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stead1984
Asked: 2009-06-17 00:59:07 +0800 CST

How to setup an Intranet site and a FREE alternative to Sharepoint

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I've been tasked with the job of building a web server and Intranet site using perhaps Joomla for creating an alternative to Microsoft Sharepoint and would like some advice of what steps to take and how to get started.

A bit of background is that we used Sharepoint which was included with our SBS server, and have migrated to Server 2003 and would like to have a solution as similar as can be to Sharepoint for FREE or a fraction of the cost. Ideally we would like it to be a central point for employees to use to keep upto date with Internal news, have a calendar, and links to stored documents like SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures).

I hope that explains it a bit better, sorry for being so unclear in my first post!

sharepoint web-server intranet joomla

13 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Hey, SharePoint Services (WSS) IS free. Microsoft Office Sharepoit Services (MOSS) isn't, but for the purpose of an intranet site, WSS should do it.

    This is of course if you are using Windwos Server as a base... (which is not free).

    Edit: Here is a good comparison between WSS and MOSS.

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  2. I would recommend Mindtouch (formerly Deki Wiki). http://developer.mindtouch.com/

    We use it for exactly this purpose; company announcements, sharing of public files and documents, and a knowledgebase and documentation repository for IT staff.

    You can run it in the pre-provided VM image, which we are currently doing, or you can install source to a Linux server, or MSI to a Windows server.

    You mentioned calendar features, which this won't currently do. However there has been talk of implementing Exchange Calendar access, its just no one from the community has stepped up to make it happen.

    The open source verison is free, while you can pay for support and additional enterprise-level extensions (such as salesforce integration etc).

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  3. Have a look at Alfresco open source Enterprise Content Management. It can be used standalone and integrates with Joomla and Drupal.

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  4. Maybe good old DNN can help with your tasks, It got very good modules for Events, Forum, File and Picture sharing, Also easy to set it up and run.

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  5. You give little information about your concrete requirements. Maybe you could elaborate?

    That said, you might consider a Wiki. That's what we use for most of our internal documentation.

    There are many free ones to choose from.

    Edit

    Since you ask about document sharing: You can embed documents (as files) into most wikis, and new uploads of a document will be versioned, so in that sense they allow document sharing. If you need more functionality, such as directly working with the document in the wiki (eg. compare versions), and conflict resolution for concurrent edits, you'll have to look.

    There may be wikis which do this, but I don't know any offhand.

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  6. Normally with WSS you can have all you need. Also check out the following resources to help you build your intranet:

    1. Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Lots of OOTB apps for an Intranet, such as Project mgt, Document Discussions, classroom mgt, timecard mgt... worthy to take a look at.
    2. Ten Themes for SharePoint in VSeWSS Projects (look it up on MS Download site), with these you can change the L&F of your intranet site, so it doesn't look like Sharepoint. You'll need Visual studio and other tools for installing them.
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  7. If you are looking for open source alternative - a good CMS for intranet building is EZ publish It is a LAMP application, so basic knowledge of Linux(Unix) environment plus Apache, MySQL and PHP would be needed. Oracle is supported by EZ publish too.

    You should probably start by reading documentation, installing application and testing it. After you have more understanding how to customize it, you can start modifying it to fulfill your requirements.

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  8. You may also look into Oracle Application Express (APEX). Oracle 10g XE is free for commercial use too. You need to configure Oracle APEX (latest 3.2) on 10g XE.

    Oracle APEX is an Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool. And with APEX, it will be easy to create web pages with no time. Have a look.

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  9. why not use a blog tool like wordpress?

    it supports both news, where the latest content at any time shows at the top automatically, and static info, like pages available from a menu.

    couple that with a calendar plugin, a wiki-plugin (or a simple integration with a separate wiki tool like media wiki in the form of links back and forth), and disk space where you can store large documents and then link to them from the main intranet page..

    ..and you got a nice intranet.

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  10. If your company can qualify as a bizspark partner with Microsoft, then you can get 3 years free use MSDN software inside your company. see http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ for details

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