''Tryton'' is a three-tier high-level general purpose

computer application A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These pr ...

platform on top of which is built an Enterprise resource planning (ERP) business solution through a set of Tryton modules. The three-tier architecture consists of the Tryton client, the Tryton server and the Database management system (mainly PostgreSQL).

License

The platform, along with the official modules, are

Free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

, licensed under the GPL-3.0-or-later license.

Modules and functional coverage

The official modules provide a coverage of the following functional fields: * Accounting * Invoicing * Sale Management * Purchase Management * Analytic Accounting * Inventory management *

Manufacturing Resource Planning Manufacturing resource planning (MRP II) is defined as a method for the effective planning of all resources of a manufacturing company. Ideally, it addresses operational planning in units, financial planning, and has a simulation capability to a ...

* Project management * Lead and Opportunity Management

Technical features

The client and the server applications are written in Python, the client uses GTK+ as graphical toolkit. Both are available on

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

, OS X, and

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

. A web client also exists written in

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...

using

jQuery jQuery is a JavaScript library designed to simplify HTML DOM tree traversal and manipulation, as well as event handling, CSS animation, and Ajax. It is free, open-source software using the permissive MIT License. As of Aug 2022, jQuery is u ...

and Bootstrap and is named sao. The kernel provides the technical foundations needed by most business applications. However it is not linked to any particular functional field hence constituting a general purpose framework: * Data persistence: ensured by accessor objects called Models, they allow easy creation, migration and access to records. * User Management: the kernel comes with the base features of user management: user groups, access rules by models and records, etc. *

Workflow Engine A workflow engine is a software application that manages business processes. It is a key component in workflow technology and typically makes use of a database server. A workflow engine manages and monitors the state of activities in a workflow, su ...

: allows users to activate a workflow on any business model. * Report Engine: the report engine is based on relatorio that uses ODT files as templates and generate ODT or PDF reports. * Internationalisation: Tryton is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Catalan, and Italian. New translations can be added directly from the client interface. * Historical data: data historization may be enabled on any business model allowing for example to get the list of all the past value of the cost price of any product. It also allows users to dynamically access historized record at any time in the past: for instance the customer information on each open invoice will be the ones of the day the invoice was opened. * Support for

XML-RPC XML-RPC is a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism.Simon St. Laurent, Joe Johnston, Edd Dumbill. (June 2001) ''Programming Web Services with XML-RPC.'' O'Reilly. First Edit ...

and

JSON-RPC JSON-RPC is a remote procedure call protocol encoded in JSON. It is similar to the XML-RPC protocol, defining only a few data types and commands. JSON-RPC allows for notifications (data sent to the server that does not require a response) and for m ...

protocols. * Database independence is allowed thanks to the python-sql library and is used for testing with the

SQLite SQLite (, ) is a database engine written in the C programming language. It is not a standalone app; rather, it is a library that software developers embed in their apps. As such, it belongs to the family of embedded databases. It is the m ...

backend. * Built-in automatic migration mechanism: it allows updating the underlying database scheme without any human manipulation. Migration is ensured from series to series (releases inside the same series do not require migration). This automation is possible because the migration process is taken into account and tested continually within the development. * Advanced modularity: the modularity allows a layered approach of the business concepts along with flexibility, which speeds up custom developments. Being a framework, Tryton can be used as a platform for the development of various other solutions than just business ERPs. A very prominent example is

GNU Health GNU Health is a free/libre health and hospital information system with strong focus on public health and social medicine. Its functionality includes management of electronic health records and laboratory information management system. It is de ...

, a free Health and Hospital Information System based on Tryton.

Origin and history

Tryton's origin is a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...

of the version 4.2 of TinyERP (which was later called OpenERP and now renamed

Odoo Odoo is a suite of business management software tools including, for example, CRM, e-commerce, billing, accounting, manufacturing, warehouse, project management, and inventory management. During Odoo experience which took place in Belgium i ...

). The first version was published in November 2008

Project management and governance

In contrast to their parent project and other open-source business software, the Tryton founders avoided creating a partner network, which tends to generate opposition and duality between the partners and the community of volunteers. They followed the PostgreSQL example where the project is driven by a federation of companies. As of August 2015, Tryton is supported by 17 of such companies, which are distributed globally as follows: France 3, Spain 3, Colombia 2, Germany, 2, Argentina 1, Australia 1, Belgium 1, Brazil 1, India 1, Mexico 1, Switzerland 1. As of December 2012, the project is backed by ''Tryton'', a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

private foundation pursuing a disinterested purpose. The foundation's missions are: *Develop and support conferences, meetings and community activities *Hold and administer the tryton.org infrastructure *Organize the community of supporters *Manage and promote the Tryton trademark The release process is organised around series. A series is a set of releases with the same two first numbers (e.g. 1.0 or 1.2) that shares the same API and the same database scheme. A new series appears every six months and new versions in older release are introduced when bugfixes are available.. The series are maintained for 1 year and every five series is a

Long-term support Long-term support (LTS) is a product lifecycle management policy in which a stable release of computer software is maintained for a longer period of time than the standard edition. The term is typically reserved for open-source software, where i ...

of 5 years.

Name

The name Tryton refers to

Triton Triton commonly refers to: * Triton (mythology), a Greek god * Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune Triton may also refer to: Biology * Triton cockatoo, a parrot * Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails * ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...

, a mythological Greek god (son of

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...

, god of the sea, and

Amphitrite In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (; grc-gre, Ἀμφιτρίτη, Amphitrítē) was the goddess of the sea, the queen of the sea, and the wife of Poseidon. She was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (or Oceanus and Tethys).Roman, L., & Ro ...

, goddess of the sea) and

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

, the implementation language.

References

External links

* {{ERP software Financial software Free accounting software Free project management software Document management systems Free business software Free reporting software Workflow applications Free ERP software Content management systems Enterprise architecture Enterprise application integration 2008 software Enterprise resource planning software for Linux Office software that uses GTK Free software project foundations Charities based in Belgium