MySQL - PHP Document Control (Free!)

[Greg B]

Hi All,

I thought I would share this FREE Document Register with you. My company was about to pour thousands of dollars into a system that did the same thing as this register. It is Intranet based and will accept all types of documents in all types of formats (Word, Excel, Visio, PDF etc). I had to get my IT guy to download it and set it up on the server but we now have ALL of our company documents on it. HR, IT, QA, ENV, OH&S etc over 1200 documents.
When you 'download' a document on your PC, you can do whatever you want with it but it cannot effect the master copy. We use the 'form' tool to design all our forms to make them 'electronic'. Peole can fill in documents at their PC. Anyway I'll let you all visit the site and play with this Money saving, God send. We no longer have printed copies of documents it saves me heaps of time.

http://dms.markuswestphal.de/about.html

All the Best

Greg B

 

[Marc]

MySQL

I have not done the demo, but MySQL is what these forums run on as well as many major corporation's database apps. MySQL is extremely good - and FREE... You don't need Oracle, PeopleSoft or other expensive sofware. And... micky$oft will not be able to raise the price (for Access) in a year or so...

 

[energy]

What are we saying?

I don't know. What are you intellectuals saying? Is it going to border on the Mystic on how we log in and go on with the game? Like, what are the improvements that needed to be accomplished? Is this something for his Majestry's service? An imaginary vision of how it should look like as opposed to those that think it didn't need fixing? Enlighten me and the other ignorant Bozos as to why the current system has to be replaced. Are we behind the times? Behind the cutting edge? Just another Sunday night and wondering why we need this monumental change. I'm assuming that that the change requires a major adjustment from all of us to learn to navigate the new "system". Cripes, it's Monday already!

 

[M Greenaway]

What advantages does this have over simply saving documents to a read only folder location on your company PC server ?

 

[Bob_M]

Originally posted by M Greenaway
What advantages does this have over simply saving documents to a read only folder location on your company PC server ?

I second that questions.

Of course we have less than 10 regular computer users here...
and 1600 file
WOW I did not realize we had that many documents...
Note to self. Future project - Reduce documentation.

 

[Cathy]

I agree with Bob and M,

I opened it up, started the demo and I immediately thought it was too complicated. I am going to have a better look at it later but I know for sure no-one in my organisation would look at it. Maybe in a larger company this type of thing might work.

What I did for my Document control was designed an intranet and saved all linked documents to read only folders. Like M says, it simple. I have made the intranet very user friendly and as interesting as possible. I use it to display photographs of nights out, make important social announcements and of course, for all QMS documentation, forms, logs, databases - the works.

It took a day to set up. That was 4 months ago and now staff from other departments are happy to log in, check out the dates for the next night out and look up the latest news on the quality front. I know its a bit of bribe...but it works.

I would be happy to share the concept and set up with anyone who is interested.

Cathy

 

[Bob_M]

Although I did not check out the demo, we have tried to keep our intranet simple and easy.

We have a central "Controlled Documents" directory.

I created subdirectories as needed.

All directories are read-only and can only be modified or deleted by the Quality Manager (me), the computer administrator account (me), and the President/Owner (who never will unless I leave).

All files are read-only in their orignal form (Word, Excel, etc).
Currently the documents are not internally protected, but no one currently here has any reason to modify a document without updating the process. Even though I like the idea of making PDF copys for general access, for our small company its really a waste of time and resources.

People have been instructed to forward updated documents to me for uploading and controlling. (Still need to update procedure/workinstruction though).

 

[Greg B]

Let me explain

What advantages does this have over simply saving documents to a read only folder location on your company PC server ?

If you save a document as read only then people can change the master document by taking the read only off. This is not likely to happen but it could. With the Document Register noone but the administrator can change a master document. The system can also track changes, reasons for change, revision numbers and dates of change. It has a search function for words or documents. It supports various documents including word, excel and visio etc. It sits on the intranet. It can notify groups of a change in a document that they have an interest in (by email). Old document versions are saved automatically for easy comparison and retrieval. You can set temporary documents to expire after a given date (good for plant trials etc).

I don't say that everyone needs it but if you were looking for an instant electronic document control system you could not go past this FREE one.

All of your ideas sound great. I was just putting out some help if anyone needed it.

Greg B

 

[Mike S.]

Re: Let me explain

Originally posted by Greg B
If you save a document as read only then people can change the master document by taking the read only off. This is not likely to happen but it could. With the Document Register noone but the administrator can change a master document.

It has a search function for words or documents. It supports various documents including word, excel and visio etc. Greg B

If I save a Word or Excel file as "read-only" with a password, the same thing applies -- no one but the password holder can change it -- unless your employees are into hacking or password busting or something. It has never happened to me in over a decade.

Windows has a search function that I rely on often.

It does sound like the software has some bells and whistles that some may want, though. Thanks for adding the details. Maybe someday...

 

[CarolX]

Re: Re: Let me explain

Originally posted by Mike S.
If I save a Word or Excel file as "read-only" with a password, the same thing applies -- no one but the password holder can change it -- unless your employees are into hacking or password busting or something. It has never happened to me in over a decade.

Mike,

You want to try an experiment. Send me your Excel or Word file and let me see if I can bust it open. Energy can attest that it only takes a matter of minutes to do (I did it to him). Post it here and I'll bust it for you.

CarolX