OFBiz - Getting started!

Apache OFBiz (http://ofbiz.apache.org) is one of the leading open source ERP / e-commerce projects. This howto would cover the initial setup steps

Best place to get started
http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBADMIN/Demo+and+Test+Setup+Guide

However, before you start following the guide you would need a few things such as JDK, SVN and ANT. If you don't know how to set these up follow the rest of the howto.

Installing JDK

• On windows: This including downloading and installing JDK from SUN SDN site. You would also need to setup JAVA_HOME. Follow detailed steps here
• On Ubuntu: Use the Ubuntu package manager apt-get to install JDK. Follow detailed steps here

Next step is setting up Subversion. If you are not familiar with Subversion (SVN in short) then check out this Introduction to Subversion. This post also has details on how to setup TortoiseSVN (a subversion client) on windows. For Ubuntu use apt-get again.

$ sudo apt-get install subversion

Final step is installing Apache Ant. Detailed installation steps

• For windows
• For Ubuntu : $ sudo apt-get install ant ant-optional

To test the setup try $ ant -version
Also setup ANT_HOME ; similar steps as setting up JAVA_HOME

Now you should have everything to follow the OFBiz demo and setup guide

One last thing, about the source code to check out. OFBiz has one main development path in SVN called trunk. This is where the latest development code is checked in. The project also has 2 branches under the branches folder namely release 4.0 and release 09.04. Releae 09.04 is the latest stable branch and we will use this code base for this howto.

Before you check out create a directory structure "ofbiz/branches". For example this could be c:\ofbiz\branches on windows. This is where we will check out the release 09.04 code base. To check out type the command below in a termal window on Ubuntu

$ svn co http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ofbiz/branches/release09.04 release09.04

For windows simply navigate to the branches folder and right click on the folder. You should get menu item SVN check out. Click that to bring up the form wher you provide the URL (http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/ofbiz/branches/release09.04) & destination folder

The check out process may take some time given your internet connection speed. Once check out is compete, follow the steps to build, install & run.

For a development setup the embedded derby database should just work fine. Also rest of the default settings are usually fine.

Additional details on installation steps can be found at
http://docs.ofbiz.org/display/OFBTECH/Apache+OFBiz+Technical+Production+...

Enjoy!