What is the OFBiz Framework Strategy?

[Sharan-F <sh...@gmail.com>]

Hi All

Am starting a new thread for discussion around the framework strategy and
any proposed changes based on some postings on the user mailing list.

----

Hi Sharan, Ron and everyone,

This thread mirrors what we discussed on Pierre's thread on having a
software eco-system around OFBiz. It seems many of the topics are repeating
around a central idea. In a nutshell, OFBiz is not designed in a very
modular way and components depend on each other too much.

I like the idea of moving the services and entities into a central location,
but I do not think this is a permanent fix for the root of the problem. The
question still remains: How do we break this thing down into reasonable
chunks that are easy to manage ?

So, although there is a lot of effort in cleaning the components up, we
first need to focus on the framework design itself. If we introduce a change
that adds better modularity then we can slowly evolve the system because the
architecture allows it and we do not have to do any crazy superman efforts
to fix things.

IMHO we should finalize the discussion that took place a while ago on the
strategy. We have multiple options to choose from, for example:

- Introduce Moqui as the core framework for the system
- Introduce a plugin framework like Apache Felix or Eclipse Equinox
- Write custom code to allow loose coupling. For example, we design the
framework so that a component would not fail if it does not find resources
from another component and there would be a graceful exception handling that
would simply ignore the missing pieces and operate with whatever is left.
- Work on, improve and integrate the OFBiz addon manager (ADM) and make it
part of the framework
- Another solution for example is to strip out anything that is shared
between any two components into a separate component so that you have a
component dependency structure that is 100% tree-like, just branching out so
for example, if order depends on accounting and accounting depends on order,
move stuff out from both components into a shared lower level component
(including widgets)

Bottom line, let's agree on a strategy, this is so important and would save
us hundreds of hours of cleanup work and really push us all in one
direction.

My personal preference is with a proven plugin architecture like the ones I
mentioned above (Felix or Equinox). However, Any of the above or even other
solutions are also good. Anything is better than not choosing a strategy.

My 2 cents

Cheers

Taher Alkhateeb.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Ron Wheeler" <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, 1 September, 2015 3:10:31 PM
Subject: Re: A New Initiative

The structure looks more reasonable.

With regard to the diagram, I have some questions.
Can the Party component really be extracted from the Framework?
If it can, what is left in the Party component as a separate thing?
What has to be moved to the Framework from Party?

How do we get from here to there?

Can Moqui be swapped into OFBiz as a framework if this is done right?
That is, can the layers be properly defined to allow different
components to be used in each of the components. Is there sufficient
value in this?

Ron

On 01/09/2015 4:02 AM, Sharan-F wrote:

> Hi All
>
> A while ago I put this diagram together to help visualise and plan some of
> the framework changes that people in the community had talked about.
>
> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Roadmap+Diagrams+-+In+Progress 
> <https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Roadmap+Diagrams+-+In+Progress>
>
> The feedback on this idea was very positive and that it would bring some
> real benefits but I think no work was ever done around it. We have another
> Community Day coming up later this month so if we can agree on what needs
> to
> be done (even if it is only a small step) then I think it would be good to
> include it.
>
> Thanks
> Sharan
>
>
>
>
> --
> View this message in context:
> http://ofbiz.135035.n4.nabble.com/A-New-Initiative-tp4671708p4671745.html 
> Sent from the OFBiz - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
... [show rest of quote]


-- 
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: [hidden email]
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: 866-970-2435, ext 102




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