xTuple's Collective Brainpower Blog

Vote for xTuple PostBooks® ERP to be the March 2013 Project of the Month on SourceForge!

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Who thinks a flashy trucker game is better than the World's #1 Open Source ERP? Not the xTuple community, I bet...

The adoption of REST as the developer's tool of choice for communication has been getting plenty of press over the past few years. At xTuple we're on board. We've built our Web/mobile cloud ERP solution with a REST server baked into the very way that our own client communicates with the server. It was a priority of ours to have the moving pieces of our system be able to talk with the same...

The milestone 4.0 release of xTuple ERP is the product of a long release cycle in which over 400 enhancements were made — including the first ever Mobile Web client, optimized for a multi-tenant Cloud hosting environment. Many thanks to all in the community who have helped make this release possible.

See below for more information about new features and bug fixes now available in...

As many of you know we have been working hard on our next generation Mobile Web client platform that will enable xTuple users to use the application through a browser on both desktop and mobile devices. What you may not know is that this is the first business management system written that uses JavaScript in all layers including the database, the data service and at the application layer....

Roy Sutton, developer relations engineer at Enyo (Hewlett Packard's HTML5 platform) , discussed Enyo, originally developed for the HP TouchPad, the ill-fated webOS Palm tablet. The modern HTML5-focused JavaScript framework was born and lives on. Enyo has been updated to work on all modern browsers, mobile and desktop. It is not just another JavaScript framework; all the others work nicely with...

Ardent xTuple-watchers may have noticed that we've had a longer-than-usual development cycle for our upcoming 4.0 release. When the final release arrives in a few months it will coincide with the release of our mobile/web client, which has been a huge development effort. At the same time, we have been developing some new features that will tune the product for the Wholesale Distribution market...

We're excited to present a new feature in which the database can tell the xTuple client to do things. Up until now, this was a one-directional channel of communication from the client to the database. However, we've utilized Postgres' "NOTIFY/LISTEN" functionality to send push notifications to xTuple. xTuple hears the notification and does something based on the notification's name.

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Last week Roy Sutton, developer relations engineer at Hewlett Packard's Enyo group, dropped by the xTuple home office. Roy presented Enyo, the JavaScript development framework, to xTuplers and to developers from other companies here in Norfolk Virginia's downtown innovation corridor.

Enyo, originally developed for the HP TouchPad, has been updated to work on all modern browsers, mobile...

A couple years ago I learned of what is now one of my favorite quotes from one of our senior developers, Gil Moskowitz . I asked him why a particular development resulted in so much code and complexity. He referred to a quote from Blaise Pascal : "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

As many of you know, we've been hard at work on our new Mobile Web...

From CANNES, France—A collaboration between two global giants, Coca-Cola and Google, reeled in the Grand Prix in the inaugural year of the Mobile Lions contest here today [June 19, 2012].

The winning execution, developed by Grow Interactive in Norfolk, Va., was an app that allowed consumers to send Cokes to unsuspecting strangers at specially outfitted vending machines around the globe...

From Steve Goad of On the Road in Hampton Roads at Tech Nite 2012: "You would not think of Hampton Roads, Virginia, as an Application Mecca let alone a place to start up an Internet company. According to xTuple co-founder, Ned Lilly, President and CEO it’s an excellent community to start a company."

Goad continues, "About ten years ago, Ned Lilly co-founded xTuple, originally called...

A few months ago I wrote to warn you that some old database views and script toolbox methods would be removed from the xTuple core product. This work has been completed and will first appear in the 4.0.0Beta2. We don't yet have a date for that beta release.

Several of our partners have already made the necessary changes to their extension packages so they will be ready for the new...

TheVARguy.com [website launched in January 2008] serves the IT channel, allowing VARs (value-added resellers) and MSPs (managed services provider) to engage in conversations about next-generation opportunities and business models.

At one point, The VAR Guy published the Open Source 50 — tracking how the top open source companies were working with VARs and IT service providers. So...

The trick to getting robots out of the labs and into commercial and consumer is software, not hardware, say experts.

Willow Garage sets its open-source software free to attract software developers and help make robots commonplace, but detractors say giving the software away is bad for business.

By Martin LaMonica for CNET , originally posted May 10, 2012

It would...

xTuple Director of Product Development John Rogelstad and lead Mobile Web developer Cole Davis were featured in the "Startup Showcase" at this gathering of JavaScript luminaries known as the Fluent Conference on Wednesday, May 30th in San Francisco.

2012 Fluent Conference — JavaScript & Beyond Startup Showcase xTuple interview posted to the O’Reilly YouTube Channel

What...

From "Promise -v- Delivery: Open Source Delivers On Promise" By Randy Kellum, Founder of Creative Innovative Solutions Group

Open Source is a technology approach alternative to your traditional or standard software solutions. Open Source Initiative is the governing body behind Open Source. Open Source, on many occasions, has been met with skepticism when implementing this strategy for...

By guest blogger P.J. Jakovljevic, originally posted at Technology Evaluation Centers , April 30, 2012

While Virginia might have seen its share of controversy over the recent laws on women’s reproductive rights, the region’s business and entrepreneurial climate is undisputed owing to vibrant enterprise applications vendors. One such vendor is Deltek — long reported by TEC as the...

Learn about open source robotics company Willow Garage , a leading edge risk-taker on PBS: America Revealed . Follow the company on Twitter @willowgarage .

Steve Cousins is CEO at Willow Garage in California. Willow Garage makes personalized robots, robots that do chores, such as load the dishwasher or take the dog for a walk. America Revealed host, Yul Kwon, met with Steve and some of...

UPDATE: Version 3.8.0 is now final. We're highlighting this blog from earlier in the release cycle to help people navigate the upgrade process. If you would like for xTuple to manage your upgrades for you (any Edition of the software, including PostBooks), consider our XTN offering .

Before you upgrade to xTuple EPR 3.8.0, there are a few things you should...

Internal work on the xTuple ERP 3.8.0 release is winding down — the first release candidate was published a few weeks ago and a second RC and final release are coming soon. Now is the time to start planning for 3.9.

I don't know yet what features will be added in 3.9. There will be some internal changes, though, that you need to prepare for if you write scripts, MetaSQL statements, or...