On 15 Okt, 17:17, Joe Strout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > We've got a client who has been planning to use SharePoint for > managing their organization documents, but has recently dropped that > idea and is looking for an alternative. Is there any Python package > with similar functionality?
Here's a starting point: http://wiki.python.org/moin/ContentManagementSystems Plone is probably the first thing that comes to mind. > I confess that I've never used SharePoint myself, and what I know > about is mainly from these sources: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SharePoint > http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.66103.7 The Wiki vs. CMS thing is relevant, even though I imagine that corporate types like to "pooh-pooh" the idea of Wikis, preferring as they do to use their CMS or intranet solution as yet another "shared folder" for their Word documents. What I know from experiences trying to build a willing editing community around the EuroPython site was that people didn't like to stray anywhere near CPS, but people could be coerced into editing Wiki content; the PyCon UK site had even more contributions from random conference attendees. Of course, a corporate CMS typically involves the imposition of such a system on employees - that's one way not to bother about user acceptance since everyone implicitly says "yes" once the roll-out begins - but as one commenter on Joel's article notes, even the fanciest solutions require a degree of willing maintenance, and if it all starts to rot then the whole point of introducing such a system is undermined. > I found a reference to CPS, but its developers have dropped the Python > source to rewrite it in Java. That's disturbing, and I don't want to > recommend an abandoned platform. Anything else I should consider? There may be other solutions not included on the page I mention above. I remember being shown SharePoint a few years back by a fellow consultant, and apart from the fancy drag-and-drop layout tools I was strongly reminded of Slashdot, of which the consultant was naturally unaware. At that time, for the basics of a "community site" such as certain kinds of intranets, Zope plus Squishdot would have been acceptable, but any absence of steep licensing costs isn't necessarily an advantage in the consulting business since such stuff usually gets passed onto the brand-obsessed customer. With regard to "proper" document management, I think we'll increasingly see developments around the revitalised area of version control systems and their integration with Web-based solutions. Subversion, for example, is already a Web-based solution in itself - you'd just need to put a presentation logic layer on top. Paul -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list