Returning to Ofbiz

[Gordon B Lugauer]

Greetings, all,

About 2 years ago, I was looking hard at Ofbiz as an integrated
inventory/pos/ecommerce solution for a specialty retail client.
After struggling with the POS portion of Ofbiz for too long, I
opted to go with Quasar instead.  So, I have some familiarity with
Ofbiz, but it is dated and I am not a current user.  (Although,
if the POS piece has gotten significantly easier to implement,
I might give it another go.)

A recent project has come up for bid for which I suspect Ofbiz is
a reasonable platform, but would appreciate some quick guidance.

I need to show product information in a three-tier distribution
model.  i.e. Many manufacturers will list their products, several
different distributors will identify which products from which
manufacturers they carry in their warehouses, all so that many
retailers can see A) what product exists, B) who carries it, and C)
be able to import product information into their own POS/inventory
system.

Is this a reasonable project for which to use Ofbiz?

If so, what are the appropriate bits of Ofbiz jargon I should know
to get started?  What I mean by this: is a the Manufacturer in this
situation a Party, a Facility, or something different?  Just looking
for some basic big-picture relationships to get myself started.

Thanks much,

--
-Gordon B Lugauer

BadgerClaw, llc
All things Unix         All things IP
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[David E Jones]

This does sound like it would be a good project to do based on OFBiz.

In general I'd recommend getting the Data Model Resource Book, Revised Edition, and at least volume 1 (out of 2):

http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Related+Books

In general a Facility is a building or room or whatever, and Party is a person or group of parties (each being a person or group). Manufacturer, supplier, vendor, etc are all just party roles (see the ofbiz RoleType entity).

-David


Gordon B Lugauer wrote:

> Greetings, all,
>
> About 2 years ago, I was looking hard at Ofbiz as an integrated
> inventory/pos/ecommerce solution for a specialty retail client.
> After struggling with the POS portion of Ofbiz for too long, I
> opted to go with Quasar instead.  So, I have some familiarity with
> Ofbiz, but it is dated and I am not a current user.  (Although,
> if the POS piece has gotten significantly easier to implement,
> I might give it another go.)
>
> A recent project has come up for bid for which I suspect Ofbiz is
> a reasonable platform, but would appreciate some quick guidance.
>
> I need to show product information in a three-tier distribution
> model.  i.e. Many manufacturers will list their products, several
> different distributors will identify which products from which
> manufacturers they carry in their warehouses, all so that many
> retailers can see A) what product exists, B) who carries it, and C)
> be able to import product information into their own POS/inventory
> system.
>
> Is this a reasonable project for which to use Ofbiz?
>
> If so, what are the appropriate bits of Ofbiz jargon I should know
> to get started?  What I mean by this: is a the Manufacturer in this
> situation a Party, a Facility, or something different?  Just looking
> for some basic big-picture relationships to get myself started.
>
> Thanks much,
>