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  • Book Overview & Buying Apache OfBiz Cookbook
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Apache OfBiz Cookbook

Apache OfBiz Cookbook

By : Ruth Hoffman
4 (2)
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Apache OfBiz Cookbook

Apache OfBiz Cookbook

4 (2)
By: Ruth Hoffman
Buy this Book

Overview of this book

Apache Open For Business (OFBiz) is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that provides a common data model and an extensive set of business processes. But without proper guidance on developing performance-critical applications, it is easy to make the wrong design and technology decisions. The power and promise of Apache OFBiz is comprehensively revealed in a collection of self-contained, quick, practical recipes in this Cookbook. This book covers a range of topics from initial system setup to web application and HTML page creation, Java development, and data maintenance tasks. Focusing on a series of the most commonly performed OFBiz tasks, it provides clear, cogent, and easy-to-follow instructions designed to make the most of your OFBiz experience. Let this book be your guide to enhancing your OFBiz productivity by saving you valuable time. Written specifically to give clear and straightforward answers to the most commonly asked OFBiz questions, this compendium of OFBiz recipes will show you everything you need to know to get things done in OFBiz. Whether you are new to OFBiz or an old pro, you are sure to find many useful hints and handy tips here. Topics range from getting started to configuration and system setup, security and database management through the final stages of developing and testing new OFBiz applications.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
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Apache OFBiz Cookbook
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Apache OFBiz Cookbook
Credits
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Credits
About the Author
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About the Author
About the Reviewers
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About the Reviewers
Preface
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Preface
Lock Free Chapter
1
Getting Started
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Getting Started
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Introduction
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Getting the project code
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Getting code from the Subversion repository
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Fixing IP port collision errors
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The JAVA_HOME setting
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"Class Not Found" errors
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Installation verification
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SSL verification
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Running JUnit tests
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Locating an OFBiz Component
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Locating an OFBiz Application
2
Java Development
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Java Development
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Introduction
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Java runtime CLASSPATH
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Java compile time CLASSPATH
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Naming conventions
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Writing OFBiz Java Events
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Writing OFBiz Java Services
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Debugging using the logfile
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Calling OFBiz Services from a Java program
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Getting and validating request parameters (Events)
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Getting and validating request parameters (Services)
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Managing error messages
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Using Java properties files
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Sending e-mail from an OFBiz Event or Service
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Handling XML files
3
The User Interface
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The User Interface
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Introduction
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Creating HTML web pages
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Adding actions to Screen widgets
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HTML markup in Screen widgets
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CSS styling in Screen widgets
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Platform-specific widgets
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OFBiz Tree widgets
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OFBiz Menu widgets
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OFBiz Form widgets
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Creating web pages using FreeMarker
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Passing Screen widget parameters to FreeMarker
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Calling Java methods from FreeMarker
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Forcing FreeMarker to render HTML markup
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Uploading files in FreeMarker forms
4
OFBiz Services
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OFBiz Services
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Introduction
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Managing existing OFBiz Services
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Calling a Service from an HTML form
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Calling asynchronous Services from HTML forms
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Calling a Service many times from an HTML form
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Creating a new Service definition file
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Creating a new Service definition
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Implementing Services
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Defining Service attributes (INPUT/OUTPUT)
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Service Event Condition Actions
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Service groups
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Handling Service errors
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Writing Groovy Services
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Mail Event Condition Actions
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Entity Event Condition Actions
5
The OFBiz Entity Engine
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The OFBiz Entity Engine
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Introduction
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Changing the default database
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Connecting to a remote database
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Connecting to multiple databases
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Creating entity groups
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Disabling automatic database checks
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Mapping database data types
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Creating a new entity model
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Modifying an existing entity model
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Building a view-entity
6
OFBiz Security
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OFBiz Security
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Introduction
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Securing communications ports
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Disabling demonstration user accounts
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Protecting OFBiz web pages
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Creating user accounts
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Protecting applications using security groups
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Protecting views ("Tarpitting")
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Retrieving forgotten passwords
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Changing your password
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Adding or changing SSL certificates
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OFBiz single sign-on and the external login key
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WebTools
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WebTools
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Introduction
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Cache maintenance
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Changing debug settings
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Exporting database data to XML documents
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Loading database(s) from XML documents
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Managing internationalization labels
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Using the SQL processor
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Exploring the entity reference tool
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Viewing OFBiz usage statistics
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Uncovering artifact information
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Working with temporal expressions
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Web Services
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Web Services
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Introduction
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Requesting web services using URL parameters
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Requesting web services using an HttpClient
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Creating HttpClients and passing XML documents
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Creating XML-RPC web service clients
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Becoming an XML-RPC web service provider
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OFBiz SOAP messaging clients
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Generating a WSDL document
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Creating SOAP-compliant web services
9
OFBiz Tips and Tricks
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OFBiz Tips and Tricks
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Introduction
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Fixing Java memory allocation errors
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Reloading OFBiz seed and demo data
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Creating new seed data files
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Changing the administrative user's password
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Creating a new administrative user
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Getting the OFBiz version number
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Building an OFBiz instance
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Building a single OFBiz Component
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Creating a new OFBiz Component or Application
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Creating a FreeMarker transform
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Preparing data using Groovy
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Pop-up new browser windows
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Installing an OFBiz Visual Theme
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Creating an OFBiz Visual Theme
1
Entity Engine by Example
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Entity Engine by Example
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Introduction
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Putting it all together with a data model example
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Reading data from an OFBiz data source
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Working with large result sets (EntityListIterator)
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Removing data from the database (Java)
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Writing data to the database (Java)
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Using the automatic sequence generator
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EntityUtil
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EntityOperator reference

