Getting started with OpenERP

It requires quite a bit of patience to get up and running, the following may help you:

• Read the book "OpenERP: pour une gestion d'entreprise", or its English equivalent.
• Try any online demos you can find, or demo videos.
• Plan to have several test servers to start with (production, integration, development, 5.0 or 5.2), perhaps by using virtual machines.
• Join the mailing lists on openerp.org and launchpad, listen. Search google alot. Then think before posting :-)
• Only install the modules you really need, never install all the modules - updates will be alot less painful, and your Tterp server less fragile.
• Run on linux not windows, log to syslog or a file, but take the habit of reading the logs.
• Learn how to start Terp in debug mode. The "screen" unix tool can be handy for leaving eTiny or terp running in the background, but still attached to a console.

If you're going to program or be an OpenERP sysadmin:

• If you don't speak python, buy a book or two and learn how to at least read python code.
• Check out GettingStartedWithOpenERPDev by rvalyi (who has written an OpenERP magneto bridge)
• Start with simple modules

Commercial Support (in Switzerland)

I have asked CamptoCamp for help on several issues regarding Swiss localisation, financial accounting, setting up Terp etc. They are very knowledgable and are part of the core developers in the community (e.g. see the many c2c_ modules), and very much open sourced oriented. They also have other special skills such as Geolocalisation and managed of hosted Linux environments

Openet, also based in Lausanne, are friendly and savvy, I've not yet worked with them yet though.

.

Openerp backups

From cron I usually backup all database regularly, some ones daily, and delete backups older than 40 days.

0  4    * * 6   su postgres -c "export LANG=C; pg_dump -Fc --compress=9 --file=/var/backups/postgres/MYDB.$$  MYDB"
0  4    * * 6   su postgres -c "export LANG=C; pg_dump --clean --column-inserts --attribute-inserts --file=/var/backups/postgres/MYDB.$$  MYDB"
0  4    * * 6   su postgres -c "export LANG=C; pg_dumpall -o > /var/backups/postgres/all.$$";
0  6    * * 6   find /var/backups/postgres -xdev -ctime +40 -type f -exec rm \{\} \;

Then the server itself (and especially /var/backups /opt /etc) is backed up using backuppc (or a similar tool).

Openerp debugging

Reading

Compact dev overview: http://www.openobject.com/memento/

Official docs:  http://doc.openerp.com/developer/index.html

The forums…

Opennet: http://www.open-net.ch/ERP-CRM-OpenERP/Admin-Guide-OpenERP

PDB

• Pdb is the integrated python debugged. Instead of using /etc/init.d/openerp-server, start openerp with —debug to the console. e.g.
  su postgres -c "/opt/openerp.bzr/server/bin/openerp-server.py  —debug —config=/etc/openerp-server.cfg"
  It drops to the debug prompt if there is an exception.
  There one can single step, list recent lines (l), print variables (pp) etc..http://docs.python.org/library/pdb
• do a tail on the openerp server and postgres logs
  tail -f /var/log/openerp/server.log
  tail /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.*-main.log

Code debugging

• Start the server with an appropriate debug level enabled:
  —log-level=LOG_LEVEL ['info', 'debug_rpc', 'warn', 'critical', 'error','debug', 'notset']
• Code syntax errors are difficult to understand from the server logs, to start a local python instance and load the module you're test by hand, to see if errors are reported. Adapt /openerp to the path where the openerp server sources are.

import sys
sys.path.append('/openerp/')
from osv import osv, fields
import MYMODULE

• Create breakpoints at key sections, step strough examining variables and pasting in code to try it out.

import pdb
 pdb.set_trace()

• Use lots of prints and perhaps pretty print

import pprint

pp = pprint.PrettyPrinter(indent=2)

pp.pprint(data)

• Perhaps create you own debug logging function

import netsvc
logger = netsvc.Logger()
if debuglog==1:
  import logging
  logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)            # DEBUG INFO(default) WARNING ERROR CRITICAL

class logit(object):
    """
    Log msg to the Openerp server log, with a standard prefix to identify the class,
    the default level is INFO but can be set as the second parameter.
    Set debuglog=1 at a higher level to enable module/function tracing
    """
    def __init__(self, msg='', level=netsvc.LOG_INFO):
        global debuglog
        prefix=self.__class__.__name__ +': '
        if (debuglog==1) or (level==netsvc.LOG_DEBUG):    # add caller module/method
            import inspect
            prefix=inspect.stack()[1][1] +' ' +inspect.stack()[1][3] +'() ' +prefix
        #print(prefix + msg)
        logger.notifyChannel("", level, prefix + msg)
  

 IDEs

I'm still a vim + pdb fan myself, but an having a look at IDEs…

If going for an IDE, Aptana+ pydev is better than eclipse+pydev: easier to getup & going.
Download the standalone version (not deb packages) from http://www.aptana.org/studio/download, then install the pydev extensions from the Help> Install Aptana features dialog.

