Really Newbie Questions (Sorry in Advance!)

[sirius]

Hello there everybody.  I have quite a lot of questions to ask and I hope somebody has the patience to reply because I know how frustrating it can be to get back to basics.

First of all, I have tried to understand what the Alfresco website is trying to tell me, half the time I havent a clue what is being said, I admit it. I am not technically savvy, and by goodness have I tried to understand and get into some of it. I just cant, I really can't learn it and take it in.

I have tried for about 5 years to get a project on the go - trying to use Joomla, Wordpress, Atlasssian style document managers, Neucleus, blog extenders and such too, and my last attempt was MediaWiki. I failed every time. Often because of MySQL and required code knowledge.  It is definetly my inability to understand what Im doing thats the problem.

Finally though, I found Alfresco - and looking at what I did understand from the main website - I thought "this could be what I am looking for!".  No MySQL database, but a Java one instead……and with the "Bitnami Stack" I just clicked the intsall and up it ran first time without any technical requirements needed. Phew! So far so good!.

I have tried making spaces in both these areas and had success, and have imported a whole batch of files into the "share" side of things.  But, I cannot seem to map a shared drive or figure out what I need to do to get my project working. Thats where I am at. Remember, I am not technically competant and do not understand code or what to do with it.

But, what I think I should ask first is a more general question regarding the software that might "make or break" with how much I persevere with trying to get it to work. Like I say, I have read the site, but the programme is THAT big and does that many things, is full of that many acroymns and technical jargon I get lost in it all. I am used to "point and click" with minimal fuss under the hood of the engine.

So before I make a nuisanace of myself with specific aspects, can I lay out what I want to do for my project and have your thoughts on the likelyness of Alfresco to cope (or me to cope with Alfresco!) ?:

Lets imagine for a moment I am a scientist (Im not, but lets pretend)…..

……what I want to do is create a website, one that looks and operates like any other website (which I would have to design and lay out myself). I currently have, on my hard drive, a whole heap of webpages and articles, pictures, video's and such which are all related to a specific niche in Science. What I aim to do is create a website which acts as a "one stop shop" for that niche of science. I forsee it having a "windows explorer" style navigation panel that can browse categories and folders like a "shared drive", but operated via the "front end" of the "webpage" (rather than a clunky programme display).

What I would like to do, is have a fully searcheable document data set of all this content (including searching inside Word,PDF,HTML, Mht, formats etc) - and in the main area of the sites webpage, when they find material they want to read, it shows up perfectly in the middle of the webpage, where they can copy and paste relevent pieces of those documents if they wish, save the document to their machine, print it off, or whatever else. If there is relevant video to match the topic, I would like them to be able to play it if they choose.

At a later stage, I would like to make this a collaborative website. With trusted users, I would like to see them able to add material into the document manager dataset and have it placed into the correct category, awaiting approval from myself to be published properly for public view. I might like to add a Blog to the site to add my own notes and theories on the Science being discussed, and I would like to add some sort of area to the site, again with a searchable and tree-like structure where I offer my own personal answers to many common Science questions and myths. This would be so that people arguing on chat rooms and forums (for example) can easily find the specific topic being discussed and save them the time trying to respond to opponents or myth makers by being able to copy and modify a pre existing reply to match their circumstances.

All this happens over the general WWW, not via a company or closed network. It is to be open for all to view, or, maybe restricted in *some* areas for selective viewing. I might like to host the site myself (seeing as all my information is currently sat here on the hard drive) from Windows XP or Windows 7 if I upgrade.

+First of all, is Alfresco the right tool for this?. 

+Second, how well can a non technical person cope without having to do a course/degree in computer programming?

+Can I design a website inside Alfresco for this to be just as I envisage? A "Normal" front end attached to a background document manager, but opens the material directly in display or via a pop up. Or do I need to learn some kind of Dreamweaver to do this and some how join two things together?.

+ Is it possible to host my own website of this nature?

I not concerened with logging things in or out, or release information, version checking, or such. Its pretty simple (I hope) what I require. But I don't know where to start. Everything I try and read just drowns me in technicalities.

