Openbravo POS 2.10 Acceptance Test

Following our plan to make frequent releases, Openbravo is going to launch Openbravo POS 2.10 in few days. In this release we put a lot of effort in creating new and exciting functionalities for users and developers, and in localization to help to adapt Openbravo POS to more countries and cultures. If you are interested in participating in this acceptance test, please notify us by sending an email to collaborate to openbravo dot com.

The goal of this acceptance test is:

1. Test regression. We want to be sure that we did not break things that worked in older releases.
2. The new functionalities included in this release are stable and complete. We want to focus on the new customer module, new reports engine, integration with Openbravo ERP, and the new localization functionalities, like events in the sales panel and split receipt.
3. The installation and upgrade database processes work perfectly in all the databases supported: HSQLDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle.
4. Starts properly in Windows XP, Vista and major distributions of Linux.
5. There are not major bugs.

The process is going to be very similar to what we do for the the last release of Openbravo POS and to what we do for Openbravo ERP. Specifically, here is what we are asking:

1. We will give volunteers early access to the installer through a private FTP server. You will essentially receive the release at the same time as our QA team.
2. We will give you access to our test plans so that you can see what to test (but you can test any flow you like as well).
3. We will ask you to give us frequent updates on your progress.
4. If you have problems or doubts during the process, we will respond to your messages using the discussion forums
5. We will publish a daily status update on the forums.

Acceptance testing should start on the middle of this week, and ideally should last 3 or 4 days.

We look forward to your continued support to our project and your participation in this important test.

Openbravo POS 2.10 update

The release of the new version of Openbravo POS becomes closer every day. Progress in the development is going well and we expect to release on time. The schedule for the version 2.10 of Openbravo POS is:

• Code freeze: May 19th
  
• Installer ready and beginning of Acceptance Testing: May 20th
• Acceptance Testing complete and public availability: May 23th

There are many features already implemented and available in the subversion repository but also there are still a lot of work to do. You can follow the development in the trunk branch of the subversion repository for Openbravo POS https://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=127939 and in the release status wiki document http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/Openbravo_POS_R2.10_Release_status

New reports and charts model for Openbravo POS

To create new reports or to modify existing ones has been a painful task for Openbravo POS developers. Although the engine used is JasperReports and there are great tools to create new reports like iReport. To include a new report in Openbravo POS you needed to create a new java file to define the title, SQL sentence, parameters, and all the report parameters, to modify the menus, to compile the application and pray...

The next release of Openbravo POS, the version 2.10, includes a new model to develop reports and charts, and as a proof of concept all the reports bundled with Openbravo POS has been ported to the new model. With the new model you do not need neither to touch any single line of source code nor to compile the application. With this new model you will decrease the time and money you need to implement Openbravo POS and to adapt it to your business needs and legal requirements.

New reports and charts can be included just adding plain text files to the Openbravo POS folder /reports. A report consist in three files: The configuration file, the report file and the translations file. The configuration file is the most important one, there you define the title, the SQL sentence to get the report data, parameters, fields, what is the report file and what is the translations file. The report file is the JasperReports file and you can edit this file with iReport. And the translations file is used to define literals that need to be translated.

The bundled Openbravo POS reports are great to have a look if you want to include your own reports in the application, there you will find examples of all the possibilities to create new reports for Openbravo POS.

Openbravo POS 2.00 released

Last week Openbravo released the first version of Openbravo POS under its new name. You can read all the details of the new version in the press release published.

We are very happy with this release and we achieved all the objectives expected. We included nice features like having the localization files in an external folder to allow to add new localizations as a plug-in without having to recompile, new Substance look and feel themes, etc. We also fixed most of the bugs reported in the Sourceforge project pages. You can read the full release notes in the Openbravo wiki. We are also very grateful for the response of the community to this new release. Today Openbravo POS is one of the top 25th projects in Sourceforge and we expect to stay there for a long time. This is something that gives us a lot of energy to continue working hard.

Now we are working in the roadmap for the next release. This roadmap will be published in the wiki pages as soon as it is finished. In the next release we plan to continue with the same objectives and focus in the localization issues of Openbravo POS, to complement Openbravo ERP and to include new features and stability to Openbravo POS. In one sentence, to give to our partners and our community a competitive product in the Point of Sale software arena and, in association with Openbravo ERP, the best open source software suite for SME.

Call for participation in Openbravo POS 2.00 acceptance testing

Openbravo is going to launch Openbravo POS 2.00 in few days. This is the first version of Openbravo POS under its new name and we are asking the community to help us validate its quality before release.

