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Currently all our files are stored on a Windows network drive and with 15 members of staff and 3 external workers, file control is beginning to become a bit of a nightmare. Even though we have a policy in place, people still seem to save file to their PCs, make changes, and copy them back without notifying anyone, send files via email instead of its location, and create folders/structures which only make sense to them.
Consequently on a recent project we found that 3 members of staff were using different versions of the same document and when those 3 people are editors and proof readers, you can probably imagine the problem that ensued in the end.
So we are looking for some nice simple file management apps. MS Sharepoint has been mentioned but we are looking to get away from being tied to a Windows machine, and the cost of setup etc. seems expensive particularly for a non-profit company. Also it seems Sharepoint may be a little over-the-top for our needs.
All we need is something that can fulfill the following:
can be used to store and control files
allow different user access
provide basic versioning
hopefully accessible through a web-browser so our remote workers can access it
We are not keen on SAAS solutions because of the nature of our confidentiality and also because we use these files all day everyday and the internet connection does go down from time to time. We want to be able to install in-house.
Ideally the solution will be FOSS, although we will consider buying software if it meets our needs.
You can try Alfresco:
Alfresco is the Open Source
Alternative for Enterprise Content
Management (ECM) led by John Newton,
founder of Documentum, and John
Powell, former COO of Business
Objects, and is backed by Accel
Partners, Mayfield Fund and SAP
Ventures.
Here has a good howto install it on linux.
The first question you probably need to ask is why the existing Windows file shares aren't working, and people are still saving files to their own computers.
For example, if they're often working outside of the office and can't access the file shares or they need to maintain a working copy, these are problems that can be fixed with SharePoint or other version control/file management software.
However, if they're just not following policy, then it's not going to matter what software you put in its place. Figuring out what problems the users have is going to help you choose the right solution.
Not sure this is the best place for such a question (its a discussio with no write/wrong answer) but anyway
Google apps for business?
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html
Totally easy, low TOC (OSS is not free in a time sense).
You can share docs (read/write or read only) with external people or just do the old fashioned copy/paste the detail into OpenOffice/Word/iLife whatever and send a copy to them
Wouldn't something like a source control system be useful? SVN for example? admittedly binary files are a problem here, but if you're using a basic format you could convert to rtf or the new document standards used by Office 2007\OpenOffice.
It's worth noting that SharePoint and other variants are used widely for a reason; they do what you need.
Are you trying to avoid Windows Server completely, or just avoid buying Microsoft SharePoint Server?
If you are willing to purchase a Windows Server license you will get a basic version of SharePoint Server called SharePoint Services as part of the package. SharPoint Services allows you to have a powerful document management and collaboration system without having to buy an additional software package. It does include a version control system and you can integrate it with other applications. You can find more information here: Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 Overview.
Another MS provided solution that can handle file management and version control is Microsoft Groove. You can find more information on it here: Microsoft Groove. A great feature of Groove is that it can act as a front-end for Sharepoint (and most likely SharePoint Services) to allow users to more easily interact with the file storage mechanism.
A third option but will be less powerful would be to use your existing network file shares (through Windows or Samba), map the shares to local drives and/or reconfigure their My Documents to point to the network, and turn on Offline Storage. This will allow the users to interact with their documents as if they were local files even when they are offline. There will be a few small issues that you will experience with this route but it would break you from having to use a pure Microsoft solution.
In answer to some of the above questions.
The main reason its not working is because. One person will open a document from the shared drive and save a copy to their pc, which they work on. The changes they make are then not on the shared drive, when they copy it back, which everyone does the changes they have made overwrite any anyone else has done, they also dont inform anyone so if someone is working from that document they are now working on an old document. It is a case of getting users into a better frame of mind! But we feel software may help that, plus our external workers do not have access to the internal drive at present.
We have a number of servers, only one is windows and so we want to get away from using that windows server and have all linux servers for ease of management. Any MS product will require we run a dedicated MS machine!!
Local drives mapped is not really a good option as many people work out of the office and so wont be on the network to contribute, plus the file structure would probably not allow it.
It does seem that a MS solution might be the only one, i was just hoping there were some good alternatives available which were also a little simpler.
thnkx
A standard sharepoint document library, with versioning turned on, and checkin/checkout required, would meet your needs. Like previously posted, WSS comes free with Windows Server.
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I am a programmer, and my father uses Access to collect the patients information (my father is a doctor),
He wants me to teach him how to use it.
I don't like Access (I'm a linux guy), and I cannot find any replacement of it. Do you guys know of any? (it must be easy enough for my father to use)
Maybe you need to be a bit more pragmatic about this.
