ofbiz

[Roberto Cosenza-5]

Hi.
I'm new to ofbiz and i'm studying its internals in order to integrate  
it with a legacy product.

I have a few questions:

* Where is the documentation of the file format used for the screens?
* Accessing an entity through a jdbc-source instead of the ofbiz  
entity engine
I can replace the implementation of a service so that the finders use  
the jdbc driver but how do I, for instance, tell the "Edit agreement"  
screen to use the jdbc?
"I guess" that the edit screen uses the tag "entity-one" to load the  
entity to be edited in the form, avoiding the need of a call to  
"loadAgreement" service. How do i replace the implementation of that  
tag/call?

Thank you for your time.
/Roberto

[BJ Freeman]

There will be other responses I am sure.
First of all you need to understand the Entity Engine.
There are two basic files that make up the UI.
FTL and Widgets.
I suggest you look up datasourses and link you legacy system that way.
you can create you own Secas to sync ofbiz with your legacy system.

here is a good place to start
http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index

Roberto Cosenza sent the following on 1/21/2008 5:12 AM:

> Hi.
> I'm new to ofbiz and i'm studying its internals in order to integrate it
> with a legacy product.
>
> I have a few questions:
>
> * Where is the documentation of the file format used for the screens?
> * Accessing an entity through a jdbc-source instead of the ofbiz entity
> engine
> I can replace the implementation of a service so that the finders use
> the jdbc driver but how do I, for instance, tell the "Edit agreement"
> screen to use the jdbc?
> "I guess" that the edit screen uses the tag "entity-one" to load the
> entity to be edited in the form, avoiding the need of a call to
> "loadAgreement" service. How do i replace the implementation of that
> tag/call?
>
> Thank you for your time.
> /Roberto
>
>
>

[Roberto Cosenza-5]

Thank you for your answer.
I do understand the principles of the EntityEngine (and of the Service  
Layer relying on it)
Altough since my jdbc data source is not getting data from the same  
database on which the EntityEngine is running, I get the impression  
that to make it work I have to by pass the EntityEngine itself and  
make my service access a "LegacyEngine" when required. Am I crazy?
Or is it possible to map part of the legacy engine to go to one data  
source and an other part to an other? How will then relationship be  
managed? Seems impossible to me...
Please help me out!

/Roberto

Please help me out!
On 21 jan 2008, at 16.06, BJ Freeman wrote:

> There will be other responses I am sure.
> First of all you need to understand the Entity Engine.
> There are two basic files that make up the UI.
> FTL and Widgets.
> I suggest you look up datasourses and link you legacy system that way.
> you can create you own Secas to sync ofbiz with your legacy system.
>
> here is a good place to start
> http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index
>
> Roberto Cosenza sent the following on 1/21/2008 5:12 AM:
>> Hi.
>> I'm new to ofbiz and i'm studying its internals in order to  
>> integrate it
>> with a legacy product.
>>
>> I have a few questions:
>>
>> * Where is the documentation of the file format used for the screens?
>> * Accessing an entity through a jdbc-source instead of the ofbiz  
>> entity
>> engine
>> I can replace the implementation of a service so that the finders use
>> the jdbc driver but how do I, for instance, tell the "Edit agreement"
>> screen to use the jdbc?
>> "I guess" that the edit screen uses the tag "entity-one" to load the
>> entity to be edited in the form, avoiding the need of a call to
>> "loadAgreement" service. How do i replace the implementation of that
>> tag/call?
>>
>> Thank you for your time.
>> /Roberto
>>
>>
>>
>

[Roberto Cosenza]

I may have given some answers to myself, since i found the document  
that describes how to configure datasources per group (http://ofbiz.apache.org/docs/entityconfig.html#Entity_Model 
)
I guess that relationship can only be defined among groups?
/Roberto

On 24 jan 2008, at 14.22, Roberto Cosenza wrote:

> Thank you for your answer.
> I do understand the principles of the EntityEngine (and of the  
> Service Layer relying on it)
> Altough since my jdbc data source is not getting data from the same  
> database on which the EntityEngine is running, I get the impression  
> that to make it work I have to by pass the EntityEngine itself and  
> make my service access a "LegacyEngine" when required. Am I crazy?
> Or is it possible to map part of the legacy engine to go to one data  
> source and an other part to an other? How will then relationship be  
> managed? Seems impossible to me...
> Please help me out!
>
> /Roberto
>
> Please help me out!
> On 21 jan 2008, at 16.06, BJ Freeman wrote:
>
>> There will be other responses I am sure.
>> First of all you need to understand the Entity Engine.
>> There are two basic files that make up the UI.
>> FTL and Widgets.
>> I suggest you look up datasourses and link you legacy system that  
>> way.
>> you can create you own Secas to sync ofbiz with your legacy system.
>>
>> here is a good place to start
>> http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index
>>
>> Roberto Cosenza sent the following on 1/21/2008 5:12 AM:
>>> Hi.
>>> I'm new to ofbiz and i'm studying its internals in order to  
>>> integrate it
>>> with a legacy product.
>>>
>>> I have a few questions:
>>>
>>> * Where is the documentation of the file format used for the  
>>> screens?
>>> * Accessing an entity through a jdbc-source instead of the ofbiz  
>>> entity
>>> engine
>>> I can replace the implementation of a service so that the finders  
>>> use
>>> the jdbc driver but how do I, for instance, tell the "Edit  
>>> agreement"
>>> screen to use the jdbc?
>>> "I guess" that the edit screen uses the tag "entity-one" to load the
>>> entity to be edited in the form, avoiding the need of a call to
>>> "loadAgreement" service. How do i replace the implementation of that
>>> tag/call?
>>>
>>> Thank you for your time.
>>> /Roberto
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

