Are you an xTuple user who ever thought it would make sense to put something in that huge blank space below the toolbar? Yeah, I know you can put wall paper in there, but surely we can do better than that. Well, we've been thinking about it too. Read on to learn what's coming in the new "xTuple Desktop."
Thus far we have not put anything in the big blank space because if we do, it...
Users of the CRM tools in xTuple ERP version 3.5, which is currently in an RC release, will immediately notice something new in the xTuple client software. It's something we call "The Parameter Widget." That's our geeky way of saying "the tool that helps you find what you want."
We've put this new tool on two commonly used screens, the Incident Workbench and the Todo List. In the past...
xTuple ERP version 4.0 will include significant improvements to the user interface (see the xTuple Product Roadmap and xT3270 - A better user experience ). User interface consistency and source code maintainability will be improved by increasing the degree of code reuse throughout the application. This reuse will decrease the overall size of the application. This smaller application size has...
While considering the certain path of self destruction you are currently embarked on due to the cannibalistic frenzy in which you are consuming your limited planetary resources I was struck by a certain sadness when I realized how boring life in the Q Continuum is in the future without human drama to entertain me. So I have decided it is in your best interest for me to save you from yourselves...
The chart above shows the incredible results of our haxTuple bug derby. The orange line is the number of open bugs; the red line is the number of bugs fixed during the contest. As you can see, the lines crossed on the very last day of the contest - 324 bugs fixed, and just 313 remaining (out of over 10,000 over the life of the company).
A big part of the reason for this surge was our...
It's not too late to get in on the action for the haxTuple bug derby . Check out the impressive leaderboard on the left side of this page - there's a fierce battle for the iPad between two prolific community contributors, Alfredo Martinez and Scott Zuke. As they said in a really bad sci-fi movie once, "there can be only one."
But... there can be LOTS of other prizes, including free...
For several years now we've had a very large widget called the "Contact Cluster" that is used as the common interface to edit and search for contacts.
This device was implemented when CRM was introduced into xTuple in version 2.0. The idea was to preserve the previous look and feel of contact information which had been stored locally on each table but, with the introduction of CRM, was...
A software guy I know recently said that he prefers PHP to C++, something about C++ being "too fussy". I didn't comment at the time but the issue is an interesting one and is relevant to the haxTuple bug derby and xTuple application scripting.
The primary language for the xTuple ERP core is C++ while the language to use for xTuple extensions is JavaScript. The Developer Zone lists...
xTuple, creators of the leading open source ERP, accounting, and CRM system, is looking for a few good hackers. By "hackers," of course, we mean developers willing to get involved in source code. The classical use of the term .
Starting Monday, February 15, we'll be turning our internal development focus to fixing and resolving bugs - and we'd like to invite our ever-expanding...
We are proud to announce haxTuple - our second annual "bug derby," now underway. Check out the leaderboard in the left-hand navigation of this page.
From February 15th to March 8th, we will be obsessively fixated on resolving as many bugs as possible for the 3.5 release and we are inviting the greater xTuple community to join in.
There will be prizes for participating...
It's clear from the responses to my U and I Need to Talk post a couple months ago that the number one complaint of the community is keyboard navigation issues. This is actually a surprising revelation because having started out on character based systems myself I understand the benefits of keyboard navigation and spent years trying to convince windows users to work that way. All those efforts...
Have you ever considered compiling xTuple/PostBooks on Windows? Perhaps you tried to set up an environment for our last Bug Derby and ran into problems. Sometimes getting things to work correctly requires arcane rituals or absurdly ridiculous actions. Please don't ask me why I have a jellybean stuck to my forehead. It doesn't have to be that way, and I'm here to share my latest experiences...
We're happy to announce the final release of what started off as a minor update, and ended up as version 3.4.0 of xTuple ERP. It's available as an all-in-one installer for Windows, Linux, or Mac - in addition to the GUI client, you can also install the latest version of the xTuple Updater (required to update to 3.4), a new version of the OpenRPT report writer, the CSVimport tool, and of course...
As many of you know, we take great pride in the transparency of our development process. In the spirit of that approach, I'd like to draw your attention to the Drop Ship Purchasing specification currently being written for development in the 3.5 release of xTuple. This fairly large feature is sponsored by a sole user, but we are confident that it will bring significant value to the broader...
A couple of weeks ago I promised to talk about design bugs.
Simply put, a design bug is an error in thinking about how a problem should be solved. This is different from coding bugs, where the solution is basically correct but isn't written properly.
Here is a real example: Mantis issue 9632 (fixed for 3.5.0). The XML Import feature was designed to use the API Views . This...
I started to write a description of how to report bugs, but found that others have done a much better job than I could. Take a look at the following:
Simon Tatham's How to Report Bugs Effectively
http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php (written specifically for PHP but the general principles apply to any software you use).
With that out of the way, here's a...
If you've attempted any development on xTuple using scripting then you've probably found the debugging routine a bit tedious, to say the least. It has been mostly a manual process of reviewing the command line console for uncaught exceptions, and inserting try/catch blocks and print statements in your code to track down otherwise silent bugs. If you're running on Windows, it's all the worse...
If you follow the xTuple Product Roadmap at all you might notice that version 4.0 targeted for early 2010 is slated to offer significant user interface (UI) enhancements. The idea is add tools that help users learn how to use the system and find information quickly. We are looking for feedback from the community about what they would find most useful. Based on the feedback we get from day to...
Backups can be one of the most critical aspects of administering any database, and PostgreSQL is no exception. While the PostgreSQL database is very versatile and resilient, problems can happen. A power failure could occur at worst moment corrupting the database or the hard-drive could fail. You could also have problems with users, authorized or unauthorized, changing or destroying data, we...
One of the core principles of software usability is that an application must behave consistently. Otherwise the application can lead users into making errors. Something as simple as arranging buttons in a different order on different windows can cause confusion and frustration. So, if we xTuple developers know about the dangers of inconsistencies, why do they exist and why don't we fix them...