[WARNING - what follows is a long winded, meandering collections of
thoughts ] [[ The short version is - Let's choose something to implement
and get to making the first full cut between now and August 1 - look
for updates to the wiki pages by Tuesday evening (after working
hours)for the european folks ]]
Hello Frank, Marc, Frederick, Mechtilda, Deki, et al.
I have had a chance to put a bit more thought into this project, and did
a little research also.
The research was to answer a question for my self - From an independent
software solution providers point of view, what does the OO.o users firm
look like? What would they do with OO.o within the company? More
specifically, what types of end user processes would lend themselves to
an implementation using OO.oBase?
One thing I did was, over the course of three evenings, go back to the
OOoForum and do some re-reading of message threads. I looked
particularly for conversations that I had with individuals looking to
fulfill a function that THEY where able to clearly define in the course
of the conversation. ( Some of these included direct emails, not
captured therefore by the forum list server ) I did limit my search to
threads I was involved in, so plenty of others where not looked at.
Still as of July 7 I will have been active on the Base forum for 1 year
with more then a few posts to choose from.
I took away the following impressions:
The greatest number of threads, where the user was looking to implement
a process for use in the business, right this minute, came from
individuals employed in companies very small companies. A reasonable
percentage where single person or family run businesses. In at least two
cases the user was looking to convert a current MS Access database,
which they had written themselves along with help from someone else.
Both databases ran as stand-alone apps on their desktop, access to the
underlining tables was limited to a single individual. Both databases
where used by more then one person, but only in a single user mode. Both
databases implemented bid, order, and invoice generation. They both
produced fairly simple reports and both needed to export the data to a
csv file that was then read into their bookkeepers accounting software.
Right behind this where, self trained, internal IS staff for small
companies ( in other words they never mentioned the words: corporate,
enterprise, IS department ). Here it seemed like most, or at least quite
a few, where actually associated with some form of non-profit
organization. In some of these threads the person was not actually an
employee of the organization but rather contracted support to them. [ At
a discount one would hope ] [[ Also I use the term 'self trained' based
on the level of question they where asking and in many cases self
statements.]]
There where a number of threads with individuals that where trained IS
developers within larger companies. In most of these they did not say a
lot about the specifics of the database functions - the questions tended
to be much more about a very specific Base development step - Basic
code, HSQL syntax, etc. These threads where as often as not on the API
forum.
The largest number of threads however, I would categorize as NEWBIE [I
don't need to define that term any further - do I?], either with
OpenOffice, Base or RDBs.
[[ Personal aside, my goal when I posted my first message on the forum
was to use to act as a quasi-first line customer service tech, this
being the fastest way to really learn the capabilities of the package I
thought. I didn't intend to keep going for a full year
however...chuckling ...c'ie la vie]]
Another thing I did for research purposes was spend some time looking at
the target customers for platforms that would include OO.o/SO. In other
words I spent 2 evenings going over materials at the NOVEL and SUN web
sites. Primarily those pages covering small business offerings. [ Here I
should disclose that I spent the lions share of the time reviewing the
docs for the upcoming SUSE 10, Small Business Suite from NOVEL. The
package offers up to three servers and 50 desktops for US $495. With the
price tag and the packages included it looks like a perfect platform for
a guy like me to target. ] [[ By the way, if anyone can point me to a
package from SUN that is equivalent to the NOVEL offering I would like
to spend as much time reviewing those documents also ]] [[[ While I am
at it - 3 times this past year I have posted messages at the forum
trying to stimulate a conversation as to what FOSS packages a guy might
assemble to compete against the MS Small Business Server package - I
have yet to have sparked much of a conversation there, but am still, all
ears, to what others think about that ]]
Finally, I decided to perform an off-site visit - as a way to more fully
grasp the energy behind the OO.o package. Of course that meant going to
Hamburg. Well that was a bit extreme so the best I could do, on a
moments notice, was fire up ITunes and listen to an Alternative rock
station broadcasting from Hamburg...*smile*...wow, Hip-Hop in German
is...hmmm...interesting, really interesting.
So, back to the subject of this email.
I have talked with my partner in the ceramics business and we have
canceled all our classes for the next 2 weeks, she will take a vacation
and I will work full time on this project. After that I can continue to
work half time on this up to the first week of August. For most of
August I will be on the road, and pretty much not available at all again
until September.
