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🛒 Sales Channels

A sales channel is any entry point that can create orders — your website, a Telegram or LINE bot, a kiosk, a QR table-ordering page, a staff order-entry site, and so on. The Sales Channels page is where you register those entry points, turn them on or off, and decide which menu (concept) each one serves.

Path: Sidebar → Sales Channels

A fresh backend starts with no sales channels. Until you create and enable at least one, orders have no known source. This page is the first-run home for setting that up — the Setup Checklist links here too.

Why channels matter

Every order records where it came from. Registering channels turns that source from a free-text label into a managed list, which gives you:

  • a catalogue of valid order sources (no more guessing what a value means);
  • per-channel enable / disable;
  • concept binding — which menu a channel may order from;
  • clean grouping in reports (orders by channel, revenue by channel, …).

Channel type vs. channel instance. A type is the reusable kind of channel (web-storefront, telegram-bot, line-oa, …), usually provided by a module. An instance is one configured channel you create here (e.g. “Main website”, “Telegram delivery bot”). You can have several instances of the same type.

Page layout

Sales Channels overview
Figure 1: The Sales Channels page — your channels, recommendations, and custom channel creation.

The page has three areas:

  1. Your sales channels — the channels you have configured.
  2. Recommended for your country — suggested types based on your project country.
  3. Add custom channel — create a channel manually.

Your sales channels

Each channel is shown as a card with:

  • its title, key, and type;
  • a status badge (see Statuses);
  • the bound concepts and countries as tags (a channel with no concepts shows All concepts);
  • an Enabled / Disabled toggle;
  • Open (if a URL is set), Edit, and Delete actions.

If you have none yet, an empty state invites you to create your first channel or pick a recommended one.

Recommended channels
Figure 2: Channel types recommended for your country.

RestoApp suggests channel types that fit your market (set in Settings → COUNTRY_ISO), for example:

Country Suggested channels
Vietnam (VN) Web storefront, Zalo OA, Facebook, QR table ordering
Thailand (TH) Web storefront, LINE OA, QR table ordering
Russia (RU) Web storefront, Telegram bot, VK mini app, MAX bot
Any other Web storefront, Mobile app, QR table ordering

These are hints, not rules — a card shows whether its provider module is installed, and Add channel pre-fills the editor with that type. You can always create any channel, regardless of country.

Creating / editing a channel

Channel editor
Figure 3: Creating or editing a sales channel.

Use Add custom channel, or Add channel on a recommended card, or Edit on an existing one. The editor fields:

Field Description
Title (required) Human-readable name, e.g. Main website.
Channel key Stable slug written into each order’s source (orderedOnPlatform). Auto-derived from the title for new channels; must be unique.
Type The channel type (from the installed/known catalogue). Defaults to Custom channel.
URL / link Public URL or deep-link (storefront address, bot link). Powers the Open button.
Countries ISO codes where this channel runs, comma-separated (e.g. VN, TH).
Concepts Concept allowlist. Leave empty to allow all concepts; otherwise the channel only writes the selected ones.
Default concept The concept this channel uses by default (must be one of the selected concepts).
Allow concept switching Lets the storefront/bot offer a concept selector when several concepts are bound.
Enabled Master switch. Only enabled channels are valid order sources.

Save channel stores it; Cancel discards the draft.

Concept binding is how one backend serves several menus from one set of operations — e.g. a website for origin, a separate storefront for burgers, a LINE channel only for bangkok. The channel says where the order came from; the concept says which menu the cart belongs to. The two are independent.

Statuses

Status Meaning
Draft Created, not yet enabled.
Needs setup Enabled but missing required configuration.
Ready Enabled and configured — a valid order source.
Disabled Intentionally turned off.
Error The provider/health check reported a problem.

Toggling a channel on moves Draft/Disabled → Ready; toggling off sets Disabled.

How channels relate to orders

  • Each order stores its source in orderedOnPlatform, which should match a channel key.
  • For backward compatibility this is not strictly enforced: an order with an unknown source is still accepted, and a warning is logged. This lets existing storefronts and bots keep working while you register their channels.
  • On first start, RestoApp backfills channels from any order sources already present in the database (marked as type legacy, enabled), so your history and reports stay intact.
  • Deleting a channel does not touch past orders — they keep their source string for reporting.

Channel providers and modules

Channel types are supplied by modules (the provider of a type). A messenger or storefront integration installs as a module that registers one or more types, which then appear in the editor and in Recommended for your country. Until a provider is installed, its recommended card shows Provider not installed.

The staff order-entry website (admin-frontend) is treated as a channel provider too: it is no longer bundled by default and can be added as a recommended channel when you need a staff ordering surface.

Secrets (bot tokens, API keys, signing secrets) belong in Settings, not on the channel record. The channel only stores non-secret choices (name, URL, concepts, feature flags). The channel key is a public identifier, not a secret.

📱 Mobile

The page is responsive. On a phone the channel cards stack into a single column and the editor opens full-width; use Cancel to return to the list.