The OpenLMIS Community is pleased to announce the 3.0 release of OpenLMIS!
After 8 months of hard ass work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! re-architecture effort for OpenLMIS for OPENLMIS IS DONE!!! Requisitions, based on an all-new micro-service architecture. This stable release is the first to utilize the new architecture and is a bold step in the direction of “shared investment, shared benefit” that is the rallying cry of the OpenLMIS Community. 3.0 is the first of more planned dot releases to fill out the long-term vision of providing a full feature logistic management information system which ministries of health and organizations can utilize to manage their supply chain. Please reference the Living Product Roadmap for the high-level estimated release schedule through version 3.3.
Background
Early contributions to OpenLMIS by PATH, USAID, Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities, JSI, ThoughtWorks and others first helped shape the product and define its original code base (v.0.9) for deployments in Tanzania and Zambia in late 2013 under the name “eLMIS.” In 2015, eLMIS was also deployed in Cote D’Ivoire, and OpenLMIS software development continued with the v1.0 release, which was deployed by VillageReach to manage vaccine distribution in Mozambique and Benin.
As new installations of OpenLMIS were developed and deployed, a key challenge was the inability to easily extend the code base, which resulted in a “code fork” between the early implementations and the later v1.0 implementations. In an effort to address the fork the community agreed to begin working toward a common master branch, and at the September 2015 all-community meeting, the community also agreed that a single, “core” code line was required. This effort to re-work the OpenLMIS code is referred to as the "Re-Architecture" of OpenLMIS.
VillageReach and partners have worked to make the re-architecture process as transparent as possible through clear documentation available on the OpenLMIS Wiki. The OpenLMIS Re-Architecture Acceleration Brief outlines the plan and approach for this effort, the high level architecture is captured at Architecture Overview (v3), and the Re-Architecture Concept Note provides a detailed, clear explanation of the re-architecture plan and approaches.
OpenLMIS is open source, and all source code for this 3.0 release is available on GitHub for collaboration: <INSERT LINK>. That repository contains the reference distribution, and each service lives in its own GitHub repository as well.
Key Objectives
- Improve end-to-end visibility within the supply chain
- Extensibile architecture to support shared benefit and value
- Architectural goals and technical improvements
Sustain the majority of 2.0 OpenLMIS feature set
Key Features
- Offline data entry
- Column header definitions
- Configurable system setup
Requisitions
Create, submit, authorize, approve, delete and save a requisition
Data entry validations and rules
Offline data entry (state changes need internet)
Regular and emergency
For “my supervised” facilities
View list of requisitions
Approvers can reject a requisition
Skip a requisition period
Skip products (line items)
Convert a requisition to an order for integration, printing, etc.
Dynamic display of the total requisition cost
Comments (new functionality)
- Printing
- Program specific requisition templates with configurable fields for adjusted consumption and averaged consumption (can support AMC)
Orders and Fulfillment
Feature list can be taken from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oetvqa6wqyBsUmCbRYaBqdmpOeH4fOOoCYGKN6SiEpo/edit?usp=sharing
Key messages or things we should be sure to include in the Release Notes
- technical documentation is coming
- no examples of extension due to prioritization (link to PC decision)
- semantic versioning (pull from Brandon's presentation)
- New product/commodity model
importance of staying up-to-date with latest version (for shared value)
- check in/status snapshot on BMGF re-architecture goals; be honest about what's done and left to do
API Documentation
Components
This release is Version 3.0.0 of the OpenLMIS Reference Distribution.
This release includes the components listed below. Each component is in its own public GitHub repo and versioned independently:
Requisition Reference UI 3.0.0
In addition, other supporting components have their own GitHub repos, including: https://github.com/OpenLMIS/openlmis-example-extensions or https://github.com/OpenLMIS/openlmis-deployment/releases and contract tests, template service, nginx? logging service?
Documentation
- For the Community (including Implementors, Partners, Country staff): The Confluence Wiki includes technical designs and requirements and is the hub for all community and project resources.
- For Developers: ReadTheDocs includes developer documentation such as README files from each component. The wiki also includes a Developer Guide section that is a helpful starting point for developers getting started with OpenLMIS 3.
- JIRA tickets also contain a record of all specifications and test plans for the features in OpenLMIS 3.
Status: Stable and Recommended
Version 3.0.0 is a stable release. It is production-ready and recommended for new deployments of OpenLMIS.
On-Going Updates and Support
Version 3.0.0 will be updated with bug fixes, security updates, and performance improvements in patch releases that will happen on an as-needed schedule (3.0.1, 3.0.2, etc). In addition, new functionality will come out quarterly in minor releases and will be backwards-compatible (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, etc). See the Releases wiki page for details.
Comparing Versions 1, 2 and 3
The 3.0 release does not contain every single feature of 1.x and 2.x. Many of the 1.x and 2.x-based systems deployed in numerous countries include significant customizations. The 3.0 release contains a core set of features—with emphasis on Requisition and Fulfillment—that are built in a micro-services architecture so they can be extended and customized to meet country-specific needs.
Now that 3.0 has been released, the priorities for what features are added for 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 are set by the Product Committee and Governance Committee. The goal of the OpenLMIS Community is to continue shrinking the "gap" between previous versions and 3.x so that more countries can migrate to 3.x and benefit from a shared, common platform. This will reduce the on-going operating costs for all users and will bring consistent global benefits such as GS1 compliance, track-and-trace capability, and common analytics and metrics.
How to Upgrade to 3 from a Previous Version
There is not an automated, push-button migration from 1.x/2.x into 3.x. Countries already using a previous version of OpenLMIS are encouraged to review the feature-set in version 3 and let the community know what features are a priority for their ability to migrate to 3.x. There is a "Gap Analysis" project led by PATH and including JSI and VR that is collecting and prioritizing these requirements and identifying the migration path for users of 1.x and 2.x to move to OpenLMIS version 3. For more information or to get involved, contact the OpenLMIS Community Manager, Tenly Snow, or contact Brian Taliesin at PATH.
Browser and Device Compatibility
Past versions of OpenLMIS have officially supported Firefox. For OpenLMIS 3.0, we prioritized support of Chrome because of global trends, statistics provided by the OpenLMIS community, along with its developer tools and its auto-updating nature.
Browser versions that were included in testing and bug fixes are:
- Chrome 52+ (test on Chrome 52 and Chrome latest)
- Firefox 48+ (test on Firefox 48 and Firefox latest)
Operating systems that were included in testing and bug fixes are:
- Windows 7 (still the most widely used in Mozambique, Zambia and Benin and globally)
- Windows 10
The QA team also did some testing on Linux (Ubuntu) and Mac.
Devices tested were all desktop browsers including use of a pointer (mouse, trackpad, etc). OpenLMIS 3.0 has not been tested with touch screen interfaces such as iPad, tablets or smartphones.
We have asked for OpenLMIS implementations to share their google analytics to better inform how we prioritize and invest in browser and device support going forward.
For details, see the Test Strategy. Contact the Product Committee to share your priorities for browser and device support.