Terminology

[Craig Parker <cr...@fossfolks.com>]

I'm trying to nail down what some of these names are, and not having 
much luck with some of it. If there's a glossary anywhere that I haven't 
seen yet, can someone point me in the direction?

Organization = The over-arching business? The company that owns all the 
manufacturing, distribution, and sales?

If you've got a manufacturing plant, a retail store, a website (for 
online sales) and a hot dog stand, I was initially thinking these were 
all Facilities while noodling through some old docs. But I'm not so sure 
after looking at sample data and the menu options.

Parties are any employees or customers. Vendors too?

I've got more, but will stew on these for the moment. I'm actually 
trying to concoct a small "story" that even my kids will understand. 
Other folks may be in same the boat as me where they understand a whole 
process, but the names we're using in OFBiz mean something else in 
whatever ERP they're coming from. The one I use has separate AP and AR 
terms (terms as in "pay by the 10th, get 10% off your bill" or "pay 
after the 15th and get a 2% finance charge"), but in OFBiz it looks like 
everything is lumped into something called Agreements, and you can have 
a vendor or a customer using the same (I call it terms) agreement.

I'm guessing there are a ton of these kinds of things. I see them 
spelled out to some degree in the "official" docs I've got (from 
2006-ish) but it isn't really spelled out enough for me at least to 
understand.

Re: Terminology

[Taher Alkhateeb <sl...@gmail.com>]

Pushed "Enter" too quickly, rest of my reply inline

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 8:02 AM, Taher Alkhateeb <slidingfilaments@gmail.com
> wrote:

> Hi Craig,
>
> This would be a good time to buy "The Data Model Resource Book" by Len
> Silverston. OFBiz data model is heavily based on that book (volume one) and
> I should say it is an excellent read even if you don't use OFBiz.
>
> With that being said I'll take a shot at answering some of your questions
> inline...
>
> On Apr 27, 2017 5:24 AM, "Craig Parker" <cr...@fossfolks.com> wrote:
>
> I'm trying to nail down what some of these names are, and not having much
> luck with some of it. If there's a glossary anywhere that I haven't seen
> yet, can someone point me in the direction?
>
> Organization = The over-arching business? The company that owns all the
> manufacturing, distribution, and sales?
>
>
> An organization is just a party. However there is a special party role
> called INTERNAL_ORGANIZATIO (yes missing N) which denotes the main business
> being served by the system. The main entities to look at are "Party",
> "PartyRole", "RoleType"
>
>
> If you've got a manufacturing plant, a retail store, a website (for online
> sales) and a hot dog stand, I was initially thinking these were all
> Facilities while noodling through some old docs. But I'm not so sure after
> looking at sample data and the menu options.
>
>
Some are facilities and some are stores.


>
> Parties are any employees or customers. Vendors too?
>
>
or any company, or anything else. A team, a family, whatever. There are two
main types of parties: Person and PartyGroup. The latter could be an
organization or anything else that represents a group of people.


>
> I've got more, but will stew on these for the moment. I'm actually trying
> to concoct a small "story" that even my kids will understand. Other folks
> may be in same the boat as me where they understand a whole process, but
> the names we're using in OFBiz mean something else in whatever ERP they're
> coming from. The one I use has separate AP and AR terms (terms as in "pay
> by the 10th, get 10% off your bill" or "pay after the 15th and get a 2%
> finance charge"), but in OFBiz it looks like everything is lumped into
> something called Agreements, and you can have a vendor or a customer using
> the same (I call it terms) agreement.
>
> I'm guessing there are a ton of these kinds of things. I see them spelled
> out to some degree in the "official" docs I've got (from 2006-ish) but it
> isn't really spelled out enough for me at least to understand.
>
>
>

Re: Terminology

[Taher Alkhateeb <sl...@gmail.com>]

Hi Craig,

This would be a good time to buy "The Data Model Resource Book" by Len
Silverston. OFBiz data model is heavily based on that book (volume one) and
I should say it is an excellent read even if you don't use OFBiz.

With that being said I'll take a shot at answering some of your questions
inline...

On Apr 27, 2017 5:24 AM, "Craig Parker" <cr...@fossfolks.com> wrote:

I'm trying to nail down what some of these names are, and not having much
luck with some of it. If there's a glossary anywhere that I haven't seen
yet, can someone point me in the direction?

