Recommendations request: web-based doc mgmt system

[Yukon Jack]

I'm a member of a local non-profit community club and have been asked to digitize some 15 years of club documents. This led me to do some searching on the web for something that we could use.

Background: With 15+ years of paper documents stored in a bunch of binders we need some way of archiving these. The documents are generally board meeting minutes, treasurer's reports, and monthly newsletters. I'm in the process of scanning them with a ScanSnap ADF scanner to PDF files.

The goal: To have a php/sql-based DMS on a hosted location where members of the board can go and search the archive. ideally searching would also include searching within all the documents for a specific term or string, such as "bylaws" where documents containing discussions of club bylaws would be listed.

We have a hosting service already so all we need is the scripts or whatever to copy to the host, and then set up admin and user accounts. As the admin and users will change over time, this has to be compatible with Macs and Windows machines.

Since we are a small group we are looking at something that is $100 or less (I know, that's really a stretch!).

I've well and truly searched the web and discovered many many sites that sell or give away such a product but it's really impossible for me to make heads or tails from the technical talk*.

I'm fairly comfortable copying packages to my host and with getting started. The host has PHP and SQL built in as I have already installed a couple of scripts and created SQL databases (*created* only in the sense that I filled out a few steps in my control panel but I didn't build it) I just need to know which one will fit, which is why I'm asking the Mac community.

Any help evaluating and recommending a DMS would be really fantastic!

Thanks!

-Tod

* Have looked at OpenDocMan at http://www.opendocman.com/, Mindwrap Optix at http://www.mindwrap.com/, and HomeGed Enterprise at http://www.home-ged.com/hgstore/homeged_enterprise.

 

[steveoc]

I'm going to install opendocman on my server and give it a go. The installation looks pretty straight forward, except that you need to manually edit the config.php entering the database name, user name, and password.

I'll let you know how it goes and can give you a hand if you need it.

 

[steveoc]

Fairly straight forward. Edit these using your database settings in config.php:

// Database Settings
$GLOBALS['database'] = 'opendocman'; // Enter the name of the database here
$GLOBALS['user'] = 'opendocman'; // Enter the username for the database
$GLOBALS['pass'] = 'opendocman'; // Enter the password for the username
$GLOBALS['hostname'] = 'localhost'; // Enter the hostname that is serving the database
​

The last is usually left localhost.

Then edit:

// Set this to the url of the site
// No need for trailing "/" here
'base_url' => 'http://localhost/opendocman',​

with the url of the site. Ex: http://mywebsitename/nameoffolderwithopendocman

Next, you have to make a directory a level below public_html using your ftp client. I called mine document_repository.

Finally, edit config.php to reflect the data directory's location.

// Uncomment this one for LINUX - Don't forget the trailing slash "/"
'dataDir' => '/var/www/document_repository/',
​

On my linux server, the proper address is /home/serverloginname/document_repository/

Save the config.php to the server and run the install as outlined in the instructions.

 

[Yukon Jack]

Thanks @steveoc. I'll download it and give it a go myself.

Thanks for going the extra mile and actually installing it as a test bed.

I'll let you know later how it goes.

-Tod

----------

I have one question and that is WRT to the path to the dataDir. My host is a shared host and as near as I can figure the root directory is:

x.x.x.x//public_html/ where the x's are the ip address on my host. If i go to public_html and move up another level, the contents of that level / are things like bin, etc, logs, perl, php, ruby, tmp... I'm not sure which directory to add the dataDir folder or what the permissions and ownerships should be (777, 775, 755, whatever).

Do you mind doing PMs while working this out, or exchanging actual email addresses? Then once it's all taken care of, I'll post the results publicly.

-Tod

 

[steveoc]

Yep--that's the directory you want to put it in. Permissions depend on how the sever is configured. On mine it is 755. Others might be 777. Look at the permissions of other folders in that directory. It should give you a clue.

Does your host use cpanel?

BTW--send you a PM with my email.

 

[Yukon Jack]

OpenDocMan

OpenDocMan appears to be what I needed.

Many thanks to @steveoc for his patience and helpful advice during the installation. It turned out to be quite easy going and all the bumps were because i was rushing things and didn't completely read through some instructions.

I have created a database and have begun adding documents to it. A couple of users will be running it through its paces.

-Tod