• Breakpoints are not working on my system (in python), I think it must be something specific  to my setup though.
  https://aptanastudio.tenderapp.com/discussions/problems/1306-aptana-pyde…
• I also setup an env for PHP, there breakpoints worked nicely…

I didn't find a way for it to trace in real time though openserp server code, objects modules, and help me understand how certain features work..

Vim has great syntax highlighting that catches mayn xml and py errors.

Komodo IDE: is a commercial one, not tested though….

Pydev notes

Tutorials:http://pythonconquerstheuniverse.wordpress.com/category/the-python-debugger/http://pydev.org/manual_adv_launch.html

F9: run, F11 debug run
 Step in: F5, over: F6, Continue: F8
 Ctrl-G: comment wrap
 Must test more of these:
    * Breakpoints (with optional condition)
    * Stack view showing multiple threads
    * Locals and Globals variable display
    * Expressions display
    * Temporary display for selection: Ctrl+Shift+D
    * Hover showing the selected expression evaluation

More vim

Remember your current position:
if has("autocmd")
  au BufReadPost * if line("'\"") > 0 && line("'\"") <= line("$")
    | exe "normal g'\"" | endif
 endif

Xmlint (in package libxml2-utils) can check xml for you.
 autocmd BufWrite *xml exe ":silent %!xmllint —format —recover - 2>/dev/null"

For openerp RML report, it can also help:
xmllint —relaxng import_xml.rng <your rml file>

Further reading:
http://www.pinkjuice.com/howto/vimxml/index.xml
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1636771/post-your-vim-config

Openerp example scripts

I've put up some example XML-RPC scripts for Opnerp5 on google code:

Home:  http://code.google.com/p/boran-openerp/

Subversion https://boran-openerp.googlecode.com/svn/trunk

These are (sample) simple working scripts to list accounts, invoices, partners/contacts, invoices/payments per partner etc.

Partners can also be imported and invoices created.

Feel free to use, and also to contribute!

Openerp: Wizard for exporting to excel

 

Wizard

To do: Expalin the code below….

 

[Update 21.jun'10:
- There was a bug in the webinterface when downloading the excel file, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/openobject-client-web/+bug/591102 , hopefully the fix will be included in 5.0.12.
- This example use a classical wizard, it can also be be using osv_memory … must add an example

}

In the modules view xml, create a wizard and menu item that calls it:

<wizard string="My Excel export" model="ti.my" id="wizard_ti_my_excel" name="ti.my.excel"    />
<menuitem name="My/Excel" id="menu_my_excel" action="wizard_ti_my_excel" type="wizard" sequence="40"/>

Create the ".py" file with the wizard class:
import StringIO
import base64
from   osv import osv, fields
import pooler
import wizard
import csv
import pprint

…
class wiz_ti_my_excel(wizard.interface):
…
    view_form_finish="""<?xml version="1.0"?>
<form string="Export list">
    <image name="gtk-dialog-info" colspan="2"/>
    <group colspan="2" col="4">
        <separator string="Export to Excel" colspan="4"/>
    <field name="data" readonly="1" colspan="3" filename="file_name" />
        <label align="0.0" string="Save this document to a .XLS file and open it with\n Excel." colspan="4"/>
    </group>
</form>"""
    fields_finish={
        'data': {'string':'File', 'type':'binary', 'readonly': True,},
        'file_name':{'string':'File Name', 'type':'char'}
    }
    ## Only one step in this GUI, call the action _get_file
    ## return the result data + file_name and go to end state.
    states={
        'init':{
            'actions': [_get_file],
            'result': {'type': 'form',
                'arch': view_form_finish,
                'fields': fields_finish,
                'state': [ ('end', 'Close', 'gtk-cancel', True) ]
            }
        },
    }
wiz_ti_my_excel('ti.my.excel')


Creating Excel docs

to do

Reading

wizards:

http://doc.openerp.com/developer/3_10_wizard/index.html

Create excel sheets from python

http://ntalikeris.blogspot.com/2007/10/create-excel-file-with-python-my-sort.html

http://files.blog-city.com/files/F05/96843/b/cheatsheet.pdf

http://www.simplistix.co.uk/software/python/xlutils

Setting the language in the Openerp GTK client

For months I was annoyed by the language in my GUI (on Windows XP) not conforming to settings.