[BJ Freeman]

you can set up a datasource and its delegator in ofbiz.
you then have access to it in ofbiz.
look in the /framework/entity/config/entityengine.xml
you can add your own and set up the group map to you legacy system.
you can then define your legacy system in entity terms,  which would be
easiest, IHMO.
then you can use services engine to keep the two in sync, using secas.
Not sure, but I believe, from what I have heard, the the advance videos
cover this.
most of what I know, which is less than some, is from working with
ofbiz, reading the mailing lists.

Roberto Cosenza sent the following on 1/24/2008 5:22 AM:

> Thank you for your answer.
> I do understand the principles of the EntityEngine (and of the Service
> Layer relying on it)
> Altough since my jdbc data source is not getting data from the same
> database on which the EntityEngine is running, I get the impression that
> to make it work I have to by pass the EntityEngine itself and make my
> service access a "LegacyEngine" when required. Am I crazy?
> Or is it possible to map part of the legacy engine to go to one data
> source and an other part to an other? How will then relationship be
> managed? Seems impossible to me...
> Please help me out!
>
> /Roberto
>
> Please help me out!
> On 21 jan 2008, at 16.06, BJ Freeman wrote:
>
>> There will be other responses I am sure.
>> First of all you need to understand the Entity Engine.
>> There are two basic files that make up the UI.
>> FTL and Widgets.
>> I suggest you look up datasourses and link you legacy system that way.
>> you can create you own Secas to sync ofbiz with your legacy system.
>>
>> here is a good place to start
>> http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index
>>
>> Roberto Cosenza sent the following on 1/21/2008 5:12 AM:
>>> Hi.
>>> I'm new to ofbiz and i'm studying its internals in order to integrate it
>>> with a legacy product.
>>>
>>> I have a few questions:
>>>
>>> * Where is the documentation of the file format used for the screens?
>>> * Accessing an entity through a jdbc-source instead of the ofbiz entity
>>> engine
>>> I can replace the implementation of a service so that the finders use
>>> the jdbc driver but how do I, for instance, tell the "Edit agreement"
>>> screen to use the jdbc?
>>> "I guess" that the edit screen uses the tag "entity-one" to load the
>>> entity to be edited in the form, avoiding the need of a call to
>>> "loadAgreement" service. How do i replace the implementation of that
>>> tag/call?
>>>
>>> Thank you for your time.
>>> /Roberto
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
>

[Jacques Le Roux]

You would have to map you legacy DB entities to some new OFBiz entities (created by you, ie using specific entitymodel.xml and
entitygroup.xml files) and then use a specific data-source set in entity-engine.xml. But I wonder if it's the better way to go. Only
you can decide this at this stage...

http://ofbiz.apache.org/docs/entity.html

Jacques

From: "Roberto Cosenza" <[hidden email]>

> Thank you for your answer.
> I do understand the principles of the EntityEngine (and of the Service  Layer relying on it)
> Altough since my jdbc data source is not getting data from the same  database on which the EntityEngine is running, I get the
> impression  that to make it work I have to by pass the EntityEngine itself and  make my service access a "LegacyEngine" when
> required. Am I crazy?
> Or is it possible to map part of the legacy engine to go to one data  source and an other part to an other? How will then
> relationship be  managed? Seems impossible to me...
> Please help me out!
>
> /Roberto
>
> Please help me out!
> On 21 jan 2008, at 16.06, BJ Freeman wrote:
>
>> There will be other responses I am sure.
>> First of all you need to understand the Entity Engine.
>> There are two basic files that make up the UI.
>> FTL and Widgets.
>> I suggest you look up datasourses and link you legacy system that way.
>> you can create you own Secas to sync ofbiz with your legacy system.
>>
>> here is a good place to start
>> http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/OFBiz+Documentation+Index
>>
>> Roberto Cosenza sent the following on 1/21/2008 5:12 AM:
>>> Hi.
>>> I'm new to ofbiz and i'm studying its internals in order to  integrate it
>>> with a legacy product.
>>>
>>> I have a few questions:
>>>
>>> * Where is the documentation of the file format used for the screens?
>>> * Accessing an entity through a jdbc-source instead of the ofbiz  entity
>>> engine
>>> I can replace the implementation of a service so that the finders use
>>> the jdbc driver but how do I, for instance, tell the "Edit agreement"
>>> screen to use the jdbc?
>>> "I guess" that the edit screen uses the tag "entity-one" to load the
>>> entity to be edited in the form, avoiding the need of a call to
>>> "loadAgreement" service. How do i replace the implementation of that
>>> tag/call?
>>>
>>> Thank you for your time.
>>> /Roberto
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>