By almostcrzy on

Hello,

I've been considering using eRoom's collaborative solution to manage a "Work-In-Progress" type site in which users can upload a current version into the system, and start a chain of approvals. Once certain approvals are given, the product would then move into subsequent stages or require additional approvals. Can anyone familiar with the eRoom software tell me if Drupal is a suitable substitute for such software, or if Drupal can handle projects in a similar way to eRoom?

Thanks,
Daniel

Comments

almostcrzy’s picture

almostcrzy commented

To elaborate a bit, these are some of the features i'm looking for:

- Configurable template to create new project workspaces
- A security and access model in order to define a workgroup of participants for each project, or across similar projects
- Support a shared workspace for common Office documents such as Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, etc.
- Support a hierarchical structure for organizing project content
- Enable files to be uploaded and downloaded to/from the workspace
- Support notes and discussions
- Support some level of customized branding
- Workspace must be web-based and enable full Mac compatibility
- Support Adobe CS artwork files such as psd, eps, ai, and pdf.
- Lower resolution Thumbnail and Preview jpg images should be generated automatically from original files.
- Users should be able to browse thumbnails and previews from the workspace without having to download.
- Search and filter capabilities
- Support upload and download of multiple files (folder?) at a time

Can anyone pick apart this list and tell me if you think Drupal can handle these requirements?

seannyob’s picture

seannyob commented

I'm implementing a "Project Portal" with most of those features. As soon as I have time I'll outline how I configured Drupal for you, or maybe put together a white paper... Briefly, it involves configuring certain modules appropriately, building an intelligent taxonomy, and sundry other general Drupal configurations that are just common sense.

A lot of that depends on your definition of "support," I don't really knwo what you mean by that specifically. Especially when it comes to Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator documents...

These are some of the modules, in alphabetical order, that I'm using (although other combinations might suit your particular needs more efficiently):

  • actions
  • comment
  • contact
  • filemanager
  • flexinode
  • forms
  • forum
  • forward
  • image
  • img_assist
  • menu
  • node
  • page
  • path
  • pdfview
  • poll
  • search
  • statistics
  • survey
  • swish
  • taxonomy
  • taxonomy_access
  • taxonomy_dhtml
  • throttle
  • tinymce
  • upload
  • workflow

The challenge you have is to build a taxonomy / roll access matrix that suits you, first of all, then to extend other taxonomies that apply to your content.

Then you build out features from there.
Swish allows you to index the contents of binary files.
There are a ton of different image processing options.

Search is your friend; I think drupal can solve most of your problems, although you might have to code a little.

Sean

--
Sean K. O'Brien
CTO
Colley Graphics, LLC
http://www.colleygraphics.com

Jaza’s picture

Jaza commented

Drupal is able to support all of your needs - between the various core components and modules that it offers - except for Adobe CS files support. There is nothing available for Drupal that can process all of these files. The only Drupal module that fulfils any of your needs in this area is the Swish-E Indexer module, for PDF indexing.

I was surprised to find that ImageMagick's supported formats include PSD and EPS (as well as gif, jpg, png, etc). ImageMagick doesn't support the AI format. I don't think GD supports any of these. Since ImageMagick is on your side, you (or someone you ask) could write a Drupal module to process these special formats, and to produce JPG thumbnails of them.

Your needs are quite unique: most users don't require processing of special Adobe image formats, and most web-based systems therefore don't support it. You might just be better off asking your users to supply a JPG or PNG equivalent (for thumbnail processing), along with any PNG / EPS / AI files that they upload. If you do this, then Drupal is more than able to support your needs without custom work.

Jeremy Epstein - GreenAsh

Jeremy Epstein - GreenAsh