Have the Dev's come up an easy way to install the last stable v9?

[bkm]

@Not_a_countant

When it comes to users and businesses stability is far more critical than being cutting edge.

Ohhh my… This cannot be stated often enough or LOUD ENOUGH

Having a stable point of reference is critical to REAL businesses. ERPNext is just not grown up enough to be a real contender yet. It takes stability to be a contender.

Just so you know… (and as a real world example) I recently had to compete with the commercial software SAP. They have developed a small business edition that is stable and a bit friendlier to setup and use than their big enterprise stuff. Even though their price point was more than triple (3X) what I was going to setup with ERPNext, they went with SAP. Why you ask!?!

Simple… SAP has a ready set of documents that can be presented to show ISO9000, 9001, 9002 certification. They have their test procedures documented and in an acceptable format for clients that require that kind of data. This client was a manufacturer with about $11 million in top line receipts each year.

I routinely perform tons of regression testing in order to have equivalent docs ready for my clients, but I could not work fast enough to have them ready for version 9. The version was already advanced to version 10 before I finished testing. Testing and documenting everything takes at least 4 to 6 months of someones time (full time) and I never had a chance to finish with the rapid advancement of the versions. By using the “make-your-own” repositories method, I will at least be able to certify a version even if it means I have to stay a version behind.

So… the moral of this story? There needs to be a way to have long term stable version points if you want to compete.

Will ERPNext Foundation ever get ISO certified? I doubt it, but if they give me the tools to do it myself (LTS version points) then “they” ( the foundation ) can still be a player in this field on the backs of folks like me.

BKM

[Not_a_countant]

@bkm

“they” ( the foundation ) can still be a player in this field on the backs of folks like me.

I don’t feel it is such a bad thing if they become a player on the backs of people like you. The community needs you. It’s a win win.

@bkm

I doubt it, but if they give me the tools to do it myself (LTS version points)

Whey exactly do you need for this to happen?

@bkm

Will ERPNext Foundation ever get ISO certified?

I don’t think i care so much about ISO, as it is an overhead and more of a marketing tool. That’s just an opinion. Don’t want to flame anyone

[Julian_Robbins]

I think the fact that there is a stable v9 branch from Frappe is a good thing and the community should work with them to improve this.

The trouble is that this v9 stable branch release has not been marketed very well apart from one forum mention and you cannot easily use it for a new installation as you state. The fact that you did not know about the branch when it could be so useful to you says a lot about this. It’s early days in some ways for the project for attaining the highest level of stability that you and many others require.

Libreoffice does something similar where the latest release is called Fresh and a more mature stable release for business users is one point release behind (usually a couple of months older). Security updates and fixes are available for both branches. Something like that would work really well here.

For me V9 has been the most stable release I’ve seen over the year or so I’ve been in the community. After some V10 testing I think there are some more noticeable bugs still to be shook out. I have a few I’ve submitted which have been very quickly fixed too

Don’t forget there are quite a few Devs that are paid and work for the Community as part of the Foundation and work closely with Frappe ie Acquinha, etc

Perhaps you should bring this up with @revant_one Profile - revant_one - ERPNext Forum who is the Foundation head ? I think he would be interested in this topic …

[bkm]

@Julian_Robbins

I think the fact that there is a stable v9 branch from Frappe is a good thing and the community should work with them to improve this.

Therein lies the problem. There is not stable v9 branch.

@clarkej

v9.x.x branch build # 17075 from a run 15 days ago https://next.travis-ci.org/frappe/erpnext/builds/321313297

If you follow the above link to the test results of the build on the v9.x.x branch, you will see that it fails to build properly and there has been no activity to correct it. Just a few post up from here I posted a screenshot of it clearly stating it failed (top of right column).

So at this point it is not really worth even attempting to use that branch to generate a functional system.

@Not_a_countant

I don’t feel it is such a bad thing if they become a player on the backs of people like you. The community needs you. It’s a win win.

I agree. It is a win - win. The problem is not having a stable point from which to work on version 9.

@Not_a_countant

When exactly do you need for this to happen?

Wrong question. It is not about when " I " need this to happen. It is when it makes sense for the foundation to make it happen for the good of the the product. Right now (at least here in the USA) the economy is on the upswing and businesses are feeling more comfortable investing in their business systems to support growth. ERPNExt ‘could’ be a path toward that. However, without a way for businesses like mine to easily install and work with stable releases, businesses like mine must turn to either other software that has such stability or try to make our own stable release points. To me, that would suggest that “now” is the time for the foundation to put this process in place and try to catch the wave of small and medium businesses here that are looking to invest in themselves with new software.

And you are right… ISO certification is not something I would expect the foundation to take on. That is supposed to left to people like me (at least at this stage of the project).

