Without details on what was involved in the engagement it is impossible to say. I've seen OFBiz ecommerce customizations range from $1,000 to well over $1,000,000, all perfectly valid but just varying in scope.
However, I don't think this really has anything to do with OFBiz per- se, it's just a contracting issue and there is nothing in the open source project or community that can say who is right and who is wrong.
If I was to comment on this as an outsider I'd say both sides need to be more careful and do a bit more analysis and/or requirements definition before committing to a price. I'm obviously biased on this, but you might have a more reliable/consistent experience working with a more experienced provider.
On a side note, this isn't really under the topic of development of OFBiz, so really shouldn't be on the dev list.
Best of luck! This sort of thing is never is easy and there is no easy solution. If if was easy we'd all be paying $500 for an off-the- shelf solution and no one would even know what a consultant is.
-David On Feb 26, 2007, at 12:36 PM, Eric Crawford wrote:
Thanks for the comments David. I am mostly trying to determine if these guys are just blaming their lack of productivity on the current design assuming that I will take their word for it, or if they are making accurate statements. I am getting the impression that they are in over their heads and they want to make excuses, using the current code as a reason for their case. They quoted us $2500 originally to design and implement the changes into the ofbiz ecommerce app. This price seemed lower than I expected originally, but they are now doubling the price after digging into the code. I am all for paying someone a fair price for their time and effort, but I think doubling the price right around the time that the project should be completed is not good business. On 2/26/07, David E. Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:On Feb 26, 2007, at 11:00 AM, Eric Crawford wrote:> We recently hired someone to design our "look and feel" for our ofbiz> based ecommerce site. They were hired to design the ecommerce site > using XHTML and CSS for layout, complying with web standards and> integrate the changes into the OOTB ofbiz ecommerce code. I am hoping> that someone can tell me if they feel that these are fair arguments> for increasing the originally quoted price, as the original price was> quoted with no knowledge of ofbiz or the technologies used on their > part. Following are some comments that they made about the > design/coding of the out of the box ofbiz ecommerce user interface: > > * coding is a lot messier than the documents claim > * every component has a variable from headline image to tagline> comments and some variables code for a line and some code for 30 lines > * chaotic coding mess and the time and effort involved trying to clean> up OFBiz in an XHTML and Variable standpoint >> Unfortunately, my experience is in the development of back-end systems > and therefore, I am not very familiar with programming for web- based > front ends so I feel like I could use the opinions of the community to> help me determine whether or not these are fair statements. > > Any feedback is appreciated, > Eric I'm not totally sure I understand your questions, so I'll restate them and then give my answer. 1. Are the standard OFBiz ecommerce templates complicated because of the feature richness of the pachage? Yes. 2. Is it a good idea to quote a price for work that you don't understand well and have never done before? No. 3. Is coding public facing applications different than internal applications, ie do the patterns and requirements differ? Yes. 4. Do you have to use all of the variables and every OOTB template in your final design? No, and generally people do not. -David
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