openTrends has developed a connector between eZPublish and Openbravo. This was done by modifying the eZPublish product and creating a new product called eZforOb. eZforOb enables interaction between an ERP and an e-commerce application with open source solutions.

eZforOb works very simply: the application connects to an Openbravo instance and downloads the product catalog. All products are saved in an invisible directory so that the online shop administrators can organize the products as necessary, defining their own catalogs.

The eZPublish core has been modified to facilitate the management of these catalogs so that, for example, no products can be added that are not in the ERP, and product management in general has been improved. For example, it is possible to conduct transactions on several products at once.

eZforOb also sends tickets (requests made in eZPublish) to Openbravo. This synchronization creates the new orders in the ERP so that the information is synchronized in both systems. It is possible to monitor the status of the orders in the e-commerce tool. As with the products, order management is carried out in the ERP (Openbravo).

The product and order synchronization is carried out between eZPublish and Openbravo by means of two mechanisms:

• On the one hand, eZPublish makes web service calls to the Openbravo instance whenever it requires a synchronization.

• All of these synchronizations are carried out using web service technology. Openbravo has web services that allow eZforOb to communicate and complete all of these synchronizations.

As long as the definition of these web services is not changed, they can be used by eZforOb with different versions of Openbravo, and as independent systems.

Click here to download the application.