Simple Document Management System ideas?

[Chris Cage]

Does anyone have experience/recommendation with a simple document management system that can run on a Windows server?

Ideally, the system would allow for basic browsing/downloading and uploading files through a browser. It would also be able to pick up files that had been put on the server manually (not through the app).

Basically, I've got a client with 1000's of docs and they want to move them from several desktop machines onto their web server so they can access them while traveling. Using VPN/Remote Desktop to connect directly to server is too cumbersome for them, so they want something browser based.

Any ideas?

Chris

[Kevin Koym]

one of the amazing uber-killers in this category is http://www.plone.org

It is easy to get started on... and can keep going as you need to scale what you are doing.

It is a content management site that I have used for building sites that have tens of thousands of pages.
It runs on windows.... and is mega scalable... (although my deployment requirements had it on Linux).

Kevin

--
Kevin Koym
kevin...@enterpriseteaming.com
+1.512.698.9328 mobile

Enterprise Teaming, LLC
http://www.enterpriseteaming.com

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9)

[Cody Marx Bailey]

I'm going to have to disagree with Kevin on this.

Plone looks great out of the box. It's got a huge list of features. It has a giant developer community. But the system is so hacked together, with so much disorganization that it's not worth your time (imo).

I worked on the system for 2 years and ultimately left that job because of that software.

As for suggestions on other D.A.M. solutions, I don't know what else is out there as I have left that space.

-C

--
Cody Marx Bailey
979-574-9199
Downtown Cartel (.com)
219 N. Main St.
Suite 502
Bryan, Texas 77803

[Kevin Koym]

certainly we all have opinions about this... and certainly they are all valid, especially with two years experience.

In the case that I was involved in, I was able to be a total project-fascist.  The project that I was brought in to save had already spent most of their budget (it was with your Texas tax-dollars by the way) and I made sure that my contract conditions allowed me complete-utter-no-questions-asked-control to save the project.  In this context, setting up Plone properly really kicked ass (that is my professional opinion).  It was not a popular decision... the customer initially wanted another static website (replacing the static website that they had).  Plone's ability to handle multiple languages, large-large scale page and site serving, and great support for website accessibility required a framework/ CMS like Plone.  I don't have any of Cody's insight on why his project was a pain.  Yet, I can authoritatively say that in the situation that I was in, Plone took the cake.

I don't focus on building websites in Plone.  (In fact, in this case, my client paid me to figure out what was best for their needs.)  Your mileage may vary, but out of the open source frameworks that I have assembled teams around (17 different frameworks) this one happens to be one of my favorite.  I don't build many teams around Plone, but I have to admit, I am impressed.  I wish that python, the language behind Plone, was more popular... so that this one solution would be more accessible to more people.  Python should have beaten Ruby to the punch.... but it did not.

Kevin

[Linda]

Why not just use the WSS (Windows SharePoint Services) that comes with
Windows 2003 server? It is free, you just need to set it up and it
does a great job of building out basic intranet sites including AD
acess based security, and document and picture libraries and lots
more.

Linda Lalewicz

[Chris Cage]

Thanks for the replies folks. I think we may try using WSS and see if that will work for them. If not, we've briefly looked at a few other packages that might do the trick.

To answer an earlier question, they don't have any IT dept, so they are relying on us to help them work it out.

I'll let you know in a couple of weeks how it works out.

chris cage | web services director | onramp access, inc.
p: 512.322.9200 x 326 | c: 512.350.8499 | www.onr.com