Should you need further information on this process, please do not hesitate to contact our team!

Camptocamp: Official Gold partner in Switzerland, France and Austria (localisation of financial accounting for this countries) / Partenaire officiel Gold en Suisse, France et Autriche (localisation de la comptabilité financière pour ces pays) / Offizieller Gold-Partner in der Schweiz, Frankreich und Österreich (Anpassung der Finanzbuchhaltung für diese Länder)

We are happy to announce the availability of sort and filter options for function fields in our branch, which enhances

the user experience greatly :

https://code.launchpad.net/~c2c/openobject-server/6.0-c2c-official

Neither sort nor filter of function fields have created prohibitive performance issues so far in our tests. Our idea is to

provide the basic functionality for all function fields out of the box and fix performance bottlenecks for specific function

fields if necessary.

Please note that you have to add the following lines in the server config file.

———–

[orm]

fallback_search = True

———–

According to the policy of OpenERP SA this enhanced functionality will not be available in the official OpenERP 6.0

distributions as the lack of sorting and filtering of function fields is not considered as bug and hence will not be fixed.

We plan to provide a similar solution for 6.1 and hope that a merge proposal will be accepted for 6.2

I personally want to thanks Ferdinand Gassauer and Panos Christeas for their great work on this topic : well done !

Best regards,

Joël Grand-Guillaume

• General ledger
• Partner ledger
• Trial balance
• Partner balance

…and smaller -but handy- reports which are accessible from the Journal entries menu or from the invoices list menu:

• print screen of selected entries
• print screen of selected invoices

Where to get this module?

You can download it from OpenERP Apps or from our launchpad branch : lp:c2c-financial-addons/6.0

Why a new module on financial reports?

Camptocamp Business Solutions team consists of technicians having both IT and/or finance backgrounds; we consequently had all the required internal competencies to develop such a module. Nevertheless, we also requested the validation of our work by two chartered accountants, both in France and in Switzerland.

In addition, we really have invested the necessary time to get reports with the following characteristics:

• Reliable: complex use cases tested over several fiscal years (closed or unclosed), partially paid invoices, multi-currency…

• Fast: 14min for 100′000 entry lines / 2′143 pages in pdf. This performance is reached with a simple PC (dual core; 4Gb RAM); getting the same report from a server is even better. We added that no extra dedicated server was necessary; a simple Webkit library (called ‘wkhtmltopdf’) added!

• Generic: these reports can be used in any country by any business

• Durable: Camptocamp would really like to see these reports become the most used reports in OpenERP because:
  - we have back-ported this module to v5
  - we will maintain these reports for all future OpenERP versions…unless OpenERP accept to use them as standard financial reports, which would be even better of course

A final question: why use Webkit?

At Camptocamp, we really do believe that Webkit is the best possible render engine for OpenERP for many reasons including these ones:

- It is Open Source
- It is already in the core of OpenERP
- It is used with success by well-known Web browsers such as Safari or Chrome
- it gives much more possibilities than RML: column auto-scaling, WYSIWYG, inheritance from others reports…
- it gives better performance without adding extra servers but a simple library.

General ledger

What can I now select from the wizard?

Tab 1 (click on the image to enlarge):

Tab 2 (click on the image to enlarge):

What does it look like?

Please click on the image to enlarge

What are the added functionalities?

• Filter by account: no need to go to the ‘Chart of account’ menu any longer. On top, you have the possibility to filter by view account, the report will then print all children accounts; hence, you can easily select only all P&L accounts at once.

• Only usefull accounts are listed: the report will now print only accounts with movements OR with a balance > 0. No more endless reports with accounts without data or with missing account because they were not used during the current fiscal year; now reports include accounts with a balance to carry forward (consequently, the field ‘display account’ is hidden on the wizard).

• Calculated opening balance: if you have not created your opening entries yet, the report will simply calculate the opening balance for you (it remains important to post opening entries if you do not want to loose performance over the years).

* You can filter, for example from 02/2011 to 06/2011 with an opening balance that will include not only previous years data but also data from the beginning of the fiscal year until the start period of your filter; so you will always match with your trial balance.

Note that no opening balance will be calculated when using the filter by date (correct balances are based on periods only).

