Ruth Hoffman wrote:
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!
agreed and this what is a quite a drawback re KonaKart, that the core is
not Open Source whereas to be fair the rest of the software seems also
to be licensed under the Apache License. According to KonaKart one does
not need the core which I currently cannot judge, but another important
thing to me is that the data really seems to be transparent and easy
migratable, and they claim that they support the osCommerce data model.
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.
that seems to me quite a drawback, because I would like to integrate it
tighter with the existing environment and it's also not clear to me how
this should work within a clustered environment, but maybe I just need
to understand it better in order to really understand what the
implications are.
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.
thanks for this pointer
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.)
thanks for pointing this out
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.
thanks again for these notes. I will give the various choices a try and
see what fits best.
I would of course prefer XSLT ;-), but I assume that is currently not an
option
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.
thanks, will have a closer look at it
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.
That's a must have for me and I was hoping that OFBiz would provide some
SOAP interfaces or something similar
6) What about Scalability and Performance (how many products, users,
etc.)?
do you have any experience re Scalability/Peformance?
As mentioned above what about setting up OFBiz within a clustered
environment?
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.
good and bad ;-) but from your answer I read that it is not always
backwards compatible, right?
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 again for all your answers
Michael
Thanks
Michael
Regards,
Ruth Hofman
[email protected]