In one case, the solution is to set the LANG variable in Windows:

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab > Environment variables
3. Click New to add a new system variable with name “LANG” and value “fr_CH” for example (Swiss french).

Also set 'lang = fr_CH' in the client section of c:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME.openerprc

(however in v5.0.6 this keeps getting written back to en_US: setting the file to read-only stops that, but the etting is still not used correctly).

On the server side, make sure there is a corresponding entry under Administration -> Translation -> Application Terms -> Languages.

I must admit that despite the above a v5.0.6 instance on mine still puts all dates in American format, with Menu lang in french.

So date formatting is broken, in v5.0.6 at least.

Further reading:

http://www.openobject.com/forum/post50298.html
https://bugs.launchpad.net/openobject-client/+bug/519731
http://www.openerp.com/forum/topic9852.html

Troubleshooting create db errors

Having setup a new Ubuntu 8.04 with Openerp 5.0.10, it was not possible to create databases.

Watching the usual suspect logs:
tail -f /var/log/messages /var/log/syslog /var/log/daemon.log /var/log/openerp/server.log /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.3-main.log &

010-06-03 18:07:26 CEST FATAL:  Ident authentication failed for user "openerp"
2010-06-03 18:08:25 CEST ERROR:  encoding UTF8 does not match server's locale en_US
2010-06-03 18:08:25 CEST DETAIL:  The server's LC_CTYPE setting requires encoding LATIN1.
2010-06-03 18:08:25 CEST STATEMENT:  CREATE DATABASE "tipop1" ENCODING 'unicode' TEMPLATE "template0"
  

Then tried to connecton on the command line to test DB creating:

psql -U openerp template1

This would not work:
CREATE DATABASE "tipop1" ENCODING 'unicode' TEMPLATE "template0"

but this would:
CREATE DATABASE "tipop1" ENCODING 'LATIN1' TEMPLATE "template0";

Spend hours changing this issues trying to find explanations and solutions, seems ot be a hazy mix of authetnication and locale issues. The more I looked at locales, the worse it got.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openerp-server/+bug/331065

In the end I did the importing this of hacking bin/service/web_services.py and replacing unicode with LATIN1 in the create database statement.

Will see what consequence it has, but am noting the hack here for now..

V4.2 install notes

----------  TinyERP install notes -------------------
Note: as I live in Switzerland, my focus includes the CH accounting modules, and thus C2c modules..

--- Windows install  ---------
Install  tinyerp-allinone-setup-4.2.2.exe

 C:\Program Files\TinyERP Server>tinyerp-server.exe -d ch2 -r tinypg -w tinypgpwd  --update=all
 Modules: base, account, account_payment, c2c_partner_address, account_tax_include, c2c_invoice_layer.
 Then install l10n_ch, then l10n_ch_pcpbl_plangensimpl

 
--------------- Ubuntu 8.10 #1 ------------
POSTGRES:
---------
   http://tinyerp.org/wiki/index.php/InstallationManual/ServerInstallUbuntu
 
   sudo apt-get update
   apt-get install python-xml python-libxml2 python-libxslt1 python-psycopg python-imaging python-pyparsing python-reportlab graphviz postgresql python-tz python-pyopenssl gs-gpl python-matplotlib python-numeric python-ldap
  
   # Postgres V8.3 has issues with Terp, so install v8.2:
   apt-get install postgresql-8.2 postgresql-client-8.2 postgresql-contrib-8.2 pgadmin3
  
   pg_createcluster 8.2 main --start
    su - postgres -c "createdb  --encoding=UNICODE terp"
    su - postgres -c "createuser --createdb --adduser terp"