• Account centralization: thanks to a new check-box in account set-up form, you have the possibility to centralize any accounts you like (for instance, you do not want to see all entries posted under the account ‘VAT on sales’); you will only see aggregated amounts by periods. This option can save hundreds of useless pages. See the screen shot below (click on the picture to enlarge):

• Layout improvement: with a better design and to ease your analysis, reports now show new columns such as Cumulative balances, Reconcile code, User name added on foot page (+ date, time, page), Counterpart accounts displayed for each transaction (3 accounts max.).

• Better wizard ergonomics: important information at the top, filters in the middle, options at the bottom, more specific filtering on a different tab. No more unique wizard layout for all financial reports (ex: we have removed the journal tab which was useless for the GL report).

• Better rendering technology: Webkit (used by Web browsers such as Safari or Chrome) allows an intelligent scalability of column size, WYSIWYG, and better performance.

• OpenERP reports existing functionalities remaining:
  - Filter on Chart of account (if you use several)
  - Filters on period or date (improved with opening balance)
  - Printing options: possibility to add currencies columns (improved with cumulative balance)

Partner ledger

What can I now select on the wizard?

1st Tab (click on the image to enlarge):

2nd Tab (click on the image to enlarge):

What does it look like?

Please click on the image to enlarge

What are the added functionalities?

This report is, if you look closer, a TRIPLE report :

- You can only print unreconciled entries (see ‘print open invoices list’ below)
- You can make forecast to a later date (see ‘report date’ below)
- You can simply print all entries

• Filter by partner: now possible

• Print open invoices list: at any date in the past; possibility to print only unreconciled transactions at any date in the past (thanks to the brand-new field: last_rec_date which calculated the last move line reconciled date).

• Subtotals by accounts: now you can see accounts then Partner with subtotals for each account, allowing you to check your data with trial balance and partner balance for instance. Also, accounts are ordered in the same way than in the Chart of account.

• Layout improvement: better design, column ‘period’ added, reconciliation code, cumulative balances, user name added on foot page (+ date, time, page)…

• Opening balance calculation: for each partner (will not be based on opening entry anymore due to a defective design) and whatever the filter by period.

* Note that if you print the report ‘excluding reconciled entries’, the opening balance will be decreased by the previous year reconciled entries (ordered); no doing so will lead to have an ending balance that does not match the trial balance (or partner balance).

* Note that no opening balance will be calculated when using the filter by date (correct balances are based on period only).

• Report date: a new field called ‘report date’ in the wizard gives now the possibility to print open invoices as if you were positioning yourself at a later date. Example: you can print 2011 open invoices considered as open on the 31/03/2012. This financial tool (which is unfortunately not that often provided) is usually used for the closing process (example: to estimate your provision on receivables).

• Only useful accounts/partners listed: the report will now print only account / partner ‘with movements OR with a balance not null’.

• Better wizard ergonomics: (similar approach to GL report)

• Better rendering technology: (see comments for GL report)

• OpenERP reports existing functionalities remaining:
  - Filter by type of partner (receivables, payables or both)
  - Filter on Chart of account (if you use several)
  - Filters on period or date
  - Printing options: possibility to add currencies columns (improved)

This module is already providing users with the two main (and complex) reports. We are currently developing the other ones…Our target is to develop all reports by the end of October 2011. Be patient and please send us you feedback (openerp@camptocamp.com)!

For Camptocamp,

Frédéric Clementi

I wanted to let you know that Camptocamp has made some changes in the organisation of their branches on Launchpad. As apps.openerp.com will become the central portal to browse the community developments, we have then decided to move some of our contributions from extra-addons to the following projects:

• https://launchpad.net/c2c-addons : all our generic modules for OpenERP.
• https://launchpad.net/c2c-financial-addons : all our generic modules for OpenERP in relation to financial management.
• https://launchpad.net/c2c-specific-addons : all of our customers specific addons for OpenERP.
• https://launchpad.net/c2c-rd-addons : all of our R&D and work in progress for OpenERP.

All work made by our team will now be committed in these new branches (starting on version 6.0). The process has already been started and more will come very soon. We also decided to publish all specific work made for our customers; we thought you might be interested in taking a look.

