iDempiere. Community Powered Enterprise, also known as OSGi ADempiere, is an open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that is fully navigable on PCs, tablets and smartphones, it also has customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) functions. It is in contrast to proprietary or most other open source ERP solutions driven only by a community of supporters.

iDempiere
Developer(s)virtual community
Initial releaseOctober 31, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-10-31)
Stable release
v11 / Daily release[1]
Preview release
v12 / Dev Build
Repositoryhttps://github.com/idempiere/idempiere
Written inJava, SQL
Operating systemWindows, Linux, Mac, Solaris
PlatformOSGi, Jetty, ZK (framework)
Available in16 languages
List of languages
English, German, Indonesian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese,[2] Romanian, Russian, Polish, Thai, Arabic, Bosnian, Portuguese, Catalán, Simplified Chinese, and many others
TypeERP, CRM, SCM
LicenseGPLv2
Websitewww.idempiere.org

Overview

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The architecture of the iDempiere system allows it to easily expand its functions while maintaining a simple and flexible state of the ERP business system, iDempiere can be used freely and it supports:[3]

  • Multiple tenants
  • Multiple organizations (branches, plants, etc.)
  • Multiple languages (29 localizations; mixed access in a single installation is possible)
  • Multiple currencies
  • Multiple account schemas
  • Multiple-user

History

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1999, Jorg Janke creates Compiere a predecessor of iDempiere. Jorg had previously worked at Oracle in Germany and the USA.[4]

2006, starts the development of ADempiere as a fork of the open source version of Compiere.

2008–2010, in the Adempiere community some users work on a modular ERP design proposal, with some OSGI implementations like Apache Felix[5] and Equinox.[6]

2010, Adempiere 3.6.0 LTS[7] and Branch GlobalQSS Adempiere361 are launched.

Version number Release date[8] Notes
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0.a Halloween Edition October 31, 2012[9]
  • First official version
  • Alpha version
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0b Devina April 24, 2013[10] Beta version
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0c Devina LTS June 27, 2013[10]
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0 October 31, 2013[10]
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.1 October 31, 2014[10]
Old version, no longer maintained: 3.1 Maitreyi October 31, 2015[11]
Old version, no longer maintained: 4.1 October 31, 2016[12]
Old version, no longer maintained: 5.1 October 31, 2017[13]
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.1 November 4, 2018[14]
Old version, no longer maintained: 6.2 January 4, 2019
Old version, no longer maintained: 7.1 November 22, 2019
Old version, no longer maintained: 8.1 November 3, 2020
  • Release candidate
Old version, no longer maintained: 8.2 December 20, 2020
  • 8.2 Phong
Old version, no longer maintained: 9 December 24, 2021
  • 9 Horizon
Old version, no longer maintained: 10 December 24, 2022
  • 10 Peace
Current stable version: 11 December 24, 2023
  • Daily maintained version 11 Synergy
  • Stable version
  • 11 Synergy
Legend:
Old version
Old version, still maintained
Current stable version
Latest preview version
Future release

2011, due to disagreements in the former ADempiere developer community[15] they decided to use the new name iDempiere for the code path with the new OSGi architecture. So iDempiere can be seen as the next generation of ADempiere or as a fork of the ADempiere Branch GlobalQSS Adempiere361.[16] The majority of the active developer community started to work on iDempiere.[17]

The big difference made on iDempiere 1.0 vs ADempiere was the platform technology upgrade to the OSGi framework that allows iDempiere to have plug-ins,[18] so a lot of specific Code made on Adempiere have been updated as plug-ins in iDempiere.,[19] Also Jboss was replaced with Apache Tomcat improving the performance and memory footprint. Further upgrades were a new automatic build system based on Eclipse Buckminster,[20][21] a major ZK upgrade (from ZK3.6 to ZK6) which allowed redesign of the web GUI.

2015, on version 3.1 Apache Tomcat was replaced with Jetty.[22]

2017, on version 5.1 the ZK framework was updated to version 8.0.2.2 and Oracle was successfully tested for Oracle 12C.[10]

2018, in version 6.1, OpenJDK was updated from version 8 to 10. The Eclipse Buckminster dependency for idempiere compilation changed to the maven tycho dependency.[23]

2019, in version 6.2, OpenJDK was updated to version 11, the code was migrated from bitbucket/mercurial to GitHub/git one month before the release of version 7.1.[24] New chat channels were implemented in Mattermost to replace the IRC channel for future discussions.[25]

2023, in version 11, OpenJDK was updated to version 17

Awards and recognition

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"Winner of InfoWorld's Bossie award for best open source software application", awarded in 2015[26] and 2016.[27]

SourceForge - "Community Choice" Project of the Month in July 2016[28] and February 2018.[29]

Computer Review (Russian web page) - The best "free" ERP-systems of primary, secondary and higher levels, 5 November 2015.[30]

PCQuest - "7 Open Source ERP Software For Your Business", 20 May 2016.[31]

Capterra Logistics Technology Blog - "The Top 8 Free, Open Source ERP Software",[32] July 26, 2017.

