Hi Michael:
I've spent many hours comparing OFBiz to all sorts of other software
packages and here are some observations I've made. Please see inline:
Michael Wechner wrote:
Hi
I am currently evaluating Java-based Open Source eCommerce solutions,
whereas it seems that there is only OFBiz and KonaKart, whereas
KonaKart is not really Open Source (at least the core isn't) and since
I very much appreciate the ASF, I would like to embrace OFBiz.
You can't go wrong with the ASF licensing model. That is what keeps me
coming back. As a business person, I believe that this aspect of OFBiz
should not be underestimated!
But in order to make a neutral/objective statement to my colleagues, I
wanted to ask how you see this comparison and if there
exists any pointers (I searched via Google, but didn't really find
anything useful) and if there are other alternatives?
First of all I have to say that installation from SVN trunk was very
fine and I got OFBiz up and running very quickly (on Mac OS X Snow
Leopard), but then some questions popped up:
I develop and have deployed on a MAC. Don't you just love it ;-) In all
fairness, I've also worked with OFBiz on Windows, RedHat and (Sun)
Solaris systems and, as the Java "promise" implies, it is definitely
operating system agnostic.
1) How do I generate a WAR file such that I can deploy it within my
own Tomcat?
You do not need to generate WAR file(s) as the Tomcat engine and
Catalina servlet container are embedded in the project. All Java code is
deployed as Jar files and put on the CLASSPATH by OFBiz at startup time.
2) Where can I configure to use my own DB (instead Apache Derby) and
what do I need to do
to populate the initial data (instead ant run-install)?
Here is one of the neatest things about OFBiz. You can point the OFBiz
Entity Engine to any number of databases just by changing a few lines
in the ~framework/entity/config/entityengine.xml.
To install your own data, there are several tools that come with the
project. Check out the "WebTools" especially the "Entity XML Tools"
(http://localhost:8443/webtools/control/main), the "Data File Tools" or,
if you want, you can load the database off-line using your own data
loading scripts. (This can get tricky as there are lots of field key
dependencies built into the OFBiz data model. So, if you are loading
OFBiz data model data, you will need to know something about the
relationships database tables have with one another.)
3) How can I change the Look/Feel of the Frontend?
Well, the good news is that you can change anything you want. Most of
the eCommerce front-end is generated through Freemarker template files
merged with data that is dynamically processed using Groovy scripts.
Much of the ERP backend application UI is generated using OFBiz
"widgets". Widgets are XML Documents that describe various HTML elements
and common web page structures such as Forms, menus, menu trees etc.
Widgets are suppose to make building OFBiz web pages easier since they
may be set up to automatically query the database without the screen's
author needing to know how to write query language statements. Of
course, the screen author needs to know which database table and field
to use...and then there is the XML to deal with. But, you have a choice.
Lots of choices!
Another consideration here is the application of "themes". Themes remove
some of the CSS and Javascript from widgets and Freemarker templates and
allow these screen building blocks to be applied at runtime. The
eCommerce web application has been partially "themed". Personally, I
have mixed feelings about this...but that is another story.
4) How can I implement custom code, such as for example price reducing
depending on number of shopped items?
For this specific example, you don't need to implement any custom code.
The shopping cart promotional rules engine may be configured to handle
this situation.
To implement custom code, if you mean one or more OFBiz Events, Services
and/or utilities, then there are several online tutorials that give you
some idea how to do this. This is not hard to do. See the Wiki for more
information.
5) How can I integrate OFBiz with my content management system (e.g
display the shopping cart) inside the pages which are generated by the
CMS?
Can't answer that. I use the OFBiz content management features to do all
that.
6) What about Scalability and Performance (how many products, users,
etc.)?
7) What about Backwards compatibility and upgradeability of OFBiz?
Compatibility and upgrade paths are a tough question to answer because
there are so many parts that make up OFBiz. The good news is that you
have full access to all the code, so if there is a compatibility issue,
it can be tracked down.
I will keep continue searching for answers and will keep you posted on
my progress, but would
appreciate any feedback if you have any pointers at hand.
Good luck!
Thanks
Michael
Regards,
Ruth Hofman
[email protected]
