Using Idempiere (on Amazon) with Google Apps/Drive

[Pat]

I love Idempiere. I would like to setup Idempiere in Amazon AWS, and use pim & office system like Google Apps (Drive) or Office 365 as well.

The reason of using Cloud Office/Document system is due to security. Most documents would be kept online only and not downloadable.

Therefore, I want to let Idempiere to upload/download files from/to Amazon EBS / S3 only, but not from/to desktop.

Could anyone share his opinion and comment on this infrastructure? Is it feasible in this moment under current Idempiere version? What are ready and what need our patience? e.g. Web security, Change access path to EBS/S3, ....

Any other recommendations are also welcome. Thanks a lot.

[norber...@multimageweb.com]

HI Pat. 

as i know now existing plugin - ur just not public yet- covering - store non-structured content on Amazon S3 buckets. anyway it is possible to do by develop storage provider plugin - references http://wiki.idempiere.org/en/NF1.0_Storage_Providers

i would be interested too on this, while we using box.com. So the question is what would be better. create connector for box.com or S3. (this seconf need also a browser inside idempiere)

norbert

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[Pat]

Hi Norbert,

Just find a typing mistake in my post. I am thinking about EBS/S3 in that moment...

Correction: Therefore, I want to let Idempiere to upload/download files from/to Google Apps (Drive) / Office 365 only, but not from/to desktop.      (not Amazon EBS / S3)

Actually, I just stick on Idempiere on EC2 & RDS. 

The selection of Office system is less critical. But I will put Google Apps (Drive) or Office 365 in higher priority first than simply storage like box, dropbox or S3 etc. The former are ready PIM & Office solution as well, which can reduce many management works, including the sophisticated authority setting, as well as tight integration with mobile etc.

Thanks for your interesting link. Will take a trial on it.

[norber...@multimageweb.com]

hi Pat, 

if i understand well you are storing your content (docs) on Google Drive and Office 365 now.

you want (try define this way your demand)

1. attach google docs in idempiere as attachment (logically - means google will store physically files)

2. you want upload by idempiere GUI and store in Google

3. you want to replace Google Drive by S3 buckets and want same behaviour in google docs (upload/download from idempiere) -r denied download just open back by API in 365 tool or e.g. google excel.

anyway i dont understand your exact goal. try to state above way your goals.

norbert

[Pat]

Hi Norbert,

In ideal, it would be fantastic if an ERP system like Idempiere can be integrated with an Office Server (Office as a Service). I saw that some people in the internet is trying to do so by OpenOffice and LibreOffice.

In current practical situation, I hope:

Idempiere: AWS's EC2 + CentOS + Java

Postgresql: AWS's RDS

PIM & Office: Google Apps (Drive)

"Attachments uploaded to Idempiere" will be normally be stored inside EC2, with idempiere core system. Of course, it would be great if I can change the path to AWS's EBS/S3 or Box etc, for better protection.

Google Drive (or Office 365) is for storing other normal files, to replace the usage of local drive. The purpose is for better security and authority control in long term. (This is the key benefit for shifting to such kind of cloud system. Otherwise, keep using traditional desktop infrastructure is better for a business. This is my perspective).

Therefore, files should be uploaded from Google Drive to Idempiere (EC2) directly, and download from Idempiere (EC2) to Google Drive directly. Instead of between Idempiere and local drive. Is this description a little bit more clear to explain my goal?

Integration with Google Drive (Docs) is just the 1st level. Later level are integration with other Google Services in Google Apps.

First, most time spent by employees daily is not on ERP system, but email. So working from Email (Gmail) to ERP (Idempiere) would be a effective and necessary mode. Microsoft Dynamic show a good demo, and now many CRM on Google Apps Marketplace are adopting this model. Very efficiency.

Second, I don't feel too peaceful to expose the Idempiere directly to public, no matter through data-table on website, paypal, inquiry form for customers, news subscription etc.

It would be nice to hand over these jobs to Google Sites and forms etc. I.e. use Google as a intermediate protection. Google is more reliable than ourselves and Idempiere on network security.

