Thoughts Regarding Integration (was Re: Feedback from LinuxWorld, London)

Greetings,

I usualy lurk but I have an idea here:

On Mon, 10 Oct 2005, Simon Riggs wrote:

> to get other projects to say "Hey, lets use PostgreSQL, they don't just
> make a good database, they listen to other projects".

Something else that would encourage adoption: the ability for a project to
become part of a Total Solution.  I just proposed an article to Linux
Journal about this yesterday.  Basically, the more projects that use
PostgreSQL, the more those projects can talk to each other.  Here's an
example:

I am working on a project called LibreLex; basically, it's a complete OSS
law office.  I took a web-based GPL'd Law Office app (Knomos) and I am
converting it from MySQL to PG.  Once that is done, I will integrate it
with Quasar Accounting - a GPL'd accounting application that uses PG as a
backend.  How will this integration work?  I plan to create a set of
triggers on the Knomos tables so that when they are updated, the Quasar
tables are updated accordingly; so, for instance, when a lawyer records an
event on his timesheet, this event will automatically propagate to the
client's current invoice in Quasar.

There are a number of other apps that could be combined in such a fashion:
SugarCRM, Quasar Accounting, Open Realty, Knomos are just a few.
Microsoft is touting "deep integration" of its office software so that
there is no duplication of effort; data entered in one app will move to
all affected apps.  Consultants (or anyone else) using these kinds of
mature Open Source apps can also have this kind of integration with a
little bit of work - surely less work than the comparable Microsoft
solution would cost in licensing.

Integration is a way that OSS can be very competitive against Microsoft;
and PostgreSQL is a way to achieve that integration.

Thoughts?
--Josh

Resources:

http://www.librelex.net
http://www.linuxcanada.com
http://www.knomos.org