Moreover, we just created the GeoEngine project on Launchpad! You’ll find there all developments made by our team to bring the spatial dimension into OpenERP:

• https://launchpad.net/c2c-geoengine-addons/

Keep in touch!

Joël Grand-Guillaume

Camptocamp

As announced, the GeoEngine modules will soon be available for version 6.1 which is currently under way.

The GeoEngine roadmap can be found here: http://bit.ly/iFHoms

You would like to test GeoEngine ? Please go here http://bit.ly/iI2M6T and enter the following login information : Username : demo / Password : demo

Camptocamp is available for any questions you might have: info@camptocamp.com

Official Gold partner in Switzerland, France and Austria (localisation of financial accounting for this countries) / Partenaire officiel Gold en Suisse, France et Autriche (localisation de la comptabilité financière pour ces pays) / Offizieller Gold-Partner in der Schweiz, Frankreich und Österreich (Anpassung der Finanzbuchhaltung für diese Länder)

Camptocamp just finished its code sprint on the Magento connector, organized in collaboration with Akretion and Dacrydium, our partner for the Magento side.

Following these 3 exciting days, I just wanted to give you some feedback.

First of all, a few words about the code organization (please see here: https://code.launchpad.net/magentoerpconnect). We now have:

• A stable branch for each OpenERP version named: “openerp6-module” and “openerp5-module”
• A trunk branch version (focus of devs) called “magentoerpconnect” (as it was before)
• A Magento part which is still in one branch for now: magento-module

The branch containing the connector was also a bit modified, with the addition of a folder called “magentoerpconnect” in order to meet the new apps.openerp.com standards. We will also commit in a near future all modules related to the magento connector in this branch. This way, the official extra-addons branch will always contain the generic part of the module (such as base_external_referential, sale_multi_channel, …) while the magentoerpconnect one will contain the specific part for Magento.

Concerning the collaboration, we decided with Akretion to use the blueprints a bit more to let others know what we are working on. So if you intended to contribute, please fill one yourself so we are not making things twice. You might want to have a look on the current developments here: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/magentoerpconnect.

To conclude, here is a little summary on the code sprint outcomes:

• Sales order import and sync are based on a flag! Thanks to Dacrydium, we now have a flag on the Magento order to know which ones have already been imported and which ones have not. This will allow us to push further the synchronization between OpenERP and Magento;
• A generic report with clear error logs has also been coded for all synchronizations. This will allow you to know exactly what went wrong, to make corrections and even replay the synchronization for each selected error!!
• Improved support of configurable products: we now have a very good interface in OpenERP to manage them. The Magento side of the connector added what was needed to deal with those products types (API CRUD access).
• First brick built to support the bundle product! We started a generic module to bring this type of products into OpenERP; you will now be able to make a sales order and configure your product the way you do it on the Dell e-shop! A second module will provide this in connection with Magento.
• Good improvements in the support of discount per line and cart discount (with the taxes problems)
• Support of JSON field which allows us to overpass the 1′600 attributes limit per product; this is as well a generic module that will not only work in the connector context.

Well, I think these are the main results. Again, I would like to thank all participants from Akretion and Dacrydium for the amazing collaboration and work! Keep up the good work!

Best regards,

For Camptocamp, Joël Grand-Guillaume

The article is available here.

Camptocamp: Official Gold partner in Switzerland, France and Austria (localisation of financial accounting for this countries) / Partenaire officiel Gold en Suisse, France et Autriche (localisation de la comptabilité financière pour ces pays) / Offizieller Gold-Partner in der Schweiz, Frankreich und Österreich (Anpassung der Finanzbuchhaltung für diese Länder)

Our Business Solutions team would like to thank Openlabs and Akretion for their trust in our work and developments!

Stay tuned for all blueprints!

Camptocamp: Official Gold partner in Switzerland, France and Austria (localisation of financial accounting for this countries) / Partenaire officiel Gold en Suisse, France et Autriche (localisation de la comptabilité financière pour ces pays) / Offizieller Gold-Partner in der Schweiz, Frankreich und Österreich (Anpassung der Finanzbuchhaltung für diese Länder)

At the 2011 OpenERP Community Days, we presented maps integration into OpenERP (See video).

