I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code

Going to py.codeconf

2011-07-27T16:28:00.000+01:00

The move to bitbucket

2011-06-04T05:59:00.000+01:00

Couple of weeks back, we (Varun, Shalabh and me) were back on a conference call discussing an issue we had ignored for over an year - source code hosting.

We have been using repository hosting for over an year. The platform is great, and the only real downtime was when the amazon data centers went down. However, the interface is ugly and is not friendly enough to visually follow, fork and merge - making it quite unintuitive for open source contributors. Hence, we decided to go with BitBucket (http://bitbucket.org) and it seems to be a great platform for collaboration.

However, one major issue that we hit was in "viewing issues assigned to the user from multiple projects/repositories". Bitbucket does not seem to have this trivial feature and tracking issues assigned to you on multiple repositories requires you to open each of the projects and check them manually for issues. Since bitbucket has a good API, we have made a workaround to this issue using a python script and you can find it here:

Hope someone finds it useful

"Can Open Source ERP Succeed?" - Response to Derek Singleton

2011-04-08T15:29:00.000+01:00

This is a response to the article here http://www.softwareadvice.com/articles/enterprise/can-open-source-erp-succeed-1012111/:

Dear Derek,

Great article and congrats for writing about a topic which usually receives less attention than it deserves. However, some of the arguments need further clarity atleast in terms of the concepts "free", "open", "fake open" etc. I prefer to use the following taxonomy mostly based on the work of Riehle (SAP Research):

1. Free (Source) Software
2. Open Source Software

Free software is a "social movement" or more of an "ethic" (which ensures the freedom to run software, to study and change it, and to redistribute copies with or without changes) while Open Source is only a "software development methodology" which produces high quality software and may not necessarily respect all the freedoms mentioned above. Again Open Source could be

  2.a Community Open Source

Community open source is software that a community owns and develops rather than a single corporation owning the software. This means that a broad community of volunteers determine which contributions are accepted into the source code base and the future direction of a project. Community opensource projects are usually free in both contexts of freedom and "free beer". Example Tryton (http://tryton.org), Adempiere etc

  2.b Commercial Open Source

Unlike community open source, commercial open source is software that a for-profit company owns, develops and also drives the direction of the project.

Riehle of SAP research argues that the key differentiator between community and commercial open source is whether a community or a single entity like a corporation holds the power to make decisions about a project. Example OpenERP (http://openerp.com), Openbravo etc. Commercial Opensource software may be free as in free beer (like OpenERP), with less featured community editions or with a dual license.

Your analysis and suggestions (on the article) seems applicable to Commercial OpenSource projects rather than Community Open Source projects. Community open source projects are neither sold nor do they attract traditional venture capital (Example: Tryton, Adempiere) and on the other hand Commercial opensource projects have dedicated marketing teams (which do sell) and they also attract traditional VC (Example: SugarCRM, OpenERP, openbravo).

And finally, the choice of "License" could also be considered as a factor of success (using the same scale of critical mass achieved used in the blog.). A reciprocal license might be a better choice for a community opensource project than a commercial opensource project since these licenses are more suitable for software which is "free" as in "free beer" (the usual case in community opensource). On the other hand commercial open source projects using a reciprocating license will experience a conflict of interest between the company behind the software (which is definitely for-profit) and its contributors (who are now expected to release everything for free). A recent example of this issue can be seen on this forum: http://www.openerp.com/forum/topic22169.html and such instances will chase away capitalists (who wanted to make money) and contributors (who find themselves at odds with the objectives of the company).

Open ERP UPS integration

2010-06-02T14:27:00.002+01:00

Open ERP now talks to UPS.....

Credits to the joint development of Open Labs Business Solutions and Publicus Solutions Ltd, London.

The shipping integration is now in its version 0.2 and used in production. The integration enables users to generate shipping labels for UPS from within Open ERP. It is also integrated to the Stock Picking and respects weights of products and packaging modes to generate the shipping labels.

A tutorial (based on screenshots) is here for you to check out. Further details are available at: http://openlabs.co.in/blog/post/open-erp-integration-ups/

Open ERP UPS integration

Official Partner Policy of Open ERP I rant about

2010-04-22T20:20:00.001+01:00

Partner brochure march 2010

The official partner policy of Open ERP I have been ranting about is here. Looking forward to know if its only me who has this opinion! This is ridiculously funny for what I understand and insulting to every community member.

It forgets all the contributors and talks only commercials
It takes integrator life as easy
Can you explain "Loyalty"?

The document says: "OpenERP might terminate a partnership in case, he is aware of disloyal behavior from a partner..."

I hope this is my last rant about Open ERP... I now believe that Open ERP will be served on demand (when my customer is particular he needs Open ERP) else we recommend tryton for business application.

Bye Bye Open ERP... Time for Tryton!

Regret the contributions the community make for Open ERP and you clone into your package claiming ownership ... Pity! I urge my friends in the community to keep your watch on Tryton..

History repeats itself, and Open ERP definitely looks to me like they are going the compiere way...

Why Openlabs is not an Open ERP Partner?

2010-04-20T17:23:00.001+01:00

This article has already been published in our company blog at: www.openlabs.co.in/blog/post/why-openlabs-not-open-erp-partner/

However I thought I log a copy of it here in my personal blog for the many Open ERP users who dont follow us in our site.

We wish to explain our position on this question through this official statement.

The Partnership according to OpenERP SA, the editor of Open ERP helps in selling and integrating Open ERP. Openlabs with a portfolio of proven work on Open ERP including our Poweremail, Magento-ERP-Integration and several other modules does not need an introduction or a page on the editor's site to prove legitimacy. Openlabs business model is NOT characterised by heavy marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisations) or partnerships but by long lasting customer relationship and trust.

The partnership costs

The partnership with Open ERP SA is based on a fee and needs to be renewed annually. These funds are utilised by the editor of the software for the improvement of the product and service offering. However powered by an extremely skilled and innovative workforce we believe that we could utilise these funds for the betterment of Open ERP. Open Labs continues to maintain the Open Source modules that are made for Open ERP, which will be done by the editor only through a certification which costs a minimum of 800 EUR/Module. (Details of certification are here: http://openerp.com/buy.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=openerp.tpl&product_id=18&category_id=6)

Free community initiatives

Open Labs always maintains a community presence and has a fund allocated for community support through which our skilled engineers and specialists assists developers, integrators and end-users with their problems. Open Labs also fixes bugs and offers support for free (Our support policy is explained here:www.openlabs.co.in/blog/post/support/). It costs us every time our engineers spend time on an issue or question posted by a customer and we believe that spending on supporting new users of Open Source is better than any type of marketing.

Subsidised or Free trainings for students in India and Linux user groups

Our faith in Open Source does not end at preaching on websites - we practise it. We started offering students of engineering colleges in India subsidised training at a cost less than 175 EUR (Incl refreshments) for a 2 week fulltime training. We believe that such initiatives would be more fruitful than false marketing propaganda. We also assist students in settings up Free Software User Groups and we ensure that every Open Labs employee is also an active Free software enthusiast.

