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Posted to user@ofbiz.apache.org by Alaa Murad <al...@doit.com.sa> on 2020/02/20 01:15:32 UTC
Ofbiz as back end for POS
I'm a long follower of ofbiz , but I have some questions before I do use
it in a big project, we have our own custom POS / App and we are looking
to have ERP integrated with it.
1. I do see the Accounting section, but I can't see the basic and must
have reports like Balance sheet, P/L statement, cash flow statement
! am I looking at the wrong place ? !
2. We are planning to use ofbiz for few different companies, they all
100% independent, can we have one ofbiz instance for all of them ?how ?
3. How easy to sync/push products, invoices , payments , etc. from our
POS --> ofbiz (i.e. can we insert invoice via APIs)
4. How far behind ofbiz is from odoo (mainly accounting / sales)?
5. I do see Arabic support implemented to some degree, but is it full
support, for example currency format, RTL (both web and PDF)
6. Finally, how stable/active is ofbiz ? I see 30-40 emails per month
only in the mailing list, this make me very worry !
Thanks
Re: Ofbiz as back end for POS
Posted by Pierre Smits <pi...@apache.org>.
The limitation of one OFBiz implentation handling multiple tenants depends
on:
- memory available for OFBiz on the machine hosting the implementation
- settings regarding the pool-size of the used (underlying) RDBMS
If you want to host a solution for dozens, 100s or 1000s of
clients/customers you need to High Availabilit/FailOver aspects. Clustering
on various levels comes to mind.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Pierre Smits
*Proud* *contributor* (but unfortunately without privileges)* of* Apache
OFBiz <https://ofbiz.apache.org/>, since 2008
*Apache Trafodion <https://trafodion.apache.org>, Vice President*
*Apache Directory <https://directory.apache.org>, PMC Member*
Apache Incubator <https://incubator.apache.org>, committer
Apache Steve <https://steve.apache.org>, committer
On Sun, Feb 23, 2020 at 9:10 AM Jacques Le Roux <
jacques.le.roux@les7arts.com> wrote:
> Le 22/02/2020 à 18:51, Alaa Murad a écrit :
> > Thanks a lot for all replies, one important feature that we need is to
> be able to run unlimited companies (with Chinese Walls between them) , do
> we
> > really need to have a new DB for each company ?
>
> According to
> https://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/6539/Multi-tenant-Database-Shared-Database-Separate-Schema-in-SQL-Server.html
>
> There are mostly 3 ways to implement multitenant Separate Databases Shared
> Database, Separate Schemas Shared Database, Shared Schema
>
> OFBiz uses the 1st. So with this way you will have as much as *tenant* DBs
> as you introduce *tenants*. Pro and cons are explained in the document
> above.
>
>
> > how that will even work, one risk that caching (from JDBC driver, or
> Ofbiz itself) maybe a problem , i.e. this is not PHP were each call is
> 100%
> > hitting the db, in Java we cache many stuff in JVM memory ! unless this
> will result in a new ofbiz instance (in JVM) in this case running ofbiz as
> > SaaS will be very expensive.
> >
> >
> > Our POS system is a SaaS and we may have 100s or 1000s of
> clients/companies and we don't want to spin a new ofbiz instance for each
> one !
>
> There should not be worries with caching. Because with "multitenant
> Separate Databases" you run only one OFBiz instance with a DB per tenant
> but,
> thanks to the delegator concept, OFBiz knows what data belong to what
> tenant.
>
> This said currently there is no mechanism to automatically create tenants
> DBs on fly in OFBiz. So you would need to implement that. For 100s to 1000s
> client it's at the limit of reasonable. I worked for a client who hoped
> for much more (up to millions). Then OFBIz is hardly suitable and a
> solution
> based on OFBiz in this case demands a lot of code change.
>
> >
> > I'm confused a bit about "2 tenants" and that we need to have 2
> databases for each !
>
> I hope the article above helps.
>
> HTH
>
> Jacques
>
> >
> >
> > Thanks in advance !
