Request for additional API functions #720
Replies: 16 comments 34 replies
-
|
Hello Juma, how is Dar? It's a while since I was last there. Right now I'm working to get v5.0 out. The additional api functions you mention are possible but will have to wait till after the new release. Tim |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hello Tim, Dar es Salaam is fine, but very hot during this period. Yes, we are currently trying to implement it by following the "api_debtortransactions"; however, we are facing challenges, especially with the Entering Supplier Invoice API. If there is another programmer available, please contact me. Otherwise, we are looking forward to v5.0. Lungo |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hi @jlungo I am interested in using the API and am glad to help if I can. Is this an education or commercial project? Are you able to code the new functions based on the debtortrans functions as Tim suggested?
Are you following the master branch now? The extensions could be developed in a fork so you can use them now and not distract from v5 release stabilization. The fork would need to be kept up to date with the master branch in project repo, but the only difference would be the new API functions. After v5 release a PR would be used to pull the new API functions into the project. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hello Dale @dalers , We fully agree with your approach. We are preparing the groundwork to involve you and anyone else in the project. It is an open-source project, so we will make the repository available to everyone. Let's fork v5 and continue. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Team, we have now launched a frontend site, https://frontend.webshop.co.tz/, that tracks the implementation of the APIs. It is pointing to a webERP v5 backend site. I believe that by approaching it this way, we will be able to better visualize the implementation of the APIs. Our main goal is to design a simple frontend site in two formats: web-based and a point of sale system for supermarkets. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@dalers, would you like to initiate the Forked webERP repository, or should I do it? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo whatever is your preference. The options seem to be 1) I create a fork for API extension work only, 2) we work in a new branch in my existing fork, or 3) you create the fork. It probably depends on how much control you wish to have (such as being able to immediately merge new code from the webERP project repo (Tim's repo) without waiting for me (assuming if you created the fork you might prefer to maintain control yourself over accepting PRs or committing directly).
I have deliberately avoided saying "fork v5" because v5 doesn't technically exist yet. ;-) |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
I will go with option number 2 - "we work in a new branch in my existing fork". I believe that by working on your branch, it will benefit many, as you have many followers, rather than starting a new branch that only a few of us will be looking at. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo I have created the "api_additions" branch in my fork. The head of the branch is the same as the head of the master branch, which is the same as the head of the master branch in the project repo (Tim's repo). Please submit PRs to the api_additions branch of my fork. When I receive a PR, I will update the api_additions branch by merging the master branch into the api_additions branch and then merge the PR. Does this seem a correct workflow? Cheers, |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@dalers, PR has been created! Four APIs were added and tested successfully: |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Juma, can you send a PR to the main repository? Tim |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Thank you @jlungo! :-) |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Endpoints (Available vs Required)
Required
Required
Suppliers
Required
**Inventory
Required (Custom)
Required
Assets Register
Required
General Ledger
Required
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hello @timschofield, we are not intending to break the existing implementation at all. We are planning to add more API endpoints so that we can build a frontend system that relies entirely on the webERP system as it is. That is why we came here to request help so that the new API endpoints can be developed by adopting the webERP's source code standard. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@timschofield and @dalers, how do you handle (1) employee software loans and (2) employee imprest with webERP? When an employee takes an imprest, we need to record it as a loan so that if they fail to provide receipts, we can deduct the imprest loan from their salaries. When it comes to soft loans, we need to track the repayment and interest of the loan. Are these two functions that we may need to introduce in webERP? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
This is handled via the petty cash system. You can read how it works here https://weberp.org/demo/ManualContents.php?ViewTopic=PettyCash Tim |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@timschofield Thank you. Therefore, in a scenario where I have three employees receiving three imprests, will I need to open three separate PC tabs, correct? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Yes you are correct. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo : I am using the petty cash module as @timschofield described and it works OK. You give money to an employee for any reason, and report it into his PC tab. At the end of the month, you can check the balance of that PC tab, and it reflects the money owed by the employee to the company. I have been using this for years. Works OK. R |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@pakricard, thank you for the case study. It is truly an eye-opener. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@dalers and everyone, we have made some progress on our dream frontend system, available at https://frontend.webshop.co.tz/. Please visit our page to see how we are progressing. Specifically, please check and comment on the Sales --> Order menu and the Inventory menu. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hi @jlungo : Can you please share some credentials we could use to test it? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@pakricard credentials are username: admin, password: weberp Once you have logged in, you may be interested in seeing how we display the webERP APIs under Backend APIs --> API List. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@timschofield do you want to add @jlungo's API additions to v5? I just merged @jlungo's first PR into the api_additions branch in my fork (after updating it from upstream - your repo). I can send you a PR now if you don't want to wait for @jlungo, or you could cherry pick from my repo yourself. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo @dalers I am happy to take a PR from Dales branch into v5, these new APIs look good to me |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Tim, to keep the ball rolling I will send a PR to you to merge the api_additions branch in my fork into your master branch. @jlungo I think this means you should change your upstream/origin repo from my fork to Tim's project repo. I suggest however you continue to use your api_additions branch. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo this is amazing! For my purposes there may need to be more "PLM-type" features but what I see looks very good :-) Fwiw, PLM-features I am interested in include generating part codes, specifying Supplier/SupplierPartNumber for a part and also OEM/OemPartNumber, managing bills of materials, change management for part supplier/OEM and BOMs, etc. I also don't see a Manufacturing menu. Do you intend to support any of these workflows in your web front-end? Is it your intention that any workflows not shown in the front-end web interface be performed using webERP directly? Are the front-end web interface and supermarket point-of-sale sites proprietary or will you make them open-source? Have you considered providing the capability for third-party extensions? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Noted, I will revert back to this PLM feature later. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
P.S. can you explain the technology you used for the web front-end? |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@dalers and @timschofield, There are two main technologies used to build the frontend system: (a) the Python Django Framework and (b) Bootstrap 5 - a collection of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. This frontend system is open source and will be released under the GPL-2.0 open source software license. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo, what exact code are you testing with? I have found the API is not functional in the upstream master branch - and hence my master branch and I presume also my api_additions branch. See Issue #736. I am currently attempting to use Z_ImportPartCodes.php but am not successful yet. First it seems the included files in Z_ImportPartCodes.php is missing "includes/" from their path include files and also includes/api_php.php should be included to prevent an "undefined function db()" error. After changing the include file paths and including api_php.php, I now get a function redeclaration error.
I'll keep troubleshooting, but I wonder if there is some fundamental issue I'm missing. How are you able to test? Cheers, |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@dalers, I will review my editing in the file api_xml-rpc_definition.php and ensure that all includes files contents are included. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Resolved. The issue was caused by a duplicated function named "GetSalesGLCode" being called in two files: The function in the |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@dalers see this PR: Fixed webERP Manual Bug |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Thanks @jlungo, I will merge your PR into my fork and test this later today. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
P.S. Best you continue sending any PRs to dalers/webERP.master until the issues myself and @pakricard are reporting have been resolved (and I will continue to send PRs to timschofield/webERP.master). |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@dalers, the changes in the attached screenshot are introducing a bug that blocks API-based login. Therefore, we have just commented out this line. 
|
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo @dalers I am not sure if you are interested in this evolution, but I have been thinking for a while about the best way to evolve the current API code so that:
This is quite a shopping list, but those concerns all relate to the same code. Needless to say, it also means touching 100% of the files in the And that needs some close synchronization, if someone else is, at the same time, working on adding new functions to |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
@timschofield, could you please provide the contact details of the teams in Tanzania? Specifically, we are facing some challenges in posting customer invoices, customer payments, supplier invoices, and supplier payments. These four functions are proving to be quite difficult for my team and are the most essential ones. Sharing experiences with those guys may greatly help my team to move forward quickly. By the way, our Internet is back now after being down for 5 days. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@jlungo thanks for your words of support. However, given the discussion with @timschofield - see esp. comment #741 (comment) - it seems unlikely that any such change with a wide impact to the api code will be accepted. I have thus suspended any work in that direction, at least for the moment. I have not been following the elections in Tanzania, but the situation looks quite complicated from what I can read on western media. I hope all is fine for you and your family. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
@gggeek, I have now read the feedback from the long thread. I can see the deliberations about the API issues. To me, everything looks fine, and I hope we will achieve our goal with the current direction. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
|
Hi guys, I had other priorities for a couple days and while this probably isn't relevent any more I wanted to clarify.
I don't understand what you are referring to by "a perfect setup" but we could certainly add a note to the API section in The Manual stating multi-db sites (aka multi-tenancy iiuc) cannot be used if API interaction is also required.
Provide the features required by 80% of users. |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
-
In my experience, even just 30% of the users always want 120% of the features, as every user needs just a couple, but they all need different ones :-D |
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
Uh oh!
There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.
-
Hi
We have embarked on developing a frontend application that relies entirely on webERP APIs. The aim is to develop a new and slim user interface. However, we are running short of APIs. Specifically, we are in need of Supplier-related transactions, including the following:
1.0 Under selecting a supplier
1.1 Enter a Supplier's Invoice
1.2 Enter a Supplier's Credit Note
1.3 Enter a Payment to, or Receipt from the Supplier
1.4 Enter a Purchase Order for This Supplier
1.5 Reverse an Outstanding Goods Received Note (GRN)
1.6 Supplier Account Inquiry
2.0 Under General Ledger
2.1 Trial Balance
2.2 Balance Sheet
2.3 Profit and Loss Statement
2.4 Statement of Cash Flows
Thanks
Beta Was this translation helpful? Give feedback.
All reactions