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OfBiz e-commerce customization

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Vadim Eisenberg

OfBiz e-commerce customization

Hello OfBiz developers,

My name is Vadim Eisenberg and I work at IBM Research - Haifa, on the
UniversAAL project - http://universaal.org/. It is a consortium European
project. Its goal is to create a platform for applications, services and
devices for Ambient Assisted Living, that is a kind of "Smart Home" for
senior citizens. As part of the platform, we - several software developers
- have to develop an e-commerce site - uStore
http://universaal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=9&Itemid=21
. This site would be a one-stop-shop for software, services and devices
for Ambient Assisted Living.

We consider using OfBiz for implementation of uStore.

I would like to ask you several questions about the features we want to
implement. I would be glad to hear any information you can tell me about
how hard could it be for us to implement these features. Please note that
we have no prior experience with OfBiz.

Any your thoughts, intuition, experience, advice about OfBiz/business
programming are welcome.

In particular, the following information would help us very much :
How much work should be done by us in order to implement all the
features that follow (Person/Months, Person/Years, for skilled OfBiz
developers/general software engineers). Which part would be to use
existing "extension" mechanisms of OfBiz and which part would be
actually changing the OfBiz code ? Here your intuition/experience from
related projects is welcome, we do not need exact numbers, just a
ballpark.
How much time the general software developers have to learn about OfBiz
and how skilled in OfBiz they should become in order to implement these
features

E-commerce website features:
Using e-commerce site for selling software (such as AppStore of iPhone)
and downloadable files in general (video, presentations of courses
etc.). Here the issue is to manage links where the bought files could be
downloaded. The idea is to prevent a situation in which buyers would buy
a software application, receive a link to it for downloading and share
the link afterwards with anybody they want, so anybody would be able to
download the application without paying for it.
Using e-commerce site for selling services (human services and others)
Extending e-commerce site with general widgets, such as calendar, clock,
map, a widget for downloading files, etc., and integrating the widgets
with the OfBiz

Integration with other websites/services:
Integrating an e-commerce website with another (non-OfBiz backed) site -
adding possibility for sellers to add products to the e-commerce site
via the other site, to see customer feedback provided on the e-commerce
site via the other site
Integrating an e-commerce website with another (possibly non-OfBiz)
e-commerce website, such as eBay/Amazon. What are the current
possibilities of integration with eBay ?
Integrating an e-commerce website with post/delivery services/sites

Adding advanced features:
Adding support for signing business contracts between service consumers
and service providers, between providers of different services etc. via
the e-commerce site
Adding support for applying capability/requirement model, such as
JSR-124, (for example for matching between customer's requirements and
capabilities of software, devices and services). The customer or
software agent on behalf of the customer could provide his requirements
as part of his account information, and the e-commerce solution would
match between the products (according to their capabilities) and the
requirements of the customers.
Has OfBiz a recommendation engine (providing recommendations to a user
based on his activity - searches, purchases, reviews etc.) ? If no, how
hard would it be to add it ?
Can the OfBiz-based e-commerce web site be presented by browsers of
smart phones ? How hard would it be to enable it ?
Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the requirements
of the customer
Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the geolocation
of the customer
Adding support for customization of products/services and changes in the
prices according to the customization during the purchase process
Adding support for a composition solution of hardware, software and
human services (bundles, kits). A seller could compose a new product by
combining several existing products
Adding support for manual approval of products by site administrators
before submission of the products to the e-commerce site
Adding support for managing versions of the software applications that
are sold on the e-commerce website

Sorry for so many questions and sorry if some of them are out of context.

Best Regards,
Vadim
-------------------------------
Vadim Eisenberg
IT for Healthcare & Life Sciences
IBM Research - Haifa

BJ Freeman

Re: OfBiz e-commerce customization

it would take a long time to answer all your questions in detail.
My opinions:
In general most developers that come to ofbiz attempt to use what they
know to apply to ofbiz. I have found taking fresh minds that have not
invested in one form or another of programing are the easiest to learn
ofbiz, since they don't have a lot of unlearning to-do.

Though ofbiz is "Java based" most application work is done with Widgets
and FTL for UI with minilanq and groovy for interacting with the data.
Unless you are getting into the Framework, there is not much Java used.

It would benefit you to get the three volumes of the data model book in
the book section of the ofbiz site.

about 2/3 of what you listed is possible OTTB, about a 1/3 will take
man months to implement.

an example of adding is your contracts.
there is Agreements data structure already in place, as is Requirements.
However you will need to implement the particular business logic to
marry them and create contracts.

