About
Welcome to this community driven OPEN SOURCE initiative, to bring a MODERN, DB2 for i and ILE based, data-centric, multi-tier (MVC), NATIVE (to IBM i) base ERP application FREE to the entire installed base, subject to the terms of the Apache 2 licensing conditions.
The ALPHA release 0.1 was announced on 15 October 2018 during the COMMON Fall Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The objective of this initial ALPHA release, is to seek input from the community, to validate the architecture and ensure it will serve the requirement of the majority of global installations who seek to develop modern, NATIVE applications for IBM i.
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’s (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”).
The architecture will DV be finalised by 21 January 2019, with a fully functional product for general release and announcement on DV 20 May 2019.
Initial intERPrise Architectural and Standards Committee
The following global community members have agreed to serve this initiative as architectural and standards committee members (“the committee”) until at least the COMMON Spring Conference in 2020.
Chris Hird CHAIRPERSON
Committee Responsibilities
- Ensure that this initiative stays true to the original objective.
- Lay a solid foundation and principles, to guide the future of this initiative.
- Keep this initiative focused and true to the stated objectives.
- Considering all proposals for enhancements and refinements to the architecture and development standards.
- VOTE (simple majority vote) on future standards and objectives and to ensure independence and focus on what is best for the installed (USERS) base.
- Keeping the committee accountable and unbiased/independent of (personal) commercial objectives, focused on what the USERS (installed base) need.
- Ensure that IBM i is leveraged as far as possible.
- Managing the data model.
Please acknowledge that this project will remain a work in progress for quite a while. Should you have ANY suggestions on how we can improve, please do not hesitate to contact our Chairperson.
The architecture of intERPrise is represented by the following graphic:
The committee will use the above graphic representation on all considerations and deliberations for suggested amendments and improvements to the design. ABSOLUTE data centricity is however not open for debate.
TEMBO (AO) is responsible for the complete database layer, which will include all code to the IO Services layer, as well as BASE Enterprise and Transport Services components. The committee will consider all proposals for enhancements to the data model and will appoint a “database steering committee” as soon as possible.
Until 21 January 2019 the primary focus will be on the architecture and integration points, as it will have a major impact on all the components. Until then, the committee will continuously refresh the source code.
For purposes of forming a clear picture of the complete stack of components, kindly focus on the GL, Debtor and Creditor components, which represents how all other entities and functions will be constructed, integrated and behave.