New Partner policies

The new partner policy announced by Open ERP SA can be summarised as follows:

To be a partner of Open ERP and get listed in the website you need to pay a partner registration fee
You are assigned a target to generate revenue for Open ERP. Our sources say it is 20000 EUR and 40000 EUR respectively for Silver and Gold partnerships.
This revenue could be generated by outsourcing back to Open ERP for development and purchasing maintenance and support for customer projects.

This is bad for the following reasons:

We believe that this limits the innovation in the product to the development centers of Open ERP SA and hence the project will lose the active growth it gained all these years. (It would be too naive of anybody to believe that what Open ERP is today is just the work of Open ERP SA.)
These costs are passed on to the customers by partners and such prices can NEVER be borne by many of our customers who are located in developing countries.

We are open to your feedback and we welcome your suggestions. Do email us about your opinions, suggestions and issues.

My madness for a new Open ERP API

2010-02-28T19:22:00.002Z

Working on our new project (e-commerce for Open ERP), I am trying to figure out how to make life easy for presentation layer people (In lay man english: Designers & Template makers).

I figured that template inheritance (though sounds messy) will be a cool feature ;-) Just like Open ERP view inheritance, or probably the same.

As my friend Raphael pointed out sometime in a tweet, 'self.pool.get('class')' is not the 'nice' way to access any API and the lack of search_read makes it suck more :P. (Hats off to tryton!! they already have a search_read). (I understand something innovative was implemented in ruby/rails for OOOR but blame my ruby skills!)

Its not definitely easy for new users to use the un-pythonized (sounds like uncivilized??) way of our API, hence I am experimenting new ways of doing this... may be it works only for the e-commerce platform because useful objects are cached! (Django guys if you find this similar, I am a django programmer too... there could be similarities ;-))

Here is a sample straight from my terminal:

>>> from open_e_sale.models.catalog import *

>>> Product.objects.all()
[<Onsite Senior Intervention>, <Onsite Intervention>, <Basic PC>, <Basic+ PC (assembly on order)>, <Medium PC>, <Customizable PC>, <Mainboard ASUStek A7N8X>, <Mainboard ASUStek A7V8X-X>, <Processor AMD Athlon XP 1800+>, <Processor AMD Athlon XP 2200+>, <HDD Seagate 7200.8 80GB>, <HDD Seagate 7200.8 120GB>, <HDD Seagate 7200.8 160GB>, <Regular case fan 80mm>, <Silent fan>, <Regular processor config>, <DDR 256MB PC400>, <DDR 512MB PC400>, <High speed processor config>, <ATX Mid-size Tower>, <HDD on demand>, <RAM on demand>, <Processor on demand>, <Complete PC With Peripherals>, <Keyboard>, <Mouse>, <Kit Keyboard + Mouse>, <Advance Product>, <Delivery by Poste>]

>>> Product.objects.filter(id=24)

[<Complete PC With Peripherals>]

>>> Product.objects.filter(name__contains="PC")

[<Basic PC>, <Basic+ PC (assembly on order)>, <Medium PC>, <Customizable PC>, <DDR 256MB PC400>, <DDR 512MB PC400>, <Complete PC With Peripherals>]

>>> Product.objects.filter(name__contains="PC").filter(name__contains="DDR")
[<DDR 256MB PC400>, <DDR 512MB PC400>]

>>> p = Product.objects.filter(name="Basic PC")[0]
>>> p
<Basic PC>

>>> p.name,p.id,p.code

('Basic PC', 3, 'PC1')

Querysets return Querysets and Query sets are lazy!!

Please send me your feedback and suggestions!

Password Reset and Credentials by email in Open ERP

2009-12-24T04:03:00.000Z

First extension for Power Email, a module to reset a different users password, or send his password to his mail has been built and committed to stable_5.0 addons branch.

The module name is 'ol_password_reset' (Check code here)

Objectives:

Ability to reset password (to random alphanumeric string) of different user.
Ability to send the credentials of a user to his email ID.

Implementation (How to use?):

This module uses poweremail to reset and/or send the password to a system user

A new wizard 'Reset Password' and 'Send Credentials' will appear in the Administration menu

How to use?

Step 1: This module is dependent on Poweremail and will install poweremail if available.
Step 2: Create a new Power email company account from which password mails are to be sent(minimum SMTP) and approve it. (Note: Ensure that the security groups are only admins or all users will see the password mail)
Step 3: Edit the Email templates created by this module from Poweremail > Email Templates and Enforce the created account in the advanced tab.

Now you can start using the 'Reset Password' and 'Send Password' Wizards in Administration.
The screens will ask for the user whose password is to be reset and current user's password.

Sharoon Thomas
Openlabs Business Solutions

Please do send your feedback.
"As OpenERP is OpenSource, please feel free to contribute."

My first proposals for framework team (Updated with community feedback)

2009-12-07T19:26:00.001Z

A. Strict PEP style guide compliance (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/)
* code is read much more often than it is written. - GVR. So we need to focus more on readability

~~Indentation: Use Tab only (No Space) + Each tab should be 4 spaces. (Some older editors have 8 spaces per tab. Note: editors=>vi/vim etc. not people :-P)~~
Use spaces.
Blank Lines: Method definitions inside a class to be separated by a single blank line.
Code separation & Line length: Adviced line length less than 80 (=79). In context of Open ERP split selection field, selection value tuplets into multiple lines. (This helps with version control too).
import statement. Imports must be on separate lines. Imports are always put at the top of the file, just after any module comments and docstrings, and before module globals and constants.Imports should be grouped in the following order:

1. standard library imports (time, datetime, os etc) 2. related third party imports (mako, relatario etc) 3. local application/library specific imports (osv, fields, external_osv etc)

Comments that contradict the code are worse than no comments. Always make a priority of keeping the comments up-to-date when the code changes!

Comments should be complete sentences. If a comment is a phrase or sentence, its first word should be capitalized, unless it is an identifier that begins with a lower case letter (never alter the case of identifiers!).

For docstrings we might follow this PEP: http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/

_single_leading_underscore: For on_change methods, methods of function fields, methods to populate selection fields and methods on view buttons. Also for methods which should not be called directly. (weak "internal use" indicator. E.g. "from M import *" does not import objects whose name starts with an underscore.)
   - single_trailing_underscore_: used by convention to avoid conflicts with Python keyword, e.g.

   Eg: Tkinter.Toplevel(master, class_='ClassName')

   - __double_leading_underscore: when naming a class attribute, invokes name

   mangling (inside class FooBar, __boo becomes _FooBar__boo; see below).
   - __double_leading_and_trailing_underscore__: "magic" objects or attributes that live in user-controlled namespaces.