Following this major announcement, the GeoEngine project was created; it originated from a lot of thinking and architecture developments by our Business Solutions and Geospatial Solutions teams. We would like now to present this project.

The OpenERP GeoEngine is separated in two distinct sub-projects:

• The GeoEngine map view project
• The GeoEngine core project

These standalone projects are independent from one another, but are perfectly compatible.

Fig. 1

The above diagram (Fig. 1) shows the global architecture of the two projects. It might look complex but it is actually simple bricks put together. It helps illustrate the way our geo-blocks integrate with the rest of the world. Now, let’s look at these blocks in more detail.

The GeoEngine core

This brick is plugged directly in the OpenERP framework and relies on the system data model, access rights and utilities. It does not provide any map or geographic visualization tools. Geo-information does not actually need any maps to have value. Added value is already related to business attributes, good back-end management, data extraction and mining.

The main objectives of the core engine are:

• To provide an easy and well-known way to manage geo-data. We want geo-data to to be easy and intuitive. Actions like insertion, edition, relation with attribute,  search and geo-referencing are in focus. In order to achieve this goal, we provide OpenERP ORM function and operator, the same way OpenObject works. We plan to extend the ORM in order to support search,  read,  search_read,  write, and all common requests. We also include a geo-OSV field class that allows data creation, browsing, export and basic function field request.
• To organize and prepare geo-data. Geo-data can come from multiple sources and contain multiple attributes; we want to create a XML view standard in order to present and prepare customized data, in term of layers, grouping, geo- data source merge, etc. Why doing this as we do not want to provide map visualization in the core? To fit the next objective of the core engine share data with the world.
• To serve geo-data. Your ERP has to be able to serve your geo-data to other GIS/Business system, in order to visualize it and exploit it. We have then chosen to serve vectorial data in form of a GEOJSON base on RPC call. Raster data are accessible through a WMS  standard services using a totally integrated Python engine. This level of integration allows us to comply with OpenERP access rules.

All technologies used are -or will be- Open Source technologies only: Postgres, Python, OpenERP, PostGIS, PGRouting, Mapnik etc. We comply with the OpenERP philosophy by avoiding using external non Python lib. This approach enables us to integrate external data source into OpenERP and integrate OpenERP into other systems.

Ok, now, we agree that the GeoEngine core is cool! You are now going to tell me that maps are even more cool! Don’t worry, we have not forgotten you…

The GeoEngine map view

Now that we have all our data stored, organized and ready to be served, we want to “map” them. For version 6.1 of OpenERP, the webclient is rebuilt and provides cutting-edge Web technologies. It is therefore the perfect association to provide an OpenERP WebClient Map addon. The main objectives of the addons are:

• To visualize, organize and conceptualize geo-data. We want any source of map data to be easily put in form, layer, choropleth etc. For this, we are going to provide a simple (json based) layer definition API. This API will be fully compatible with GeoEngine core but also with any other services. This leads up to our next objective…
• To mashup geo-information. Any system that can fulfill the API will be also able to be a provider of map views. But you should be also able, with a simple configuration, to add any layer supported by the OpenLayers technology. This means if you want to add OpenStreetMap, Google map, etc, you can do it!
• Visual geo CRUD. We want to have the ability to geo-reference a point, edit a shape, do measurements, etc, directly on the map. The map view will provide all standard, modern, out- of- the-box GIS features.

Conclusion

We want to open OpenERP to the GIS world, and ensure freedom and promotion of geo-data and communication between systems.

We are really excited to explore a new environment which includes both ERP and GIS system! Our experience and passion will  inevitably lead the way to this cutting edge technological adventure, in alignment with the OpenSource spirit.

The official project homepage will open very soon. Keep posted!

Nicolas Bessi, for Camptocamp

These developments allow, among other things, to display customers within a precise location, to analyze sales figures for a selected country, to visualize different logistic flows, and to provide maps for any other data available in OpenERP. Users can place simple marks, graphs, and colors per geographical area, as well as calculate distances and surfaces.

This map view opens unlimited Geo-BI (Geographic Business Intelligence) possibilities to companies using OpenERP. Camptocamp’s contibution to the geographical dimension is presented here : see the full article and video.