From Development to Production in ERPNext

🏰 The Royal Guide to Frappe/ERPNext Customization

A tale of kingdoms, customizations, and magical code implementations ✨

🎯 The Golden Rule of the Realm

Never tamper with the ancient scrolls (standard doctypes) directly! 📜
Instead, we shall create our own magical kingdom and customize from there.

🏗️ Step 1: Establishing Your Kingdom

🌟 Create Your Custom Realm

bench new-app your_magical_kingdom

This creates your very own kingdom where all your customizations will live! 🏰

⚔️ Step 2: The Art of Customization (Not Direct Editing!)

🧙‍♀️ For Standard Doctypes (The Ancient Scrolls)

When you want to modify existing doctypes like Customer, Item, etc.:

1. Navigate to the doctype you want to customize 📋
2. Click “Customize” (don’t edit directly!) ✏️
3. Make your magical changes ✨
4. Export your enchantments:
   • Find the “Action” button 🎬
   • Click “Export Customization” 📤
   • Select your custom kingdom as the module 🏰
   • Your customizations are now safely stored in:

     bench/apps/your_magical_kingdom/your_magical_kingdom/custom_module/custom/
     

🏰 For Child Tables Too!

Follow the same ritual for customizing child tables - always export to your kingdom! 👶

🎨 Step 3: Creating Your Own Magical Doctypes

🌟 New Doctype Creation

When creating brand new doctypes:

1. Create New Doctype 📝
2. IMPORTANT: When asked for module, select YOUR kingdom’s module 🏰
3. Never select standard app modules! ⚠️

This creates your doctype’s dwelling in:

bench/apps/your_magical_kingdom/your_magical_kingdom/doctype/your_doctype/

💻 Step 4: The Code Chambers

🐍 Server-Side Spells (Python)

For your custom doctypes:

• Edit the .py files in your doctype’s directory directly 📁

For standard doctypes:

• Create a special code chamber: apps/your_kingdom/your_kingdom/custom_scripts/
• Use hooks.py to connect your spells to the standard doctypes 🔗

⚡ Client-Side Magic (JavaScript)

Store all your frontend enchantments in:

apps/your_magical_kingdom/your_magical_kingdom/public/js/

Use hooks.py to bind these spells to your doctypes! 🎯

🚀 Step 5: Deploying Your Kingdom

🌍 Moving from Dev Castle to Production Fortress

1. Initialize Git in your kingdom:

   cd apps/your_magical_kingdom
   git init
   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial kingdom setup"
   

2. Push to GitHub:

   git remote add origin your-repo-url
   git push -u origin main
   

3. Deploy to Production:

   # On production server
   bench get-app your-repo-url
   bench install-app your_magical_kingdom
   

🚨 The Great Database Warning!

⚠️ NEVER Do This Forbidden Ritual!

DO NOT restore dev database backup to production! 💀

Why this spells doom:

• .sql files only contain data records 📊
• They DO NOT contain your UI customizations 🎨
• Restoring will overwrite production data 💥

✅ The Proper Way:

• Your customizations live in your custom app code 🏰
• Deploy via Git (code changes) 📝
• Let production keep its own data 💾

🎉 Kingdom Summary

🧙‍♂️ Final Wisdom

Remember, brave developer:

• One Kingdom for all your customizations 🏰
• Export everything to your realm 📤
• Git is your teleportation spell 🪄
• Never mix dev and prod databases ⚔️

May your code be bug-free and your customizations eternal! ✨🎊