Loading customers into OFBiz

[Ron Wheeler]

http://adtransform.artifact-software.com/?p=16 is a writeup about how to
use ADTransform to create the entity-engine-xml files to load customers.

I would appreciate any comments from strategy to clarity of the explanation.

I hope that this will help people with initial data loading by allowing
implementation teams to start with denormalized data exported from other
automated or manual systems and have it automatically validated and
turned into the correct structure for the entity-engine.

It should also make it easier to create more extensive demo data and
test data without any programming skills.

Ron

--
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: [hidden email]
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: [phone], ext 102

[Jacques Le Roux]

I just read the previous version. So I will have to read the update. The XSLT part is missing though, normal?

Jacques

Le 28/01/2015 18:01, Ron Wheeler a écrit :

> http://adtransform.artifact-software.com/?p=16 is a writeup about how to use ADTransform to create the entity-engine-xml files to load customers.
>
> I would appreciate any comments from strategy to clarity of the explanation.
>
> I hope that this will help people with initial data loading by allowing implementation teams to start with denormalized data exported from other
> automated or manual systems and have it automatically validated and turned into the correct structure for the entity-engine.
>
> It should also make it easier to create more extensive demo data and test data without any programming skills.
>
> Ron
>

[Ron Wheeler]

Yes, I was able to remove the need for custom XSLT processing by being a
bit smarter about the XML output plug-in so that it has enough
flexibility to produce a file that the entity-engine should be able to read.

One can configure the root element name and the data element name so one
produce the XML required when the data is output from the datastore's
tabular structure.
This means that data importing/conversion can be done without knowing
any Java or XSLT.

The downside is that it produces a file for each entity type and they
have to be imported in the right sequence.
However each file is easy to check visually since it will consist of
record of a single entity type and the process can spit out tablular
reports of the attributes as columns in parallel with the xml. This will
help in conversion projects where thousands of customers, supplier or
products have to be added and verified.

That should help make it easier for non-programmers to generate test
data and demo data.
One still has to know the entity definitions and the relationships
between entities but not XSLT or Java.

Is my interpretation of the Party model as it applies to Customers accurate?
Ruth gave me some valuable hints and wrote a short document that was
very helpful and I found some recent articles and a book extract by Len
Silverston that were very instructive.
I still had to make some assumptions about the business case (Does the
use case allow for multiple contacts at the same customer? I originally
thought "no" but changed it so that it will and assigned each of the
initial contacts as "Buyers".
Probably could assign more roles but that is easy to do if required.

Ron

On 28/01/2015 1:11 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:

> I just read the previous version. So I will have to read the update.
> The XSLT part is missing though, normal?
>
> Jacques
>
> Le 28/01/2015 18:01, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>> http://adtransform.artifact-software.com/?p=16 is a writeup about how
>> to use ADTransform to create the entity-engine-xml files to load
>> customers.
>>
>> I would appreciate any comments from strategy to clarity of the
>> explanation.
>>
>> I hope that this will help people with initial data loading by
>> allowing implementation teams to start with denormalized data
>> exported from other automated or manual systems and have it
>> automatically validated and turned into the correct structure for the
>> entity-engine.
>>
>> It should also make it easier to create more extensive demo data and
>> test data without any programming skills.
>>
>> Ron
>>
>

--
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: [hidden email]
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: [phone], ext 102

[Jacques Le Roux]

Do you intend to link from the wiki?

Jacques

Le 28/01/2015 21:11, Ron Wheeler a écrit :

