Drupal (as everyone here might know) is one of the most popular Open Source Content Management Systems in the web. However, it often doesn't seem to be the best choice when it comes to web shops, even though there exists Ubercart, which can turn your Drupal site into a shop as well.
OpenERP is an Open Source software for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), that is on par with a lot of the commercial software systems, at least for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). It can manage clients, quotes, invoices, warehousing, procurement and many other things that are helpful even for small companies.
For other web shop software, such as Magento, Joomla!VirtueMart, and osCommerce, there exist bindings to OpenERP that synchronize clients, products, invoices etc.
For Drupal, there is:
- OpenERP Proxy API http://drupal.org/project/openerp provides an API to communicate with OpenERP using XML-RPC calls
- OpenERP <-> Drupal synchronization feeds http://drupal.org/project/ofeeds is an in-development module to synchronize Drupal CCK fields and OpenERP products
- http://drupal.org/node/375719 is a brainstorming discussion about possible integration possibilities
- http://drupal.org/node/1050812 is another discussion about integration, aiming at product/price synchronization
My idea for the GSoC 2011 is to work further on the Drupal v6 (Ubercart v2) / OpenERP v6 integration such that
- persons (users/clients)
- products (descriptions, prices, availability, ...)
- orders (invoices, shipping, ...)
are synchronized between Ubercart and OpenERP. For that, it needs to be checked
- how functional/complete the existing Drupal module code is,
- what system should be the 'master' and which one the 'slave' (e.g. in which direction the synchronization takes place),
- how other shop/erp bindings work and what functionality they provide,
- if it is possible to make this also a useful piece of code for D7.
Afterwards, a (more) precise goal definition and roadmap can be made.
What's the benefit for Drupal?
- For those already using Drupal/Ubercart, a way to couple that with a (existing/to-be-established) professional ERP system is established.
- For those not already using Drupal/Ubercart, this can be a good reason to make a decision for that system. Drupal/Ubercart catches up in ERP integration in comparison with other Open Source webshop software.
I'm looking forward to receiving your feedback!