=========================

BJ Freeman
Strategic Power Office with Supplier Automation <http://www.businessesnetwork.com/automation/viewforum.php?f=52>
Specialtymarket.com <http://www.specialtymarket.com/>
Systems Integrator-- Glad to Assist

Chat Y! messenger: bjfr33man
Vadim Eisenberg sent the following on 9/2/2010 11:19 AM:

>
> Hello OfBiz developers,
>
> My name is Vadim Eisenberg and I work at IBM Research - Haifa, on the
> UniversAAL project - http://universaal.org/. It is a consortium European
> project. Its goal is to create a platform for applications, services and
> devices for Ambient Assisted Living, that is a kind of "Smart Home" for
> senior citizens. As part of the platform, we - several software developers
> - have to develop an e-commerce site - uStore
> http://universaal.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=9&Itemid=21
> . This site would be a one-stop-shop for software, services and devices
> for Ambient Assisted Living.
>
> We consider using OfBiz for implementation of uStore.
>
> I would like to ask you several questions about the features we want to
> implement. I would be glad to hear any information you can tell me about
> how hard could it be for us to implement these features. Please note that
> we have no prior experience with OfBiz.
>
> Any your thoughts, intuition, experience, advice about OfBiz/business
> programming are welcome.
>
> In particular, the following information would help us very much :
> How much work should be done by us in order to implement all the
> features that follow (Person/Months, Person/Years, for skilled OfBiz
> developers/general software engineers). Which part would be to use
> existing "extension" mechanisms of OfBiz and which part would be
> actually changing the OfBiz code ? Here your intuition/experience from
> related projects is welcome, we do not need exact numbers, just a
> ballpark.
> How much time the general software developers have to learn about OfBiz
> and how skilled in OfBiz they should become in order to implement these
> features
>
> E-commerce website features:
> Using e-commerce site for selling software (such as AppStore of iPhone)
> and downloadable files in general (video, presentations of courses
> etc.). Here the issue is to manage links where the bought files could be
> downloaded. The idea is to prevent a situation in which buyers would buy
> a software application, receive a link to it for downloading and share
> the link afterwards with anybody they want, so anybody would be able to
> download the application without paying for it.
> Using e-commerce site for selling services (human services and others)
> Extending e-commerce site with general widgets, such as calendar, clock,
> map, a widget for downloading files, etc., and integrating the widgets
> with the OfBiz
>
> Integration with other websites/services:
> Integrating an e-commerce website with another (non-OfBiz backed) site -
> adding possibility for sellers to add products to the e-commerce site
> via the other site, to see customer feedback provided on the e-commerce
> site via the other site
> Integrating an e-commerce website with another (possibly non-OfBiz)
> e-commerce website, such as eBay/Amazon. What are the current
> possibilities of integration with eBay ?
> Integrating an e-commerce website with post/delivery services/sites
>
> Adding advanced features:
> Adding support for signing business contracts between service consumers
> and service providers, between providers of different services etc. via
> the e-commerce site
> Adding support for applying capability/requirement model, such as
> JSR-124, (for example for matching between customer's requirements and
> capabilities of software, devices and services). The customer or
> software agent on behalf of the customer could provide his requirements
> as part of his account information, and the e-commerce solution would
> match between the products (according to their capabilities) and the
> requirements of the customers.
> Has OfBiz a recommendation engine (providing recommendations to a user
> based on his activity - searches, purchases, reviews etc.) ? If no, how
> hard would it be to add it ?
> Can the OfBiz-based e-commerce web site be presented by browsers of
> smart phones ? How hard would it be to enable it ?
> Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the requirements
> of the customer
> Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the geolocation
> of the customer
> Adding support for customization of products/services and changes in the
> prices according to the customization during the purchase process
> Adding support for a composition solution of hardware, software and
> human services (bundles, kits). A seller could compose a new product by
> combining several existing products
> Adding support for manual approval of products by site administrators
> before submission of the products to the e-commerce site
> Adding support for managing versions of the software applications that
> are sold on the e-commerce website
>
> Sorry for so many questions and sorry if some of them are out of context.
>
> Best Regards,
> Vadim
> -------------------------------
> Vadim Eisenberg
> IT for Healthcare& Life Sciences
> IBM Research - Haifa
>
>
>

Divesh Dutta

Re: OfBiz e-commerce customization

In reply to this post by Vadim Eisenberg

Hello Vadim,

Please see my comments inline.

