magentoerpconnect-community team mailing list archive

[Sharoon Thomas <sharoonthomas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

Apologies if I am intruding into your email Inbox and sorry for being late
if this mail is still welcome.

First of all, I request all of you to stop tagging Magento ERP connect as
"Raphael's" or "Sharoon Thomas's" work. It is a joint Open Source initiative
by Open Labs and Akretion and a smart community (Zikzak media being the main
third party). The history will show that I started the project, Raphael
joined in and with that the project got a massive push and the two
organisations spent quite a lot of time in getting it to this shape.

Second, I am happy that the module is getting "certified" and thanks for
funding the same (I wouldn't spend a pence on that and I assume its the same
with Raphael)

Excuse me if I am being too sharp/blunt in my message as I personally
believe that clear messages will build good projects, communities and
software rather than sweet marketing talk.

Just a few of concerns here:

   1. If this module is certified I assume it goes into openobject-addons
   repository
      - Which means the active community has no more role in it. Because
      none of the existing committers will have access then. Its not just
      magentoerpconnect there are other modules too
      - IMHO It has always been a pain to get anything patched/fixed in
      official branches because its usually done only when a customer
of Open ERP
      SA requires it. Quite often the patch submitted magically appears in the
      code base (as committed by some Open ERP developer) and the patch is then
      rejected. Its the primary reason we maintain our own branches of
patches for
      issues rather than wait for open erp sa to fix.
      - Who will drive the project? - I don't see any community driven
      activity in the openobject-addons branch
   2. Future of the project.
      1. At the moment the project is driven by the three companies
      mentioned above and after several rounds and rounds of
discussions. Please
      see the discussions on account payment etc .. in the mailing list archives
      2. Not sure how this will happen in future
   3. Certification Process:
      1. I am surprised with the whole process and the way it goes, but
      happy that they are not reinventing the modules.
      2. Having said that, the primary task would be to refractor the code,
      but I can see that the work has been outsourced to open ERP SA.
I hope the
      refractoring takes place in the main branches and doesn't go
hidden behind
      the great walls of Tiny!

I request Open ERP SA to retain all copyrights. Some files wont have copy
right but the copyright in the __terp__/__init__ file will apply for all.
The current copyright holders are myself, raphael, Akretion and Open Labs.

Now to the idea of certification. I think the whole idea of certification is
a disrespect to the original authors/contributors of the module.

We have spent over 6 man months in developing the modules (and both Open
labs and akretion are small companies). This investment has not paid off and
I am not sure how anybody other that the community behind the module can
certify the code. I saw some updates on the certification and I see that
this has generated more revenue in terms of development for Open ERP SA than
what Open Labs or Akretion has collectively generated till date. I guess I
can conclude this as "editor's" privilege and this could be strongly
demotivating for other Open ERP contributors. When companies like us
struggle to make a balance between profitability and being open sourced (you
could imagine otherwise if Akretion and Openlabs had decided to
commercialise the project which is allowed in magento policy) this looks
like an unfair advantage to me.

However, I welcome Open ERP SA on board the connector development and would
prefer to be optimistic on the same. I request you once again to stop being
dictators in code changes (as with 'official' branches) and discuss with the
community as there are already several instances in production for our
customers. Being well aware of the history of Open ERP SA, I wish to make it
clear that if breaking changes are arbitrarily made (which will affect many
existing customers of ours and other integrators) we would be forced to
retain and maintain existing branches, if deemed official or not.

