules. Unpublished or archived boards are skipped.

3. Mark an item sold out

   Staff can use Catalog → Sold out or Restore. Availability reaches connected screens automatically without publishing unrelated draft edits. Names, prices, photos, and layout change only after a manager publishes.

4. Test recovery on the actual TV

   After publishing, test a network outage, player restart, device reboot, reconnection, and an overnight run. The companion app saves its player shell and last menu for offline restart; browser-only players do not guarantee an offline page reload.

1. Check the published board on the actual paired TV.

   All pages should show the intended prices and readable text. A saved draft or Studio preview alone does not prove the TV has updated.

2. If the result is not what you expected

   If the TV is stale, check its connection, default board, schedule, and published revision before re-pairing. Keep a fallback menu; this remains alpha software.