On Sep 2, 2010, at 11:49 PM, Vadim Eisenberg wrote:

Thats great idea.

>
> I would like to ask you several questions about the features we want to
> implement. I would be glad to hear any information you can tell me about
> how hard could it be for us to implement these features. Please note that
> we have no prior experience with OfBiz.

+1 for David's word here:

"OFBiz is a large project. A good developer can learn to work effectively with the framework with a couple of weeks of training and a couple of months of hands-on development. However, even a good developer will have a hard time picking up all of the data structures and business logic even after many months of study, and realistically since most people don't or can't do that, it usually takes years of work experience and even then they'll only have knowledge of the parts of the system that have had the opportunity to work with."

So if you start learning OFBiz by your self and try to get things implement your self (without consulting experienced OFBiz developer), I think it would take more time instead of saving your time.

>
> Any your thoughts, intuition, experience, advice about OfBiz/business
> programming are welcome.
>
> In particular, the following information would help us very much :
> How much work should be done by us in order to implement all the
> features that follow (Person/Months, Person/Years, for skilled OfBiz
> developers/general software engineers). Which part would be to use
> existing "extension" mechanisms of OfBiz and which part would be
> actually changing the OfBiz code ? Here your intuition/experience from
> related projects is welcome, we do not need exact numbers, just a
> ballpark.
> How much time the general software developers have to learn about OfBiz
> and how skilled in OfBiz they should become in order to implement these
> features
>
> E-commerce website features:
> Using e-commerce site for selling software (such as AppStore of iPhone)
> and downloadable files in general (video, presentations of courses
> etc.). Here the issue is to manage links where the bought files could be
> downloaded. The idea is to prevent a situation in which buyers would buy
> a software application, receive a link to it for downloading and share
> the link afterwards with anybody they want, so anybody would be able to
> download the application without paying for it.
> Using e-commerce site for selling services (human services and others)
> Extending e-commerce site with general widgets, such as calendar, clock,
> map, a widget for downloading files, etc., and integrating the widgets
> with the OfBiz
>

Selling digital products like mentioned above are supported in OFBiz OOTB. Managing links is also supported , It may require few customization to address very specific requirement as per the customer.

> Integration with other websites/services:
> Integrating an e-commerce website with another (non-OfBiz backed) site -
> adding possibility for sellers to add products to the e-commerce site
> via the other site, to see customer feedback provided on the e-commerce
> site via the other site
> Integrating an e-commerce website with another (possibly non-OfBiz)
> e-commerce website, such as eBay/Amazon. What are the current
> possibilities of integration with eBay ?
> Integrating an e-commerce website with post/delivery services/sites

Support for integrating OFBiz with Ebay is already supported in OOTB.

>
> Adding advanced features:
> Adding support for signing business contracts between service consumers
> and service providers, between providers of different services etc. via
> the e-commerce site

This can be achieved. Will require more proper modeling and designing in OFBiz.

> Adding support for applying capability/requirement model, such as
> JSR-124, (for example for matching between customer's requirements and
> capabilities of software, devices and services). The customer or
> software agent on behalf of the customer could provide his requirements
> as part of his account information, and the e-commerce solution would
> match between the products (according to their capabilities) and the
> requirements of the customers.
> Has OfBiz a recommendation engine (providing recommendations to a user
> based on his activity - searches, purchases, reviews etc.) ? If no, how
> hard would it be to add it ?

I didn't got what you mean by term "recommendation engine" here. But as per my understanding, I would say OFBiz e-commerce has features to recommend users buy products based on :

1) largest selling product in site on in particular category
2) Cross sell products ( complementary products are presented to a customer after the customer has demonstrated a desire and willingness to purchase a particular product )
3) Up sell products (An up-sell offer is typically for a better version of the same product or service you are considering)
4) Most viewed product or service

Also we can add more recommendation criteria

> Can the OfBiz-based e-commerce web site be presented by browsers of
> smart phones ? How hard would it be to enable it ?

Yes it can be, HTML should be styling should be written accordingly.
> Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the requirements
> of the customer
> Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the geolocation
> of the customer
> Adding support for customization of products/services and changes in the
> prices according to the customization during the purchase process

Can be achieved, but will require custom work . Data model supported

> Adding support for a composition solution of hardware, software and
> human services (bundles, kits). A seller could compose a new product by
> combining several existing products

Can be achieved by using existing data model. Data model supported.

