Page History

...

Overview (Introduction to OFBiz)

Open For Business (OFBiz) is a suite of enterprise applications built on a common architecture using common data, logic and process components. The loosely coupled nature of the applications makes these components easy to understand, extend and customize.

...

Reference: http://ofbiz.apache.org/apache-ofbiz-project-overview.html

Setting up and Running OFBiz

Download Apache OFBiz Framework

If you haven't already checkout Apache OFBiz Framework on your machine, let's do it. Anyone can checkout or browse the source code in the OFBiz public Subversion (SVN) repository. If you don't have Subversion, to install it you can go here for instructions.

...

For more details refer Apache OFBiz Source Repository page.

Running Apache OFBiz

• Using the command line, build and start OFBiz (with demo data), use command:
  

...

• Direct your browser to https://localhost:8443/webtools and login with username "admin" and password "ofbiz" and look around a bit. 
  That's it, Apache OFBiz is now running on your system!!

Create Your First Application (Hello World...)

Introduction to Components

An OFBiz component is a folder, containing a special xml file, named “ofbiz-component.xml”, that describes the resources to be loaded and required by the component.
OFBiz itself is a set of components.

• framework components:These are lower level components that provides the technical layer and tools to the application components; the features provided by these components are typically the ones provided by any other development framework (data layer, business logic layer, transaction handling, data source pools, etc…)
• application components:These are generic business components required for ERP applications that can be extended/customized (product, order, party, manufacturing, accounting etc…); application components have access to the services and tools provided by the framework components and to the services published by other application component.
• special purpose components:These components are similar as applications components but meant for special purpose applications like ecommerce , google base integration , eBay integration etc
  
  In OFBiz release 16.11, our custom plugin/component are also the part of special purpose.
  In future realeases we have separate directly plugin for this.
  

Create the plugin/component

It's very easy to setup a new custom component in OFBiz in specialpurpose directory. Using command line you just need run the following command.

$ ./gradlew createPlugin -PpluginId=ofbizDemo

Running your first application

Before running our first component, let's say 'Hello to the World'

1. Simply open $OFBIZ_HOME/specialpurpose/ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoScreens.xml file from ofbizDemo plugin (you just created)

    

   Code Block
   language xml
   <?xmlversion="1.0"encoding="UTF-8"?> <screens xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-screen.xsd"> <screen name="main"> <section> <actions> <set field="headerItem" value="main"/><!-- this highlights the selected menu-item with name "main" --> </actions> <widgets> <decorator-screen name="OfbizDemoCommonDecorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}"> <decorator-section name="body"> <label text="Hello World!! :)"/> </decorator-section> </decorator-screen> </widgets> </section> </screen> </screens>

   We have only added the <label text="Hello World!! :)" />

2. Now you will need to restart OFBiz by reloading data($ ./gradlew loadDefault ofbiz). It's required as you have created a new component with some security data for you component (Setup by default in your component data directory as OfbizDemoSecurityGroupDemoData.xml) and as you will restart it, ofbizdemo component will also be loaded.
3. As OFBiz restarted direct your browser to your application here https://localhost:8443/ofbizDemo
4. You will be asked to login. Login with user: admin password: ofbiz.
5. As you login you will see ofbizdemo application up with the hello world message you have put in screen as shown in below given image.
   That's it, congratulations your first component is setup and running.

Creating First Database Entity (Table) 

Defining entity

To create custom Entities/Tables in database, you simply need to provide entity definition in  $OFBIZ_HOME/specialpurpose/ofbizDemo/entitydef/entitymodel.xml file of your ofbizdemo application. This file structure is already setup when you used the Gradle task to setup your component. You simply need to go in and provide entity definition as shown below. Here we are going to add two new entities for ofbizdemo application.

...

<entity-resource type="data" reader-name="seed" loader="main" location="data/OfbizDemoTypeData.xml"/>
<entity-resource type="data" reader-name="demo" loader="main" location="data/OfbizDemoDemoData.xml"/>

Form and Services

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<services xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/services.xsd">
 
    <description>OfbizDemo Services</description>
    <vendor></vendor>
    <version>1.0</version>
 
    <service name="createOfbizDemo" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" engine="entity-auto" invoke="create" auth="true">
        <description>Create an Ofbiz Demo record</description>
        <auto-attributes include="pk" mode="OUT" optional="false"/>
        <auto-attributes include="nonpk" mode="IN" optional="false"/>
        <override name="comments" optional="true"/>
    </service>
 