   Initialise the DB we made above:
   su postgres -c "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/tinyerp-server/tinyerp-server.py --without-demo=all -d terp"

            vi /etc/postgresql/8.2/main/postgresql.conf  
            vi /etc/postgresql/8.2/main/pg_hba.conf
            tail -f /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.2-main.log
            /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.2 restart

   Postgres:  port 5432
           /var/log/postgresql/
            /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.2 start
            netstat -an |grep "LISTEN "
            /var/lib/postgresql/8.2/main
            /etc/postgresql/8.2/main/postgresql.conf  
                        (enabled on all interfaces)
            vi /etc/postgresql/8.2/main/pg_hba.conf
            tail -f /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.2-main.log

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-setup-database-server-with-postgresql-an...


TERP:
-----
cd /opt/install/tinyerp-server-4.2
python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install

(it is now in "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/tinyerp-server")
chmod 755 /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/tinyerp-server/tinyerp-server.py

See:
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/tinyerp-server
/usr/share/doc/tinyerp-server-4.2.2
/usr/bin/tinyerp-server         

./tinyerp-server.py --port=8069 --interface=193.5.227.231 --database=terp --db_user=terp --db_password='' --db_host=localhost --db_port=5432


ln -s /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/tinyerp-server /tiny

vi /etc/init.d/tinyerp-server
su postgres -c "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/tinyerp-server/tinyerp-server.py --verbose --config=/etc/tinyerp-server.conf"

           
/usr/bin/tinyerp-server  --init=all         

-------------  Terp via bazaar -----------------
Bazaar stable branch
cd /opt/install/bzr.openerp.42
bzr branch lp:~openerp/openobject-server/4.2 server
bzr branch lp:~openerp/openobject-client/4.2 client
bzr branch lp:~openerp/openobject-addons/4.2 addons
cd server/bin/addons
ln -s ../../../addons/* .

  
  
-------------  eTiny web interface install -----------------
     cd /opt/install/
     wget http://peak.telecommunity.com/dist/ez_setup.py
     python ez_setup.py
     easy_install TurboGears==1.0.3.2    
     apt-get install python-matplotlib python-profiler python-imaging
    
     easy_install eTiny
     vi /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/eTiny-1.0-py2.5.egg/config/default.cfg
     [no changes needed]

   start-tinyerp

   Automate startup
   cp /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/eTiny-1.0-py2.5.egg/scripts/etiny-server /etc/init.d
   cp /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/eTiny-1.0-py2.5.egg/config/default.cfg /etc/etiny-server.cfg
   update-rc.d etiny-server defaults
   chmod 755 /etc/init.d/etiny-server
  
   vi /etc/init.d/etiny-server /etc/etiny-server.cfg  
   /etc/init.d/etiny-server start

   Config: /etc/etiny-server.cfg
   Log:  /var/log/etiny-server.log
        /var/log/tinyerp.log
    
   TinyERP is on port 8060/70, eTiny on 8080
    netstat -an | grep 80
    tcp        0      0 176.17.3.173:8069       0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
    tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:8070            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN

   Problem: its only runs as root
        /usr/bin/start-tinyerp /etc/etiny-server.cfg &
        or start-tinyerp
   but not
        su terp -c "/usr/bin/start-tinyerp /etc/etiny-server.cfg"
        /etc/init.d/etiny-server start

   Connect to http://_MY_IP_ADDRESS:8080/


---------------- Updates -----------------
Pour les mise à jour (c2c_partner_address, c2c_invoice_layer, l10n_ch, l10n_ch_pcpbl_plangensimpl)
- je arrête Tiny
- copie les répertoires de SVN dans addons (après avoir effacé les anciens),
- redémarre tiny, et fait un "update" de ces modules (ils sont 'bleu dans la liste des modules)
- redémarre Tiny à nouveau


------- Addons --------
svn co https://tinyerp.saas-camptocamp.com/svn/tinyerp svn.camptocamp
            cd /data/tinyerp/svn.camptocamp/trunk/swisslocalisation
            cp -r l10n_ch l10n_ch_pcpbl_plangensimpl /tiny/addons/
            cp -r c2c_partner_address c2c_invoice_layer /tiny/addons   


