On 25/04/13 09:49 +0200, Gergely Kis wrote: > We are in the process of selecting the right ERP for our company. > We initially started evaluating OpenERP, but as I was getting to know > the project a little bit better, more and more problems came to my > attention, which I tried to summarize in an email: > https://lists.launchpad.net/openerp-community/msg02588.html
It sounds like the usual concerns about OpenERP.
> A nice member of the Tryton community (I don't know if he wants to
> remain anonymous) pointed me to your project as an alternative to
> OpenERP.
> I of course knew about Tryton as a fork of OpenERP, but for some
> reason I never thought it was still maintained. I have to say that I
> was very pleasantly surprised.
It will be great if you can tell us why did you think it was dead and
how we could have prevent you to think about that. This could help us to
improve the communication.
> I am trying to summarize my current understanding of the project and
> also I would like to ask your opinion about the issues I see:
>
> 1. My first impression was when I started to read about Tryton, that
> as a software project it is executed much more professionally, for
> example:
> - clear release schedule
Yes timebased.
> - migration support
We don't want vendor locking system because it kills the collaboration.
> - sound technical decisions (e.g. using decimals instead of floats, or
> the introduction of PYSON)
Yes we make it first for us to be able to develop peacefully.
> - database independence (although we do like PostgreSQL and intend to use it)
> Do you see any specific technical areas where either Tryton or OpenERP
> is clearly ahead of the other?
Heee, yes I think so :-)
- really modular on_change design
- Active Record pattern
- Dict fields
- Dynamic digits
- One way to manage states of fields
- views not stored in the database
- XML record protected by default
- etc.
There are also big differences in the design of the key modules like
sale, purchase, stock especially the way they interact together.
> 2. Unfortunately Tryton has a much smaller community (at least an
> order of magnitude smaller) than OpenERP. This of course shows in the
> raw count of implemented modules / features. What are the trends in
> the community? Do you see an increase in users / service companies?
We see a slow but stable increase over time. But as we are quite strict
on the inclusion of service companies (require contributions), there is
no place for «parasite».
> 3. On the other hand our requirements are not handled out of the box
> by OpenERP either, so we have to develop our own modules anyways
> (either by ourselves or contracting a partner). I think these modules
> would be interesting for the other members of the community as well --
> either as contributed modules or even as part of the official Tryton
> modules. First I would like to share the specification / requirements
> with you. Is this mailing list the right place for that or
> tryton-contrib / tryton-dev?
It depends if your goal is to have it included in the core then it is on
tryton-dev. If you don't think it is not generic enough then it is for
tryton-contrib.
> 4. The lack of a mature web ui is a problem, because a web interface
> is one of our core requirements. I already tried out the new JQuery
> based web ui, but it looks like as if the css styling is not yet done.
Yes we are focused to cover the minimal requirement to have a minimal
working client at first. So there is no styling at all except the
default JQuery one.
And we rely on the community to help us on the styling.
> Or I made a mistake during the install, in which case I would like to
> know what I missed.
> I know that the development of this client received some funding last
> year. Is it planned to be finished in the next release cycle?
We wanted to have finished our main target for the release 2.8 (50% of
the funding), we are almost. And for sure we will have finished the
funded part for the next release.
> Obvoiusly, if we decide to go with Tryton, we plan to contribute to
> this client ourselves as well.
Great.
> 5. Of course an alternative to using the official web client is
> Nereid, which is something we still have to evaluate.
Be careful, nereid is not a web client. It is a tool to build website
linked to Tryton like an webshop.
> 7. I checked the websites of the companies listed on the tryton.org
> services page, and it looks like most of you still provide services
> for OpenERP as well. What is the reason for this? Are you only
> supporting your existing OpenERP clients, or there are specific areas
> where (even with its issues) OpenERP is still a better choice? Which
> are these areas?
Can not answer this as we (B2CK) don't provide services on OpenERP.
> 8. I already checked out openerp2tryton.com, which I found to be a
> great resource. In your experience: is it possible / practical to
> develop functionality while targeting both Tryton and OpenERP. In
> particular it would be great if the Hungarian localization (chart of
> accounts, translations) could be shared as much as possible --
> provided that the contributors agree to dual license their code under
> GPL3 / AGPL.
> Or have the 2 systems diverged too much to allow such direct code sharing?
Sharing code is really difficult because the API was completly
redesigned in Tryton (and almost unchanged in OpenERP).
Sharing data, it is probably possible if the schema is still similar.
> 9. If the AGPL license is not a problem for us, is it practical to
> port features from OpenERP to Tryton? Or again: it is more practical
> to just use the ideas / design from the existing module (if it makes
> sense), and develop from scratch? I know that the usual answer to such
> questions is: "it depends on the module". What I am interested in is
> some kind of statistics, like: we made X modules for Tryton, and Y of
> that was based on an OpenERP module (a real port), and Z of that was
> new implementation with only some ideas taken from the OpenERP
> counterparts.
We (B2CK) ported all the core modules and we just kept the very general
ideas and made our own design (based on our experiences).
This makes Tryton looks like OpenERP design at first sight but really
different once you dive in it.
So I will strongly encourage to just have a look at what is in OpenERP
but not too much. And also look at other system like Openbravo,
Compiere, SAP etc. to get a good picture of all possibilities.
--
Cédric Krier
B2CK SPRL
Rue de Rotterdam, 4
4000 Liège
Belgium
Tel: +32 472 54 46 59
Email/Jabber: [email protected]
Website: http://www.b2ck.com/
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