Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.

[Karl Martindale-Vale <ka...@hotmail.com>]

Hi guys,

I've been lurking on the ofbiz-user list and in the archives for about a 
week in an attempt to assess whether OFBiz is the right tool for our job and 
was hoping to get your opinion 'from the inside'.

We're a fairly small point-of-sale company based in Australia and are in the 
initial stages of developing a 'head office' package.  The primary functions 
of this package would be:
- Administration of product records,
- promotion admin,
- loyalty program admin, and
- reporting.

I've watched the FrameworkIntro_* movies and had a play with the opentaps 
release (& installed eclipse/wtp) and believe that I have a basic 
understanding of the way the major components of ofbiz fit together.

If we were to use the ofbiz framework I think that in order to create a more 
visually rich and responsive UI than a markup based interface is capable of 
producing I'd like to implement a compiled UI in something like Swing, 
Swing&XUI, SWT, .Net running under Mono, or GTK.

I see from David's May '03 posting to OFBiz-Devel 
(http://lists.ofbiz.org/pipermail/dev/2003-May/002411.html) that we'd be 
interacting primarily with the Service Engine as our interface to the 
framework.

Given that the size of the development team would be 2-3 and our Java 
experience is currently fairly basic, and what we'd initially like to use 
the framework for, in your opinion would making use of the ofbiz framework 
(and traversing its learning curve) be a more feasible alternative to to 
starting 'from scratch'?

Thanks for your time,

Karl Martindale

_________________________________________________________________
Advertisement: Fresh jobs daily. Stop waiting for the newspaper. Search now! 
www.seek.com.au  
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau&_t=757263760&_r=Hotmail_EndText_Dec06&_m=EXT

Re: Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.

[Anil Patel <to...@gmail.com>]

I am sure you already know there is POS component in Ofbiz.
Regarding change in UI for Admin apps in Ofbiz, I'll say if you really don't
just HATE HTML Web apps, Based on your requirements there are few things you
can do, Like Creating a Webapp that uses Forms and Screens from Ofbiz
component and Customize them to do how you like, Add some ease of use using
Ajax etc. At different times I have read in mailing list, people thinking to
do something like this and finally either they did a closed room
implementation so I don't know, else they settled for Webapp path.

We've done such things and have helped.

Regards
Anil Patel

On 1/9/07, Karl Martindale-Vale <ka...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for your reply Anil.
>
> Yes I realise there's quite some work in reimplementing the interface but
> I
> do believe the change is important.  The two angles I'm trying to weigh up
> are:
> - ofbiz with a new front-end, and
> - starting from scratch.
>
> The functionality in ofbiz that is in addition to what we'd like to
> achieve
> in the initial release of the 'head office' app will be useful in future
> for
> additional features and maybe taking ofbiz to a store level but for
> today's
> discussion I'd like to leave that aside (a short sighted measure I know,
> but
> a simplifying one nevertheless).
>
> -Karl
>
> >From: "Anil Patel" <to...@gmail.com>
> >Reply-To: ofbiz-user@incubator.apache.org
> >To: ofbiz-user@incubator.apache.org
> >Subject: Re: Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.
> >Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 15:42:25 -0800
> >
> >While Ofbiz has most out of feature set you are looking
> >I am not sure if you really need UI to be implemented using
> Swing/SWT/.NET
> >etc, it will be lot of work.
> >
> >Regards
> >Anil
> >
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Advertisement: Fresh jobs daily. Stop waiting for the newspaper. Search
> Now!
> www.seek.com.au
>
> http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau&_t=757263760&_r=Hotmail_EndText_Dec06&_m=EXT
>
>

Re: Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.

[Karl Martindale-Vale <ka...@hotmail.com>]

Thanks for your reply Anil.

Yes I realise there's quite some work in reimplementing the interface but I 
do believe the change is important.  The two angles I'm trying to weigh up 
are:
- ofbiz with a new front-end, and
- starting from scratch.