   E.g. __init__, __import__ or __file__. Never invent such names; only use them as documented.
Open ERP module names: Modules should have short, all-lowercase names. Underscores can be used in the module name if it improves readability.
Open ERP module versions : <<Can somebody who knows explain this>>
Exception Names : Because exceptions should be classes, the class naming convention applies here. However, you should use the suffix "Error" on your exception names (if the exception actually is an error).
Note: Open ERP has a lot of this: Line 880 in orm.py : raise _('The read method is not implemented on this object !') is wrong. This returns a string to method because _ in tools.translate return string. String exceptions are forbidden in py 2.6 and above.
When raising an exception, use "raise osv_except(name,value,exception_type)" instead of the older form "raise ValueError, 'message'"
Function names should be lowercase, with words separated by underscores as necessary to improve readability.
Constants: Constants are usually declared on a module level and written in all capital letters with underscores separating words. Examples include MAX_OVERFLOW and TOTAL.
Designing for inheritance: Decide if class attributes must be public or not. If unsure make then non public by leading underscores. In Open ERP context only methods you might call by self.pool.get('xyz').method should have no trailing underscores Eg. method in function field can be non-public function _get_prod_price and this function may call a public function get_price
Code should be written in a way that does not disadvantage other implementations of Python. Eg. Avoid use of mx datetime (has been delaying oo_jython project for quite sometime) Do you have a list of what to use and what not ? -- C Simonis
I think the community needs to propose modules they know that dont work with jython etc --Sharoon
Comparisons to singletons like None should always be done with 'is' or 'is not', never the equality operators. So if x==None is wrong, use x is None

Can a (python) script beautify the code? -- Ferdinand

B) xml coding
* write comments !!!
* split complex modules into many xml files
* using xmllint - just the question - IMHO 2 is better than 4 for readability

--format
Reformat and reindent the output. The XMLLINT_INDENT environment variable
controls the indentation. The default value is two spaces " ").

* structure (1. try)
** tree
** form
** graph
** calendar
* menu
* action

Community: Please add/modify/suggest more conventions

Reference:
Python Style Guide essay: GVR: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Python_Style_Guide
PEP8

Open ERP Sales force integration

2009-12-02T00:30:00.000Z

Open ERP talk to sales force.

Thanks to the work we (Raphael and me) did on base_external_referential, I have committed to trunk-extra-addons a simple Sales Force Integration module.

The module works similar to magento and uses the base_external_referentials for mapping management in open ERP. For the web services communication it uses the py-ax module available at: https://launchpad.net/pyax

How to use:

First install the pyax python module (library) (Use python setup.py install after downloading pyax from launchpad at bzr branch lp:pyax)
Ensure that base_external_referentials is installed (Available at stable-addons)
After installing the Sales Force module you will see a new Menu and open Sales Force Configuration

Give the instance a name
Enter the API username & Password (Password should include security token ie. if password is pass and security token is IaxW34v then the password should be pass IaxW34v)
Click on reload referential Mappings

Now open sales force tools and you can see the two buttons for Importing Sales force accounts (open ERP Partners) and Sales force contacts (Open ERP partner contacts)

The module is immature and is under development. Please feel free to contribute.

Send your suggestions and ideas to me

Sharoon Thomas

Business Analyst & Open ERP Consultant

Time for something new....

2009-11-29T14:50:00.001Z

The last time I wrote anything in the context of Open ERP was about Power e-mail. Power email is now widely accepted and used in production systems and slowly but steadily getting mature. Definitely there is a long way to go for it to be the true Power email i wished it would be. Anyhow this time I am writing to talk about an expirimental project I am going to start...

When building the interface for integrating Open ERP with magento, I realised that the best of breed approach, is ideal to talk but difficult to implement. (I hear about it so much in Manchester Business School). I sometimes think that if me and my friend Raphael had spent the same time, we could have developed a web based ecommerce platform for Open ERP. Anyhow, my friend is too busy to be disturbed about this thought.... But I am going to give it a try. (Raphael in addtition to maintaining his company, the connector and a host of other community initiatives, is now in the process of reorganising the huge community behind Tiny (editor of Open ERP). He spends a day every week for getting this done... )

I have already seen a minimal implementation of e-commerce for Open ERP, but never really anything productive and allowing templating and designing. May be in this project I might spend my time on something useless, but I had this same feeling when I wrote version 0.1 of Poweremail.

For those who might be thinking 'Why not spend your time on making the connector better ?', my answer is 'I believe as of this day, this hour Open ERP needs its own e-commerce platform'. Just cannot bother to keep updating the connector everytime magento has an update. (The new design is extremely agile and changes involve mostly an update in csv only)

Now coming to the features: Like Guido Van Rossum said about python, I am not afraid of stealing good ideas from elsewhere and with regard to this I think i have plenty of softwares to check and copy from.

Anyhow the core experiment will use cherrypy3, mako (my favourite) and xml-rpc/NETRPC connection to Open ERP server. The e-commerce platform will work more or less like the web client in such lines. Theres no separate database for the e-commerce platform. All data will be fetched real-time from the Open ERP server.

All your feedback is required and appreciated for this project to be a success if it has to.

Please comment here, or send your feedback to :

Sharoon Thomas
sharoon.thomas (at) openlabs.co.in
Open ERP Developer & Business Analyst
Student at Manchester Business School

A retreat

2009-11-15T22:12:00.000Z

Something has changed....

Today when I write this...
I don't need rationale any more to believe what I would have dubbed as 'ideas from a hidden agenda'

My faith is now re-established....

Don't feel like writing any more... back to prayers, faith ... back to god.... and that's what this 'retreat' did to me. Felt like writing this down... what better place than my blog to do that ?

Back to Jesus, after months of wandering out of curiosity... end of my search on noetic sciences, masons, secrets and Dan Brown... I am back to my church..

Poweremail for Open ERP

2009-09-16T18:36:00.000+01:00

What is Power Email?

Power Email is a 'Power'full email system integrated into Open ERP and works like any other module for Open ERP. The beauty of power email is the fact that it has a generic architecture, means its compatible with all existing modules of Open ERP and all future modules as well.

What is the difference with SMTP Client?

No doubt, SMTP client is a powerful feature of Open ERP, but as its tagline goes it is 'A great feature for Tiny Developers'. When you require coding to integrate emails using the SMTP client, poweremail can be used without a single line of code. Design your templates from the frontend and simply start mailing.

Can I do mass mailing?

Yes, you can select multiple records and click on the action for sending your email and all your mails are generated and sent to the outbox. You can thus select your partners and send them personalised mass mails or even send all your invoices in a single click.

How do I install poweremail?

Just download the latest version of module from https://launchpad.net/poweremail/+download to your addons location. Update your modules list and simply install the module.

For the developer: The project is completely managed at launchpad. I recommend you to have the latest tip always. Branch: lp:poweremail/poweremailtrunk

Ok, how do i configure Power Email to send & receive mails?

Poweremail can be used in three simple steps:

Defining your email accounts.
Defining templates
Send mails!!
Receive mails

Step 1: Defining your email accounts.

