Hi The steps for an OFBiz demo are pretty straight forward, and works quite well most of time.
The main stumbling block I ran into was setting up OFBiz for production. Granted, I did it before the Production Setup Guide existed, but it was a truly onerous task with huge gotcha's since I was trying to run it on a popular virtual private server, a mistake since it caused unique challenging errors that no one had ever seen. However, it seems that all that is in the past, and now we have a number of great opportunties: 1.) What about creating a "Production Patch" with instructions. People could just go through that with Search and Replace to customize it for their needs, run it, and be off. This system seems like it would be pretty easy to create and keep up to date. The one gotcha I've seen here is to make sure the user runs the patch against a certain release to avoid conflicts during the patch. 2.) Would there be a need for a live CD? It could even be possible to set one up a complete running OFBiz system with a database, apache, etc. 3.) A VMware image. VMware seems to be taking the server world by storm, and virtual OFBiz instance might be really popular. Does this spark any other ideas? On Tue, 2007-01-02 at 12:20 -0700, David E Jones wrote: > First a couple of general thoughts on this: > > 1. we are still working through the process of establishing policies > and procedures for community supported binary releases, and we > haven't done a binary release in years (but will hopefully get a > branch going soon, and a stable version of that branch in a couple of > months) > > 2. my guess as to why this doesn't exist already is that Apache OFBiz > is server-side software and such installers are not as common for > this sort of thing (yes, they do of course exist); there are SO SO SO > many configuration options that an automated install would have to be > a huge piece of software, or address a simple case, like a demo/test > install > > That said, and to follow up on Chris's reply to this with the install > steps, the installation of OFBiz is super-easy OOTB, especially for a > binary build which would look like this: > > 1. make sure you have Sun Java 1.4 or 1.5 (JDK, not just JRE) installed > 2. download OFBiz binary build, and unzip to a directory > 3. go into that directory and run the executable jar file > (ofbiz.jar), or one of the startup scripts > > And that's IT, PERIOD. Installing Ant is not necessary because OFBiz > includes the libraries and a script for that. A build from SVN > procedure is almost as easy: > > 1. make sure you have Sun Java 1.4 or 1.5 (JDK, not just JRE) installed > 2. make sure you have an SVN client installed > 3. with the SVN client, checkout http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ > ofbiz/trunk in a new directory > 4. go into that directory run "ant run-install", or in Linux/Unix "./ > ant run-install" > 5. still in that directory run the executable jar file (ofbiz.jar), > or one of the startup scripts > > If that's too complex for a server side application demo/test > install, I don't know what to say... or how much more we can really > do about it. What else would an automated install do? I guess it > could check the one and only dependency there is: the JDK > installation. That is where most people run into problems. The best > way to avoid that: use a Mac. ;) > > Seriously though, this world is quite #$%^ed up and there are so many > different variations in operating systems, versions of Java (OFBiz > does NOT work with gcj and other such things), and so on that I don't > know that we can do a lot in this area. Say we chose a version of > Linux to support: now people have to install THAT version of Linux in > order to easily use OFBiz... hmmm... > > Still, if someone wanted to work on this, I certainly wouldn't > complain... ;) > > -David > > > On Jan 2, 2007, at 9:04 AM, Andrew Ballantine wrote: > > > Walter Vaughan wrote: > > "As a strategy, that's an excellent idea. Curing world hunger is > > another, > > but > > executing is another thing." > > > > Well, you can choose to make facetious remarks if you must, but I > > consider > > this very important. > > > > If you look back over the user mailing list you will find it > > littered with > > requests for help just getting ofbiz up and running. I would bet > > that a lot > > of them loose interest fairly quickly and we loose a potential > > user/contributor. Since no one can evaluate the framework without > > getting it > > working, that makes it very important that new users get a really > > painless > > and easy automated installation process. > > > > About 2 years ago I was evaluating ofbiz and used the Windows > > install that > > was available then. It wasn't completely automated or that easy, > > but I got > > through it. I tried the same thing in Linux, because the final > > production > > system must run on Linux, and got totally bogged down. > > > > I know that the history of Open Source has tended not to provide easy > > installation procedures or documentation, but the trend is > > changing. You > > will find that many of the projects that support multiple operating > > systems > > have excellent automated installation procedures. OK it needs a bit of > > effort to set up, but once done it should be easy to maintain and keep > > working. > > > > I deliberately specified ONLY one Linux distribution, Ubuntu 6.06 > > LTS, to > > simplify the job and chose a distribution with a 5 year support plan. > > > > I have to confess that I have looked at other ERP Open Source > > projects to > > see if I could find one that was easier to use than ofbiz. I am > > sorry if > > this hurts, but it is true. However I keep coming back to ofbiz > > because of > > its excellent architecture and true open source community. > > > > I think it essential that the new user be at least accorded a decent > > automated install process to avoid loosing them at the first hurdle. I > > primarily want to USE the framework to drive my client's business > > processes > > and then contribute any patches that I feel are needed to improve the > > framework. I do not want to spend hours or days fiddling about with > > all > > sorts of things just to get the thing working without producing error > > messages all over the place. > > > > We also should remember that newcomers to Open Source are also new > > to Linux > > which only adds to the learning curve. Faced with a huge learning > > curve > > there is a strong tendency to give up and stick with the trash we > > have grown > > to hate e.g. Microsoft. > > > > Is it really so difficult to create two automated install > > procedure? I would > > like to see a single executable download file which will then do > > everything > > that is needed to install a running ofbiz framework. That includes > > installing the correct versions of any products needed to support the > > installation e.g. Java Ant Postgres etc > > > > I am interested in helping put together such procedures given some > > help from > > your good selves. > > > > Kind regards, > > > > Andrew Ballantine. > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Walter Vaughan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: 02 January 2007 13:30 > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: Re: Community supported releases WAS [Re: Properly edited > > OFBiz > > manuals] > > > > > > Andrew Ballantine wrote: > > > >> I second all of that and would like to add a request that each new > >> release > >> provides an automated installation procedure on MS Windows and one > >> flavour > >> of Linux, say Ubuntu 6.06. > > > > As a strategy, that's an excellent idea. Curing world hunger is > > another, but > > executing is another thing. > > > > Where we have a failure as a community right now it the document we > > have at > > http://incubator.apache.org/ofbiz/docs/GettingAndUsingOFBiz.pdf > > which probably is an old version, with incorrect links > > (it points to http://svn.ofbiz.org/ which tosses a 403 error page), > > (it points to > > http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBTECH/OFBiz+Technical+Production > > +Setup+Guide > > which needs a little more hand holding, and as well points to > > http://svn.ofbiz.org/ which tosses a 403 error page), > > (it points to http://www.sequoiaerp.org/ which hasn't been around > > in 10 > > months). > > > > This page is slightly better > > http://incubator.apache.org/ofbiz/docs/setup.html > > but it sill suffers from non-linear thought process > > > > As soon as the dust settles on getting us out of the "incubator" I am > > completely > > confident we'll have bulletproof installation, startup, and next > > step guides > > in > > place. > > > > -- > > Walter > > > > > > -- > > No virus found in this incoming message. > > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.2/613 - Release Date: > > 01/01/2007 > > 14:50 > > > > > > -- > > No virus found in this incoming message. > > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.2/613 - Release Date: > > 01/01/2007 > > 14:50 > > > > -- > > No virus found in this outgoing message. > > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > > Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.16.2/613 - Release Date: > > 01/01/2007 > > 14:50 > > > > > > > > ***************************************************************** > > This email has been checked by the altohiway Mailcontroller Service > > ***************************************************************** >
