PicnicTutorials Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 Hello, We briefly touched on this a little while ago in the old forum, but now I have some more specific information to go off of. OK, here is what she wants. Here is a quote from her request. "I also wanted to discuss with you an additional piece to the site. What I am looking at adding is a communication portal. I want to be able to notate status and have each of my clients dedicated to a unique login so they can go in and view the information I have updated. Does this make sense?" So, short of a CMS system, in your opinion, what would be the best way to approach this? As she said, she basically needs a different page (that she can update) for each different cllient. Hmmm...??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 Depends on exactly what functionality she is looking for... You probably want to ask her to describe it in more detail exactly what features she is looking for, and how she is expecting it to work. If it is something simple, I did something like that for my client login section of my website using PHP... basically, client logs in using username/password, and sees a page that is unique to them. On my end, I have an administration center which allows me to modify the contents of the page the client sees. That said though, it would need some work... my solution (at least, the one I have at the moment) required the admin to manually add each user by creating a new folder and duplicating files per user -- not exactly extendable. I do have plans to automate that process via the admin panel, but that will have to wait till my new site launches (should be tonight sometime!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie Posted December 31, 2008 Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 It's just an idea (not sure if it's a good one or not), but I wonder if you could customize a project management system to match the design of her site. Something like Basecamp or similar.... OR...you can integrate her website design into CMS Made Simple and have your solution right there. (Please don't throw tomatoes at me for suggesting it. lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PicnicTutorials Posted December 31, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2008 Thanks Guys! Ya, I'll get some more details from her next year. Ben, yes I saw your client login - it's nicely intergrated. But as you said, she needs to be able to get to the info also. Susie, that may be a good (and easier - easy is good) alternative. Something like Basecamp might work well. Either customize it so it looks like the site, or just have a link on the site that takes the client to Basecamp (or similar). I'll post back when I have more details... In the mean time, if someone else thinks of any other way to do this please let me know. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PicnicTutorials Posted January 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 I do have plans to automate that process via the admin panel, but that will have to wait till my new site launches (should be tonight sometime!) How did that admin panel turn out? If it's something that you could share, and something my client could utilize, I'd by very interested! I have yet to get the specific details, but she works as a realestate broker. So she probably wants to be able to share (back and forth) files, paperwork, get signatures, etc, with each client as she brokers each deal. If that's the case, then something like BaseCamp is probably her best bet right? Are there anyother BaseCamp type systems I should look into as well? Thanks for your input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PicnicTutorials Posted January 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 I do have plans to automate that process via the admin panel, but that will have to wait till my new site launches (should be tonight sometime!) How did that admin panel turn out? If it's something that you could share, and something my client could utilize, I'd by very interested! I have yet to get the specific details, but she works as a realestate broker. So she probably wants to be able to share (back and forth) files, paperwork, get signatures, etc, with each client as she brokers each deal. If that's the case, then something like BaseCamp is probably her best bet right? Are there anyother BaseCamp type systems I should look into as well? Thanks for your input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkencreative Posted January 3, 2009 Report Share Posted January 3, 2009 How did that admin panel turn out? If it's something that you could share, and something my client could utilize, I'd by very interested! Well, frankly, most of the code for the admin area probably needs to be rewritten, since I did most of it a couple months ago, and I think I'm a bit more knowledgeable on PHP now. It's something that I'll have to do over the next couple weeks, and probably isn't quick and simple. I'm not sure if I can sell my PHP skills at this point... I think I have to do a bit more learning first. There definitely is a difference between doing basic PHP (includes, forms, validation, etc) and doing a full web app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PicnicTutorials Posted January 4, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 So I'm thinking a Basecamp type setup is the way to go. Have any of you used any of these alternate (some free) versions of Basecamp? http://www.whybasecampsux.org/#alternatives and another free http://www.projectpier.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelfimage Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 How did that admin panel turn out? If it's something that you could share, and something my client could utilize, I'd by very interested! I have yet to get the specific details, but she works as a realestate broker. So she probably wants to be able to share (back and forth) files, paperwork, get signatures, etc, with each client as she brokers each deal. If that's the case, then something like BaseCamp is probably her best bet right? Are there anyother BaseCamp type systems I should look into as well? Thanks for your input! Maybe something like this is practical too - e signatures with doc storage: http://www.echosign.com/public/static/howItWorks01.jsp I reviewed about 50 online project management tools to download or subscribe online for a team I work with. Ultimately I realized the only way to get what we really need is to build one. I'm going to use CMSMS to develop a team, project, and client management solution. Basecamp alternatives: These are free, but I don't think they have file management: http://www.santexq.com/features.html and http://www.xmsuite.com/quality/Default.aspx, http://www.creativeprooffice.com/index.php (you can buy the source code too) These have free versions but better features for payers: http://www.huddle.net/, http://www.5pmweb.com/overview.php, http://www.teamworkpm.net/index.cfm/page/features, Downloadable: http://www.webasyst.net/projects/features.html http://www.activecollab.com/ http://www.freelancerpanel.com/ Free: http://collabtive.o-dyn.de/ Free: http://www.opengoo.org/ Free: http://www.redmine.org/projects/show/redmine Free: http://www.achievo.org/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PicnicTutorials Posted January 5, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Thanks John , I'll take a look at all those... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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