Just a quick thought on this: yes.
Okay, maybe that was too quick. ;)
This is a matter of refinement and improvement and in order to have
OOTB configurations for different industries would be necessary.
Thinking about this more, and adding on to what I wrote earlier, I
think 2 things are needed in OFBiz for an effective "OOTB"
configuration, and this is true of many other apps that have industry-
specific templates or variations (all the way from QuickBooks to SAP):
1. base data (initial/recommended chart of accounts, Parties,
Facilities, Store(s), etc, etc)
2. a setup wizard to get through at least the most necessary and
important settings for a given type of company; some of this could be
generic too: like company name, contact info, etc, etc; beyond those
basic things it would be industry, or "flavour", specific
If anyone wanted to invest in this you'd have my full support as this
is a direction that has been discussed before and that it would be
great to eventually go.
-David
On Jan 4, 2007, at 9:43 AM, Daniel Kunkel wrote:
Hi Ian
Excellent idea.
The one issue I'd like to revisit before we got too far down this road
and create more work later.
Could we embed more of the company/instance configuration information
into the database.
Right now quite a few of the configuration settings that are
associated
with a particular company are hard coded into files rather than
being in
the database. Some examples are the default currency, email connection
settings, ups and usps connection details, etc.
I think having the configuration settings defined in the database are
needed to create a truly user friendly product. Remember when of every
single little change of an PC's network configuration required a
reboot.
Furthermore, it will support the conglomerates where different
divisions
each have their own UPS or USPS account, credit card account, or e-
mail
templates.
Thanks
Daniel
On Wed, 2007-01-03 at 22:44 -0800, Chris Howe wrote:
I've been reading the posts on this thread all day and
trying to refrain from bashing my head on the keyboard
thinking this topic was already answered definitively.
Apache Ofbiz does have an auto-installation script
and the only way to make it more automatic is to be
bound by GPLv2 that would occur by bundling Java JDK.
However, this evening I had the opportunity to
reintroduce myself to a dear old friend....Webmin
(http://www.webmin.com/) And it dawned on me:
installation and installation are two different
things!!
Looking at webmin, these are a collection of
completely geeked out tools that can be configured by
just about the average Joe (assuming the average Joe
knows what the project is supposed to do based on the
strange names that some projects program under). How
difficult would it to be to make entityengine.xml,
url.properties, general.properties, (heck every ofbiz
file for that matter) configurable through a web
interface? (Didn't the content component have this as
somewhat as a goal at some point?) If someone could
manufacturer a demo script on how to make this
available, I'm sure the community could complete it.
Any takers?
--- Ian McNulty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
That sounds like good news.
But I also understand where those who are against
installers are coming
from.
There's no point in having an easy installation if
subsequent
implementation is not equally trouble free. At least
at the moment the
difficulty of the installation gives good warning of
the condition of
the road ahead!
Imho an installer should be somewhere on the list,
but not at the top of it.
More important would be the presentation of a
proposition or a package
that users can easily understand.
This does not necessarily mean a one-click
installation.
Think of the development of any technology you like.
The motor car is as
good an example as any. Early installations were
tailor-made one-offs,.
hand-built by experts, of value only to engineers,
enthusiasts and the
extremely rich. The interface varied with each
installation. The
accelerator on the steering wheel and the brake
outside the drivers door
for godsakes! Who thought that one would ever fly?
It took years before
the interface settled down and standardised around
something even your
grandmother could learn to drive. Years more to move
beyond the
proposition you could have any color you liked just
as long as it was
Windows - ehr, sorry - black! Years more before most
drivers could be
assured that they wouldn't have to - in the words of
the old song - "get
out and get under" every time they popped down the
shops for a pint of milk.
Everyone accepts that complex technology requires
some kind of learning
curve. And that, without proper maintenance, it will
probably break down.
But it wasn't until the training could be
standardised, and maintenance
became more a matter of a regular oil change than a
regular engine
rebuild, that the the motor car became a proposition
that was easy to
understand, and the technology could move out of the
garage and onto the
highway.
The change this precipitated was so radical that,
now, it's the
proposition of life WITHOUT the motor car that most
people would find
difficult to understand!
Ian
Anil Patel wrote:
Regarding Installation,
We have experimented with Building Ubuntu 6.06
Live CD with Ofbiz.
Also it
installs to hard drive with Ubuntu.
Anil
On 1/3/07, Adrian Crum <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Some time ago BJ Freeman had suggested an
installation wizard that would
walk
users through the installation process. Something
along that line
packaged
on a
CD might be what's needed.
Daniel Kunkel wrote:
Hi Ian
I'm going to jump in and say I think there may
be a better way.
From what I'm reading, I get the idea that you
want to create some
sort
of fork in the development in order to have a
version that is simpler
and more easily implemented out of the box.
I REALLY don't like the idea of any kind of
development fork even
though
I see how alluring it is given the huge
untapped markets. With a
project
as big and encompassing as OFBiz, it's easy to
see how certain design
decisions have affected the appropriateness of
the application for
particular markets.
I would like to see if we can build on the
strength of OFBiz's
framework
and create more "interchangeable plug-ins" like
those in the
specialized
directory that add or remove features as
needed. I think this could be
used to create an app that is easily
configured for the needs of any
particular company.
Furthermore, it might help to create a simpler,
more intuitive
interface. If the interface is clear and easy
to use, even small
companies will appreciate most of the extra
features.
Perhaps some developers on this list already
have modules they've
created can share them as a specialized
modules.
Thanks
Daniel
On Wed, 2007-01-03 at 18:22 +0000, Ian McNulty
wrote:
Andrew,
Me again :)
Right on the money old son. OFBiz light was one
of the possible
strategies that came to mind.
The principal would be that to move from a
high-end, high-value,
tailor-made service where a skilled wheelwright
is needed to
re-factor,
if not reinvent, the wheel on every
installation, to more of a
mass-market solution with a wider user-base,
requires offering easily
understood, preconfigured solutions in price
bands customers can
afford.
That's a whole science in itself!
In the absence of that, the strategy would be
to use the net for
what it
has proved to be best at. Building user-groups
and user-generated
content.
The functionality of the user interface on ;the
mailing list we are
currently communicating through is proven for
it's efficacy in
focusing
the attention of a relatively small and highly
motivated group onto
resolution of sticky technical issues. But in
this context, an
avalanche
of n00bies asking the same old questions would
be indifferentiable
from
an avalanche of spam.
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