Hi BJ:Just the way it has always been done. You evaluate the download, decide what changes you'd like to make, and then set about making those changes. Nothing new in that.
All I'm suggesting is the we make the evaluation of OFBiz easier for those who are new to the project by minimizing the possible problems that may arise when getting started. Note, this was how OFBiz was distributed as recently as 4 months ago. There is nothing new here!
Regards, Ruth BJ Freeman wrote:
so someone download the file like you say it should be. then they decide to know use ofbiz in production. how do you propose they do that? ========================= BJ Freeman <http://bjfreeman.elance.com>Strategic Power Office with Supplier Automation <http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation/viewforum.php?f=52>Specialtymarket.com <http://www.specialtymarket.com/> Systems Integrator-- Glad to Assist Chat Y! messenger: bjfr33man Ruth Hoffman sent the following on 8/26/2010 11:01 AM:Hi BJ: Sorry, I don't understand your question. Regards, Ruth BJ Freeman wrote:and what do you propose for those that decide to make use ofbiz? ========================= BJ Freeman <http://bjfreeman.elance.com> Strategic Power Office with Supplier Automation <http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation/viewforum.php?f=52> Specialtymarket.com <http://www.specialtymarket.com/> Systems Integrator-- Glad to Assist Chat Y! messenger: bjfr33man Ruth Hoffman sent the following on 8/26/2010 10:19 AM:Hi BJ: My suggestion - as I have said many times before - is for the official Apache OFBiz download page (http://ofbiz.apache.org/download.html) to provide a link to download of a "stable released" version of OFBiz that is: Pre-built (all jar files included) Has the seed, demo and all other available data loaded into the currently distributed database - which is Derby And the name of this file should have the SVN version number included in it. (This is just in case someone like me would like to participate and provide JIRA posts.) I'm not concerned with developer's site or the snapshot site. IMHO, no new user should ever be downloading from these sites unless theyunderstand upfront how all this works. [To keep this all in perspective:You don't see the Tomcat people pointing new users to the development/source code site.] Prettty simple. Regards, Ruth BJ Freeman wrote:for the sake of discussion lets say you have the equivalent of a nightly build for the release, which btw you can get now, not just as a release. what do you propose for those that decide to make use ofbiz? Mind you the demo is running in derby. ========================= BJ Freeman <http://bjfreeman.elance.com> Strategic Power Office with Supplier Automation <http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation/viewforum.php?f=52> Specialtymarket.com <http://www.specialtymarket.com/> Systems Integrator-- Glad to Assist Chat Y! messenger: bjfr33man Ruth Hoffman sent the following on 8/26/2010 9:40 AM:Hi BJ: Sorry, my mistake. Yes, I meant seed and demo data. IMHO, the OFBiz Release that is on the official download page should be fully functional out-of-the-box. For example, if you download a version of Tomcat or the Apache web server, you get a fully functional demonstration of how thesework out-of-the-box. The value in this is that if the user attempts toinstall Tomcat and does not get the index.html page (or whatever thestartup page is these days) then they know something is wrong with thedownload and/or with the unpacking of the code.In the OFBiz case, because is at least one additional step is involved and at least 2 more variables are thrown in the mix: Java and buildingjar files & loading demo data - if something goes wrong, well, for a seasoned user such as yourself, no big deal. But for inexperienced OFBiz users, it may mean the difference between giving up and going to another project or simply downloading it again. Maybe no big deal to the developers who frequent this list. But certainly a big deal to potential new users. Just my 2cents. Regards, Ruth BJ Freeman wrote:did you mean Demo data. with seed data alone you can not even login to ofbiz. ========================= BJ Freeman <http://bjfreeman.elance.com> Strategic Power Office with Supplier Automation <http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation/viewforum.php?f=52> Specialtymarket.com <http://www.specialtymarket.com/> Systems Integrator-- Glad to Assist Chat Y! messenger: bjfr33man Ruth Hoffman sent the following on 8/26/2010 9:04 AM:Hi All: I respectfully beg to differ here: There is no reason for a small business to have to use SVN in order toimplement OFBiz. While it is nice to have that functionality, and Imiss the SVN version information that is no longer available in the recent "releases" from the download site, I've successfully implement many an OFBiz application without ever using the SVN functionality. Of course, I'm just one developer - SVN really shines when you have multiple developers working on the same code.Secondly, why would the compiled binary always be updated? I thoughtonce a "Release" was released, the only updates are bug fixes. And from past conversations on this list, those only happen - maybe once a quarter. This is not rocket science. The proposal to re-instate the binary jar files and install the seed-data for a fully functional version of OFBiz- one that runs out-of-the-box, is what was available as an official Apache OFBiz Release and download as recently as 4 months ago. Then,someone decided (ok Adrian, say what you must) to change this. Regards, Ruth Matt Warnock wrote:I have to agree with Scott, there is no big effort required here. OFBiz is a development platform, it is constantly being updated, and even the branches are getting new fixes constantly. It is inefficient todownload a "compiled binary distribution" which is constantly beingupdated, so learning to use SVN, even for branches, is really a must. And that means recompiling the code. As someone pointed out earlier, the instructions just need to be fixed so that new user expectations are appropriately managed. As to the effort of creating a binary distribution, I would much rathersee that same effort spent on solving the in-place database upgradeissues that have been discussed here for some time, for example. Those bit me on the butt this week. :-)