So, if there is no objections I will just plow ahead. The first item has
to be choosing what we are doing!
Today and probably half of tomorrow I will be updating the wiki pages.
Specifically
I have put together the business case scenario for the Queen City
Supply ( fake company ) along with some ideas for a UI. Just to cover it
briefly - the idea comes directly from a conversation on the forum. The user is
the internal IT developer for a small distribution company. They already have
IS systems for the business, except for the actual route drivers. The idea is
to place laptops in the delivery trucks. The lap top must run a self contained,
single user database application. The application should prompt for next
delivery stop, allow the driver to generate an order form, generate a report
that shows what was delivered off the truck at the end of a run ( the driver
can use this to re-stock their truck ), the information from the laptop
database must be transfered to the IS systems for invoicing, billing purposes.
In point of fact the users first idea was to simply have the drivers laptop
generate an invoice form and save an image of it to the hard disk as a pdf
file. The laptop is simply docked at the end of the day and the pdf files
copied to the network server. The billing people print two copies, one is
mailed to the customer and the other is placed in the files. The companies
current systems are updated manually be these same staffers.
Update to the scenario for Plato Total Health Systems. My idea here
would be to concentrate on a similar situation. The day of the seminar a staff
member would have a laptop at the check-in table. It should also allow for
adding an attendee - this would require updating to the customer table,
generating an order for the seminars fee and printing a receipt, also printing
a name tag. In other words that this be the small piece of the overall scenario
we implement, per my earlier comments.
Finally, I have another small existing database, similar in size and
function to the database put together by Deki. In this case it is used by 4
local substitute teachers. It quite simply allows them to track the number of
miles they have driven during a period. They are reimbursed for these miles and
just want a way to double check the school boards computer. It also allows them
to track out of pocket expenses incurred during the year, as they can claim
this on their taxes. At the moment I am updating the database to meet a request
for a 5th and new user. He often travels to 2 or more schools in one day.
Currently the database only allows 1 entry per day and it must be from a fixed
location (home) to a certain school. Anyhow, it will be ready to put up for
review by wed. this week. [actually, it is already available in partial form as
an attachment to an issue I entered last night: Issue # 66734 ]
So - perhaps a collection of some small databases might be better then one large? Juliana at e-easle.org put a nice single form 'Home Inventory' database into the public domain. You can get copy of it at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=155237
[NOTE TO SELF - really gotta start working on the OOBaseStation pages ]
What I would really like to be able to do is get some sort of collective
approval on one of these scenarios or the collection of smaller
databases by the end of this week, or Monday next. But if we could get
some agreement by this Thursday so much the better.
Slightly different subject - locating the files. I believe that the wiki
can be used to host files but I don't know what, or how, versioning is
done - beyond just savings copies with version in name method which I am
sure one could do. However, since I did open the site on SourceForge I
could offer to use this for storing the working copies, everyone would
have easy access. For individuals that would want to make changes they
can be added to the project. At some point then a release would be made
to the OO.o servers [ Frank, you mentioned that 'there would be help if
needed' - this is one of those places and I have two other specific
needs depending on what databse is decided on...I'll point both spots
out in the wiki pages]
So - What I will do then is continue on with what I have been doing for
the next couple of days. Hopefully something will spark an idea that can
be turned into a plan, that gets turned into a database.
One thing that I will do no matter what is make three database files
available by Monday evening. The file TeachingDays.odb I mentioned
earlier, but not by name and two files I have for the other two
scenarios mentioned on the wiki - these will be pretty much be just a
basic schema for the business use cases mentioned. Each odb file would
have a companion ( of the same name) basic library file included.
That would give us 3 or 4 choices to consider. More hopefully!!!
Sincerely,
Andrew 'Drew' Jensen
For OO.o correspondence please use
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
For any thing commercial please use
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hey, if you want to say hi, talk about fishing or play a game of chess try
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[ just be forewarned - it may be a month between moves *wink* unless I
feel I can beat you quick oh and one last request...NO COMPUTER
PLAYERS...just homo sapien's or those derived from common super class
...I'll know or would I?....would you know?]
