topic Re: Document Library Setup for a Newbie in Alfresco Archive

Document Library Setup for a Newbie

willrs — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:28:41 GMT

Hi GuysCurrently, weve been using SharePoint in house as a quite simple "store documents and access them from anywhere in the world" type system. We are looking at replacing SharePoint, as we find it quite clunky to manage and we have to move servers soon anyway.So, firstly, Im not a developer.. but

Re: Document Library Setup for a Newbie

jpotts — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:51:38 GMT

Share and Explorer both put their data in Alfresco's "DM" repository, so from a repository perspective, there is no difference. The big difference is in the user interface and how that user interface is built (and what it is used for).

The Alfresco Explorer interface is built for the type of generic "basic document management" use case you describe. If the Explorer client is too overwhelming for your users, you might want to look at a streamlined alternative UI that gives you a subset of what Explorer can do in a simplified interface. There are several of these alternative UI's out there. The one my company built and offers as freely-available open source is called DoCASU (http://docasu.sourceforge.net/).

Alfresco Share is a team collaboration client. Each "team site" you create contains a set of configurable tools such as a blog, wiki, and a document library. The document library supports folders and documents, just like Explorer does, but the experience is much more AJAX-y (fewer full screen refreshes). Plus, Share has stuff like commenting, tagging, multiple file upload, and flash-based preview which are all things you don't get with Explorer.

Alfresco Share is definitely where Alfresco is investing their energy right now. In the future, Share may become more Explorer-like and Explorer may no longer be needed. If you are looking to replace Sharepoint, I imagine Share is probably going to be more similar to what you're already used to. (And, BTW, Alfresco implements the Sharepoint file protocol so your users can continue to use Office's Sharepoint integration, but instead of pointing to those old Microsoft boxes, you can point them to your open Alfresco stack).

So I feel like your high level requirement (folders on the left, documents on the right) is met by both clients out-of-the-box. Of course, the devil is always in the details. Both the Explorer client and the Share client can be customized to meet your needs, or you can use one of the "alternative clients" that's out there, or you can build your own client that gives you pixel-level control over the user experience.

So there's my general pro-Alfresco marketing spiel. Maybe you have specific questions about setting up folders that I didn't address. If so, please say so.

Jeff

Re: Document Library Setup for a Newbie

elmuchacho — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:50:26 GMT

docasu looks great …
works fast …
but : how to localize it?
german would be nICE for me and my users
and:
search doesn't work … runs always in an error …

Failed to perform search : 10060106 Wrapped Exception (with status template): org/alfresco/repo/search/impl/lucene/QueryParser
Status: 500 Internal ErrorAn error inside the HTTP server which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
Exception: org.alfresco.web.scripts.WebScriptException - 10060106 Wrapped Exception (with status template): org/alfresco/repo/search/impl/lucene/QueryParser
Server: Alfresco Community v3.2.0 (@build-number@) schema 2.019
06.11.2009 13:49:35

Re: Document Library Setup for a Newbie

jpotts — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:42:42 GMT

My guess is that we haven't yet tested against 3.2 Community and that you've found a bug. I'll talk to the team and see where we are with 3.2.

Jeff

Re: Document Library Setup for a Newbie

jpotts — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:33:52 GMT

I've entered a ticket in our bug tracker for this. We are discussing our plan to test DoCASU against 3.2 currently. We do plan on supporting 3.2.

You can log issues against DoCASU by sending email to docasu@optaros.com.

Jeff

Re: Document Library Setup for a Newbie

veronika_zenz — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:12:23 GMT

I had the same problem with docasu seach not working with alfresco 3.2.
to fix it you need to edit

java/com/optaros/alfresco/docasu/wcs/helper/QueryManager.java
and replace QueryParser by LuceneQueryParser
(lines 27 and 95)

Diff output;


27c27
< import org.alfresco.repo.search.impl.lucene.QueryParser;
—
> import org.alfresco.repo.search.impl.lucene.LuceneQueryParser;
95c95
<          query = QueryParser.escape(query);
—
>          query = LuceneQueryParser.escape(query);
‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Re: Document Library Setup for a Newbie

groberts — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:14:46 GMT

Just what I needed. Thanks.