I'm not a fan of Access either, but if your father already understands it and he already has the system in place, you need to ask the question, why change? If it aint broke don't try to fix it.
You may find that a few simple changes in the existing system gives your father everything he needs, it'll save you a whole lot of time and means you don't need to retrain your father.
What about OpenOffice - Base?
Your father wants you to teach him how to use access but you're a linux guy and don't like access.
Access isn't the problem here
I don't think you and your father a good fit for this.
Get someone else to teach him how to use Access
Access is not always the monster it is made out to be. A poorly coded database in any application or language is a poorly coded database. Access' dominance of the market at a critical time led to more people coming across a higher ratio of poorly designed databases.
There's a great deal of support out there for Access users and programmers too. I particularly like Access World Forums. As ilivewithian said, if you're not happy telling him about it, get someone else to.
If however you are keen to take on the role of tutor to your dad (and I can see the attraction - a chance to give something back, perhaps), then I would suggest a web-based database interface. Unlike Oli, I have no experience of Django, but I would recommend Dabble or blist. (Blist is particularly good at handling images, Dabble is better at flexible report formats, though neither is as good at reports as Access, IMHO).
I think the natural successor to Access is a simple web-interface database system.
They're simple enough to create in a billion different ways but I would seriously suggest trying Django (because you'll find its admin area does 90% of the real work for you in this case)
FileMaker Inc. is subsidiary of Apple. It runs on Mac OS X as well as Windows (whereas MS Access only runs on Windows). Many people claim FileMaker is easier to use than MS Access. Sounds like FileMaker might be the perfect solution for you! (although I do agree with ilivewithian)
There's also Sun's counterpart to MS Access in OpenOffice/StarOffice called BASE (someone already mentioned this), which is also cross-platform compatible.
Rather than develop his own record keeping application he would probably be better off purchasing an already developed system from one of the numerous medical record system vendors. He'll get a better application and have people he can call on for support. Plus there are all of the legal issues about medical record storage and access. A vendor will have worked out those problems already.
That having been said there are many other file based databased systems out there: http://www.google.com/search?q=file+based+database
I haven't used any of them so I can't make a recommendation.
Of course, there's always the various enterprise databases (Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, etc...) as well. Of those SQL Server is probably the easiest to learn for a newbie. Since there's no 64 bit version of Access I'm starting to see people replace Access with SQL Server Express (free!) for small applications that need to run on 64 bit windows.
I am using Viravis now for more than 6 months in a multi-language organization with several projects and I find it very good. It's not only easy to build (I am a beginner) but they give also very good support!
Gambas ist a very good alternative for Access if one used Access as a database frontend and programmed with VBA (Visual Basic fro Applications). One can reuse a lot of code written for Access and create forms and reports easily.
So for a VB or VBA programmer, who wants to use the own knowledge under Linux, Gambas is a wonderful solution.
No first hand experience, but you can try out OpenOffic.org Database. Or, you may teach your Dad to use the MySQL GUI tool.
Getting the database structure is the toughest part for most. Creating a simple form or report is not that tough either. As far as being a users (data entry, reports, etc.) is probably easier than most applications. You also have all the searching and sorting capabilities; why reinvent the wheel?
Viravis may be an online alternative to the access database. You should better to check it out if it fit your need.
For Windows and simple data, I would use Excel, so I think Open Office should be ok. Unless your father has a hospital, it will probably fit... Or you can do some programming, take embedded database like Firebird and write something on your own, say - in Java?
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It would seem to me that many large enterprises already have robust directory services such as Active Directory and it would be silly to constantly duplicate users in an application-specific store.
Even if you require duplicating the user store, you can provide a mechanism to authenticate against Active Directory. Alternatively, you could support a standards-based SSO mechanism that leverages SAML.
Support for the XACML protocol. Duplicating information on roles and entitlements is equally insidious.
Support for the SPML protocol. Many enterprise leverage identity management toolkits and would at least like out of the box integration in terms of centralized management and provisioning.
So, why aren't open source projects considering this type of functionality as a default to getting on the radar within an enterprise context?
Lots of reasons, but one of the biggest is that there's less convergence on what the right or best methods really are than you seem to believe.
Active Directory, for example, is kind of notorious for presenting implementation difficulties to non-Microsoft developers.
There are probably a half dozen competing single-sign-on "standards".
It's very difficult to reconcile different roles/privileges models -- hell, Sun has trouble reconciling the models of Solaris Trusted Extensions with the Java model.
Solving those problems isn't a lot of "fun" and so FOSS developers are attracted to other issues.