Platform

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iDempiere consists of a Java server (based on a Jetty container) with a ZK 9.6 web GUI. It uses the OSGi framework for modularization. It has Oracle >=12C and PostgreSQL >=10 database support.[33]

It works as a web client software in Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Edge browsers that allow users to open related records quickly and easily via links.

Key Features

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Application dictionary and customization

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Application dictionary iDempiere

This is a feature of iDempiere that extends the concept of a data dictionary to an "Active Data Dictionary" that lets it manage entities, validation rules, windows, tables, formats, and other customizations of the application without new JAVA code. So iDempiere can be seen not only as an ERP but also as a platform to build database driven applications.

Plug-ins

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The second feature of iDempiere are the plug-ins to modify or extend the ERP, CRM and SCM functionality.[34] With the OSGi specification individual bundles of code (plug-ins) connect together in a dynamic way, the iDempiere-wiki allows users to rate the known plug-ins in the plugin market.[35]

Workflows

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iDempiere has a Workflow Engine based on WfMC standard, to manage document workflow process and BPM requirements.

Reports

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iDempiere has a simple, configurable and powerful reporting format (with Application Directory) allowing zoom across data and export to a number of formats (PDF, HTML, Excel etc.), it also has integration with JasperReports for more complex reports.[36]

Web Services

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Machine-to-machine communication is possible in XML file formats, the ERP has input and output templates of web service, allowing calls to the iDempiere server in any table, process or workflow.[37]

 
iDempiere Performance indicators

Performance indicators

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Performance graphs are set from measure calculation via Application Directory. Allowing to graphically see the fulfillment of business indicators or goals.

From the graphs you can access the data that generates them, (when you click on them, the corresponding data windows are opened with the information automatically filtered.

 

Attachments and Comments

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The system allows you to add attachments, comments in the form of chat and post-it for each of the records, in this way you can add unstructured information important for teamwork and improve the traceability of transactions.

System Admin

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Access to the system is based on roles and users, it is also possible to configure audit trails for the updated fields, in this way an Audit Process can be properly managed.

Business Functionalities

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Business Processes included in CORE:

Operations

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  • Process: from quote to sales - Quotes, sale orders, sale Invoices, shipments, sales rep dashboard and sales reporting.
  • Process: from requisition to purchase - Requisitions, purchase orders, purchase invoice, material receipt and purchase reporting.
  • Supply Chain Management [33]- Inventory, product planning, warehouse management [38] and multiple location.
  • CRM [33]- Business Partner Rules, Contact management, campaign management, sales management, sales stage, sales pipeline, marketing campaign and requests.
  • Project Management - project phases and task, materials management and expense report.

Financials

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  • Financial Accounting - Management Accounting, Bank account management and reconciliation, Payments management and financial reporting.
  • Asset Management - Tracking, Deliver Assets, Customer Assets and depreciation.

Plug-ins

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Some types of add-ons related to business processes are [35] interactive BI dashboard,[39][40] specific industry requirements (like Asset Maintenance,[41] Manufacturing and Kanban Dashboard), localizations, and other software integrations (like Asterisk,[42] Openbravo Pos, Google Maps).

Community Powered

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iDempiere is a project with a high activity,[43][44] supported by a worldwide community of committed people organized as a decentralized bazaar. There is no single person or company ruling the project or many of the parts, much like the wiki websites, build server, trackers, forums, etc. The community includes end users, implementers and subject matter specialists.

There are active local communities in Japan, China, USA, Germany, Indonesia, Brasil, Malaysia, Colombia, India, Russia, and other countries.[45] The community of people working with the software uses different tools to communicate around the world, such as Multi-language Project Wiki,[46] Google forums[47] and Mattermost channels. Wider reception comes also through speeches held in open source conferences like de:OpenRheinRuhr[48] and on Universities.

World Conferences

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  • 2013 May 16/17 – Krefeld, Germany. Visited by about 30 core developers from 4 continents.[49]
  • 2014 March 7 – Bonn, Germany. (informal German iDempiere Conference).[50]
  • 2015 Sep 3/4 – Krefeld, Germany. Visited by about 38 core developers from 5 continents.[51][52]
  • 2019 Oct 31/Nov 1 – Lyon, France. Visited by about 52 core developers from 23 countries, 5 continents.[53][54]
  • 2023 February 22 & 23 - Manama, Bahrain. Visited by about 30 core developers/implementors/integrators from 18 different countries & 5 continents.

Development

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The development environment (IDE) used for iDempiere is Eclipse with maven/Tycho, Git, Equinox ( OSGi )[55] and Apache Felix Web Console.

