Apache Ofbiz™
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Getting Started with Apache OFBiz™ In 5 Easy Steps Ruth Hoffman Last Updated June 2010 Title: Getting Started with Apache OFBiz® In 5 Easy Steps Author: Ruth Hoffman ©2009-2010 Ruth Hoffman, All Rights Reserved ISBN 978-0-9842907-2-7 About the Author: Ruth Hoffman has over 25 years of computer industry experience. She began her career designing and writing real-time command & control systems. From there, she moved into software engineering and technical marketing where she was responsible for operating systems, database and infrastructure product management, marketing and sales support. She has held roles in project management, training and software sales. Over the last several years, she has moved back to her roots designing and implementing complex enterprise software systems using state-of-the-art open source tech- nologies. As an advocate of OFBiz, she has been using the OFBiz project software since early 2000 for a variety of successful enterprise projects including numerous e-commerce and ERP implementations. Her most recent project, myOFBiz.com, is an endeavor to use OFBiz exclusively to develop, market and distribute the highest quality learning resources for and about OFBiz. Please visit the website at: http://www.myofbiz.com ©2010 Ruth Hoffman, All Rights Reserved Page 2 Getting Started with Apache OFBiz® in 5 Easy Steps Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................4 Purpose ...............................................................................................................................................................4 Who Should Read This?...................................................................................................................................4 Why Focus on OFBiz E-Commerce Features?............................................................................................4 Why OFBiz?............................................................................................................................................................5 OFBiz Makes Good Business Sense ..............................................................................................................5 The OFBiz Framework Technical Advantage..............................................................................................5 Technical Framework “Freebies” ..............................................................................................................5 OFBiz Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) ......................................................................................................................7 The 5 Steps to “Getting Started”.........................................................................................................................8 Step 1 Problem Definition....................................................................................................................................9 The “Getting Started” Problem Definition...................................................................................................9 Problem Definition – Business Goals.......................................................................................................9 Problem Definition – Technical Goals.....................................................................................................9 Problem Definition – “Getting Started” Goals.......................................................................................9 Step 2 Perform Gap Analysis ...............................................................................................................................11 Step 3 Site Prep and Download ...........................................................................................................................13 Step 4 Prototype “Getting Started” Goals .........................................................................................................14 Prototyping Part I..............................................................................................................................................14 First, Evaluate The Download ...................................................................................................................14 Prototyping Part II ............................................................................................................................................15 Evaluate Each Goal/Requirement From Step 1.....................................................................................16 Goal 1: Store Branding................................................................................................................................16 Goal 2: Adding New Products to OOTB Store......................................................................................17 Goal 3: New Products & Shopping Cart Test.........................................................................................19 Goal 4: New Products & Order Creation ................................................................................................20 Goal 5: Order Branding...............................................................................................................................21 Goal 6: Password Protected User Accounts............................................................................................22 Goal 7: Support for Offline Payment Methods.......................................................................................23 Goal 8: Digital Products & Product Shipping .........................................................................................25 Goal 9: Store Promotions ...........................................................................................................................26 Goal 10: Store Promotions w/Coupon ....................................................................................................27 Step 5 Review Results............................................................................................................................................29 The “Getting Started” Results.........................................................................................................................29 Beyond Getting Started .........................................................................................................................................30 ©2010 Ruth Hoffman, All Rights Reserved Page 3 Getting Started with Apache OFBiz® in 5 Easy Steps Introduction You've heard great things about Apache Open for Business™ (OFBiz™). Maybe you've even visited the new official OFBiz home at the Apache Foundation http://ofbiz.apache.org. Perhaps you have stumbled upon one or more OFBiz success stories.1 Now you want to try it out and see for yourself what all the excitement is about. Purpose Here is a roadmap to get you up and running with OFBiz quickly and with a minimum of frustration. Originally authored as a companion to the “Getting Started w/Apache OFBiz™ In 5 Easy Steps” presenta- tion delivered at the 2009 ApacheCon conference, this document takes an end-user look at a few quick things you can do to “kick the OFBiz e-commerce tires”. Step-by-step instructions walk you through tasks that, in less than an hour, will have you up and running with your very own e-commerce website store powered by OFBiz. Who Should Read This? Intended as a quick start guide, anyone interested in learning more about the OFBiz software suite's e- commerce features will find this read useful. It quickly cuts to the chase and shows the reader how to get started evaluating OFBiz tools specific to supporting e-commerce. The reader is not expected to have any special knowledge of: programming languages, software design techniques or database administrative tasks. Why Focus on OFBiz E-Commerce Features? While OFBiz is a fully functional ERP2 software package, complete with a flexible, open, easy to customize framework, this document focuses on Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) e-commerce capabilities. This direction was chosen for two reasons. First, “E-Commerce” is an accepted part of the business lexicon. That is, everyone understands e-commerce and that gives us common ground from which to present OFBiz features, functions and benefits. Second, the OFBiz download is packaged with a substantive e-commerce demonstration, making it easy to present examples and showcase e-commerce features and functions. This e-commerce demonstration is seamlessly integrated with other OFBiz applications such as accounting, inventory/asset management, manufacturing and content management. Now that you know what this whitepaper is, let's review what it is not: This whitepaper is not an OFBiz development guide. This whitepaper is not an OFBiz guide to moving into production. This whitepaper is not an OFBiz administration and operations manual. 1 http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBIZ/Apache+OFBiz+User+Stories 2 Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the set of software applications providing complete business automation solutions using a single enterprise database. ©2010 Ruth Hoffman, All Rights Reserved Page 4 Getting Started with Apache OFBiz® in 5 Easy Steps Why OFBiz? If you already know why OFBiz should be your ERP and/or e-commerce solution, then skip to the section titled “The 5 Steps to Getting Started”. Otherwise, read on and learn more about the OFBiz advantage. OFBiz Makes Good Business Sense If the