Postbooks
Encyclopedia
PostBooks is an open source
accounting and enterprise resource planning
business system geared toward small to medium sized businesses. It is released under a CPAL
license and is thus free software
. PostBooks is maintained as an open source project on SourceForge.net
but is based on the commercially licensed xTuple
ERP system created by xTuple
, a private software company based in Norfolk, VA.
Translations: Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
database. Finally, the name suggests PostBooks as a logical step of progression for businesses that have outgrown the popular QuickBooks
small business accounting product by Intuit.
In July 2007 the company formally known as OpenMFG simultaneously announced the change of their corporate name from OpenMFG to xTuple and the launch of the PostBooks open source project at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention
in Portland, Oregon. The project was originally to be released under the "xTuple License," a derivative of the Mozilla Public License
, but xTuple was quickly criticized for introducing "yet another" open source license variant However, at that very same conference SocialText
announced the release of the new Open Source Initiative
approved Common Public Attribution License
(CPAL). Two days later xTuple switched PostBooks to CPAL and became the second company to adopt this license which is currently the license in use today.
The first stable release of PostBooks was version 2.2.0 announced in September 2007. Since then PostBooks has quickly catapulted to and remained in the top 10 most active projects on SourceForge.
using Qt
by Nokia
, with PostgreSQL
providing the back end database. The use of Qt and PostgreSQL allows both the client and the server to be run on Windows
, Macintosh
, or Linux
operating systems. The strategy behind this technology platform is to avoid the number of "moving parts" and complexity that accompanies interpreted language
based solutions such as the Java
or .NET framework
that require a runtime library
to be installed and kept up to date on every client machine. This approach allows the client software to be run from a server with no installation requirements at the client machine, which is presumably helpful to smaller businesses that do not have the in-house technical resources to support a complex deployment. As a general rule, as much business logic is stored and maintained in the database as possible to reduce the size and complexity of the client.
PostBooks is divided into 7 functional modules: Accounting, Sales, CRM, Manufacture, Purchase, Inventory and Products. It supports multi-currency and multi-language capability and is therefore suited for international deployment. All modules are integrated into a single common code base in the client, and reside in a single database schema on the server. The client for both PostBooks and its older and more comprehensive commercial brethren, OpenMFG, is identical. The difference between the two is completely managed in the database schema where the OpenMFG database includes additional tables and functions to support larger enterprises. At login the client checks to see whether it is logging into a PostBooks, Standard, or Manufacturing database, and changes its menu structure accordingly.
PostBooks uses the OpenRPT report writer and renderer as its embedded reporting engine. OpenRPT is an LGPL licensed open source project also administered by xTuple and hosted on Source Forge.
PostBooks is written using English as the base language but has been or is being translated into several languages by the community at large including Spanish, French, German, Russian, Turkish, Chinese and Portuguese.
A dedicated Russian community website being maintained independently of xTuple has been created.
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
accounting and enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...
business system geared toward small to medium sized businesses. It is released under a CPAL
Common Public Attribution License
The Common Public Attribution License is a free software license approved by the Open Source Initiative in 2007. Its purpose is to be a general license for software distributed over a network...
license and is thus free software
Free software
Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...
. PostBooks is maintained as an open source project on SourceForge.net
SourceForge.net
SourceForge is a web-based source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development. The website runs a version of SourceForge Enterprise Edition, forked from the last open-source version available...
but is based on the commercially licensed xTuple
XTuple
xTuple is an Enterprise Software company, author of three products branded under the name xTuple ERP. The PostBooks Edition of xTuple ERP is a Free and Open Source Software application, available for download from SourceForge on the PostBooks project page. The Standard and Manufacturing Editions...
ERP system created by xTuple
XTuple
xTuple is an Enterprise Software company, author of three products branded under the name xTuple ERP. The PostBooks Edition of xTuple ERP is a Free and Open Source Software application, available for download from SourceForge on the PostBooks project page. The Standard and Manufacturing Editions...
, a private software company based in Norfolk, VA.
Translations: Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
Name
The name PostBooks is derived from three aspects of the project. First "Post" alludes to the common concept of posting journals in accounting. Second, the name refers to the project's technological roots as it runs exclusively on the PostgreSQLPostgreSQL
PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
database. Finally, the name suggests PostBooks as a logical step of progression for businesses that have outgrown the popular QuickBooks
QuickBooks
QuickBooks is a line of business accounting software developed and marketed by Intuit.-History:Intuit was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in Mountain View, California, USA...
small business accounting product by Intuit.