</services>

<!-- service resources: model(s), eca(s) and group definitions -->
<service-resource type="model" loader="main" location="servicedef/services.xml"/>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<resource xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/ofbiz-properties.xsd">
    <property key="OfbizDemoApplication">
        <value xml:lang="en">OfbizDemo Application</value>
        <value xml:lang="zh">OfbizDemo应用程�?</value>
        <value xml:lang="zh-TW">OfbizDemo應用程�?</value>
    </property>
    <property key="OfbizDemoCompanyName">
        <value xml:lang="en">OFBiz: OfbizDemo</value>
        <value xml:lang="zh-TW">OFBiz: OfbizDemo</value>
    </property>
    <property key="OfbizDemoCompanySubtitle">
        <value xml:lang="en">Part of the Apache OFBiz Family of Open Source Software</value>
        <value xml:lang="it">Un modulo della famiglia di software open source Apache OFBiz</value>
        <value xml:lang="zh">开�?软件OFBiz的组�?部分</value>
        <value xml:lang="zh-TW">開�?軟體OFBiz的組�?部分</value>
    </property>
    <property key="OfbizDemoViewPermissionError">
        <value xml:lang="en">You are not allowed to view this page.</value>
        <value xml:lang="zh">�?�?许你�?览这个页�?�。</value>
        <value xml:lang="zh-TW">�?�?許您檢視這個�?�?�.</value>
    </property>
</resource>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<forms xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-form.xsd">
 
    <form name="AddOfbizDemo" type="single" target="createOfbizDemo">
        <!-- We have this utility in OFBiz to render form based on service definition. 
             Service attributes will automatically lookedup and will be shown on form
        -->
        <auto-fields-service service-name="createOfbizDemo"/>
        <field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonType}">
            <drop-down allow-empty="false" current-description="">
                <!---We have made this drop down options dynamic(Values from db) using this -->
                <entity-options description="${description}" key-field-name="ofbizDemoTypeId" entity-name="OfbizDemoType">
                    <entity-order-by field-name="description"/>
                </entity-options>
            </drop-down>
        </field>
        <field name="submitButton" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonAdd}"><submit button-type="button"/></field>
    </form>
</forms>

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<screens xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-screen.xsd">
 
    <screen name="main">
        <section>
            <actions>
                <set field="headerItem" value="main"/> <!-- this highlights the selected menu-item with name "main" -->
            </actions>
            <widgets>
                <decorator-screen name="main-decorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}">
                    <decorator-section name="body">
                        <screenlet title="Add Ofbiz Demo">
                            <include-form name="AddOfbizDemo" location="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoForms.xml"/>
                        </screenlet>
                    </decorator-section>
                </decorator-screen>
            </widgets>
        </section>
    </screen>
</screens>

<request-map uri="createOfbizDemo">
    <security https="true" auth="true"/>
    <event type="service" invoke="createOfbizDemo"/>
    <response name="success" type="view" value="main"/>
</request-map>

 <form name="FindOfbizDemo" type="single" target="FindOfbizDemo" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo">
    <field name="noConditionFind"><hidden value="Y"/> <!-- if this isn't there then with all fields empty no query will be done --></field>
    <field name="ofbizDemoId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoId}"><text-find/></field>
    <field name="firstName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFirstName}"><text-find/></field>
    <field name="lastName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoLastName}"><text-find/></field>
    <field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoType}">
        <drop-down allow-empty="true" current-description="">
            <entity-options description="${description}" key-field-name="ofbizDemoTypeId" entity-name="OfbizDemoType">
                <entity-order-by field-name="description"/>
            </entity-options>
        </drop-down>
    </field>
    <field name="searchButton" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonFind}" widget-style="smallSubmit"><submit button-type="button" image-location="/images/icons/magnifier.png"/></field>
</form>
 
<form name="ListOfbizDemo" type="list" list-name="listIt" paginate-target="FindOfbizDemo" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" separate-columns="true"
    odd-row-style="alternate-row" header-row-style="header-row-2" default-table-style="basic-table hover-bar">
    <actions>
       <!-- Preparing search results for user query by using OFBiz stock service to perform find operations on a single entity or view entity -->
       <service service-name="performFind" result-map="result" result-map-list="listIt">
           <field-map field-name="inputFields" from-field="ofbizDemoCtx"/>
           <field-map field-name="entityName" value="OfbizDemo"/>
           <field-map field-name="orderBy" from-field="parameters.sortField"/>
           <field-map field-name="viewIndex" from-field="viewIndex"/>
           <field-map field-name="viewSize" from-field="viewSize"/>
        </service>
    </actions>
    <field name="ofbizDemoId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoId}"><display/></field>
    <field name="ofbizDemoTypeId" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoType}"><display-entity entity-name="OfbizDemoType"/></field>
    <field name="firstName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFirstName}" sort-field="true"><display/></field>
    <field name="lastName" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoLastName}" sort-field="true"><display/></field>
    <field name="comments" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoComment}"><display/></field>
</form>

