It cannot be said the their is a strong community behind Erpal Platform. Issues are rarely commented and the development status is "minimally maintained". But even if Erpal Platform has still a lot of needs to be improved it will be surely a pity to abandon this very good ERP projection. However sometime I am wondering: Are I the only Erpal Platform user, applying t to a production site? So you out there, using ERPAL Platform as well coudl you give a feedback if and how you use it?

Regarding my own use of ERPAL platform I have to say I use it mainly as CRM Tool. I would like to use more the Commerce part, but I still cold not find a way how to dominate the very the VAT calculations.
Similar with the project management. For there are documentation about people feel a little bit lost with. How the different project management components interact. - I spend hours with, made various tests tryouts on good luck, but still could not find out the inherent logic and how to modify it to my needs then.

So thank again for any feedback out there you the other ERPAL platform users (you should be around 100 due the usage statistics).

Comments

ChoY created an issue.

Francewhoa’s picture

Francewhoa
he/him
Primary language French
Location Sept-Îles, Québec, 🇨🇦
CreditAttribution: Francewhoa at Ubertus.org commented

Hi ChoY :)

Thanks for sharing your story about how you use ERPAL platform. And thanks for all your contributions to Drupal.

It cannot be said the their is a strong community behind Erpal Platform. Issues are rarely commented and the development status is "minimally maintained".

I hope the following helps. There are many ways to increase the response time and increase the participation. Here are two you might be interested to consider:

  1. Contribute back yourself: That page list several areas in which you could contribute. The more people contribute the faster is the response time.
  2. Pay others to contribute back for you: On that marketplace page you could find a Drupal services provider to your liking. Which would be happy to discuss your needs and make arrangements. Optionally each paid contribution could be credited to you or your organization.

Loving back your Drupal community result in multiple benefits for you

As for our use of ERPAL at Ubertus, we use the related ERPAL for Service Providers. For pretty much everything listed on that documentation page. I'm not familiar with ERPAL platform so I'll let other contributors reply.

ChoY’s picture

ChoY CreditAttribution: ChoY as a volunteer and commented

Hi Francewhoa,
thanks for your comments. To your info:
I started to work with ERPAL about 2 years ago. At the time it was to decide either to choose ERPAL for Service providers or ERPAL platform. I've chosen the platform, because it seems to be more flexible, and, as very important plus: ERPAL platform was very promoted by Bright Solutions to upgrade it to D8. And indeed, ERPAL platform is more flexible and can be applied for a wider range of ERP needs. But in between, I am no more sure if I made the right decision. The ERPAL platform community is mostly abandoned and the developers of supported by Bright Solutions continue just minimally maintaining the ERPAL platform.

For now I decided to continue with Erpal Platform on a productive site just because I neither have time nor finances to change the ERP-Tool in the middle of my daily works with all the data stored. Additionally the ERPAL Platform has a very big disadvantage: There are no easy way to import/export data. It will need the development of an own module - The reason is, that the developers decided to use the commerce module to stire postal addresses and field collection for communication data, instead integrating all into crm_core. As consequence of this decision neither feeds or migrate modules are compatible for import/export.

Their were once plans to resolve this, just as they were plans to upgrade regularly the distribution by Bright Solutions. This seems to be no more the case. It looks that other have to take over this great ERP initiative they gave birth to the Drupal Community 2 years ago. From my side I am very willing to add my experiences and own modest add-ons to ERPAL platform (and did it yet in the past), but I have sometimes the impression there is no ine any more outside there to discuss about. As I observe the ERPAL platform over the last months, Issues are rarely reported the existing issues they are not responded any more (as they were regularly still a year ago).
This is the reason why started this this issue: "Who is using ERPAL platform for production and how?" and I ask myself why are so few responses neither on this issue, nor on others? Has the ERPAL platform to be considered as an abandoned project? I hope not and will be glad on anyone rejoining actively he ERPAL platform community.

sahaj’s picture

sahaj CreditAttribution: sahaj commented

@ChoY & @Francewhoa,

Thanks for your contribution and sharing.

I'm also feeling worried about ERPAL situation. As I don't see much happening on the maintenance side of this distribution.

I don't have much experience in real production situation, as I just started to develop 3 projects based on ERPAL, and they are not yet launched.

I also hesitated a bit between choosing ERPAL platform or ERPAL for Service Providers, but I was more interested by to possibilities of ERPAL platform.

As my projects are not to big, I'm somehow hoping for an D8 alternative coming before the projects grows too much and make them difficult to migrate.

ChoY’s picture

ChoY CreditAttribution: ChoY as a volunteer and commented

Hi sahaj,
an answer to our open questions and future on the Erpal Platform should come from the initiators of ERPAL bechthold (Software-Development) and/or manuelBS (CEO of the ERPAL development sponsor company Bright Solutions). But it looks that they retired totally their engagement with for reasons out of my knowledge. But in same time it looks that they are not willing t declare it as an abandoned project.

1-2 years ago they made a lot of publicity for the project (as still to see at http://www.eroal.info). It was the reason why I decided to work with Erpal Platform in the hope it will heave a steady growing community and a permanent public support by the developers. Evidentially this isn't the case any more. Currently I still use Erpal Platform, but I try in same time to create a solution with the given Drupal 8 instruments (I am not a coding developer). - And I do not want to think about the headache it will take to export all my data input from the Erpal Platform, because the creators of ERPAL made a big mistake when they started the project: The forgot to integrate an easy solution for import/export via feeds or migrate. When I started with ERPAL Platform it looked that they were a data migration module on they way, just as a migration to Drupal8 but then all further development stopped. - That is the nowadays ERPAL Platform situation.
In this given situation I see the only future for ERPAL Platform, if either Bright Solutions retake the charge for further development and Drupal8 or one or several developers and/or sponsors from other parties retake the bar on the further development and d8 migration.. Else ERPAL platform will end, as a nice idea, as so much other open source initiatives.

Francewhoa’s picture

Francewhoa
he/him
Primary language French
Location Sept-Îles, Québec, 🇨🇦
CreditAttribution: Francewhoa at Ubertus.org commented

Hi ChoY and sahaj :) Feel really free to use ERPAL Platform or ERPAL for Service Providers which ever better match your unique needs

For those interested in ERPAL for Service Providers there is a port to Drupal 8 in progress at https://www.drupal.org/node/2615372
All contributions are welcome :) Roughly 40%+ of the ports are done. Yayaya :) That's 24+ ports done and 26 to do.

Speaking of ERPAL for Service Providers on Drupal 7 the last dev released update was recently one week ago on April 19, 2017

If someone is interested to contribute porting ERPAL Platform to Drupal 8 you might find that general documentation of interest. Or this direct link.