szaryk Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 can anyone recommend a solid, free, open source online approval system? Something where I can post designs or renderings or photos in a secure area on a website and people can log-in with specific member log-ins and approve and/or comment on certain milestones of a project? Everything i've found is way too overboard... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnold Grove Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 szaryk, A lot of the free services have limited features. The way to go is get your own host account, if you dont already have your own website. You can protect your directories, and assign a user name and password, and then simply email the link to your client. Many of these hosts have a simple browser based interface for all your editing/uploading. But you can use a programe like Dreamweaver, which is what I use. Check out this site: cnet.com look for the internet services link. You can really cheap hosting loaded with featues. If its not in your budget, try webafile.com you can upload your images but your client will have to download to view. Hope this helps, ag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotten42 Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 I have my ftp site for that sort of thing. It's quite cheap and I have 6 different password protected areas that I can direct clients too. I also have the passwords changed every 6 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szaryk Posted November 22, 2006 Author Share Posted November 22, 2006 thanks for the comments guys. I guess FTP should probably do. I guess I can use opensource groupware aswell, but i'm afraid there could be a learning curve... especially for clients. Sort of afraid of that... I wish I had a PHP programmer at my disposal... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotten42 Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 The only problem I've found is that some companies' firewalls do not allow access to ftp sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 why not use a forum based software like PHPbb? I have used it in the past, to allow uploading of images, each client got their own forum heading, and they weren't able to see the other client info.. Just an idea. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szaryk Posted November 26, 2006 Author Share Posted November 26, 2006 forum software! this is an excellent idea. Yes! thanks for the suggestion.. such a simple solution... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 if you decide to use phpbb. let me know, I've had some ideas that I would like to implement. I'm going to have someone mod mine. Mike Tutaj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szaryk Posted November 26, 2006 Author Share Posted November 26, 2006 just go to phpbb.com and download a template.. you can then install it from the admin panel after uploading to the template directory... i'm adjusting it now.. it's alright, i guess ulitmately i would like to have it like this: client list > client > projects to approve / deny > list of projects > an "approve" button, and a "disapprove" button and then they would write a reason... it's sort of difficult to format it this way... can I let users of phpbb only see their company's forum? Can the administrator only have access to the top-most part of the forum? I don't even want other clients to see how many other company's I deal with or the names of those company's. I think one phpbb board per client would make more sense structurally, but i'm not gonna install it in a bunch of directories for each client... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted November 26, 2006 Share Posted November 26, 2006 Yes you can, all my users only see only their project forum. And I am usually the admin, but then I assign Moderators to specific projects. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtutaj Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 you could use the poll option for that as a quick fix. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moshenko Posted November 28, 2006 Share Posted November 28, 2006 Keep in mind that any type of online system requires full adoption in order to be useful. What happens when one client chooses not to use the system because "it's annoying" or they "just want to send an email"? With an online system you are placing all of your eggs in one basket, so to speak, and you are setting up a second repository of information (the first being your local computer/network/server/whatever). Dealing with information in multiple locations can be a major challenge, particularly when trying to organize many projects at one time. Also, we tend to take a bulletin board system for granted as being easy to use and somewhat intuitive, but 99% of my clients would look at it and run away in fear (and resort back to a personal email message). Not to mention the whole keeping track of passwords issue... I would suggest taking a really close look at PDF documents as a means of tracking comments and approvals. They have a few key advatages to them such as printing and editing control, file security and watermarking, as well as the key benefit of being emailable. Also the newer versions of Acrobat Professional have the ability to store and transmit form information that can be sucked out and put into any number of formats (such as a spreadsheet or database). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szaryk Posted November 30, 2006 Author Share Posted November 30, 2006 hmm pdf files eh? This could also be an option. Hard to decide what to settle on. I'd hate to choose one thing, then change it later, especially when dealing with new clients. And you may be right, alot of people are still very computer illiterate to a certain extent and maybe keeping it simple would be best. I've already started developing this message board. I think I can make it fairly easy to use... I hope... I really need a programmer so I can make a custom app the way I see it in my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianzajac Posted December 1, 2006 Share Posted December 1, 2006 We've been using Cozimo for a bit and I think it will fit your issues perfectly. I've personally collaborated with many on this & we've streamlined the visualization modification process much more efficiently. I've been working with Stuart Feldman on some of the beta testing & he offers the Cozimo service to us for free. Just email him at stuart@cozimo.com or visit the site at http://www.cozimo.com/ and you might be able to get the same treatment as us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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