http://communities.psych.org/search/SearchResults.aspx?a=1&o=DateDescending&tag=District+Branches&orTags=0Search results matching tag 'District Branches'en-USCommunityServer 2008 (Build: 30417.1769)http://communities.psych.org/blogs/cio/archive/2008/02/28/the-quest-for-db-websites-sharepoint-joomla-and-lamp.aspxThu, 28 Feb 2008 18:59:00 GMTd3d99252-30df-4c9b-b3c7-f3accd7122f8:150wbruce<p>For well over a year we’ve been working on finding ways to help our district branches with website hosting.&nbsp; Initially, we sought out to develop a lightweight content management system for smaller branches who have limited or no websites.&nbsp; What we come up with was a nice little application that was quite easy to use, but never caught on.&nbsp; It suffered from being too limited and lacked many features that DBs want.&nbsp; </p> <p>Last summer, several branches submitted infrastructure grant requests for web design and development work.&nbsp; Most of them were well thought out and had clear and reasonable goals, but were not individually unique.&nbsp; Rather than funding several small development efforts, we elected to revisit the APA provided option and explore ways to improve it so that it would be more attractive.&nbsp; Ultimately, we decided to scrap our internal work and opt for an outside vendor.<br />Last week, we approved a work order with Susquehanna, a local SharePoint Integrator.&nbsp; They will be building a portal system based on Microsoft SharePoint server that will allow district branches to have full-featured websites that include many of the same features found on <a href="http://www.psych.org/">www.psych.org</a> such as member directory, member’s areas, and easy content management.&nbsp; We are working with a small group of branches in the pilot and development of this and hope to make significant progress before the annual meeting.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p>Alternatively, we have been working with Dr. Sharmat to provide hosted sites on a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) server using the open source content management system Joomla.&nbsp; This system is now available and we can host a few sites if any district branches want to experiment with it.&nbsp; Joomla is similar in approach to our initial work, but much more full featured.&nbsp; It is a good tool for creating a web presence, but has limitations as well.&nbsp; Key among them is its lack of integration with our back office member data, so testers will need to keep that in mind.&nbsp; </p> <p>The New York work in progress can be viewed <a class="" title="New York Joomla" href="http://joomla.psych.org/nydb/nypsych" target="_blank">here</a>.</p> <p>Anyone interested in having a LAMP based Joomla site setup can contact me for details.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>