After installing the module open the menu option (Power Email > Configuration > All account).
Create a new record and give a name for your account.
The account configuration is to be done for incoming & outgoing respectively.Specify the settings in the first tab and click on 'Check Outgoing Connection' to verify the settings. If your settings are succesful Open ERP will give you the alert 'Test Connection was successful'.
Select your mail format: You can choose to send mails in Plain Text (for mobile mail readers & older clients), HTML (Accepted by all new mail readers & browsers), Or, Both (More combatibility).
After all the settings have been made your screen will look like:
A note about 'Company Mail A/c': Company mail accounts are of type 'sales@yourdomain.com' etc which you use for commercial purposes. Only such accounts can be used for the automatic emails etc. However power email also provides a provision for your employees to use their personal mails in the ERP system itself.
The settings for mail sending are now complete. Lets now configure incoming mail.
The incoming mail accounts may be of type POP3 or IMAP. After the settings have been configured you can test your settings just as with the outgoing mail server.
A note about IMAP: When IMAP accounts are used, it is mandatory to select a 'Folder' or 'Label' in gmail terms.
Below screen shot gives the example of how i configured my account using IMAP:

Approval of Accounts:
Any user of the system can create email accounts but before they can start using their accounts it needs to be approved. Approval is done by admins who have the role of 'Power Email Administrator'.
If there are no approved accounts in the system the send mail feature will either fail to load or return an error asking you to choose accounts.

Step 2: Defining templates

The process of defining templates is used to configure email for a specific model. The process is generic for all modules and the example shown is for a simple quotation mail system (Email a quotation when its confirmed).

1.Name of Template : Enter a name eg.Quotation (The wizard button will be automatically called Quotation Mail Form)
2.Model : The object for which you are defining the template (Eg Sale Order [sale.order])
3.To/CC/BCC: These fields are self explanatory and are again computed fields, meaning you can have an expression and the expression would be evaluated. For example, you want your quotation to be sent to the customers email. For that we use the expression builder (Refer to next section for usage of expression builder) and chose 'Shipping Address' as our Field, Then 'E-Mail' as our sub field and 'No Email' as Null Value. The expression will be computed as '${object.partner_shipping_id.email or 'No Email'}'.
4.Subject : Subject of your email eg: 'Quotation: ${object.name or 'Ord No'} dated: ${object.date_order}'
5.File Name pattern: This pattern can also be computed using expressions and your attached report filename(If any) will be using the pattern you specify.
6.Report to send : You can also choose one report from the reports of the model, which will be generated along with your mail. (Future versions will support multiple attachments).
7.Standard Body : Your emails are sent as Mime multipart alternative, meaning a text & html version are sent simultaneously (For increased combatibility). You are hence allowed to have a text body and a html body. However the HTML body can be edited only using the Web Client as the GTK-Client currently does not have a HTML widget.

Screenshots:

Using Expression builder:

The expression builder is used to generate placeholders for creating templates.
Inserting Simple Fields:
- Select a field in the model you have selected
- Sub field option will be open if the selected field is relational
- Null Value is the value if the selected field is empty
- The expression thus generated can be dragged and dropped (in Linux) or copied and pasted into your computed fields.
Inserting Tables:
- Select the Table field for which you want to display table. (Only applicable for one2many and many2many fields)
- Add the fields you want to display and you will have automatically generated HTML Mako code which you can use in your HTML body
Preview Feature:
- You can preview all mails in the template designer itself by clicking the 'Preview Template' button. The wizard will suggest the possible existing records you can preview.

Some sample template:

For text body (Sale Order):

Dear ${object.partner_order_id.title or ' '} ${object.partner_order_id.name or 'Customer'},

We thank you for your enquiry. Please find attached herewith a document in PDF format, which contains your detailed quotation. The product(s) you had enquired were:

% for o in object.order_line:
${o.name}\t
%endfor

Thanks & Regards,

${object.user_id.name or 'Sales Team'}
For HTML body (Sale Order):

<p>
Dear ${object.partner_order_id.title or ' '} ${object.partner_order_id.name or 'Customer'},
<br />
We thank you for your enquiry. Please find attached herewith a document in PDF format, which contains your detailed quotation. The product(s) you had enquired were:</p>
<p>
<table border="1">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Description</td>
<td>Net Price</td>
<td>Quantity (UoM)</td>
</tr>
%for o in object.order_line:
<tr>
<td>${o.name}</td>
<td>${o.price_net}</td>
<td>${o.product_uom_qty}</td>
</tr>
%endfor
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
<p><br />Thanks & Regards,<br /><br />${object.user_id.name or 'Sales Team'}</p>

Sending Mails:

A new wizard button will now appear along with the templated model (Quotation Mail Form for Sale Order).
An action is also available in the list view which can be used for mass mailing in case of multiple records or even individual mails.
You can simply click the button and a new compose window will popup where you can see an already drafted mail.
Click on 'Save to drafts' to save to the mailbox or 'Send Now'.
The 'Send Now' button will save the mail to outbox which will be periodically cleared by the Power Email Scheduler.

Auto Emails:

Auto emails is made possible through the powerful Server Action feature of Open ERP. But, power email makes it easier for you by automatically managing the server action part for you.
Enable Auto email check box and select the workflow, then the stage/activity during which the mail has to be sent. Power email will automatically create a server action for sending mail.

A sample send mail preview from the Web Client:

Sending Mails :

All emails before sending are in Outbox and after sending in Sent Items. Open any item and click on send now to override the scheduler and send the mail immediately. All outbox messages are sent periodically by a scheduler.

Receiving Mails:

Mails are periodically downloaded by a scheduler automatically. However if you would like to override and do a send receive manually, click on the send/receive button in the email account definition page.

Sharoon Thomas,
creator and main contributor of Power Email for Open ERP.

Important links for collaborating in the project are here:

Hosted location: http://launchpad.net/poweremail
Downloads : http://launchpad.net/poweremail/+download
Bug tracking & reporting: http://bugs.launchpad.net/poweremail/+bugs
Questions: http://launchpad.net/poweremail/+addquestion
Translations: https://translations.launchpad.net/poweremail

Open ERP Server Actions

2009-09-09T03:55:00.000+01:00

Server actions is one of the most powerful features of Open ERP (but poorly documented i should say). I am trying here to explain the Server Actions in open ERP to my best.

Server Actions, are used to trigger one or more actions to be performed on the server side, when a specific stage of a workflow is reached.

Eg.

When a Sales Order is approved add it to history of customer.
When a Sales Invoice is confirmed, mail to customer.
When a CRM case is closed, popup a window on client side for summary of interaction/ feedback etc.

To create a server action goto: Administration>>Customization>>Actions>>Server Actions.

