[freeside-devel] freeside is HOSED. 8-(

Mon Sep 11 18:09:52 PDT 2000

	Well, I have repaired the DB finaly. The way it handles ballances definitly needs to be rethought out by an accountant/programmer. 

	I was thinking of a slightly different approach. Make 2 new tables. invoices payments. invoices go in one, and payments go intot he other. calculate the account ballance by pulling info from both tables and summing them. The way it is now a lot of work has to be done to cleanly back out a mistyped entry or a web glitch like what I ran into.

	Yes I could have asked in a different way and I apologise for being so harsh. But the truth is I use freeside because it is the only thing out there. 8-( I DO have to admit and compliment the creators on a decent first attempt. However it's obvious as of 1.2 that it should have been rewritten from scratch in full OO minimaly. At best rewritten as a C app. This mix of OO and plain perl makes it a nightmare to work with for someone jumping in aftera  bug.

	Anyways, I'm working on some changes that ill toss back into the freeside system after a few months of work. Basicly i'm taking it to full transaction oriented and re-designing the DB. I had fun learning oracle and DB design from the contractors at my main job for a large 500+table 4GB data system for logistics management. I'm open for some ideas from some more experienced DBAs on the tables, triggers, schema, and constraints.

	And like I said. My apologies for coming across so harshly. 8-/
	
	Brian Wolfe
	TerraBox.com

On Mon, Sep 11, 2000 at 03:35:46PM -0700, E Bidder wrote:
> That is definitely not the best way to go about
> getting help but you have to admit, Kristian, this
> product leaves much to be desired.
> 
> If this product were a little better thought out they
> would have no problem selling the Professional
> Services they offer.
> 
> As it stands I have yet to find anyone who has a lot
> of good things to say about it (those who are familiar
> with it).
> 
> My opinion is that it has potential but unlike many
> GPL/GNU products there is little momentum to
> add/enhance the code because of the fact that it's
> soooooo far away from being put to practical use.
> 
> For example, had I installed this, successfully tested
> it out and determined that it had the features I
> needed, I would have gladly contracted these guys to
> install, configure and customize parts of this.
> 
> Also, just to clarify, not for the professional
> services offered on this product I would not even
> bother with this constructive criticism.
> 
> It's easy enough to blow people like me off as idiots
> that just don't know what they are talking about but
> we are the majority buyers for these products.
> 
> This is just one persons opinion so please do not take
> it personally. 
> 
> 
> 
> --- Kristian Hoffmann <khoff at pc-intouch.com> wrote:
> > You sure are good at politely asking for help.  "Can
> > you help me fix my
> > broken system, ohh yea, your code sucks.  You should
> > rewrite it from
> > scratch."
> > 
> > Beside that, we have a web-based open invoice
> > report.  I'll upload it
> > shortly.
> > 
> > -Kristian
> > <khoff at pc-intouch.com>
> > 
> > On Sat, 9 Sep 2000, Brian Wolfe wrote:
> > 
> > > 	I've been using freeside for about 6 months now.
> > I had apache die on me while i was entering a
> > payment. Now freeside locks up when I try to run
> > freeside-bill -c ahzz to bill the clients.
> > > 
> > > 	What all do you need to know to be able to repair
> > my database?
> > > 
> > > fs 1.2.2
> > > ii  libdbd-mysql-p 1.2214-1       mySQL database
> > interface for Perl
> > > ii  mysql-common   3.23.22b-1     mysql database
> > common files (e.g. /etc/mysql
> > > ii  mysql-server   3.23.22b-1     mysql database
> > server binaries
> > > ii  perl-5.005     5.005.03-7.1   Larry Wall's
> > Practical Extracting and Report
> > > ii  perl-5.005-bas 5.005.03-7.1   The
> > Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister
> > > ii  perl-5.005-sui 5.005.03-7.1   Runs setuid Perl
> > scripts.
> > > ii  apache         1.3.12-2       Versatile,
> > high-performance HTTP server
> > > ii  apache-common  1.3.12-2       Support files
> > for all Apache webservers
> > > 
> > > this is on debian linux woody development.
> > > 
> > > oh yeah. what is the status of the plans to make
> > ALL database activity transaction oriented that I
> > saw float past on this list a few months ago?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 	Brian Wolfe
> > > 
> > > p.s. wishlist
> > > 	transaction based SQL interface.
> > > 	one-time billings.
> > > 	payment-backout
> > > 	billing-backout
> > > 	back-billing by user set dates. (for converting
> > from old systems)
> > > 	a C version that doesn't take 4 seconds per
> > screen to compile( yes I know of mod-perl. it
> > sucks.)
> > > 	stability.(as in some things will end up with 2
> > copies of the same user in the db and other crap
> > like that.)
> > > 	a real quickstart faq.
> > > 	a real manual (seen comments on someone doing
> > this. status?)
> > > 	past due customer reports.(a VERY important thing
> > that shoulda been done long ago)
> > > 	sales reports. (this is REALLY wishing... i
> > know...)	
> > > 	predefined types of services and bundles as
> > examples.
> > > 	an install script that makes use of CPAN for
> > packages. (detect local then grab from cpan if not
> > found)
> > > 	an export to ldap module.( vaguely remember this
> > idea floating by long time ago)
> > > 
> > > 	I'd offer my perl skils but your half OO half
> > straight perl is a nightmare. My advice is to start
> > from scratch on a full-oo or drop the OO completely.
> > > 
> > 
> 
> 
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