> Yes, I was able to remove the need for custom XSLT processing by being a bit smarter about the XML output plug-in so that it has enough flexibility
> to produce a file that the entity-engine should be able to read.
>
> One can configure the root element name and the data element name so one produce the XML required when the data is output from the datastore's
> tabular structure.
> This means that data importing/conversion can be done without knowing any Java or XSLT.
>
> The downside is that it produces a file for each entity type and they have to be imported in the right sequence.
> However each file is easy to check visually since it will consist of record of a single entity type and the process can spit out tablular reports of
> the attributes as columns in parallel with the xml. This will help in conversion projects where thousands of customers, supplier or products have to
> be added and verified.
>
> That should help make it easier for non-programmers to generate test data and demo data.
> One still has to know the entity definitions and the relationships between entities but not XSLT or Java.
>
> Is my interpretation of the Party model as it applies to Customers accurate?
> Ruth gave me some valuable hints and wrote a short document that was very helpful and I found some recent articles and a book extract by Len
> Silverston that were very instructive.
> I still had to make some assumptions about the business case (Does the use case allow for multiple contacts at the same customer? I originally
> thought "no" but changed it so that it will and assigned each of the initial contacts as "Buyers".
> Probably could assign more roles but that is easy to do if required.
>
> Ron
>
> On 28/01/2015 1:11 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>> I just read the previous version. So I will have to read the update. The XSLT part is missing though, normal?
>>
>> Jacques
>>
>> Le 28/01/2015 18:01, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>>> http://adtransform.artifact-software.com/?p=16 is a writeup about how to use ADTransform to create the entity-engine-xml files to load customers.
>>>
>>> I would appreciate any comments from strategy to clarity of the explanation.
>>>
>>> I hope that this will help people with initial data loading by allowing implementation teams to start with denormalized data exported from other
>>> automated or manual systems and have it automatically validated and turned into the correct structure for the entity-engine.
>>>
>>> It should also make it easier to create more extensive demo data and test data without any programming skills.
>>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>
>
>

[Ron Wheeler]

On 25/02/2015 4:24 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
> Do you intend to link from the wiki?

I will write something more specific to OFBiz in the wiki with the
language and procedures more in line with what  a OFBiz implementer or
system admin is used to.
I will add in the actual load instructions to the end.

The link will be a reference rather than the main story. The story on
artifact will be written to be a general use case for any ERP.
There will be duplication of content and extra writing but that is OK.

I am have extended the current example to include loading employees as well.
Currently dealing with a Wordpress issue that is taking time to debug
and fix.

Ron

>
> Jacques
>
> Le 28/01/2015 21:11, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>> Yes, I was able to remove the need for custom XSLT processing by
>> being a bit smarter about the XML output plug-in so that it has
>> enough flexibility to produce a file that the entity-engine should be
>> able to read.
>>
>> One can configure the root element name and the data element name so
>> one produce the XML required when the data is output from the
>> datastore's tabular structure.
>> This means that data importing/conversion can be done without knowing
>> any Java or XSLT.
>>
>> The downside is that it produces a file for each entity type and they
>> have to be imported in the right sequence.
>> However each file is easy to check visually since it will consist of
>> record of a single entity type and the process can spit out tablular
>> reports of the attributes as columns in parallel with the xml. This
>> will help in conversion projects where thousands of customers,
>> supplier or products have to be added and verified.
>>
>> That should help make it easier for non-programmers to generate test
>> data and demo data.
>> One still has to know the entity definitions and the relationships
>> between entities but not XSLT or Java.
>>
>> Is my interpretation of the Party model as it applies to Customers
>> accurate?
>> Ruth gave me some valuable hints and wrote a short document that was
>> very helpful and I found some recent articles and a book extract by
>> Len Silverston that were very instructive.
>> I still had to make some assumptions about the business case (Does
>> the use case allow for multiple contacts at the same customer? I
>> originally thought "no" but changed it so that it will and assigned
>> each of the initial contacts as "Buyers".
>> Probably could assign more roles but that is easy to do if required.
>>
>> Ron
>>
>> On 28/01/2015 1:11 PM, Jacques Le Roux wrote:
>>> I just read the previous version. So I will have to read the update.
>>> The XSLT part is missing though, normal?
>>>
>>> Jacques
>>>
>>> Le 28/01/2015 18:01, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
>>>> http://adtransform.artifact-software.com/?p=16 is a writeup about
>>>> how to use ADTransform to create the entity-engine-xml files to
>>>> load customers.
>>>>
>>>> I would appreciate any comments from strategy to clarity of the
>>>> explanation.
>>>>
>>>> I hope that this will help people with initial data loading by
>>>> allowing implementation teams to start with denormalized data
>>>> exported from other automated or manual systems and have it
>>>> automatically validated and turned into the correct structure for
>>>> the entity-engine.
>>>>
>>>> It should also make it easier to create more extensive demo data
>>>> and test data without any programming skills.
>>>>
>>>> Ron
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>

--
Ron Wheeler
President
Artifact Software Inc
email: [hidden email]
skype: ronaldmwheeler
phone: [phone], ext 102

[Jacques Le Roux]

Le 25/02/2015 22:54, Ron Wheeler a écrit :
> Currently dealing with a Wordpress issue that is taking time to debug and fix.
>
> Ron

OK, good luck ;)

Jacques