From an end-user point of view, I would like to see the PMC start with
the mindset of
"This feature/function/component is part of the "OFBiz product" and we
will not release a new branch/version that does not include a fully
functional and tested version of this component/feature."
as the criteria for accepting a new feature.
Anything that can not get this warranty from the PMC should be a
separate sub-project with any warranty provided by the
supporters/promoters of the particular feature/function/component.
This would clarify what people can expect and would reduce the confusion
around releases where components shift in and out on a whim.
This means that people who want a new release have to understand that
there is a set of functionality that may not affect them personally but
still has to be integrated into a new release for the sake of the
reputation of the product.
If you add something that breaks something, you need to fix the thing
that got broken or had its functionality impacted.
This might slow down the implementation of new features into the core
OFBiz but it would be somewhat easier to get a new component into
incubation as a feature with a limited warranty since the PMC would not
have to consider the long-term maintenance until the component had the
following to be considered as part of the "core" application. If it
fails to work or get used, there is no impact on the core. If it does
not get updated to the latest release, it does reflect badly on the core
and does not hold up the core's progress.
Ron
On 10/03/2015 2:04 PM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
Hi Pierre,
please see inline:
On Feb 27, 2015, at 12:30 PM, Pierre Smits <pierre.sm...@gmail.com> wrote:
Jacopo, All,
I am a proponent of any kind of OFBiz integration solution that will
enhance the feature set and drives the adoption. It is good to see that
people are willing to put the effort in, as we see (and have seen) with
components (like BIRT, PoS) and other attempts (Asterisk integration,
Jackrabbit, etc) and solutions (Magnolia/CATO, BigFish).
However, I remember a discussion thread not long ago where strong opinions
were voiced about not having more under the umbrella of the Apache OFBiz
project.
In my opinion this is a separate (but interesting/important) topic that should
not interfere with this proposal; that discussion could go on for months but
the current situation is that in the OFBiz trunk we have additional
(specialpurpose) components and until we have them then we can also consider
the adoption of new ones (if valuable); if and when we will decide to move all
the components to another place (another trunk or an external repository
etc...) then we will move all (or most) of them including new ones.
It seems to me that we should discuss strategy, process and risks first,
before we discuss integration of anything into the project. Otherwise we
will be having the same discussion over and over with each integration idea
that pops up.
We will never come up with a general rule for inclusion/exclusion and we will
have to take a decision on a case by case basis considering different factors
including: code quality, interest by the community, committers available to
help, etc...
The important topic, in my opinion, for this thread is figuring out if such a
component may be interesting to end user companies (but for them we will have
to look into Magento forums) or to service providers with customers in the
OFBiz and Magento space.
Regards,
Jacopo
Best regards,
Pierre Smits
*ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>*
Services & Solutions for Cloud-
Based Manufacturing, Professional
Services and Retail & Trade
http://www.orrtiz.com
On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 9:17 AM, Jacopo Cappellato <
jacopo.cappell...@hotwaxsystems.com> wrote:
Hi all,
in the last year, the research and development lab of HotWax Systems has
implemented a series of components and tools for OFBiz.
Some of them are ready-to-be-used applications and, in my opinion, would
be a good fit for OFBiz.
After discussing the topic internally, we believe that the community could
benefit from them and at the same time help to further improve them.
Accordingly, I would like to start by exploring with you the opportunity
to include in OFBiz our integration with Magento eCommerce platform.
Magento eCommerce (http://magento.com/products/overview) is a popular
solution for merchants; it is an open source product (but the company is
owned by eBay).
In terms of features it competes with the OFBiz ecommerce component, but
it is easier to setup and with a shorter go to market.
For these reasons it is a good fit for small-medium merchants that need an
ecommerce store with no backend capabilities and it has a very large users
base.
We realized that there could be a rather large group of merchants, already
using Magento for online sales, that may be interested in integrating it
with a powerful ERP system for the backend tasks (order fulfillment,
accounting etc...).
The integration component we have implemented has a nice user interface to
import categories, products, orders from Magento eCommerce and then synch
held/cancelled orders; there are screens to manage shipment options and
product store settings.
You can find some screenshot here:
http://people.apache.org/~jacopoc/magento-integration-2.png
http://people.apache.org/~jacopoc/magento-integration-3.png
http://people.apache.org/~jacopoc/magento-integration-4.png
http://people.apache.org/~jacopoc/magento-integration-5.png
Arun Patidar led the effort and is happy to provide additional details so
please feel free to ask any questions.
In my opinion this product could be integrated as a specialpurpose
component, but I am open to suggestions.
What do you think?
Jacopo
--
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: rwhee...@artifact-software.com
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102