If you are willing and able this opportunity is for you! Notify us of your interest by sending an email to collaborate at openbravo dot com.

The process is going to be very similar to what we do for Openbravo ERP and the process we will follow is the same we used for Openbravo ERP R2.35. Specifically, here is what we are asking:

1. We will give you early access to the installer through a private FTP server. You will essentially receive the release at the same time as our QA team.
2. We will give you access to our QA portal, where you can see our test cases for the acceptance test. Please note this will be the first acceptance test for Openbravo POS.
   
3. We will assign you a set of test cases and we expect that you will install the application on your machine, run the test cases and report the outcome in the QA portal
   
4. We will not assign you any bug to verify as we will execute that task internally. Obviously you are free to verify specific bugs that you care about.
5. If you have any questions or doubts during the process, please contact at pablo dot sarobe at openbravo dot com (QA Team).
   

Acceptance testing should start on February, 18th and ideally should last 3 or 4 days.

Please remember that this is going to be an Acceptance Testing, not a full blown QA cycle. The purpose of Acceptance Testing is to validate that an already QA'ed release is good to go and that the last build didn't introduce any major regression (essentially: test the product as it is going to be shipped before your users do to avoid to be embarrassed later).

Because of that, we will stop the release only if one of the test cases fails with a significant bug. Nonetheless, we do expect you to log all issues you find, including small bugs, as we will fix those in future releases.

Openbravo POS 2.00 is the starting point of a product that we are investing a lot of effort to offer this great portfolio of open source applications for SME. There are important features included and a large list of bugs fixed. We look forward to your participation!

Openbravo POS product launched!

Last week, Openbravo POS has been officially launched as a new member of the Openbravo products family. It has its own product page at http://www.openbravo.com/product/pos/ and the name migration from Librepos is complete. That comes with a new project page in Sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/projects/openbravopos/ and a redirection from the older project pages. I expect that the old members of the Librepos community will not get lost and start working in the new project pages as soon as possible.

Also, I want to remind to the Openbravo community that we have great plans for Openbravo POS and we are working to execute them. The first step is to release the first version under its new name in mid February. Check the road map at http://wiki.openbravo.com/wiki/index.php/Openbravo_POS_roadmap. And a training course will be held in Barcelona in april, in English and Spanish.

Openbravo has acquired Librepos

As you already know, Openbravo has acquired Librepos. I am very happy because now under the Openbravo umbrella, Librepos has more opportunities to grow and succeed. In order to be aligned with all the company products, Librepos will change its name to Openbravo POS, just an aesthetic change that will not change the soul of Librepos.

This acquisition will benefit the Librepos community of users and developers for several reasons. First, the continuation of Librepos is now guaranteed, Librepos will be an independent product of the Openbravo portfolio hosted in Sourceforge, and is and will be open source and licensed under the GPL. Forums will continue actively and there will be frequent releases of Librepos. Openbravo is a company truly committed to open source and believes in the strengths of the community to drive innovation.

Second, I will continue to be involved in the future of Librepos. I am the founder and main developer of Librepos since I published Librepos in January 2005. Now I joined Openbravo as Senior Architect and Librepos is part of my responsibilities. This is also great for me because previously to this acquisition I used to spend my spare time on Librepos, now I will have more time for Librepos, because now Librepos is part of my job.

And third, Openbravo ERP and Librepos are products that will benefit one from each other. Users of Openbravo ERP usually need a point of sale like Librepos and also users of Librepos usually need an ERP like Openbravo ERP. Both products are complementary and making both products run together and integrated in the same environment is a great value proposition for the retail market. It is already possible to integrate Librepos and Openbravo ERP, a solution that offers the possibility to share data between the two applications.

The future looks promising. Now we are working on the roadmap and business plan for Librepos. These plans are very ambitious and will be published as soon as possible. For sure, the most demanded features of the Librepos community will be included, and you can participate in these plans creating new feature requests and creating new bug reports.

Documentation for Librepos has been in the past the weakest side of Librepos. Now we will integrate the current documentation of Librepos in the Openbravo's wiki and will work to expand this documentation to achieve the best quality.

We are also planning a training event on December 17th - 18th for Librepos. This training event will be held in Madrid, Spain. This training event will be in Spanish but the material of the training will be in English. The details of this training will be available soon in the Openbravo web training page.

I look forward to meeting you in this first training of Librepos and discuss with you about the future and the possibilities of Openbravo ERP and Librepos.