[Techtalk] Opinions on Intranet / Groupware / Forum software

[Rasjid Wilcox]

On Monday 22 March 2004 19:04, jennyw wrote:
> Maybe it'd be best to start with your requirements -- a CMS system (which
> is often a document management system) is a lot different from Groupware
> (which usually includes e-mail and calendars).

Okay.  A bit more information.

I'm putting together a public web and email server for a community group I'm 
involved with.  It will have the following functions:

1) Host their public website and email.  I have already got this basically 
part working.

For mail I have used Postfix and Cyrus, with both authenticating off a 
database so there are no real user accounts on the box, and a nice web-based 
gui (web-cyradm) to administer it.  And if I need to script something, I can 
just use some sql statements.  I have installed SquirrelMail for the webmail 
client, but I'm offering both secure POP and secure IMAP access which is what 
I expect most users to use.  I still need to set up the anti-virus and 
anti-spam systems.

The website is currently just plain html.  I use MySource by Squiz.net for my 
own pesonal website, and may suggest the group moves to this (or its next 
verson) over time.  For the public site, any CMS has to be easily 
customisable with templates so that it looks like their own site.  The issue 
I have with the vast majority of open-source CMS systems out there is that 
each site run on system 'Xyz' look very similar.  A phpNuke site looks like a 
phpNuke site.  Yes you can skin it, but that is all it is, changing the skin.  
Sure I have the source and could hack them to be however I liked, but that 
defeats the purpose.

So for the public site CMS I want something that provides a framework that 
makes building and maintaining a site easy, but does not try and do anything 
else.  MySource is good but does currently have some limitations.  I tried to 
get OpenCMS to work on a couple of my Linux systems, but so far no joy.  I 
have just installed Plone, but at first glance it still seems to suffer from 
the 'all Plone sites look like Plone sites' syndrome.  However, I'm wondering 
if I should drop down a level and just use Zope with CMF.  This has a lot of 
appeal, since Python is my language of choice.  :-)

So I have MySource installed, and will look at the Zope/CMF combination.  
Perhaps Plone if I can work out how to make it look and behave how I want it 
to be.

The other function is:

2) Host a private intranet.  This needs a document management system (with 
revision control etc), forums linked to an email or imap gateway, shared 
calendar system, news and events etc.  The organisation has small groups all 
around the country that need to communicate easily and cheaply, so a 
chat-room would also be useful.

> I'm looking at Plone for two projects.  I like Plone better than other CMS
> projects I've seen becuase it has workflow, allows editing of documents via
> WebDAV, supports the creation of different types of documents, is
> accessible (complies with U.S. sec 508 and WAI-AA), and more. For
> discussions, you can add CMFForum or CMFBoard (there are others, too). Or a
> Wiki page.

Heh.  As mentioned I've just installed Plone and after a bit of searching 
found CMFBoard.  Didn't know about CMFForum, but it looks like it has not 
been worked on for quite a while.  I'd be interested to know what the other 
options are too.

Anyway, it does look like Plone is a strong contender for the Intranet side of 
the site, particularly given my preference for Python.

> The thing I like best about Plone, though, isn't how much it can do, but
> how little it does (the above are add-ons). A lot of other projects that
> call themselves CMS systems include a plethora of features (most of which I
> don't have a need for), but without depth when it comes to the most basic
> thing of managing documents. With Plone, you get to add various document
> types which go through a common workflow.
>
> Plone isn't perfect -- it can take a bit of work to make the navigation
> simple. Also, the search feature could be better. And versioning won't be
> supported until Plone 2.1 (2.0rc6 is the current version and will be 2.0
> unless a major issue is discovered -- not sure when 2.1 will hit). But
> Plone is still a very effective way to share documents (in a very generic
> sense) with a group.

I do want document versioning, but can probably live without it for a bit, 
particularly if it is turning up in a not-too-distant release.

Alternatively, a dedicated DMS system could be used for the important 
'corporate data' type docs, and the normal Plone document mangement can be 
used for more general stuff.

Thanks Jen for your helpful feedback.

Oh, and another vote for Plone has just turned up from Dan.  :-)

Cheers to all,

Rasjid.

-- 
Rasjid Wilcox
Canberra, Australia (UTC +11 hrs)
http://www.openminddev.net