Steps in Creation:

Step 1: Definition of Server Action

Action Name: As obvious as the name is
Object: The object/model from which the server action will be triggered. Eg. Sale Order
Action Type: More on this later as each case will be handled.
Sequence: Used when Action Type is multi actions, where a series of actions will occur in the order of sequence.
Condition: A single line python condition. eg. if you want to send sms alerts whenever a voucher of more than 5000 occurs. object.amount>5000. If there are no conditions, you must give True for the execution.
Action Type Specific Tab: Here i will explain each action type in detail

Dummy: A dummy stage does nothing. (God knows why its there..)
Client Action: You Can select a form to Open, a wizard to run or a report to launch. Select the report from the list.
Iteration: Based on a python loop expression, you can iterate server actions, eg: When a stock inward move occurs and you confirm it, you want each line item to be historised.. you can loop on expression object.move_lines and create another server action which is referred to do the historising job.
Python Code: you can execute a multiline python code. the returned value is the value of the variable action = {}. This makes sense only if you want to pop a specific window(form) specific to the context. IMHO you wont need a return value. Note: The code is executed using the exec function of python, which is run in the dictionary namespace with variables: object,time,cr,uid,ids
Trigger: Any transition of the workflow can be triggered using this. The options you need to set are. Workflow Model: The target object on which you want to trigger the workflow. 'Trigger on' field should have the ID of the target model record. Eg have the ID of invoice if you want to trigger a change in invoice. 'Trigger Name' is the signal you have to use to initiate the transition. The drop down lists all possible triggers. Note:Trigger Name list shows all possible transitions from ther models also, so ensure you select the right trigger. Models are given in bracket.
Email: Set an email address, Subject & message. You need to configure the Open ERP builting smtpserver for this. Power email, a generic email architecture for Open ERP can be used for emailing as it offers a lot more features and automated emails (no messing with server actions required). Its available at: http://launchpad.net/poweremail and downloads at http://launchpad.net/poweremail/+download
SMS: Choose mobile no. eg: [[ object.shipping_address.mobile ]] and the subject.
Create Object: This is used to create a new record in any model, when the server action is triggered. The historise feature discussed can be implemented using this. Field mappings are used to give value for fields in record. Lets try an example of creating events for sale order.

Destination: Target field for which you are assigning value: eg. partner_id
Type: Formula is evaluated using eval and value is directly applied
Value/formula: if value just enter it. For partner id the formula willl be object.partner_id (refers to partner_id in sale order). Refer to screen shots for more, note that step two has to be completed for actions to run. These screenshots are here only to help understanding. Also note that there is no need of [[]] in formulas. fromulas are directly evaluated.
Create id: you can choose the field to which the ID of the newly created record has to be saved. In history this is not necessary, however if you have a m2o relationship and want to keep the ID then this is useful

Write Object: Similar to create object except that it is used to modify an existing record identified by the write_id. If you are updating a record you previously created in the create, then the same field for create id can be used for write id.
Multi actions: as explained in the context of sequence, you can create multiple server actions and call them one by one in the order of their sequences.

Step 2: Mapping Server actions to workflows

Server actions by themselves are useless, until used with a workflow stage which can trigger it.

Workflows can be accessed at: Administration >> Customization >> Workflow Definitions >> Workflows

Open the corresponding workflow, and open the stage during which the server action needs to be triggered.

Select the server action in the box.

The above screen shots were taken when the router stage of the workflow was attached to the server action created. A screen shot here:

Step 3: Sit back and relax... your server action is done.

Test it by creating a new sale order and confirming it. The history event will appear in Partners.

Errno 39 when bazaar pushing on Launchpad

2009-08-22T16:35:00.000+01:00

This error normally caused when a break occurs in the push operation, can be easily broken using a bzr-break command.

Usage:

Step 1:

bzr break-lock sftp://user@bazaar.launchpad.net/~full location

Bazaar will ask you for a confirmation to break lock. Confirm by pressing 'Y'

Step 2:

Now simply push like before

Up with my new BSNL EVDO card

2009-08-12T12:19:00.000+01:00

Up with some great news.... I have my all new BSNL EVDO data card...

Trust me it has awesome speed and the best part of everything seems to be the easiness with which it got installed in ubuntu... I love Ubuntu....

This is how i set it up ...

STEP I Find The Modem, Vendor and ProdID
cat /proc/bus/usb/devices
S a m p l e
cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

P: Vendor=05c6 ProdID=6000 Rev= 0.00
S: Manufacturer=ZTE, Incorporated
S: Product=ZTE CDMA Tech

Note: the above command will give a list of devices connected.
Please Find your device and its Vendor and ProdID

OR directly grep it
cat /proc/bus/usb/devices | grep Vendor

will give the Lines with word "Vendor" only
These are the lines significant in my case

 cat /proc/bus/usb/devices | grep Vendor
 P:  Vendor=05c6 ProdID=6000 Rev= 0.00


OR use command

 lsusb


 lsusb
 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 05c6:6000 Qualcomm, Inc.

Using any of the above three you can find your EVDO modem - Vendor and ProdID

Vendor=05c6
ProdID=6000

STEP II Detect the modem using modprobe

Now use modprob to detect the modem

modprobe usbserial vendor=0x05c6 product=0x6000

Note : REMEMBER to add "0X" before your Vendor/ProdID
if Vendor=05c6 on modrpobe vendor=0x05c6
if ProdID=6000 on modrpobe product=0x6000

After Command 'modprobe' Plug the EVDO Modem to your USB port

STEP III Plug in modem and see whether it has been found by using dmesg

check the debug message using command 'dmesg'

dmesg | tail

usbserial_generic 1-3:1.0: generic converter detected
usb 1-3: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0
usbserial_generic 1-3:1.1: generic converter detected
usb 1-3: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB1
usbserial_generic 1-3:1.2: generic converter detected
usb 1-3: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB2

from the above dmesg command, you can find the modem device
now your modem Device is ttyUSB0

STEP IV Install dialer "wvdial" if it is not already installed
use command "wvdial" for connecting to internet
if 'wvdial' not install, install using command

apt-get install wvdial

(Sorry I have to assume that you already have a net connection or some how get wvdial from your friendly open source neighbour

(You can download wvdial from http://open.nit.ca/download/wvdial-1.54.0.tar.gz

or ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/w/wvdial/wvdial_1.54.0.orig.tar.gz)

STEP V Configure /etc/wvdial.conf to put phone number, user name and passowrd
then use command 'wvdialconf' for configuring wvdial

edit the file /etc/wvdial.conf to add phonenumber, username and passwd using command 'gedit /etc/wvdial.conf'

gedit /etc/wvdial.conf

eg:
[Dialer Defaults]
Stupid Mode = on
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 9216000
Init = ATZ

Phone = #777
Username = XXXXXXXXXX
Password = XXXX
New PPPD = yes

note: BSNL User's Please check your username start with your STD code

Ernakulam(Kerala, India) user STD code - 0484
The username should be 4842345678

STEP VI Connect to Internet
Connect to Internet

use command wvdial

wvdial

now you are connected to internet :)

STEP VII How to detect modem automatically at start up

We can put modprobe in startup by adding
'usbserial vendor=0x05c6 product=0x6000' to file "/etc/modules"

gedit /etc/modules
usbserial vendor=0x05c6 product=0x6000

After this you can just plug the modem to USB and use command 'wvdial' to connect to internet

note: to run 'wvdial' as normal user, need privilege to use modem

for that go to menu (gnome)

Desktop -> Administration - > Users and Group

select the user from list and press "Properties", will pop the Properties window

go to "User Privileges" tab and
Select the option 'Connect to internet using a modem" and click OK

now this user can use command 'wvdial' to connect to internet

I found this easy to use tutorial at:http://legreensolutions.com/How-to-install-EVDO-on-Debian-GNU-Linux-or-Ubuntu.html

Magento open ERP synchro

2009-08-11T19:12:00.001+01:00

Back to the connector...........