> Adding support for manual approval of products by site administrators
> before submission of the products to the e-commerce site

Available in OFBiz OOTB .
> Adding support for managing versions of the software applications that
> are sold on the e-commerce website
>
> Sorry for so many questions and sorry if some of them are out of context.

None of the question is out of context Vadim . All the questions make sense and one would like to see in E-commerce site. And OFBiz is exactly what you need.

But I would say, to achieve all your requirement and use OFBiz OOTB feature is difficult for newbie . So its recommended to get consulting from experienced person or team. Or get training to start in house development. Or subcontract your work.

>
> Best Regards,
> Vadim
> -------------------------------
> Vadim Eisenberg
> IT for Healthcare & Life Sciences
> IBM Research - Haifa
>
>

Regards,
Divesh Dutta.
Hotwax Media Inc.
Global leader in OFBiz Training, Consulting and service providing.
Go to Google and see it yourself.

Vadim Eisenberg

Re: OfBiz e-commerce customization

Hi Divesh,

Thank you for your detailed answer. By "recommendation engine" I meant,
similarly to "search engine", the module for producing recommendations for
a customer. I think you understood me right and OfBiz has the needed
capabilities.

Regarding subcontracting/consulting - please see my reply to David:
http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/ofbiz-user/201009.mbox/%3COF668DF42D.37D20FF5-ONC2257794.002B8492-C2257794.002C22E1@...%3E
.

The project I participate in is a long-term (four years) Research &
Development project, developed by several partners from academic
institutions/industry. One of the goals is to save funds by re-using
existing solutions. I understand what you mean, but I guess
subcontracting/consulting is out of question here. If we choose OfBiz as a
base for our e-commerce solution, we would have four years to work with
OfBiz and become proficient in it.

I hope that if we would choose the OfBiz option, we probably could
contribute the features we develop back to OfBiz/ to the OOTB features of
OfBiz.

Best Regards,
Vadim
-------------------------------
Vadim Eisenberg
IT for Healthcare & Life Sciences
IBM Research - Haifa

Divesh Dutta <[hidden email]> wrote on 04/09/2010 10:38:12
PM:

> From:
>
> Divesh Dutta <[hidden email]>
>
> To:
>
> [hidden email]
>
> Cc:
>
> Divesh Dutta <[hidden email]>
>
> Date:
>
> 04/09/2010 10:40 PM
>
> Subject:
>
> Re: OfBiz e-commerce customization
>
> Hello Vadim,
>
> Please see my comments inline.
>
> On Sep 2, 2010, at 11:49 PM, Vadim Eisenberg wrote:
>
> >
> > Hello OfBiz developers,
> >
> > My name is Vadim Eisenberg and I work at IBM Research - Haifa, on the
> > UniversAAL project - http://universaal.org/. It is a consortium

European
> > project. Its goal is to create a platform for applications, services
and
> > devices for Ambient Assisted Living, that is a kind of "Smart Home"
for
> > senior citizens. As part of the platform, we - several software
developers
> > - have to develop an e-commerce site - uStore
> > http://universaal.org/index.php?
> option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=9&Itemid=21
> > . This site would be a one-stop-shop for software, services and
devices
> > for Ambient Assisted Living.
> >
> > We consider using OfBiz for implementation of uStore.
>
> Thats great idea.
>
>
> >
> > I would like to ask you several questions about the features we want
to
> > implement. I would be glad to hear any information you can tell me
about
> > how hard could it be for us to implement these features. Please note
that

> > we have no prior experience with OfBiz.
>
> +1 for David's word here:
>
> "OFBiz is a large project. A good developer can learn to work
> effectively with the framework with a couple of weeks of training
> and a couple of months of hands-on development. However, even a good
> developer will have a hard time picking up all of the data
> structures and business logic even after many months of study, and
> realistically since most people don't or can't do that, it usually
> takes years of work experience and even then they'll only have
> knowledge of the parts of the system that have had the opportunity
> to work with."
>
> So if you start learning OFBiz by your self and try to get things
> implement your self (without consulting experienced OFBiz
> developer), I think it would take more time instead of saving your time.

