MyDocr Project
The Mydocr will be the project that I am undertaking as part of my final year at university. The project has already begun the research stages and it’s expected to be completed around Easter time of 2007. The purpose of this page is to outline the project and provide updates of the project to whoever is interested.
The aim of this is to get users involved in the project early on so then requirements and feedback can be gathered. The project can then be steered in the direction of what the end users want. I believe that this is a major step forward in applications development as usual development life cycles often leave end user feedback until the final stages of the project. This way end users will have the opportunity to tell me early on what they want and expect. Fellow developers can offer advice and guidance into making this project a success.
What is MyDocr ?
The area that I am exploring is document collaboration within corporate and non-corporate projects. Within corporate environments document management systems are usually used to provide controlled collaboration and security over documentation within projects. These systems are often expensive and over complicated. Some companies are realising the potential of web based applications and the advantages these systems can have over a thin / thick client application.
Ok, so large companies have the money to afford such large sophisticated document management systems but what about smaller non corporate environments, academics or anyone for that matter? What about a few students working on a project together? Who controls the documentation? What if two people are working on the same thing at the same time and efforts are duplicated? These are issues that im only too familiar with.
So with this is mind, with sufficient research, analysis and design I propose to implement a web application that will reside on the public domain. This application will be a service for users. A service where a project however big or small can sign up, log in and store project documentation with security, control and full collaboration with its project members. This system will have many features that should prevent people ever having issues with document collaboration again. Below lists a few of the proposed features…
- Check in / check out documentation
- Securely upload documents that can be accessed anywhere in the world
- Document locking – to stop more than one person checking out the same document.
- Project managers will have full control over documentation and the project members
- Reporting controls to view who is working on what.
The real focus on this system is the design and functionality. The system will be built using standard compliant code and will be available to everyone, according to new accessibility legislation. The system will utilise technologies such as AJAX to deliver a feature rich user experience. And will be powered by the awesome open source capabilities of MySQL.
Ok that’s all im going to say for now; updates of the projects progress will be available shortly including any written documentation and example code. Please give me your thoughts and feelings about the proposed system. Together a community can be formed to enable the success of this project making it strong from the ground up.
Add comment November 22nd, 2006
