Prototyping with HTML 5 (1)

In my last post, I wrote about the new HTML 5 features and how can these new features be a revolution in the ecosystem of current web applications. But I do not want to stop here without exploring a little bit about the possibilities of combining these new HTML 5 features with Openbravo ERP.

The plan is to start a series of posts with the objective to create a prototype of a web application for hand held devices like iPod Touch and iPhone, oriented to mobile users of Openbravo ERP.

The requisites I am imposing to myself for this prototype are the following:

• It will be an HTML application and take advantage of HTML 5.
• The application will run in an iPod Touch or iPhone, because these devices are broadly available, can be considered "cheap" for this task, and also because it is a device I love :-). It also will run in Firefox 3.5 for debugging purposes.
• It will consume standard Openbravo ERP REST Web Services. Nothing else than a fresh Openbravo ERP community edition will be needed.
• The application must be capable to work online and offline without any loss of functionality, just the need to work without the latest data available. It will be required when working offline, to cache data and to store data. And refresh the cache data and send stored data when the device is connected again.
• The functionality developed should be "useful".
• It should be just a prototype. Not expend too much time, handling exceptional behaviours, errors. Just make it work.

In this first development iteration I created a very simple application for sales men to allow them to have the list of products with details like the category and the unit of measure of the product (UOM). And with the ability to change there prices shown between all price lists available. It works completely offline and has the ability to refresh the data when the device is online.

I plan to publish the source code after polishing it in the Openbravo forge under the Openbravo Public License with small instructions to install it. In the mean time here you have screenshots of the application working:

In the next steps I plan to build a simple form to submit sales orders and also I would like to display charts. And if you have suggestions about how to improve this prototype I will be glad to hear them.

Disclaimer: The project I am developing here is done in the personal investigation time I have reserved during development sprints and it is not in the roadmap of Openbravo ERP and there is not commitment from Openbravo to his partners, customers or community related to the availability or support of this project.

Openbravo ERP module Initial Data Load 1.1.0 released

I am happy to announce that a new version of the module Initial Data Load 1.1.0 is now available.

Initial Data Load is focused to Openbravo ERP partners and customers that aims to reduce the time needed to deploy a fresh Openbravo ERP installation simplifying the import of all master data and operational data needed to start working with Openbravo ERP. This can save a lot of time in the deployment of Openbravo ERP for the following reasons:

• It works in all standard Openbravo ERP flavors. For example with the professional cloud appliance.
• You have a clear and documented definition of all entities and fields needed to start to use Openbravo ERP in the deployed environment.
• After you collected all the data from legacy systems is just a matter of few hours to import all the data into Openbravo ERP.
• Initial Data Load verifies all data before importing it into Openbravo ERP and if an error is found a clear explanation of the record that has the error and the type of error found is shown to the user.
• All user interaction is through the browser, with no direct server access required.
  

This new version includes the import process for 10 Openbravo ERP entities that are more than enough to draw the initial picture of a company to start working. These import process are:

• Products
• Price Lists
• Bank Accounts
• Business Partners
• Open Payables
• Open Receivables
• Assets
• Journal Entries
• Standard Cost
• On hand quantity / Stock

If you want to know more about how to install it and a description of each of the import process included, read the User Manual.

The Initial Data Load module is a commercial module available at no additional cost for Openbravo Professional subscribers. This module is available in Openbravo's Central Repository and if you want to acquire it have a look at the How to acquire page or use our Contact Us form.

This module is also part of Openbravo ERP QuickStart. In the Quickstart page you can find all the extra benefits if you adopt Initial Data Load in conjunction with Openbravo ERP Quickstart.