Anda di halaman 1dari 17

Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

Version 1.0 (draft)

Content
1. What business functionality are we looking for? ...........................................................................2

2. Preliminary Research: What was available in the open source arena ? ........................................3

3. Design Considerations .................................................................................................................3

3.1 POS Considerations ......................................................................................................... 4

3.2 ERP Side : Adempiere Configuration .............................................................................. 13

3.3 POS ERP Transaction & Document Mapping.............................................................. 14

3.4 Why did we choose an Asynchronous Integration Approach. .......................................... 15

3.5 How is ERP synchronization performed ? ....................................................................... 16

3.6 Data Mapping Strategy ................................................................................................... 17

3.7 Language Support ......................................................................................................... 17

4. Who we are: SmartJSP S.A.S. ..................................................................................................17

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 1


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

Here we are after some months of research and development looking for a complete open source POS
solution capable to synchronize its inventory, customer and sales transactions with our Adempiere ERP
backend.

1. What business functionality are we looking for?


Our industry requirements were focused in the Restaurant industry, where we have a complete ERP/SCM
solution like Adempiere in the backend managing inventory, basic product transformation to build simple
restaurant menus (SCM) and so on; we were looking for a flexible open source POS solution to manage the
front end transactions but depending 100% on the ERP information why, we can summarize the main
requirements :

Support many (n) restaurant branches with multiple POS connected in an asynchronous fail over
model with one (1) ERP for restaurant chains (each restaurant might have different products).

Multiple controls to avoid fraud - block, removed editing features.

Support multiple prices (at least 3) per unit per product

Support multiple units (n units) per product during the sale

POS should use only products, categories, taxes, units, customer info and prices defined in the ERP,
no manual overriding should be allowed in the front end POS.

Batch and Real time synchronization: Batch should be supported for initialization of the POS and
emergencies, but any change on the ERP and any change on the POS (for the scope of the
integration) should be sent and processed in the other side.

And also de almost-standr features such as: Complete Touch screen support

Support for many POS printers: thermal, dot, EPSON and so son.

Print to multiple (> 8) printers for orders routing (bars, kitchens, salad stations, patio, and so on)

Flexible reporting Engine

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 2


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

Java based (it should run on Linux and Windows)

2. Preliminary Research: What was available in the open source


arena ?
First of all, we spent a good amount of time playing with open source POS solutions like Adempiere POS
and Open bravo between May and July of 2011, those tasks included full probe of concepts, review of
documentation and forums.

We also asked in the Adempiere forums for previous experiences about it but not much feedback was
received, just some comments were received from Adaxa team regarding some previous integration
experience two years ago, they gave us some warnings because we might need a significant integration
effort to accomplish our goal; we appreciated their comments but at the end of the day we didnt really find a
contribution or starting point to reuse, so we decided to start from a plain OpenBravo POS 2.3.2 and
Adempiere back in July 2011.

3. Design Considerations
Note: Just when we were finishing our first development phase we discovered that Red1 was working in a
POS-ERP integration as well sponsored by SYSNOVA, but from a couple of emails that we sent back and
forth, although we planned to use similar tools in our solutions, the scope of Red1 was focused for end-
users without any important enhancement to the POS engine itself, so his scope would not be enough for
our business requirements. (no support for mltiple units, multiple prices, fraud control, real time sync,
failover and a lot of existente QA issues for openbravo pos) and we were about to finish our main integration
tasks, so we didnt have opportunity to contribute to each other job to much. Then neither we used red1
code nor red1 contribution used our source code.

To be more clear, one of the main differences of our approach were to allow the POS to support a product
model (product, units, prices, an customer) as closest as possible to the ERPs product model due to the
risk of manual manipulation of the information in this industry.

This means that our new POS solution should not use products, units, categories, or customer if they are
not defined in a ERP solution..., yes, it is mandatory to have an ERP, if you dont have an ERP, our
modified POS (SmartPOS) doesnt allow to create items, categories, and so on... and that is one of the main

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 3


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

business requirements to control prices, products, inventory and transaction with a good level of security
and prevent and minimize risk of data manipulation. On top of that is the reliability of the inventory, we want
to trust in the ERP inventory not in the POS inventory.

3.1 POS Considerations


First of all, we should mention that OpenBravo POS doesnt support to sell products with multiple units,
prices per unit and that means and important structural change with impact on screens, reports, tables and
so on.

Other topic where we have done a significant effort is to fix and integrate a lot of quality fixes to the original
OpenBravo POS 2.3.2, we integrated more than 50 fixes and new functionality, some of them coming from
the OpenBravo POS forums like the multiple printer support for instance and blocking access to not stable
or not required reports and functionality for a slave POS to guarantee that the Master ERP manage the
information properly.

