This section will explore what UI modes are, what they control and how they appear on your in-room tablets.
What are UI Modes?
The UI Mode’s main role is to hold the information and structure for the tabs that appear in the header bar at the top of the tablet. The UI Mode controls what tabs appear at the top of the screen for both guest-facing devices and staff consoles, hence there will always be at least one UI Mode for each.
UI Modes are also where information is stored for the widgets on each tab, including the home tab and the cart. You can only assign one UI Mode per Deliverypoint Group, hence you may have a unique UI Mode for each of your Deliverypoint Groups depending on how content may vary between them.
Tab Types
There are multiple types of tabs you can add to a header bar, the most common being ‘Category’. The category tab type links to a top level category within a menu. This is commonly for in-room dining, guest directories, spa and other large sections within your menu.
Other common tab types are the Home and Basket types, these are automatically listed as the first and last tab in a UI Mode and are only allowed to appear once, hence you cannot have multiple home or basket tabs.
Other tab types include ‘Explore Map’ which links to system maps, ‘Web’ which directs you to a web link URL when pressed and ‘RoomControl’ which holds any TV or Room control integration content.
Adding New Tabs
You are able to add more tabs to the tablets header to separate content into different sections however you see fit. To add a new tab, inside the UI mode you will need to head to the ‘Tab’ tab. You will notice a drop down which allows you to select your tab type and an ‘Add Tab’ button next to this.
Once you have created your new tab you will need to establish the sort order to ensure the tab appears in the correct place between the existing tab. You will also need to link the new UI tab accordingly - for Category types, you will need to link to an available top level category in the menu, for Web types a URL will need to be entered.
Adjusting Tab Order
If you would like to restructure your header bar and shuffle the order of your tabs, you will need to enter the relevant UI Mode and using the pencil icon next to each tab, amend the sort order numbers to get your tabs sitting in the order you wish.
The Home of Widgets
UI Modes are most often visited to add and amend widgets. Each UI Mode tab can hold multiple widgets above the listings on the left hand side or in some cases, such as Home and Cart tabs, down the right hand side.
For more information on widgets, including how to add, amend and move them, please follow the link below to our comprehensive guide on widgets.