--- Sysadmin notes
su postgres
pg_dumpall -o > /tmp/db.out
pg_dump --clean --column-inserts --attribute-inserts --file=/tmp/prod_isp.$$  prod_isp
su postgres -c "export LANG=C; pg_dump --clean --column-inserts --attribute-inserts --file=/var/backups/postgres/prod_isp.`date +%y%m%d`  prod_isp"

  tinyerp-server has by default two accounts:
    - User: admin; password: admin
    - User: demo; password; demo  

SCREEN: Use screen to attach/detach the console. Use one screen to start eting, the other to start the tiny server, both providing debug to the console.
apt-get install screen
   screen -list
   screen -S etiny
     To detach, type CTRL+a, d
   screen -S tiny.log
   screen -list
   Reattach
     screen -R tiny.log

--- Monitoring ----
/etc/init.d/tinyerp-server start
tail -f /var/log/tinyerp-server.log  

/etc/init.d/postgresql-8.2 restart
tail -f /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.2-main.log
screen -S etiny
    /usr/bin/start-tinyerp /etc/etiny-server.cfg &
    To detach, type CTRL+a, d
    screen -list
    To resttach: screen -R etiny
 

V4.2 issues

Introduction

This is a simple list to track issues that bother me with Terp (the old name for OpenERP). Its been a real up-hill battle for me, I would never accepted such poor quality from a commercial tool, but I'm sticking at it because there are some excellent community members & opensource oriented partners, and Terp does have the potential to be a really good tool.

On the other hand I've not gone into such detail with any other ERP or Accounting tool in the OpenSource areas, so don't the following long list as means that OpenERP is worse than its competitors.

The version used is 4.2 stable from SVN (Jun'08), more recently bzr (Oct'08).
>> Update 30.Nov.08: the current 4.2 sources from bzr together with the Windows client tinyerp-client-setup-4.2.3.4-with-export-patch.exe are big improvements in many areas on the last merge I did in early Oct.

GUI

1. GUI clunky.
2. Client 4.2.3: Why is my GUI language german? (Windows regional settings are English swiss german keyboard)
3. Web eTiny v1.0.1.1 > Administration > users > users > new user: could not change the "Menu Action" and thus could not add a new user.
4. Web: cannot change sales order addresses, or view confirmed statements.
5. Try out Glade to see difficult its to improve the GUI?

 

Accounting

1. Accounts confusing (well to me initially) and not approved by any accountants?  We need accountants involved and enthusiastic.
2. Viewing confirmed statements is tricky  http://www.openerp.com/forum/post21141.html
3. Print: Relevé des comptes
4. Print Chart of accounts: http://www.openerp.com/forum/post25845.html#25845
5. Print statement only show totals, no entries!  http://www.openerp.com/forum/topic6720.html
6. No Profit/Loss or Balance Sheet:   http://www.openerp.com/forum/topic3798-30.html
   Notes: see module account_reporting in extra_addons. The wizard in module account_balance (comparison between years or others accounts, and lots of options). The c2c_ reporting modules are a major improvement for Trial Balance and journals.
7. Invoice layout: http://www.openerp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=26244#26244
8. Need a menu for querying /print account entries
9. New invoice always gives a customer invoice (its easy to mix us supp/cust invs). Better ion Nov.08
10. Reconciliation from statement: confusing UI (F1, F2..), Amount off to the right.
11. Initial start of year balances are a headache
      http://www.openerp.com/forum/topic2451.html
      http://www.openerp.com/forum/post16794.html#16794   Opening balance cookbook
12. No records/logs of deleted invoices?
13. Period end procedures: documentation not clear enough.
    To do: test the c2c_fiscal_year_close module, updates in March 09.
14. Supplier invoicing: how to set the default vat to "0% excl." for detail lines? It always comes up 0% import. In the accounts definition, default taxes=7.6% for a/c 6210 for example.
    I have to change it manually for each detail line.
15. Customer/Supplier Invoice & statements lists:
    - invoices are not sorted by date
    - entries as not restricted to the current financial year by default.
    - statement lists are not sorted by date, newest on top.
    (Tip: one could create a new menu item easily eough, see the example from Pedro)
16. Upgrade scripts to Version 5 are not opensource/free.
17. Cheque printing (very low priority)
      http://www.openerp.com/forum/topic3015-15.html
18. Tools to import and export Payments to Ulster bank?

 

Errors

• Cannot delete statement: server crashes
• Errors on writing statement entries, must save often, otherwise I get parallel writes.
  Statement confirm errors elusive: logs need to be improved.
• On duplicating an invoice with many detail lines, and then changing these, some changes seems to get lost.
  >> Save often.

