Recap: iDempiere Conference & Workshop in Budapest

The iDempiere community gathered in Budapest for an inspiring conference and workshop, where contributors, implementers, and enthusiasts joined forces to shape the future of the project. Here’s a summary of the key topics and initiatives discussed:

🚀 Development Highlights

• Common QuickInfo & Charts Repository: A shared repository is being created to share commonly used QuickInfo and chart configurations.
• Framework Decoupling: Murilo Habermann introduced a new repository separating the development framework from ERP features and removing legacy tables.
• Plugin Scaffolding Improvements: Ideas to enhance the plugin scaffolder by allowing custom scaffolding for components like callouts and event handlers.
• CLI Installer: There’s strong community interest in a Command Line Interface for easier iDempiere installation.
• Search Query UX: The current default search behavior is too developer-oriented and may be reworked for better usability.

📚 Documentation & Onboarding

• Plug-in Clarity: Simplify documentation by highlighting the recommended approach first and not all the possibilities even if they are outdated.
• Manual Generator: Murilo Habermann and Norbert Bede are working on a tool to generate user manuals.
• Implementer Support: There’s a clear need for basic user documentation that implementers can extend for specific customer processes.
• Improved In-App Help: Proposals include onboarding documentation, app walkthroughs, and improved contextual help within the UI.
• Documentation Cadence: Contributions should go beyond “Friday Documentation Day” to make steady progress.
• Video Limitations: Videos aren’t always practical due to maintenance and branding concerns.

🌐 REST & Integrations

• Webhooks in REST: Plans to support webhook functionality via REST.
• Modern Frontend Support: The community aims to build libraries to ease integration with modern frontend frameworks like React and Angular.

📊 Business Intelligence (BI)

A new BI Focus Group has been formed, led by Thomas Bayen, Layda Salas, and Juan Carlos Lin, with the mission to:

Manages core business functions: sales, inventory, finance, procurement, manufacturing, and more

• Modify and extend existing tables and dimensions.
• Provide out-of-the-box BI capabilities for iDempiere.

🎨 UX/UI Enhancements

• Design System & Guidelines: Reka Bede proposed improving the iDempiere design system based on best-practices (example design systems: Oracle Redwood, Material Design) with clear guidelines and a Figma file.
• Layout Flexibility: Suggestions to decouple the UI from ZK and allow CSS-based layout configurations.
• Menu & Labels: Feedback included rethinking the default tenant menu and label placements.

📣 Marketing & Communication

• Website Redesign: A modernized iDempiere website is on the horizon.
• Real-World Use Cases: Highlighting practical implementations to inspire confidence and adoption.
• Framework Branding: Discussions on positioning iDempiere as a full-featured development framework for business apps — including finding a new name.
• Plugin Marketplace: A marketplace for plugins is being considered.
• Mattermost Awareness: Surprisingly, many attendees were unaware of iDempiere’s Mattermost channel — communication strategies will improve to address this.
• Community Tools: A shift away from Google Groups is under consideration.

💻 Developer Experience (DX)

• A new #DX hashtag was proposed on Mattermost to centralize conversations around developer experience and tools.

🎉 And More…

• Conference Party Committee: Led by Murilo Habermann, because great software deserves great celebrations!
• Workflow & Tools: Evaluating tools like Linear and Exalate for better integration between Jira and GitHub.

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This event reaffirmed the strength of the iDempiere community and its commitment to constant evolution. Thank you to all who participated and contributed to the vibrant sessions in Budapest!