Quote/0 E-Ink Device Becomes Ordering Assistant for HarmonyOS Food App

The report said the author bought a Quote/0 last year to display daily poems. A second unit came from an official event, but it sat unused until the developer built a food app and found a use for it: taking orders. The device has a screen that can show an ordering QR code, and its NFC lets a phone tap to order. In both cases, scanning or tapping opens the ordering page through App Linking.

To set it up, the user obtains an API key and device ID and adds the image API to the device's loop task, according to the report. The device is then added in the app's Quote/0 management page with the API key and device ID. After choosing dishes and creating a menu, the user taps send to Quote/0 in the menu settings pop-up and selects the target device. The report describes the resulting flow as simple: scan or tap, then order.

Ordering currently covers only a few functions: selecting dishes, placing an order, viewing orders and posting an update after a meal, the report said, adding that the developer plans to improve it. The app uses a menu ordering code and a user ordering code. When a user code is used, the app checks that user's default menu, or an available menu if no default menu is set or the default is disabled. This reduces the number of codes needed, because a user can switch menus by changing the default.

Dajian'er is already listed on the HarmonyOS app market, according to the report. Even without a Quote/0 device, HarmonyOS devices can tap each other to order. The report said this was the reason the developer started with HarmonyOS.

The report also described the app's background. Last year the developer made a poetry app called Gujia, aiming at a 'poetry world', but found it hard to realize because it required travel. The idea for Dajian'er came from a simpler goal: a 'food world' that might need only a pot. The app is designed so that each post bound to a dish unlocks related ingredients and dishes. If an unlocked dish is a city's signature dish, it unlocks that city; unlocking all cities unlocks the 'food world'. The developer's stated personal goal is to eat all kinds of food from home.

Menus can be created only from unlocked dishes, the report said. The developer cited two reasons: an unlocked dish means the user can cook it, has eaten it or at least has seen it, so ordering it is meaningful; and because posts bind dishes to photos, the menu can show the photo from the post instead of requiring separate dish-image management. Diners see what the dish actually looks like, which the developer described as a key reason for building the app.

The report listed several ideas under consideration: using RSS to subscribe to a user's locked dishes, so a phone tap opens a posting page with the dish bound automatically and the user only needs to upload a photo to unlock the dish and remove it from the list; recommendations for what to eat today, including ingredients, dishes and recipes; and data and progress for unlocking the 'food world'.