Right after every major release I like to draw attention to new features that may not be immediately evident or even included on the product roadmap . Now that 3.8 has been published as a release candidate I'd like to point out that the new Display class that was introduced in 3.7 has been exposed to our JavaScript interface in 3.8 so that creating new table-style reports is easier than ever...
xTuple's Collective Brainpower Blog
The title says it all. We ran the xTuple client through our test battery on the lastest Apple operating system and it has passed with flying colors. As of today we officially support running our published xTuple 3.7.4 distribution on Macintosh Lion.*
*Note however, that PostgreSQL 9 that ships with Lion is not currently supported. xTuple 3.7.4 must connect to an 8.3 or 8.4 database. If...
There is a cost to owning and maintaining software that goes well beyond the purchase price of the software itself. Of course, there is the cost for purchasing the software. Typically this is a one-time event and depending on the type and brand of the software, the cost can be in the thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Several factors today are changing all of that including...
Apple's new version of its operating system, OS X Lion , is due to be released to the public in the next couple of weeks. The new user interface features are very nice. Upgrading promises to be simple and inexpensive.
This is good for consumers but trouble for xTuple users. You see, current releases of OpenRPT and of PostBooks® and other editions of xTuple ERP do not work well on Lion...
The paradigm shift Chris Ryan wrote about in his blog post last summer is well under way and proving to be very successful. I'm talking, of course, about the patch release strategy we adopted just about one year ago. Under this "new" paradigm, we've been able to quickly release the most urgent bug fixes to our users so you can have them as soon as possible.
As Chris explained in his...
While open source projects are widely acknowledged to have strong technological underpinnings by both proponents and detractors, the latter will point out that the problem with open source software is you have to be a programmer to really get the benefits of open source. That has traditionally meant that 99.9% of the potential user base doesn't really get the biggest benefits. However, as open...
Ever thought about dipping a toe into this open source development business, but wondered where to start? Intimidated by the size and complexity of an ERP system?
Here's a suggestion: Browse or search the list of feature requests . There are over 1,000 of em that people have asked for over the years. Sure, some are big and hairy. But you might be surprised at how easy some others might...
It's time to let you in on something that a few xTuple customers have known about for years: we do custom work .
Yes, it's true. Over the years we've added all kinds of new features to xTuple ERP to meet specific customer needs.
Sometimes these enhancements were built as installable extension packages using our scripting tools. Things like a vehicle scheduling system, a...
There's been a flurry of product developments here at xTuple in recent months. I'm thinking about the release of xTuple 3.6, Email Integration in xTuple Connect, Project Accounting, the Fixed Assets packages, updates to Time and Expense, and the new Web Portal suite of products. I could go on.... At xTuple headquarters, we're of course running our own business on all the latest xTuple software...
We've been very busy here at xTuple as 2010 gave way to 2011. Just before Christmas, we quietly released xTuple 3.6.0; you can download both the all-in-one installer , or the binaries and databases separately, at Sourceforge .
Lots of great new features in this release, including loads of exciting user interface enhancements such as having autocomplete on all search clusters, the...
UPDATE: The release candidate of xTuple 3.6.0 is available for download (no installer yet, just binaries and databases).
We have really ramped up our efforts this year to increase the appeal and usability of the user interface. From the new Desktop and Quick Start Wizard , to improved search functionality we have focused efforts on making it easier to get started and use xTuple....
We tend to put a lot of emphasis on xTuple ERP here since that is clearly the most influential project we sponsor as indicated by its consistent #1 ranking on Source Forge (yes, that's right... #1 of over 240,000 projects). My recent kudos to the many xTuple contributors were focused almost exclusively on the PostBooks project. However, I also need to give praise where it is due to major...
One of my favorite quotes these days is from “ Sideshow ” by Sheri S. Tepper: “Evil comes from unchecked power.” Oracle's recent lawsuit against Google over their use of Java in the Android operating system is ample proof of this if there wasn't enough already in the world at large.
How does Oracle get away with this? Java is mostly open source, isn't it? Well, actually, software can...
It's easy for us full time developers to get sucked into blogging mostly about our own achievements in a release cycle. However, as an open source project I don't think we should neglect shining the spotlight on contributions from our community. After all, these are the people using the software in the real world and trying to solve real world problems with it. In fact well over 100...
We recently released version 3.5.2 of our xTuple ERP application. This release fixes a couple of discreet, yet significant , issues that were discovered after the 3.5.1 release was sent into production. While on the surface this release does not appear to be a significant departure from previous releases, it is. Our goal is to provide the best products and services possible and in order to do...
The Pentaho Data Integration tool is an extremely powerful open source tool for moving data from application to application. I use it for automating data transfer between various applications and databases. Why do things manually when you can automate
One of my current projects involved a requirement to upload exchange rates into xTuple's PostBooks application. This is a mundane task...
The xTuple Batch Manager package (xtbatch) is changing its name to xTuple Connect (xtconnect). The new name reflects the greatly expanded EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) capabilities that this package offers in the upcoming xTuple Connect 3.5.0 release.
A primary goal behind these changes was to build a completely automated order receipt and invoicing process. The companies that buy...
Everyone loves report writing and no one here at xTuple loves report writing more than Chris. As a matter of fact, he loves report writing so much, he has set it free and now report writing — by and large the customer requested report mods — reside under my 'Umbrella of Responsibility'.
So, I thought I'd share the wealth, and be the giver of "Free Milk" — if you will — by sharing some...
UPDATE: The final version of xTuple Desktop is available for download. Remember that the Desktop requires xTuple 3.5.1 or higher. You'll need the Updater to install the Desktop.
We got quite a bit of traffic on my initial blog of the forthcoming xTuple Desktop. xTuple 3.5.1 Beta has new been posted along with the beta package for the desktop. Download your copy today!
Yes, that...
A few weeks ago, three of us from xTuple went to the PG East conference in Philadelphia to talk with other people who use and maintain Postgres. xTuple has attended 3 years running. It's been a great event for developers and database administrators and we learn a lot by going. The tenor of this particular conference is changing, though. Each year the presentations have been getting more...