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What is XIWA?

XIWA (zee' wuh) is a web based accounting package built with Perl and postgreSQL. It is released under the GPL. It is free to modify and distribute but you must make your modifications available to others.

The package currently runs out of a Portal environment that provides sessions, users, and other web features. Other apps that will share the same data (such as timekeeping and payroll) will also run out of the portal. The Portal is released under the perl license so as to be widely useful to everyone.

Platforms

Client side The original target was the Netscape 4.7x web browser, but other browsers work as well. We are working toward fully supporting open standards. This will aid in browser support.

Server side For now the server is limited to *nix environments (which may include using Cygwin on Win32--if someone gets this working on Windows, please let us know). The database is currently tied to PostgreSQL, but we are working on a layer to abstract from the database.

Goals

In writing the package:

Releasing under the GPL:

Strengths

The Reporting engine is very powerful. Reports can be easily customized and new reports can be created with different styles and layouts. Also, new account types can be added easily. For example we will soon add an Administrative Expenses type in addition to the Operating Expenses type. This is as simple as adding the record to the database with a SQL insert and adding the row to the report with a few clicks.

Powerful Investment tracking was a requirement of the project. Most accounting packages avoid investments (we can understand why). The investment section of the project is a huge task that was not easy to work out but gives a very detailed, precise history.

Perl Modules are now being used to access the data and run the display out of a portal environment. This also allows someone to write other applications to work with the same data through the API.

Weaknesses

The Prototyping RAD model is being used for this project. Consequently, there are bugs that have not been fixed due to concentration on feature additions.

Mixed web programming This project is a few years old and has changed its format as the industry and our programming skills have changed. Unfortunately, the older parts of the system run as Perl CGI scripts while the newer portions are Perl modules. Eventually, all the cgi scripts will be rewritten as modules.

Database Independence is not yet achieved. We have started using DBI to connect to the database but the older scripts still access postgreSQL directly. As the old scripts are replaced, other database packages can be ported to.

Download

You can see the status and download the project from Source Forge. You will also need some perl modules to make it all work. Most of these modules are also needed by the Portal. (If you want them all quickly go here. ) You MUST use DBD::Pg for Postgres since XIWA currently only works with PostgreSQL.

Contact

If you need help check the documentation and mailing lists on Source Forge. If you need more help the package will be commercially supported by PC&Web  Xperience, Inc. It is hosted at Source Forge SourceForge Logo .

Copyright (c) 2001 PC Xperience, Inc.

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