Custom 0.8-1 ------ custom is an e-commerce solution for small to medium-sized businesses that provides: - a customisable web front-end for customers and Point-of-Sale staff to place orders - for warehouse staff to manage stock - for accountants and sales staff to manage and generate invoices - for purchasing managers to keep track of suppliers and competitive pricing. Download -------- http://sf.net/projects/custom http://sf.net/projects/pysqldb OS Requirements --------------- Custom is a pure Python application with no critical OS dependencies. Therefore it is entirely your choice as to what OS you use, but it must obviously run python (see http://python.org). Python is known to run on GNU/Linux, all version of Unix, all the BSDs, BEOS, MAC/OS 10, and many others. Software Requirements --------------------- This package requires or uses some additional software packages, which can all be obtained as RPMs, Debian Packages or compiled from Source if you feel the need. At each site, RPMs, DEBs and source are all typically available for download. You will need: - An up-to-date web server capable of SSL (if you need it) and also capable of running CGI-bin scripts. e.g. Apache2 (http://apache.org) - Python 2.1 or greater (http://python.org) - the pysqldb package version 0.6 or greater (http://sf.net/projects/pysqldb) - EITHER: - MySQL client libraries (http://mysql.org) - Andy Dustman's MySQLdb package (requires MySQL client) (http://sf.net/projects/mysqldb) OR: - Pysxqmll (a Python / MS-SQL / XML client for MS-SQL 2000) (http://sf.net/projects/pysxqmll) [what a stupid name.] - The mxDateTime and DateTime packages (http://www.egenix.com/files/python/mxDateTime.html) - PyCrypto version 1.9a1 or greater (http://sf.net/projects/pycrypto) - Python HTML-TMPL (generates HTML from templates) In case you were wondering, PostgreSQL and SAPdb are under investigation to be added into the database abstraction system that custom uses. custom uses some features in the SocketServer class that were introduced in Python 2.1. If you wish to stick with Python 2.0, you may wish to copy over the SocketServer.py file from the distribution of Python 2.1 or greater, and use that (making sure that you back up your original SocketServer.py file!) Debian install ------ It's a lot easier if you are using Debian: here is a list of the package names. It'll be even easier once the Debian packaging is released. - python-crypto - python-egenix-mxdatetime - python-mysqldb - python-htmltmpl - apache or apache2 - python-pysqldb If you install the three python packages using apt-get or dselect, that should be enough to pull in all the dependencies (including Python 2.3 and MySQL) except for python-pysqldb which you will likely still need to manually download from http://sf.net/projects/pysqldb SQL --- You must also install MySQL or MS-SQL 2000 on a server, where you may wish to install the SQL server on a separate system. If you do so, as noted above you will need to put the MySQL or MS-SQL client libraries onto the Custom Server. For various reasons, a high-availability cluster pair is recommended for your SQL system. You WILL be able to run the Back Office program monitord.py, on a HA cluster, because it is designed to cope with several concurrent copies of monitord.py running off the same SQL server. monitord.py is smart enough to lock the job scheduling table in the SQL database before taking a scheduled job out of the queue, so if running a SQL cluster it must obviously support table locking - you need to check! Optional requirements --------------------- A barcode scanning device, such as those available from Worth Data (www.pcbarcode.com) that reads EAN and other barcodes and pretends to be a USB keyboard, proves to be very useful. If you are using the Linux kernel under GNU/Linux, install the full HID USB device module and the Input Device and Keyboard support modules. If compiling your own kernel, make sure that the following are enabled (check the .config file) before running 'make modules': CONFIG_INPUT=m CONFIG_INPUT_KEYBDEV=m CONFIG_USB_HID=m Do not be fooled into installing the partial HID USB keyboard device (CONFIG_USB_KBD) on its own, because it won't work, you MUST install the full HID support. TODO ---- - Create website to describe custom [done 29dec2002] - Create user documentation [started 29dec2002] - Move as much administration into SQL as possible