C2c (Swiss) issues

• TVA report wrong for simplified sales VAT (low priority)
• Opening entries: do in a period of 2007, so Turnover for example is right?
• backup scripts
• TVA for purchases/note de frais?
• Swiss P&L
• Bank DTA import (low priority)
• ch2 demo data broken?

 

SB modules

• sb_p2_contact_extended: don't see Phase0 tab in eTiny
• p0_activate: extend workflow

Workflow

1. Defining Workflows in XML files is persistent, changes to the DB (via GUI) are not. So one could cannot, for example, install this workflow on another machine
2. Print workflow plugin on Windows: what is needed to view WF?
3. It would have been nice to have an option in the workflow engine to document state changes to the log. It seems difficult to debug modes that extend WF definitions, e.g. adding in a sate into the Sales Order process. 

 

Reporting

1. Reporting, and reporting customisationation is difficult and painful to debug.
2. RML issue http://www.openerp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25673#25673.
3. Integrating or interfacing to a "real" reporting tool like Pentaho or Jasper is probably the way to go? 

 

The OpenERP Book (french)

Buy it, its a useful doc indeed, but..

1. I read the whole thing, but most sections are just too simple, not enough meat/detailed examples. A planned follow-up book may help ..
2. It refers to trunk code not the stable 4.2, and (for me) vapourware such as the reporting/Outlook/Word/Excel plugins.
3. You can find download links (but the modules did not work for me), or "Le plugins word/excel/outlook est payant, c'est 500€ pour le moment, quand ils auront remboursé le développement, il sera disponible gratuitement."
4. Never tell someone to make file permissions of 777
5. Do not tell people to just install and play with the 300 modules; nothing will work!

- ......

Import/Export

• Very generic, difficult to understand and debug
• You cannot just click on a screen, say export all fields, and import it perfect on the same screen on another systems.

 

General

• Security: Seems bad -its an instinctive feeling, but I've been in security for years. Given the complexity, lack of decent doc, lack of systematic bug fixing, release management, review etc, it can only be worrying. The use of default account/passwords, and lack of standard audit trails speak for themselves..
• Backup/restore fails, with useless message. Backup is binary, how to understand?
• Stability/fragility. Debugging difficult.
• OpenERP is a name that refers to two other projects, one on SF; one on http://www.codeplex.com/openerp  http://sourceforge.net/projects/theopenerp  
• Not proxy aware (module installation)
• No in-line help, error handling only suitable for developers, not end users.
• documentation is poor, not enough simple working examples
• comments in code are almost non existent: unless you're a python+openerp wiz already, making mods requires a steep learning curve
• no Terp tracing or logging function, e.g. to send messages to syslog automaticaly showing the stack, class, etc..
• no way to popping up a dialog box containing a text answer to a user?
• Sourcecode documentation
  The conventions and tips about python docstrings can be found here:
  http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/
  http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/node6.html#SECTION0067500000000000...
  http://www.onlamp.com/lpt/a/python/2001/05/17/docstrings.html
  class Flowable:
      """Abstract base class for things to be drawn.  Key concepts:
      1. It knows its size
      2. It draws in its own coordinate system (this requires the
          base API to provide a translate() function.
      """
• Limited criticism of tiny.be is tolerated. Fabian has deleted posts from me he did not like! He seems to "tolerate", not encourage the community.
• Wiki and forums are sporadic and not professionally managed.
• The conference in June gave lot of hope, and the migration to bazaar. It will be interesting to watch v5 stable when it arrives.
• Hype: There are definitely not hundreds of installations per day.
    I estimate in the tens the number of production installs, especially with Accounting..

 

 

More things to follow up: 

  https://tinyerp.saas-camptocamp.com/trac/tinyerp/ticket/26
  http://www.openerp.com/forum/post21264.html#21264

 

My v4.2 scripts/modules

As I progress, I've written several modules and scripts, where possible I publish them as open source.

Aims: created commented, example modules and scripts to make them easier for others to read,  as I myself found it difficult to get going in Terp as a python newbie, and with terp having almost zero comments/doc strings in the code.

