RFC: Component Goals and Direction

[Chris Howe <cj...@yahoo.com>]

Hey All,

There has been some light discussion in
https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-822 on how the application
components are maintained, their goals, and their direction. I'd like
to get some feedback as to how the larger community feels on these
topics.

Re: RFC: Component Goals and Direction

[Adrian Crum <ad...@hlmksw.com>]

+1

Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
> I'd say we should try to make them the best we can: as user friendly, 
> universal, easy to customize, stable as possible.
> 
> Jacopo
> 
> 
> Chris Howe wrote:
> 
>> Hey All,
>>
>> There has been some light discussion in
>> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-822 on how the application
>> components are maintained, their goals, and their direction. I'd like
>> to get some feedback as to how the larger community feels on these
>> topics.
> 
> 
> 

Re: RFC: Component Goals and Direction

[Jacopo Cappellato <ti...@sastau.it>]

I'd say we should try to make them the best we can: as user friendly, 
universal, easy to customize, stable as possible.

Jacopo


Chris Howe wrote:
> Hey All,
> 
> There has been some light discussion in
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-822 on how the application
> components are maintained, their goals, and their direction. I'd like
> to get some feedback as to how the larger community feels on these
> topics.

Re: RFC: Component Goals and Direction

[BJ Freeman <bj...@free-man.net>]

as the widgets expand, I feel we will have the abilities of Swing type screens 
implemented in an HTML display.
note: the ease of this will only come, like in Swing, when ofbiz implement a 
WYSIWYG interface for the widget.

Since the widgets are always being enhanced that mean the WYSIWYG will have to 
be updated at the same time.
that is no small task.

as also noted: ofbiz is not meant to be the all answer to a finished product, 
but a big tool kit to accomplish a lot, once you understand it.



Chris Howe wrote:
> Hey All,
> 
> There has been some light discussion in
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-822 on how the application
> components are maintained, their goals, and their direction. I'd like
> to get some feedback as to how the larger community feels on these
> topics.
> 
> 
> 
> 

Re: RFC: Component Goals and Direction

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

Hi,
In continuation to my comments on Jira Issue, I'll prefer keeping enhancing
Admin apps where possible. By doing this we can keep resources where they
belong and use special purpose apps only when needed. One of the problems I
faced while working on Asset Maint component is, I had to copy lot of code
to my component because user wanted it to look pitier. If we can have Admin
component become more intuitive, then  special purpose apps will just link
back to artifacts in admin components instead of coping then and Improve
their usability.

Regards
Anil Patel


On 3/16/07, Chris Howe <cj...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Hey All,
>
> There has been some light discussion in
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-822 on how the application
> components are maintained, their goals, and their direction. I'd like
> to get some feedback as to how the larger community feels on these
> topics.
>
>

Re: RFC: Component Goals and Direction

[Chris Howe <cj...@yahoo.com>]

My abstract take on the topic...

My take on this topic was for the longest time very similar to Jacopo's
answer.  However, as I've personally moved further and further down the
learning curve and witnessed OFBiz mature month to month, my take on
this has changed slightly.  My take has changed even more so in light
of the great work Adrian has done to enhance the widgets and the
relatively recent addition of the <include> element in the site-confs. 
These improvements make customization so much easier that it pushes
OFBiz applications in my mind as examples as opposed to solutions which
is much better for the community.

Given the following caveats, which I believe are pretty solid as we've
seen quite a bit of disappointment from those who have come and gone
from the community when these are not understood amply.  If these
caveats aren't correct then obviously my line of abstract thinking
isn't either.

1) The application components are to be generic representations of
common business practices 
2) There are very few companies that will be able to use OFBiz
applications OOTB regardless of the amount effort put into the
applications
3) Every company has too many specific needs to rely on a cookie cutter
approach to handle their business on the whole.
4) OFBiz should not be used in a mission critical environment without
ample needs analysis

The application components should ideally convey the following
information in order of importance.
1) A robust data model that can maintain the majority (if not all) of
data regarding the particular business concept and their relationships
to other business concepts.
2) An array of services that can maintain a majority of the business
processes for that business concept.
3) Stability
4) Security
5) Scalability

Those 5 are appropriate goals for the core components because they do
not necessitate thinking of a particular user.  The last three on the
list are likely the first three on a list for the framework. (that
covers Stable and Universal on Jacopo's list)

Easy to customize comes from adhering more to the following concepts
1) M-V-C model
2) Semantic Markup
3) Greater use of Widgets
4) Separation of templates so that each does one thing, and one thing
well

OFBiz does well here, but there's always room for improvement.

I consider user-friendliness to be the last thought with regard to the
base applications, but at the top of the list for the specialized apps.
  If user-friendliness interferes at all with demonstrating business
concepts or business processes, it shouldn't be added to the base
applications regardless of the amount of benefit it may show. The
reason for this is simply the concept of user-friendly predicates that
you have a user in mind.  There is certainly benefit in
user-friendliness but that's best demonstrated in specialized apps.

Thanks for the feedback!

,Chris
--- Chris Howe <cj...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hey All,
> 
> There has been some light discussion in
> https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/OFBIZ-822 on how the
> application
> components are maintained, their goals, and their direction. I'd like
> to get some feedback as to how the larger community feels on these
> topics.
> 
>