Thanks, Sheldon (and Dorai), for your advice. (01)
> Have you looked into PHP Nuke? Considering that you're looking at a
> lot of Web heavy tools, an out-of-the-box type of Portal like PHP Nuke
> should offer you the most bang for the buck coming right out of the
> gates. This is assuming that your group is ready for something like
> this because one of the issues I see with portals is that they're
> almost always overwhelming to unseasoned users. (02)
I have taken a look at the software. I don't think it is so much
overwhelming to unseasoned users, as to unseasoned maintainers.
Documentation is sparse (the only thing they seem to have is a manual of
sorts in German). (03)
> Another approach to creating a portal is to start off with strong
> discussion forum software that you can add modules and hack readily
> available modifications into as a way of creating your portal. If easy
> to use discussion forums are the most important aspect of your portal
> project, then this approach might prove superior to launching with a
> Portal application. (04)
Again, not being a Unix expert myself, getting the server installed, up
and running seems too complicated. Because of budget cuts, our technical
staff no longer provides support for projects-without-a-budget. I was
hoping that some kind of public domain-hosting service for research
purposes would exist. (05)
> One thing that you should do is create a list of requirements for your
> Portal project. Write down the functionality that you'll need and rank
> them numerically in order of importance. Also make sure you identify
> whether each item is critical, nice to have, or optional. It'll be (06)
Most critical for now is that we have an ability to maintain and make
available organized sets of links (e.g. to previous conferences) and
documents (e.g. to research papers). Maintenance should take place in a
distributed way (multiple maintainers). Discussion fora have lower
priority, as we already have a mailing list. (07)
> be the ideal way to start off. It's range of functionality from the
> initial install is vast, but it's more difficult to skin than other
> apps, it's still maturing, and it leaves a little to be desired for
> with user-friendliness. (08)
A lot, I would say. From their web site, I didn't quite get it the
what, how, and why. (09)
> There's a lot of Portal-ware or Forum-ware that can be adapted readily
> into Portals. Here's a few:
>
> Portal-centric:
> PHP Nuke: http://phpnuke.org
> Post-Nuke: http://postnuke.com
> MyPHPNuke: http://myphpnuke.com
>
> Forum-centric
> Invision Boards: http://www.invisionboard.com/ (see Invision Planet
> for mods: http://ibplanet.com)
> Vbulletin: http://www.vbulletin.com/ (see VBPortal for mods:
> http://vbportal.com)
> PHPbb: http://phpbb.com (this is used by PHP Nuke and other Nuke
> variants) (010)
Thanks, I appreciate those links. Perhaps they will be useful at a later
stage. (011)
Cheers, (012)
Aldo (013)
==========================================================================
---/// e-mail: ademoor@uvt.nl
IN|F/OLAB phone +31-13-4662914/3020, fax +31-13-4663069
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Dr. Aldo de Moor
Infolab, Dept. of Information Systems and Management - Tilburg University
PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands
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