Is it possible for anybody to send a pre-made 'website and document manager' like a "template" and I can modify it?, or download it from somewhere. Or does Alfresco not work like that? (You know, a kind of equivalent of a pre-made website template like you can download from the net to make a website…….)

Apologies if I havent explained it very well. I really am very new to all this.

Thanks,

Sirius.

[sirius]

Well, over 40 views so far and no reply lol.   I'm sorry if it was too long, or too basic, I just tried to explain where I am at with this technology.  Are there any books or websites which actually show a "novice" what to do from scratch?. I'm not finding it easy as it seems some "prior knowledge" of certain things is required, or at least a specific level of competency in computer technology in general.

I think it would be beneficial if there was such a "baby steps" book or series of "how to" video's which take you through it like an infant - I for one would not be insulted by it. I think there is a whole market out there who need this kind of technology but simply do not have the skills or insight to know what the hell they are supposed to do with it in real terms after they eventually figure out how to install it.

I am quite sure that many here are actually "into" the technology itself and seeing what can be done and understanding how it can be added to and all that aspect, but there must be many people who are not that interested in the actual mechanics and "under the hood" discussions and video's about what may or may not be possible and who instead just want to install a program and use it, like Microsoft Word or whatever else.

I think I fall more in the later category at the moment. I have a vision of a project I want to achieve, I have found a tool that may (or may not) achieve it…..and then I am lost in a quagmire of dead ends, lack of tutorials (if I am missing them, I do apologise in advance!), and just sat there with various "dashboards" on my screen that dont even seem linked together, and I'm just randomly clicking around figuring out what the hell I am supposed to do.  ops:

Cheers,

Sirius.

[mikeh]

I suspect it's too hard a (series of) questions to answer without an in-depth business analysis. You might find some of the webinars linked from our main site are useful: https://www.alfresco.com/about/events/ondemand/

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. Most of the 40 views will be search engines  :wink:

[mrogers]

And the way you have posed your questions makes me wonder if I can ever manage to answer your questions.    There are books, tutorials, and webinars available on Alfresco but they will take effort on your part to understand.

Perhaps your best bet would be to work with an Alfresco partner?

Anyway here goes … Some answers.
+First of all, is Alfresco the right tool for this?
Could be.  If you can manage to get to go forward rather than being drowned by choices.

+Second, how well can a non technical person cope without having to do a course/degree in computer programming?
There should be little need for "programming", to meet your requirements,  what you will need to do is understand the capabilities of the tools involved and what you want to do.   I'd say, for example, that business analysis and project planning skills are at least as important as being able to configure alfresco.

+Can I design a website inside Alfresco for this to be just as I envisage? A "Normal" front end attached to a background document manager, but opens the material directly in display or via a pop up. Or do I need to learn some kind of Dreamweaver to do this and some how join two things together?.       The answer is you can do both approaches.  Alfresco is a flexible tool.

I'd suggest you start with a minimum set of requirements and implement, one by one, without doing too much customisation. 

+ Is it possible to host my own website of this nature?
Yes.

[sirius]

Thankyou both for your replies.

Mike, yes I can imagine it is hard to get right down to basics and explain everything from the aspect of (what must now be to yourself) an alien who's just landed on planet Alfresco from Planet Point and Click……..

I shall have a look at your link and see if there is anything that can help me. I have logged into and streamed some of the podcast/webcast things during the previous two weeks or so - and have also searched for stuff on google which threw up some youtube video's - but at the moment, they seem to be more about marketting the possibilities and advantages of the system and explaining what the Alfresco system can do in an indepth business model situation, rather than video's aimed at actually step by steps of how to achieve something in the program.

I had not seen the exact page you linked to, so some time this weekend I will have a browse through. Thankyou.

Mrogers, cheers for your reply too.

I have spent quite a few random nights over the last two weeks trying to absorb what appears at times to be another language lol. I know my own limitations, so I feel there is only so much I can really set about learning. I know that is my fault for being a bit thick when it comes to this stuff. 

