What are "Menu Filters" in Olo, and why does GRUBBRR recommend that our partners not use this feature? 

Olo users can create Menu Visibility Filters or Rails Filters to control what categories, items, and/or modifiers are made available to third party ordering platforms like GRUBBRR. Menu Visibility filters are a 'yes/no' option, allowing users to say whether an item is available on a third-party platform or not, while Rails Filters give users more control over which specific channels ("Rails") the item can be added to. Rails filters are a paid feature in Olo, so most clients will be using the standard Visibility Filtering function. 

Menu filters are set at the company level in Olo, and can be assigned at the category, item, or modifier level. If a client is using traditional filtering, any changes made to an item will be automatically applied to all third party platforms (i.e., GRUBBRR). When the customer filters a menu record out (i.e., choosing to hide a Fountain Drink category for third party ordering), Olo will remove it from the XML; so, when we go to do a menu sync with Olo, GRUBBRR's platform won't know the option exists. 

Why GRUBBRR recommends partners not use this feature

There are a few complications that we can encounter as a result of menu filters in Olo. 

 

1. If a client makes changes to menu filtering after we've onboarded/configured their menu, it can lead to menu items being deactivated and duplicated in the GRUBBRR Kiosk menu. This creates an entirely new item, so if we've made any overrides (i.e., a Kiosk-friendly image or description), they will be reverted to POS defaults.
2. If menu filtering is applied to individual modifiers, it can lead to confusion when we're mapping items in the Kiosk menu, or it can lead to scenarios where an option that shouldn't be available for a delivery order (i.e., a fountain drink) is hidden on the Kiosk as well. 
   
   1. This becomes more impactful when users apply filters across multiple levels of the menu at once (i.e., filtering modifiers out of multiple mod groups for different menu items

If the client must use filtering for any reason, GRUBBRR strongly recommends that they create separate items with the modifiers/selections they want on GRUBBRR vs. on other third party channels, and apply filters at the item level. This will ensure that all modifiers import correctly for our platform; however, it can also make menu management in Olo more complex, because the user will now see multiple versions of an item for GRUBBRR vs. other platforms.