What is the "Inventory Details" module

[Guido1982]

After updating on a test server, I saw there was a module called "Inventory Details". Can someone explain the goal of this module?

[joebordes]

Inventory details is to make viewing and reporting on product lines easier. Every time you save a quote, SO, Invoice or PO a record is created in the Inventory Details for each product/service line. This way it is easier for you to report, filter or control certain events that happen on the product lines.
There is still a lot of work to be done here, but this is a good start that Omar implemented a few months ago.

[Guido1982]

OK, so should I view these inventory details as some sort of "Assets"? That is what it sounds like to me: individual instances of generic products. I will play around with this and see what happens.

[joebordes]

They aren't assets, they are just a copy of the product lines in each inventory module.
Note, for example, that if you create a product line on an invoice with 4 monitors, you should have 4 asset records, one for each monitor, but you will have only ONE InventoryDetail line.

[Guido1982]

Ah okay. With the quantity of 4 if I understand correctly? So basically it is meant to expand the Inventory module, in a more detailed way, and keep track of individual quotes, SO's, invoices etc.

[joebordes]

Exactly!!

[Guido1982]

I've been playing around with this, it seems like the main feature for this would be to be able to get better detailed reporting. Is this the main goal for the module or are there other practical applications?

BTW it is nice to have this, better reporting results means better insight in your business.

[joebordes]

The main goal is easier reporting. There are some additional benefits like controlling partial deliveries but that is still a bit far away on our road map.

[Guido1982]

Well either way seems like a step forward, thanks for the effort.

[Guido1982]

I may have a use for this, where I would like to do some of my own contribution to the project:

There is a great deal of demand for specialized accounting software packages to connect with CRM packages. Seeing the Inventory Detail module creates a detailed record for everything, I would like to create an extension that produces XML files on the server where basically there will be a detailed invoice report in XML format. Most accounting packages have the possibility to create 'cron-jobs' (or similar jobs with a set interval) to import records.

I read into the PHP DOMDocument model, and am studying the PearDatabase.php file. I would like to create a create a PHP file that uses the classes in PearDatabase to connect to the database and retrieve the inventory details lines for each record associated with an invoice. After that, I'd like to use DOMDocument to create and save on server an XML file that contains all inventory lines and the invoice numbers it relates to. Maybe even create a backend settings screen, where a user could make his own XML templates, based on his accounting package.

My first question, I see the database table for inventory details holds a 'related_to' column. There is an ID, but this does not state what kind of record type this is. So my question: how does the inventory details module know what kind of record (either SO, Invoice etc.) it is related to? The ID number could appear in any of those tables. I'm asking this because I'd like to use the same logic for my query.

EDIT
I think I may have found the answer already.. I see that the system does not create double ID's.. didn't know that. Am I right to say that if I create an invoice with ID '1', and then create a quote, that quote will have ID '2', and so on for SO's etc...?