The functionality in ofbiz that is in addition to what we'd like to achieve 
in the initial release of the 'head office' app will be useful in future for 
additional features and maybe taking ofbiz to a store level but for today's 
discussion I'd like to leave that aside (a short sighted measure I know, but 
a simplifying one nevertheless).

-Karl

>From: "Anil Patel" <to...@gmail.com>
>Reply-To: ofbiz-user@incubator.apache.org
>To: ofbiz-user@incubator.apache.org
>Subject: Re: Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.
>Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 15:42:25 -0800
>
>While Ofbiz has most out of feature set you are looking
>I am not sure if you really need UI to be implemented using Swing/SWT/.NET
>etc, it will be lot of work.
>
>Regards
>Anil
>

_________________________________________________________________
Advertisement: Fresh jobs daily. Stop waiting for the newspaper. Search Now! 
www.seek.com.au 
http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau&_t=757263760&_r=Hotmail_EndText_Dec06&_m=EXT

Re: Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.

[Anil Patel <to...@gmail.com>]

While Ofbiz has most out of feature set you are looking
I am not sure if you really need UI to be implemented using Swing/SWT/.NET
etc, it will be lot of work.

Regards
Anil

On 1/9/07, Karl Martindale-Vale <ka...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi guys,
>
> I've been lurking on the ofbiz-user list and in the archives for about a
> week in an attempt to assess whether OFBiz is the right tool for our job
> and
> was hoping to get your opinion 'from the inside'.
>
> We're a fairly small point-of-sale company based in Australia and are in
> the
> initial stages of developing a 'head office' package.  The primary
> functions
> of this package would be:
> - Administration of product records,
> - promotion admin,
> - loyalty program admin, and
> - reporting.
>
> I've watched the FrameworkIntro_* movies and had a play with the opentaps
> release (& installed eclipse/wtp) and believe that I have a basic
> understanding of the way the major components of ofbiz fit together.
>
> If we were to use the ofbiz framework I think that in order to create a
> more
> visually rich and responsive UI than a markup based interface is capable
> of
> producing I'd like to implement a compiled UI in something like Swing,
> Swing&XUI, SWT, .Net running under Mono, or GTK.
>
> I see from David's May '03 posting to OFBiz-Devel
> (http://lists.ofbiz.org/pipermail/dev/2003-May/002411.html) that we'd be
> interacting primarily with the Service Engine as our interface to the
> framework.
>
> Given that the size of the development team would be 2-3 and our Java
> experience is currently fairly basic, and what we'd initially like to use
> the framework for, in your opinion would making use of the ofbiz framework
> (and traversing its learning curve) be a more feasible alternative to to
> starting 'from scratch'?
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Karl Martindale
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Advertisement: Fresh jobs daily. Stop waiting for the newspaper. Search
> now!
> www.seek.com.au
>
> http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau&_t=757263760&_r=Hotmail_EndText_Dec06&_m=EXT
>
>

Re: Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.

[Si Chen <si...@opensourcestrategies.com>]