For example when I was trying MediaWiki (and some of the other programs out there) I had to learn to try and modify code to get the things working (which I did parrot fashion from examples, not understanding in the slightest what I was actually doing), also reading up on what "WAMP" was and how to install it etc, then I found out you have to know about "databases" and what they are and specifically how to set up a MySQL server database (which totally screwed up my Autodesk Inventor, but thats another story!) and I have generally been banging my head against a wall trying to just set these programs in motion before I even start to try and actually use them.

The way I see it at the moment, is that I need to know a whole range of other computer technology (which is not really aimed for the lay-man or averagely competant computer user) before I can progress anywhere.

After about a month of failure with the other tools, I gave up to MySQL and the said programs. MySQL was just a nightmare, nothing I tried would get it going properly. I managed it once by fluke, but when I rebooted one day, it didn't work anymore. Then theres tomcats or whatever (a myriad of acronymns and jargons), realising Id probably be needing to know how to set up FTP links to deposit/deploy the program, realising I will need to learn how to run a server from the computer, then I have had to mess about with command-prompt netstat_a DOS style stuff - the list went on and on. In comparison, I am loving the Alfresco so far - and its methodology of having a windows explorer style storage system is absolutely what I have been looking for. But it isnt without problems so far.

For example with Alfresco - Even when I used the "BITNAMI Stack" installer, I cannot get a "shared drive" to work on my computer, and I have spent a good few hours trying to read up what I am doing wrong. I have tried mapping the drive in windows explorer as described in some writeups and videos - but nope - it doesnt want to know. I found another tutorial which said I needed to modify some ".sample" files and put them into a particular folder and rename them. I search for those specific "sample" extension files and they are not on my computer. I find out others have the same problem with the Community Version. So I'm sat there like a sad plum thinking "what can I do now?". "Did they get the files?"  - I hunt around and I see some instructions with netstat commands in dos to check ports being used - but it isnt being used, and therefore wasn't causing the problem.

So I sit here and ask myself "Have I got the wrong version? Are the files missing? Can I download them and I am just missing where to do that from?…..Should I unistall the Bitnami Stack and start again from scratch? If I do that, can I remember what I already did and get back to where I left off?."  Then I am asking where the design tools are for the website creation - I dont see it, where do I go? What do I do? Does it have design/layout tools or is the 'dashboard' it? 
I have tried to find out how to put up the shared drive, I've spent an hour or so trying to get the instructions I did find to work (using the "mapping drive" thing and the string of texts that I altered to suit my situation), rooting around the net for files I cant find, trying DOS commands, and now they haven't I am faced with a heap of directions and unanswered questions. I'm just stumbling around in the dark. 

I don't mind admitting that Im not really interested in having to learn knowledge about a whole range of topics (such as finding my way around MySQL and implimenting systems) to get something going. This is probably because I will not use this knowledge ever again. If I was interested in a job doing this kind of document management, or was in a company that needed it as a service under my roll, or if I was technical and genuinely found excitement in the potentials of the technology (and all that aspect) I think my ability to pick it up might be a bit easier going lol. I'm more a general person who has an idea and wants to build it, and I admit thats very impatient! lol.

I am not adverse to trying for a while to pick things up - for example I have taught myself Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD to a degree good enough to do it for full time employment, and I managed to pick up enough of Adobe "Go-Live" to knock together a rough website a few years ago for my father. It was a bit clunky, probably full of holes and "no-no's" - but it did the job, and thats all I needed to do.

There seems to be a definate difference to these Alfresco/Joomla/MediaWiki/Nucleous style programs and a program like Microsoft Front Page, or Adobe Photoshop. With those, you are presented with an interface to get something done, then you export or save a job and put it somewhere. Alfresco is definately better than the others I have tried so far, but it is still quite an alien species to me in that regard.

I will probably have another few weeks having a go at this Alfresco, then if it is still too heavy or I am not getting anywhere with my project I think I will just call it a day and wait for something else thats easier "out of the box".

Thanks for your time. 

Sirius.

[mikeh]

It really sounds like you'd be better off engaging a third party to implement a solution (whatever that may be!) based on your requirements, rather than trying to do everything yourself. I don't mean to make it sound like you're not getting anywhere, but would have to come to the conclusion myself that after so many weeks of trying so many different solutions it's time to get some expert help in.

Thanks,
Mike