Thread

Dear people,

I’m currently researching the possibilities of using Expression Engine for an extranet application project. Besides that I’m looking for a CMS system for the websites we develop. Till now, all sites and webapplications we’ve developed have their own CMS, developed in house. Reasons are we haven’t found a system that does what we want. I think EE might be the thing we’re looking for.

For this particular project I would like some feedback of experienced developers whether it’s possible to do this with EE. Besides that, I’m looking for a developer to work with us on this project. I would also like an extra developer to keep an eye on what’s being developed and to test it. The system will be a core application for a client of ours and will need to be able to adapt and scale in the future.

The system will be an intranet / extranet. At this moment there’s an existing system, which we’ve developed about 7 years ago. It still works quite well, but we want to rebuild totally for different reasons. The system will have internal (employees of the company) and external (clients of the company) users.  Besides that there are one or two superusers and some content-managers. The contentmanagers will edit content in differtent languages, also in languages with different character sets (Russian for example). Output will also be in different character sets.

The design of the complete application must be in company style. So the interface for content editors preferably also is in this style (although this is not a must have.)

These are the main features that need to be developed in the coming two months:
* the core of the system consists of product information: products are categorized in groups- and subgroups. All kinds of documents and information is attached to a product. Besides that, information and documents are sometimes attached to a product group or subgroup. Products, groups and subgroups are tagged, so searching for specific terms is possible. There are .docs, xls, pdf and other filetype documents attached to products. Besides that there will be forms to collect information, footnotes, etc. and generate pdf-files automatically. These need to be quite intelligent forms and output (in seven languages);
* the superuser must be able to edit the groups and subgroups. The output navigational menu will be partly generated automatically and dynamically of in any case must be easily updated by the superuser;
* the system needs good search options, if possible also searching within the text of the documents;
* in the future, documents that are on the in-company Windows server drives must automatically be available through this intranet for specified user groups;
some documents might have to be automatically imported or linked from an external application, probably through XML (this needs to be researched)
information that is database (form) driven must be exportable and viewable in different formats (pdf, html mail;
* design and format of generated pdf’s is very important: company fonts must be used in these documents;
* through a ‘tabs’module (not tabs as in buttons, but tabs as in ordner) information for clients must be made available. Clients receive an ordner and updated pages must be available thhrough the extranet for printing, notifying the clients automatically by e-mail. Clients can print themselves. Sometimes it’s printed in large quantities. Layout / design of the prints is very important. Pages need to be added, deleted, categorized. Product information on these ‘pages’ must be linked (in the pdf and html-version) to the information in the database;
* there will be a newsmodule with standard features like certain items on the starting page and different news for different user groups;
* for employee affairs there will also be document management. If possible in the future connected to an existing application (to be researched);
* through a user module customers and employees can be added, edited an removed by the superuser. There needs to be management information on how often people log in, what information they look for, etc. Preferably there will be a notification system for if someone looks at all the documents, products or does other strange things.
* e-mailingmodule: members who want to can receive newsletters. Html-mail must be possible;
* faq module: most important questions and answers on starting page;
* nice to have / future: discussion boards;
* facebook or who is who: contact information of employees, their picture. People who have their birthday or are new in the company must be shown on the starting page;
in output: search module (also using tags of products).

General: it must be easy to add functionalities to the extranet in the future. Information of most of the content must be available to customers in seven languages. So pdf-generation is also in seven languages, among others Russion and Polish.

Can EE do all this?

If anyone is interested in help setting this up, I would like to hear from you. We’re looking for a professional with extensive knowledge of EE and knowledge of applicaton development in general. We will be setting up the project, wireframing, developing basic templates, etc. We need a programmer, someone who knows how EE needs to be structured for this application and can program, also develop additional features if necessary. The project will need to be finished at the end of this year.

Thank you in advance for your time.

Long thread, but let’s see if I can clear up some of the major questions…

If you’re looking for an EE developer long term, you should skim through the Pro Network and contact a few of the likely looking companies- explaining what you’re looking for and seeing if they’re interested in the project.  Another option is to post to the Job Board here and solicit interested developers.  I’d do this fairly early on in the process, as it’s always easier for a developer when they’re in at the start of the project.

Given your language requirements- I’d set everything up to use utf-8 encoding- databse, EE, etc.  EE can handle multi-language sites in a variety of ways- the Wiki has a couple of approaches, but how you set things up may vary.

As to backend styling- the backend control panel can be styled- and have multiple themes (it comes stock with two themes)- I’d likely just change some colors and add a company header- leaving the EE copyright as per the license- but greater customization is possible if desired.

