It seems your strategy is very clear: you need a set of UI for free and will sell your middle ware in the future. If so, I guess OFBiz will not be your choice.
在 2010-09-04六的 11:02 +0300，Vadim Eisenberg写道： > Hi David, > > Thank you for your answer and explanations. I failed with the formatting > for the second time, so I will try to write in plain text from now on. > > You wrote: "when asking questions here please keep in mind that responses > you get are volunteer responses and the only qualification you can be sure > of for those responding > is that they are capable of subscribing to the mailing list. If many > people respond with something > consistent then it is a safer bet that you can rely on the information, > but usually not otherwise." > > I guess this is how Open Source works :) ? by volunteers contributing code > to the product and answering questions in the mailing lists. I still would > like to hear as much opinions as possible from the developers "in the > trenches", so anybody is welcome to provide them. I would like to thank BJ > again for providing his opinions. > > Please note that the project I participate in, is a kind of Research and > Development project, sponsored by EU and implemented by a consortium of > academic and industrial partners. The project is planned for four years > (ending in January 2014). One of its goals is to create an open source > implementation of an e-commerce solution - uStore, suited for the field of > AAL - Ambient Assisted Living (that is a kind of "smart home" for senior > citizens). The main concept of uStore is similar to the concept of > AppStore of Apple ? the AAL application developers would be able to upload > and sell their applications from the store. In addition to that, AAL > related devices and human services would be sold. An additional important > feature is to integrate "social commerce" ? user reviews, blogs, forums > etc. > > Please note that developing uStore is Research and Development and there > are not yet concrete AAL businesses that would immediately use it. The > goal is to provide some reference open source implementation in four > years. This implementation would be later supported and extended by an > open-source community according to the business needs of AAL businesses, > once some real AAL businesses would use it. One of the goals is to reuse > the existing open-source OOTB solutions in any field as much as possible > in order to save resources as much as possible. > > As a result of the situation, the accent here is more on e-commerce > features of existing e-commerce solutions, especially related to the > e-commerce frontend, than on their ERP features. We would like to use the > simplest and the most straightforward standard business model (preferably > OOTB) for e-commerce and invest more resources into the frontend features. > By the frontend features I mean the website, its accessibility, including > presentation on smart phones, search, recommendations, user reviews, blogs > and forums etc. As I understand the strength of OfBiz is actually its rich > ERP data model, however here we probably do not need the advanced ERP > features of OfBiz. > > I have read your HEMP Light document ? it was interesting and provided > some insights for me. Currently we are in process of finalizing the use > cases/requirements of the uStore and evaluating existing e-commerce > solutions, with OfBiz being one of the main candidates. > > Thanks & Regards, > Vadim > > ------------------------------- > Vadim Eisenberg > IT for Healthcare & Life Sciences > IBM Research - Haifa > > > David E Jones <d...@me.com> wrote on 03/09/2010 10:00:38 PM: > > > From: > > > > David E Jones <d...@me.com> > > > > To: > > > > user@ofbiz.apache.org > > > > Date: > > > > 03/09/2010 10:01 PM > > > > Subject: > > > > Re: OfBiz e-commerce customization > > > > > > Vadim, > > > > About your formatting: this mailing list filters out all HTML > > because HTML email messages tend to be VERY large and the Apache > > Software Foundation in general has many thousands of messages going > > through mailing lists every day. > > > > Back to your original question: when asking questions here please > > keep in mind that responses you get are volunteer responses and the > > only qualification you can be sure of for those responding is that > > they are capable of subscribing to the mailing list. If many people > > respond with something consistent then it is a safer bet that you > > can rely on the information, but usually not otherwise. With a > > question as long and involved as yours chances are you'll only get a > > small number of responses, and chances are your experience will be > > VERY different from those few who do respond. > > > > OFBiz is a large project. A good developer can learn to work > > effectively with the framework with a couple of weeks of training > > and a couple of months of hands-on development. However, even a good > > developer will have a hard time picking up all of the data > > structures and business logic even after many months of study, and > > realistically since most people don't or can't do that, it usually > > takes years of work experience and even then they'll only have > > knowledge of the parts of the system that have had the opportunity > > to work with. > > > > Understanding the business side is much easier for someone who has a > > good business background, and by good business background I mean > > really good experience with how businesses actually operate and what > > sorts of information businesses actually keep track of when > > operating. Sometimes people coming out of university business > > programs will have this, but most of the time they do not. Most > > people with business degrees will have learned more about laws and > > how to manipulate people than about the myriad of complexities of > > managing a warehouse, handling purchasing, or tracking information > > about products to facility the many touch points with those products > > throughout the company, and making it easy for customers to find > > products they want, or how to figure out where customer interest > > intersects with stuff you want to move. > > > > So anyway, keep in mind that your diving into a pretty comprehensive > > ERP system, but one that is made up of what people have seen fit to > > contribute for free. An extremely wide variety of data structures > > and common business processes are represented in the system, though > > many are not complete, or at least not complete in the way your > > client will want to use them. > > > > The only way to really be sure is to document ALL business > > activities (usually easiest if organized by process and not by role > > or by system function), and then do an overlap/gap analysis to see > > how each business activity would be done in the system, or if there > > is not something to do it (or it is not adequate for what your users > > want) then detail what the system needs to do to help manage that > > activity. Once you've done that, then you'll know what the system > > can do for you as-is, and what needs to be done to expand and change > > the system to do what your client needs. Short of that, everything > > is a guess and guaranteed to be wrong (the only question is by how > > much and in which direction(s)...). > > > > To help with that I recommend this material (this is what I use > withclients): > > > > http://www.dejc.com/home/HEMP.html > > > > I'd also recommend looking at some of the generic business process > > stories that have come from OFBiz-based projects and been refined > > somewhat over the years (though keep in mind that these stories in > > some places represent activities that are not managed by OOTB OFBiz, > > ie these need an overlap/gap analysis document to make them more > meaningful): > > > > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBREQDES/Universal > > +Business+Process+Library+Index > > > > Best of luck, > > -David > > > > > > On Sep 3, 2010, at 11:32 AM, Vadim Eisenberg wrote: > > > > > Hello BJ and other OfBiz developers, > > > > > > I was not subscribed to the mailing list so I did not receive the > answer > > > of BJ to my previous message - > > > http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/ofbiz-user/201009.mbox/% > > 3c4c7ffc99.9020...