OpenERP(open Enterprise Resourse Planning)

        OpenERP is an open source comprehensive suite of business applications including Sales, CRM(Customer Relationship management), Project management, Warehouse management, Manufacturing, Accounting and Human Resources. OpenERP has separate client and server components. XML-RPC interfaces are available. It is based on a strong MVC architecture, flexible workflows, a dynamic GUI, an XML-RPC interface, and customizable reporting system with convenient OpenOffice.org integration.

An OpenERP system has three main components :

1. PostgreSQL dataserver which has all the databases
2. OpenERP application server that has all of the enterprise logic
3. web server, a distinct application called the Open Object client-web, which allows you to connect to OpenERP from any web browser. This is not needed if the user connect through a GTK client.

         The server part is written in Python. Business functionality is organized into "modules". A module is a folder with a pre-defined structure containing Python code and XML files. A module defines data structure, forms, reports, menus, procedures, workflows etc. The client is thin as it contains no business logic. 

Working 

        I am using eclipse IDE for editing and using openERP version 5.0.14. We can download the server and client package from www.openerp.com , unzip the files and start the server. To start the server first go the openerp-server folder, then to the bin folder. There you can find the openerp-server.py 

     will run the server. Same process for running the client. We can find a file named openerp-client.py inside the bin folder present in the client. Provide the "-v" option to get the complete details of the module fields when mouse pointer pointed to it. Then a client interface with a pop-up window for login. If the database is not present or server is not yet started a error message will be shown. In openERP for the database creation postgresql is used. If there is no error then interface with all the functionalies will be shown.

This is the login window.

        Open eclipse and select the work space. The server code must be inside the workspace folder found in the home folder. After opening the eclipse go to the folder /bin/addons inside our openerp-server-5.x.x. The addons folder contains all the modules created by the openerp team. We have to add our module in this folder. Create a new directory and inside this directory we have to create all supporting files needed for our module.

Basic files needed for a module are

1. __init__.py  -->In this file we have to specify the all the files needed for our module. That is we have to import all the needed *.py file names and folder names inside this init file.
2. __terp__.py  -->This is the configuration file.Here we have to specify all the files and depending modules,demo files, author name, version etc.
3. *.py file . --> In the .py file we define our model, and controller.
4. *.xml file.--->The view part is defined in .xml files.

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