On Nov 11, 2009, at 2:18 AM, Shi Jinghai wrote:
Forgot to say, Facebook and iGoogle are the best samples of all :).
Hmmmm... the ui of FB and Google are example of ui that are richer
than the one of OFBiz, but I would not say that they are good examples
of good ui.
Often what is "nice" is not really useful, especially when the user
performs repetitive tasks.
For example: sometimes it is annoying to move your hands from the
keyboard to the mouse.
Some general enhancements I would like to see in OFBiz:
* better error/success messages
* better handling of keyboard tab to move from one field to another
* more and better multi row submit screens
* more informative form fields (e.g. showing descriptions instead of
just ids)
* enhancing field interactions (the value of one field can change/
hide/ etc other elements/data in the screen)
BTW, I think it would be much better to focus on specific use cases/
workflows/system interactions, and suggest enhancements; for example:
1) go to order manager
2) select "order entry"
3) select a customer; SUGGESTION: here I would like to get a better
selection mechanism, with....
4) after the selection of a customer, etc...
In this way it will be easier to focus on specific solutions and
improve, working with the community, key processes in the system.
Cheers,
Jacopo
在 2009-11-11三的 09:13 +0800，Shi Jinghai写道：
In the architectural level, JBoss Portal can be a good sample, the
concepts are portal, page, window.
http://www.jboss.org/jbossportal/
or
http://www.jboss.org/gatein
If you're interested in how a user configs his/her page, you can
login
our portal:
http://sso.langhua.org/cas/login?service=http%3A%2F%2Flanghua.org%
2Fportal%2Fauth%2Fportal%2Fdefault%2FHome
Username: anon
Password: anon
In window level, OpenCms is a good example, list, dialog and etc.
http://demo.opencms.org/en/
If you're interested in how a user use it, you can login our cms
workplace:
http://sso.langhua.org/cas/login?service=http%3A%2F
%2Fcms.langhua.org%
3A80%2Fopencms705%2Fopencms%2Fsystem%2Flogin%2Findex.html
Username: anon
Password: anon
Regards,
Shi Jinghai/Beijing Langhua Ltd.
在 2009-11-10二的 19:02 -0500，Ruth Hoffman写道：
Hello Shi:
Please excuse my ignorance, but what exactly do you mean by "web
GUI"?
Could you give an example of another application suite that has a
"web
GUI" as you suggest?
Regards,
Ruth
Shi Jinghai wrote:
OFBiz already has a core system (like a dos or linux core), it
needs a
Windows/GNU(web GUI), perhaps it's time to consider to introduce
a new
party who is an expert on this. Please don't confuse the GUI with
CSS,
it's on dialog, window, menu, list, form and etc.
Just my 2 cents,
Shi Jinghai/Beijing Langhua Ltd.
PS: please rename the GUI in framework to another name.
在 2009-11-10二的 07:17 -0700，Brett
Palmer写é“：
Here are the notes that I took during the ApacheCon 2009 User
Round Table.
The conference was a success but I believe was less attended
than normal.
I've been to about 6 ofbiz conferences and this one was the
least attended
by ofbiz users than others. I attribute this to the current
economic
situation rather than anything else.
Interestingly, a lot of the comments during the round table were
similar to
ones that we have had in the past. The project continues to make
progress
but from outsiders it is difficult to measure as some of the new
features
takes months to see in the end product.
There were six people in attendance at the round table. A few
had to leave
early to catch planes in the afternoon. Of those that attended
the round
table two were speakers (myself and Ruth). Three of the
attendees were
service providers trying to better understand the direction of
ofbiz and one
was a new user that was active in other Apache projects and
wanted to know
more about ofbiz.
Here are the key comments:
* Everyone was very interested in the new project that Dave
introduced a
couple of weeks ago about a specialized application for small
business. They
wanted to know a lot more about this project and what it would
include.
There was a lot of excitement about the proposal. I didn't have
a lot of
details to share so I told them to watch the mailing list for
more details
on the subject.
* Most common complaint. The UI for the out of the box ecommerce
application. The general feedback was that from a technical
perspective
people like ofbiz but it was difficult to convince key business
people that
ofbiz was right for their organization because of the lacking
"sizzle" in
the default application. Non-technical people have a hard time
determining
how difficult it is to customize the UI and in a quick review
will opt for a
better looking application because that is all they can really
evaluate.
The general thought was that the lack of a very nice front end
was slowing
the adoption for ofbiz
* Another suggestion was around content management. The ofbiz
CMS is not
fully complete with a UI and business logic. The question was
asked if it
was possible to plugin other CSM packages the the Java Content
Repository
(JCR).
* There were some comments on OpenTaps and what it means to
OFBiz. This is
always an interesting discussion and I tried to explain the
licensing
problems with using OpenTaps. The one benefit people had about
using
OpenTaps is that it has a full CRM application that people can
use from the
start. OfBiz is more general and requires more customization.
* SugarCRM and other similar applications are examples of very
large user
communities because the application is a complete solution. It
is difficult
to convince people to use ofbiz because there are pieces that
are not
complete and require customization. The ability to customize is
a benefit
for some users but a drawback for others and is a hindrance to
wide spread
adoption.
* Is it possible to break up the components more into separate
installable
modules. For example, framework versus applications. We
discussed how this
is currently done but the feedback was to make it easier for
people to pick
and choose what components to install.
* Any plans to integrate a complete rules engine into ofbiz
* Version control for release branches. Are they plans to do
more frequent
releases? The current download of the nightly build is
misleading as user
think it is a stable release build but it is really just the
nightly build
from the trunk.
* It was stated that OFBiz is a unique apache project as it is
focused on
business solutions where as most apache projects focus on a
single technical
problem. How that technology is used in an application is
generally
irrelevant. OFBiz is different in that it tries to provide a
complete
solution for businesses and users. The feedback was that in the
future it
would be nice to attract more end users to the ofbiz apache
conference
rather than technical people that implement the solution. This
was agreed
that if there were more complete applications that the user
community would
grow and all people in the community would benefit.
* Another strategy for OFBiz would be to define business best
practices and
then implement those processes into the applications. This is a
difficult
task as all businesses are unique but just as ofbiz adopted a
common data
model there most be common business practices that would benefit
all
businesses.
* Improving the integration of the seleniumXml test framework
with the
existing ofbiz test framework. Also more examples of tests using
the OOTB
ofbiz applications would be desired.
The above comments are notes that I took during the round table
discussion.
They are not my own personal opinions but of those of the
group. Please
feel free to comment on these ideas for the benefit of the
community.
Overall, the people attending the conference commented that they
would like
OFBiz to continue to have these each year. They would like to
see more
users attending the conference in the future.
Thanks,
Brett