History
PostBooks is the foundation of the xTuple ERP software solution developed and marketed by the company of the same name beginning in the year 2000. All of the xTuple ERP Editions are targeted toward small to midsize companies. PostBooks is the Free and Open Source Edition; Commercial offerings are the Standard Edition and the Manufacturing Edition. The company adopted a "community code" model, meaning that customers who purchase or subscribe to licenses for the product have access to view and modify the source code. Unlike open source software, however, the code was not made publicly available.In July 2007 the company formally known as OpenMFG simultaneously announced the change of their corporate name from OpenMFG to xTuple and the launch of the PostBooks open source project at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention
O'Reilly Open Source Convention
The O'Reilly Open Source Convention is an annual convention for the discussion of free and open source software. It is organized by the publisher O'Reilly Media and is held each summer in the United States.-Notable events:...
in Portland, Oregon. The project was originally to be released under the "xTuple License," a derivative of the Mozilla Public License
Mozilla Public License
The Mozilla Public License is a free and open source software license. Version 1.0 was developed by Mitchell Baker when she worked as a lawyer at Netscape Communications Corporation and version 1.1 at the Mozilla Foundation...
, but xTuple was quickly criticized for introducing "yet another" open source license variant However, at that very same conference SocialText
Socialtext
Socialtext Incorporated is a company based in Palo Alto, California that produces enterprise social software, comprising an integrated suite of web-based social software applications including microblogging, user profile, directories, groups, personal dashboards using OpenSocial widgets, and shared...
announced the release of the new Open Source Initiative
Open Source Initiative
The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software.The organization was founded in February 1998, by Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond, prompted by Netscape Communications Corporation publishing the source code for its flagship Netscape Communicator product...
approved Common Public Attribution License
Common Public Attribution License
The Common Public Attribution License is a free software license approved by the Open Source Initiative in 2007. Its purpose is to be a general license for software distributed over a network...
(CPAL). Two days later xTuple switched PostBooks to CPAL and became the second company to adopt this license which is currently the license in use today.
The first stable release of PostBooks was version 2.2.0 announced in September 2007. Since then PostBooks has quickly catapulted to and remained in the top 10 most active projects on SourceForge.
Functionality
PostBooks is based on a client–server platform using a front end Graphical client written in C++C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
using Qt
Qt (toolkit)
Qt is a cross-platform application framework that is widely used for developing application software with a graphical user interface , and also used for developing non-GUI programs such as command-line tools and consoles for servers...
by Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
, with PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL, often simply Postgres, is an object-relational database management system available for many platforms including Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, MS Windows and Mac OS X. It is released under the PostgreSQL License, which is an MIT-style license, and is thus free and open source software...
providing the back end database. The use of Qt and PostgreSQL allows both the client and the server to be run on Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
, or Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
operating systems. The strategy behind this technology platform is to avoid the number of "moving parts" and complexity that accompanies interpreted language
Interpreted language
Interpreted language is a programming language in which programs are 'indirectly' executed by an interpreter program. This can be contrasted with a compiled language which is converted into machine code and then 'directly' executed by the host CPU...
based solutions such as the Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
or .NET framework
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
that require a runtime library
Runtime library
In computer programming, a runtime library is a special program library used by a compiler, to implement functions built into a programming language, during the execution of a computer program...
to be installed and kept up to date on every client machine. This approach allows the client software to be run from a server with no installation requirements at the client machine, which is presumably helpful to smaller businesses that do not have the in-house technical resources to support a complex deployment. As a general rule, as much business logic is stored and maintained in the database as possible to reduce the size and complexity of the client.
PostBooks is divided into 7 functional modules: Accounting, Sales, CRM, Manufacture, Purchase, Inventory and Products. It supports multi-currency and multi-language capability and is therefore suited for international deployment. All modules are integrated into a single common code base in the client, and reside in a single database schema on the server. The client for both PostBooks and its older and more comprehensive commercial brethren, OpenMFG, is identical. The difference between the two is completely managed in the database schema where the OpenMFG database includes additional tables and functions to support larger enterprises. At login the client checks to see whether it is logging into a PostBooks, Standard, or Manufacturing database, and changes its menu structure accordingly.
PostBooks uses the OpenRPT report writer and renderer as its embedded reporting engine. OpenRPT is an LGPL licensed open source project also administered by xTuple and hosted on Source Forge.
Community
PostBooks has a young but growing community. While the project is technically maintained on Source Forge, most community activity is initiated at the xTuple hosted community website where additional forums and technical documents are available.PostBooks is written using English as the base language but has been or is being translated into several languages by the community at large including Spanish, French, German, Russian, Turkish, Chinese and Portuguese.
A dedicated Russian community website being maintained independently of xTuple has been created.