I think that Charlie nailed it:
solving security problems is hard and generally not a whole lot of fun
OSS developers tend to be all about enjoying what they are working on. I work on a number of "enterprise class" efforts as part of my professional life and I will agree that they are not a whole lot of fun. However, this is one of my never ending griefs with OSS components... we have trouble using them in our solutions because they do not meet our customers needs.
I think that the general reasons are:
universities tend to ignore this aspect of "enterprise development"
too many standards to choose from
no clear market leader
the different security providers are difficult to configure and test
the entire application security paradigm requires a lot of expertise before you can even start trying to integrate
Personally, I blame the first one. Most engineers do not even consider how an application can be used in a larger context. They are interested in solving the problem at hand and not at all interested in providing a usable solution. Most FOSS solutions are very much an interesting solution to an interesting problem. A corporate entity normally comes along and provides the commercial packaging that makes the FOSS solution actually usable in a real environment. Of course, this packaging comes with a price tag attached.
Open ID is a start towards providing an "authentication" solution. (To the best of my knowledge, it has no "provisioning" mechanism, though. You have to trust the external authority to identify an account, then add your site's / app's version of that account using your own devices)
If anybody knows of some kind of open "authorization" solution to centralize the management of roles, that would be interesting as well. That sounds like the sort of thing you would do in-house, though, with roles that have a defined meaning in your organization. I'm sure IBM or Oracle would be happy to take a big chunk of change and make something for you, though :-)
You may not want to have your active directory / LDAP contains the role of all your users for all your applications. If you have a lot of movement in your structure, you may have a lot of daily modification going on.
Also, the information in the user store may be quite specific, and may not have its place in a global repository.
Least, the notion of role can be quite variable. We have three application that possess the notion of "mananger", each one having a slightly different definition of what is a manager and who he/she is managing.
regards,
Guillaume
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We looking for a simple, open source, web based document management system for Linux. With document management I mean the ability to store a set of files (minimally doc, xls and pdf) as a document. Associate meta data with the document like owner and version. Update and delete documents. Ability to index and search content. Authentication and the ability to authorize at least read, and possible write. If possible I would like to avoid implementations in Java or PHP, and as we use MySQL already that would work especially well for meta-data storage.
We have used Google Applications in the past but the lack of support for PDF makes it a poor fit. Other downsides include their service losing some of our spreadsheets, no concept of company owning information opposed to individual accounts, and some of our information is sensitive and we prefer keeping it in-house (passwords, contracts etc).
MediaWiki was not a good fit either as our documents is really a set opposed to be structured content (i.e. not looking for a content management system), and at least the version we had installed did not deal well with attachments.
Based on review of past questions I plan on looking into KnowledgeTree. Any other projects that we should consider?
I've been using KnowledgeTree now for a few months developing an ASP.Net application and I only have good things to say about it. Our product uses it for PDF storage/retrieval and it really couldn't be easier to deal with. The basic install gives you a simple environment with almost endless amounts of configuration for meta-data, document groups, and various security options. Also, the KnowledgeTree staff have been very helpful and have provided us with sample code when we have run into 'how are we going to do that?' moments.
I'll second the recommendation for KnowledgeTree. Have been using it for a couple years and have roughly 1K documents indexed. Sometime last year, I wrote a short script which monitors KT's transaction table (in MySQL) and notifies users of new or updated documents via Twitter, Identica, and/or Jabber. The Twitter/Identica feeds can then be monitored with a RSS reader.
Look for something that will index all your document formats and keep them searchable.
I solved this in my office using Coldfusion. It has verity search engine built in. This indexes files on your network (doc/xls/pdf, etc) to make the text in them searchable (like google).
An instant search engine for all my files, for upto 150,000 or so is built in for free with Coldfusion so it suits my purpose.. Something like this would allow you to save your files on a network how/wherever and you'd be able to extract the rest of the information about owners, modification dates through libraries available in java / .net.
I am sure you could replicate this with another language, but probably a bit more effort. I am presently wishing I could use the Google Docs API as a wysiwyg editor in my own wiki in-house.. that would solve most of my problems then because everything would be intranet based.
Try https://www.mayan-edms.com, written on Django, db agnostic
You can consider GroupDocs as they have got storage, conversion and few more features.
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I have a team of developers distributed Globally over different time zones.
what are the best tools to achieve maximum productivity in such a team?
I am looking for:
Source Control
Bug Tracking
Build Management
Any other thing that may help
Thanks
For the first two:
Distributed source control, like git
A good issue tracking tool, like Jira
This question is underspecified. Many packages exist for each category that you list, all designed to support collaboration across people distributed globally over different time zones.
