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> On May 14, 2019 at 11:16 PM James Dailey <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi all - Please note recent changes and updates to the project FAQ. > If you see any issues with this, please let me know, make a comment on > that page: > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ > > I'm including it here in the hopes it gets a few more reads. > > Thanks > @jdailey67 > > > Fineract FAQ https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ > > > > > * What is this project about? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-Whatisthisprojectabout? > * Is this Mifos? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-IsthisMifos? > * What is the difference between Fineract and Fineract-CN? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-WhatisthedifferencebetweenFineractandFineract-CN? > * Do I have to get the code to use the solution? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-DoIhavetogetthecodetousethesolution? > * What is the process for getting the code and setting up a > development environment? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-Whatistheprocessforgettingthecodeandsettingupadevelopmentenvironment? > * How do I get up to speed on development tasks? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-HowdoIgetuptospeedondevelopmenttasks? > * What is our Consensus approach? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-WhatisourConsensusapproach? > * I'm new to Open Source, what is this all about? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-I'mnewtoOpenSource,whatisthisallabout? > * Where do I find .... > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-WheredoIfind.... > * Where do I get the Pentaho Reports? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-WheredoIgetthePentahoReports? > * How do I set this up on my machine? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-HowdoIsetthisuponmymachine? > * How do I get something changed in the code? How do I get a feature > added? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-HowdoIgetsomethingchangedinthecode?HowdoIgetafeatureadded? > * I have a great idea for a collaboration tool for the community, how > do I make that happen? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-Ihaveagreatideaforacollaborationtoolforthecommunity,howdoImakethathappen? > * I represent a Company and want to contribute, how do I do that? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-IrepresentaCompanyandwanttocontribute,howdoIdothat? > * I found a security flaw, where do I report that? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-Ifoundasecurityflaw,wheredoIreportthat? > * How do I raise a difficult or sensitive topic? > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FAQ#FAQ-HowdoIraiseadifficultorsensitivetopic? > > > > > > > What is this project about? > > Fineract provides a reliable, robust, and affordable solution for > entrepreneurs, financial institutions, and service providers to offer > financial services to the world’s 2 billion underbanked and unbanked. > Fineract is aimed at innovative mobile and cloud-based solutions, and enables > digital transaction accounts for all. > > The domain of fineract includes accounts, held by customers, with > transactions made to those accounts. The types of accounts include credit > accounts (e.g. loans to customers) and debit accounts (current accounts and > savings accounts), and for credit accounts there are different kinds of > interest rate schemes or shared profit schemes. There is other functionality > that supports use cases for teller operations, basic treasury management, > accounting, portfolio management, authentication, account opening (including > KYC), and similar topics that are common to a retail banking operation. > > Initially aimed at Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), Savings > Cooperatives, and Credit Unions, the fineract solution is not limited to > those specific institutions. A number of finTech innovators have used > fineract as their backend solution for offering "Direct Banking" or > "Neo-Banking" solutions as well as for "Agent Management" in some contexts. > The backend account transaction system is a common requirement in many > systems in financial services. > > Fineract was donated by Mifos.org, a US based charity with a financial > inclusion mission. While many members of the PMC trace their involvement to > the project to financial inclusion, the intent of the project is to attract a > range of innovators involved in offering account services to consumers > everywhere. Financial services should be available to all. > > Open source allows for the project to build the needed building blocks > that all kinds of financial institutions can use but we anticipate an > ecosystem of providers taking this code and building solutions on top of it. > We encourage that and fully expect those builders to send their development > priorities and in-house dev teams to the project. We require that virtuous > cycle. > > We imagine a world where financial services are offered by a wide range > of providers using commodity open source software utilizing the most modern > approaches. > > > Who is using fineract? > > (For clarity, those using the http://mifos.org/ released solutions, > prior to incubation at apache foundation, are not counted in this project.) > Fineract is used by many small to medium sized financial institutions in > dozens of countries. Larger institutions are considering the use of fineract > side-by-side with their existing core banking solution (CBS). The > side-by-side strategy allows for innovative offerings to be done without the > licensing costs usually associated with commercial CBS. Fineract has also > been adopted by finTechs to be the backend transaction account engine, and is > being used in testing-lab environments to assist with system integrations. > > With proper hosting and front end dev, Fineract is suitable to Credit > Unions, Microfinance Institutions, Agent Banking solutions, Savings > Associations, Building Societies, Cooperatives, small Commercial Banks, > NeoBanks, and Direct Banking solutions. Our vision is that these > institutions may download and use directly, but perhaps more likely, to hire > a provider or integrator to provide the complete solution to them. Our users > are thus both the institutions where fineract is in place and the system > integrators and vendors where fineract is a significant part of their > offering. > > > > > Is this Mifos? > > The Mifos Initiative, a 501c3 US Charity, contributed the code and > remains involved with a wrapper and other systems that run "on top of" > fineract. Many of the developers are on both listservs. However, if you are > looking for information on the latest mifos release, please proceed to: > https://mifos.org/take-action/get-mifos/#download. Please understand that > devs at fineract may not respond to questions about mifos code. > > > > > What is the difference between Fineract and Fineract-CN? > > Fineract 1.x is a mature platform with open APIs, while Fineract CN is a > cloud native, microservice architecture also supporting open banking APIs. > > Fineract1.x is a completely different code project from fineract-CN. In > terms of github repositories, fineract1.x is contained in one repo, while > fineract-CN is held in dozens of separate github repos - one for each > microservice. In Fineract1.x the packages encapsulate the different > functional blocks - e.g. accounts vs transactions, while in Fineract-CN these > are separate microservices. > > Fineract1.x, prior to its donation to Apache was called mifosX, and > by-design consists of a "headless" solution. That is, fineract1.x is all > about the APIs. Front end applications can be developed separately and > connected to fineract1.x (For clarity, Mifos at https://github.com/openmf > has a number of front ends to illustrate available functionality; these are > not maintained by fineract, and devs on fineract will not respond to issues > related to the front ends there.) > > Fineract CN operates on the principle that financial services are an > innovative space and so each fineract microservice encapsulates a domain that > can be combined with other microservices to create new platform offerings. > Fineract CN microservices can be combined to create new software platforms > for digital financial service providers. Fineract CN is still in its early > days, but preliminary tests have shown that a simple single-instance laptop > deployment of Fineract CN can process over 1000 transactions/second. Fineract > CN also includes a fully Apache-licensed backoffice UI. > > > > > Do I have to get the code to use the solution? > > If all you want is to use the solution, or to demo it, we recommend you > use one of the available builds rather than setting up a development > environment yourself. The builds, found at http://fineract.apache.org/ > (Downloads) are provided for convenience and should not be used in a > production environment without fully working out details of operations (e.g. > data backup) and security. Also, Mifos volunteers continue to post builds > for specific hosting solutions at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mifos_X > (e.g. Azure and AWS). > > > > > What is the process for getting the code and setting up a development > environment? > > Please see Contributor's Zone > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Contributor%27s+Zone , > essentially you need to get your environment ready, then download from the > github source and use one of the common IDEs. > > In general we ask that you take the time to read the instructions and > familiarize yourself with the listserv before posting questions about > building the solution. You can search the listserv archives at > https://lists.apache.org/list.html?fineract.apache.org . If you find > something missing from the instructions, we welcome contributions of that > sort as well. Note that the listserv search is time delimited, so that for > example this search gets 24 months: > https://lists.apache.org/[email protected]:lte=24M:pentaho > (see lte=24M) where search term is "pentaho". > > > > > How do I get up to speed on development tasks? > > Please see Contributor's Zone > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Contributor%27s+Zone > > There are two issue trackers. > > * fineract1.x at > https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/FINERACT/summary > * fineract-CN at > https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/FINCN/issues/FINCN-26?filter=allopenissues > > > A good thing to do is to review an open ticket, especially one with back > and forth between devs on the listserv or one that is scheduled for an > upcoming release. It is also useful to review existing pull requests (PRs). > Pull Requests (PRs) are found here → https://github.com/apache/fineract/pulls > > > > > What is our Consensus approach? > > Every open source project has to adopt some way to come to agreement on > new features, new code enhancements, new project directions