+1 Are we in a position to make a decision about the Framework? - Drop it as a product - Fix so it is a product - Replace it with another framework.
It is the first thing that needs to be cleaned up to deal with the issues that Taher raises about add-ons.
Then we can look at defining a clean interface for add-ons where a person can build an add-on and a user can adopt it without breaking the implied warranty offered by an Apache project.
Ron On 31/08/2015 4:13 AM, Taher Alkhateeb wrote:
Hi Pierre and everyone, I like your idea but also observe a bit of a challenge in implementing it due to an inherent problem in the design of OFBiz architecture. One of the things I suffered with personally while developing with OFBiz is in terms of component dependency. I think that OFBiz as it currently stands does not have a proper architecture allowing loose coupling of components. I especially had a problem with this in BIRT. So why is this a problem? Because additional plugins would naturally need to modify some core component(s) and there needs to be a two-way communication between the components, and this needs to be done in a way whereby you can easily remove or upgrade a component and your application would continue operating without damaging the system. So I think having a software eco-system around OFBiz would require first implementing a proper architecture using something like OSGI. We might look at existing implementations like http://www.eclipse.org/equinox/ or http://felix.apache.org/ and figure out how to integrate them. If we do not implement something like the above, then you might be susceptible to conflicts between plugins, inability to update or uninstall plugins, inability to track database changes, and other issues on a similar line. My 2 cents! Cheers, Taher Alkhateeb ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sharan-F" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, 31 August, 2015 10:43:15 AM Subject: Re: A New Initiative Hi Pierre I think this is a really good idea. I know the idea of addons (e.g. Apache Extras and ofbizextra) especially has been raised in the past but has not had a lot marketing around it. I'm sure that a lot of useful code has been developed that might not have made it into the trunk or that people may want to sell. This would also give some good visibility to see what exactly additional functionality is available. Thanks Sharan
-- Ron Wheeler President Artifact Software Inc email: [email protected] skype: ronaldmwheeler phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102