 <!-- Find and list all ofbizdemos in a tabular format -->
<screen name="FindOfbizDemo">
    <section>
        <actions>
            <set field="headerItem" value="findOfbizDemo"/>
            <set field="titleProperty" value="PageTitleFindOfbizDemo"/>
            <set field="ofbizDemoCtx" from-field="parameters"/>
        </actions>
        <widgets>
            <decorator-screen name="main-decorator" location="${parameters.mainDecoratorLocation}">
                <decorator-section name="body">
                    <section>
                        <condition>
                            <if-has-permission permission="OFBIZDEMO" action="_VIEW"/>
                        </condition>
                        <widgets>
                            <decorator-screen name="FindScreenDecorator" location="component://common/widget/CommonScreens.xml">
                                <decorator-section name="search-options">
                                    <include-form name="FindOfbizDemo" location="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoForms.xml"/>
                                </decorator-section>
                                <decorator-section name="search-results">
                                    <include-form name="ListOfbizDemo" location="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoForms.xml"/>
                                </decorator-section>
                            </decorator-screen>
                        </widgets>
                        <fail-widgets>
                            <label style="h3">${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoViewPermissionError}</label>
                       </fail-widgets>
                    </section>
                </decorator-section>
            </decorator-screen>
        </widgets>
    </section>
</screen>

<!-- Request Mapping -->
<request-map uri="FindOfbizDemo"><security https="true" auth="true"/><response name="success" type="view" value="FindOfbizDemo"/></request-map>
  
<!-- View Mapping -->
<view-map name="FindOfbizDemo" type="screen" page="component://ofbizDemo/widget/OfbizDemoScreens.xml#FindOfbizDemo"/>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<menus xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://ofbiz.apache.org/dtds/widget-menu.xsd">
    <menu name="MainAppBar" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoApplication}" extends="CommonAppBarMenu" extends-resource="component://common/widget/CommonMenus.xml">
        <menu-item name="main" title="${uiLabelMap.CommonMain}"><link target="main"/></menu-item>
        <menu-item name="findOfbizDemo" title="${uiLabelMap.OfbizDemoFind}"><link target="FindOfbizDemo"/></menu-item>
    </menu>
</menus>

 <property key="OfbizDemoFind">
    <value xml:lang="en">Find</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoFirstName">
    <value xml:lang="en">First Name</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoId">
    <value xml:lang="en">OFBiz Demo Id</value>
</property>
<property key="OfbizDemoLastName">
   <value xml:lang="en">Last Name</value>
</property>

 <service name="createOfbizDemoByJavaService" default-entity-name="OfbizDemo" engine="java"
        location="com.companyname.ofbizdemo.services.OfbizDemoServices" invoke="createOfbizDemo" auth="true">
    <description>Create an Ofbiz Demo record using a service in Java</description>
    <auto-attributes include="pk" mode="OUT" optional="false"/>
    <auto-attributes include="nonpk" mode="IN" optional="false"/>
    <override name="comments" optional="true"/>
</service>

import org.apache.ofbiz.entity.GenericEntityException;

Events

Events demonstration

Events in Apache OFBiz are simply methods used to work with HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse objects. You don't need to provide definitions of these as you did with services. These are directly called from controller. Events are also useful when you want to add custom server side validations to input parameters. For performing db operations you still call prebuilt services from events.

...

4.) Now to test the event you can simply change the AddOfbizDemo form target to read "createOfbizDemoEvent" and as its submitted now it will call your event.

Difference between service and event

Here are some difference between services and events,

...

Customizing User Interface

Using FreeMarker Template and Groovy Script

Okay so we are here in the last part of OFBiz tutorial. In this part we will focus on customizing UI layer of Apache OFBiz for business management apps i.e. backend apps and esp. Most of the time you will find the OFBiz Widgets are enough. But sometimes the important thing is to develop applications as users exactly want it. 

...

6.) Run your ofbiz demo application and go to the new tab you just added. You should have view as:

Image Modified

Creating Custom Decorator

Having your UI in Freemarker gives you freedom to experiment it, doing CSS tweaks and make your application the way user wants. In this section we will see how we can do that.

...

You may want to add your own CSS or JS files, you can include those the same way we did for Bootstrap files.

Whats next?

If you have followed all the steps and developed practice application from this tutorial then this will help you in understanding other implementation in OFBiz. These things are basic foundation of working in OFBiz. Now you know, how you can start development in OFBiz. Don't leave behind the extra links provided in this tutorial as they will help you a lot in understanding the things which are given there in detail.
Here is another good reading can be of help is available at FAQ Tips Tricks Cookbook HowTo.
Now the next thing comes in the way is the business processes which are really needed to be understood well for understanding OOTB process flow in OFBiz and OOTB data model, so for this, books are available at : OFBiz Related Books. Understanding well the OFBiz OOTB available data model and business processes will help in building better business solutions top of it.

...