Compiere from the Source

Creating User Friendly Applications

One challenge when creating an application or an extension to an application is making it easy for a new user to use and for existing users to learn new tasks.  Compiere's Application Dictionary is a powerful tool as it is the engine that dynamically creates your user interface. 

The functionality available in the Application Dictionary allows you to create these types of applications with very little additional effort. The main features are found in Elements, Context, Table and Column and Window, Tab and Field.

Accounting Schemas and Default Accounts

In Compiere the accounts used for posting the accounting consequences of any document are defined as default accounts in the Accounting Schema.  A tenant may have multiple accounting schemata (one reason for this would be to have parallel accounting currencies).  This is to ensure that all necessary accounts are present and avoid any posting errors because required accounts are not provided.  It also means that  the person entering the document (e.g. Invoice) does not need to have any knowledge of how the accounting is done or at what level.

During Initial Tenant Setup the user provides the default accounts as a .csv file to the process.  The first (and therefore) primary Accounting Schema is created using these default accounts.  If all the default accounts are not provided then the Initial Tenant Setup process will fail.  The default accounts are then copied to the appropriate entities when a new entity record is created.  For example, when a new Business Partner Group is created the default accounts are copied for each Accounting Schema defined.  Then, when a new Business Partner is created, the default accounts are copied from the Business Partner Group selected for the Business Partner.  When a new Bank Account is created, the default accounts are copied from the Accounting schemata (as there is no intermediate entity like Business Partner Group).  For all entities with an 'Accounting' tab, records are never added to this tab.  The user can modify the default account values but cannot change the Accounting Schema. 

Cost Center, Profit Center, Service Center in Compiere

Traditionally, Cost Centers were used to allocate costs to different parts of the organization. The newer concepts of Profit Centers also include the revenue side. Service Centers extend this concept sometimes giving internal organizations the option to aquire services internally or externally - so a Service Center could actually external as outsourced.

Compiere provides a variety of options to model these concepts. At the center is the Organization entity. In Compiere, you can create unlimited organizational entities. You can define and differentiate different types of organization (Division, Store, Legal Entity, ...) and maintain multiple organizational hierarchies (ownership, logistics, reporting, ...).  Organizations can be linked to (external) Business Partners for easier management of legal entities as well for outsourced service organizations.

Using Lists in Compiere

Compiere is designed to allow for easy customization and extension.  Often these changes will include adding new field to existing tables.

You can allow users total freedom in the data entry process (text field), provide them with a list that users can modify (table) or control the list (reference).  Which is the best option will depend upon how the field is used.

For example, you may want to add a field that displays the type of Business Partner in the Business Partner window.  Adding the field BPartnerType to the Business Partner window is a simple task that has been described in earlier blog entries.  What we will discuss here is the different options for how the field is populated.

Compiere Translations

Compiere is designed to support the user interface in multiple languages - and to support multiple document languages.  Example: the users of the system with English or Spanish windows/reports - while you are sending invoices (documents) to your customers in English, German and Russian.

Out of the box, Compiere provides the infrastructure for 28 languages including the two Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Spanish (and Mexian), as well as British and Australian. The language infrastructure is based on Unicode and handles all languages and dialects.

The bulk of the translation is exported and imported via XML files to allow the use of translation tools like Trados.  Even though it might seem easier to "just translate" the system, you will realize significant savings for maintaining the translation with a translation tool - and the initial translation also will be less effort and with higher consistency.

Compiere at this very moment has about 106,000 words to translate. You can reduce that volume to about 98,000 if you only translate the parts a user of the system would see (i.e. not system administrator functionality).  If you skip the translation of the Help text (i.e. only labels and bubble help), the word count is reduced to 46,000.

Compiere offers "Language Packs" which are a good base for a translation.  Here I want to outline, what steps are necessary to create and maintain a Language pack efficiently:

Setting Field Level Security

Compiere allows to define security rules based on Table, Column or Field and Record level.  Here, we discuss your options of Field or Column level security.

There may be situations where you do not want specific users to have access to certain data.  For example, for some of your data entry clerks you do not want them to update the price list on Sales Orders.  When entering Sales Orders, the price list will default to the default sales price list defined for the entered Business Partner (if no default it defined then the default price list is used).  The data entry clerks should be able to see the price list, but the field should be read only.  The data entry managers, however, should be allowed to update the price list.

Document numbering

Compiere provides a variety of options how to generate and manage document numbers and formats. It also allows to maintain gapless sequence numbers. When any table has a the field "DocumentNo", it is recognized and managed as a document number. 

The default algorithm checks, if the field is empty and if so, a number is assigned. This number comes from an automatically created Document Sequence, which is sufficient for many areas. When a table has a Document Type (field "C_DocType_ID"), you determine for that Document Type if the numbering is manual the default behavior applies (i.e. if it is not entered, the number is created from the automatically created sequence). If the document type is document number controlled, a Sequence is referenced. Multiple document types can share a sequence or can have it's own sequence. 

A Document Sequence can also have a user defined prefix and suffix, so you can create document numbers like "Sales-12345-Export". Same algorithm here, if the Document number is empty, the number is created from the document sequence for the specific document type.

Add Approval to Document Workflow

When you look at the customizations that may businesses want to make to their ERP application, many of these revolve around the processing of Orders, Invoices or any other document. In Compiere, because the Compiere Workflow Engine is used directly in document processing, this makes the customization of these processes much easier.

Lets look at a typical example. In XYZ Corp any purchase order over USD 500.00 must be approved. Level 1 User (we will call him Joe) cannot approve any documents. Level 2 User (we will call her Mary) can approve documents up to USD 1000.00. Level 3 User (we will call her Jane) can approve documents up to USD 10,000.

Mary is Joe's Supervisor and Jane is Mary's Supervisor.

Lets look at the Workflow. In the current Workflow there is no conditional processing that occurs. As long as everything in the document is valid it will be completed when any user processes the document. What we want to happen is between the state of the document where it is prepared and before it is complete we want to add an approval step or condition.

Creating Workflows - Steps and Guidance

Following up on a previous post, this blog will describe how to define your own Steps Workflow. These workflows are initiated by the user and do not require the user to follow a specific sequence of tasks or to complete all tasks. Their purpose is to serve as guidance and assist the user in remembering the different things that should be done.

As an example we will set up a workflow to assist in the period end process. As you may know, in Compiere there is no formal 'Period End' or 'Year End' process as you may have seen in other systems. In Compiere and Period or Year End processing is an internal requirement or procedure.

You can enter your Nodes directly in the Workflow window (Node tab) or you can now open the Workflow Editor and add the nodes there. The advantage to using the Workflow window is you can add the Node and define the Actions. The advantage to using the Workflow Editor is you can define the nodes and transitions quickly and graphically. If you use the Workflow Editor you will need to update the Nodes in the Workflow window to define the Action and an Transition Conditions.

Workflows in Compiere

One of the ways in which Compiere is different from other applications is how it implemented and uses workflows. In many applications, any workflow engine is an afterthought. Therefore it can be used mainly for guiding users but not for any control purposes. In Compiere, the workflow engine is an integrated part of the application. This approach makes it relatively easy to create, modify and extend processes to address your specific needs and requirements.

Workflows can include tasks and operations within Compiere and external tasks as well. A Workflow can be used to send emails and notifications to internal and external parties and can be used to generate reports and do report bursting (sending reports to a list of recipients).

There are three types of workflows in Compiere:

• Steps/Guidance Workflows,
• Document Process Workflows and
• Record Value Workflows.

Each serves a different need and each can be easily extended (or you can create your own).