> >
> >
> > On 2/20/20 2:09 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> Inline completing Pierre's answer as much as possible
> >>
> >> Le 20/02/2020 à 08:37, Pierre Smits a écrit :
> >>> On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 2:15 AM Alaa Murad <al...@doit.com.sa>
> wrote:
> >>> 2. We are planning to use ofbiz for few different companies, they all
> >>> 100% independent, can we have one ofbiz instance for all of them
> ?how ?
> >>>
> >>> In this scenario I would advice to set up 2 tenants to ensure having
> >>> Chinese Walls between the 2 companies. Each tenant would have its own
> >>> database, and can have different plugins in play.
> >>
> >> BTW, you may have as most as tenants you need
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>>> 3. How easy to sync/push products, invoices , payments , etc. from
> our
> >>>> POS --> ofbiz (i.e. can we insert invoice via APIs)
> >>
> >> You may follow one of the suggested ways here:
> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Handling+of+External+data
> >>
> >> Be sure to compare with the other different possible ways documented in
> the children pages of this page and pick the one (or several) which best
> >> fit/s your needs.
> >>
> >>
> >>>
> >>>> 5. I do see Arabic support implemented to some degree, but is it
> full
> >>>> support, for example currency format, RTL (both web and PDF)
> >>
> >> RTL is supported in Web, I don't think it is in PDF. Currency is
> supported in both. Since we are using NotoSans font by default you can use
> a very
> >> large set of characters in PDF.
> >>
> >> You may have a look at
> https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/fonts.pdf
> >>
> >>>> 6. Finally, how stable/active is ofbiz ? I see 30-40 emails per
> month
> >>>> only in the mailing list, this make me very worry !
> >>
> >> OFBiz was born in 2001, became a Top Level Project (TLP) in Apache
> Software Foundation (ASF) in 2006 and was mature around 2010.
> >>
> >> So yes it's pretty stable and safe (security). Since OFBiz is mature
> the activity as decreased with a pick around 2016 as you can see here:
> >>
> >> https://ofbiz.markmail.org/
> >>
> >> HTH
> >>
> >> Jacques
> >>
>
Re: Ofbiz as back end for POS
Posted by Jacques Le Roux <ja...@les7arts.com>.
Le 22/02/2020 à 18:51, Alaa Murad a écrit :
> Thanks a lot for all replies, one important feature that we need is to be able to run unlimited companies (with Chinese Walls between them) , do we
> really need to have a new DB for each company ?
According to https://www.experts-exchange.com/articles/6539/Multi-tenant-Database-Shared-Database-Separate-Schema-in-SQL-Server.html
There are mostly 3 ways to implement multitenant Separate Databases Shared Database, Separate Schemas Shared Database, Shared Schema
OFBiz uses the 1st. So with this way you will have as much as *tenant* DBs as you introduce *tenants*. Pro and cons are explained in the document above.
> how that will even work, one risk that caching (from JDBC driver, or Ofbiz itself) maybe a problem , i.e. this is not PHP were each call is 100%
> hitting the db, in Java we cache many stuff in JVM memory ! unless this will result in a new ofbiz instance (in JVM) in this case running ofbiz as
> SaaS will be very expensive.
>
>
> Our POS system is a SaaS and we may have 100s or 1000s of clients/companies and we don't want to spin a new ofbiz instance for each one !
There should not be worries with caching. Because with "multitenant Separate Databases" you run only one OFBiz instance with a DB per tenant but,
thanks to the delegator concept, OFBiz knows what data belong to what tenant.
This said currently there is no mechanism to automatically create tenants DBs on fly in OFBiz. So you would need to implement that. For 100s to 1000s
client it's at the limit of reasonable. I worked for a client who hoped for much more (up to millions). Then OFBIz is hardly suitable and a solution
based on OFBiz in this case demands a lot of code change.
>
> I'm confused a bit about "2 tenants" and that we need to have 2 databases for each !
I hope the article above helps.
HTH
Jacques
>
>
> Thanks in advance !
>
>
> On 2/20/20 2:09 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Inline completing Pierre's answer as much as possible
>>
>> Le 20/02/2020 à 08:37, Pierre Smits a écrit :
>>> On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 2:15 AM Alaa Murad <al...@doit.com.sa> wrote:
>>> 2. We are planning to use ofbiz for few different companies, they all
>>> 100% independent, can we have one ofbiz instance for all of them ?how ?
