The Openbravo flows are coming your way!

In the Enhanced Sales Order project, that we aim to ship in 3.0 Core, it is all about redesigning the existing flows for ordering, invoicing and shipping. In an earlier post I have shared the adventures of Jim, the Computer Seller & Liz, the Order Taker with you and in the meanwhile I have also published scenarios for a sales director (Dan) and a customer carer (Amy). If you haven´t read their adventures and given your feedback yet, then please still do so. You will have to work with it in the end so you better speak up now or forever hold your peace :-)

The latest scenarios look at invoicing and shipping. Using the new 3.0 GUI framework, I have tried to model flows that are as flexible as possible. So you can first take a a sales order and then create an invoice against it, or maybe just for a few lines which means partial invoicing. Or you take a whole lot of orders and generate invoices for all of those at once, perhaps merging invoices for the same customer. Sometimes you want to invoice products, rather than entire sales orders because maybe you were only able to ship one product at a certain point in time. You then would want to create partial invoices for a whole lot of sales orders that contain that specific product. The same goes for shipments. Sometimes you first want to create a shipment document and then pick sales order lines to ship but this could also be done the other way round: first select a sales order (line) and then decide to ship it.

All this is of course dependent on the invoice and delivery terms for the customer. Our current processes and configurations are not always transparent and we need a redesign here as well.

Having said all this, let me ask you for now to look at the Shipping and Invoicing scenarios. There is a lot of complexity once you start looking at all the possible configurations and flows but I want to get the basics right first. Please help me in doing so.

Database Model reference maintained for Openbravo ERP gives a complete overview of all tables and columns (and their relations).

One of the cool feature of this reference is the fact that it is an active written document that permits you to search the Openbravo datas model directly from the wiki, without the need to open additional tools such as PgAdmin.

• Tabular arrays are grouped in packages of functionally tied in entities; for illustration, all the tabular arrays linked to invoices are grouped in org.openbravo.theoretical account.common.bill
  
• For each one table - for example C_INVOICE - incorporates a full description of all of its columns
• Columns being part of a foreign key - for example C_BPARTNER_ID on C_INVOICE, is a normal column and it is foreign key column to C_BPartner table.
• Columns description - for instance PARTNER_ADDRESS on C_INVOICE, gives information about it in the column description
• Columns linked to a callout - for example TRANSACTION_DOCUMENT on C_INVOICE - provides a direct link to the java sourcecode implementing the callout.
  

This is a rattling valuable tool that can save hours of investigation and increase the productivity of many Openbravo developers. Take it for a spin.

This document on database model is updated automatically for every new MP. which is made possible by

1. Openbravo ERP module org.openbravo.utility.modelwikidoc, which generates the entity model wiki page and its subpages.
2. Continuous Integration, which checks for new MP (mercurial tag) and execute the wikidatamodel generation process

One can check updates in the data model using page history, example http://tinyurl.com/25pgvov

Reference: http://vsadhx.livejournal.com/4967.html

The Openbravo development team has had a very productive summer, and the fruits of their labors have come together for U.S. companies in the form of 3 complementary initiatives, all of which are available at no cost to Openbravo ERP Professional Edition subscribers in the U.S.:

• QuickStart 2
• U.S. Professional Localization Pack
• Advanced Payables & Receivables Module

QuickStart 2 is the next generation of our rapid implementation solution that allows SMBs to go live with a standardized, pre-configured web-based ERP implementation in weeks instead of months--with full adaptability and scalability going forward.  See the recent press release  for details.

The first version of the U.S. Professional Localization Pack is now available in Openbravo Exchange.  Companies with U.S. operations will see faster deployments, more efficient operations, and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) with this functionality.  Openbravo partners may sign on to the partner portal and follow this link to a recorded webinar with detailed information, in the "Must Know" section.

Finally, the new Advanced Payables and Receivables module (which is pre-bundled with QuickStart 2, but also available independently) has reached GA (Generally Available) status, after being in Controlled Release during the summer. This "module" is actually a complete payment management system that provides an enhanced user experience, and fully automates and audits all payment and reconciliation processes. The Openbravo Exchange listing is here.

The bottom line is that U.S. companies are increasingly looking for adaptable, web-based solutions that are cloud-ready and easy to deploy and operate.  Openbravo ERP Professional Edition, combined with QuickStart 2 and the U.S. Professional Localization Pack, is well-positioned to meet this demand!

Award recognition comes on heels of Openbravo QuickStart 2 launch, and growth in demand for Openbravo ERP solution in first half of 2010

The other day a customer running a Cloud appliance needed to replicate its production environment into 3 new servers. These were the options

1. Deploy Openbravo ERP by doing a custom installation in the 3 servers and then move the actual installation to these 3 new servers.
2. Deploy Openbravo ERP using a community appliance and then move the actual installation to the 3 new servers.

Using an appliance for deployment makes things not just quicker but a lot easier for the system integrator. You won’t just save some hours deploying each new server, but you will also be sure that everything is well configured and optimized.