BKM

[clarkej]

@bkm

If you follow the above link to the test results of the build on the v9.x.x branch, you will see that it fails to build properly and there has been no activity to correct it. Just a few post up from here I posted a screenshot of it clearly stating it failed (top of right column).

So at this point it is not really worth even attempting to use that branch to generate a functional system.

@bkm

when it makes sense for the foundation to make it happen for the good of the the product

I agree the Foundation should find resources to fix v9 to run ‘green’.

edit: change from ‘insist’ to ‘find resources’

bkm the test run results are not entirely abysmal, for example this result:

<unittest.runner.TextTestResult run=693 errors=2 failures=2>

says of the 693 tests that ran, 2 did not run - due say for eg a test setup error? - while 2 failures means that while these 2 tests ran and completed, but that the expected ‘assert’ result did not match.

Another point is note and distinguish between a ‘build failed’ versus a ‘successful build’: With the latter a given test suite did indeed run, but that some individual tests had an error or failed result. Of course a ‘failed build’ means the tests did not run at all.

[bkm]

@clarkej

the test run results are not entirely abysmal

While that may be true, I cannot in good faith use such a repository to generate an instance for my clients data to run as a production server. They are depending on me to provide only tested and functional software as their system base. If they were ever to take it upon themselves to look into the repository test results, I would have a great deal of explaining to do. That is not a good starting position for me to build a trusting relationship with my clients. Nor do I want to have to be the one to try to explain the failure results to them. Not matter what I would say, they would always have a nagging question about reliability in the back of their mind.

Also, I have yet to find a way to even make an installed instance from this branch. The few suggestions above ALL rely on an existing instance to be the starting point. From my past experience with updating ERPNext/ frappe / and bench, I would never be comfortable with the resulting system. None (as in never) of my past attempts to do an upgrade have ever worked right away and without error. So, unless there is a way to do a CLEAN install from a tested branch, I am not going to waste my time.

At this point I am trying to locate a contractor to generate for me a tested and working set of instructions for pushing my own repositories from a known working instance. I am not a developer and do not have the resources to train myself up enough to handle anything other than installing and configuring the systems. So, a set of instructions for either installing from a tested branch or for pushing my own repositories are my only options.

Since it appears the foundation is not making any effort to support v9.x.x branch, then my only real option is to find a way to create my own repositories.

Someone else asked why I don’t make my own fork of the system, I am not opposed to that, but I have no idea how to do it, and there is no comfort level with the current v9.x.x branch. Also, it comes back to not having any idea how to do a clean install from any other repository or branch in the first place. That brings me back to my search for a contractor to set this up for me.

Ultimately, I need to secure my own repository (so I know it would not be tampered with after testing) and have a custom install.py built to use the secured repo for generating clean installs. So my search for a contractor continues.

As I mentioned before, the lack of a way to do the clean install of version 9 forced me to place the most recent client into a commercial software solution instead of ERPNext. This means I am not as rushed as I was last week to get a solution. I have already given my hot client a system and they are busy learning how to use it now.

So I will continue to look into using an existing and tested instance to generate my own repositories and then am install script to use the new repos. This really seems like the only self-sufficient method I have heard of for supporting my clients properly.

Hopefully I can find a contracted solution in the next week or two. I really need something this month for my next client.

BKM

[bkm]

Wow, my ERPNext ALERTS are not working as they should. I have been here on this thread and a few hours ago @nabinhait answered my original question about how to do a clean install of the v9.x.x branch on another thread. I just got the alert here several hours later.

So for those interested, please see the following post:

ERPNext Version 10 has been released !

Try the following steps (though I have not tested): Create production setup using GitHub - frappe/bench: CLI to manage Multi-tenant deployments for Frappe appssudo python install.py --production Change branch to v9.x.x for both frappe and erpnext repository. Create a new site using bench new-site <your-site-name>. Don’t use the site created by default.

The relevant instructions are near the bottom of the thread. There is also another post further down explaining how to set the branch to the v9.x.x for use with install.py See them here:

ERPNext Version 10 has been released !

git fetch upstream git checkout v9.x.x

All good news. Now I just need to see a green test result for that branch.

BKM

[clarkej]

As a footnote to green tests BKM, test coverage matters too. That is the way forward

Help with Writing Tests - Foundation and community invite to help with 'do nothing' pass tests

Continuing the discussion from Help with Writing Tests: These two queries identify 100+ empty test cases - each one is a test class with a ‘do nothing’ test body. So they represent I think a false sense of confidence or quality assurance of code health. frappe@erpnext:~/frappe-bench$ find . -name ‘test*.py’ | xargs grep ’ pass’ | grep erpnext frappe@erpnext:~/frappe-bench$ find . -name ‘test*.py’ | xargs grep ’ pass’ | grep frappe Some of the test classes are: apps/frappe/frappe/integratio…