it would take a long time to answer all your questions in detail.
My opinions:
In general most developers that come to ofbiz attempt to use what they
know to apply to ofbiz. I have found taking fresh minds that have not
invested in one form or another of programing are the easiest to learn
ofbiz, since they don't have a lot of unlearning to-do.
Though ofbiz is "Java based" most application work is done with Widgets
and FTL for UI with minilanq and groovy for interacting with the data.
Unless you are getting into the Framework, there is not much Java used.
It would benefit you to get the three volumes of the data model book in
the book section of the ofbiz site.
about 2/3 of what you listed is possible OTTB, about a 1/3 will take
man months to implement.
an example of adding is your contracts.
there is Agreements data structure already in place, as is Requirements.
However you will need to implement the particular business logic to
marry them and create contracts.
=========================
BJ Freeman
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
Vadim Eisenberg sent the following on 9/2/2010 11:19 AM:
Hello OfBiz developers,
My name is Vadim Eisenberg and I work at IBM Research - Haifa, on the
UniversAAL project - http://universaal.org/. It is a consortium European
project. Its goal is to create a platform for applications, services and
devices for Ambient Assisted Living, that is a kind of "Smart Home" for
senior citizens. As part of the platform, we - several software developers
- have to develop an e-commerce site - uStore
http://universaal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=9&Itemid=21
. This site would be a one-stop-shop for software, services and devices
for Ambient Assisted Living.
We consider using OfBiz for implementation of uStore.
I would like to ask you several questions about the features we want to
implement. I would be glad to hear any information you can tell me about
how hard could it be for us to implement these features. Please note that
we have no prior experience with OfBiz.
Any your thoughts, intuition, experience, advice about OfBiz/business
programming are welcome.
In particular, the following information would help us very much :
How much work should be done by us in order to implement all the
features that follow (Person/Months, Person/Years, for skilled OfBiz
developers/general software engineers). Which part would be to use
existing "extension" mechanisms of OfBiz and which part would be
actually changing the OfBiz code ? Here your intuition/experience from
related projects is welcome, we do not need exact numbers, just a
ballpark.
How much time the general software developers have to learn about OfBiz
and how skilled in OfBiz they should become in order to implement these
features
E-commerce website features:
Using e-commerce site for selling software (such as AppStore of iPhone)
and downloadable files in general (video, presentations of courses
etc.). Here the issue is to manage links where the bought files could be
downloaded. The idea is to prevent a situation in which buyers would buy
a software application, receive a link to it for downloading and share
the link afterwards with anybody they want, so anybody would be able to
download the application without paying for it.
Using e-commerce site for selling services (human services and others)
Extending e-commerce site with general widgets, such as calendar, clock,
map, a widget for downloading files, etc., and integrating the widgets
with the OfBiz
Integration with other websites/services:
Integrating an e-commerce website with another (non-OfBiz backed) site -
adding possibility for sellers to add products to the e-commerce site
via the other site, to see customer feedback provided on the e-commerce
site via the other site
Integrating an e-commerce website with another (possibly non-OfBiz)
e-commerce website, such as eBay/Amazon. What are the current
possibilities of integration with eBay ?
Integrating an e-commerce website with post/delivery services/sites
Adding advanced features:
Adding support for signing business contracts between service consumers
and service providers, between providers of different services etc. via
the e-commerce site
Adding support for applying capability/requirement model, such as
JSR-124, (for example for matching between customer's requirements and
capabilities of software, devices and services). The customer or
software agent on behalf of the customer could provide his requirements
as part of his account information, and the e-commerce solution would
match between the products (according to their capabilities) and the
requirements of the customers.
Has OfBiz a recommendation engine (providing recommendations to a user
based on his activity - searches, purchases, reviews etc.) ? If no, how
hard would it be to add it ?
Can the OfBiz-based e-commerce web site be presented by browsers of
smart phones ? How hard would it be to enable it ?
Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the requirements
of the customer
Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the geolocation
of the customer
Adding support for customization of products/services and changes in the
prices according to the customization during the purchase process
Adding support for a composition solution of hardware, software and
human services (bundles, kits). A seller could compose a new product by
combining several existing products
Adding support for manual approval of products by site administrators
before submission of the products to the e-commerce site
Adding support for managing versions of the software applications that
are sold on the e-commerce website
Sorry for so many questions and sorry if some of them are out of context.
Best Regards,
Vadim
-------------------------------
Vadim Eisenberg
IT for Healthcare& Life Sciences
IBM Research - Haifa
