FrePPLe provides an integration with the Odoo (formerly known as OpenERP),
a leading open source ERP.
The connector provides the following functionality:
Two-way integration.
The connector retrieves all master data required for planning from Odoo.
The connector publishes the resulting plan back to Odoo, either a)
automatically at the end of the planning run or b) after manual review
and approval by the planner.
Live data integration.
The connector reads the data directly from Odoo and writes the results
back. Compared to replicating data to its own database, this provides
a more native and tighter integration. It is still possible to save a
copy of the odoo in the frePPLe database to use the frePPLe user
interface.
You can still maintain additional data in the frePPLe user interface.
I.e. Odoo doesn’t need to be the only source of data for your model.
Easy to customize.
Implemented as an odoo addon module, it is easy to customize the connector
to your needs.
The integration has been developed and tested with Odoo v8 and v9.
Here are the slides presented during the Odoo user conference in October 2016.
Overview
The connector has 2 components:
An odoo addon:
All mapping logic between the Odoo and frePPLe data models is in this
module. The results are accessible on the URL http://odoo_host/frepple/xml
from which the planning engine will read data in its native XML data format
and to which it will post the results.
A frePPLe addon:
This module gives frePPLe the capability to connect to Odoo, read the data
from it, and publish back the results.
A different version is required for each version of Odoo.
The module has the following dependencies: ‘procurement’, ‘product’, ‘purchase’,
‘sale’, ‘resource’, ‘mrp’, ‘sales_order_date’, and (optional) ‘hr’.
After installation, you’ll find the following additional features in odoo:
A web interface called by the frePPLe planning engine. It is accessible at the
URL http://<host>:<port>/frepple/xml?database=<db>&language=<language>&company=<yourcompany>
A menu item in the warehouse menu to manually recreate the plan.
A scheduler task to recreate the plan as a cron job.
Extra configuration options in company editing form, as described below.
Deploying in a multi-database odoo environment
When using the connector in a configuration with multiple databases
the addon needs to be loaded as a server wide module. This is achieved
by using the option “–load frepple,web,web_kanban” option on the command
line starting the server.
In a setup with only a single odoo database this step is not required.
Configure the Odoo addon
The module adds some configuration fields on the company model.
Edit these parameters:
Calendar:
References a resource.calendar model that is used to define the working
hours.
If left unspecified, we assume 24*7 availability.
Manufacturing location:
The connector assumes each company has only a single manufacturing
location.
All bills of materials are modelled there.
Cmdline:
Command line launched when the plan generation for a company is launched
interactively from the user interface.
Note that when launched from a scheduler cron job, the command line is
configured on the job directly.
Edit the frePPLe configuration file djangosettings.py
The file is found under /etc/frepple (linux) or <install folder>bincustom
(Windows).
Assure that the freppledb.odoo is included in the setting
INSTALLED_APPS which defines the enabled extensions. By default
it is enabled.
Configure the frePPLe parameters:
odoo.url: URL of the Odoo server
odoo.db: Odoo database to connect to
odoo.user: Odoo user for the connection
odoo.password: Password for the connection
For improved security it is recommended to specify this password in the
setting ODOO_PASSWORDS in the djangosettings.py file rather then this
parameter.
odoo.language: Language for the connection.
If translated names of products, items, locations, etc they will be used.
odoo.company: Company name for which to create purchase quotation and
manufacturing orders
odoo.filter_export_purchase_order: Python filter expression for the
automatic export of purchase orders.
The expression gets as arguments ‘operationplan’ and ‘buffer’, and it
should return True if the transaction is to be included in the automated
bulk export.
odoo.filter_export_manufacturing_order: Python filter expression for the
automatic export of manufacturing orders.
The expression gets as arguments ‘operationplan’ and ‘buffer’, and it
should return True if the transaction is to be included in the automated
bulk export.
odoo.filter_export_distribution_order: Python filter expression for the
automatic export of distribution orders.
The expression gets as arguments ‘operationplan’ and ‘buffer’, and it
should return True if the transaction is to be included in the automated
bulk export.
Running the connector
You can run the connector in different ways:
Interactively from the frePPLe user interface
The execute screen has checkboxes that allow enabling reading from and
writing to Odoo.
The plan exported to odoo is a subset of the plan which passes
certain filter conditions. The remaining part of the plan can
only be exported manually from frePPLe to Odoo: see below.
From the command line
The script is especially handy when you want to regenerate the plan
automatically.
Issue the command below.
frepplectlfrepple_run--env=odoo_read_1,odoo_write
Interactively from the Odoo menu
Make sure the command line on the company you run for is configured
correctly.
Automatically with the Odoo cron scheduler
Make sure the command line on the task is configured correctly.
The connector distinguishes different modes to retrieve data from Odoo. This
allows us to schedule the extraction of larger and/or slowly changing data
volumes (eg sales order history over the last few years as required for the
forecast calculation) from the extraction of data elements that need to be
retrieved whenever the plan is generated (eg open sales orders, current
inventory).
Using the argument odoo_read_1 or odoo_read_2 specific the requested data
extraction mode. By default all data elements are extracted in mode 1.
It’ll require customization of the Odoo addon to define for which
data elements you want to use mode 2.
Incremental export to Odoo
The connector exports plan data in 2 modes from frePPLe back to Odoo.
A bulk export is run automatically run when the plan generation
is finished. See the previous section.
An incremental export from the frePPLe user interface for
individual purchase, manufacturing and distribution
orders.
When selecting a sales order for incremental export a popup window
is displayed with a list of linked purchase, manufacturing and
distribution orders.
A typical usage is to automatically export the proposed purchase for
cheap or fast moving items, and let the planner review and approve
the proposed plan for expensive or slow moving items.
Mapping details
The connector doesn’t cover all possible configurations of Odoo and frePPLe.
The connector is very likely to require some customization to fit the particular
setup of the ERP and the planning requirements in frePPLe.