Thanks again,


2010/6/25 Raphaël Valyi <rvalyi@xxxxxxxxx>

> Hello folks, just forward to put you in the CC of that mail
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Raphaël Valyi <rvalyi@xxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 12:36 PM
> Subject: Re: subscription request
> To: Thomas Heselhaus <thomas.heselhaus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Thorsten Vocks <thorsten.vocks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, sebastien beau
> akretion <sebastien.beau@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Renato Lima <
> renato.lima@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Cilene Oliveira <cos2410@xxxxxxxxx>,
> vianney.dacosta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "\"M. Cédric Guittard\"" <
> cedric.guittard@xxxxxxx>, Damien B-DELOUPY <dbertrand@xxxxxxxxxx>, Lars
> Beierbach <contact@xxxxxxxxxx>, Douglas Morato <dfamorato@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> Jordi Esteve <jesteve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, André Domarques <
> domarques@xxxxxxxxx>
>
>
> Hello Thomas,
>
> Well, first of that's not "Sharoon Thomas's" module as Akretion and
> Openlabs hold each 50% of the development of the MagentoERP connector (we
> even did a bit more, see "Bazzar Karma" here:
> https://launchpad.net/magentoerpconnect/+topcontributors ).
>
> Second, yes, we are actually starting to use the connector for Magento
> 1.4.1 and even OpenERP v6, starting such a project like this here in Sao
> Paulo for http://www.Audiolivro.com.br  (our other customers are still on
> earlier Magento releases with OpenERP v5)
> Using head revisions, all seems in pretty good shape but there is only a
> few issues with Magento 1.4.1 itself, I suggest you read:
> https://lists.launchpad.net/magentoerpconnect-community/msg00024.html (and
> apply the suggested patch)
> (and subscribe to the list
> https://launchpad.net/~magentoerpconnect-community )
>
> Magento also reported more issues with v1.4.1 we didn't test yet:
> http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/comments/magento-1410-patches/
>
> Finally, it has been a pleasure to integrate OpenERP SA's suggestion's to
> the connector over the last week. I merged all their suggestion on the head
> revisions yesterday.
>
> Overall, we also plan to democratize the connector as we grow at Akretion
> (so we can tackle the growing demand) and as OpenERP itself becomes more
> mature and require less expert skills (specially with v6), but I think you
> can understand thats while being among the top 10 third party contributors
> to OpenERP, our community efforts are balanced by the need of company
> profitability just like any company. That sophisticated Magento connector (I
> believe it's nothing less than the most sophisticated ecommerce-ERP
> connector in the world!) is already more than 6 man months Openlabs and us
> are giving away for free to the community (and unfortunately we hardly feel
> OpenERP S.A aknowledges that enough in their certification system right now;
> I suggest you read how Sharoon himslelf reacted to OpenERP S.A. partner
> policy:
>
> http://sharoonthomas.blogspot.com/2010/04/why-openlabs-is-not-open-erp-partner.html
>
> http://sharoonthomas.blogspot.com/2010/04/official-partner-policy-of-open-erp-i.html
>   )... So it just goes its is own pace but for sure it's getting more
> mature and more democratic over the time.
> And as you and Openbig deal with OpenERP S.A., it's good if you can ensure
> they take a policy that favor the companies behind the great modules you
> like to use.
>
> Don't hesitate to contact us or Openlabs (see Sharoon's email here) or
> Zikzakmedia for further support or information (please use
> rvalyi@xxxxxxxxxxxx or raphael.valyi on Skype then instead cause I'm
> getting tons of mail (mostly OpenERP bug tracking) on that non professional
> address.
>
> <https://launchpad.net/magentoerpconnect/+topcontributors>Raphaël Valyi
> *http://www.akretion.com* <http://www.akretion.com>
> [image: logo_only_17 (another copy).png]
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 7:42 AM, Thomas Heselhaus <
> thomas.heselhaus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Hello Mr. Valyi,
>>
>> My name is Thomas Heselhaus from germany. Maybe we saw us in March at
>> the community days by OpenERP.
>> Together with OpenBIG (Thorsten Vocks) we will hopefully finish our
>> migration to OpenERP with your and Sharoon Thomas' module to connect
>> magento.
>> My company Global Distribution GmbH assigned the certification of this
>> module together with OpenERP.
>> Here some information about us: www.global-distribution.de (B2B),
>> www.elevator.de (B2C), www.reloopdj.com (our main brand, 1 of 5) etc.
>>
>> I'm quite sure that this list has some interessting an useful
>> information for me :)
>>
>> Do you plan an official update in the near future for compatibility to
>> magento 1.4.1 ?
>> The certification of the version wich is compatible to 1.3.2.4 was not
>> my master plan :)
>>
>> best regards,
>> Thomas Heselhaus
>> --
>> This message was sent from Launchpad by the user
>> Thomas Heselhaus (https://launchpad.net/~thomas-heselhaus)
>> using the "Contact this team" owner link on the Magento OpenERP Community
>> team page.
>> For more information see
>> https://help.launchpad.net/YourAccount/ContactingPeople
>>
>
>
>


-- 
Sharoon Thomas
Business Analyst & Open Source ERP Consultant
CEO @ http://openlabs.co.in