Samuel Benz wrote:
> Karl,
>
> I am working on a team of 3 in my group and I would suggest checking out
> the following site to get started,
> http://www.opensourcestrategies.com/ofbiz/tutorials.php The learning 
> curve
> is heavy but it provides just about anything you may need. The hard 
> part is
> customizing it.
>
> On 1/9/07, Karl Martindale-Vale <ka...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> I've been lurking on the ofbiz-user list and in the archives for about a
>> week in an attempt to assess whether OFBiz is the right tool for our job
>> and
>> was hoping to get your opinion 'from the inside'.
>>
>> We're a fairly small point-of-sale company based in Australia and are in
>> the
>> initial stages of developing a 'head office' package.  The primary
>> functions
>> of this package would be:
>> - Administration of product records,
>> - promotion admin,
>> - loyalty program admin, and
>> - reporting.
>>
>> I've watched the FrameworkIntro_* movies and had a play with the 
>> opentaps
>> release (& installed eclipse/wtp) and believe that I have a basic
>> understanding of the way the major components of ofbiz fit together.
>>
>> If we were to use the ofbiz framework I think that in order to create a
>> more
>> visually rich and responsive UI than a markup based interface is capable
>> of
>> producing I'd like to implement a compiled UI in something like Swing,
>> Swing&XUI, SWT, .Net running under Mono, or GTK.
>>
>> I see from David's May '03 posting to OFBiz-Devel
>> (http://lists.ofbiz.org/pipermail/dev/2003-May/002411.html) that we'd be
>> interacting primarily with the Service Engine as our interface to the
>> framework.
>>
>> Given that the size of the development team would be 2-3 and our Java
>> experience is currently fairly basic, and what we'd initially like to 
>> use
>> the framework for, in your opinion would making use of the ofbiz 
>> framework
>> (and traversing its learning curve) be a more feasible alternative to to
>> starting 'from scratch'?
>>
>> Thanks for your time,
>>
>> Karl Martindale
>>
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Advertisement: Fresh jobs daily. Stop waiting for the newspaper. Search
>> now!
>> www.seek.com.au
>>
>> http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau&_t=757263760&_r=Hotmail_EndText_Dec06&_m=EXT 
>>
>>
>>
>
OFBIZ is big and can be hard to learn, but it can be learned even by 
people who have no prior programming backgrounds (like me!)  I wouldn't 
worry too much about having limited Java experience--OFBIZ does a lot of 
that stuff for you, so you don't have to get too level with Java to 
write pretty fancy applications.

The alternative of course is to go on your own and write it from 
scratch.  I think the problem you'll have is that a small team such as 
yours could never match the pace of an open source project like ours or 
a big commercial vendor competing in your market.  By building off our 
project and getting involved it, you can eventually deliver a lot more 
value to your users.

Also, I'd think given what you're talking about, it might be improving 
or implementing a new user interface, but you'd be using the other 
applications as well, not just  the framework.

Re: Do you think OFBiz is the 'right' choice for us.

[Samuel Benz <sa...@gmail.com>]

Karl,

 I am working on a team of 3 in my group and I would suggest checking out
the following site to get started,
http://www.opensourcestrategies.com/ofbiz/tutorials.php The learning curve
is heavy but it provides just about anything you may need. The hard part is
customizing it.

On 1/9/07, Karl Martindale-Vale <ka...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi guys,
>
> I've been lurking on the ofbiz-user list and in the archives for about a
> week in an attempt to assess whether OFBiz is the right tool for our job
> and
> was hoping to get your opinion 'from the inside'.
>
> We're a fairly small point-of-sale company based in Australia and are in
> the
> initial stages of developing a 'head office' package.  The primary
> functions
> of this package would be:
> - Administration of product records,
> - promotion admin,
> - loyalty program admin, and
> - reporting.
>
> I've watched the FrameworkIntro_* movies and had a play with the opentaps
> release (& installed eclipse/wtp) and believe that I have a basic
> understanding of the way the major components of ofbiz fit together.
>
> If we were to use the ofbiz framework I think that in order to create a
> more
> visually rich and responsive UI than a markup based interface is capable
> of
> producing I'd like to implement a compiled UI in something like Swing,
> Swing&XUI, SWT, .Net running under Mono, or GTK.
>
> I see from David's May '03 posting to OFBiz-Devel
> (http://lists.ofbiz.org/pipermail/dev/2003-May/002411.html) that we'd be
> interacting primarily with the Service Engine as our interface to the
> framework.
>
> Given that the size of the development team would be 2-3 and our Java
> experience is currently fairly basic, and what we'd initially like to use
> the framework for, in your opinion would making use of the ofbiz framework
> (and traversing its learning curve) be a more feasible alternative to to
> starting 'from scratch'?
>
> Thanks for your time,
>
> Karl Martindale
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Advertisement: Fresh jobs daily. Stop waiting for the newspaper. Search
> now!
> www.seek.com.au
>
> http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fninemsn%2Eseek%2Ecom%2Eau&_t=757263760&_r=Hotmail_EndText_Dec06&_m=EXT
>
>