Use Alfresco as a base?

[prof_1]

Hi All,

I'm planning to create a content management solution with enterprise business features. I want to use Alfresco as a point to start. And to maximize the customization, I want to create my own project and use Alfresco's APIs to provide me most of the features that I need.

My questions are:
1- Is that possible and easy to get all the features that I need?
2- Which is better to use Alfresco itself then I make all my customizations and extensions or to create my own project and work with Alfresco APIs?
3- In case I want to start by building my own project and use Alfresco and base for my services, what is the good point to start, can you provide my Tutorials to start?

Thanks,

[jpotts]

The choice is entirely up to you and depends on your use case and the developer resources you have at your disposal. There is no "right" way to do it, particularly with as little specifics as you've provided thus far. If your use case is very close to the out-of-the-box use case of basic document management and collaboration offered by Alfresco Share, use Alfresco Share. If you have a process-centric content application (like case management), use Alfresco Workdesk. If you have something entirely different, build a custom app and use the API.

Some high-level tips:
- Do not customize Alfresco Explorer. That is no longer being actively developed. Instead, if you want to customize Alfresco, customize Alfresco Share.
- If you go with a remote API, use the public Alfresco API which is a superset of CMIS.
- Avoid the native Web Services API.
- When the Alfresco API or CMIS does not do what you want, use a Web Script. You may be able to find an out-of-the-box web script that meets your needs, but make sure it is in the public lifecycle. Otherwise, it is probably best to create your own web script.

The official documentation lives here: http://docs.alfresco.com.

Jeff