Revision [1128]
This is an old revision of ExpectationsManagement made by PhilDaintree on 2008-02-15 22:28:41.
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webERP Administration and Roadmaps
webERP is currently administered by Phil Daintree and Tim Schofield. We really could do with some help though and looking for others with skills in any of the following functions:
- Web-Site Maintenance
- Marketing - we do none currently!
- Writing Documentation
- Answering Support Queries
- Testing and debugging
We, as with most open source developers, are both voluntary and offer our services on the clear understanding that we are NOT responsible for your installation and that the software is offered and used without warranty etc as per the GPL version 2.
Suggestions for improvement are certainly encouraged but most of all we welcome development work done in accordance with the ContributingtowebERP development guidelines against the latest CVS code. Bringing development work in that was made against older code is more difficult and if you wish to be in a position to use later versions of webERP with the new functionality made available with each release it pays to be pro-active in donating the development work you've done back to the project.
Development Philosophy - Road Map
Note: This is a personal statement of Phil Daintree's and not necessarily the view of Tim Schofield the other project admin of webERP
- All those involved with webERP are involved for their own purposes be they altruistic or most likely for the commercial advantage afforded by the software.
- My aim is to maximise the benefits to businesses using the system.
- The advantage afforded is proportional to the functionality provided in the software and each of us has an interest in developing functionality specific to our own requirements.
- There is no doubt, some enterprises consider that donating that development back to the project reduces the commercial advantage they now enjoy, as their competitors will also have access to the functionality they developed.
- Although I would like development work (done in accordance with the ContributingtowebERP coding conventions) given back to the project I understand and accept that there is not a legal requirement unless it is being redistributed.
- This is a shame since the following that webERP could gather if businesses were to truly get behind the spirit of the project and the additional functionality that would then accrue to their business is foregone by themselves and the rest of the webERP community. The community grows but slower than it would otherwise if there were more support for the philosophy of creating something much bigger than we could each develop on our own.
- I conclude that the development work that does get undertaken and given back then is predominantly from those with more altruistic motives.
I want to use webERP to help businesses and to develop useful software. Obviously, software that is useful has a value and businesses are prepared to pay for this work. To ensure that my work is useful I want to work with businesses with specific needs and for which they are prepared to pay for - on the understanding that it goes into the project in return for my charging a reduced fee. This is a win-win, since :
- I get to develop software which I enjoy doing (I am not allowed to spend too much time on webERP these days since I have a family and my wife expects there to be a return for the work I do!)
- webERP gets the additional functionality and the value proposition increases for the whole community
- The sponsoring business gets discounted development work
It follows from the above circumstances that I am not able to publish a road-map for my development because different roads get taken depending on what developments businesses wish to sponsor. If you have a road-map for development you require and are prepared to sponsor - then please do let me know. I am not sure how Tim's development agenda works.
Work that is donated to the project I will include provided it does not compromise the ContributingtowebERP goals of the project and coding conventions - if it compromises the coding conventions I will make an honest attempt to convert it to be consistent with the existing code base. In practise there are a number of reasons why code contributions to webERP have been limited but are probably also the reasons why businesses seem to like the system:
- I suspect the coding conventions used by webERP are not widely appreciated by computer scientists since logic is mixed with presentation - a "no no" for the purist - my view is that the presentation code adds to the context of the logic and significantly improves the readability. A major goal of webERP is to have the scripts readable by business people. The ability to change the presentation (within limits) is still available through css and the theme structure. The argument against mixing presentation and logic is largely academic philosophy (in my view). Additional layers of abstraction (eg smarty templates) are deliberately avoided in favour of readability. Computer scientists then feel alienated by webERP's coding structure.
- As eluded to above - business people predominantely (and understandably) only write code for their own business requirements.
- Writing code with generic capability is more onerous that simple hacks to acheive a specific purpose. e.g. In a business environment where a page will always be presented in English for all users - it is not necessary to write the code encapsulated in the _(' ') function to allow it to be translated to other languages. It is hard to justify spending the extra time/investment to make the code generic and useful for the project. I am prepared to take some of this on - but if it amounts to a re-write then I am not so keen unless the functionality is a big advance - simple hacks are mostly just that.
There are a couple of forks of webERP and the reasons for the forks are a useful history lesson that teach us what to expect in the future:
1. Open-Accounting forked for a number of reasons - the main one at the time was that Sherif (Omar - the developer of OA) required right to left language (Arabic) and gettext which I was not ready to explore at the time. Also, one of webERP's primary goals has always been to have code readable by business people (of which I am one). I am not interested in programming niceties and avoid object orientation techniques (OO) because it is not intuitive (at least to me and I believe most business folk). That's not to say that OO will not be used where the code re-use argument is overwhelming - it is used quite extensively in transaction scripts. I suspect that Sherif, steeped in programming theory was not prepared to carry me along and put up with my whinging! Open Accounting has become Front Accounting and it is probably "better" than webERP in terms of programming niceties OO, functions everywhere, a maize of directories etc. However, webERP has left it behind in terms of functionality (I think this can be regarded as a fact) and certainly code readability (my opinion!).
2. edgeERP forked in 2007 because Steve was uncomfortable with my stance described above where I require a sponsor for development and this apparently is anti-open-source. This angered him to the point where he became very abusive in an email to me and I not wishing to have any more involvement with him, removed him as a developer as a consequence. I was also critical of the contribution of some purported developers of webERP - where development work they had done for clients on webERP had not been given back to the community (and I think may still not have been published). Whilst I accept this may not be a legal requirement it is certainly contrary to the spirit of open-source and definitely contrary to the reasons why I donated the code in the first place. Ultimately, actions (or lack of) speak much louder than all the words and promises. A lovely irony is that my requiring sponsorship for development only came about because I felt like I was carrying a team of consultants who were making money from my efforts - my wife felt I was a mug to carry on with it and this was the compromise (hey I enjoy it - at least when there are no nasty conflicts!) The lesson here is that people who are developers of webERP will only stay listed as such if they are actively contributing - and will not be allowed to stay listed indefinitely possibly for self promotional purposes - unless they are contributing code. We are much better off with less ego and more development work!
The "Road Map" for webERP is up to the reader then - in the words of MS "anywhere you want to go..." subject to the caveats above !