Hi Hans,
At Néréide we use the same way as you explain except that some time we
have to do modifications in OFBiz core to slightly change one service
because there is an error or the process is not exactly what we need. In
this case we have to isolate these modifications so that they can be
applied when OFBiz core is upgraded. This is done thru addon.
How do you manage modifications in OFBiz core?
Pierre
On 13/05/2015 09:48, Hans Bakker wrote:
Julien, It can be that i do not understand your point.
When we implement OFBiz for a customer we create a new component in
hot-deploy and we re-use as much from the OFBiz system as we can. We
also create new components like GrowERP which is just a component in
Hot-deploy. When we do that we almost not change the core ofbiz system
so we can easily upgrade.
So i think that add-ons can be easily created just by adding new
components in hot-deploy, or do i miss something?
Regards,
Hans
On 13/05/15 13:56, Julien NICOLAS wrote:
Hi all,
I was hopping more people will explain on this subject. It's exactly
what I was thinking, that the functional part is less than the last
priority of the project.
I don't know exactly how I can do it but I really want to start
something that will use OFBiz as a framework. If it can be done with
the OFBiz community, it will be really good.
Efforts exist but need people of the strong OFBiz community to be
really better (GrowERP, BigFish, TERCompta, etc.).
It's a pity that every new company that want to work with OFBiz must
work on it's own version to be able to integrate it. I don't think
it's a good thing for the project growing.
And OFBiz community don't allow company to find easily other effort
to enhance the software. And finally it seems that there is less than
5 peoples interested to work on this way.
Maybe I'm wrong, functional is not as important as I thought...
Sorry for the noise,
Julien.
Le 07/05/2015 16:00, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
I agree with Julien's analysis.
If I say "sub-projects" again, Jacques will whack me upside the head
but I really think that a restructuring of the way the architecture
is presented and developed would provide a number of benefits:
- increase community involvement with less work for the current key
committers
- reduce or eliminate sub-optimal inter-component dependencies
through clearer definitions and independent releases of components
- reduce mixing of core seed data with demo and customizable seed
data and inter-component data confusion.
- facilitate the construction of components and add-ons that do not
have undesirable or unknown side-affects
- facilitate the injection of a smart installer that would allow the
selection of components and templates as suggested at install time.
- facilitate the development of an OFBiz marketplace for add-ons and
industry-specific configurations.
- make the role of the framework as a base for other products much
clearer.
- possibly make it easier to "Moquify" the framework if the
framework API can be made less implementation dependent - lots of
issues here that already have been fully ventilated last week.
Ron
On 07/05/2015 7:28 AM, Michael Brohl wrote:
Hi Julien,
thank you for bringing this up!
I don't think that this is of no interest in the community, it's
just overlaid by the many other topics we are discussing currently.
I personally think that all topics are worth to be discussed and
elaborated, maybe they have to be prioritised a little bit more.
Right now it's a little bit confusing and not easy to follow (and
contribute to) the discussions besides daily business.
I think it is an important topic to simplify the backend
component's UI and have more sophisticated usability there. On the
other hand, it is important to somehow show customers the powers of
OFBiz and the many already set-up functionalities. It would be a
big step forward if we find a way to make this customizeable. For
an ERP, it would also be a big plus to have some kind of "business
templates" (!= UI templates) on top of such a mechanism, like
- Your customer sells products over the internet? - pull the
ecommerce template
- Your customer brews beer? - pull the manufacturing +x template
- Your customer has a small business? - pull the corresponding
template
etc.
I belive that would require different configuration mechanisms,
more on a database level with a clever UI instead of many different
property files. And maybe a tool to chain services together on base
of such a template.
I won't reduce the functionality in OFBiz per se, as long as they
are stable and/or have a maintainer.
I know of at least one contributor who is also working on a more
sophisticated UI, maybe he shows up here also ;-)
So, without having a concrete plan or more thought-out ideas how to
implement this, I would support such an effort.
As a community, I think we have to find a way to channel the
different interests from core technology work up to the business
layer. Some kind of overall project management would help but would
be difficult to install in an open community. Too many open
building sites in parallel are not that efficient.
Curious what others think...
Regards,
Michael Brohl
ecomify GmbH
www.ecomify.de
Am 07.05.15 um 12:48 schrieb Julien NICOLAS:
Hello All,
Since I work on the bootstrap theme in OFBiz, I have many
thoughtful, carefully read the ofbiz community exchanges and spoke
with some members of the OFBiz community.
Today I am convinced that the OFBiz project is a framework that is
not intended to be an ERP. Its OOTB user interface is a nightmare
and is not really user oriented.
Several topics that seem to have no link together, seems to be
linked around the same idea.
The first topic is about functionality of OFBiz.
On one hand, there is the OFBiz framework. It contains a user
interface to show the possibility of OFBiz, but must be changed
during integration. It also includes functional oriented features.
These features split the community between those who want to keep
them in the project and those who wish to exclude them.
On the other hand, there are new initiatives,abandoned projects,
old or having no longer contributors (project manager, POS, etc.)
who need support, visibility, even if they are not added to the
OFBiz project.
A first approach was discussed with GIT. It can allow everyone to
share their work more easily with branch feature. Which is good
but not the best in my opinion.
Another topic that is important to me is the functional part of
OFBiz.
Sharan explained me about its willingness to invest energy to make
the software more functional, and if it's possible to have a
version with ERP oriented for small businesses with minimal
features but easy to use. Like growERP or TerCompta offer. Using
OFBiz framework but simplify the UI to allow the software to be
used intuitively without modifications.
These initiatives come up against the model of OFBiz project. Who
has still not decided whether it is an ERP, in which case it needs
to adjust its UI or an automation of enterprise processes
framework, which involves getting rid of unnecessary features
dedicated to ERP.
There are several solutions that could help to make better the
model of OFBiz and satisfy the entire community.
The first solution would be to limit the “OFBiz framewok” project
framework for automation enterprise processes and to have another
“OFBiz ERP” project which would use the framework as a basis, and
which would provide a user-friendly UI and dedicated tools to ERP.
The second option is to find a way to cut the project in
extensions. This solution would have the opportunity to clean the
framework and have features as micro projects and therefore no
longer a monolithic software.
I see a lot of debate about adding new functionality that allow to
improve development, compile, manage sources, merge with another
framework, but the debate on the division of project extensions
seems not to interest. It seems to me extremely important to
facilitate development and therefore, ultimately, the visibility
of the project in the developers community.
At Nomaka, we initiated an effort starting from the first
solution. We took OFBiz framework, deleted all the themes and
created a new one. Then we redesigned the interface to match a
basic ERP.
We started with actor UI. Disabled existing screens and created
new ones more functional and user-friendly.
I find it a pity to work alone in my corner without being able to
easily share my work, without taking advantage of the OFBiz
community knowledge to guide me onthe right way.
I wonder if we could work on this axis and balance the rigidity
necessary to have a stable project and flexibility that allow to
include non-committer contributions ...
What do you think ?
Julien.
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