• What is OFBiz?
• Roadmap
• Demos
• Tutorials
• Training Video
• Downloads
• Accounting/GL
• CRM/SFA
• Resources
• Mentoring
• opentaps CD

Java Prerequisites for Working with OFBiz

by Si Chen

This is written for PHP/Perl/Python/ASP programmers who would like to learn how to develop applications with Open For Business.

Java is a big language, but to develop applications with OFBiz, you do not need to learn all of it. This is because OFBiz already gives you much of what you need for a large application, right out of the box. Most of your time will be spent learning the OFBiz frameworks and tools.

You do, however, need to know some Java basics, which an experienced programmer could pick up pretty quickly. This is my list of what you should know about Java before working with OFBiz:

• The basics of object oriented programming in Java, including:
  • what packages, classes, and objects are;
  • how to import a class;
  • how constructors are used to create objects;
  • how class methods are created and used;
  • the difference between public, private, and static methods.
• How to read and use Javadocs like these.
• Be able to use control statements, such as if-then-else, while, for.
• Be able to work with Lists, Maps, and Iterators.
• Know what Java Exceptions are and how try ... catch works.
• Basic understanding of what servlets and HttpServletRequest and HttpSession objects are.

The rest you can pick up as you go, learning from the existing cde in OFBiz.

Thinking in Java is an excellent book that will teach you not just how to program in Java but also the ideas behind Java, so you can truly appreciate this complex language. I would recommend reading Chapters 1 through 5, which cover object-oriented programming, control flows, and how to create classes and methods, and maybe glancing at Chapter 9, which deals with exceptions handling.