>>>
>>> In this scenario I would advice to set up 2 tenants to ensure having
>>> Chinese Walls between the 2 companies. Each tenant would have its own
>>> database, and can have different plugins in play.
>>
>> BTW, you may have as most as tenants you need
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> 3. How easy to sync/push products, invoices , payments , etc. from our
>>>> POS --> ofbiz (i.e. can we insert invoice via APIs)
>>
>> You may follow one of the suggested ways here: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Handling+of+External+data
>>
>> Be sure to compare with the other different possible ways documented in the children pages of this page and pick the one (or several) which best
>> fit/s your needs.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> 5. I do see Arabic support implemented to some degree, but is it full
>>>> support, for example currency format, RTL (both web and PDF)
>>
>> RTL is supported in Web, I don't think it is in PDF. Currency is supported in both. Since we are using NotoSans font by default you can use a very
>> large set of characters in PDF.
>>
>> You may have a look at https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/fonts.pdf
>>
>>>> 6. Finally, how stable/active is ofbiz ? I see 30-40 emails per month
>>>> only in the mailing list, this make me very worry !
>>
>> OFBiz was born in 2001, became a Top Level Project (TLP) in Apache Software Foundation (ASF) in 2006 and was mature around 2010.
>>
>> So yes it's pretty stable and safe (security). Since OFBiz is mature the activity as decreased with a pick around 2016 as you can see here:
>>
>> https://ofbiz.markmail.org/
>>
>> HTH
>>
>> Jacques
>>
Re: Ofbiz as back end for POS
Posted by Alaa Murad <al...@doit.com.sa>.
Thanks a lot for all replies, one important feature that we need is to
be able to run unlimited companies (with Chinese Walls between them) ,
do we really need to have a new DB for each company ? how that will even
work, one risk that caching (from JDBC driver, or Ofbiz itself) maybe a
problem , i.e. this is not PHP were each call is 100% hitting the db, in
Java we cache many stuff in JVM memory ! unless this will result in a
new ofbiz instance (in JVM) in this case running ofbiz as SaaS will be
very expensive.
Our POS system is a SaaS and we may have 100s or 1000s of
clients/companies and we don't want to spin a new ofbiz instance for
each one !
I'm confused a bit about "2 tenants" and that we need to have 2
databases for each !
Thanks in advance !
On 2/20/20 2:09 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Inline completing Pierre's answer as much as possible
>
> Le 20/02/2020 à 08:37, Pierre Smits a écrit :
>> On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 2:15 AM Alaa Murad <al...@doit.com.sa>
>> wrote:
>> 2. We are planning to use ofbiz for few different companies, they all
>> 100% independent, can we have one ofbiz instance for all of them
>> ?how ?
>>
>> In this scenario I would advice to set up 2 tenants to ensure having
>> Chinese Walls between the 2 companies. Each tenant would have its own
>> database, and can have different plugins in play.
>
> BTW, you may have as most as tenants you need
>
>
>>
>>> 3. How easy to sync/push products, invoices , payments , etc. from
>>> our
>>> POS --> ofbiz (i.e. can we insert invoice via APIs)
>
> You may follow one of the suggested ways here:
> https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Handling+of+External+data
>
> Be sure to compare with the other different possible ways documented
> in the children pages of this page and pick the one (or several) which
> best fit/s your needs.
>
>
>>
>>> 5. I do see Arabic support implemented to some degree, but is it full
>>> support, for example currency format, RTL (both web and PDF)
>
> RTL is supported in Web, I don't think it is in PDF. Currency is
> supported in both. Since we are using NotoSans font by default you can
> use a very large set of characters in PDF.
>
> You may have a look at
> https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/fonts.pdf
>
>>> 6. Finally, how stable/active is ofbiz ? I see 30-40 emails per month
>>> only in the mailing list, this make me very worry !
>
> OFBiz was born in 2001, became a Top Level Project (TLP) in Apache
> Software Foundation (ASF) in 2006 and was mature around 2010.
>
> So yes it's pretty stable and safe (security). Since OFBiz is mature
> the activity as decreased with a pick around 2016 as you can see here:
>
> https://ofbiz.markmail.org/
>
> HTH
>
> Jacques
>
Re: Ofbiz as back end for POS
Posted by Jacques Le Roux <ja...@les7arts.com>.