and fineract now > uses a lazy consensus approach. In this approach, the changes and issues are > raised and people are given time to reject or discuss the changes, and we > rely on contributors to fully vett changes in an appropriate way and have > their code reviewed. > > This is documented at Committer's Zone > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Committer%27s+Zone and > Changing Processes > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Changing+Processes . > Please note that we expect discussion on the listserv to be the primary mode > of communication. "If it didn't happen on the list, it didn't happen." > > > > > I'm new to Open Source, what is this all about? > > Welcome. You may want to first read something about how open source > projects function (like this > https://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source ) and in particular how the > Apache Foundation works. https://www.apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html. > If you are interested in contributing to the project, a good way to get > started is to subscribe to the listserv, review the functional specs on this > wiki, browse the issue tickets, and start to play around with a build of the > software. Open source can be a great way to find your community, contribute > and get feedback, and put your work into public view. This is true for both > code and the variety of other content needed. > > > > > Where do I find .... > > We get a lot of questions about where to find documentation or the answer > to a specific thing. We do appreciate when people take the time to try to > find the answer before asking. Once you have new content to propose, a > ticket or an improvement to documentation, we encourage you to get involved > on that. Not all contributions are code, take, for example, this FAQ. > > > > > Where do I get the Pentaho Reports? > > Fineract does not ship Pentaho reports or the related libraries, due to > compliance issues with Apache licence. Please head over to the Mifos > community https://github.com/openmf who maintains distributions of Fineract > that include pentaho. > > > > > How do I set this up on my machine? > > First, are you a developer? If you are not, then you may not want to run > fineract on your local machine. Instead you may want to find one of the demo > environments already established or make use of one of the existing cloud > deployments. Also, fineract does not come with a native front end UX. The > UX is part of the distributions that are provided by third parties, including > the aforementioned Mifos Community. > > If you are a developer, then please see how to set up sections on the > wiki. > > Fineract1.x Fineract User Zone > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/Fineract+User+Zone > > FneractCN FINERACT CN > https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/FINERACT/FINERACT+CN > > > > > How do I get something changed in the code? How do I get a feature > added? > > The project is always interested in ideas about features. That said, we > notice some people expect that a feature requested is automatically developed > and incorporated. That is not the case. If you have code to suggest, first > discuss on the list, add an issue to the issue tracker, and then find someone > to help you contribute that feature. You are still not guaranteed that your > feature will make it in, because it must also be accepted by the community. > > > > > I have a great idea for a collaboration tool for the community, how do I > make that happen? > > We know there are lots of great collaboration tools. To keep things > consistent across Apache, there is a philosophy of using current tools rather > than cutting edge, while acknowledging there's always something new and cool. > We use email listservs for their backwards compatibility, searchability, and > simplicity. This wiki has hooks to the issue tracker (JIRA) and github commit > entries hook to the same JIRA tickets for all Pull Requests (PRs). A good > flow is: > > email discourse >> wiki entry |or| issue (JIRA) > > development sprint >> Pull Request >> email list for review and > confirmation > > > > > I represent a Company and want to contribute, how do I do that? > > As stated on http://www.apache.org/foundation/how-it-works.html, > "companies and individuals can donate resources and be assured that those > resources will be used for the public benefit". If you have developers > working at your company, you may encourage them to work on the project, but > note that "All of the ASF including the board, the other officers, the > committers, and the members, are participating as individuals." and further > "the ASF does not allow corporations to participate directly in Apache > project management or other governance activities at the ASF; only > individuals." http://community.apache.org/projectIndependence.html > > > > > I found a security flaw, where do I report that? > > Security is a mandatory feature in Apache projects. Please report your > bug to security AThttp://fineract.apache.org . > > > > > How do I raise a difficult or sensitive topic? > > In general, you are invited to discuss problems you see with the Fineract > project openly, on the [email protected] mailto:[email protected] > list. In some limited cases, please send an email to private @ > fineract.apache.org mailto:[email protected] . Addressing problems > early and openly will keep most problems from becoming too large to handle. A > good rule of thumb is to compose and then wait overnight before firing off > that flame. >
