Will Alfresco work for me?

[skiani]

Hi,

I'm working on a new startup with limited funds and considering if Alfresco will work for our primary document management system. We going to be developing a life sciences product development so I need traceability, support for diverse file types, and a cross-platform environment (Windows and Linux). I have installed the community version (3.4.a) on Ubuntu 10.10 accepting all the defaults. I had a slew of questions that maybe someone can help me with:

1. When I go to create a new site type I only have the options for Collaboration Site, is there not a document management site in the community version?
2. One of the critical type of files I need to manage are large (10-100mb) and they are used in sets. Think of them as linked files that have to be all opened at once by the application. Even if I want to just edit one of the files they all have to be available in read-only format. I really need the files to be sync'ed locally for this to work well. Is there a way to do any of this in Alfresco?
3. The compute power required for the server seems pretty high, looks like about 2Gb of ram and one CPU is pegged full time with soffice process. What would I need to support 15 users and the large file I'm talking about?
4. Is there a way to force versioning of all files? I seem to be able to edit and delete files at will without any trace. It seems I can mark a single file to keep history but I want to say everything in the site/folder.
5. When I try to preview files in the webclient I get "Preview can not be loaded from server" for .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .ods, .xlsx, and .xls. For .jpg files I get preview. And for .odg files (Openoffice drawing format which we use extensively for system design) I get "This document can't be previewed." Do I have something miss configured?
6. Is there anyway to pull/push meta data to/from the document directly. Ideally this is bi-direction and allows for custom fields like document number. Is there any such facility in Alfresco?

Sorry the large number of questions, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[mrogers]

1. When I go to create a new site type I only have the options for Collaboration Site, is there not a document management site in the community version?
Share is produced around the idea of a "collaboration site".    There's the repository browser which has snuck into the more recent builds which is more "DM".    Or you could use the Alfresco Explorer interface.   Or roll your own.

2. One of the critical type of files I need to manage are large (10-100mb) and they are used in sets. Think of them as linked files that have to be all opened at once by the application. Even if I want to just edit one of the files they all have to be available in read-only format. I really need the files to be sync'ed locally for this to work well. Is there a way to do any of this in Alfresco?
Umm…  Probably.    I'd need to explore your  requirements to understand how your document structure works. 

3. The compute power required for the server seems pretty high, looks like about 2Gb of ram and one CPU is pegged full time with soffice process. What would I need to support 15 users and the large file I'm talking about?
The compute power depends on the load you add to the server, however 15 users is a small number.   Open office is only active when you are transforming documents, so I think its unlikely that 15 users will keep it that busy.

4. Is there a way to force versioning of all files? I seem to be able to edit and delete files at will without any trace. It seems I can mark a single file to keep history but I want to say everything in the site/folder.
Yes you can make a folder versionable or indeed make everything in Alfresco versionable, however please avoid doing that since its overkill!

5. When I try to preview files in the webclient I get "Preview can not be loaded from server" for .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .ods, .xlsx, and .xls. For .jpg files I get preview. And for .odg files (Openoffice drawing format which we use extensively for system design) I get "This document can't be previewed." Do I have something miss configured?
Yes, you should see previews.

6. Is there anyway to pull/push meta data to/from the document directly. Ideally this is bi-direction and allows for custom fields like document number. Is there any such facility in Alfresco?
Yes there's a metadata extraction facility built in.   There are also various metadata injectors although they are not built into the product.

[skiani]

Thanks for reply. Some follow ups:

2. How can I have this dialogue in greater depth? This is driving element of our decision to use Alfresco or not. Basically we are looking for PDM like functionality for either Solidworks or Inventor (Solidmodeling cad packages). The user will not know what files they will need until they start opening up models. Some models have hundreds of references.

3. There appears to be a bug in 3.4a that has the soffice process max'ed out continuously. There are various discussions I have found but no resolution. Maybe you have suggestion how to fix? Here is the default settings for the repository.properties files that maybe the problem:

# External executable locations
ooo.exe=soffice
ooo.user=${dir.root}/oouser
img.root=./ImageMagick
img.dyn=${img.root}/lib
img.exe=${img.root}/bin/convert
swf.exe=./bin/pdf2swf

4. How to do this is not obvious to me, do I set using a Rule or Aspect some how? This is critical for traceability if a user can edit or remove a document from the vault without a trace then I've lost control not to mention legal ramifications. When you say overkill am I not getting how the system works some how?

5. This also appears to be a bug related to bug in #3 I have tried several ways to fix without luck. Do you recommend a different version? Where do I download from?

6. Can you point me to a URL with description?

thanks.

[mrogers]

2. How can I have this dialogue in greater depth? This is driving element of our decision to use Alfresco or not. Basically we are looking for PDM like functionality for either Solidworks or Inventor (Solidmodeling cad packages). The user will not know what files they will need until they start opening up models. Some models have hundreds of references.
I suggest you talk to an Alfresco Partner or Alfresco product management.


3. There appears to be a bug in 3.4a that has the soffice process max'ed out continuously. There are various discussions I have found but no resolution. Maybe you have suggestion how to fix? Here is the default settings for the repository.properties files that maybe the problem:

    # External executable locations
    ooo.exe=soffice
    ooo.user=${dir.root}/oouser
    img.root=./ImageMagick
    img.dyn=${img.root}/lib
    img.exe=${img.root}/bin/convert
    swf.exe=./bin/pdf2swf

check you have the latest version of soffice.


4. How to do this is not obvious to me, do I set using a Rule or Aspect some how? This is critical for traceability if a user can edit or remove a document from the vault without a trace then I've lost control not to mention legal ramifications. When you say overkill am I not getting how the system works some how?
You set the "versionable" aspect on a folder.   That's it …

5. This also appears to be a bug related to bug in #3 I have tried several ways to fix without luck. Do you recommend a different version? Where do I download from?
What bug? 

6. Can you point me to a URL with description?
http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Metadata_Extraction


thanks.

[skiani]

Hi again,

Still trying to get this to work while trying out the alternatives. Some follow ups:

#2. Managing lots of large files requiring local caching. I have tried many things here including FlexSpaceAir. The best I'm coming up with is using the Windows briefcase (Unison on Linux will do the same). It does keep the files locally so performance is good, also temp files are not posted to repository while application is open that is good thing. Problems remaining:

   a) Does not appear to be anyway to force check in comments. I really need this for traceability. Most commercial systems can be set to force a min-length of checkin comment.
   b) No checkout process to lock out other users out of editing a file. Ideally the files would be read-only until they are checked out. New files are handled fine as is.
   c) Requires manual update to get latest version of the file. Dropbox like automatic update of files not being edited (not automatic check in) would be optimum.

#3. soffice.bin process stuck at 100%: I am running the version of openoffice that was embedded in 3.4a .bin file. It is 3.2. I'm going to try a fresh install on a new system next week to see if I can fix the problem.

#4. Making whole repository/site versionable. I add the "Versionable" Aspect to a folder but the files are not versioning as you suggest. The only way I can do this is to set the aspect file by file. Maybe there is some soft of inheritance setting? And yes I need the whole site to be versioned disk is cheap and I'm developing an FDA product so need full traceability, I am working on the assumption here that version would be by check in not just saving, which is the potential problem with cifs share.

thanks,

[mt-haw]

Hi,

Is there a solution for previewing odg files (OpenOffice Draw) ?
All documents can be previewed, but .odg files won't work.