As to the main features:
* the core of the system consists of product information: products are categorized in groups- and subgroups. All kinds of documents and information is attached to a product. Besides that, information and documents are sometimes attached to a product group or subgroup. Products, groups and subgroups are tagged, so searching for specific terms is possible. There are .docs, xls, pdf and other filetype documents attached to products. Besides that there will be forms to collect information, footnotes, etc. and generate pdf-files automatically. These need to be quite intelligent forms and output (in seven languages);
—It does sound complex- you’ll want someone who is very good with EE setting it up.  And there will be more than one way to approach it.  I’d likely use multiple weblogs and relationship fields for most of it.  I’d likely have a custom field for each language in my ‘content’ weblog and handle multi-language versions that way (depending).  Generating pdf’s automatically will require custom work.  And while EE does allow multiple category groups to be assigned to a weblog- and categories nest as deep as you need and entries may be assigned to more than one category- it may need some creative thought on how to handle tagging ‘groups/subgroups’.

* the superuser must be able to edit the groups and subgroups. The output navigational menu will be partly generated automatically and dynamically of in any case must be easily updated by the superuser;
Superadmins can edit everything- and you can create other member groups with the ability to edit categories.  Generally speaking, it sounds like you will make heavy use of the categories tag- which generates a dynamic display of categories.  In short- sounds doable ‘out of the box’.

* the system needs good search options, if possible also searching within the text of the documents;
—Take a look at the search module to see if it sounds like it meets your needs.  It will NOT search uploaded files- such as pdfs, docs, etc.  But it will search for words in any of your weblog fields.  I’m not dead sure it will meet your needs w/out customization.

* in the future, documents that are on the in-company Windows server drives must automatically be available through this intranet for specified user groups;
some documents might have to be automatically imported or linked from an external application, probably through XML (this needs to be researched)
information that is database (form) driven must be exportable and viewable in different formats (pdf, html mail;
—I’m unclear on this one- but if you want it fully automated, it will require custom coding.  On the plus side, EE has some nice xml parser classes- see the development docs.  It should be doable via custom coding it- but not ‘out of the box’ if I’m understanding what you want.  (Note- there are some third party importers for csv and rss- they might come close or at least inspire ideas.)

* design and format of generated pdf’s is very important: company fonts must be used in these documents;
—Again- if you need pdfs generated on the fly- it will take some custom work.

* through a ‘tabs’module (not tabs as in buttons, but tabs as in ordner) information for clients must be made available. Clients receive an ordner and updated pages must be available thhrough the extranet for printing, notifying the clients automatically by e-mail. Clients can print themselves. Sometimes it’s printed in large quantities. Layout / design of the prints is very important. Pages need to be added, deleted, categorized. Product information on these ‘pages’ must be linked (in the pdf and html-version) to the information in the database;
—In truth, I’m fuzzy on what you’re looking for on this one.

* there will be a newsmodule with standard features like certain items on the starting page and different news for different user groups;
—Sounds pretty stock.

Part II- because my reply was too long 😉

* for employee affairs there will also be document management. If possible in the future connected to an existing application (to be researched);
—I’m fuzzy on this one.

* through a user module customers and employees can be added, edited an removed by the superuser. There needs to be management information on how often people log in, what information they look for, etc. Preferably there will be a notification system for if someone looks at all the documents, products or does other strange things.
—Adding, editing, moving and deleting members isn’t a problem, though you’ll need some custom work to track what they look at.

* e-mailingmodule: members who want to can receive newsletters. Html-mail must be possible;
—Check out the Communicate tab and the mailing list- though the newsletter will need to be manually entered, it sounds like this is in the ballpark.

* faq module: most important questions and answers on starting page;
—Not a problem- a number of folks do this in EE, using a weblog to handle FAQs - see the Knowledge base for one example.

* nice to have / future: discussion boards;
—Shouldn’t be a problem- the forum we’re using now is an EE Module w/fully integrated membership.

* facebook or who is who: contact information of employees, their picture. People who have their birthday or are new in the company must be shown on the starting page;
—Sounds pretty stock, with a little tweaking to get the latest showing on the front page.  But take a look at the profiles on this forum- they come pretty close to what you are describing.

In sum?  I THINK EE comes pretty close to meeting most of your needs, but there are definitely some areas where you’ll need custom coding, and it is a complex sounding site, so you’ll want a good plan for the setup from the start.

Have you tried out one of the test options yet?  That’s a good way to get a feel for things.  And if you know you’ll be hiring at least one EE developer, it might be wise to start researching that as well.  EE is flexibly and different folks will set things up in different ways.  You’ll want your pro in on it from the start- and they’ll also be able to give you a good idea on how much custom work they foresee this requiring.  It will require some.

Did I leave out any biggies you still have questions on?

Hi Robin,

Thank you very much for your reply. I’m looking in to it and I will post a job for the pros this week.