Idempiere uses Jira for bug/issue tracking, continuous integration and Real-time collaboration,[56] in this way it integrate the contributions of the community in an agile way, however all source goes through peer review before making it to the core.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Cambios". jenkins.idempiere.org Jenkins. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  2. ^ "JPiere: "Japan iDempiere"". osdn.net. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  3. ^ Harvey, Cynthia (22 August 2016). "Open Source Software for Business: 12 Leading Apps, slide 8". Datamation. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  4. ^ "Jörg Gedanken". Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  5. ^ "ADempiere/OSGi, Integration Revision as of 05:51, 30 July 2008". Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  6. ^ "Equinox Integration". Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  7. ^ "Sourceforge Adempiere ERP Business Suite Official Release/Adempiere 3.6.0". Retrieved 17 September 2017.
  8. ^ "Downloads". Retrieved 2014-03-09.
  9. ^ "iDempiere release 1.0.a Halloween Edition". Retrieved 2014-02-08.
  10. ^ a b c d e "Category:New Features". wiki.idempiere.org. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  11. ^ "Announcing release 3.1 Maitreyi". Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  12. ^ "Release 4.1". Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  13. ^ "Release 5.1".
  14. ^ "Release 6.1".
  15. ^ "Adempiere Contributors". Open Hub. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  16. ^ "Branch_GlobalQSS_361". www.adempiere.com. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  17. ^ "Compare ADempiere and iDempiere (ADempiere vs. iDempiere)". 2 February 2014.
  18. ^ "First look at IDempiere". 24 February 2013.
  19. ^ "Online plugins conversion documentation". red1.org. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
  20. ^ "Build the iDempiere Project using Eclipse with buckminster". 7 September 2011. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
  21. ^ "iDempiere and Buckminster: building a web-based OSGi application". 27 July 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  22. ^ "Platform Upgrade for r3". Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  23. ^ "move idempiere build to maven tycho". atlassian.net. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  24. ^ "Commits". GitHub. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  25. ^ "Mattermost server (replacement for IRC) - meeting tomorrow on mattermost". Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  26. ^ "Bossie Award 2015". www.infoworld.com. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  27. ^ "Bossie Award 2016". www.infoworld.com. 21 September 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
  28. ^ "July 2016, "Community Choice" Project of the Month – iDempiere". www.SourceForge.net. July 2016. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  29. ^ "February 2018, "Community Choice" Project of the Month – iDempiere". www.SourceForge.net. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  30. ^ Chernikov, Alexander (5 November 2015). "Лучшие "free" ERP-системы начального, среднего и высшего уровня (The best "free" ERP-systems of primary, secondary and higher levels)". ko.com.ua. «Компьютерного обозрения». Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  31. ^ Yadav, Sonam. "7 Open Source ERP Software For Your Business". PCQuest. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  32. ^ "The Top 8 Free, Open Source ERP Software". capterra.com. Capterra Logistics Technology Blog. 26 July 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  33. ^ a b c "10 Best open source software in 2017". www.tgdaily.com. 20 March 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  34. ^ O'Sullivan, Gerald (25 July 2017). "iDempiere and OSGi: a modular Java architecture". surfacedetail.blogspot.com. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  35. ^ a b "Category:AvailablePlugins". Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  36. ^ "JasperReports redesign". Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  37. ^ "Category:Web Services". wiki.idempiere.org. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
  38. ^ Quirk, Elizabeth (7 September 2018). "The Top Open Source ERP Platforms". Solutions Review. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
  39. ^ "Excel Dashboard Integration". red1.org. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  40. ^ QUY, HIEP LE. "ID-plugin Small BI". bitbucket.org. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  41. ^ A GUIDE ON HOW TO INSTALL, IMPLEMENT, INNOVATE Maintenance Prevention (Version 1.0 ed.). 2013. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  42. ^ "de.evenos-consulting.asterisk". bitbucket.org. Archived from the original on 30 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  43. ^ "Project Summary". Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  44. ^ "About Project Activity Icons". Archived from the original on 2018-04-20. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
  45. ^ "Download statistics sorted by countries". Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  46. ^ "iDempiere Wiki". Retrieved 2014-03-12.
  47. ^ "Resultados de la búsqueda en grupos de idempiere". Retrieved 2015-08-16.
  48. ^ "speech 2013". Retrieved 2014-03-16.
  49. ^ "IDempiere World Conference 2013". wiki iDempiere. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  50. ^ "iDempierean Conference this March in Bonn". facebook.com/iDempiere. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  51. ^ "IDempiere World Conference 2015". wiki iDempiere. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  52. ^ Bx Service GmbH. "iDempiere World Conference 2015". youtube.com. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  53. ^ "IDempiere World Conference 2019". wiki iDempiere.
  54. ^ "iDempiere World Conference 2019". youtube.com.
  55. ^ "NF5.1 Platform Upgrade". Retrieved 3 Aug 2016.
  56. ^ "System Dashboard". www.atlassian.net. Retrieved 16 December 2017.

Further reading

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