>
>
> >
> > Any your thoughts, intuition, experience, advice about OfBiz/business
> > programming are welcome.
> >
> > In particular, the following information would help us very much :
> > How much work should be done by us in order to implement all the
> > features that follow (Person/Months, Person/Years, for skilled OfBiz
> > developers/general software engineers). Which part would be to use
> > existing "extension" mechanisms of OfBiz and which part would be
> > actually changing the OfBiz code ? Here your intuition/experience

from
> > related projects is welcome, we do not need exact numbers, just a
> > ballpark.
> > How much time the general software developers have to learn about
OfBiz
> > and how skilled in OfBiz they should become in order to implement
these
> > features
> >
> > E-commerce website features:
> > Using e-commerce site for selling software (such as AppStore of
iPhone)
> > and downloadable files in general (video, presentations of courses
> > etc.). Here the issue is to manage links where the bought files
could be
> > downloaded. The idea is to prevent a situation in which buyers would
buy
> > a software application, receive a link to it for downloading and
share
> > the link afterwards with anybody they want, so anybody would be able
to
> > download the application without paying for it.
> > Using e-commerce site for selling services (human services and
others)
> > Extending e-commerce site with general widgets, such as calendar,
clock,
> > map, a widget for downloading files, etc., and integrating the
widgets
> > with the OfBiz
> >
>
> Selling digital products like mentioned above are supported in OFBiz
> OOTB. Managing links is also supported , It may require few
> customization to address very specific requirement as per the customer.
>
> > Integration with other websites/services:
> > Integrating an e-commerce website with another (non-OfBiz backed)
site -
> > adding possibility for sellers to add products to the e-commerce
site
> > via the other site, to see customer feedback provided on the
e-commerce

> > site via the other site
> > Integrating an e-commerce website with another (possibly non-OfBiz)
> > e-commerce website, such as eBay/Amazon. What are the current
> > possibilities of integration with eBay ?
> > Integrating an e-commerce website with post/delivery services/sites
>
> Support for integrating OFBiz with Ebay is already supported in OOTB.
>
> >
> > Adding advanced features:
> > Adding support for signing business contracts between service

consumers
> > and service providers, between providers of different services etc.
via
> > the e-commerce site
>
> This can be achieved. Will require more proper modeling and
> designing in OFBiz.
>
>
> > Adding support for applying capability/requirement model, such as
> > JSR-124, (for example for matching between customer's requirements
and
> > capabilities of software, devices and services). The customer or
> > software agent on behalf of the customer could provide his
requirements
> > as part of his account information, and the e-commerce solution
would
> > match between the products (according to their capabilities) and the
> > requirements of the customers.
> > Has OfBiz a recommendation engine (providing recommendations to a
user
> > based on his activity - searches, purchases, reviews etc.) ? If no,
how

> > hard would it be to add it ?
>
> I didn't got what you mean by term "recommendation engine" here. But
> as per my understanding, I would say OFBiz e-commerce has features
> to recommend users buy products based on :
>
> 1) largest selling product in site on in particular category
> 2) Cross sell products ( complementary products are presented to a
> customer after the customer has demonstrated a desire and
> willingness to purchase a particular product )
> 3) Up sell products (An up-sell offer is typically for a better
> version of the same product or service you are considering)
> 4) Most viewed product or service
>
> Also we can add more recommendation criteria
>
>
> > Can the OfBiz-based e-commerce web site be presented by browsers of
> > smart phones ? How hard would it be to enable it ?
>
> Yes it can be, HTML should be styling should be written accordingly.
> > Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the

requirements
> > of the customer
> > Changing search/recommendations of OfBiz to be based on the
geolocation
> > of the customer
> > Adding support for customization of products/services and changes in
the
> > prices according to the customization during the purchase process
>
> Can be achieved, but will require custom work . Data model supported
>
> > Adding support for a composition solution of hardware, software and
> > human services (bundles, kits). A seller could compose a new product
by
> > combining several existing products
>
> Can be achieved by using existing data model. Data model supported.
>
> > Adding support for manual approval of products by site
administrators
> > before submission of the products to the e-commerce site
>
> Available in OFBiz OOTB .
> > Adding support for managing versions of the software applications
that
> > are sold on the e-commerce website
> >
> > Sorry for so many questions and sorry if some of them are out of
context.

>
> None of the question is out of context Vadim . All the questions
> make sense and one would like to see in E-commerce site. And OFBiz
> is exactly what you need.
>
> But I would say, to achieve all your requirement and use OFBiz OOTB
> feature is difficult for newbie . So its recommended to get
> consulting from experienced person or team. Or get training to start
> in house development. Or subcontract your work.
>
>
>
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Vadim
> > -------------------------------
> > Vadim Eisenberg
> > IT for Healthcare & Life Sciences
> > IBM Research - Haifa
> >
> >
>
> Regards,
> Divesh Dutta.
> Hotwax Media Inc.
> Global leader in OFBiz Training, Consulting and service providing.
> Go to Google and see it yourself.