Got a JCalendar!

The Overactive Logistics project has decided to make use of the JCalendar component which is part of the FLib open source library created by Antonio Freixas.

His outstanding work can be found at http://flib.sourceforge.net

Kuddos Tony!

Here is an screenshoot of JCalendar

Screenshoots! Screenshoots!

With the new Pre Alpha 1.1 release I thought it would be a good idea to publish some screenshoots. Here they are:

Overactive Logistics Version Pre Alpha 1.1 released

WHAT IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS
Overactive Logistics is a freight forwarding open source software solution being developed for the cargo transportation industry.
It runs in both web based or stand alone modes and provides a graphical user interface with rich client capabilities.

UNDER WHAT OPEN SOURCE LICENSE IS OVERACTIVE LOGISTICS RELEASED
Overactive Logistics is being release under the Overactive Source Public License which is a derivative from the Mozilla Public License.

WHAT ARE THE GOALS FOR THE FIRST BETA VERSION
The initial Beta version aims to provide the following modules:

-Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-Incoming Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Vendor maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance
-Reports

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS VERSION (PRE ALPHA 1.1)
This version went under a heavy refactoring to make use of inheritance which was not possible before the EJB 3.0 port. Also the Overactive Renderer
was refactored to implement an improved mechanism for gui component reuse and event handling plus a better way to reference parent window callers.
The Overactive Logistics code had to be refactored as well to make use of these new features.
This version Pre Alpha 1.1 contains the definite release of the arquitecture that will be used during the rest of the project, no major changes are expected.

-Vendor maintenance
-SCAC maintenance
-IATA maintenance
-FMC maintenance
-Carrier maintenace (Air, Land, Ocean)
-Forwarding Agent maintenance
-Ports maintenance
-Schedule D maintenance
-Schedule K maintenance
-Customer maintenance
-Security roles maintenance
-Users maintenance
-Company maintenance
-An snapshoot of Outgoing Shipments (Air, Ground, Ocean)

WHERE TO GET UP TO DATE INFORMATION ABOUT PROJECT STATUS
You can get information about the project current status and development efforts in our blog located at:
http://overactive-logistics.blogspot.com

And you can download the project from Sourceforge at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/overactive

HOW TO CONTACT US
You can contact us sending us an email to:
overactive.source@gmail.com

Guts and glory!

I spent some time today updating the class diagrams to reflect the latest refactoring efforts. I'll be publishing a new Pre Alpha 1.1 release before the end of this week before heading for the construction of the shipments module.

Got vendors maintenance module!

For the last few months Overactive Logistcs went through a heavy refactoring first to support EJB3.0 in order to make effective use of inheritance and second to implement an improved mechanism for gui component reuse and event handling plus a better way to reference parent window callers.

The refactoring is completely done! and Overactive Logistics is now back on track.
One of the latest additions is the implementation of the vendors maintenance module, here are some screenshoots.

Here we have opened the vendors module and have pressed the search button.
The vendors list window shows the vendors that have been created.



















After selecting the vendor it is displayed in the module.



















This module and other refactorings that have been made to the company maintenance will support the creation of shipments.

A new version Overactive Logistics Pre Alpha 1.1 will be released this week.

The Overactive Manifiesto.

First of all this is not a will-be-dead project, meaning that it is not one of the thousands of projects that are started by a group of highly motivated individuals only to be abandoned somewhere in SourceForge a couple of months later.

Certainly the development of Overactive Logistics has been at small pace but this is mainly because I'm the only developer, I do not have any sort of funding and all my work is done during my spare time. Like many Open Source software enthusiasts I have a day job as a Software Developer plus wife and kids.

The Overactive Logistics solution is being developed on top of two frameworks Overactive Core which I built after finding Struts way to robust to fit my needs and Overactive Renderer which is my way to provide a solution for adding rich client capabilities to web based applications.

The development of these two frameworks took me nearly 2 years before I decided to embark on the trek to develop Overactive Logistics.

So why Overactive Logistics?

Most Open Source software efforts nowadays are focused on the creation of programming languages, development environments, frameworks, application servers and operating systems. In comparison enterprise business software solutions like Compiere and SugarCRM are not as many.

Overactive Logistics is an effort to create a robust enterprise Open Source solution for the cargo transportation industry that fits in that category and that freight forwarders can use to manage their logistic operations.

The way I'm heading is that eventually when Overactive Logistics gets mature enough and the right moment arrives, I'll be looking to create an start-up that provides support, training and software implementation services around the product. This company will use only the Open Source business model and will focus initially on Overactive Logistics with later plans to develop more solutions.

Any questions or comments can be sent to the following email address:

overactive.source@gmail.com

"this" and "parent"

During the ongoing refactoring efforts I found necesary to improve the way screens can be reused after being renderer by the Overactive Renderer. This issue was partially fixed in the current demos by the introduction of a "key" attribute in the spec for each component description. This key was randomly generated and managed in the web commands of the application making the code low cohesive that what it should be.

During the last week I worked to come up with a model that promotes reusability by delegating the management of the key to the Overactive Renderer eliminating the need to manage the key in the code of the application making the stylesheets and web command easier to read and maintain.

With this model the introduction of two prefixes have been intruduced: "this" and "parent".

The key as I mentioned is generated and managed internally now by the Overactive Renderer. Now we can only invoke actions on components that are defined in the same form by using "this". When invoking an action on a component of a parent window the use of the prefix parent "parent" has been introduced.

My efforts during the comming days will be to cleanup all the stylesheets to make use of this new model.