Working on a Magento Open ERP connector, as i guessed requires not just the Open ERP side of things but frankly large amount of logical bridging and dirty (i thought so) magento side API development. After a few hours of PHP, a language I have never set foot on, I am now finally up with a few core API's, which I strongly beleive must have been shipped with the core API offered by magento.

However I just realised, API development for magento is much simpler than what i thought, but some concerns over the speed. The API now built for magento 'websites' and 'stores' are available on launchpad.

The methods implemented are:

ol_websites.create
ol_websites.list
ol_websites.update
ol_websites.info

ol_stores.create
ol_stores.list
ol_stores.update
ol_stores.info

Everything sounds simple... but what are the filters available to be used by the varien code? Thanks to google again... i go the answer here.

The filters are:




















Parameters you can pass to a Magento API filter
from returns rows that are after this value (datetime only)
to returns rows that are before this value (datetime only)
eq returns rows equal to this value
neq returns rows not equal to this value
like returns rows that match this value (with % as a wildcard)
nlike returns rows that do not match this value (with % as a wildcard)
in returns rows where the value is in this array (pass an array in)
nin returns rows where the value is not in this array (pass an array in)
is unsure
null returns rows that are null
notnull returns rows that are not null
moreq unsure
gt returns rows greater than this value
lt returns rows less than this value
gteq returns rows greater than or equal to this value
lteq returns rows less than or equal to this value
finset unsure

Parameters you can pass to a Magento API filter
from	returns rows that are after this value (datetime only)
to	returns rows that are before this value (datetime only)
eq	returns rows equal to this value
neq	returns rows not equal to this value
like	returns rows that match this value (with % as a wildcard)
nlike	returns rows that do not match this value (with % as a wildcard)
in	returns rows where the value is in this array (pass an array in)
nin	returns rows where the value is not in this array (pass an array in)
is	unsure
null	returns rows that are null
notnull	returns rows that are not null
moreq	unsure
gt	returns rows greater than this value
lt	returns rows less than this value
gteq	returns rows greater than or equal to this value
lteq	returns rows less than or equal to this value
finset	unsure

I guess thats all whats up for now.... shall update this blog as i go on with my development.

Long time since this page has been like this..... the connector is out BTW and a tutorial is here: http://openlabs.co.in/blog/post/open-erp-magento-integration-new/

Power email for Open ERP

2009-07-25T08:36:00.001+01:00

An age where 'email centric' is the buzz word in business, Open ERP, the powerful and FREE business management solution deserved a better email management tool. A little search takes you to the built-in SMTP client and smtpclient module in extra-addons.

However the modules though useful, are not powerful enough to drive a modern day business, where automated emails are sent for every transaction to monthly statements and what not. This motivated me to build a generic email client for Open ERP and I started drafting plans for a powerful email client for Open ERP and we started the work on 'Power Email'.

The target features were:

Fully powered SMTP client with unlimited email accounts for sending mails. Hence the concept of email for every user.
Multiple Templates for each module/object and auto email features based on workflow. The templates should be built from frontend. Hence build an expression builder which easily puts placeholders which easily replace
Reception of Email from IMAP4 & POP3 supporting servers.
Relating specific accounts for CRM sections (Eg. generate tickets for all mails to support@yourdomain.com).

The project has been kickstarted and we have already released a beta 0.1 release. The project code is published free under GPL and installs as a module in Open ERP.

As of today the development is focused on Open ERP version 5.0.1.0.

The project, since completely managed in launchpad, has its complete development history and various versions, including blueprints available at:

http://launchpad.net/poweremail

Please do post your comments & feedback on the module. You are also welcome to contribute to the project. only condition being: YOU MUST RELEASE THE CODE ALSO FREE.

Update 1 [Saturday, August 22 2009]: Power Email BETA 0.5 has been released. Download with users manual from http://launchpad.net/poweremail/+download

Micro$oft: You've got questions, we've got dancing paperclips

2009-07-25T08:26:00.001+01:00

2009-05-21T04:46:00.000+01:00

Open ERP Server/Web Server as a service (Deamon)
This is tested on Ubuntu ServerDesktop 8.04 32/64 only

Its a common question from many of my clients on how to run Open ERP as a service or Deamon.

For the newbies: Installing a Service/Deamon, starts the program with the system, (you need not manually start your open ERP server / Web Server).

Step 1:

Check out the startup shell scripts from launchpad.

The startup scripts are located at

bzr branch lp:~sharoonthomas/+junk/startupscript

Step 2:

There are three startup scripts in the folder, for Open ERP Server, Web server and the LAMPP.

Edit the scripts and set the open ERP locations.
By default the locations are:

/opt/openerp/openerp-web-5.0.0-3.1/ for the web server

and

/opt/openerp/openerp-server-5.0.0-3/bin for the Open ERP server.

The second task to be changed is the user.

The user has to be a system user who has access to postgres database.

Step 3

Change the credentials permanently for open ERP server.
For this open /bin/tools/config.py in your favorite Text editor and set the db_user & db_password.

If you need to change any other settings like port numbers, db_host etc. change them. remember to put the username and password (String Literals in quotes)

Example:

'db_user': 'postgres',

'db_password': 'postgres',

Save the file and try starting open ERP server manually (./openerp-server.py). Try connecting from a client also and if everything works fine move to next step.

Step 4:

Copy the scripts to the /etc/init.d/ folder (Tested on Ubuntu 8.04 only)

Now the scripts have to be made executable.

move to the folder /etc/init.d/ and then change access permissions

Use

chmod 755 openerp-server.sh
chmod 755 openerp-web.sh

Your script is now ready and the servers can be started by the commands:

/ect/init.d$ openerp-server.sh start
/ect/init.d$ openerp-web.sh start

If there are no errors reported then the scripts can be loaded to the startup.

Now to add these two scripts to the startup (to start along with system) use.

sudo update-rc.d openerp-server.sh defaults
sudo update-rc.d openerp-web.sh defaults

please page back if you face succes or failure using this script.

2009-05-18T13:40:00.001+01:00

Open ERP integration with Magento

(Note: This tutorial is for the Old Connector we call by the name 'smile connector'. You can find the tutorial for the new connector here: http://openlabs.co.in/blog/post/open-erp-magento-integration-new/)

There's no doubt they form a terrific pair!!!

