Hi: Some of you might remember this thread about using an XML database which was a commercial product (which the developers were willing to license on an OSS basis...) v/s using berkeley xml db....
Thanks for all the valuable advice i got here :) i have finally managed to convince the powers that be, not to go with either product (becuase the commerical option was fraught with risk....the other option looked terribly complicated for the requirement ....)....right now what seem appropriate is to use a standard file system style, hierarchial structure...and index the XML files using an external search indexer..... (whoever said XML is human readable?!....to me its always looked fundamentally archaic..something like a LaTEX document).... Now that is over with.....but another thing has come up.... The projects goal is to build a system with a whole bunch of workflow controlled, data entry forms which will generate the data (the xml documents...)....and there is going to be a web portal presenting the data. The issue is of technology....We looked at various open source stuff....we tried and gave up on the idea of using a Java server approach (exceedingly complex , unintiutive, etc...) Finally we settled on python & Zope (there is plenty going for it in terms of a proper unified product., it meets a significant part of the feature requirment...seems less complex than java....)..... The major issue with python/zope is skill availablity within the African continent.....people have used Java here, but no one has ever heard of Python (except as a snake)..... Then i met some folks from a south african university who said they had built a content framework on PHP which is untested commerically...but conceptually it appears sound. Since they have developed it from scratch...they confidently claim they can build all the gaps in the software ....(vis-a-vis where zope/cmf/plone currently is....)..as they know every line of the source code.... The other beneift is PHP skills are much more easily available in this part of the world (but i dont know how many of them know enough to create something beyond a hello world application....) my question is : 1) The system we want to build is a fairly compex one with multiple legacy applciation integrations...and it needs to be localized and deployed in multiple countries, lots of data entry forms which need to be built quickly etc...I have never felt PHP cuts it in such a situation ( ) what do you guys think...? 2) On the question of skilling up....how easy is it to learn / skill up people.... zope/python v/s php content framework..... ? If somebody knows PHP well would it be very hard for them to pick up somethng like Zope? (i cant look at this objectively...because i am familiar with both... i am quite familiar with PHP....but i have used it only on websites using cms systems like drupal......i have also used python...but not on the web...morre as a scripting/automation tool....and have played around a bit in Plone....) Thanks Ashok [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote on 04/28/2006 11:37:58 AM: > I am in a situation where i have to chose an open source solution v/s a > closed source solution. > > This is for a large sized deployment in multiple countries. > > the open-source solution (which is quite widely used) meets about 40-50% > of the requirements, the rest of > the functionality we need to develop from scratch. > > the closed-source solution (which is not widely used, but used by a few > large clients) meets about 75% of the > requirements, the rest of thefunctionality will be developed by the > company owning the rights. the company is > willing to hand-over source code of the product, and a clear road-map for > the product itself to be turned > open-source. >