Public <=> Google Site/Form/Drive/Gmail/Attachment <=> Idempiere

Hope that above description can present my picture to you, and look forward to hearing your comment. 

Pat

[redhuan d. oon]

Hi Pat,
If you can describe how the email idea works out in actual steps description, I can think about building it. I had the same idea that email is killer app to parse business activity but need more description of real life scenario written out before doing a comprehensive system.

[Pat]

Hi Redhuan,

This is actually a big topic. It is not easy for me to organize and describe it as I am a user. Originally I would rather utilize Idempiere's existing ability, plus some plug-in for necessary connection. Happy to talk with you since you are the developer and can really make changes.

I can share some my research with you. Hope they help your understanding:

Streak is a wonderful Chrome extension. We are amazing that how much it can change Gmail to a useful CRM. Worth for you to see its video. You can select the Sales video. Just 3 minutes. 

http://www.streak.com/

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/streak-for-gmail/pnnfemgpilpdaojpnkjdgfgbnnjojfik?hl=en-US

Other CRM apps working with Gmail in Google Apps:

https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home/apps/categoryHome?categoryId=3&orderBy=rating

WORKetc may be the best one, but it give no free trial for you to test.

You can take a trial on Solve360.

Other References:

KissFlow is for Process Document Flow in Google Drive.

https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home/apps/viewListing?productListingId=7788+6944677781731208008&category=&query=kissflow

Rmk: In a daily operation, there are at least 3 kind of flow:

Process Flow (Approval. May also with attachment)

Document Flow (Approval of Document, or even giving Credit for a document to reward the contributors. This system need further design. I saw that some advance companies or education associations are using this internal system, to encourage internal share of document)

Email Flow (e.g. Follow-up customers/suppliers' reply)

AODocs is for Document Authrority.

(Google Apps hasn't as native sophisticated authority setting as Ms Office 365 in this moment. Additional addon is needed)

https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/home/apps/viewListing?productListingId=21545+12098760372935137875&hp=notable

Rmk: Redhuan, I doesn't completely clear the background of and how open Idempiere will be. I know some of the developer and sponsors have relevant business background. But if possible, I would recommend Idempiere to put more focus in supporting Cloud market, no matter linkage with Google Apps/Office 365, or offering AMI in AWS. More user can quickly deploy their system within 10 minutes, and users can then help give more contribution and suggestions on functions level. I am not saying that Cloud is better than local server, but Cloud do provide some benefits. Idempiere is easier to "win" in a new market, instead of traditional market. 

[redhuan d. oon]

I went over some of the links. I wonder if KiSSFLOW can integrate to our ERP. Otherwise i am thinking of reworking on our Request CRM instead which is already neat as its integrated ground up issue ticket handling with Email routing. I learned while integrating it to Asterisk in 2006. The quick trick is to make the mail service in the ERP to checkin to the Request module and then it routes back to your mail box anyway depending on the Request rules, effectively setting the close loop. As it is you talk to Request via the request page.

[redhuan d. oon]

AFAIK, our biggest supporter, TrekGlobal has sponsored iDempiere to use it directly for its Cloud service: http://www.trekglobal.com/ 

On Monday, 5 May 2014 11:32:14 UTC+8, Pat wrote:

[Pat]

One more link for your reference. This is an email marketer. It may be what you are looking for.

http://www.nesox.com/

I implemented it for a charity organization long before.

With this, users can register/subscribe/unsubscribe membership/newsletter and even make ORDER through a simple web form. This web form then become a formatted email (or attachment) and be mailed to a mailbox behind. The server with Nesox then read that mail from email server and digest the information and read from/write into the central SQL database (For 1st registration, verification email will be sent first, of course). If needed, the central (ERP) system can output some data to an external database, which is linked to the web interface, to achieve mutual interaction. 

This way is not direct, but more safe and enough for most cases. System become more secure since email act as a firewall and real database can be hidden, together with the other powerful spam filter functions provider by Gmail, for example.

I believe not only Nesox, most Email Marketer software may have similar functions.

2 famous Open sources projects I know:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpmailer/?source=directory

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openemm/?source=directory