@free-man.net%3e > > > . Because of that I cannot post a response to it. Secondly, I used a > wrong > > > MIME in my previous message, so all the bullets and formatting were > > > missing. I am reposting the original message below in the right format > > > > (any additional comments/opinions are welcome). In addition, my > response > > > to BJ follows. Sorry for the mess I created. > > > > > > Hi BJ, > > > > > > Thank you for your prompt response. I think I've got the general idea. > I > > > still would like to ask a question about learning OfBiz: > > > The three volumes of the data model book comprise about 1700 pages > > > together. Should I use the book as a reference or do I have to read > all > > > the three volumes before starting my work on OfBiz ? Which parts of > the > > > book are required before I begin my work ? > > > > > > Thanks & Regards, > > > Vadim > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > My original message: > > > > > > =========================================================================================================== > > > Hello OfBiz developers, > > > > > > My name is Vadim Eisenberg and I work at IBM Research - Haifa, on the > > > UniversAAL project - http://universaal.org/. It is a consortium > European > > > project. Its goal is to create a platform for applications, services > and > > > devices for Ambient Assisted Living, that is a kind of "Smart Home" > for > > > senior citizens. As part of the platform, we - several software > developers > > > - have to develop an e-commerce site - uStore > > > http://universaal.org/index.php? > > option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=9&Itemid=21 > > > . This site would be a one-stop-shop for software, services and > devices > > > for Ambient Assisted Living. > > > > > > We consider using OfBiz for implementation of uStore. > > > > > > I would like to ask you several questions about the features we want > to > > > implement. I would be glad to hear any information you can tell me > about > > > how hard could it be for us to implement these features. Please note > that > > > we have no prior experience with OfBiz. > > > > > > Any your thoughts, intuition, experience, advice about OfBiz/business > > > programming are welcome. > > > > > > In particular, the following information would help us very much : > > > How much work should be done by us in order to implement all the > features > > > that follow (Person/Months, Person/Years, for skilled OfBiz > > > developers/general software engineers). Which part would be to use > > > existing "extension" mechanisms of OfBiz and which part would be > actually > > > changing the OfBiz code ? Here your intuition/experience from related > > > projects is welcome, we do not need exact numbers, just a ballpark. > > > How much time the general software developers have to learn about > OfBiz > > > and how skilled in OfBiz they should become in order to implement > these > > > features > > > > > > E-commerce website features: > > > Using e-commerce site for selling software (such as AppStore of > iPhone) > > > and downloadable files in general (video, presentations of courses > etc.). > > > Here the issue is to manage links where the bought files could be > > > downloaded. The idea is to prevent a situation in which buyers would > buy a > > > software application, receive a link to it for downloading and share > the > > > link afterwards with anybody they want, so anybody would be able to > > > download the application without paying for it. > > > Using e-commerce site for selling services (human services and others) > > > Extending e-commerce site with general widgets, such as calendar, > clock, > > > map, a widget for downloading files, etc., and integrating the widgets > > > > with the OfBiz > > > > > > Integration with other websites/services: > > > Integrating an e-commerce website with another (non-OfBiz backed) site > - > > > adding possibility for sellers to add products to the e-commerce site > via > > > the other site, to see customer feedback provided on the e-commerce > site > > > via the other site > > > Integrating an e-commerce website with another (possibly non-OfBiz) > > > e-commerce website, such as eBay/Amazon. What are the current > > > possibilities of integration with eBay ? > > > Integrating an e-commerce website with post/delivery services/sites > > > > > > Adding advanced features: > > > Adding support for signing business contracts between service > consumers > > > and service providers, between providers of different services etc. > via > > > the e-commerce site > > > Adding support for applying capability/requirement model, such as > > > JSR-124, (for example for matching between customer's requirements > and > > > capabilities of software, devices and services). The customer or > software > > > agent on behalf of the customer could provide his requirements as part > of > > > his account information, and the e-commerce solution would match > between > > > the products (according to their capabilities) and the requirements of > the > > > customers. > > > Has OfBiz a recommendation engine (providing recommendations to a user > > > > based on his activity - searches, purchases, reviews etc.) ? If no, > how > > > hard would it be to add it ? > > > Can the OfBiz-based e-commerce web site be presented by browsers of > smart > > > phones ? How hard would it be to enable it ? > > > Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the > requirements > > > of the customer > > > Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the > geolocation of > > > the customer > > > Adding support for customization of products/services and changes in > the > > > prices according to the customization during the purchase process > > > Adding support for a composition solution of hardware, software and > human > > > services (bundles, kits). A seller could compose a new product by > > > combining several existing products > > > Adding support for manual approval of products by site administrators > > > before submission of the products to the e-commerce site > > > Adding support for managing versions of the software applications that > are > > > sold on the e-commerce website > > > > > > Sorry for so many questions and sorry if some of them are out of > context. > > > > > > Best Regards, > > > Vadim > > > ------------------------------- > > > Vadim Eisenberg > > > IT for Healthcare & Life Sciences > > > IBM Research - Haifa > > > > > > > >
