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ofbiz

Custom UI for Apache OFBiz backend

So, I'm working on a product based on OFBiz, and the client really didn't like the UI used in the backend even if we changed the default theme. we're in 2015 and the client is used to the fancy looking apps (like Vaadin UI).

So what can be the possible solutions ?

Building a custom theme ? Is the widget framework flexible enough ?

Create new components with some ftl files and recrete the pages the way I want ? Is it doable , if I want to change the ui for Order, Party and Inventory components for example.

Is there anyone who has done this?

Solution
    1. You can modify the existing ofbiz components and modify theme for ux improvements. Check this branch with new bootstrap theme(not in stable release yet) https://github.com/apache/ofbiz/tree/boostrap_theme
    2. You can create your own ui based on ofbiz widget system or use some existing code. For example check BigFish project backend http://bigfish.solveda.com/bfDemo.html. It has some nice looking ui for Party, Orders, Products etc., based on ofbiz widgets and Apache Licensed, but it focused on e-commerce.
    3. You can use any servlet based librafy/framework/software inside ofbiz components, with access to all ofbiz classes, entity and service layers. Ofbiz has embedded tomcat server. [component]/webbapp/ directory contains ordinary java web applications.

    Check this demo ofbiz component using Vaadin with Delegator and Dispatcher examples https://github.com/yuri0x7c1/vaadin-test.

    Also there is ZK integration tutorial in ofbiz wiki https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/OFBIZ/ZK+Rich+Client+-+integration+tutorial, but it is out of date.