Getting the project code

Because OFBiz is more than just a few randomly organized files and directories, the collective and organized resources that go into making OFBiz, including the Apache infrastructure and software developers, are often called the "Project". The OFBiz project generates OFBiz code that is stored in a Subversion source code repository. It is a release and version of this code, extracted from the source code repository, built, and packaged using a "zip" archive tool, that we download as an OFBiz user.

Getting ready

Decide which version to download. It is recommended that new users download OFBiz Release 9.04. Experienced users and those wishing to contribute back to the project should consider starting with the latest version of the OFBiz source code "trunk". This code may be found on the Apache OFBiz "snapshot" web page.

Ensure you have the following necessary prerequisites in place:

  • A computer with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed. If you are unsure of the version, please refer to the table provided in the introduction to this chapter.
  • A modern browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Opera or the like).
  • Internet connection with HTTP access to the OFBiz download website.

How to do it...

Apache OFBiz can be downloaded as shown in the following steps:

  1. Using your browser, navigate to the Apache OFBiz download site (http://ofbiz.apache.org/download.html) to reveal the Download Apache OFBiz web page as shown:
    How to do it...
  2. Use your browser to select the desired OFBiz release. New users are urged to download the release represented by the apache-ofbiz-09.04.zip file. At any point in time, this download represents the most stable release of OFBiz.
  3. Commence the download by clicking on the file link provided.

    Tip

    Note: The official OFBiz download website is often in a state of flux. At times, you may be directed to a mirror site before you are allowed to download any code. On other occasions, clicking the OFBiz download file will directly initiate the download. If you find this all very confusing, you are not alone. Feel free to comment on the official OFBiz mailing list and voice your opinion. More information about the OFBiz user mailing lists may be found here: https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBADMIN/Mailing+Lists

  4. Once the download has completed, unpack OFBiz by running your operating system's unzip or equivalent command against the download file.
  5. Change directories to the OFBiz install directory and run the following ANT command to build the distribution and load the database: ant run-install
  6. After the ANT build script has completed, from the install directory run the appropriate OFBiz startup script provided for your operating system.
  7. Optionally, run tests to verify that everything is working

How it works...

OFBiz is packaged to include everything you need to run right out-of-the-box. Once your download is on your desktop, all you need do is unbundle it, build the distribution using the provided ANT tool, and start it up. No other configuration steps are necessary.

There's more...

There are a number of ways to start up OFBiz. Depending on your operating system environment and your proclivities towards working on the command line, you may:

  • Use one of the provided start up scripts
  • Invoke OFBiz from the command line directly or use the ANT build tool as shown here:

Windows

Unix

Command line

startofbiz.bat

startofbiz.sh

java -Xmx256M -jar ofbiz.jar

ant run

OFBiz runs inside and depends on a JVM. Before OFBiz can even start up, the JVM must be operational. The distribution provides all the tools necessary in the form of startup scripts to get the JVM up and running without any further work on your part.

For the curious, the following summarizes the OFBiz start-up sequence. This information is useful if you ever want to integrate third-party code or add your own Java programs to the OFBiz mix:

  1. The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is started from one of the available startup scripts or the command line.
  2. The OFBiz startup program (ofbiz.jar) is invoked as part of the JVM initialization.
  3. OFBiz loads all Components, builds the Java classpath, initializes communications, and verifies connections to one or more configured databases. While the OFBiz distribution includes the embedded Derby database, any number and combination of other databases may be configured.
  4. The embedded Tomcat http/https listener is started.
  5. OFBiz is up and running!

See also

For more information on prerequisites, getting the OFBiz code, and downloading and starting OFBiz up, please visit the What Do I Get? section on the following OFBiz web page: http://ci.apache.org/projects/ofbiz/snapshots/

Tip

Note: Be careful not to use the DOWNLOAD OFBIZ button on the snapshots download web page. Unless you want to download the latest OFBiz trunk nightly build, this button should not be confused with the DOWNLOAD OFBIZ button found on the official OFBiz loading web page: http://ofbiz.apache.org

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