Similar reasons apply to the task of moving the actual instance (database + modules) to the servers. It’s a time consuming task, moreover when you need to repeat it three times. There are a lot of manual commands to be executed and mistakes can happen. Even doing the steps correctly, this task for the 3 servers should take around 2 working days.

But, as the customer was using the Openbravo Professional Edition, they had the Cloud appliance up and running.

This made much easier the replication of the environment. The Cloud Appliance does not introduce improvements in the deployment of Openbravo ERP compared to the community appliance, but provides significant advantages to Professional Edition Subscribers managing the instance, as the steps went down to these:

1. Download the last backup from the production environment
2. Upload it to each 3 servers
3. In each server click on Restore that backup.

As you can see, the Openbravo Cloud Appliance (manual) does not only allow you to spend more effectively your time maintaining your instance, but also avoids unexpected errors and problems in these critical manual tasks.

In the end, the replication of the original environment in 3 (counting that they all use the Professional Edition) was done in less than 4 hours.

When your car breaks, you normally have a few options:

• repair it yourself
• take it to your cousin's friend who is a mechanic
• take it to the dealer's garage

All three options serve a purpose, however, if your car is mission critical for your daily work, which option will you take? In such a situation the third option is most often the prudent one to take because:

• you can get a substitute car for the day and still be able to go about your work
• you will get warranty on work done
• original replacement parts and tools will be used
• the mechanics are properly trained and know what they are doing

Analogous to the above situation, why take risks when it comes to implementation and maintenance of such a mission critical software such as an ERP? Numerous vendors base their channel business on certified partners. For example, this year's Red Hat Partner Summit in Valencia was a reassuring event in this aspect as several sessions emphasized the importance of official training and certification within their ecosystem. Here at Openbravo, we like to relate to Red Hat's successful strategy and strive to perfect our channel driven business as well.

Consequently, becoming an Openbravo Certified Consultant has never been easier:

• It's affordable, the Foundation level exams cost 150EUR (price is region dependant) and include 2 takes. Even better, the certification exam is now automatically included in our courses ( see http://www.openbravo.com/services/training/ )
• It's easy to learn the topics covered using our extensive wiki documentation and the official courses offered
• Enrollment only takes a few clicks
• The Foundation level exams take 80 minutes and 50 multiple questions

And, there are good reasons to become one:

1. Take the opportunity to improve your knowledge of Openbravo ERP
2. Upgrade your partnership level and receive better visibility on our website ( http://www.openbravo.com/partners/find-partners-support/ )
3. Improve your professional recognition with customers using the Openbravo Certified logo
4. ...and more goodies for the certified members are coming soon!

Join the team of certified Openbravo professionals today at http://www.openbravo.com/services/certification/ !

New cash management workflows, wizards and reports streamline setup and operations

In Part I I explained how to:

• Speed up Firefox by creating a different profile for Firebug and ‘vacuum’ the
  browser’s internal databases
• Update to the latest ‘safe’ pi revision
• Clean up your Mercurial workspace

You also know how to configure the Autologon authentication manager that allows you login the application with the same user/password skipping the login page.

Today we’ll focus in speeding up the compilation process using just some configuration properties that will result in skipping some tasks that are not required in the day-to-day development process.

Note: I assume that you are working with Eclipse IDE, you have successfully build the application and also you have experience how to compile the application. If you don’t know how to do that, please read the how to setup your development environment in the wiki.

The Openbravo.properties

The Openbravo.properties file is use to configure the application, e.g. database connection details, date format, etc. But also have properties for the build process and tweaking them allows you skip some tasks when compiling.

You can read more about the Openbravo.properties in the wiki page.

Note: Remember to always read documents in the ERP/2.50 namespace, since all other documents may have been deprecated or are no longer maintained.

minimizeJSandCSS

Some time is spent in minimizing (compressing) the JavaScript and CSS files to the context. That’s why when running the application and you try to see the
.js files everything is compressed without line breaks or spaces. The quick fix to skip this process is set to no the minimizeJSandCSS property.

# use js/css minimization (in local-context and war-file)
minimizeJSandCSS=no

deploy.mode

The deploy.mode defines where the build process needs to copy files and if it needs to generate a .war file. The default deploy.mode is class, so in every compilation call the files are sync’ed with the $CATALINA_BASE/webapps/context folder.

Since you are working with Eclipse the tomcat server you’re using is the one inside Eclipse, the $CATALIBA_BASE/webapps/context is not used at all, instead, the files are read from the WebContent and build folders.

Setting to none the deploy.mode will skip the sync of the files, and also will not generate a .war file.

#Deploy mode: valid values [class, war, none]
deploy.mode=none

Wrapping up

Setting minimizeJSandCSS=no and deploy.mode=none will speed up the day-to-day compilation process.

Remember that this changes recommended just for development environments not for production ones.

Stay tunned!

Yesterday morning we took the Openbravo Forge down for a moment - to make it faster for all of you.
While everything works as usual you will now find snappier loading times across the site.

Are you happy with the overall responsiveness? Notice any areas that are giving you headaches?
Share your feedback in this discussion thread and tell us what type of connection you're using!