RPC/Web service interface Scripts:

1. partners.py: Import partners from a CSV test format via RPC.
2. partner_address.py: Import partners contacts from a CSV test format via RPC.
3. invoice_list.py:  List first 100 invoices (headers). For an invoices in the 'open' state, list the detail lines and taxes too.
4. invoice_create.py: create a hard code invoice example.

Module addons

1. l10n_ie_minimal: an early (not even alpha code) to define Irish localisation
2. sb_travel: Code for a working reference example. Travel Module example on http://openerp.com/wiki/index.php/Developpers:Developper%27s_Book
3. p0_partner_extended: extend partners with a few fields
4. p0_contact_extended: extend partner contacts with a few fields
5. sb_sale_extended:
6. sb_stockpoly: A simple module for managing the stock of polythene reels which are
      received in lots. Its also a sample program for object definition/inheritance, caculated fields and menus/views.
7. partner2.module: early alpha code extending partners, ignore it.
8. p0_activate: add a custom button to Order confirmation, call an external script, modify the sales workflow

There are also links to useful sites/documentation notes

The scripts are GPL/OpenSource

The SVN repository is

https://svn1.hosted-projects.com/boran/terp

Read-only access to this repository: user=public, password=public

For write access, ask me (I welcome contributes, if any modules become big enough they can be transferred to Google code or SourceForge)
 

V5 - initial impressions

Aim (2008..): This page will cover issues with the very promising v5......

V5 looks interesting indeed, but are (many) issues... check out the foums..

Migrating from v4.2:

• Update 19.12.08: v4.2 which has got to an interesting maturity, is being ignored more-or-less by Tiny. Refusing bugs, patches and translations for the v4 stable release and just hoping the next release will fix everything is immature in my opinion.
• Many people have invested time in v4.2, Tiny should hand over the commit to someone who is motivated by v4.2.
• Migration scripts are not cheap (1500 euros),...
  Having now seen the migration scripts, this are highly specific and would require significant tuning. So I'd recommend starting over new for V5.

Sep'2009: For some performance/scalability testing scripts see http://www.openobject.com/forum/post42822.html (they are in the svn repository).

Accounting:

• it would have been nice to use Openerp for a small Irish and English organisation, but the Localisation for the UK does not seem refined, or much used. I don't see any consulting offering support either.
• My own accounting setup (with C2C Swiss localisation) was on v4.2 in Dec'02. Migrating was too painful, so a new V5 installed was started for the 2010 financial year.
• The V5 accounting has better reports, taxes are more generic and its overall easier to use. But P&L & Balance sheets are still an issue.

[Update 2010.07.25] As an opensource project basically if something is missing one should try and implement it and contribute back to the community. Since I've not been able to do this yet really with openerp, I'm reluctant to criticise strongly.
Commercial software makes (more) money ... so they have the money to employ programmers to make easier to use software... but they don't necessarily listen to their community either
All open software projects have to start somewhere, and its the community that makes the project. Openerp tries to solve complex problems and is at (very) early stages community wise.
(My favourite counter-example is Drupal which has a strong, open, vibrant community tying commercial integrators/developers with volounteers in a way I've never seen before: its a million times more motivating to work on Drupal than Openerp....)

Tryton

This ERP tool is based in OpenERP 4.2 stable.   http://www.tryton.org

"So, why forking? The goal behind Tryton is not to create a direct competitor but to provide a new way to tackle the problem of programming a business software. The idea is to favor a solid and consistent solution over more cutting edge features. Practically this means that today (20 October 2008), compared to the version of Tiny ERP (4.2) that was the base of the fork: More than 4000 lines of code have been removed and more than 11000 lines of code have been added. Moreover, all the modules available in Tryton have been completely rewritten, which represent nearly 20000 lines of code. All this work was necessary from our point of view because most of the fundamental modules in Tiny ERP where written when some of the most advanced technical features were still missing. The result is a better harmonization between base modules, an optimized modularity and a more powerful platform for custom developments."

 

Good things:

• Sounds very interesting to me, additional OpenSource can be very beneficial for OpenERP community I think.

Less good

• Sources are only available, no packages.
• Met some tryton guys at Openexpo in Bern, were very interesting.
• Much more community oriented.
• Yet another version control system (mercurial), why not bzr, svn or cvs? This is perhaps selfish whinging om my part: when I read up on mercurial is it interesting and has been chosen by several large projects.
• Docs are very basic.

This space will be updated after real tests..