Seeing that ofBiz's developer docs are so atrocious, I'm gonna start documenting my learnings here. Maybe they'll find their way to ofBiz's Wiki, which is also in a terrifying state of disrepair.

  • ofBizHome/base/config/component-load.xml: contains information on which components are loaded. Comment out a couple when developing to lower startup time.
  • ${component}/data/${component}TypeData.xml contains data that can be loaded into the database. Use WebTools to load the data into DB.
  • Every new component needs ofbiz-component.xml in the component's home directory.
  • The base-permission attribute in webapp in ofbiz-component.xml refers to the role that must exist for a user to log-in to this webapp. So, when creating a new component, its important to also load data into security_permission and security_group_permission so users can log-in.
  • The recommended way of developing forms is using the FormWidget. This basically involves creating a ${component}Forms.xml and placing in the same folder as your .ftl files. Check out examples in the Content webapp.

That's all for tonight.. just wanted to jot them down before I forget.

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