Organization = The over-arching business? The company that owns all the
manufacturing, distribution, and sales?


An organization is just a party. However there is a special party role
called INTERNAL_ORGANIZATIO (yes missing N) which denotes the main business
being served by the system. The main entities to look at are "Party",
"PartyRole", "RoleType"


If you've got a manufacturing plant, a retail store, a website (for online
sales) and a hot dog stand, I was initially thinking these were all
Facilities while noodling through some old docs. But I'm not so sure after
looking at sample data and the menu options.

Parties are any employees or customers. Vendors too?

I've got more, but will stew on these for the moment. I'm actually trying
to concoct a small "story" that even my kids will understand. Other folks
may be in same the boat as me where they understand a whole process, but
the names we're using in OFBiz mean something else in whatever ERP they're
coming from. The one I use has separate AP and AR terms (terms as in "pay
by the 10th, get 10% off your bill" or "pay after the 15th and get a 2%
finance charge"), but in OFBiz it looks like everything is lumped into
something called Agreements, and you can have a vendor or a customer using
the same (I call it terms) agreement.

I'm guessing there are a ton of these kinds of things. I see them spelled
out to some degree in the "official" docs I've got (from 2006-ish) but it
isn't really spelled out enough for me at least to understand.

Re: Terminology

[Pierre Smits <pi...@gmail.com>]

Hi Craig,

Simply put, an organisation is a human construct to name a grouping of
parties. This can mean a group, a team, etc. of natural or legal entities.
Often the organisation becomes a legal entity on its own (company,
foundations, union, etc.)

Regarding facilities, you could see them as constructs that are often
associated with an asset. But in accounting one often sees this limited to
fixed assets, facilitating a specific purpose. Think plot, building
(office, warehouse, manufacturing location). Along that line, a hot dog
stand (a table, with a heater on it) would not qualify due to its size or
value. But you may decide otherwise.

Parties are all the human and legal entities one can think of. For the sake
of clarity excludes animals (animals are an other kind of resources). The
human entitites are associated with the OFBiz construct PERSON, while the
legal entities are associated with the construct PARTY_GROUP.

As with any other ERP solution, business terminology is abundantly used to
explain functions and constructs in OFBiz. There are similarities with
other business software packages and there deviations.

The book mentioned by Taher explains where OFBiz partly comes from, data
model-wise. But beware, it hasn't been applied to the letter, as deviations
from it were implemented. While the book provides a great help
understanding OFBiz partly, there are 2 other volumes that delve deeper
into data models for specific target areas. You also have to keep in mind
that it is just a model, trying to reflect a reality at a certain moment in
time. It can be outdated/incomplete at points.

Whenever you feel uncertainty or doubt popping up about how something is to
be used with, or applied in OFBiz, do NOT hesitate to ask.

Best regards,

Pierre Smits

ORRTIZ.COM <http://www.orrtiz.com>
OFBiz based solutions & services

OFBiz Extensions Marketplace
http://oem.ofbizci.net/oci-2/

On Thu, Apr 27, 2017 at 4:24 AM, Craig Parker <cr...@fossfolks.com> wrote:

> I'm trying to nail down what some of these names are, and not having much
> luck with some of it. If there's a glossary anywhere that I haven't seen
> yet, can someone point me in the direction?
>
> Organization = The over-arching business? The company that owns all the
> manufacturing, distribution, and sales?
>
> If you've got a manufacturing plant, a retail store, a website (for online
> sales) and a hot dog stand, I was initially thinking these were all
> Facilities while noodling through some old docs. But I'm not so sure after
> looking at sample data and the menu options.
>
> Parties are any employees or customers. Vendors too?
>
> I've got more, but will stew on these for the moment. I'm actually trying
> to concoct a small "story" that even my kids will understand. Other folks
> may be in same the boat as me where they understand a whole process, but
> the names we're using in OFBiz mean something else in whatever ERP they're
> coming from. The one I use has separate AP and AR terms (terms as in "pay
> by the 10th, get 10% off your bill" or "pay after the 15th and get a 2%
> finance charge"), but in OFBiz it looks like everything is lumped into
> something called Agreements, and you can have a vendor or a customer using
> the same (I call it terms) agreement.
>
> I'm guessing there are a ton of these kinds of things. I see them spelled
> out to some degree in the "official" docs I've got (from 2006-ish) but it
> isn't really spelled out enough for me at least to understand.
>
>