Thanks to the effort of rvalyi and the smile team, there is a good bridge between Open ERP and Magento.

I am outlining the steps here:

Prerequisites

Open ERP Ver 5.0.0.3
Magento Ver 1.2.0.3 (I know thats not the latest as on the date of this arcticle)
Magento Open ERP module

Step 1: Basic Installation

Install Open ERP (Instructions Here)

Install Magento

Installing Magento is as simple as extracting the contents of compressed archive mentioned above to your lampp folder:

It should normally be /opt/lampp/htdocs

Step 2: Verification of Installations

Check your Open ERP Installtion by booting a server and creating a new database from File

To check your Magento installation type

http://localhost/magento

It should display the setup for magento the first time and the store itself from the next time.

Assuming that both are working properly lets move onto step 3.

Step 3: Configuring the bridge

The magento-open ERP bridge comprises of two parts:

Open ERP module
Magento Connect plugin

Download the magento_openerp_smile-0.9.9.zip and extract it to
.../openerp-server-5.0.0-3/bin/addons

make sure that the compressed file is not present in the addons folder as it might have a conflict with the extracted module itself.

Now in the open erp client update modules list at:

Administration>>Modules Management>>Update Modules List

It should say that new module has been found and you can install the module from Modules in the same menu

After the installation, you can see that a new page 'Magento' appears in the products, partners, sales order form views and the status on synchronization of each product is also visible in the tree view.

The second part of the process is getting the magento side connected.

The extracted folder contains the open ERP module as well as the plugin for magento but we will use magento connect to get the job done.

For this in magento admin panel goto:

System >> Magento Connect >> Magento Connect Manager

Key in your username and password again and click on the second tab for settings and change preferred state to 'Beta'. (As of this date the plugin is beta)

Save your settings and select page 1 (Extensions) and paste the following extension key in the box

magento-community/Smile_OpenERP_Synchro

Click install and your connect plugin should be installed.

After installing successfully the page should display as in the below screen shot:

The present version 9.9 of the module wrongly puts the the file 'Smile_OpenERPSync.xml' to

/opt/lampp/htdocs/magento/app/code/local/Smile/OpenERPSync/etc/modules.

You have to manually move this file to:

/opt/lampp/htdocs/magento/app/etc/modules

Now you are all set to have this great utility run for you...

To enable open ERP to access the products entity in magento and synchronize, it is necessary to have a web services user. To create a web services user goto:

System >> Web Service >>Roles

Create a new role eg 'admin'

Save the user and set resources access as: ALL

Save the role and now create a web services user at:

System >> Web Services >> Users

Create a user, save the user and set the assigned role as the newly created role, in the above example 'admin'

The same settings have to be entered in Open ERP at Magento >> Magento Web

The user id will be the newly created id and password the newly created password of the web services user.

Note: the standard magento backend user account cannot be used here.

Try creating products and synching the products using the wizard on the left of the screen.

To Synch images make sure the media folder in magento is writeable.

Troubleshooting:

If any access errors are returned or forbidden errors are returned ensure that .htaccess file in the magento folder is in allow mode and not deny mode.

Catch me if you have any queries.

2009-02-13T05:30:00.000Z

Number keys not working in Linux

Quite often i find people saying my number keys above the albhabets work but not the numeric keypad section.

This is not an error but just another configuration issue. Linux allows you to use your keypad as 'Mouse Keys'. "Mouse keys' is used to control your pointer using the very arrow keys in the numeric pad section.

This feature is a part of assistive technology in the apple mac series, but forms a part of the keyboard config in most linux distros.

If you face this problem then goto:

System >> Preferences >> Keyboard

In the screen goto 'Mouse Keys ' tab and make sure the 'Allow to control the pointer using keypad' is unchecked. This will allow one to use the numeric keypad as the number function itself.

2009-02-12T12:26:00.000Z

HTC P3400i settings for BSNL GPRS.
Unlike normal mobile phones like Nokia etc. configuring BSNL GPRS is an easy job with smart phones & PDA's.
U wont beleive its a single step.

Goto start>>settings>>Connections>>Connections.
Delete all settings
Create a new modem connection
Give a name of the connection
Select the connection as Cellular Line (GPRS)
Give next and give Access Point Name (APN) as gprssouth.cellone.in (for south), and change your location corresponding to yours

Please come back to me if u have any issues and seggestions are also welcome.

2009-02-06T03:42:00.000Z

Network Configuration in Linux

The primary network configuration files are as follows:

/etc/hosts

It can also be used to resolve hostnames on small networks with no DNS server. For more information, refer to the hosts man page.

/etc/resolv.conf

This file specifies the IP addresses of DNS servers and the search domain. For more information about this file, refer to the resolv.conf man page.

/etc/sysconfig/network

This file specifies routing and host information for all network interfaces.

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-

For each network interface, there is a corresponding interface configuration script. Each of these files provide information specific to a particular network interface.

If you have two network cards installed two files are generated usually with the following names:

ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-eth1

The content of each of the files are:

DEVICE=eth0
HWADDR=00:0c:f1:c4:33:66
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
IPADDR=192.168.0.8
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=yes
IPV6INIT=no
NM_CONTROLLED=no
TYPE=Ethernet
NETMASK=255.255.254.0
GATEWAY=192.168.0.2

Device refers to the hardware in your machine
HWADDR is the MAC address
ONBOOT : yes if you have to activate card during boot
IPADDR:IP address to be assigned to card
NM_CONTROLLED: If network Manager manages your network
Netmask and the gateway

To enable routing or to have routing between the two devices you can enable iptables and pass the following commands.

Assuming that eth0 is connected to internet and eth1 to LAN:

iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface eth1 -j ACCEPT

iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface eth0 -j MASQUERADE

These commands set the LAN interface to accept packets and WAN interface to masquerade the network with its IP and act as ougoing network.

Now you need to set the default gateway:

route add default gw XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX

This completes your Linux acting as a router with 2 network cards

2009-01-30T05:14:00.000Z

open ERP - Why TypeError: 'str' object is not callable?

Hi guys I had this error and just could not figure out what just happened.
Fortunately I had by my side Mr.Hussein of Open ERP India as always patient and ready to help.

My problem was in the defaults deckared with the class.

The original declaration was:

_defaults = {
'date' : lambda *a: time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'),
'period_id': _get_period,
'journal_id':_get_journal,
'currency_id': _get_currency,
'state': 'draft',
}

The last line 'state':'draft' caused me the trouble because by default the value for the key was expected to be a function.

you can overcome this easily by modifying the code similar to the first line.

so the correct code is:

_defaults = {
'date' : lambda *a: time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d'),
'period_id': _get_period,
'journal_id':_get_journal,
'currency_id': _get_currency,
'state': lambda *a:'draft',
}

2009-01-27T09:57:00.000Z

Creating a new module in Open ERP step by step

Creating a module in Open ERP:

Step 1: Create the __init__.py and __terp__.py files in the new folder you have created for the module, in the addons directory.