Hi,
Inline completing Pierre's answer as much as possible
Le 20/02/2020 à 08:37, Pierre Smits a écrit :
> On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 2:15 AM Alaa Murad <al...@doit.com.sa> wrote:
> 2. We are planning to use ofbiz for few different companies, they all
> 100% independent, can we have one ofbiz instance for all of them ?how ?
>
> In this scenario I would advice to set up 2 tenants to ensure having
> Chinese Walls between the 2 companies. Each tenant would have its own
> database, and can have different plugins in play.
BTW, you may have as most as tenants you need
>
>> 3. How easy to sync/push products, invoices , payments , etc. from our
>> POS --> ofbiz (i.e. can we insert invoice via APIs)
You may follow one of the suggested ways here: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/Handling+of+External+data
Be sure to compare with the other different possible ways documented in the children pages of this page and pick the one (or several) which best fit/s
your needs.
>
>> 5. I do see Arabic support implemented to some degree, but is it full
>> support, for example currency format, RTL (both web and PDF)
RTL is supported in Web, I don't think it is in PDF. Currency is supported in both. Since we are using NotoSans font by default you can use a very
large set of characters in PDF.
You may have a look at https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org/example/control/fonts.pdf
>> 6. Finally, how stable/active is ofbiz ? I see 30-40 emails per month
>> only in the mailing list, this make me very worry !
OFBiz was born in 2001, became a Top Level Project (TLP) in Apache Software Foundation (ASF) in 2006 and was mature around 2010.
So yes it's pretty stable and safe (security). Since OFBiz is mature the activity as decreased with a pick around 2016 as you can see here:
https://ofbiz.markmail.org/
HTH
Jacques
Re: Ofbiz as back end for POS
Posted by Pierre Smits <pi...@apache.org>.
Hi Alaa Murad,
First of all, welcome to the community.
Please see inline for some of the answers (I cannot answer regarding Odoo).
Hopefully some other community members can provide you with
additional answers
Met vriendelijke groet,
Pierre Smits
*Proud* *contributor* (but unfortunately without privileges)* of* Apache
OFBiz <https://ofbiz.apache.org/>, since 2008
*Apache Trafodion <https://trafodion.apache.org>, Vice President*
*Apache Directory <https://directory.apache.org>, PMC Member*
Apache Incubator <https://incubator.apache.org>, committer
Apache Steve <https://steve.apache.org>, committer
On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 2:15 AM Alaa Murad <al...@doit.com.sa> wrote:
> I'm a long follower of ofbiz , but I have some questions before I do use
> it in a big project, we have our own custom POS / App and we are looking
> to have ERP integrated with it.
>
> 1. I do see the Accounting section, but I can't see the basic and must
> have reports like Balance sheet, P/L statement, cash flow statement
> ! am I looking at the wrong place ? !
>
Yes. These functions are available in the accounting component, but are a
bit difficult to find The way to find them are:
1. in the main menu of the accounting component go to 'Organisation GL
Setup. In demo you'll see:
https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org/accounting/control/ListCompanies
2. click the 'Accounting' button. In demo you'll see:
https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org/accounting/control/PartyAccountsSummary
3. click the reports buttons. In demo you'll see
https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org/accounting/control/TrialBalance?organizationPartyId=Company
Then you'll see the various statements to generate
> 2. We are planning to use ofbiz for few different companies, they all
> 100% independent, can we have one ofbiz instance for all of them ?how ?
>
In this scenario I would advice to set up 2 tenants to ensure having
Chinese Walls between the 2 companies. Each tenant would have its own
database, and can have different plugins in play.
> 3. How easy to sync/push products, invoices , payments , etc. from our
> POS --> ofbiz (i.e. can we insert invoice via APIs)
4. How far behind ofbiz is from odoo (mainly accounting / sales)?
> 5. I do see Arabic support implemented to some degree, but is it full
> support, for example currency format, RTL (both web and PDF)
> 6. Finally, how stable/active is ofbiz ? I see 30-40 emails per month
> only in the mailing list, this make me very worry !
>
>
> Thanks
>
>