Advise - Intranet / Portal thingy

[dastrix]

Hi All,

 

I am looking at putting in place (not sure if exists) but a customisable home page / intranet does anyone know if anything exists? like a theme i guess.

 

Cheers

[garethEds]

Why not setup a local WAMP server and install Wordpress onto it. Create/Download/Buy a theme and you have your ability to customise your home page. I'm sure there are plenty of examples via Google out there. If it's a local installation there is no reason why you cannot link it via LDAP to your AD and let staff update their own areas.

 

I looked at Wordpress for an intranet once but just didn't have the time.

 

Gareth

[Geoff]

Sharepoint is another option.

[TechMonkey]

What do you want to display would be the first question?

 

If it is just you looking after it and simple requirements just an HTML page would do. I created a page with useful links to internal resources and resources we have bought. I add links to online tests to the student page as and when we have them and have a section to add important messages on. Nothing fancy, easy to manage.

 

I could convert it to ASP and then do some interesting things, or make it all a bit more complicated and go with Wordpress or Joomla or any other of the multitude of CMS systems but what we have works for what we need.

 

Maybe start off simple and build from there, save a lot of effort going in to not a lot of return.

[dastrix]

Essentially it will be there own calendar and like you say we can build on it.

[GRitchie]

Mine's just an HTML template found online and I've customised the back teeth out of it!

If it's for staff to edit, then maybe Wordpress. If it's for you (and you know HTML/CSS) then find a theme and use XAMPP! That's what I have :-)

[dastrix]

Where can i find good templates?

[GRitchie]

Here!

[TechMonkey]

Essentially it will be there own calendar and like you say we can build on it.

 

I'd be careful and really look into this. Do you mean school calendar or their timetables?

 

If you mean school calendar, are you creating the calendar or just linking to an external source? If you are entering it and maintaining it it will become a job you resent, trust me. I would look at a system that someone on the admin team can use and is useful to the whole school. Speak to management and make it a whole school project. Get some pre-built software in, something like SOCS Calendar. The website is a bit sparse but speak to them and get a demo.

 

If you mean timetables speak to your MIS provider and find out if the timetable data can be linked to or if they know of anyone that provides a widget that will get the data. You don't want to be importing everyone's timetable in.

 

You really don't want to put yourself into the position where you create a system that is just something nice to help out and you add to your workload exponentially. You know what will happen, after a term they will want X feature added, after a couple more terms they will want Y tweaked. Then next year they adjust the timetable periods and you have to reprogram. Etc, etc etc.