SmartPOS a new OpenBravo distro


As we mentioned before after our POCs OpenBravo POS retail was the closest solution to our
requirements but we also found some limitations for real customers such as: data model limitations (units,
prices) and fraud control; also during our journey we discovered that the OpenBravo POS (originally called
tinaPOS librePOS ) didnt have much development activity in the last two years. (last release 2.3.2 on
2010)... upsss...so unless you are an Openbravo customer with signed contract there are not many patches
or new functionality available since 2010; and we also discovered during our forums research that not much
people had technical experience (mainly Adrian Romero) to contribute or to share about it... then we had to
read the full set of forums looking for possible solutions, fresh ideas to fix some of the POS limitations.
Some of them were integrated to the final product but we also found many unsolved QA issues that needed
to be resolved on the fly to go to production (surprise - surprise).

To be clear and honest we found OpenBravo POS flexible and with a lot of potential, but key features for our
business requirements and real production environments were missing. Then after these months of
development+QA we want to share what we consider a new distribution of Open bravo POS that we call:
SmartPOS, our open source POS distro based in open bravo 2.3.2, but focused in the medium size
business of retail industry where the ERP back end, security, fraud control and so on is required (not
optional).
SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 4
Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 5


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

F.A.Q about SmartPOS: (up-to-date version in our wiki pages at sourceforge)

Is SmartPOS an new Open Bravo POS Fork ? We prefer to call it a specialized POS distro (slave)
integrated with Adempiere ERP (master) using an asynchronous approach (ActiveMQ).

Is it really a new open source project ? sure

Will you publish a source code repository ? sure .....just leave us some time to rest after our recent
production releases :)

Would this SmartPOS be ready for end-users to deploy with a single button or installer ? No... we
have to be honest with you, you need good knowledge about the Adempiere ERP (required), your
asynchronous platform (ActiveMQ), and to understand your POS requirements to have a fully
operational solution, at this point this is not a solution for end users.

Will you plan to release a POS version without ERP ? Not for now.

Is this a release ready for production ? To be honest with you, we have done a significant effort to
have a stable release, our focus was restaurant industry (currently it is working in four (4) restaurants
of a same chain) it is real production, many customers, different locations, but it is part of a huge
POS+ERP implementation with more than 12 restaurants) then it might not work for all the
industries or for your particular reality..., I would suggest and intensive set of tests with the right data
and configuration before planning any production release in your particular environment. Or to
contact us to hire some professional help for specific integration topics.

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 6


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

Main functionality changed/added:

 Support to multiple prices per product

 Support to multiple units per product

 Following data is coming from the ERP and the user can not modify it within the POS

o customers

o tickets

o returns

o taxes and categories

o products, categories and inventory

o units of measure

o prices per unit of measure (price list)

o payment forms

o Inventory management based in ERP not POS

 Optimization of report forms

 Tip and discount management per product (%)

 support 9 POS printers

 Enhanced end-of-the-day reports with credit card totals, and payment form total

 Multiple QA fixes, issues with reports

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 7


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 8


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

 Security optimized using role capabilities and removing editing functionality for data coming from the
ERP

 Asynchronous logic (JMS) sending XML messages thru TCP/IP connections to an ActiveMQ
server. a fully operational embedded ActiveMQ instance (independent thread) is created within the
SmartPOS to manage a store-and-forward model. That allow to store any outgoing messages in a
local queue if the ERP when the network/server fails, once the connection come back the Activemq
Fail over + store and forward functionality will synchronize SmartPOS and AdempiereERP.

 Massive synchronization: available to populate your POS databases from the ERP, this process is
usually performed by an admin user, without any customers in the POS system

 Real time synchronization(automatic without any manual intervention) any time ERP information
changes an xml message is sent to updated (1-n) POS, any time POS info transactions are made
new xml messages are sent to the ERP.

 Parametric configuration: JMS configuration, remote organization ERP id, reports and so on can be
configured using the resources of the pos (XML files editable with the product GUI)

 Enhanced logging capabilities: SmartPOS create a new log file to record any message and error
related with the ERP synchronization process.

 SmartPOS Database model and tables modified to support new features.

 Advanced functionality: A customer can be created in the SmartPOS, and as a result a business
partner, location and user will be created in the ERP. (only scenario when we support creation of
data in the POS side)

 Source code managed using Netbeans + Mercurial

Source will be available under a mercurial repository in SourceForge soon

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 9


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 10


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 11


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 12


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

3.2 ERP Side : Adempiere Configuration

With the ERP these are the main considerations to have in mind:

1. Create a company with at least one (1) organization (take note of the internal company ID and org
ID), each org ID will map each restaurant (branch) for synchronization purposes

2. Create tax categories and taxes

3. Create a product category called: POS (capital letters), after that you can create you product
categories and assign the POS category as parent of yours, only those products belonging to the
product categories whose parent category is: POS will be synchronized to the POS.

4. Create products to be managed in the POS with the following considerations:

 Each product should have a product category whose parent category is POS, products without
these categories wont be synchronized.

 Each product should have at least one (1) unit and unit conversion allowing the POS to convert
units when is selling.