So I can make a recommendation, based on open-source tools that have worked for me in the past. You may have specific needs that require more specific solutions, but you didn't mention them. Also, for productivity, it is useful if people can continue to use tools they are familiar with, and you didn't explain what tools your people already know.
In any case, here is my recommendation:
use Subversion for source control
use Roundup as the bug tracker
use make for the build management, use Buildbot for automated, distributed builds
use mailing lists, based on Mailman
For .NET environment:
SVN server: VisualSVN server (free)
SVN client: AnkhSVN 2.0 (open-source)
Continuous Integration: CruiseControl.Net (open-source)
Bug tracker: BugTracker.NET (open-source). But if you can, i would recommend Trac.
I am very satisfied with Assembla - they host SVN server and Trac for your projects for very reasonable prices (or for free if the oproject is public).
Consider Fogbugz for bug tracking. It's helpful.
As source control: why not a distributed system, like git (if you are not using Windows), Mercurial or Bazaar?
For bug tracking, I would go on Trac - it has also an integrated Wiki, that is always useful for project documentation.
As for build management, you could go on cruise control, or ant - I am not really expert on this side.
However, there is something you should really take into consideration: the main issue for distributed teams is not the toolset, is communication.
This is even more important in an "agile" setup, as suggested by your tag.
The best mitigation I have ever seen for this issue is videoconferencing. It is very effective for enhancing communication bandwidth in distributed teams, and with GTalk and Skype is now really inexpensive.
When you say "open source" do you just mean free software, or do you mean "I need/prefer to be able to see the source"?
Note that your decision will be influenced by the nature of your project. There are many free development/project hosting sites that require that your project must be an open source project and free/open to the public.
You may also choose to go with a particular hosting platform based on the language you are using to develop the project. For example, CodePlex (http://www.codeplex.com/) is a site that hosts open source .Net based projects, and Java.Net (http://community.java.net/projects/) hosts Java projects.
The other answers given to your question are solid, here is what I currently use or have used in the past:
A great continuous build tool JetBrains TeamCity. (http://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/) The tool has out of the box support for many build tools as well as for building Visual Studio solutions out of the box. It is free for teams of 20 or less developers. It also has loads of functionality out of the box, and can be up and running for you in minutes - a remarkably low learning curve without cutting back on features.
A useful SVN repository which is free for two developers, and will save you the time of setting up and administering your own SVN repository is Unfuddle. (http://www.unfuddle.com) Unfuddle also has extra paid-for features and basic task tracking.
Another paid source repository is ProjectLocker (http://www.projectlocker.com) which has low priced SVN repositories and Trac integration for task management.
A useful task tracking tool is Remember The Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com) - it does not work on "tickets" like Trac, it is not only for tracking projects, but it does allow you to email each other tasks, and to have shared task lists. I also point them out because the product itself is developed by a distributed development team and you might want to try mail them for advice. :-)
All the best to your team!
A wiki is a must.
It helps as an asynchronous communication media between ans inside the teams. People can share their tips (eg how do I compile this, how to activate traces ... ). It can be used to gather design decisions or changes...
People can ask questions to the whole team without clobbering other mailboxes.
It can also be used to grow the documentation.
There is a gazillion of wiki's, pick one depending on what you plan to do with it.
I think you'll need a few more things to help out with this project than what you've asked.
First, I'll give my recommendations for your list:
Source control: git or svn, if yu use either of these, you'll need a way to let your developers know who checked in what and when, Trac is good for this for svn
Bug tracking: Trac (not Bugzilla), Mantis, FogBuz
Build Management: CruiseControl is great for continuous integration; if you need build scripts try Ant or Maven
Other things you will probably need:
Collaboration tool: Trac has a wiki or pick a wiki of your choice
Chat tools: Even though they are across timezones, instant communication will be needed. IRC, Jabber, Skype, which is great for video or audio calls over the internet.
Project management: you'll need a way to setup your releases (sprints if using Scrum) and your backlog. My favorite tool for this is Acunote: (http://www.acunote.com). There are some other out there but they are more expensive and you get all of the features that you probable don't need.
I hope this helps.
Yes I strongly believe that in distributed teams a tool is important. Communication is hard enough if you are not working locally together. A tool like e.g Agilo for Scrum that is based on trac offers you with a wiki, a planning board (online whiteboard) and supports you in this way to improve the communication with your colleagues.
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Have any of you ever tried to run from sharepoint? I've worked with sharepoint enough to know that it is not something that interests me. My interests are more along the lines of APIs / backend / distributed development. Have any of you found ways, as consultants, to move away from sharepoint and keep learning other things of interest? I'm currently in a position where sharepoint is in huge demand and I can't quite find a way to simply step aside from it. any suggestions ?
