ILE Based, data centric Open Source ERP offering for the IBM i...
intERPrise Base ERP (Debtors { Accounts Receivables or Receivables}, Creditors { Accounts Payable or Payables}, Cashbook {Cash Management} & General Ledger)
A community driven OPEN SOURCE (https://opensource.org/osd) initiative, to bring a MODERN, DB2 for i and ILE based, data-centric (http://datacentricmanifesto.org/principles/), multi-tier (MVC), NATIVE (to IBM i) base ERP application FREE to the entire IBM i installed base, subject to the terms of the Apache 2 licensing conditions (http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0).
It is especially important to note that this current release is now the ALPHA 0.2 release that serves as a foundation to first solidify the architecture, serve as basis for discussion of the proposed coding standards and naming conventions, integration points, education and skills requirements for participants and to iron out any issues in the GitHub processes.
We strongly advise that you use the initial few distros, to familiarise yourself with the coding paradigm, the standards and the processes.
Also important to note that the committee are working with Axiom Systems, to delineate which database artefacts and functions fall within the ambit of the Base ERP (Debtors { Accounts Receivables or Receivables}, Creditors { Accounts Payable or Payables}, Cashbook {Cash Management} & General Ledger), and which fall outside. This is relevant due to potential referential (aka foreign key) constraints and the nature of their ERP, which is completely integrated.
The committee is also continuously busy to implement our recommended naming conventions on all the database artefacts that were harvested from the S2E models. Currently the complete application consist out of 898 tables. This will also be subject to refinement and its own modernization and review process, as this application model, although current, is also about thirty YEARS old.
Please review our about page and our standards occasionally as this initiative evolves?
Please review (http://www.i-nterprise.org/about.html) and our standards](http://www.i-nterprise.org/standards---conventions.html) occasionally as this initiative evolves?
The following principles are FUNDAMENTAL to this initiative:
- Absolute data-centricity (ALL data rules enforced by DB2 by way of triggers and constraints)
- ILE
- No DSPF (display files aka 5250)
- Absolute separation of concerns (MVC)
- Absolute leveraging of standard, unique IBM i capabilities (MSGF, work management, USRSPC, USRIDX, journaling, commitment control, etc.)
- No black-box functionality
- No ISV product dependencies
- Open to ANY potential device and/or service (read front-end), interacting via JSON between the IBM I based solution and the delivery channel(read client).
- Absolutely no OPM (Original Program Model) code constructs will be acceptable.
NOTE: for all the 0.n ALPHA releases: please focus all your efforts on the completed (for purposes of the architecture and naming conventions & standards discussion) tables and all their associated components (triggers, constraints, copybooks, IO Services, Enterprise Services, Transport Services, SRVPGM’s, BNDDIR, etc.) in order to familiarise yourself with architecture and how all components interrelate.
Should you have any suggestions on how the "Committee" (intERPrise Architectural and Standards Committee) can improve the architecture, to make it even more "open" and relevant, please forward your detailed suggestions to management@i-nterprise.org.
As soon as we announce the availability of the ALPHA 1.0 release, you can start sharing code contributions. Only code that implements and follow our published standards, will be considered for inclusion in future distros.
These instructions will get you a copy of the project up and running on your local machine for development and testing purposes. See deployment for notes on how to deploy the project on a live system. (We will soon provide an utility that will build the complete product for you on your development machine).
The objective is to only use modern coding techniques. Our definition of when you are using ILE and RPG IV the way it should be, it will have most of the following attributes:
- SRVPGM - Functions and Procedures bound into SRVPGM and PGM
- Activation Groups - no execution in the default (at least QILE named activation group) activation group (in general, bar exceptions)
- BIF’s
- Single Instance, reusable code components
- Separation of concerns (aka MVC, aka “multi-tier” architecture)
ILE C and ILE Cobol contributions are welcome, but MUST implement single Instance, reusable code components.
The following tools and technologies are used by our team:
- AO Foundation
- RDi
- ILE-RPG Education resources
- Standard IBM i development tooling (compilers, ADTS, etc.)
- MiWorkplace tooling
- iWebSrv for INITIAL delivery channel
It is especially important that you are familiar and adopt with the ILE development paradigm. The FREE education resource at http://www.ile-rpg.org/education.html will provide you with most, if not all that you may require.
Please Note this is the initial tests. We will soon provide an utility that will build the complete product for you on your development machine.
Until then, please contact for step by step build instructions, by emailing management@i-nterprise.org.
Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on our code of conduct, and the process for submitting pull requests to us.
We thank the following companies who selflessly and kindly made their staff available to participate and donated base intellectual property to get this initiative launched:
We also wish to recognise the individual contributions of the following people, who contributed their experience, knowledge, code bases, coding techniques, intellectual capital and guidance to deliver this project:
- Tommy Atkins
- Gavin Beangstrom
- Matt Henderson
- Chris Hird
- Les Holcroft
- Ted Holt
- Dmitriy Kuznetsov
- Mark Rowles
- Marinus Van Sandwyk
See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.
This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license see the LICENSE.md file for details
A special word of thanks goes to Chris Hird, who was the instigator behind this entire initiative.
We also wish to formally thank Mihael Schmidt for his kind donation of his MiWorkplace IDE to participants who do not have access to RDi.