 Each product should have a tax category associated

5. Create customers with at least one (1) location and basic user (contact) info, location is
mandatory. All the customers will be synchronized with the POS

ERP Limitations - As many of you know, Adempiere doesnt support to assign multiple prices per unit of
measure (UOM), which is supported is a conversion factor formula that can recalculate the prices, but this
alternative for some industries like this doesnt really work, because not all the prices all proportional for
instance: the price of a cup of wine is not proportional to the price of the bottle of wine (it common to have
expensive cops of wine ), so the assignment of prices to units is mandatory.

We were checking the Adempiere ERP forums regarding solutions and workaround without much luck, so at
the end of the day the way that we solve this limitation in Adempiere was :

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 13


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

 For the POS products we will create a price list (sell) called POS,

 Next, for each Unit of Measure (UOM) we will create a price version (associated with the previous
price list ) , as price version name we will use the same of the UOM name.

 Next for each product and UOM, we will populate the three prices: limit, standard and list.

 During the synchronization process we will send the units and prices per product to the new tables in
the POS, and any changes in prices, and so on will be updated thru individual xml messages
managed by the model validator classes.

3.3 POS ERP Transaction & Document Mapping

Finally, we spend a good amount of time creating the ERP documents that should support transactions
happening in the POS side, how is that, let me show you:

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 14


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

3.4 Why did we choose an Asynchronous Integration Approach.


We have done some web services integration between Adempiere ERP and other products, but due to
unstable network environment between the ERP (Internet connections to the data-center) and the POS
stations (OnSite) this traditional synchronous approach was discarded.

To be in sync with the Adempiere architecture and our business reality, we required an open source
Asynchronous framework/platform with support for multiple clients-server products, based in java, with multi-
platform support, fail over functionality and good development community behind; so we starting evaluating
some ESB solutions such as: Apache service mix, mule and others, but although they looked good from the
architecture and development perspective in terms our timing restrictions they didnt fit our business
priorities.

Then instead of this ideal ESB approach we decided to use Apache AciveMQ as JMS/integration platform
due to the shorter learning curve, stability and good documentation for our purpose. Let me clarify that we
still plan to design and to create some ESB connectors to replace our current approach as a long term
solution, but for now this is the way to go.

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 15


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

3.5 How is ERP synchronization performed ?


Main Components: Taking advantage of the Adempiere extension mechanism we created an Adempiere
extension module (Eclipse project) with the following main components:

Class/Component Descriptions

com.smj.util.ERPPosListener Startup class called when the ERP starts,


configured in the company tabs of Adempiere. It
start a JMS client to the ActiveMQ server.

com.smj.uti.ERPPosInterceptor Model Validator Class: Triggered any time that one


of the following tables is modified in the ERP side:
(MProduct.Table_Name MProductCategory.Table_Name

MBPartner.Table_Name MBPartnerLocation.Table

MLocation.Table MProductPrice.Table

MStorage.Table MWarehouse.Table

MUser.Table MUOM.Table

MUOMConversion.Table MTaxCategory.Table

MTax.Table MPaymentTerm.Table

com.smj.util.SynchronizePOS Regular java class, called from a jms client when the
POS request a full data synchronization

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 16


Project Developed by Project Sponsored by

(new
OpenBravoPOS Distro) Advanced
Asynchronous Integration with Author: Pedro Rozo.

Adempiere ERP Senior Integration Architect


http://www.xpluk.com
SCEA - MBA - Feb/ 2012

3.6 Data Mapping Strategy


For your convenience as part of this technical essay, we also included a spreadsheet with the basic data
mapping strategy between the ERP and open bravo POS, let me tell you many hours of try and test were
required for this spreadsheet. Additionally to this data mapping strategy we suggest you to check the latest
database table structure and source code, because new tables for units, prices and so on might have been
created with other fields and so on.

3.7 Language Support


First of all let me share that 100% percent of our team are native Spanish speakers, so we made a
significant effort to create source code, docs like this, tables and so on in English, so we can share our
experience with the open source community as well. You might find some Spanish words here and there,
but most of our job was optimized for English speakers (we also support spanish) .

4. Who we are: SmartJSP S.A.S.


IT integrators for enterprise ready open source products and platforms using service oriented
architecture(SOA) and Java enterprise technology.

We deliver solutions for distributed environments applying agile practices and open standards.

Experts with: Integration, Technical Architecture, Virtual Training, Agile multi-platform development, Open
Source Infrastructure and middle-ware .

A Canadian and Colombian company with successful projects delivered for: Panam, U.S.A, Spain,
Canada and Colombia

We have been implementing and customizing Adempiere ERP and SmartPOS for different customers such
as: cell resellers, restaurants, health and oil industries in the last year and a half. As Adempiere citizens we
are also contributing with different topics such as: eclipse project templates, Panama localization,
SmartPOS integration and soon advanced financial reporting.

More info about our services : http://www.smartjsp.com

SmartPOS - Advanced Asynchronous Integration with Adempiere ERP http://www.smartjsp.com 17

Anda mungkin juga menyukai