If I infer correctly that you work for a consulting firm then find out what other kinds of things your firm works on. Learn those technologies better that the people who currently work on them for your firm, involve yourself in those projects, even if just in a hallway conversation manner, and come up with better (faster, cheaper) solutions for the problems your firm is solving.
Your options are really seem to be 3-fold
convince your boss your talents
would be better used elsewhere
convince your co-workers they want
you on those other teams
convince your company's clients that
they want you, specifically.
Learn Java, or Ruby.
The Microsoft sales model of "attach" whereby they sell a solution comprised of multiple technologies and then sell the next solution on the basis of "well you have already invested in SharePoint so you already have the skills in place and the infrastructure for this new bit of technology we have" is here to stay... it's very successful.
SharePoint is cloud computing for business who have MS shops... you avoid it by not doing C#. If you're doing C# then given enough time, your apps will need to run in the corporate cloud and you should be looking after your career by embracing it.
Just my 2p. Sorry if it's not quite the answer you wanted.
I know exactly what you mean. I think you don't mind the idea behind a product like SharePoint, but really hate the way its been implemented and how problematic it is. I know its a nightmare to work with.
As a C# developer, I cringe when I hear the SharePoint word, SharePoint is Lord Voldemort. But unfortunately it comes with the job of being a senior C# / Microsoft developer.
I say unfortunately because its likely if you're working in a corporate structure sooner or later you will end up having SharePoint in your solution. Not because its good, but because as others have said - MS use SharePoint as a Trojan horse to get and keep business.
There might be some hope with the new version of SharePoint coming out (2010). Maybe this will finally include a better programming / implementation model.
Otherwise either work for smaller companies (usually less pay, but not always), or try to play down your skills as a MOSS developer if possible. Never actively market them unless your salary depends on it. Remove the skill from your skill matrix, and turn down jobs that completely focus on MOSS. Some MOSS integration here and there you can live with. An entire solution focused on MOSS will drive you insane.
If all else fails, learn other non Microsoft languages, and within a year or 2, SharePoint will be but a faded memory.
I know lots of developers who are thinking about quitting IT because of SharePoint. I would say don't let it be the end of your career.
And finally bitch and moan, and inform managers on a weekly / daily basis, as to why you are battling in SharePoint. Let them know, and constantly remind them how bad a technology it is.
When life deals you lemons. Make Lemonade.
Seriously, if you are seeing SharePoint in such high demand, maybe working with the beast is the best idea. SharePoint is really just middle-ware. SharePoint can simply be a distribution point for your solutions (i.e., a user interface such as a web application can be hosted on SharePoint through a Web Content part). If you look at it, SharePoint may even prove useful as a document respository or small scale data store, in the form of lists.
Maybe you should turn down SharePoint contracts and accept contracts that interest you.
Depending on the market you are in you can simply tell your boss at the consulting company you work for that your not interested in doing Sharepoint projects anymore and that you'll be forced to look elsewhere if they continue putting you on Sharepoint projects. That would work around West Michigan where the developer demand is high and the supply is sub-par.
I'm, on the other hand, just starting to use SharePoint to enreach my currently boring C#-only projects. I'm starting to use it as a front-end to the distributed and complicated systems: simple configuration and customization, reporting, management, system control - looks like all this is available in this package it it's easy to make is usable by non-techies and by beginners.
I personally don't want to work with SharePoint anymore. I've worked on developing a solution for it and even went full charge with a web integration of it. I hated it.
First you have to master the awful programming model then handle all the deployments and it's not even the beginning. If you are developing a product for SharePoint, you have to debug the software itself which is a feat on it's own.
My solution to this is to be very upfront about it. I don't mind doing knowledge transfer and helping out people but I don't want to be developing/deploying SharePoint applications.
My boss get it, my friends get it.
Our latest joke come from someone who said a few months ago that it was "easy and fast to deploy application with SharePoint". The joke? "Did he just put easy/fast in the same sentence as SharePoint?"
So unless you salary would be lower because of it... downplay your skills on it and be upfront to your boss. :)
Have you ever looked at Alfresco (http://alfresco.com)?
It serves many of the same purposes as SharePoint, but does it from an Open Source J2EE application. It will leverage your existing collaboration / content management experience and expose you to a whole bunch of open source technologies.
Full disclosure: I work for Alfresco.
I've already given this suggestion to another guy...Running from SharePoint won't be difficult because technologies are similar to each other according to their structure. SharePoint is not the worst technology to be used, although it is limited in some way... Fortunately, software sphere is too wide to be afraid of not finding anything you can be interested in.