Intranet/ extranet web application:

[Tommynilsen]

Hi

I am about to start setting up a web-based intranett for a company - a start-up! I have the full package of A5 V11, and I have limited experience and learning as I am going.

The intranet will distribute policies and procedure-documentation throughout and among different departments to hundreds of worktasks. This is the baseline, manuals and documentation. Then I will add on webshop, logistics, order and payment and the like, this comes later on, (but the intranet-component will be accessed through a "login component" on the comming webpage and as a stand alone company-internal infrastructure).

I have most of the content in word format for now, around 350 single documents, but I might need to create and transform the content in to A5 forms and dialog components/boxes etc. Some tables and forms will be read-only procedures, other will be fill-in-information (forms) and "save as" feature.
All content has to be searchable in the intranet too.

What would be nice would be to be able to make global changes to contents and forms in all or some docuemnts that has the same standard forms/ layout when updating and change will present itself, as it will when time comes so I dont have to go through hundres of forms to change one and the same sentence..
So, my main point:
I just need to know how to go about this, and start out right! Would anybody have experience with this type of infrastructure- and, what type of web componenent/ part would be best to build this system platform, and where should I keep all data? In A5 database, MySql, access or what?




I really appreciate your answers!


Best regards
Tommy

[Pat Bremkamp]

Re: Intranet/ extranet web application:

I built a Quality Management System for a company intranet, and here is what I learned:

For the static procedures and documents, use a product like CKEditor. Steve Wood at AlphaToGo has a very nice integration package that will make this much easier. It includes a routine to convert word documents to html, taking out the junk but preserving the formatting. So, you can simply copy/paste in the documents. Store the document text in a text field in a MySQL table along with the title, revision, revision date, active or obsolete, changed by, reason for the change and "does it require retraining". Any time the document is revised, automatically up the rev and rev date. If the company has monitors where these documents are used, then there only needs to be this one version and everyone always has the latest version. Display the document as a label or make it non-editable. If they print them out as pdf, then make sure you put print date and a "do not use after" date on them to prevent people using obsolete copies. Also, print "Company confidential" on the page so you can fire employees that sell them to competitors.

MySQL has the capability of full text searches, so you can search all the documents for a word or phrase to find the documents that contain it. And, you can write a routine to find and replace something in the text. I'd do that as a MySQL stored procedure to make it very fast.

For the forms, I found it useful to present a read only grid with basic info ( I called it a "log" ), and used a detail section for the form itself. In my case, one form would get completed over time, so we needed access to existing forms as well as new ones. You can put a button in the log to upload or download attachments to that record. (For example photos or pdfs).

Store the attachments outside the database but rename them to include the record key for easy retrieval.
Have fun!

[Tommynilsen]

Re: Intranet/ extranet web application:

Thank you Pat!

I like your idea, and I can see Steve Wood have done a wonderfull job with this platform, which I guess I wouldn't go wrong with, as it is fully integrated with V11. I will surely look more into this solution.

As a second guess: One issue is important dough. I need to fully own and control the platform. I guess buying Mr. Woods solution only give me access to a copy he own! I don't want the platform come crashing down my head in a few years time, or other negative impact which I have little or no control over! Would this be a legitimate concern here?

Tommy

[Pat Bremkamp]

Re: Intranet/ extranet web application:

Don't worry Tommy.

CKEditor is the world's #1 on line editor, so it is unlikely to disappear. (In fact, it is the editor used here on this board) Steve's integration package adds the JavaScript to integrate that 3rd party product into the dialogs and grids in your own app. He uses it in his own apps, so he will be keeping it up to date. It is fully functional and tested. I use it, and I'm very happy with it...better than the version I had created.

If you are worried that he will win the lottery and move to Bora Bora, then you could go back and replicate what Steve has done after your app is complete, but I wouldn't spend the time (days ...weeks?) to try that now when there are more important pieces of the app to be created.

[Tommynilsen]

Re: Intranet/ extranet web application:

Yes, I think you r right. But thank you for your kind advise!

Tommy