The __init__.py file must have a line to import the main py file you intend to create for the module. having the __init__.py file in your module makes the code a package.

As an easy example for you i intend to explain the functionality of a new module called india_VAT_TIN_lookup

Purpose of Module:

This module will create a new field in the Partner View for entering the TIN no of a partner.
This will also limit the user from creating user from having two partners of the same TIN no.
An additional useful feature would be TIN lookup which takes you directly to the TINXYS site where VAT TIN details are recorded.

So my __init__.py file consists of a two lines as i will be writing two py files:

import vatlookup
import lookup

Step 2: Create a new python file called __terp__.py

The __terp__.py file provides a description of the module you want to create.
It essentially forms a python dictionary of the following keys:

{
"name" : "name of the module",
"author" : "author of module",
"version" : "1.0",
"depends" : ["module1", "module2"],
"description": "A good descri[ption of what the module does",
"init_xml" : ["The XML file used in installation of module"],
"update_xml" : ["custom_view.xml", "custom_report.xml"],
"category" : "General/Vertical etc",
"active": False, #If true this module is installed automatically when base is installed
"installable": False,#User can be stopped from installing module
}

In our context the terp file would be

{
"name" : "india_VAT_TIN_lookup",
"author" : "Sharoon Thomas",
"version" : "1.0",
"depends" : ["base", "product"],
"description": "The module will create a new field for every partner to record VAT TIN Number. It also provides a lookup button to verify the TIN number from the India Government Tax Information system.",
"init_xml" : [],
"update_xml" : ["lookup_wizard.xml"],
"category" : "Additional Functionality/localisation/TIN Lookup",
"active": True
"installable": True
}

The lookup_wizard.xml is an xml file which will modify the view of the partner by adding a wizard in the right pane of the client. Therefore create a new file named lookup_wizard.xml.

The content of the xml file would be:

The keys have the following meanings:

String: The name of the wizard as seen on the screen
Model: Indicates the model on which the change is to be brought
name: The known name of the Wizard. Will be used to refer from other py files
keyword: indicates the type of action

The first part of the XML file handles the default view of the partner form and adds the tin field. The tin field is inserted after the supplier field.

The second part creates the wizard and indicates what the wizard has to execute on click. On click the wizard runs wizard_tin_lookup defined in the lookup.py file.

The lookup.py file

The contents of the lookup.py file is:

import wizard
from osv import osv,fields
import pooler

def _launch_wizard(self, cr, uid, data, context):
address_obj= pooler.get_pool(cr.dbname).get('res.partner')
m= address_obj.browse(cr,uid,data['id'],context)
url=''
url="https://tinxsys.com/TinxsysInternetWeb/dealerControllerServlet?tinNumber="
if m.tin:
url+=m.tin.replace(' ','+')
url+="&searchBy=TIN&backPage=searchByTin_Inter.jsp"
return {
'type': 'ir.actions.act_url',
'url':url,
'target': 'new'
}

class launch_url(wizard.interface):

states= {'init' : {'actions': [],
'result':{'type':'action',
'action': _launch_wizard,
'state':'end'}
}
}
launch_url('tin_lookup_launch')

Step 3: Setting up your main python file. (Infact thats your module)

Create a new python file and give it the name you have defined(imported) in your __init__.py (Refer Step 1).

The first file to be made is: vatlookup.py

from osv import osv, fields

class res_partner(osv.osv):
_name = "res.partner"
_inherit = "res.partner"
_columns={
'tin':fields.char('TIN',size=11,select=2)
}

def vat_lookup(self,cr,uid,ids,context={}):
res=self.read(cr,uid,ids)
return {
'type': 'ir.actions.act_url',
'url':"https://tinxsys.com/TinxsysInternetWeb/dealerControllerServlet?tinNumber=%s&searchBy=TIN&backPage=searchByTin_Inter.jsp"%(res[0]['tin'],),
'target': 'new'
}
res_partner()

The class res_partner inherits the original res.partner and adds a field tin to it.
The properties of the field are defined in

'tin':fields.char('TIN',size=11,select=2)

It creates a field of length 11 which accepts characters. Select=2 indicates that the field will appear in the second level of search in a list view.

Now create a company or in an existing company run the update module list wizard at Administration>Modules Management>Update Modules List.

The new module will be updated and can now be installed from the uninstalled modules.

Observe the changes in the partner form. You may check the TIN no:32061263095.

2009-01-27T05:47:00.000Z

A frequent problem experienced by Windows Server 2003 users is that they don't have the right drivers to download. This specially applies to HP Printers.

This issue can be resolved easily for most cases as follows.

If you wish to install the drivers on the Windows 2003 server from the HP CD that ships with the printer, you need to do the following

- Copy all files to a directory on Windows 2003
Note:Sometimes u have to download packages from the HP web site and it may not give you an option to select the target folder. In that case the files are extracted by the extracter to: C:\Temp\Hp_WebRelease

- Edit the autorun.inf and change the following lines

Line : SilentInstall=No
Line : Overide=Yes
Line : OSList=500,501,502

- Run the installation program

- As the installation nears completion, windows will start popping up the message "Do you want to install new hardware?". Keep pressing yes to each one, let it search automatically, and then install the needed files from the cd-rom

I hope this link helps you..

The OS Reference list for common windows OSs are given Below:

410: Windows 98 or Windows 98 SE
490: Windows Millenium Edition
500: Windows 2000
501: Windows XP
502: Windows XP 64 Bit Edition
503: Windows Server 2003

Please contact me if you face any issues.

2009-01-26T08:45:00.000Z

Quite often when you try to install more applications that didn't come with the default install of the UBUNTU, apt or Synaptic package manager may ask you for the default CD/DVD installation media.

It becomes a bit of an annoyance when you really want to install something and UBUNTU bugs you for original media.

This occurs because you installation CD/DVD appears as highest priority in the sources file located at: /etc/apt/sources.list

You can modify the file from terminal using your favourite text editor. (Mine is gedit)

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Comment out the very first line (Usually the reference to the CD/DVD), which started with:

deb cdrom:[Ubuntu 8.10 _Intrepid Ibex_ - Release i386 (20081029.5)]

...by simply adding a # in front of the line. Save the file and then run the following to update the sources:

sudo apt-get update

Now you can update your packages without the DVD Dependency problem.

Linux - Simple,Free & the Best

2009-01-14T17:20:00.000Z

I created this blog in 2006, when I thought I should start scribbling my thoughts somewhere....
But it took me this Jan of 2009 to draft this first blog.
(I hope it just does make it out of the drafts)

If my concern in 2006 was 'What to blog?', today it has become
'Why should another day go undocumented? I have the rights too..

I believe this blog will help me talk to myself.... if you happen to accidentally overhear them (as i don't plan on disclosing this blog to anybody) its all about My dreams, thoughts and the very few of them which transform into action.

My interests on date seem to be computing, programming and nothing.
May be I can scribble my little know how of computing too...

Isn't this enough blogging for day 1? I guess yes!