Hi, MG,
Thank you for your interest in CK-ERP.
Your question is answered by one of the FAQs listed in ck-erp.org . I am cutting and pasting it below for your reference,
=============================================================================
Q. Why is CK-ERP not tightly integrated with the underlying middleware ?
A. Presently, CK-ERP is able to run within 23 different middleware environments and there are more to come. If you are interested in 'integrating' tightly CK-ERP within xxx (database-wise, processing-logic-wise), you may perhaps spend a year to do the job -- 23 different middlewares? 23 man-years. Then, you would have to spend another nnn years to debug the (CK-ERP + xxx + yyy) combos, say, (Joomla + Zencart + CK-ERP). You know the sum.
One may consider things like SOA, RPC to provide some sort of loose coupling. However, these technologies do not seem to be mature enough nor secure enough to be able to stand the test in a court of law. That is, if there is a major processing error within, say, a SOA based (Joomla + CK-ERP) environment, it would take a team of experts to find which is at fault - Joomla, CK-ERP or even the SOA stack itself.
So, it is decided that (CK-ERP + xxx) 'integration' will stop at the point of producing xxx connectors. For the rest of the 'integration' job, it is a standing invitation for any open source software integrator to try his/her hand. Indeed, it is in this area, where software integrators, traditionally, excel. Again, it is also a standing invitation to any and all open source software integrators to contribute their integration code back to CK-ERP, if they, so, incline.
At the same time, please don't ask the CK-ERP project team how a particular (CK-ERP + xxx) tight integration should be done. Because,
1) We have no expertise in xxx .
2) As it is, we are already fully occupied with enhancing the various functions of CK-ERP and producing yyy connectors.
============================================================================
A further standard rider:- I would encourage you to work on the database and logic integration of Zencart and CK-ERP to ensure the combination meets your requirements and subsequently contributing your integration code back to Zencart and CK-ERP.
Cheers,
CK
Bookmarks