Apachecon EU 2016

The OFBiz track at the Apachecon Core EU 2015 event in Budapest, Hungary spreads across all aspects of OFBiz: business, development and operations and the speakers are from various countries within the European market space. Summary abstracts of the presentations were as follows:

Abstract Summary: OFBiz + Modern UI = Awesomeness

Apache OFBiz is only one of the complete enterprise solution with ERP, CRM, E-commerce and many other modules. OFBiz data model is core and best but sometimes its back-office UI is not that user friendly. Gaurav Saini will give a quick review on how we can utilize OFBiz services and making it REST with Apache WINK and then consuming that with latest material design and angularjs. Also, will demonstrate a sales and order reporting mobile application with graphs and charts visualization using Ionic Framework and Apache Cordova.

Abstract Summary: A Collaborative Approach to UI Testing in Apache OFBiz

ERP applications need more and more modularity, which is one of the major priorities of the Apache OFBiz community. This presentation will explain why user interface modularity and its associated unit testing methods can help create full process flow integration testing that helps enable and maintain application quality.

A key success factor to delivering good automated tests is the need to have various people (e.g. Business Analysts, Developers, Product Owners) all working and collaborating together. This ensures that the application, its tests and also the automated test deployment is as efficient as possible. We will demonstrate, how Selenium-Webdriver UI testing is being used with Apache OFBiz on a current project, and how it helps to automatically provide enough documentation to help Business analyst and to create beginner's tutorial for the application.

Abstract Summary: Introducing OFBiz Plug In Manager for Building an Eco-System

Apache OFBiz is going through revolutionary transformations and recently Gradle was implemented as the new build system. This critical change has opened the door to lots of exciting possibilities and one of these is the ability to introduce a plugin system.

This plugin system could fundamentally change how OFBiz is used and would:

• Allow third party vendors to easily extend the system with new functionality
• Give users more control and choice over their OFBiz implementation
• Unify the method in which OFBiz is extended

The main differentiator is that this plugin management system is actually integrated within OFBiz itself and a key objective is to get the community, developers and third party vendors motivated to start building a plugin eco system around OFBiz.
In this presentation, we will talk about the basic concepts of the plugin system with some on hands demo.

Abstract Summary: Data Extraction: How to Get Your Data Out of Apache OFBiz

Apache OFBiz contains a few different technologies that can be used to help make extracting data from the system easier and simpler. Screen Widgets, Apache Freemarker, BIRT, data files and Apache Groovy are all tools that can be used to help extract the data from OFBiz in the format you want.

In this presentation we go through some different usecases for data extraction and their recommended implementations in Apache OFBiz, following user requirements (volume, complexity, usage etc).

Finally there will also be a demonstration of how to use the existing utilities and tools within OFBiz to enable general data extraction. During the presentation it is hoped that we can start a discussion about potential future ideas and requirements around data extraction that could be introduced as new OFBiz features.

Abstract Summary: DevOps Environment for an OFBiz Agile Project

Working with any large IT project, you need to have good organisation, methods and infrastructure as well as manage all your stakeholders and keep them working well together.

With Apache OFBiz, all the same rules apply.

How can you configure Git/Svn, Jenkins and Docker to create an internal workflow capable of keeping multiple developers, system testers and other IT operations working in harmony together without any problems?

What about managing automated deployments with tests, such as regression and non-regression control?

In this presentation we will give you the answers to these question and show you what has been implemented for a French eCommerce company to improve our internal DevOps. We will also take you through some tips and tricks that we use to make the flows simpler and easier to maintain.

Abstract Summary: UX Design in OFBiz. How to make it a Reality!

The current 'out of the box' user experience (UX) for Apache OFBiz does very little to promote its adoption. This is because managing the user experience is not something that tends to be included as a project priority because it is expected that it will be tailored as part of each customer implementation.

This presentation will talk through the advantages of an intuitive interface using best practice UX design. We will also show that a well thought out user interface is just as important as an efficient engine or framework.

We will go through the main ergonomic problems of the current standard OFBiz interface and present an alternative example using practical UX design.

It will also be an opportunity to show some simple methods that can be used to maintain overall coherence of any software interface. We will also discuss some tools that can be used to help make this easier to achieve

Abstract Summary: It's OK - Consensu Reached. We've agreed to disagree!

The Apache Way tells us that we need to try and run our projects using consensus as much of possible – but what does it actually mean to the man or woman on the ground? Ask 5 different people what they understand by consensus you will probably get 5 different answers but that doesn't mean that we haven't achieved it.

In this presentation Sharan will talk about about how becoming part of an Apache project has educated her about the role an use of consensus, and that applying it in real life can be a bit more challenging than the theory.